PATRIOT Act
PATRIOT Act clouds picture for tech | Politico – the PATRIOT Act passed in the wake of the September 11 attacks, giving the US government access to web services to try and fill in the gaps in intelligence. However the PATRIOT Act covers data held outside the US. So many foreign multinational companies are baulking at using US web services for their businesses. This is particularly important given the move from server and software apps to cloud computing. So the PATRIOT Act is disrupting US businesses from scaling
Consumer behaviour
Trendpool » Panasonic’s Female-Only Consumer Trial House
Students of Virtual Schools Are Lagging in Proficiency – NYTimes.com – interesting that technology isn’t the panacea that people thought it would be in education. Smartboards haven’t been successful given their cost either
Counterfeit goods losing attraction | SCMP.com – (paywall) Brands stand for quality – like they did in the Victorian era
Young Women Go Back to School Instead of Work – NYTimes.com
Economics
More on What’s Left Over After Paying for Housing – The Atlantic – interesting article on housing and economics. Its less about house prices and more about income net of housing expenses
Big Developers Dabble in Apartment Market – WSJ.com – decline in home ownership
Finance
Ray Dalio’s Richest and Strangest Hedge Fund : The New Yorker
Innovation
Single-Atom Wires Could Help Moore’s Law Live On
Omron smartphone app comes close to instantaneous text translations | The Japan Times Online – like something straight out of a DARPA project
Domestic robots failed to ride to rescue after No. 1 plant blew | The Japan Times Online – law of unintended consequences and innovation
Liquid metal capsules used to make self-healing electronics | ExtremeTech
Roboden: Japanese Company Develops World’s First Elastic Electrical Cable (Video) | TechCrunch
Japan
Woodford to sue Olympus, citing lack of investor support to get his job back ‹ Japan Today – not surprising he didn’t get support, first he trashes their shareholder value (probably exasperated by his theatre) then he asks for their help. They won’t care about the truth they’ll care about the 70 per cent drop in the market capitalisation
Korea
President Lee Myung-bak talked a lot about controlling high prices. – WSJ – growth and price inflation both considered issues
Legal
US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law | TorrentFreak
London
An Obligatory and Pointless Debate About the Olympics | VICE – but Vice nails it
Luxury
NetEase’s Luxury E-Commerce Site First Casualty Of 2012 « Jing Daily – interesting, especially since Netease has a lot of expertise in online businesses. I guess luxury handbags aren’t like World of Warcraft
Will China’s E-Commerce Market See An Industry Shakeout In 2012? « Jing Daily
Taking First-Class Coddling Above and Beyond – NYTimes.com – … first class represents less than 5 percent of all seats flown on long-haul routes, and business class accounts for 15 percent, those seats combined to generate 40 to 50 percent of airlines’ revenue, according to Peter Morris, the chief economist at Ascend, an aviation consulting firm
Marketing
UK marketers anticipate change: Warc.com – Ball & Hoolahan expecting marketing departments to get nuked in amalgamation with other departments
Media
Beijing Calling: The Trouble With China’s New English-Language News Network | Fast Company
Retailing
UK retailers face “carnage”: Warc.com – partly economics, partly industry structure due to etailing
Wireless
Nokia Moving to China from Singapore – WSJ – interesting complex reasons for choosing China or other countries outlined
Interview with Murtazin – Will Microsoft Buy Nokia’s Smartphone Unit? – Forbes
Text Messaging Is in Decline in Some Countries – NYTimes.com
Nokia N9 outsells all other phones in Finland during October – Neowin.net – did Nokia’s move to Windows screw the pooch? Anecdotal evidence that it probably did. Also this code is now called Tinzen being pushed by Intel and Samsung