Tag: Techno utopians

  • Google’s founders are less humble (and jetless) than you think

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    Casting around for an example of the simple life to use in an Arab-bashing column, veteran columnist and editor Alexander Chancellor alighted on what he must have thought was the perfect foil to the free-spending Saudis. It appeared right there in front of him, on his PC, nestling between some coloured balls. Unlike Prince Alwaleed…

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  • Amazon’s Kindle: a $399 folly

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    Reading has never been cheaper, and for most of us, requires no additional machinery – only the source material itself. So why do we need to pay the online retailer Amazon.com $399 to read books?… Read More

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  • Warner slaps Nokia for Web 2.0 swap site

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    Nokia’s Music Store went live last week – but look in vain for anything by Led Zepp, John Coltrane, or Smokey Robinson. That’s because Warner Music Group (WMG) is refusing to license its catalogues to the phone giant, in protest at its Web 2.0 file swapping site, Mosh. WMG says Mosh is a hotbed of…

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  • VoIP is Dead. It’s just another feature, now

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    Business-wise, Skype is a basketcase. But that’s just one of the things that makes it one of the most emblematic companies of our time – a real, Ur-Web 2.0 company. Like so many internet companies, Skype has millions and millions of users. Like these internet companies, too, it can’t make very much money off all…

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  • Sadville is great for bubblewrap kids – BBC

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    TV shrink Tanya Byron blamed over-protective parents for keeping “bubble wrap” kids away from real social interaction and tethered to technology such as the internet, we reported yesterday. The government is hiring Byron to tout a “Live Consultation”, soliciting views on how the internet might affect children. That’s your taxes at work, Part One. How…

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  • Miliband goes mad for Web 2.0

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    David Miliband, the environment minister tipped to be the next Labour Party leader by a friendly Westminster press, says “a new spirit” is afoot in the UK, brought about by Web 2.0. Miliband said the web had polarised debate into competing extremities, where the truth was decided by whoever shouted the loudest. Traditional engineering values,…

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