Ged Carroll

Category: london | 倫敦 | 런던 | ロンドン

Why London?

First of all I live in London, I put down my roots here because of work. Commuting from the outside towns into the city takes a long time. People only tend to do that when they don’t have to come in every day or getting their kids into a good school is important for them.

Secondly it is an area distinct from the rest of the UK, this is partly down to history and the current economic reality. It is distinct in terms of population make-up and economic opportunity. London has a culture that is distinct from the rest of the UK, partly due to its population make-up. Over 30 percent of the city’s inhabitants were born in another country. From music to fashion, its like a different country:

  • As one women’s clothing retailer once said on a news interview ‘The further north you go; the more skin you see’.
  • The weekend is a huge thing outside the city. By comparison, it isn’t the big deal in London. The reason was that there were things you could enjoy every night of the week.
  • You can get a good cup of coffee
  • The city was using cashless payments way before it became universal elsewhere in the country
  • The line has extended into politics. London opposed Brexit. London, like other major cities it is one of the last holdouts of Labour party support in the 2019 UK general election

London posts often appear in other categories, as it fulfils multiple categories.

If there are London subjects that you think would fit with this blog, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment in the ‘Get in touch’ section of this blog here.

  • Carbon nanotubes & other news

    Carbon nanotubes

    IBM betting carbon nanotubes can restore Moore’s Law by 2020 | ExtremeTech – interesting, IBM research has been at the leading edge of a lot of semiconductor manufacturing techniques including:

    • Copper interconnects
    • RISC architecture design
    • Multi-core design
    • Strained silicon substrates

    Carbon nanotubes may join particularly as there is so much speculation about the state and future of IBM’s chip business as management moves towards a software and services based future. Is IBM preparing to sell the chip manufacturing business to the highest bidder?

    Business

    Amazon China chief replaced with another expat | WantChinaTimes – the back story is that Amazon has about 2 per cent of the e-commerce market in China

    Design

    Waterproof CD player with vocal removal function | AkihabaraNews – interesting thinking about context. Japan is still a big physical media market (they still have Tower Records) and people love to sing in the shower

    Economics

    HK’s retail sales fell in May | RTHK – its all about valuable gifts: watches, bags etc dropping by 25%

    Ideas

    The Future of the Workforce May Be Part-Time, Says Google CEO Larry Page | Re/code – utopian spin on zero-hour contracts?

    Korea

    S Korea to break away from Windows by 2020 | WantChinaTimes – interesting move: Windows 8 partly to blame, I suspect also the security decisions made around Active X made Koreans think twice before attaching themselves to Microsoft

    Online

    An Online Shift in China Muffles an Open Forum – NYTimes.com – “This is a new phase for social media in China,” said Hu Yong, a journalism professor at Peking University. “It is the decline of the first large-scale forum for information in China and the rise of something more narrowly focused.” – the authors have positioned this as a Chinese -specific move yet it is mirrored in the west with the rise of Whatsapp, Telegram and other OTT messenger services

    Google bans porn from its ad network | CNBC – Google obviously doesn’t need the revenue, which bodes well for ongoing quarterly number going forwards

    UK’s Porn Filter Triggers Widespread Internet Censorship | TorrentFreak – The results of ORG’s new tool show that what started as a “porn filter” has turned into something much bigger. Under the guise of “protecting the children” tens of thousands of sites are now caught up in overbroad filters, which is a worrying development to say the least – interesting that some are blocking the Open Rights Group and open source software sites

    Thanks To “Right To Be Forgotten,” Google Now Censors The Press In The EU | Marketingland – once you take the 1st amendment driven angst viewpoint out of this, its a great summary of things by Danny Sullivan

    Tencent Opening Up API for Wechat Login — China Internet Watch – expect WeChat’s app constellation to mushroom outside the Tencent family. More on WeChat here.

    Security

    3 Real Security Risks Threatening Your Smart TV Entertainment | Make Use Of – make mine a dumb TV

    Technology

    CHART OF THE DAY: Apple Is Invading The Enterprise – Business Insider – there is also a credibility issue, go to a developer conference and there is a sea of silver lids, this will knock on into the enterprise

    Telecoms

    I, Cringely The Secret of Google X – I, Cringely – I think untethered balloons aren’t a smart move either

  • PRISM & more news

    PRISM

    European PRISM anger gains momentum with fresh cloud warnings and data threats — Tech News and Analysis – interesting addendum at the end about the challenge of health2.0 services due to data privacy trust issues. What we’ll see post PRISM disclosures is a wider skepticism of cloud services. PRISM also builds into the wider European dislike of American big technology companies

    Business

    Airline Alliance Helped in Crash Aftermath – WSJ – interesting how Asiana has leveraged Star Alliance partners

    CBI warns on EU exit: ‘We’ll never be a Switzerland’ – Telegraph – part of the larger great restructure where ‘Old Europe’ as neo-cons called it reflect and work out what their value is in the world today

    Shell Picks New Chief Executive – NYTimes.com – focus on LPG and gas to liquids production (synthetic diesel)

    Consumer behaviour

    Public Shaming – Women’s Wimbledon Champion Marion Bartoli Deemed “Undeserving Ugly Fat Slut” By Sexists Because She’s Not A Tall Skinny Blonde – gobsmacked by some of the vile tweets collected

    Britain’s teenagers want to work, not find fame, survey finds | The Observer

    Millennials Still Want Their Newspapers | NetNewsCheck.com

    Contagious Content – What People Share on Facebook and Why They Share It

    Culture

    The soundtrack to my week was compiled a list of the best mixes of 2013 (so far) as compiled by Rolling Stone magazine. More here.

    Design

    Beyond Helvetica: The Real Story Behind Fonts in iOS 7 | Typographica

    Economics

    Recovery woes: America’s second-largest employer is a temp agency | WashingtonExaminer.com – Walmart then Kelly Services

    German industrial orders down unexpectedly – RTÉ News – I guess it depends what you mean by unexpected. I thought it was reasonable to expect given the state of the Eurozone trading partners Germany exports to and the decline in growth in China

    Gadgets

    Apple USB SD Reader Patent Worries Rivals | BGR – advantage in designing size zero products

    Ideas

    What It Means That Humans Invented Farming Twice | Motherboard – challenges preconceptions and validity of intellectual property as a concept

    Japan

    Fastest Growing Japanese Exports – Euromonitor International

    Nintendo: Jefferies Starts at Buy; Massive Earnings Miss Will Prompt Change – Barrons.com – expects Nintendo to move franchises to mobile gaming and tablets

    Bringing ‘Made in Great Britain’ label to Japan ‹ Japan Today – The British government should encourage British companies to make products in their home country. They should try to concentrate on innovative products that are made in the UK

    London

    Lisa Maffia is obviously not as down with the kids as she would like to think:

    Luxury

    Who’s Buying Luxury Watches? | The Financialist – but the local papers here say that sales are down 20 per cent year on year

    Media

    Three years on: Has the Times digital subscription project worked?

    Three Strikes and You’re Still In – France Kills Piracy Disconnections | TorrentFreak

    Guardian gets online traffic boost from Snowden story, now nipping at NYT’s heels — paidContent

    Global Advertising Study 2013 – IHS – interesting metrics that show North America and Asia way ahead of Europe

    Greenwald: Journalist, activist, media transparentist – interesting illumination about how the media is so poor at telling their own story

    Scotland Yard seeks Rupert Murdoch secret tape | The Guardian

    Online

    UK Supreme Court Asks CJEU Whether the Internet is Legal | Kluwer Copyright Blog

    Retailing

    Aldi’s Manifest Destiny: The Discounter Moves West – Euromonitor International

    Security

    Apple’s security strategy: make it invisible | Macworld

    Software

    High Scalability – The Architecture Twitter Uses to Deal with 150M Active Users, 300K QPS, a 22 MB/S Firehose, and Send Tweets in Under 5 Seconds

    News – Apple, closer to Android in the US as Carrier Distribution Grows – Kantar Worldpanel

    Technology

    Technology Workers Are Young (Really Young) – NYTimes.com – just like Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs – use them up and wear them out

    Former Windows chief explains why it’s so hard to go cross-platform | CITEworld

    Blog – Did Sharp Just Sell Out to China? | EE Times – and then there is display tech from Qualcomm that Sharp can take advantage of

    Governments to target tech giants’ tax avoidance: draft | Reuters

    Wireless

    Leading Japanese Carrier NTT DoCoMo Losing Customers as iPhone Deal Remains Elusive – Mac Rumors – Galapagos wireless syndrome in action?

    BBC News – Smartphone becomes in-car head-up display – interesting comments about the limitations car manufacturers face in terms of speed of innovation in vehicles

    The iPhone Hasn’t Saved T-Mobile USA Yet – NYTimes.com

    Tablets and Smartphones Phenomenal Growth – Euromonitor International

  • Mercedes Benz G63 + more

    Mercedes Benz G63 AMG

    Mercedes Benz G63 AMG 6×6 « Gear Patrol – I can’t work out if the Mercedes Benz G63 AMG 6×6 is amazing or stupid. It is based on the G Wagen which is a proper off-road vehicle. The 6×6 platform used was developed for the military like Germany’s KSK special forces unit. The Mercedes Benz G63 AMG adds a ridiculously overturned engine. AMG then has to go over every inch of the Mercedes Benz G63 and change chassis and components to adequately handle the power.

    Business

    16th annual CEO survey – pwc – (PDF)

    Consumer behaviour

    Chinese women aspire to be housewives | Market-interactive.com

    Study: Twitter debates don’t represent opinions of general public (Wired UK)

    Share Everything: Why the Way We Consume Has Changed Forever – Emily Badger – The Atlantic Cities

    Design

    BMW announced it’s i3 Coupe concept this week. It was buzzword compliant with plug-in technology; but the most interesting thing for me about it was the way in which the car shows the current range that could be travelled as part of its in-car instrumentation.

    range

    It was a duh moment of genius simplicity in terms of user experience design for vehicles.

    Economics

    China: Beyond The Miracle | Zero Hedge – interesting piece of analysis

    Q&A with Jim ‘BRIC’ O’Neill: Grillo’s good, China’s fine, Europe’s fading – Quartz

    The fourth euro crisis cycle of panic has officially begun – Quartz

    Euro zone unemployment hits a record high of 11.9% – Quartz

    Finance

    Why delinquent student loans are the fuse on America’s next debt bomb – Quartz

    Rigging the I.P.O. Game – NYTimes.com – this reminds me of the first day ‘pop’ that my former client VA Lnux had when they IPO’d

    UK and US toe the edge of a “regulatory trade war” over banking – Quartz

    Hong Kong

    Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA Breaks Down His Kung Fu Samples by Film and Song

    How to

    How to RSVP in an Entrepreneurial Way | AlwaysOn

    Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet TAGS v3 Jisc CETIS MASHe

    Nintendo games on a Mac – Matt Gemmell

    Creation Pinpoint™ | Dashboard for Understanding What Doctors Talk About Online. – New SM listening/monitoring tool for pharma – allows you to monitor only what HCPs are saying

    Korea

    Microsoft Seeks Software License from South Korea Military – Korea Real Time – WSJ

    London

    Evening Standard – FIFTY BEST: Independent coffee shops – as a Foursquare list

    Catching Up with the City Boy Who Spilled the City’s Secrets | VICE United Kingdom – interview with Geraint Anderson formerly a columnist in thelondonpaper

    Luxury

    Collectables – British Airways Business Life. – modern items that are collectable

    Marketing

    The Agenda for the Global Marketer – ad people worldwide – interesting white paper (PDF)

    Outside looking in – EIU – challenges CMO faces in dealing with the board

    Media

    Tumblr to Introduce Mobile Advertising to Help Achieve Profit – Bloomberg

    #LFW: The ELLE UK Twitter report | ELLE UK – since when was fashion a democracy? Elle uses Twitter as an arbiter of taste. More related luxury content here.

    Digital Media in China – Digital Media Asia

    Social media policy | immediate future. – library of social media policies

    Pottermore Reaches Out To Harry Potter Fan Sites – affiliate marketing doesn’t pay that well

    Online

    TelecomTV | Reality bites: Fed-up with Facebook, the kids are are going somewhere “cooler”. – can’t say that I am surprised beyond the fact that network effects had been such a break on the retreat

    5 things that may change on your Facebook timeline – CTV

    Facebook algorithm stopping you see the content you subscribe to, unless brands pay | The Wall Blog

    The age of the brag is over: why Facebook might be losing teens | The Verge

    The Decline and Fall of Social Networks

    Andrew Mason on being fired by the Groupon board

    Security

    Penn Schoen Berland – Execs say cyber-attacks a top priority – PSB is a sister agency

    Google services should not require real names: Vint Cerf | Reuters

    First SOPA, Now Your Privacy: Facebook, Google Flex Lobbying Muscle in Europe | Mother Jones

    Software

    Google controls too much of China’s smartphone sector: ministry | Reuters – 90 per cent market share

    How Are You Feeling Today? A New Mood-Measuring App Can Tell You | Co.Create: Creativity Culture Commerce

    Jolla Wants To Build A Foursquare Phone, A Facebook Phone | TechCrunch

    Microsoft Might Owe Denmark More Than $1 Billion in Unpaid Tax

    Keeping the Wolfram from the Data

    Fontastic – A Processing library to create font files

    Who’ll win the consumer video codec battles?

    Resurgence in Neural Networks – tjake.blog

    Journo & Literate CoffeeScript

    Learning How to Code Is A Waste of Time – Forbes

    Technology

    PC market to decline for a second consecutive year in 2013, says IDC

    Library Camp London – Audio Recordings & Writeup | Terence Eden has a Blog

    Intel will make 14nm FPGAs for Altera

    Logitech reorganises to focus on mobile products

    Why Nobody Can Copy Apple | cek.log

    Telecoms

    Exclusive-Skype’s Jonathan Rosenberg, Father of SIP, Bolts Back To Cisco – VoIP Watch

    Wireless

    Why the Galaxy S4 won’t be shedding its plastic roots | CNET News

  • Siberian meteor burst + more

    Siberian meteor burst

    I know that there have been 500 people with minor injuries, but  the Siberian meteor burst felt like I was living in a Jerry Bruckheimer film. The best observation I saw about it was in Vice magazine’s email newsletter which asked why so many drivers in Russia had managed to film the asteroid rather than keeping both hands on the wheel? The reason for the multiple recordings of the Siberian meteor burst is driver cams used to help with car accident disputes. The Siberian meteor burst brought back memories of the Tunguska event in 1908 which levelled large swathes of Siberian forest.

    Business

    “Physically Together”: Here’s the Internal YHOO No-Work-From-Home Memo | AllThingsD – I could see a post coming on from Becky McMichael about the benefits of remote working and flexible hours etc etc

    PrivCo | LIVINGSOCIAL $110M Debt Infusion From Existing Investors With Oppressive Terms – I wonder what implications this will have for GroupOn

    Consumer behaviour

    HBO: The Weight of the Nation interesting site on obesity in the US

    Culture

    So there has been extensive character redesigns and different actors will be voicing some of the main protagonists, but I am super-excited that Production I.G are returning with another installment in the Ghost In the Shell series of anime. Arise looks amazing judging by the trailer footage now available on YouTube. More Japan related content can be found here.