Kristian Knutsen notes that Madison’s embryonic wifi service is planning to include a “walled garden” of free sites. I’d rather they not do this. The service should either be on or off, frankly. Rone Sege argues that we should not tax municipal wifi.
Monthly Archives: February 2006
Surviving Globalism – Caterpillar
Caterpillar confronted the same labor costs and Asian competition that the auto companies did. But Cat is doing just fine. Why?
A Midwest manufacturing company, fat and lazy, heavily unionized, suddenly faces foreign competition. You know the ending: massive layoffs, closed factories, consolidation, rumblings of bankruptcy. That’s the familiar story of General Motors, Ford and lots of other big manufacturers over the last 20 or 30 years.
Great article, particularly in contrast to GM’s challenges.
Congressman Quizzes Net Companies on Shame
Rep. Tom Lantos: Can you say in English that you’re ashamed of what your company and what the other companies have done?
Google: Congressman, I actually can’t, I don’t think it’s fair for us to say that we’re ashamed.
Lantos: You have nothing to be ashamed of?
Google: I am not ashamed of it, and I am not proud of it…We have taken a path, we have begun on a path, we have done a path that…will ultimately benefit all the users in China. If we determined, congressman, as a result of changing circumstances or as a result of the implementation of the Google.cn program that we are not achieving those results then we will assess our performance, our ability to achieve those goals, and whether to remain in the market.
GM Deathwatch: 07 Tahoe Sales
This is a tale of two Tahoes. The first is a wildly successful SUV that’s flying off the lots at full price: a Hail Mary pass that will put General Motors back in the end zone, saving them from the unthinkable humiliation of bankruptcy, with only moments to spare. The second is a gas-guzzling truck that’s being swept out to sea by the vast receding tide of SUV buyers: a four-wheeled indictment of GM’s inability to build what America wants to drive at a price that makes the company enough money to stay in business. For the time being, which vehicle you see depends entirely on which one you want to see.
The Chevy Tahoe is built in Janesville.
Blodget on Amazon’s Music Strategy
The WSJ reported Amazon’s plans to offer an Amazon-branded iPod competitor and digital music download store. I haven’t done much work in this area yet, so please weigh in, but this strikes me as a startlingly bad move.
First, Amazon’s entry into this business is shockingly and annoyingly late. As with the Netflix DVD business, Amazon could have owned this category, but in the name of moving deliberately (or of trying to become all things to all people), it allowed other competitors to build a dominant market position. No matter what the company says, winning significant market share in digital music is going to be much harder now than it would have been three years ago.
Will: No Checks, Many Imbalances
But, then, perhaps no future president will ask for such congressional involvement in the gravest decision government makes — going to war. Why would future presidents ask, if the present administration successfully asserts its current doctrine? It is that whenever the nation is at war, the other two branches of government have a radically diminished pertinence to governance, and the president determines what that pertinence shall be. This monarchical doctrine emerges from the administration’s stance that warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency targeting American citizens on American soil is a legal exercise of the president’s inherent powers as commander in chief, even though it violates the clear language of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was written to regulate wartime surveillance.
RIAA: Ripping Your CD’s is Not Fair Use (!)
EFF:
It is no secret that the entertainment oligopolists are not happy about space-shifting and format-shifting. But surely ripping your own CDs to your own iPod passes muster, right? In fact, didn’t they admit as much in front of the Supreme Court during the MGM v. Grokster argument last year?
Apparently not.
As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs:
Some of our politicians have been serving Hollywood’s interests (to the detriment of ours) rather well, including Jim Sensenbrenner and John Conyers, among others.
Ford Selling the Fusion via Mockumentary
To promote its new Fusion sedan, Ford is airing a “mockumentary” online film series about a band of Norwegian performance artists who would give the Maytag repairman fits. The rock group Hurra Torpedo cranks out cacophonous tunes by smashing clothes dryers, kitchen ranges and what looks like an outboard motor.
By linking with the group, Ford hopes to attract consumers between the ages of 25 and 35 to the Fusion. Ford is sponsoring the three-man band’s U.S. tour. The promotion includes an online sweepstakes that will give away the red Fusion SEL the band is driving on the road.
Is Energy’s Future Sustainable?
In his Harvard Lecture, Simmons explores the ramifications of peak energy (not just oil). The potential for world conflict is there, but it doesn’t have to be inevitable. (5 MB PDF – republished with permission)
A Chat with Mattel’s Bob Eckhert
The toy industry’s big trade show gets down to business in New York this weekend. Meanwhile, in our new series “Conversations from the Corner Office,” Kai talks with Mattel’s CEO Bob Eckert about the perks and responsibilities of running the world’s biggest toymaker.
Eckert is a former Oscar Meyer CEO.