technology

links, etc The Pursuit of Shareholder Value: Cisco’s Transformation from Innovation to Financialization quite possibly the best discussion i’ve seen of how (and really why) cisco eschewed technical innovation in favor of financial engineering. outlines all the notable disinvestments in differentiating technologies and acquisitions with the financial elements. if america wants to look at why it’s not a leader in many domains, perhaps a cold look at what the impacts of the financialization of nearly everything yields....

in the mid-90s someone gave me a copy of engines of creation. this blew my mind. well, more accurately, that, plus a copy of neil stephenson’s the diamond age, blew my mind. nanotech is still a ways off from realizing the vision laid out in either of these books. but we’re starting to see the nascent forms of this kind of create your own product with the emergence of low cost stereolitho gear and and micro-manufacturing....

a highly recommend essay by neal stephenson. ...