Ok, so this is not really about the NPR show, although Click and Clack did speak at my MIT graduation. Instead I am talking tonight at a BMW event which is about introducing their own venture activities as well as the i3 and i8 electric models and broader mobility initiatives. I am planning to talk a bit about the impact of the internet and mobile on cars. My basic thesis is that cars fulfill at least three separate needs. First of course is on demand transportation from point A to point B, w...

Ok, so this is not really about the NPR show, although Click and Clack did speak at my MIT graduation. Instead I am talking tonight at a BMW event which is about introducing their own venture activities as well as the i3 and i8 electric models and broader mobility initiatives. I am planning to talk a bit about the impact of the internet and mobile on cars. My basic thesis is that cars fulfill at least three separate needs. First of course is on demand transportation from point A to point B, w...

Today’s Tech Tuesday post will wrap up the algorithms mini-series. Last Tuesday I presented implementations of the same algorithm in five different languages. I had mentioned in an earlier post that the particular problem we are solving – seeing if a sequence of numbers contains a number that is repeated at least four times in a row – belongs to a class of problems known as pattern detection or pattern matching. Now there are much more general algorithms for this class of problems and instead...

Today’s Tech Tuesday post will wrap up the algorithms mini-series. Last Tuesday I presented implementations of the same algorithm in five different languages. I had mentioned in an earlier post that the particular problem we are solving – seeing if a sequence of numbers contains a number that is repeated at least four times in a row – belongs to a class of problems known as pattern detection or pattern matching. Now there are much more general algorithms for this class of problems and instead...

I am still working on my third post about employment. As part of that I have been reading up on the rise of inequality in the US and its effects on society. In that process I came across this interesting chart from a Morgan Stanley research report: It shows that rising income inequality has been highly correlated with increased political polarization since the mid 1970s (found via Business Insider). Then just a few minutes ago I saw in my Tumblr dashboard that Robert Reich is making a documen...

I am still working on my third post about employment. As part of that I have been reading up on the rise of inequality in the US and its effects on society. In that process I came across this interesting chart from a Morgan Stanley research report: It shows that rising income inequality has been highly correlated with increased political polarization since the mid 1970s (found via Business Insider). Then just a few minutes ago I saw in my Tumblr dashboard that Robert Reich is making a documen...

One of the reasons that we decided to move to Chelsea was the proximity to the USV office. The other was that our kids can walk to Avenues, a new private school with an ambitious program of building campuses in leading cities around the world. Another distinguishing factor of Avenues has been their embrace of technology which got a good writeup in today’s Wall Street Journal. Our kids each have both an iPad and a MacBook Air from school and use both of them heavily across a variety of classes...

One of the reasons that we decided to move to Chelsea was the proximity to the USV office. The other was that our kids can walk to Avenues, a new private school with an ambitious program of building campuses in leading cities around the world. Another distinguishing factor of Avenues has been their embrace of technology which got a good writeup in today’s Wall Street Journal. Our kids each have both an iPad and a MacBook Air from school and use both of them heavily across a variety of classes...

Let’s get the unimportant things out of the way right away. Several people had affairs. That to me has zero news value. And for all the “Why do powerful men cheat more?” headline writers, I suggest taking my Bayesian probability class on Skillshare when I teach it next. But there are at least two important lessons here: First, we badly, badly need to update the Electronic Communications Privacy act from 1986. This was Senator Leahy’s bill and thankfully he has introduced a sensible update ear...

Let’s get the unimportant things out of the way right away. Several people had affairs. That to me has zero news value. And for all the “Why do powerful men cheat more?” headline writers, I suggest taking my Bayesian probability class on Skillshare when I teach it next. But there are at least two important lessons here: First, we badly, badly need to update the Electronic Communications Privacy act from 1986. This was Senator Leahy’s bill and thankfully he has introduced a sensible update ear...

Last week in Tech Tuesday, we continued our introduction to algorithms by looking at a first implementation. As a reminder we are trying to find out whether a sequence of integers contains a number that is repeated four times in a row. Here is that Python code together with a bug fix for dealing with empty number sequences:

Last week in Tech Tuesday, we continued our introduction to algorithms by looking at a first implementation. As a reminder we are trying to find out whether a sequence of integers contains a number that is repeated four times in a row. Here is that Python code together with a bug fix for dealing with empty number sequences:

This is the second post in my little project of self publishing my PhD Thesis. Last week I introduced an econometric analysis of the impact of Information Technology (IT) firm size. This time it is a more theoretical paper that presents a model for examining the impact of different types of IT on the structure of organizations. In particular, it compares having no IT, with centralized IT (think mainframes) and networked IT (think Internet and Intranet). I was particularly happy with how this ...

This is the second post in my little project of self publishing my PhD Thesis. Last week I introduced an econometric analysis of the impact of Information Technology (IT) firm size. This time it is a more theoretical paper that presents a model for examining the impact of different types of IT on the structure of organizations. In particular, it compares having no IT, with centralized IT (think mainframes) and networked IT (think Internet and Intranet). I was particularly happy with how this ...

I was very happy to see President Obama win a second term last night. For starters it was gratifying that despite all sorts of last minute challenges this was not a close vote with hanging chads and damage to the integrity of the democratic process. It was also a compelling repudiation of candidates with backward positions on issues such as abortion and women’s rights more generally. But there are important issues on which I have have deeply disagreed with the approach taken by the Obama admi...

I was very happy to see President Obama win a second term last night. For starters it was gratifying that despite all sorts of last minute challenges this was not a close vote with hanging chads and damage to the integrity of the democratic process. It was also a compelling repudiation of candidates with backward positions on issues such as abortion and women’s rights more generally. But there are important issues on which I have have deeply disagreed with the approach taken by the Obama admi...

One accusation that has been leveled at social media and those who invest in it is that it won’t help us solve the tough problems because those require science (Steve Blank provides one example of this view and at least somewhat ironically so does Founders Fund). I wholeheartedly agree that we need more science but I believe we will get there in a peer produced and funded model that will be quite different from what we have today. Research networks such as Research Gate, Academia.edu and Mend...

One accusation that has been leveled at social media and those who invest in it is that it won’t help us solve the tough problems because those require science (Steve Blank provides one example of this view and at least somewhat ironically so does Founders Fund). I wholeheartedly agree that we need more science but I believe we will get there in a peer produced and funded model that will be quite different from what we have today. Research networks such as Research Gate, Academia.edu and Mend...

It’s only two months ago that I posted that these are Apple’s glory years and that it is likely too soon to bet against Apple’s stock. As it turns out I was wrong. When I wrote, the stock was at $650/share and now it is at $550/share, which is down 15% (and it is down over 20% from the top of about $700/share). One of the big drivers here is a decline in customer satisfaction and loyalty. I believe a lot of that is driven by software. A bunch of people I know have folders on their iPhones lab...

It’s only two months ago that I posted that these are Apple’s glory years and that it is likely too soon to bet against Apple’s stock. As it turns out I was wrong. When I wrote, the stock was at $650/share and now it is at $550/share, which is down 15% (and it is down over 20% from the top of about $700/share). One of the big drivers here is a decline in customer satisfaction and loyalty. I believe a lot of that is driven by software. A bunch of people I know have folders on their iPhones lab...