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So will Google’s Chromebook transform how we think about computers?
My Observer piece about the forthcoming Google netbook. On 15 June, Google will officially take the next step on its road to global domination. From that day onwards, online shoppers will be able to...
View ArticleiCloud roundup
The combination of iCloud with Apple’s coming mobile operating system will allow make its mobile devices more like standalone computers. Users will be able to activate and operate iPads and iPhones...
View ArticleChromebook: Pogue’s verdict
Good review of the Chromebook by David Pogue. His conclusion: Maybe the Chromebook concept would fly if it cost $180 instead of $500. Maybe it makes more sense if you rent it (students and corporations...
View ArticleDigital Darwinism
This morning’s Observer column. This is a story about digital Darwinism. Once upon a time, the abiding nightmare of authors and students who used their PCs and laptops to compose books, dissertations...
View ArticleThe gatekeepers’ demise
We went to a lovely lunch yesterday given by a friend who is a very successful writer. Inevitably, the conversation turned to the kind of topics that preoccupy professional writers — the changes that...
View ArticleSmartphones, clouds and control
This morning’s Observer column about the latest Ofcom survey of the communications market. The Ofcom document runs to 411 pages, so it is custom-built for empirical masochists. Given that life is...
View ArticlePut not your trust in the Cloud — any cloud
This morning’s Observer column. Most of the iCloud users of my acquaintance seem very happy with it. No more worrying about back-ups, or having out-of-date calendars on different devices. In return for...
View ArticleQuis custodiet ipsos custodes?
This morning’s Observer column. The first thought to strike anyone stumbling upon the now-infamous Innocence of Muslims video on YouTube without knowing anything about it would probably be that it...
View ArticleCloud computing’s environmental footprint
Data centre energy use from John Naughton I was struck by James Glanz’s NYT article about the environmental footprint of cloud computing and so tried to summarise it in a small slide-deck. Hope it’s...
View ArticleCloud computing’s dark lining
Cheerful UK users of iCloud, Google Drive and other US-based services might do well to ponder this. Cloud computing has exploded in recent years as a flexible, cheap way for individuals, companies and...
View ArticleTechnology and the English language
Him: “I think I’ll do a blog about that”. Me: “Do you really think it merits creating a new blog?” Him: “What do you mean?” Me: “Well, you said you were going to do a blog about it”. Him: “So?” Me:...
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The PC: the new sunset industry
IDC says PC sales fell 14 percent in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis. That’s worse than its forecast of a 7.7 percent drop. This is the worst quarter for PC industry since 1994 when IDC...
View ArticleIt’s the metadata, stoopid
This morning’s Observer column. “To be remembered after we are dead,” wrote Hazlitt, “is but poor recompense for being treated with contempt while we are living.” Cue President “George W” Obama in the...
View ArticleEdward Snowden’s not the story. The fate of the internet is
This morning’s Observer column. Repeat after me: Edward Snowden is not the story. The story is what he has revealed about the hidden wiring of our networked world. This insight seems to have escaped...
View ArticleUnintended consequences of NSA surveillance (contd.)
This from a law professor. You can consider the National Security Agency’s data-gathering programs a grim necessity to protect the nation or an outrageous violation of privacy. What is unquestionable...
View ArticleThe Snowden effect (contd.)
The Snowden effect continues. And affects not just companies getting nervous of the US cloud, but alsop, apparently, American internet users. Which in due course will affect US advertisers. In the days...
View ArticleBeyond gadgetry lies the real technology
This morning’s Observer column. Cloud computing is a good illustration of why much media commentary about – and public perceptions of – information technology tends to miss the point. By focusing on...
View ArticleWhat happens when algorithms decide what should be passed on?
One of the things we’re interested in on our research project is how rumours, news, information (and mis-information) can spread with astonishing speed across the world as a result of the Internet. Up...
View ArticleEvidence-based anti-terrorism. Now that *would* be a good idea…
… as Gandhi said of Western civilisation. But it’s not what we’ve got. In fact the only paper I can find which attempts to do some kind of cost-benefit analysis on the ‘war on terror’ comes from the...
View ArticleAmazon’s Cloud Nine
This morning’s Observer column: In 1999, Andy Grove, then the CEO of Intel, was widely ridiculed for declaring that “in five years’ time there won’t be any internet companies. All companies will be...
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