Microsoft's Steve Ballmer comes across like a car salesman in cross-company communications, while Apple's Steve Jobs presents a focussed, humble poise, even if he may not be a particularly humble person. There are some similarities between Ballmer and Jobs. For one, they both sign their memos, simply, "Steve". For another, they're both non-engineers leading engineering companies. Engineers, in general, crave facts and detest bullshit. My sense is that by ... Read full entry

Here's a blast from the past... design-communication-meisters of the dot com boom, Razorfish, have redesigned their website. Despite the fact they were on the opposite side of the world (New York), ten years ago they were one company I would have loved to have worked for. Razorfish were also behind a web fiction series I like a lot back in the day called This Girl, which followed the fortunes ... Read full entry

It sure sounds like a good idea. Buy, sell, or swap, bandwidth capacity. If your network is congested simply buy some additional capacity from supplier who isn't so busy, and vice versa. The exchange would let telephone networks, mobile operators, satellite providers and other telecommunications companies trade capacity on their systems. Network operators spotting potential bottlenecks could buy extra capacity, ensuring the smooth functioning of phone services, cellphone networks, ... Read full entry

Email, instant messaging, mobile phones, and social networks, are all responsible for impacting on attention spans and disrupting workplace productivity, according to a recent study which confirms what many of us have known for sometime... A typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail program more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times, according to one measure by RescueTime, a company ... Read full entry

Like the fax machine, which was invented in 1843, mobile phones have been around far longer than commonly perceived, with Lars Magnus Ericsson, founder of the Ericsson communications company, developing the concept in 1910, for use as a car phone. From 1910 on it appears that Lars Magnus Ericsson and his wife Hilda regularly worked the first car telephone. Yes, this was the man who founded Ericsson ... Read full entry