Apologies up front for no links as I am typing this on the train to the city. I am curious to find out whether anyone else thinks that 2011 will be the year that inflation returns (and possibly with a vengeance). Both based on newspaper reports and talking to friends who do business in China it seems that prices there are going up quickly. Given how much we import that would suggest we will see some price increases here. There is also the distinct possibility of a significant increase in food...

Apologies up front for no links as I am typing this on the train to the city. I am curious to find out whether anyone else thinks that 2011 will be the year that inflation returns (and possibly with a vengeance). Both based on newspaper reports and talking to friends who do business in China it seems that prices there are going up quickly. Given how much we import that would suggest we will see some price increases here. There is also the distinct possibility of a significant increase in food...

So given the previous parts of this series (1, 2, 3), what might an alternative solution to the global namespace for people look like? First, we should have some criteria for how the system operates. Here are the ones that come to mind:Secure decentralized operation that’s not controlled by a single entityHuman readable/memorable namesGlobally uniqueUntil yesterday I was blissfully unaware that there has been a bunch of work on this starting with an assertion by Zooko (talk about a unique nam...

So given the previous parts of this series (1, 2, 3), what might an alternative solution to the global namespace for people look like? First, we should have some criteria for how the system operates. Here are the ones that come to mind:Secure decentralized operation that’s not controlled by a single entityHuman readable/memorable namesGlobally uniqueUntil yesterday I was blissfully unaware that there has been a bunch of work on this starting with an assertion by Zooko (talk about a unique nam...

After at first appearing to be shutting it down, Yahoo is now apparently selling delicious (or possibly giving it away). Google or Microsoft should be first in line to pick it up, but especially Google. Why? Because delicious would help immensely with battling spam and content farms, something many folks have criticized Google for lately, including Jeff Atwood and Marco Arment. That was of course the original idea behind Yahoo buying delicious – at that time Yahoo was still very much in the s...

After at first appearing to be shutting it down, Yahoo is now apparently selling delicious (or possibly giving it away). Google or Microsoft should be first in line to pick it up, but especially Google. Why? Because delicious would help immensely with battling spam and content farms, something many folks have criticized Google for lately, including Jeff Atwood and Marco Arment. That was of course the original idea behind Yahoo buying delicious – at that time Yahoo was still very much in the s...

I ended yesterday’s post by saying that I would write about potential solutions to the global namespace problem for people (parts 1 and 2). So here we go with a post on what seems to be happening (to be followed by a final post on possible alternatives). The de facto solution for an increasing number of services appears to be delegating their namespace to Facebook or Twitter or both. Facebook originally did not have usernames but only real names. The problem with that approach was that the UR...

I ended yesterday’s post by saying that I would write about potential solutions to the global namespace problem for people (parts 1 and 2). So here we go with a post on what seems to be happening (to be followed by a final post on possible alternatives). The de facto solution for an increasing number of services appears to be delegating their namespace to Facebook or Twitter or both. Facebook originally did not have usernames but only real names. The problem with that approach was that the UR...

Yesterday, I started a short series of posts on the global namespace for consumer web services. My quick and highly unscientific survey of readers showed a surprisingly high usage of usernames based on real names. I suspect that to be highly skewed by the audience for my blog. An important historic alternative has been to pick a distinctive username that bears no relationship to one’s first name and/or last name. Such user “handles” go back at least as far as CB Radio, dial-up bulletin board ...

Yesterday, I started a short series of posts on the global namespace for consumer web services. My quick and highly unscientific survey of readers showed a surprisingly high usage of usernames based on real names. I suspect that to be highly skewed by the audience for my blog. An important historic alternative has been to pick a distinctive username that bears no relationship to one’s first name and/or last name. Such user “handles” go back at least as far as CB Radio, dial-up bulletin board ...

I have been thinking a lot recently about the global namespace for people. My thoughts on this are far from settled and there are a lot of them, so I have decided to break this up into a bunch of different posts. When I was growing up near Nuremberg, Germany, I often had my last name “Wenger” misspelled as “Wegner” because the latter was a common last name in my region whereas the former is not. It turns out that “Wenger” is a name that comes from the Alps and is a lot more common there, espe...

I have been thinking a lot recently about the global namespace for people. My thoughts on this are far from settled and there are a lot of them, so I have decided to break this up into a bunch of different posts. When I was growing up near Nuremberg, Germany, I often had my last name “Wenger” misspelled as “Wegner” because the latter was a common last name in my region whereas the former is not. It turns out that “Wenger” is a name that comes from the Alps and is a lot more common there, espe...

Our older son had wanted an XBox for a long time, but I was loath to add yet another gaming console to our Gamecube and Wii. With the release of the Kinect controller, however, I could no longer resist as I badly wanted it myself! So over the holidays we got one and it is as amazing as everyone says. As in the early days of the Wii, it is some of the simplest games that provide the greatest satisfaction, such as the Kinect Adventures game that shipped with the XBox-Kinect bundle. Watching the...

Our older son had wanted an XBox for a long time, but I was loath to add yet another gaming console to our Gamecube and Wii. With the release of the Kinect controller, however, I could no longer resist as I badly wanted it myself! So over the holidays we got one and it is as amazing as everyone says. As in the early days of the Wii, it is some of the simplest games that provide the greatest satisfaction, such as the Kinect Adventures game that shipped with the XBox-Kinect bundle. Watching the...

Yes, I realize that’s a contradiction, but it seems to capture the essence of deals such as Goldman’s investment in Facebook at a $50B valuation and Groupon’s half-complete $950 million fundraising effort. These deals are designed to provide significant liquidity for insiders (especially early investors and employees), provide a piggy bank for continued aggressive growth and establish a share price for use in acquisitions. Those are all the things that companies traditionally got from an IPO....

Yes, I realize that’s a contradiction, but it seems to capture the essence of deals such as Goldman’s investment in Facebook at a $50B valuation and Groupon’s half-complete $950 million fundraising effort. These deals are designed to provide significant liquidity for insiders (especially early investors and employees), provide a piggy bank for continued aggressive growth and establish a share price for use in acquisitions. Those are all the things that companies traditionally got from an IPO....

Having spent a week off the grid and then a few more days slowly settling back in (not so much by choice as due to the blizzard in New York that left us “stranded” in Miami), I feel very much refreshed and ready to tackle 2011. Here are some of the things I want to accomplish in the coming year (in no particular order):More or less stop using business cards and replace them with one or more services, including Hashable.Finally replace our 200,000+ miles Toyota Corolla wagon with a car that’s ...

Having spent a week off the grid and then a few more days slowly settling back in (not so much by choice as due to the blizzard in New York that left us “stranded” in Miami), I feel very much refreshed and ready to tackle 2011. Here are some of the things I want to accomplish in the coming year (in no particular order):More or less stop using business cards and replace them with one or more services, including Hashable.Finally replace our 200,000+ miles Toyota Corolla wagon with a car that’s ...

Much has already been said about the need for more gun control in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting of Rep. Giffords. I am in complete agreement that we need much tighter controls, especially for assault weapons (which should encompass semi-automatics). One point I have not seen is the need for pro-active education about guns. In the absence of such, people will form their views of guns based on their depictions in movies and games, which are utterly misleading. The two grossest misrepres...

Much has already been said about the need for more gun control in the aftermath of the Arizona shooting of Rep. Giffords. I am in complete agreement that we need much tighter controls, especially for assault weapons (which should encompass semi-automatics). One point I have not seen is the need for pro-active education about guns. In the absence of such, people will form their views of guns based on their depictions in movies and games, which are utterly misleading. The two grossest misrepres...