Comment on Node ant

Martin Nickel — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:50:44 +0000

They've kept under the radar as long as possible. Not that they're actually a player it will be hard for them to do anything subtly.
Seems to me, btw, there's quite a contradiction between their "do no harm" policy and their capitulation to China's censorship requirements. This has been reported, but if Microsoft (for example) had done the same thing there would have made a much louder noise.

Comment on Node ant

Martin Nickel — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:28:22 +0000

Surely this was inserted as a straw man conversation starter, not as a serious statement. Have your friendships suffered? Mine either. Rather they've benefited greatly as I've re-established friendships with people I've known and worked years in the past.

Comment on Node ant

Martin Nickel — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:17:10 +0000

The people hurt most by 1 million legal + 1 million illegal immigrants per year are the poor who are already here. It is effectively a program of oppression of the poor by the rich, so the rich can have cheaper lawn care and pool service.

Comment on Node ant

Martin Nickel — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:04:11 +0000

Great ideas!

I'd add that there are craters corresponding to the spikes. They happen in the wastelands between the spikes when need and impotence breed anger, discontentment and revolution.

Almost anyone's idea of social justice, or at least compassion, would say that the "spikes" owe something to the wastelands. But what? To attempt to convert them into new spikes? That takes generations of infrastructure. So what is owed? An education? Two cars and a house with a white picket fence? A subsistance existance? Anything?

It's a problem that could kill us.

Comment on Node ant

Martin Nickel — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:39:42 +0000

I think it's an idea that sounds good until you think about it. Computers in America's classrooms have apparently done little to promote actual education and may rather be hindering.
Information is important. I can see many reasons to subsidize computers and internet access in various global contexts. I see no need whatsoever to create a one-off poor people's computer.
The (original) VolksWagon idea doesn't apply to rapidly changing technologies like computing.

Comment on Node ant

Martin Nickel — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:05:24 +0000

It isn't the only way, but it may be the best way to make a lot of money! Or to lose a lot of money. Potential for reward generally couples with risk!

Fast Talk Response -

Martin Nickel — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:46:13 +0000

I'm quite certain that you must blend the two to remain viable. The combined effect of the Industrial and Information ages has isolated each of us. Online social networking is simply re-allowing the interaction we all crave.

And as Microsoft's chief ad strategist Mike Galgon noted yesterday, journalism is "not worth zero". We need to be trust someone as an information resource.

Combining these two - probably across information sources - is a necessity.