“At the end of March 2006, 42% of Americans had high-speed at home, up from 30% in March 2005, or a 40% increase. And 48 million Americans — mostly those with high-speed at home — have posted content to the internet.” Pew Internet: Home Broadband Adoption 2006
“He wanted another chance to play for the Raptors. And if his contract wasn’t so big, that might have been an option. As it was, the only choice for the Raptors — financially and competitively — was to buy him out and move on. Yesterday Williams lamented how the game’s economic reality sometimes ‘exes out’ what he called ‘the morals of life.’ For many players, we’d suggest $40-plus million (U.S.) in career earnings will soothe his hurt. For Williams, we’re not so sure.” Toronto Star’s Dave Feschuk, on Toronto point guard Alvin Williams
“Sabian Ltd., one of the top two cymbal manufacturers in the world, laids its roots in Canada a quarter century ago after a bitter dispute over ownership divided the business… The company, which employs 150, produces 1.2 million cymbals every year. Sabian makes more than 1,500 different types with rides, crashes and hi-hats being the most popular. Most are made by machine… Cymbals cost between $64 and $770 for individual pieces, with custom-made cymbals commanding a premium.” Sharda Prashad, Toronto Star
“In a world where strategy is a commodity, creativity becomes the vital factor from which value flows. When everyone can think strategically about everything, the locus of value creation shifts from out-thinking everyone to out-creating them… Now, we see the hints of the revolution everywhere—from the death of mass culture/blockbusters, to the rise of free culture, to the exploding investment in innovation and design, to the flight of capital away from the US. I think it is going to create enormous challenges for firms—challenges which can’t be answered by thinking strategically; but can only be faced by thinking creatively.” Bubblegeneration
“…We had been contacted by Jim Clark, the founder of SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.), who called us up one day and said that he had just bought a company called MIPS Inc. which had been working on some things with some great R&D people, and it just so happened that they came up with a chip that they thought would be great for a video game console… We were quite impressed, and we called up Japan and told them to send over the hardware team because these guys really had something cool… When they reviewed what SGI had developed… they basically said that it… had lots of little technical things that they didn’t like… So, the SGI guys went away and worked on these issues and then called us back up and asked that the same team be sent back over, because they had it all resolved… There was sort of the same reaction: still not good enough… Well, Jim Clark called me up and asked what was he supposed to do now? They had spent all that time and effort on what they thought was the perfect video game chipset, so what were they supposed to do with it? I told them that there were other companies that they should be calling, because we clearly weren’t the ones for them. Needless to say, he did, and that chipset became part of the next generation of Nintendo products (N64).” Sega of America president Tom Kalinske, on the inner rivalry that existed between the American and Japanese branches of Sega
“GM boss Rick Wagoner’s statement about GM’s problems is ridiculous. He claims that labor, pensions, and health care are bigger issues than product. How can a car company deal with those issues if they don’t sell cars people want? How hard is this? Cadillac is doing great. Chevy needs to make rear-drive Impalas, Monte Carlos, and a new Camaro and drop the Cobalt an inch closer to the ground. Pontiac needs a GTO that looks like one, alongside the Solstice, and to never market a new model on “Oprah” again. Buick and Saturn need to disappear, and Saab and Hummer need to go somewhere else. If everyone reading this magazine already knows this, why doesn’t GM?” Motor Trend reader Joe Bernard, in a letter to the editors
“Carpet samples contribute an estimated 1 million pounds of waste to America’s landfills every year. They are also expensive to produce—$250-500 each, a cost mills are forced to swallow as a loss leader.” BusinessWeek
“This is where MySpace Careers comes to the rescue. For a minimal fee you can get as many teenagers as you need to sit at your office, on your computers and abuse your bandwidth with a constant stream of IMs, chats, profile comments and YouTube videos. Imagine the look on that VC when he sees all that industrious busy making!” Supr.c.ilio.us, on MySpace’s new job search website
“The tasks of housekeeping and child rearing [are] not worthy of the full time and talents of intelligent and educated human beings. They do not require a great intellect, they are not honored and they do not involve risks and the rewards that risk brings.” Linda Hirshman, self-described feminist philosopher
“Assigning more programmers to a project running behind schedule will make it even later, due to the time required for the new programmers to learn about the project, and the increased communications overhead.” The Mythical Man-Month, Wikipedia