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Further Proof that Apple Has the Best Supply Chain in the...

Wed, 30 May 2012 13:49:41 -0700

Further Proof that Apple Has the Best Supply Chain in the World

Apple sells its inventory every 5 days. Second fastest only to McDonald’s.

‘Facebook Is Officially the Worst-Performing IPO of the...

Wed, 30 May 2012 13:44:29 -0700

‘Facebook Is Officially the Worst-Performing IPO of the Decade’

This is an interesting and superlative fact about Facebook, which is an interesting and superlative company with an interesting and superlative IPO. That makes it news. But it doesn’t make it indicative of anything about Facebook except that the IPO price turned out to be high.

So you think couples are a bad investment?

Wed, 30 May 2012 08:54:00 -0700

So you think couples are a bad investment?:

Om Malik: “Today when I heard about Salesforce buying Buddy Media for $800 million, I tweeted that perhaps that would be the end of venture capitalists saying that it isn’t prudent to fund married couples. I say why not? I mean, just look at this list. Do you really need more testimonials?”

Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, co-founders of Cisco Systems
Diane Greene and Mendel Rosenblum, co-founders of VMWare
Michael & Xochi Birch, co-founders of Bebo
Caterina Fake & Stewart Butterfield, co-founders of Flickr
Rashmi Sinha and Jon Boutelle, co-founders of Slideshare
Brian & Lisa Sugar, co-founders of Sugar Inc
Michael & Kass Lazerow, co-founders of Buddy Media
Kevin & Julia Hartz, co-founders of Eventbrite
Victoria Ransom & Alain Chuard, co-founders of Wildfire Interactive

The 20 Most Valuable Tech Companies The total market cap of the...

Wed, 30 May 2012 08:22:33 -0700

The 20 Most Valuable Tech Companies

The total market cap of the top 20 companies is $2.22 trillion

Apple makes up 23.6% of that

Apple is worth more than Google and Microsoft combined. You could even add Cisco on top of that, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

N.B. Facebook isn’t on this list as it is not yet included in the list of technology companies on Google Finance. Facebook’s current market cap is $61.66 billion, which would put it in 12th position.

"If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on."

Mon, 28 May 2012 08:28:45 -0700

“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.”

- Sheryl Sandberg’s Inspiring Speech At Harvard Business School

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog - The hierarchy of...

Sun, 27 May 2012 09:19:19 -0700

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog - The hierarchy of innovation

If progress is shaped by human needs, then general shifts in needs would also bring shifts in the nature of technological innovation.

…One of the consequences is that, as we move to the top level of the innovation hierarchy, the inventions have less visible, less transformative effects. We’re no longer changing the shape of the physical world or even of society, as it manifests itself in the physical world. We’re altering internal states, transforming the invisible self. Not surprisingly, when you step back and take a broad view, it looks like stagnation - it looks like nothing is changing very much…

If the current state of progress disappoints you, don’t blame innovation. Blame yourself.

Messing With Fate - Andrew Keen

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:55:00 -0700

Messing With Fate - Andrew Keen :

In Silicon Valley, however, failure has a way of previewing the future. Just as social networks like Friendster gave way to Facebook, so will these early social-discovery apps mature into something more user-friendly. What, though, will the eventual success of such technology mean? Will it… “amplify our humanness” by compounding the coincidences in our lives?

…Do we really want the preternatural ability to avoid entering any Starbucks where we might encounter an ex? Do we want to wonder, during a conversation with a delightful stranger, whether that person plotted our “chance” meeting? And the reverse: Do we want to find ourselves forever stalking people in airports because an app says they might be professionally valuable?

Ultimately, apps that claim to engineer serendipity seem more likely to do the reverse. Their main offense is not ubiquitous surveillance, but that they stand to destroy surprise and, with it, true serendipity. Rather than enriching our lives with unexpected encounters and genuine strangers, they threaten to take the mystery and the magic out of people we don’t know.

(via The Atlantic)

"In 1950, four million people in this country lived alone. These days, there are almost eight times..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 15:40:40 -0700

“In 1950, four million people in this country lived alone. These days, there are almost eight times as many, thirty-one million. Americans are getting married later than ever (the average age of first marriage for men is twenty-eight), and bailing on domestic life with alacrity (half of modern unions are expected to end in divorce). Today, more than fifty per cent of U.S. residents are single, nearly a third of all households have just one resident, and five million adults younger than thirty-five live alone.”

- Why Are So Many Americans Single? The New Yorker

Tech stocks that would have been an awesome investment 10 years...

Sat, 26 May 2012 09:50:22 -0700

Tech stocks that would have been an awesome investment 10 years ago

"At the turn of the twentieth century, life expectancy for Americans was just over 49 years; by 2010,..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 09:22:56 -0700

“At the turn of the twentieth century, life expectancy for Americans was just over 49 years; by 2010, that number had risen to 78.5 years, mostly on account of improved sanitation and basic medicine. But life extension doesn’t always increase our well-being, especially when all that’s being extended is decrepitude. There’s a reason that Ponce de Leon went searching for the fountain of youth—-if it were the fountain of prolonged dementia and arthritis he may not have bothered.”

- Radical Life Extension Is Already Here, But We’re Doing it Wrong

New Google Study Reveals Minimal Social Activity, Weak User...

Sat, 26 May 2012 08:49:13 -0700

New Google Study Reveals Minimal Social Activity, Weak User Engagement

According to RJM’s report, the average post on Google has less than one +1, less than one reply, and less than one re-share

Roughly 30% of users who make a public post never make a second one

Even after making five public posts, there is a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again

Among users who make publicly viewable posts, there is an average of 12 days between each post

After a member makes a public post, the average number of public posts they make in each subsequent month declines steadily, a trend that is not improving

"72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute."

Sat, 26 May 2012 08:19:29 -0700

“72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.”

- 10 interesting digital stats we’ve seen this week

Matt Mullenweg: I’m Worried That Silicon Valley Might Be Destroying the World

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:58:31 -0700

Matt Mullenweg: I’m Worried That Silicon Valley Might Be Destroying the World :

WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg confessed to feeling conflicted about one of the blogging service’s upcoming features: Notifications.

Mullenweg said he’s concerned that Silicon Valley is creating products that are so engaging that they’re also incredibly distracting, to the detriment of creativity and productivity.

He fretted that some of these socially disruptive technologies might be “morally destitute.” He has been preoccupied with the question: “Is Silicon Valley destroying the world?”

iOS & Android Account for 82% of Smartphone Market While...

Fri, 25 May 2012 08:05:48 -0700

iOS & Android Account for 82% of Smartphone Market While Competitors Plummet

digithoughts: PC market overview for Q1-2012 The iPad single...

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:39:27 -0700

digithoughts:

PC market overview for Q1-2012

The iPad single handedly holds 11% of the PC market. Not too shabby.

Highlights:

Windows: 78%

iOS (iPad): 11%

OS X: 3.7%

Android and others: 7.3%

UEFA Champions League Final — Measuring the Buzz 4.8...

Thu, 24 May 2012 12:28:00 -0700

UEFA Champions League Final — Measuring the Buzz

4.8 million tweets total
Most mentioned player: Didier Drogba, 1.5 million tweets
Top moment: Chelsea goal in the 88th minute — 109,532 tweets!

(Twitter data from TweetReach Pro)

Hong Kong’s High-Density Housing & Cramped Living...

Thu, 24 May 2012 07:40:57 -0700

Hong Kong’s High-Density Housing & Cramped Living Conditions

Hong Kong’s average housing prices is 12.6x the median annual household income, ranking first/highest in the world. As of 2011, 47.7% of Hong Kong city residents live in public apartments (government subsidized housing) or residences (government rent-controlled housing) because they are unable to purchase private housing. It’s per capita residential space is 12.8 square meters.

50 Years Of Government Spending, In 1 Graph | NPR

Wed, 23 May 2012 22:34:50 -0700

50 Years Of Government Spending, In 1 Graph | NPR

arstechnica: Make mainframes, not war: how Mad Men sold...

Wed, 23 May 2012 22:26:00 -0700

arstechnica:

Make mainframes, not war: how Mad Men sold computers in the 1960s and 1970s. Full story

As more women became computer buyers and operators, they lost their decorative role in advertisements. Now they were financial planners, programmers, and business executives.

"It’s worth contemplating one of the primary factors that drove Facebook’s adoption by..."

Tue, 22 May 2012 22:49:00 -0700

“It’s worth contemplating one of the primary factors that drove Facebook’s adoption by (soon) 1 billion people: Loneliness. Americans have less support than ever — 1 in 8 in the Pew survey reported having no “discussion confidants.””

- How Facebook Saved Us from Suburbia