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Thomas Lord

Thu May 15 18:57:50 -0700 2008

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Hey, editors and owner.

We keep touching on themes of economics. For example, this one invites yet another rehearsal in comments of the distinction between "financing game" investments vs. "real productivity" investments.

Technocrat is not traditionally political. Articles call for a science / tech / engineering angle, almost always from (more or less) current events.

Is there room to break out a bit?

In particular, I was thinking about trying to work up a piece about economic theory per Jane Jacobs. Nothing especially current about that (may she R.I.P.). But touches themes that recur here. There was a discussion (not involving me) of regionalism in the comments recently -- that's what makes me inclined.

Eh?

-t

metaphysical

zogger

Thu May 15 20:10:20 -0700 2008

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I see the tech angle. The current yahoo board want to run a well known and established internet-tech company like they have been. Icahn wants to sell it off, make a quick buck, then let running the company go to someone else after all the juicy bits are gone, no work required, no innovation, no more new tech, nothing, nada, zilch, nothing of any use to yahoo users or even the other owners of any lasting value. This is tech versus anti tech (although to be fair, the current board isn't adverse if their price is met, but they are still more inclined to being tech guys after all and would most likely insist on retaining some oversight). Icahn and the other..gents on his side.. seem to think they are the world experts and masterminds in every sort of business, all they do is say they can run a company better, they scrounge up some leveraged and borrowed cash or junk financing of the dubious kind, acquire control, then what they do is sell off the company assets mostly, and what is left is a shell of the former company that is damaged beyond belief. A to Z, it doesn't matter the company or product, "they know better". Would we as tech lovers and users be better off with yahoo intact and keep what little big time diversity there is on the net, or do we want to see only MSahoo and google and that is it? I guess that was the question I wanted to bring up in a round-about way.

thus emboldened

Thomas Lord

Thu May 15 20:27:28 -0700 2008

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I'll try (might give up but I'll try) for my own version of talking about "import replacement" and it's technocratic / regional / monetary-policy implications.

Yahoo's a bit dead in the water one way or t'other, if you ask me. But, if opinion sought... I would guess current management is the best bet, by far, having gotten some glimpses of how they approach research. (Not that there's a good bet that's obvious. It's all relative. And it's not like other firms are much different in this space.)

-t

thus emboldened

Richard Gay

Sun May 18 05:56:48 -0700 2008

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I had a similar thought -- Yahoo doesn't seem to be innovating too much these days beyond a new face, whereas Google is doing better. If we need Yahoo, it's mainly as competition for Google and whoever else, to help drive innovation and keep ad costs (and thereby product costs) down some.

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Roy Schestowitz

Thu May 15 23:23:06 -0700 2008

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What he said.

I started reading the site thinking it would stick with tech.

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Thomas Lord

Thu May 15 23:35:24 -0700 2008

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I'm not sure how your comment relates to zogger's and my exchange but... to perhaps reassure you about the article I'm thinking of working up: Like almost all Technocrat content it has a political angle; Unlike most Technocrat content it won't refer to "news" as the excuse for posting it (but, rather, talk about stuff Jane Jacobs wrote years ago); Like most Technocrat content it will have a strong science and engineering angle to it -- stuff you might even find application of in day-to-day life as an engineer or similar. The main "break from form" I'm contemplating here is relaxing on the need to find "current news" that triggers the main topic of the post. (None of this is to presume either that I'll actually finish the piece I'm imagining or that the editors will pass it through.)

-t

(still meta) in the alternative

Thomas Lord

Thu May 15 23:41:12 -0700 2008

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Just in case you want to kibbitz:

If that (above) sounds like a horrible idea -- or if you like that idea but also want to consider this....

What about some CS stuff? That is, trying to make a tight little article that is approachable by working or amateur (but not expert/sophisticated CS type) programmers -- some articles that cover (e.g.) obscure but useful and fun topics in regexp pattern matching or garbage collection or transaction processing, etc.? Yes, I know that there are "reference sites" where you can find the synopsis but the goal here would be to make an entertaining, approachable presentation and then, hopefully, some interesting discussion from the field.

-t

(still meta) in the alternative

Roy Schestowitz

Fri May 16 00:28:05 -0700 2008

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Good point.

I personally find howtos extremely boring (*ahem*, falko used to post here) because they are required based on timely personal need. They are not news. That said, plenty of technology news is out there and much of it relates to politics and corruption (of which I see plenty :-) ).

(still meta) in the alternative

JoshH

Fri May 16 02:27:10 -0700 2008

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I carry no weight but the voice of a single reader. With that in mind, I would support and read an article on almost any topic so long as it were an "entertaining, approachable presentation" written specifically for the audience this site attracts. There is a tone of writing here, a different focus, a way of approaching and discussing topics in a matter that, even when slashdot carries the same story a few days later, the product and end result are completely different. Also when we go off on tangents not related directly to tech, the results usually seem to be a pleasant and enlightening experience. Just always keep in mind the target audience, I'm sure you would have written an explanation, but before I googled her, I had never heard of Jane Jacobs or anything about her work.

More articles with a more diverse subject matter can only bring out more interesting viewpoints and discussions, Just now I recall all the interesting and lively survivalist discussions that have been carried out here completely unrelated to tech, a good gauge would be that if nobody talks and a story sits at zero comments, it could be inferred that the subject matter just isn't that interesting to this demographic.

Signing off, I repeat I carry no weight but the voice of a single reader.

(still meta) in the alternative

President4242

Fri May 16 09:13:31 -0700 2008

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I would also appreciate (and publish) such articles if I see them in the queue, as long as they are NOT more ways to customize linux to specific server & client tasks (I'm thinking about the ULTIMATE DESKTOP and ULTIMATE SERVER OF THE WEEK articles we were seeing for a while- they were very unpopular). 

I'd also point out that economic theory and software theory aren't that different- they're both about pattern matching in complex chaotic databases and resource allocation, which 90% of modern programming (outside of the gaming industry and other heavy User Interface Oriented Projects) is about.

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President4242

Fri May 16 09:09:51 -0700 2008

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As one of the volunteer editors- I think that economics is the third leg of what technocrat should be about.  Technocrat may not be traditionally political- but we are about the link between government and technology.  In capitalist nations (our major readership SEEMS to be UK, US, Canada, and Australia based, probably because we publish in English) the link between those two is economic theory.

Thus, yes, if I saw such an article in the queue, I'd publish it.

I would like it to have a technological bent as well- you might want to point out how her economic theories are enhanced/degraded in the hypercommunication of today's technology, or how robotic labor might affect those theories- but even without it, yes, basic economic theory allows us to understand how standard governance (whether corporate or political) works, and thus how our inventions fit into the real world.

For instance, drawn from my own economical bent:

I may be a regionalist/localist for material goods, for instance (very much a distributionist in that way), but I'm also a classic decentralized hacker- and thus I'm a globalist when it comes to information for free, and the internet to me is a far better way to spread inventions around the planet to local manufacturers than anything else yet invented.  So while I'm for protectionism and localization, I'm ALSO for freedom of communication (and thus, yes, freedom of association in non-economic matters).

just an opinion, an observation

angeles13

Fri May 16 13:17:11 -0700 2008

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As a highly interested, yet non-programmer, reader with a strong marketing/graphics background, I enjoy the articles and tone the site takes.

The opinions, for the most part, are well thought out. Information that would be difficult to sift through is found here.

From my marketing/design background I see that technology in today's current form is heavily tied to politics and the economy. So many fields that had been isolated or separated from others in the years past are now connected through one thread or multiple threaded connections.

Honestly, I feel that the older politcal machinations are not very happy with what is becoming the 'new world order'; where information and news can cross the globe with in fractions of a second. It is through sites like this that opinions can be discussed, knowledge gained and decisions made.

sharyn