Bert Sugar, Boxing Writer and Commentator, Is Dead at 75 – NYTimes.com.
Rest in peace to one of the best, if not the best boxing writers and commentators ever. He will be missed.
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Why Entrepreneurship Is Declining – Businessweek.
The entrepreneurship activity rate among the least-educated group, which are high school dropouts, remains significantly higher than for other educational levels. They’re definitely the group that has changed the most during the recession. Their entrepreneurship rates started going up in 2006 and they’ve been elevated ever since, though their rate of entrepreneurial activity decreased from 2010 to 2011.This is the demographic that has the least job security right now, so it’s likely they’re being forced into entrepreneurship more than other people.
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Apple’s New IPad Makes Sydney Debut to Widen Google Lead – Bloomberg.
The New iPad drops in Sydney. Let’s the festivities begin!
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Here’s a detailed article on the scam that is government unemployment statistics.
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Research, no motion: How the BlackBerry CEOs lost an empire | The Verge.
This is a wonderful history of Research in Motion, the company behind the Blackberry.
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No More Angling for the Best Seat; More Meetings Are Stand-Up Jobs – WSJ.com.
I’m all for standing during meetings and throughout the day; I stand almost always during calls. However, I think we would all be more productive if we had less meetings. Cut meetings and conference calls in half. Most do not amount to nothing but wasted time and tangental conversations.
If you do have a meeting keep it short and end at the stated time. Do not go over. Start on time, even if people are late. And when the stragglers phone or stroll in, do not recap anything that was said prior. Nothing pisses me off more than having to hear a recap because someone was late.
Ok, got that off my chest!
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Innovate Without Mercy Is the Lesson of RIM’s BlackBerry: View – Bloomberg.
The biggest takeaway from this: you must be your biggest competitor. Don’t rest on your laurels. Don’t get comfortable.
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Shirky writes that this upcoming SOPA and PIPA bills would create a consumption-only internet, leaving the large, politically-protected media firms as the sole providers of content, just like the the good old days when publishing nearly any form of content was prohibitively expensive.
The internet made everyone a publisher; everyone a content creator. The cat’s been out of the bag for 15 years. It just gets easier every year with better and cheaper tools. Look at the recently released iBooks Author app from Apple. This free app lets anyone easily create a book and sell it on iTunes. Amazon and Barnes and Noble make it relatively easy and cheap–read free–to publish eBooks on the Kindle and Nook. I know because I’ve done it many times. You can even publish your own softcover book through CreateSpace for a nominal fee (the cost of shipping a proof of your book is the only charge.) Anyone with a Mac, Garageband, a mic and an instrument can make music that would have cost tens of thousands in equipment and studio time not too long ago. Movies are still expensive but the price has come down considerably over the years. Just think, the iPhone 4s can shoot video in 1080p resolution! You could make a movie with that and a Mac running iMovie for editing. It’s been done countless times.
The point is, the media companies are desperate to protect their aging, declining business models. They say it’s about piracy, but it’s not. They are using political means to protect their business. Media companies are zombies, being kept alive by their friends in Congress.
We still go to the movies, we still buy books and movies, and we still watch TV shows. We have far more choices now beyond the large media companies, and we want to consume our content on any device we own. The days of sitting in front of the tube at 8pm to watch sitcoms is long gone. We create, we consume and there’s nothing the media companies or Congress can do about it. They can censor what we do on the web, but we’ll find another way. There’s always another way.
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Iran squeezes Web surfers, prepares censored national intranet | InSecurity Complex – CNET News.
You know there are quite a few people in D.C. clamoring for something like this here. Don’t think it can’t happen.
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Barnes & Noble Considers Spinning Off Its Nook Unit – NYTimes.com.
It’s fascinating to watch what is happening with the large booksellers, make that the large–singular–bookseller. Borders couldn’t compete and shut their doors. Barnes and Noble is increasingly selling less and less physical books and more Nooks, toys, games, and stationary products. Now Barnes and Noble is considering spinning off the Nook business.
The question now is can Barnes and Noble continue to operate its flagship stores and still be profitable? The Nook business, while selling briskly and taking away market share from Amazon’s Kindle, is still not profitable. The option of spinning off the Nook would allow more time for it to become profitable as shareholders in the parent company are not that patient. They should be, but quarterly results trump long-term growth and profitability.
I don’t think the stores will last. I don’t know how long but it won’t last. Barnes and Noble have closed stores in the past due to rising rents, so it’s not out of the question if a larger number of stores close over the next few years.
I use Barnes and Noble as a shopping guide for new books, and to grab a tasty caffeinated beverage and pastry. I find a book, then buy it with my Nook app on my iPad. No waiting in line, and no paying full retail. Even after my 20-40% discount for being a Barnes and Noble loyalty member, it’s still cheaper to buy the Nook version. It’s worth it just to not have to stand in line, or pay sales tax.
I want the Nook to succeed and provide more competition to Amazon and Apple. However, they need to make the Nook tablet a full-blown Android tablet and not hobble it with a restrictive interface.
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