Jim Taylor's Most Recent Posts

The recent appearance of a racist image of the First Lady Michelle Obama during a search on Google’s search engine raises an interesting question: Should search engines have a conscience?

A fascinating new book, The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves, by the economist W. Brian Arthur, was just published that challenges much of the conventional wisdom that we hold about the relationship between science and technology. Most notably, the notion that science is the horse to technology’s cart; in other words, scientific advancement results in technological innovation.

Does anyone feel the least bit unsettled by the emergence of cloud computing as the Next Big Thing in computer innovation? Yes, it looks like a great idea on paper (or monitor): less computer hardware, common applications on line, cost savings, easy networking, a pooling of computer resources. Sounds like win-win, doesn’t it? But my discomfort, not surprising given the focus of my writings, is far deeper and more visceral than concerns about, say, identity theft or invasions of privacy. My unease lies in what cloud computing may mean to us as psychological and emotional beings.

Having established in my last post that what most people call multitasking is not the most productive and efficient way to work, the next question I want to address is how to effectively engage in single tasking. The answer is definitely not rocket science; it simply requires prioritizing, delegation, focus, and most importantly, commitment and discipline. But, as with most things in life, single tasking is easier said than done.

Like many wired people, you probably take great pride in being a multitasker. You talk on your mobile phone, send e-mail, check the stock market online, and perhaps even read a letter and jot down notes for an upcoming meeting all at the same time (or so you think). Why do you multitask? Well, how else can you accomplish everything you need to get done (and still have time for a life!)?
There’s one problem with this scenario: there is no such thing as multitasking -- at least not the way you may think of it. The fact is that multitasking, as most people understand it, is a myth that has been promulgated by the “technological-industrial complex” to make overly scheduled and stressed-out people feel productive and efficient.

The smartphone has become a ubiquitous status symbol of and tool for businesspeople doing business. In offices, on the streets, and in airports, what self-respecting businessperson doesn’t have their smartphone, whether a Blackberry, Windows Mobile device, Palm, or iPhone, at the ready. Unfortunately, the smartphone also represents a corporate culture gone mad, in which it seems as if everyone feels they are so needed that they simply can’t be out of touch with work lest the company collapses without their constant input and output.

I recently read a post about the many types of graphical user interfaces (GUI) that are currently available on mobile phones (around 20 different GUIs for Windows Mobile OS alone). Given that our relationship with mobile technology begins at the point at which we and the device meet face to face, this article has led me to consider what it is about the interface that attracts different people to different GUIs.

Disclaimer: I am an AT&T customer with a data plan. I'll do my best not to let this "conflict of interest" interfere with my opinions expressed below.

You have to hand it to AT&T; they've got chutzpah! That, by the way, is not a formal psychiatric term. I could have said that AT&T is delusional, grandiose, or narcissistic, but everyone understands chutzpah.

You certainly deserve all the credit and attention you’ve received in recent years. Apple’s rise, fall, and then reemergence is the stuff of corporate legend and has enabled Apple to attain a truly iconic place in the world. You personally have achieved a level of public adoration unprecedented among the geek classes. Yet it’s what’s at the core of Apple that troubles me. Beneath the shiny peel, the sweetness of brilliant leadership and fresh popular-culture hipness is a core that looks pretty rotten.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, you’ve heard that Twitter was the victim of a cyberattack causing the popular social media to shut down for two hours last week. Well, if you live in the Land of Twitter you would have thought that it was 9/11 all over again. CNN.com quoted one Twitter user as saying, “I was pretty upset, actually. It feels like a lifeline for me." " It's like my heart was gone" and "I felt so empty inside," came from several other Tweeters. “Naked” and “jittery” were also used to describe how Tweeters felt during the blackout.

Dear Bill, I know you've been retired from Microsoft's day-to-day operations for about a year now and Steve B. is running the show, but you are still Chairman of the Board and the public identity of Microsoft. That's why I'm writing you, Bill, because Microsoft is still your company and it needs you. Think modified Pottery Barn rule: you own it, you broke it, you fix it.