Innovation starvation + more news

Innovation starvation

Innovation Starvation | World Policy Institute – in his article Innovation Starvation author Neal Stephenson talks about the decay of innovation in the west. Innovation starvation is about an inability to get big things done – I worry that our inability to match the achievements of the 1960s space program might be symptomatic of a general failure of our society to get big things done. My parents and grandparents witnessed the creation of the airplane, the automobile, nuclear energy, and the computer to name only a few. Scientists and engineers who came of age during the first half of the 20th century could look forward to building things that would solve age-old problems, transform the landscape, build the economy, and provide jobs for the burgeoning middle class that was the basis for our stable democracy. Innovation starvation has multiple causes from a research mythical man month type problem due to increasing specialisation, lawyers, search engines, pressure groups and activists have a lot to answer for

Economics

More Conflict Seen Between Rich and Poor, Survey Finds – NYTimes.com

Hong Kong

China denounces ‘Hong Konger’ trend – The Washington Post

How to

Use the Ten Second Rule to Cut Impulse Purchases

Innovation

New details surface on the UPU: A next-generation CPU architecture | ExtremeTech

[CES] Sony Develops Self-luminous ‘Crystal LED Display’ — Tech-On!

Japan

What’s happening in Japan right now?: Social Games in Japan – interesting that this is part of mobile gaming

The Myth of Japan’s Failure – NYTimes.com

Korea

Samsung Merging Its Bada OS With Intel-Backed Tizen Project – Forbes

Luxury

What Luxury Brands Should Learn From Dolce & Gabbana’s Hong Kong PR Disaster – Forbes

Media

Microsoft hits pause on web TV service because shows cost too much – SplatF

TVShack Admin Fights Extradition To U.S. On Movie Piracy Charges | TorrentFreak

CES: Survey Finds Traditional TV Viewing Is Collapsing – Forbes – this is more about more personal, less social (within the family) media consumption and also consumers are exhausted by TV innovations that don’t matter. I still rock a Sony Trinitron from the late 1990s

Online

Snapshot: Viaweb, June 1998 – Paul Graham on what the web used to look like when I first started off in agency life. The site looks curiously mobile friendly!

Security

Under voter pressure, members of Congress backpedal (hard) on SOPA

Cars: The Next Victims of Cyberattacks – IEEE Spectrum – if this doesn’t scare the bejeezus out of you, it should

Wireless

Apple Suspends iPhone 4S Sales in Mainland China Stores – NYTimes.com

CES 2012: Mr. Elop makes bold statements about Nokia in the Windows Phone space | ZDNet – ok what is important here is what Elop isn’t saying. No real reasons around Android and they seem to be having a problem building an on ramp that gets their ecosystem to support them

Groklaw – Nokia Moves To Quash Barnes & Noble’s Letter of Request the ITC Sent to Finland Re Discovery ~pj – oh dear, sounds like Nokia and Microsoft have been caught looking a bit shady. Even if there is nothing here, it feels like there is which isn’t good from a reputational point-of-view

Microsoft, Defying Image, Has a Design Gem in Windows Phone – NYTimes.com – this looks like a classic bit of PR-led storytelling – where you give the journalist the bread crumbs that lead him to the story you want to write. The most interesting bit of this is Microsoft  (whom I presume was the client) was willing to throw its other partners such as HTC and Samsung under the reputational bus to big up Nokia. Yet a lot of the hardware issues are due to Microsoft dictating specs to the hardware manufacturers.