"BBC reports that Chinese web users are criticizing Apple after the company pulled a free iPhone app called OpenDoor, which enables users to bypass firewalls and access restricted internet sites. The developers of OpenDoor — who wish to remain anonymous
— told Radio Netherlands that Apple removed the app because it
'includes content that is illegal in China.' 'It is unclear to us how a
simple browser app could include illegal contents, since it's the user's
own choosing of what websites to view,' say the developers. 'Using the
same definition, wouldn't all browser apps, including Apple's own Safari and Google's Chrome, include illegal contents?'
Chinese internet users were disappointed by the move by Apple. Zhou
Shuguang, a prominent Chinese blogger and citizen journalist, told
U.S.-based Radio Free Asia that Apple had taken away one of the tools
which internet users in China relied on to circumvent the country's
great firewall. 'Apple is determined to have a share of the huge cake
which is the Chinese internet market. Without strict self-censorship, it
cannot enter the Chinese market,' says one Chinese user disappointed by
the move by Apple."
"The London School of Economics has published a new study
(PDF) which shows that the claims
about digital downloading killing
music and movies are overblown. In fact, there is new evidence to
indicate that it actually generates more income in certain cases.
'While it acknowledges that sales have stagnated in recent years, the
report points out that the overall revenue of the music industry in 2011
was almost $60 billion US, and in 2012, worldwide sales of recorded
music increased for the first time since 1999, with 34 per cent of
revenues for that year coming from digital channels such as streaming
and downloads. "The music industry may be stagnating, but the drastic
decline in revenues warned of by the lobby associations of record labels
is not in evidence," the report says. ... The growing use of streaming,
cloud computing, so-called digital lockers that facilitate the sharing
of content and sites that offer a mix of free and paid methods of
getting content will, the study predicts, spur the entertainment
industries to shift their focus from pursuing illegal downloading to
creating more legal avenues for getting content online.'"
"Mike Masnick of Techdirt argues that we can all put down our wooden shoes and take a chill pill:
technology 'rarely destroys jobs.' For example, telephone operators
have largely gone by the wayside, but a (brave) new world of
telemarketing and call center support jobs have opened up because of advances in technology, not to mention the Internet.
Masnick points out writing from Professor James Bessen that makes the
same point: 'In other cases, technology creates offsetting job growth in
different occupations or industry segments. For example, word
processors and voice mail systems reduced the numbers of typists and
switchboard operators, but these technologies also increased the number
of more highly skilled secretaries and receptionists, offsetting the job
losses. Similarly, Amazon may have eliminated jobs at Borders and other
national book chains that relied on bestsellers, but the number of
independent booksellers has been growing and with it, more jobs for
sales clerks who can provide selections and advice that Amazon cannot
easily match.' That said, I think it's worth asking: if machines are
going to replace all our fast food workers, are we going to start paying
our gourmet chefs minimum wage just because we can?"
"A bold new biometric identity system is being deployed across India
in a bid to combat rampant welfare fraud. The mammoth system will
collect the iris and fingerprint records on a voluntary basis of every
one of India's 1.2 billion men, women and children. The Aadhaar project
runs three trillion biometric identity matches every day — all on a
small data center of commodity blade servers."
"arkOS is a Linux distribution that runs on the Raspberry Pi. It's an
initiative of the CitizenWeb Project, which promotes decentralization
and democratization of the Internet. arkOS is aiming to aid this effort
by making it super-simple for people to host their own email, blogs, storage and other services from their own home, instead of relying on cloud services run by third parties. about the project."
I am currently working on the home of a Christian Business man who is a massive "micromanager."
While I find it irritating in a sense, I have grown to respect the man for his knowledge and ability.
"Sydney Finkelstein writes at BBC that Steve Jobs, Mickey Drexler,
and Jeff Bezos all have something in common. They are all builders of
giant brands, very successful, and each is (or was) 'an unmitigated, unapologetic, micromanager!'
The modern executive is taught — in business schools and in many jobs —
that to manage people effectively is to delegate, and then get out of
the way. But it's not delegate and forget says Finkelstein; it must be
delegate and be intimately involved with what happens next.
Micromanagers must be selective. You can't delve into the details of
everything, and in fact superstar micromanagers don't. 'Steve Jobs was
intimately involved with each product the company designed, and was even
famously involved in designing the glass stairs at the Apple stores.
But financial and operational issues were delegated to second-in-command
and current Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook.' One key is that
micromanagers must be experts. What could be worse than a manager immersed in the details who really doesn't know his stuff?
Finally, it takes a strong, trusted team to be a micromanager. Could
Steve Jobs have spent weeks with the iPhone design team if there was no
one else to mind the store? If not for Tim Cook, perhaps the legend of Steve Jobs would not have turned out quite so well.
'The good news is that the best micromanagers are often the best talent
developers,' writes Finkelstein. 'Their attention to detail, their
intimate knowledge of the business and their deep involvement in what's
going on actually enables more, not less, delegation.'"
"Sydney Finkelstein writes at BBC that Steve Jobs, Mickey Drexler,
and Jeff Bezos all have something in common. They are all builders of
giant brands, very successful, and each is (or was) 'an unmitigated, unapologetic, micromanager!'
The modern executive is taught — in business schools and in many jobs —
that to manage people effectively is to delegate, and then get out of
the way. But it's not delegate and forget says Finkelstein; it must be
delegate and be intimately involved with what happens next.
Micromanagers must be selective. You can't delve into the details of
everything, and in fact superstar micromanagers don't. 'Steve Jobs was
intimately involved with each product the company designed, and was even
famously involved in designing the glass stairs at the Apple stores.
But financial and operational issues were delegated to second-in-command
and current Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook.' One key is that
micromanagers must be experts. What could be worse than a manager immersed in the details who really doesn't know his stuff?
Finally, it takes a strong, trusted team to be a micromanager. Could
Steve Jobs have spent weeks with the iPhone design team if there was no
one else to mind the store? If not for Tim Cook, perhaps the legend of Steve Jobs would not have turned out quite so well.
'The good news is that the best micromanagers are often the best talent
developers,' writes Finkelstein. 'Their attention to detail, their
intimate knowledge of the business and their deep involvement in what's
going on actually enables more, not less, delegation.'"
No comments:
Post a Comment