It seems as if Microsoft can’t catch a break any more. On the day that all the Surface reviews come out, Apple hogs the news with the iPad Mini launch. Then again, given that the reviews for the Surface are decidedly mixed, maybe not such a bad thing after all. It doesn’t sound like the Surface will set the world on fire yet and Microsoft badly needs something that will. Apple on the other hand has launched something that for the first time could turn out to be a hardware misstep (I have writ...

It seems as if Microsoft can’t catch a break any more. On the day that all the Surface reviews come out, Apple hogs the news with the iPad Mini launch. Then again, given that the reviews for the Surface are decidedly mixed, maybe not such a bad thing after all. It doesn’t sound like the Surface will set the world on fire yet and Microsoft badly needs something that will. Apple on the other hand has launched something that for the first time could turn out to be a hardware misstep (I have writ...

This post is a bit more thinking out loud than usual but I am grappling with what I perceive to be a big change in the startup landscape. Here are some of its symptoms: the return of TV, print and subway ads for Internet companies; Uber subsidizing their drivers to prop up NY supply; Level Up providing free point of sales Android devices; Udacity, Coursera and Minerva all raising large rounds. All of these are in one way or another signs of the return of the capital intensive startup. Histori...

This post is a bit more thinking out loud than usual but I am grappling with what I perceive to be a big change in the startup landscape. Here are some of its symptoms: the return of TV, print and subway ads for Internet companies; Uber subsidizing their drivers to prop up NY supply; Level Up providing free point of sales Android devices; Udacity, Coursera and Minerva all raising large rounds. All of these are in one way or another signs of the return of the capital intensive startup. Histori...

Last weekend I wrote a post about what is happening with employment. The gist was that employment in the US in agriculture and manufacturing has collapsed as a percentage of total employment and declined even in absolute terms mostly as a result of increased productivity and globalization. All employment growth has been concentrated in services. Today I want to take a deeper dive on services, but before doing so I should point out that I am optimistic about technology in the long run. My poin...

Last weekend I wrote a post about what is happening with employment. The gist was that employment in the US in agriculture and manufacturing has collapsed as a percentage of total employment and declined even in absolute terms mostly as a result of increased productivity and globalization. All employment growth has been concentrated in services. Today I want to take a deeper dive on services, but before doing so I should point out that I am optimistic about technology in the long run. My poin...

In 1999, which now feels like a very long time ago, I finished my PhD thesis at MIT. I had started working on it following my general exams in 1996 but promptly got very busy co-founding a company (the now defunct W3Health – a story for another day). Running a startup during the week, working on a dissertation on weekends and commuting between Boston and New York is not something I would recommend to anybody. In fact, the acknowledgments to my thesis conclude with:Most of all, I would like to...

In 1999, which now feels like a very long time ago, I finished my PhD thesis at MIT. I had started working on it following my general exams in 1996 but promptly got very busy co-founding a company (the now defunct W3Health – a story for another day). Running a startup during the week, working on a dissertation on weekends and commuting between Boston and New York is not something I would recommend to anybody. In fact, the acknowledgments to my thesis conclude with:Most of all, I would like to...

One of the truly depressing things about listening to the presidential debates was that both sides seem to be disregarding a fundamental factor in the economy: the displacement of humans by “machines” (in quotes because these days the machines in question are computers). Because politicians are largely ignoring the importance of this trend, the proposed policy solutions all belong to the same tired arsenal of either supply side or demand side economics. It’s a bit as if you were on the Titani...

One of the truly depressing things about listening to the presidential debates was that both sides seem to be disregarding a fundamental factor in the economy: the displacement of humans by “machines” (in quotes because these days the machines in question are computers). Because politicians are largely ignoring the importance of this trend, the proposed policy solutions all belong to the same tired arsenal of either supply side or demand side economics. It’s a bit as if you were on the Titani...

Regular scheduled programming should return tomorrow. On Monday I posted how the storm surge was the biggest threat to New York City and that’s exactly what happened. There was definitely damage from wind blasts and also several people were killed by falling trees but in terms of knocking down the city, the flooding of tunnels, the power outages and the loss of subway transportation have had by far the largest impact. According to a NY Times article today, the three highest water marks at the...

Regular scheduled programming should return tomorrow. On Monday I posted how the storm surge was the biggest threat to New York City and that’s exactly what happened. There was definitely damage from wind blasts and also several people were killed by falling trees but in terms of knocking down the city, the flooding of tunnels, the power outages and the loss of subway transportation have had by far the largest impact. According to a NY Times article today, the three highest water marks at the...

Our kids have been super excited since yesterday afternoon that school has been canceled for today. Waking up this morning and looking around they were a bit surprised to see that it seemed to be neither blowing nor even raining outside. That got us into a good conversation about why Sandy is a dangerous storm for New York City. In the Northern hemisphere hurricanes rotate counter clockwise due to the Coriolis force. With the center of the storm supposed to be passing South of us, that means ...

Our kids have been super excited since yesterday afternoon that school has been canceled for today. Waking up this morning and looking around they were a bit surprised to see that it seemed to be neither blowing nor even raining outside. That got us into a good conversation about why Sandy is a dangerous storm for New York City. In the Northern hemisphere hurricanes rotate counter clockwise due to the Coriolis force. With the center of the storm supposed to be passing South of us, that means ...

As previously announced, I have self-published my MIT PhD thesis. Today’s post is about the first paper, which is titled “Information Technology and Firm Size” which – as the rather plain title suggests – examines statistical evidence of the impact of the increased use of IT on firm size. Before starting any analysis of data it helps to have a hypothesis and so the question is should we expect to see larger or smaller firms? Unfortunately, there are many different ways that computers might im...

As previously announced, I have self-published my MIT PhD thesis. Today’s post is about the first paper, which is titled “Information Technology and Firm Size” which – as the rather plain title suggests – examines statistical evidence of the impact of the increased use of IT on firm size. Before starting any analysis of data it helps to have a hypothesis and so the question is should we expect to see larger or smaller firms? Unfortunately, there are many different ways that computers might im...

Last Tech Tuesday was now two weeks ago due to Hurricane Sandy. As a quick refresher, we looked at where the word algorithm comes from, saw that an algorithm is similar to a recipe and gave an example of a simple algorithm for finding a repeated number in a sequence of numbers. Today we will take a deeper dive on this particular algorithm and see at least one specific implementation. All of this is still part of a by now fairly long running series of posts on programming. So revisiting the al...

Last Tech Tuesday was now two weeks ago due to Hurricane Sandy. As a quick refresher, we looked at where the word algorithm comes from, saw that an algorithm is similar to a recipe and gave an example of a simple algorithm for finding a repeated number in a sequence of numbers. Today we will take a deeper dive on this particular algorithm and see at least one specific implementation. All of this is still part of a by now fairly long running series of posts on programming. So revisiting the al...

We have covered a lot of ground in the previous Tech Tuesday posts on programming. Now it is time to return to the original definition that I provided in the introductory post, where I wrote that programming is “telling a computer what to do.” We have all the pieces we need: we have covered the syntax and semantics of programming languages; we have learned about variables and the data types they can hold; we have looked at reserved words and the control structures we can form with them; we ha...

We have covered a lot of ground in the previous Tech Tuesday posts on programming. Now it is time to return to the original definition that I provided in the introductory post, where I wrote that programming is “telling a computer what to do.” We have all the pieces we need: we have covered the syntax and semantics of programming languages; we have learned about variables and the data types they can hold; we have looked at reserved words and the control structures we can form with them; we ha...