January 29, 2009 -- There have been advertising posters in the New York City subways for longer than I have been riding them.  And that's a long time.  I remember when the Transit Authority, as it was then called, periodically choose a Miss Subways and then put her picture up in every subway car.  That disappeared sometime in the late 60's.  Recently, I have have been noticing ads for a makes-your-breath-sweet gum featuring various "social networking' terms, e.g., "the original instant message."  One features a couple kissing in a tight clinch with the caption, "the original send-receive."  You get the idea.  That got me thinking about what came before all the current and widely hailed new social networking tools like facebook, MySpace, and Linked-in. And, actually, as long as the web has been around so has social networking.  It's just that social networking 1.0 wasn't called social networking.

January 22, 2008 -- I give Obama high marks for his inaugral speech, but for me, personally, the most electrifying words were his promise to "restore science to its rightful place . . . ."  The bending of science to ideology has had disasterous effects in the last couple of decades.  These effects have included the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and the obfuscation of issues vital to our grandchildren's well-being and our national security. So, it is exciting that this president plans to undo the politicization of science.  This will result not only in the kinds of technologocial advances he cited but in a more honest debate about issues.  I normally don't write about political issues here, but I think this change is so important I cannot resist the opportunity.

January 15, 2009 -- So, do you know what a Netbook is?  It's those smaller than small-laptop-size laptops that permits you to surf the web and use email.  My mother-in-law has one and after we hooked it up to her 24" flat screen TV, she can now read it.  They're pretty easy to use and are usually based on Linux.  In an effort to compete with Linux on netbooks, Micosoft extended its June 30, 2008 end of licensing of XP for manufacturer distribution last year.  After that, you could only get Vista perloaded on your regular laptop or destop computer.  Remember that?  We're still buying computers with XP installed.  Now with Windows 7 (left), it looks like Microsoft may have given up on Vista entirely.

January 8, 2008 -- This a a blog item my wife has been after me to write for some time.  Let me start with what might appear to be, but is not, a digression:  For centuries doctors dispensed medicines, usually of their own creation or from medicines passed down by their teachers.  Early in modern medicine, doctors stopped doing that and started prescribing medicines that were dispensed by pharmacies.  Prescribed medicines were referred to by a now nearly-archaic term – ethical medicines.  The notion of ethical medicines was that doctors had no financial interest in particular medicines and were prescribing what was, in their judgement, best for the patient.

December 31, 2009 – I took last week off while my wife and I were at her mother’s.  In the meantime, I have been thinking about what would make a good end-of-the-year blog when I received the weekly mailing from TED – Technology, Entertainment,Design – containing videos of TED presentations.  If you don’t know about TED, it’s definitely worth a few minutes of your time, but that’s a digression.  The actual point is that a video in this week’s email took me back to my graduate school studies in international trade and development. But, I promise, there will be a technology side to this.

December 18, 2008 (updated) – Mircrosoft released a patch yesterday to fix a flaw in Internet Explorer that would allow outsiders to compromise a user's computer through corrupted websites.  There were multiple reports on Monday and Tuesday of a serious vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 and 8.  The report on the BBC Website is one of the more complete.  Apparently, the flaw was found by raiders before Microsoft or the security firms. Mircosoft has now released a patch to remedy this flaw.  This flaw is exactly the concern that I had in mind in my blog entry “Power You Shouldn’t Want.”

December 11, 2008 -- An interesting article appeared in the New York Times this week about what Google knows about us. Jim Dwyer apparently based a good part of it on Greg Conti's Googling Security: How Much Does Google Know About You,  with some follow up from Google itself.  Specifically, Google says it collects your computer's IP address (like a telephone number for your computer), the operating system, and information about the kinds of searches you carry our and what websites you visit.  After nine months, according to the Google spokeswoman, the IP address is "anonomised" in a way similar to how your credit card number is "anonomized" by replacing account number digits with hash marks.  But, the issue here is actually about what kind of company Google is.   We mostly think of it as an information providing machine, but, in fact, it is actually a huge advertising support service for sellers.

Were you surprised?

December 4, 2008 -- Worst financial crisis since 1929.  Already the longest recession since 1981.  Largest stock plunge since . . .  And the headlines keep going on.  I'm talking to clients about their situations.  In this holiday season, one bakery's sales are up very slightly over a year ago only because they gained some new customers in 2008.  A nonprofit is facing cuts of 25 percent in existing contracts.  The owner, and now friend, at a small Japanese restaurant tells me he is just hanging on. Yes, it is depressing and, yes, it is easy to feel hopeless.

In this world, it is inevitable that IT projects are going to be put on hold and IT is going to have to get along on less.  So, is there anything we can do?

Well, here are four suggestions.