Ged Carroll

Category: ideas | 想法 | 생각 | 考える

Ideas were at the at the heart of why I started this blog. One of the first posts that I wrote there being a sweet spot in the complexity of products based on the ideas of Dan Greer. I wrote about the first online election fought by Howard Dean, which now looks like a precursor to the Obama and Trump presidential bids.

I articulated a belief I still have in the benefits of USB thumb drives as the Thumb Drive Gospel. The odd rant about IT, a reflection on the power of loose social networks, thoughts on internet freedom – an idea that that I have come back to touch on numerous times over the years as the online environment has changed.

Many of the ideas that I discussed came from books like Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy.

I was able to provide an insider perspective on Brad Garlinghouse’s infamous Peanut Butter-gate debacle. It says a lot about the lack of leadership that Garlinghouse didn’t get fired for what was a power play. Garlinghouse has gone on to become CEO of Ripple.

I built on initial thoughts by Stephen Davies on the intersection between online and public relations with a particular focus on definition to try and come up with unifying ideas.

Or why thought leadership is a less useful idea than demonstrating authority of a particular subject.

I touched on various retailing ideas including the massive expansion in private label products with grades of ‘premiumness’.

I’ve also spent a good deal of time thinking about the role of technology to separate us from the hoi polloi. But this was about active choice rather than an algorithmic filter bubble.

 

  • Seabasing

    In a tale of fact imitating fiction the US Navy is looking at ways to support the military in future conflicts by creating bases which allow ships to act as a combined space, which they call sea basing (or seabasing). The reason for this is in battles with the likes of China they may not have the luxury of a nearby land base like they have had in the Middle East, so they need to provide a flexible platform that will perform a similar function including floating docks and logistics.

    Being out at sea and operating in this way helps put the force out of range of enemy weapons as well, or what the US Marines describe as exploit the sea’s maneuver space.

    This includes ramps and sensors that would allow service men and equipment to exchanged from ship-to-ship with as much ease as moving around a base on land. Presumably this would have some sort of affect in terms of increasing the data network connections between ships to help them function better and more cohesively.
    140211-D-NI589-094
    The idea of seabasing echoes the carrier and lashed together boats of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Snow Crash is a classic work of cyberpunk fiction written in 1994. In the book refugees play a key part in the plot. The refugees have attached themselves to a privatised aircraft carrier owned by a media company that is heading to the US. More design related content here.

    More information
    The future of sea basing | Armed Forces Journal
    Sea Basing: concepts, issues and recommendations by Sam J. Tangredi (PDF)
    Pacific seabasing exercise will highlight new ships | Marine Corps Times
    Globalsecurity.org – Seabasing
    Figuring Out the Future of War in the Pacific — Or, What the Hell is Seabasing? | Vice News
    What is Seabasing | United States Marine Corps
    Seabasing Annual Report | United States Marine Corps

  • Hacknet + more things

    Hacknet

    Some Australian developers have made an immersive game about hacking that will be distributed on Steam when released. It’s called Hacknet and here’s the trailer.

    Key outtakes:

    • Misdirection: Matthews would allow surveillance teams to tail him, so that other colleagues would be tail free
    • Playing into stereotype and using them as a judo move; Warsaw Pact men tended to believe a woman’s place was in the home and didn’t think of Matthews’ wife as a potential operator
    • Interesting points on the problems that intelligence agencies have in understanding the motivations of ‘non state actors’ such as religiously motivated terrorists
    • During the cold war, Russians who spied for the US generally didn’t get to spend any money they made, as they would only survive 18 months on average
    • China’s approach is much more long-term ‘picking up grains of sand on the beach’
    • The most dangerous threats in his opinion: Iranian nuclear programme for the set of unknowns that it creates, China as a short, medium and long term threat, Russia as an ongoing but less serious threat than China and ‘non state actors’

    Matthews also took a New York Times journalist on the street to explain what surveillance infrastructure looked like now

    “You never try to elude or escape from surveillance,” he explained. “You want to lull them into thinking that you’re not operational on this particular day. You want to calm the beast.”

    Shadowing Jason Matthews, an Ex-Spy Whose Cover Identity Is Author | New York Times

    More posts on related areas here.

  • Nuon & other things

    VM Labs

    Remembering Nuon, the gaming chip that nearly changed the world—but didn’t | Ars Technica UK – it was interesting as a bet against commotisation of PC hardware rather like CDi by Philips by VM Labs. VM Labs Nuon processor looks more like a product of today as the pendulum in semiconductors has swung away from general purpose to tailored designs again. When computing power was the most important thing; general purpose made sense. The move towards computing power per watt changed the balance completely over time towards tailored semiconductors.VM Labs main problem was being ahead of their time.

    Ideas

    RISC vs CISC: What’s the Difference? | EE Times – interesting how architectures have become largely irrelevant over the past few years. It makes sense when one thinks about Apple’s move to Intel. It also says a lot for Intel’s potential opportunity in mobile applications; if Intel doesn’t manage to fumble the ball on chip design, or semiconductor fab process improvements

    Luxury

    LVMH diversifies into Chinese food as sales decline | WantChinaTimes – interesting move. Luxury goods were ‘tools’ of status as is food gifts and restaurants – smart lateral play by LVMH. More luxury related posts here

    Media

    Exactly what does Cannes celebrate? | canalside view – interesting prespectives on Cannes. Cannes comes across as a client knees up. It could be so much more by increasing the knowledge sharing at Cannes

    Microsoft Said to Exit Display Ad Business, Cut 1,200 Jobs – Bloomberg Business – one can only wonder what will happen in the phone business

    Online

    DuckDuckGo Blog : Play Ball! Live Scores for Every MLB Game – chipping away at Google piece-by-piece

    Security

    Sony Pictures: Inside the Hack of the Century, Part 2 – Fortune – a good reason not to register your Sony products because judging by this write-up of the Sony Pictures debacle

    These hackers warned the Internet would become a security disaster. Nobody listened. | The Washington Post – “If you’re looking for computer security, then the Internet is not the place to be,” said Mudge, then 27 and looking like a biblical prophet with long brown hair flowing past his shoulders. The Internet itself, he added, could be taken down “by any of the seven individuals seated before you” with 30 minutes of well-choreographed keystrokes (paywall) – more security related content here

    Technology

    OEM Conundrum – commoditisation, hyoer-competition

    Wireless

    EBN – Jim O’Reilly – Smartphone Saturation Becomes