confused of calcutta

RageBoy brought this story to my attention, so hello and thanks to Boulder from Calcutta. Or Windsor, if you prefer.
The story itself was simple: Microsoft had done a deal with a couple of major universities to scan, and make available to all, a vast collection of out-of-copyright material. Given that the universities mentioned were the [...]

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Yesterday my predecessor, Al-Noor Ramji, was quoted as saying that Google was BT’s “biggest threat”. You can find the story here. The reaction from many commentators was similar to that experienced by my colleague, Sean Park, when he went public with AmazonBay; they ranged from “you cannot be serious” through to “there’s some truth in [...]

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Have you ever had a McEnroe moment while reading something, a time when every nerve and sinew is yelling “You cannot be serious?“?
I used to feel that way when I read privacy-meets-security scaremongering; now I am so used to it I am more likely to laugh instead.
Take a look at this article in the latest [...]

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The man that has no music in himself
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
the motions of his spirit are as dull as night,
And affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted.
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
It’s got to be one of my favourite quotes; it keeps [...]

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It’s been an interesting day.
Marshall Kirkpatrick’s blog gave me some views on what Google and Feedburner are up to. Google Video for Mac. The deal between Feedburner and Geffen.
I got to BL Ochman’s blog via David Terrar to find this story about eBay. One of the world’s biggest marketplaces taking blogs and wikis seriously. Maybe [...]

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Coding The Markets, via a comment on one of my recent posts, pointed me at Larry Harris’s book and associated website called Trading And Exchanges. As expected I’ve ordered the book and look forward to reading it.
Harris makes a nice distinction between trustworthiness and creditworthiness.
Something still niggles me though, above and beyond what I stated [...]

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First of all, thanks for the comments and the e-mails after my last two posts. It’s good to see the snowballs rolling, gathering momentum.
Why am I doing this? Not because I’ve suddenly become some male-menopausal closet philosopher. But because trust and relationships and identity are integral components of any market, particularly financial markets. Software has [...]

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Martin Geddes, while commenting on my previous post, threw a snowball at me. He recommended that anyone interested in understanding the difference between confidence and trust should read Adam Seligman’s The Problem of Trust.
I trust Martin.
So I ordered the book straightaway, and Amazon have guaranteed that they will deliver the book to me by 1pm [...]

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I’ve just returned from reboot in Copenhagen. Exhilarating. Google reboot8 and take a wander through the 140,000 hits you get, it should give you a flavour.
How do I feel now? Like Doc’s snowballs met the Sony Bravia ad. Millions of ideas bouncing at me in glorious technicolor. [An aside. Was that ad real? I hear [...]

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You could do worse than read my colleague Sean’s comments on reboot, which you can find here….. I’m still getting my thoughts together, it was a wonderful conference.
In the meantime, thanks to Mark Stewart, I was taken to Prabhu Guptara’s blog. I’ve known Prabhu for over 15 years, but it took Mark’s comments to let [...]

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