Category Archives: Gadgets and Technology

Facebook: up or down?

Posted on by

Stories about Facebook have been plentiful in recent weeks as the company apparently prepares to announce that it has 500 million members and the trailer for The Social Network has hit the web.

Wired suggests “Five things that could topple Facebook’s empire.” One interesting tidbit out of this article: the American Customer Satisfaction Index (from the business school at the University of Michigan) found that Facebook has ratings similar to cable companies and airlines. Also, Facebook is similarly rated to MySpace. Overall, “That puts the world’s most visited website in the bottom 5 percent of private sector companies in the survey.”

Looking ahead 40 years

Posted on by

Smithsonian magazine celebrates its 40th anniversary by writing about “40 things you need to know about the next 40 years.”

Out of the 40 predictions, some of the ones that intrigued me:

4. New cars will be given away, free.

11. The heartland will rise again.

12. The top US social problem? Upward mobility.

13. By 2050, one out of three US kids will be Latino.

25. Artists will run the world.

27. Everyone will make his own music.

36. Good-bye stereo; hello, hyper-real acoustics

40. Reading will become an athletic activity

Selling more e-books than hardcovers

Posted on by

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon reports it has sold more e-books than hardcover books over the last three months.

This may seem impressive…but I’ve always thought hardcover books were a terrible deal anyway. In what other market are you offered the product initially and then months later consistently offered the same product at half-price?

Also, I still don’t feel compelled to buy a Kindle or a Nook or an e-reader.

Expanding your “weak ties” on Facebook

Posted on by

An article from NewScientist looks at the usefulness of “weak ties” among Facebook friends. This term dates back to a very influential sociology paper from the early 1970s:

In 1973, sociologist Mark Granovetter showed how the loose acquaintances, or “weak ties”, in our social network punch far above their weight in their influence over our behaviour and choices (American Journal of Sociology, vol 78, p 1360). Granovetter found that a significant percentage of people get their jobs as a result of information provided by a weak tie. Subsequent studies have revealed that weak ties benefit our health and happiness. Granovetter suggested that this is because these friends-of-friends aren’t like you, yet they are likely to be similar enough in social outlook and personal interests to have a positive influence.

Interesting suggestion in the article that we can only handle about 150 “genuine social relationships.” Even with tools like Facebook, relationships still require more focused interaction and we are limited in this regard. So if we have more than 150 Facebook friends, are we simply fooling ourselves?

Sites like Facebook allow for a broad friendship network with little maintenance needed by either “friend.” A question I have: while these “weak ties” may now be more accessible, how often do people use them to their direct advantage? Say I am looking for a job – can I find one on Facebook? I have several friends that are selling products or services and this seems to be a good way to get word out.

Slow reading and the Internet

Posted on by

An article from the Guardian discusses “slow reading” and whether reading on the Internet has made us all stupider.

Which all means that although, because of the internet, we have become very good at collecting a wide range of factual tidbits, we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, contemplate, and relate all these facts to each other.

Because of these developments, critical thinking and analysis skills will be vitally important in the 21st century. For many, the problem is no longer getting information – the issue is now how to put it all together.

Problems for green technology in America

Posted on by

Wired explores five reasons why the green tech sector has had a difficult time in the United States.

These five reasons are primarily cultural: green technology faces an image issue. Either dire circumstances or a breakthrough technology might be needed to push forward.

Another proposal for Internet sales taxes

Posted on by

Many American consumers can purchase goods online without paying a state sales tax. That may change in the future. While this article specifically references a proposed bill from a Massachusetts House member, it has some interesting background on the legal issues behind gathering state sales taxes from Internet purchases.

One problem with e-voting: roll-off

Posted on by

This Newsweek piece explores how unknown Alvin Greene might have won the Democratic Senate primary. While some have alleged fraud at the voting booth, the issue of “roll-off” is a more reasonable explanation.

Roll-off describes a process originally found in paper ballots where voters cast less votes toward the end of the ballot. This can be exacerbated if voters don’t recognize names – perhaps in those races like local judges, forest preserve commissioners, township officials, and more. Between the Greene race and the one listed above it, for education superintendent, there was only a 10% drop in votes cast. Newsweek says political analysts consider this a low roll-off figure for a race that garnered little public attention.

But there was another step with the e-voting machine: when a user submitts a ballot, the machine passes on a warning if all the races are not voted for. If a user saw the warning and hadn’t voted in the Democratic Senate primary, they then might have just picked the first name, Greene’s, as he was the first candidate listed based on alphabetical order.

Summary: by asking voters to double-check their input, the machine may be skewing voting results as voters just want the warnings to go away and vote for the most accessible candidate.

As local governments consider purchasing e-voting machines, this is an issue to consider.

Learning from the country’s largest urban solar plant

Posted on by

The Chicago Tribune reports on a 40 acre solar power plant on the south side of Chicago, the largest urban solar plant in the United States. While the plant is not very big (generating 10 megawatts), some things I learned that shed light on the broader issue of clean energy:

-Benefits of a plant this size: “The solar plant generates enough electricity to power about 1,500 homes, and its clean power means less greenhouse gases are emitted, the equivalent of taking 2,500 cars off the road each year.”

-Perhaps Chicago is not a bad place to build solar facilities: “The sun in Illinois is more intense than in Japan or Germany, the world’s two largest solar markets.”

-On a national level: “Nationwide, there are more than 22,000 megawatts of large-scale solar projects under development, or enough to power 4.4 million homes.”

-“Green jobs” generated by building solar plants do not necessarily last over time: “Exelon’s West Pullman plant, for example, created about 200 jobs, but only during the six months of construction, he said. “It certainly wasn’t something that went on for years,” Lynch said.”

-Wind power is the main green energy for the near-future in Illinois: “Power companies in the state must get at least 25 percent of their electricity from green sources by 2025. Of that amount, 75 percent must come from wind, while only 6 percent must come from solar”

Summary: this plant has some clear benefits including cleaner energy and construction jobs. But there is a long way to go before solar plants, particularly in urban areas, can generate enough electricity at a reasonable price.