|
Yesterday Fred Wilson (A VC) shared his views on how an economic downturn might impact the Web. (It was also a guest post on Silicon Alley Insider.)
As background, Wilson mentioned:
I am also concerned by large and sustained budget deficits.
My prescription: a strong dose of Steve Conover's The Skeptical Optimist. US Debt-to-GDP ratio is not large compared to other major economies such as Germany and Japan, nor when taking a long view of history. The only "sustained" trend is downward, projected to be in balance by August 2009 (with the usual caveats).
Even more important: Why Debt Doomsday is a Myth (economic growth and debt rollover), and how to correctly use mortgages as an analogy to understand government debt (look across generations).
Wilson's post lists other concerns, and in any case there will be some sort of economic downturn at some point. So it's still worth a (cautious) read.
|
Amazon's Kindle e-book reader is all over the (tech) news today, starting with a Newsweek cover story (dated Nov 26; gotta love print).
When certain topics come up in the news, I think "I wonder what so-and-so thinks about that?" These are blogs that I don't follow regularly (so many interests, so little time) but that I seek out when appropriate. For the ebook market, the "must read" is David Rothman's Teleread blog.
A recent sample:
- Amazon’s Kindle press release: No mention of Mobipocket by name
- 5,000-surfer poll: Lower e-book prices, not gizmos like the Amazon Kindle, will be the big spur for book sales
- Huh? The Kindle e-reader ISN’T ugly?
- PDF capabilities in Kindle: Newsweek puff job reveals more details
- Amazon-sized ego? Kindle to shun .epub? And, yes, the ugly box is the FINAL design
He's also a big advocate for the open ".epub" ebook standard by the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum). It's an XML format that is "reflowable", i.e. the column width and words per page adjust based on screen size and text size rather than being locked in like PDF.
If you have any "must read" blogs for certain topics, please let us know!
 |
 |
Posts
