Great op-ed from Thomas Friedman today in the NYTimes.

Loved this part:
For all these reasons, our present crisis is not just a financial
meltdown crying out for a cash injection. We are in much deeper
trouble. In fact, we as a country have become General Motors — as a
result of our national drift. Look in the mirror: G.M. is us.That’s
why we don’t just need a bailout. We need a reboot. We need a build
out. We need a buildup. We need a national makeover. That is why the
next few months are among the most important in U.S. history.

Reade the full article here.

Foreign Policy magazine has an excellent online map showing the results on global polls on the US elections.  One of the best examples of a nicely executed editorial package.

With all the wild ups and downs of the market, I somehow miss the old time experience of walking by a kiosk and checking the frontpages of the papers to assess the mood of the world.

And then I came across this virtual kiosk, where you can see the front pages of newspapers in Spain and around the world… a digital media solution for an old media experience.

Globe via Flickr

The global credit meltdown continues cascading across the world, jumping from country to country and leaving no market intact.

The credit crunch and public fear is widespread and this is no longer a US-centric issue. Financial instruments packaged risk beyond understanding of the underlying assets, and these instruments were distributed across the world.

In many ways, I see parallels on how the financial markets became interconnected with the growth of the Internet, where the US is no longer the centrepoint.

As a NY Times article recently said:

While the United States carried 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic a decade ago, he estimates that portion has fallen to about 25 percent

We are all in this together.

Shocking day in the markets, worse yet to come…
In days like these, a site like leavewallstreetjoinastartup.com try to make the most it.

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

[NYC Pic via Flikr]

The city of NY is upgrading its 311 (municipal info) and 911 (emergency services) to allow new yorkers to submit pictures. In the words of Major Bloomberg:

New Yorkers can also now upload photos and videos to help us improve
the delivery of non-emergency services such as filling potholes,
cleaning up graffiti in City parks or fixing street signs.
“Why is this better than simply calling 311? Because in some cases,
having a good picture of the problem can reduce the time it takes us to
fix it

I love the idea, a clear application of web and mobile technologies to a day to day problem.
Some might think this has Big Brother connotations but I truly believe it a useful way to share information in a meaningful way that helps the city. Maybe we should call this crowdpolicing…

Receive, Hunt, Do

The history of the Web is a transition between these phases:

What a great way to summarize the Web in this Businessweek article

Why do remote controls still ask you for the number of a TV channel?

It would seem that remote controls as interfaces are falling behind in usability with the deluge of 1000s of cable channels, VOD and DVR options….

I want:
- a small wireless keyboard or touchscreen
- and/or speech recognition
- semantic search by actors, genre, recently viewed

What I really don’t want is to have to remember whether the channel I am looking for is 653 or 249 on my cable box!… imagine looking for websites using the IP address instead of the URL and you will get the insanity of the current approach.

Hopefully Tivo is thinking about this…

Can’t believe this functionality is not more promoted, but if you use gmail you will appreciate this…

When reading an email, if you want to archive and then read the next email message (instead of having to go back to the inbox and then open the next) you just have to hit [

After a full work day in front of the computer, the last thing I want
to do when I get home is use the laptop. Bet you often feel the same.

In our intense digital world we need to be able to disconnect, at
least a little bit, at least sometimes and computers can be
used for fun and entertainment… but you associate them with
work.

So this is what I wish I had on my lap when sitting on the sofa
surfing the web or using instant messaging …. I wish not my hot laptop burning my legs, I wish not by blackberry with the small screen… I wish that the
promise of the tablet pcs had become true and I could use a big screen
with the same ease with which I use a notepad or read a magazine.

If it does not look like my work computer then it will not feel like work.

So dear Steve Jobs, this is what I want for Xmas: I want a notepad
sized iphone. Please disregard the other pundits asking for iphone
nanos, you can get to them later in the product roadmap. What I need is a cool
solution to my urgent desire.

Don’t need the phone bit, just give me a beautiful touchscreen with
good wifi connectivity and great multimedia capabilities. And while
you are at it, please add an integrated webcam for skype.

I can’t trust getting the user interface to anyone else so I am sure
you will do a great job…. and that using a computer at home will
become something more fun and casual.

As Jeff Bezos did when he was designing the kindle… I am looking for that magic invisible device.

[image via Flickr]