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Writing and links.
Mostly links.

Microsoft: Productivity Future Vision

Microsoft's vision of how the 1% will live in 10 years. So, does that leave the other 99% to Apple and Google?

via Daring Fireball

Hoarders

But at the top, only so much can be spent in consumption: Families worth hundreds of millions, billions, and even tens of billions of dollars satisfy their personal needs and wants with but a fraction of their wealth.

David Frum

Why the Rich Get Richer - FrumForum

Aviary – Powering the World's Creativity

Online photo editing, vector editing, and audio editing. Very impressive.

Aviary

"Upper Management" = "upper wages"

The recent Congressional Budget Office report on incomes from 1979 to 2007 has depressing news for believers in egalitarian free-market capitalism. Since 1979, the after-taxes income of the bottom 80% of Americans as a share of the total national after-taxes income has dropped from 57% to 47%; every one of the first four quintiles has seen a drop in its share of the national income. Yet even the gains in economic strength for the top quintile have been unevenly shared. The 81st-99th-income-percentile range has seen its share of the national income stay the same. Meanwhile, the top 1% of earners have seen their share of the nation's after-taxes income climb from 8% in 1979 to 17% in 2007. These numbers suggest that the profits of the national economy (broadly considered) have increasingly flowed to the top.

David Frum

A final limit for the low wages=low prices model is that the consumer often does not feel the full price benefits of the decline in worker wages. Instead, the "savings" that many companies find through shipping work abroad or otherwise cutting labor costs are translated into bigger compensation packages for elite management and the investor class. While current "globalization" has witnessed the decline in wages for the middle and working classes, it has also seen the the pay of upper management (those who control large amounts of capital) increase. The recent history of American business is saturated with stories of companies that close down their American factories while giving upper management colossal paydays. So many of the presumed benefits of declining wages are accruing to an increasingly narrow band of the population.

David Frum

The Alternative to Rick Perry: Trickle Up - FrumForum

Wait... Adele is white?

Adele – Rolling In The Deep

New Camera?

Lytro Light Field Camera

Lytro Light Field Camera first look with Ren Ng - Digital Photography Review

GoPro launches HD Hero2

GoPro Hero 2 Action Camera

GoPro has launched the HD Hero2, an updated version of its sports video camera. The latest version features an 11MP sensor (up from 5MP) and can now shoot 1080p30 video at a choice of 170deg, 127deg or 90deg angles-of-view (the original Hero could only shoot 1080 at 127deg or lower resolutions at 170deg).

GoPro launches HD Hero2 and WiFi accessory allowing video streaming - Digital Photography Review

Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance

  1. If you work hard, and become successful, it does not necessarily mean you are successful because you worked hard, just as if you are tall with long hair it doesn't mean you would be a midget if you were bald.
  2. "Fortune" is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions.
  3. Money is like a child-rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.
  4. People who say money doesn't matter are like people who say cake doesn't matter-it's probably because they've already had a few slices.
  5. There may not be a reason to share your cake. It is, after all, yours. You probably baked it yourself, in an oven of your own construction with ingredients you harvested yourself. It may be possible to keep your entire cake while explaining to any nearby hungry people just how reasonable you are.
  6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they've been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
  7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don't tell them they aren't. Sit with them and have a drink.
  8. Don't ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else-a stranger in the street, for example.
  9. People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.
  10. It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.
  11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
  12. If you have a large crowd shouting outside your building, there might not be room for a safety net if you're the one tumbling down when it collapses.
  13. 99 percent is a very large percentage. For instance, easily 99 percent of people want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the occasional slice of cake for dessert. Surely an arrangement can be made with that niggling 1 percent who disagree.

by Lemony Snicket - OccupyWriters.com

Via Daring Fireball

Apple Being Apple

So, what have we learned here? That Apple decided not to put 3G in the first model, and they had record sales. Then they decided not to put a physical keyboard on the phone, and they had record sales. Then they decided to not make a removable battery, and they had record sales. Then they decided to keep the screen size the same, and they had record sales. In fact, a good strategy for Apple would be to do the opposite of their competitors, and they will have record sales. That might just be what they're doing over in Cupertino.

The Cycle Wherein Apple Creates A Product And People Copy It And Then "Improve" Upon The Design And Then People Ask Apple To Do The Same "Improvements" And Apple Doesn't And Then People Get Mad At Apple And Apple Keeps Making More Money Than Everyone Else - Atomic Trevor

via Daring Fireball

A Duet With Siri (iPhone 4s Song)

by Jonathan Mann

via Daring Fireball