Gerd Leonhard interview on the future of media
More insightful stuff from Gerd Leonhard on the future of media, which is useful the day after the Tribune Company melts down.
Great point: water is technically “free” in the developed world, but the global water industry is worth $100 billion, four times the size of the music industry.
Just because a business model blows up doesn’t mean the service no longer has billions of dollars in value
Diplomacy 2.0 - using Facebook and Twitter to tell America’s story
Steve Clemons runs The Washington Note, one of the truly essential blogs for anyone who has an interest in America’s foreign policy.
Clemons thinks like a natural futurist, always considering strategic trends in a holistic, intellectually honest manner. But he’s also is interested in new technologies like Facebook and Twitter that will connect people around the world in a way that impacts America’s diplomacy. Cutting edge stuff. Check out this speech on social media from the New America Foundation:
Technolust
Look, I am not a techno-utopian. I don’t look to gadgets to save humanity - not biotech, not nanotech, not
IT.
But I’m just a man. I can’t help the technolust that besets you when you witness the curved iMac prototype.
KidTechBlog from Singapore details 70 sexy gadgets you haven’t heard of (yet).
Vive La France…Vive La France NUMERIQUE! (Long live digital France)
Hard times sure can spur innovative action. The current economic chaos could be complemented by some tight, disciplined, creative thinking.
France is in the same hot water as America when it comes to stagnant economic growth and teetering banks. Housing sits vacant or unsold, cars are stuck in the show rooms. While they haven’t had the spectacular fireworks of watching their governments purchase twelve failed banks, the average Frenchmen knows that the status quo won’t endure.
Today, president Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled a major step in the spirit of innovation, France’s digital economy 2012 plan. This program will offer the French people 150 ways to transition to a digital lifestyle and workstyle in the hopes of creating new markets, launching new companies, and ultimately spurring economic growth in a country of crippling social obligations and sub-2% GDP progress. In the next three years, we’ll see a major push toward converting to digital television signal, 100% penetration of broadband internet, the sale of analog TV frequencies to new users, and more.
I believe that Korea was at this level about three years ago, but never mind that. It’s an important move, one that will have dividends.
France has a funny approach to technology leapfrogging. Those who lived in France prior to the Internet remember a revolutionary device known as Minitel, run entirely by France Telecom’s Soviet-style business/politburo, that provided many of our favorite Internet services (stock trades, plane tickets, sports info, etc) as far back as the 1980s. It was way, way ahead of its time. Then, in true French style, the whole country celebrated this world beating progress by tucking in for a nine course meal, talking about how they got there before the Germans, going on strike, and doing nothing for around a decade while the Internet rendered it obsolete.
If you find this a grotesque caricature of French technology policy, have a look at their defense technology after 1918. Having finally beaten back the Prussians, they innovated all sorts of munitions, communications, and aerospace technology. In the 1920s and 1930s, France was a scientific and cultural hotbed, and everybody was pretty impressed with themselves, right up until the moment they discovered that the Panzer tank was even better technology. Historically, the French love to prove they are world class - look at their high-speed trains - but don’t necessarily want to trade their nine weeks of vacation for jittery paranoia in order to stay on top.
This is hard to argue with.
Socio-technological stereotypes aside, I take this as a pretty good sign that France will step up to the plate to compete on the world stage again. It’s right on schedule.
Analog retirement
The guys over at Busted Tees have got an amusing shirt depicting the sad fate of our favorite technologies. I may have to own this one.
This year, China passes the United States in total Internet users
According to the Chinese government, the total number of internet users will pass 210 million this year, finally catching up to the United States. 
Impressive enough, with lots of strategic implications for businesses and governments just on its face.
Cross reference this with the next-generation capabilities of IPv6 architecture, which will allow central governments unprecedented control of who gets what information and how they get it.
Now, this needs some heavier discussion.
-Garland
Trick out your hybrid to get 100 mpg
Some people are way handier than I am. Some efficiency geeks in California have hacked their Toyota Prius, enabling it to get 100 miles per gallon.
The upgrade invoved adding inexpensive lead-acid batteries and
"some innovative software" to fool the car’s computerized controls into using
more of the energy stored in the batteries.
I was NOT good enough in chemistry or physics class to just tinker with the software that regulates the freaking electricity in my car, but these guys claim it’s only a $5,000 investment to get a lifetime of 100 miles per gallon.
Since 95% of the remaining petroleum is stored under Middle East countries that keep exploding, perhaps this is a small price to pay and a smart strategy for the future.
Be social