Optoelectronics + more news

4 minutes estimated reading time

Optoelectronics

H.P.’s Hunk of Burning Light – Bits Blog – NYTimes.com – interesting update on optoelectronics in computing. This is an area that has been talked about since I worked in a technology lab at Corning’s old Optical Fibre business in Deeside in the mid-90s. That site is now a greenfield inside the fence of the Toyota engine plant. Optical interconnects still haven’t filled the potential of optoelectronics in computing. Instead while optical processing has been done with optoelectronics in the laboratory; it hasn’t had commercial success yet.

Design

G-Shock prototype phone hides its craggy looks at CES, only fears your stares – Engadget – there is something a bit 1990s sci-fi about this design that I really like

Economics

Reposting the Chinese Premier’s speech at Cambridge Uni « Perspectives – interesting speech by Wen Jiabao – The Chinese Government maintains that countries should: firstand foremost, run their own affairs well and refrain from shifting troubles onto others; second, carry out cooperation with full sincerity and avoid pursuing one’s own interests at the expense of others; and third, address both the symptoms and the root cause of the problem. A palliative approach will not work. We should not treat only the head when the head aches, and the foot when the foot hurts. As I
reiterated at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, necessary reform of the international monetary and financial systems should be carried out to establish a new international financial order that is fair, equitable, inclusive and well-managed. We should createan institutional environment conducive to global economic growth. Let me talk briefly about how China has been responding to the crisis. The fallout of the financial crisis on China’s real economy is
becoming more evident. Since the third quarter of last year, our exports have declined sharply, economic growth has slowed down, and the pressure on employment has been rising. In the face of the grim situation, we have acted decisively. We have made timely adjustment to the direction of our macroeconomic policy, promptly introduced ten measures to expand domestic demand, and formulated a series of related policies.

When Consumers Cut Back – A Lesson From Japan – NYTimes.com – the UK’s bust isn’t likely to go away any time soon

China’s mounting pink slips

Inconvenient truths about fixing China – FT.com – really interesting analysis of China’s economy (paywall)

Finance

The End of the Financial World as We Know It – NYTimes.com – Michael Lewis of Liar’s Poker fame gives his take on 2008’s financial debacle

Ideas

An interview with William Gibson | The Verge

Luxury

LVMH: daring to ditch the runway circus | FT.com – interesting move

Second-Hand Luxury Market On The Rise In China – Forbes

Hocked Luxury Watches Make The Good Times Roll At Beijing Pawnshops « Jing Daily

Marketing

U.S. military recruiters use video arcades in urban areas – International Herald Tribune – interesting idea, US Army makes recruiting experiential

Media

RIAA Says It Will Stop Suing Consumers for Illegal Downloading – Switched

Online

The Language and Branding of QQ in China – its all about the context, I just knew of QQ as the dominant IM client

Retailing

I, Cringely » Apple, MacWorld and Steve Jobs – the Wal-Mart Connection – interesting analysis

Online shopping and the Harry Potter effect – science-in-society – 22 December 2008 – New Scientist

Fashion gets a digital game-changer | FT.comTokyo Girls Collection have been there so much earlier

Security

Interesting privacy hardware homebrew kit

Mega Echelon Option – Cryptome has a very politically skewed but interesting piece alleging that MegaUpload was done in with the help of the intelligence community

Schneier on Security: Privacy in the Age of Persistence

Technology

My MidemNet Presentation: Trent Reznor And The Formula For Future Music Business Models | Techdirt

Is Venture Capital Dying? – some interesting stuff here Paul Kedrosky points out that technology is a mature sector and green tech is way off prime time. This provides a disconnect that will ripple through to investors, markets and subsidiary sectors like technology integrators, resellers

Telecoms

Cisco Plans Big Push Into Server Market – NYTimes.com – this maybe a bridge too far for Cisco, after all what is a router but a couple of line terminators (ADSL, Ethernet, wi-fi, GSM, WCDMA), a server motherboard and a look-up table. Something that IBM, HP or Sun Microsystems could easily throw together and sell at cost just to crush the competition

Wireless

Digital Evangelist: Guess that Six Sigma does not work – Ian Wood writes what could be the best obituary that Motorola’s handset division may ever get.