Stealing ideas (June 10, 2018)

As I continue to go through my old blog drafts, this is another one from 2010 where I took down some rough notes and never quite put something together. At the time, there was significant press (and a movie) about how Mark Zuckerberg has “stole (more...)

Society 2.0 (May 20, 2018)

(image credit) I was recently going through old blog drafts and came across this one from nearly 8 years ago. It was basically just brainstorming about how to improve society in general. I’m proud to say that in the meantime, I’ve done my (more...)

My 4,659.4 barrels of oil (March 26, 2018)

According to Natural Resources Canada, “Canada has the third-largest proven oil reserve in the world, most of which is in the oil sands.” “Proven oil reserves are estimated at 171.0 billion barrels.” Canada’s current population is about 36.7 mil (more...)

Why are we still using attachments in 2018? (March 23, 2018)

Who remembers 2006? 12 years ago, Google launched a truly innovative suite of products to compete with Microsoft’s behemoth Office suite called “Google Docs and Sheets”. This promised to revolutionize the way we work. Instead of hav (more...)

The slow, painful death of social media (March 20, 2018)

About a month ago, before the big Cambridge Analytica scandal, I wrote that “Facebook is over.” My feeling was strong enough that I divested all FB holdings the same day. Glossing over the details at the time, I simply stated that Facebook had “lost (more...)

Facebook is over (February 21, 2018)

Alright folks, I’m calling it. It’s quite sad, but as of 6pm Pacific on Feb 21, 2018, Facebook is officially over. Soon it will join the ranks of MySpace, Friendster, Slashdot, Digg, Orkut, and Google+ as dusty old sites that nobody reall (more...)

Capitalism only works if there is competition (December 8, 2017)

Everything I’m going to write here seems painfully obvious to me, but apparently is not well known. I’ve read many recent articles and comments that seem to herald “free market capitalism” as the answer to every problem in soc (more...)

When did software go off the rails? (August 16, 2017)

As CTO of The Rumie Initiative, I spend a decent amount of time trying to find tech solutions that offer “the most for the least” in terms of computing power vs. cost.

There is one thing that has baffled me in my long career in tech

(more...)

Why should people trust you? (December 6, 2015)

Last week, I was hanging up my laundry, listening to a great business podcast about consulting, and was hit by a wall of wisdom:“Your reputation in business is in large part based on your ability to make commitments and fulfill them. (more...)

5 years in the smartphone industry (July 31, 2015)

5 years ago, in July 2010, I made a bold prediction that Microsoft would purchase Blackberry. The Past At the time, Blackberry was still the clear leader, with over 40% of the market: Even then, however, the trend was crystal clear. Apple had already (more...)