120 Yen via cell phone for a coke? Now available in Japan.

Ellen Messmer on the substantial health care costs/risks of keeping Microsoft Windows systems patched

According to Network World: ‘Amid growing worries that Windows-based medical systems will endanger patients if Microsoft-issued security patches are not applied, hospitals are rebelling against restrictions from device manufacturers that have delayed or prevented such updates. Device makers such as GE Medical Systems, Philips Medical Systems and Agfa say it typically takes months to test Microsoft patches because they could break the medical systems to which they’re applied. In some instances, vendors won’t authorize patch updates at all.’ This is the typical patch vs. crash problem. Unfortunately, the stakes here could be human lives.

David Isenberg nicely summarizes our losing approach to “broadband adoption (DSL/Cable Internet access. Keep in mind that residents of Japan and South Korea can purchase internet access with speeds 10 to 30X ours at comparable rates). This is the real economic development issue for Wisconsin.

Brian Murphy writes:

BARRING A MAJOR METEOR STRIKE, by the time you read this, Australian Shaun Murphy will have completed his eight-month, 16,000-mile circumnavigation of the United States, completely gasoline-free. Murphy is trying to show the world that gasoline, that stuff we?ve loved, wasted and purchased so cheaply for 100 years, is not necessary. To do so, Murphy is crossing the country in a variety of vehicles powered by everything from soybean oil to electricity generated by the methane of cow dung.
Murphy?s rides have so far included just about the whole catalog of wheeled unconventionalism. Electricity?generated through what Murphy calls clean sources like hydro, solar and wind?powers the three-wheeled Corbin Sparrow, the TZero sports car, a converted Volkswagen Beetle, a converted Pontiac Fiero, a few battery-powered motorcycles and one solar-electric canoe (that?s right, a canoe). Biodiesel powers a VW Golf, a near-10-second quarter-mile dragster, two Hummers and the TV crew?s Ford F-650-based motor home. Ethanol produced from corn powers an airplane in which he flew. The ?Human-Powered Car,? meanwhile, has four seats with everyone cranking to make it go. That one didn?t cover much of the 16,000 miles.

A recent Economist article on Wisconsin mentions one of the many challenges facing our state:

Without a smart urban centre of its own to attract young professionals, Wisconsin has seen an exodus of college graduates in the past two decades. It ranks 43rd among the 50 states in the share of college graduates in its workforce, says Terry Ludeman, a jobs expert.

Unfortunately, our entrenched politicians evidently cannot see the opportunities at hand. South Korea, recognizing the need for change after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, fully embraced the need for change and pushed true broadband (not the slow stuff we have) adoption to the extreme as John Borland and Michael Kanellos explain.

Ellen Florian wrote an interesting article on the history of ATM’s: The Money Machines:

The line was long and slow, and he became increasingly irritated as his lunch hour dribbled away. All at once, he had a flash of inspiration. ‘Golly, all the teller does is cash checks, take deposits, answer questions like “What’s my balance?” and transfer money between accounts,’ recalls Wetzel, now 75 and still living in Dallas with his wife. ‘Wow, I think we could build a machine that could do that!’ And with a $4 million go-ahead from Docutel’s parent company, that’s exactly what he and his engineers did. Read more about the story of the ATM.”

Via Slashdot.

Bob Tedeschi writes:

Is Amazon.com becoming the Napster of the book business?
The analogy may not be far off, say some observers of the used-book industry. Publishers, particularly textbook publishers, have long countered used-book sales by churning out new editions every couple of years. But the Web, particularly sites like Amazon and eBay, have given millions of consumers an easy way to find cheap books – often for under $1 – without paying royalty fees to publishers or authors.
Mass-market publishers are not certain the used-book phenomenon is a problem worth addressing, but others in the industry have already made up their minds.

Technorati CEO Dave Sifry takes a look at the explosive growth of weblogs. Sifry also mentions yet more good news:

A Forrester Research report asked Internet users which activities they were spending less time doing in order to spend time at their computers. 78% of the people polled said that they gave up television viewing. A study from The Georgia Institute of Technology’s Graphic, Visualization and Usability Center showed a clear shift in media habits with more than one third of respondents saying that they “use the Web instead of watching TV on a daily basis.”