..the other challenge to China’s business model is the second step, namely the transforming of farmers into factory workers. Not that China is set to run out of farmers (see The Countdown for China’s Farmers). But the coming years may prove more challenging for unskilled workers as robotics and automation continue to gather pace. Over the coming decade, cheap labor may not be the comparative advantage it was in the previous decade, simply because the cost of automation is now falling fast (see The Robots Are Coming).
Of course, factory and process automation is hardly a new concept. What is new is the dramatic recent shift from fixed automation to flexible automation.For decades we have had machines that could perform simple repetitive tasks; now we have machines that can be reprogrammed easily to perform a wide range of more complicated functions. With improved software and hardware, robots can do more, in more industries; and the purpose of automation has shifted from improving crude productivity (making more of the same things at lower cost) to more sophisticated targets like adaptability across product cycles, and improved quality and consistency.
One consequence of cheaper and more flexible automation is that some manufacturing that fled the developed world for cheap-labor destinations like China may return to the US, Japan and Europe, as firms decide that the benefits of low-cost labor no longer outweigh the advantage of better logistics and proximity to customers.
- Weeks When Decades Happen, Louis Gave (GaveKal)
(Source: johnmauldin.com)
Security expert Bruce Schneier squares off with former TSA head Kip Hawley over the changes to airport security since 9/11 and whether these new invasive inspections do more harm than good. Schneier, you may remember, has famously dubbed the TSA’s efforts “security theatre”.
My personal feeling is that no amount of physical security will offer complete prevention against terrorism. We should reasonably expect and endure some level of heightened security, but we should also accept some level of risk when we fly. We will never be free from the threat of terrorism, and we must realize that no one, government agency or otherwise, can offer 100% protection.
Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang Resigns. Here’s a Look At His Beginnings.
The brainchild of two Stanford University electrical-engineering PhD. students — David Filo and Jerry Yang — Yahoo began about a year ago as their personal list of favorite Web sites. “For me the Internet was really unfriendly. It was laborious,” says Yang, who dislikes the text-based interface that governs most of the Internet. The Web ushered in graphics and intuitive, point-and-click navigation that opened the Internet’s doors to many who had fearfully stayed away.
Newsweek March 20, 1995
In what many consider a fair ruling, the Supreme Court has declared “that the government’s installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search’.” More importantly these ‘searches’ require a court issued warrant.
News:
Net Applications claims that IE currently holds 51.9% of the browser market share and is on track to drop below 50% by March 2012 canablized, in part by Chrome which enjoys a 19.1% share and continues to rise. At the same time StatCounter claims that Chrome is also edging out Firefox.
Lastly it should come as no surprise that IE6 usage has dropped below one percent in US. Microsoft has made a concerted effort to deprecate the ancient browser and to push users toward IE 8 & 9.
Significance:
Microsoft Internet Explorer has long been the de facto standard browser platform of the web. However as any seasoned web developer will tell you the act of simultaneously supporting multiple incarnations of MSIE is fraught with difficulties. While the ebb of Internet Explorer hegemony may not alleviate these challenges it does open the door to other standards based and cross compatible browsers.
About Software, Security & Tech
A software developer who specializes in building scalable, cutting edge SaaS applications and services.
See more:
BrianWAustin.Com
LinkedIn
Twitter
