Taking the Measure

For Boston residents, this month is shaping up to be the gloomiest since 1903, according to measurements taken by the pyroheliometer at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, according to the Boston Globe.

The Wall Street Journal today has a feature on Tim Cook, who has run Apple while Steve Jobs has been on medical leave. The Journal says that Cook “…has emerged as a star in his own right—and one that the company needs to make sure stays put.” The article quotes Gene Munster, an analyst for Piper Jaffray, as saying, "At this point, losing Tim Cook would be a bigger deal to investors than if Steve Jobs stepped aside. Just that thought makes my stomach tighten up." I’m not sure whether Brian Dipert would agree. Suzanne Deffree has more measured commentary.

Cybersecurity consultant Heather Wilson, who served for six years on the US House intelligence committee, comments in today’s Washington Post: “Attacks on computer systems will be an integral element of future conflict, and the United States is more dependent on computer networks than any other nation.” She advises that “…we must abandon the notion that static defenses will help us against sophisticated threats. One bipartisan Senate bill proposes to establish a government committee to set standards for all computer systems and software. This is the electronic equivalent of building a Maginot Line of concrete fortifications against a mobile enemy.”

“Can Governments Till the Fields of Innovation?” That’s a question posed in the New York Times article. Innovation “…has typically been seen, studied, and celebrated at the micro level, as a pursuit for entrepreneurs and clever companies,” the Times notes, adding, “But governments are increasingly wading into the innovation game, declaring innovation agendas, and appointing senior innovation officials. The impetus comes from two fronts: daunting challenges in fields like energy, the environment, and health care that require collaboration between the public and private sectors; and shortcomings of traditional economic development and industrial policies.” The article reports on a recent multinational gathering in San Francisco organized and moderated by John Kao, a former professor at Harvard Business School and founder of the Institute Large Scale Innovation (ILSI).

In the Huffington Post, Tom Vander Ark, a partner in Vander Ark/Ratcliff, an education public affairs firm, and a partner in a private equity fund focused on innovative learning tools and formats, comments on the Times article, writing, “The ILSI believes that ‘new innovation strategies, supported by tools, skills and best practices are required as we move into a new kind of global innovation economy that is being born at a time of unprecedented disruption and turmoil. It is also a time when new models of how innovation can serve the global interest are needed.’”

He continues, “I'd like you to contrast this line of thinking about large scale innovation with a 60 person task force calling for a ‘Broader Bolder Approach to Education.’ They've been working for a couple years to develop a common vision and provide guidance to the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act…. Broader yes, bolder no--their site focuses more on what happens outside of school than inside. It's a soft agenda, careful not to offend. It's weak on accountability, silent on choice, void of innovation, and long on wrap around services.” Vander Ark advocates for an American education innovation agenda that includes national standards, a DARPA for learning tools, reduced barriers for innovative models, a variety of employment options that value performance, and need-based funding to help students attend the school of their choice.

Least significant digits have the most significance in determining whether an election is rigged, say Bernd Beber and Alexandra Scacco, Ph.D. candidates in political science at Columbia University, in the Washington Post. That’s because “…humans are bad at making up numbers. Cognitive psychologists have found that study participants in lab experiments asked to write sequences of random digits will tend to select some digits more frequently than others.” That makes the vote in Iran look suspicious: “We find too many 7s and not enough 5s in the last digit. We expect each digit (0, 1, 2, and so on) to appear at the end of 10 percent of the vote counts. But in Iran's provincial results, the digit 7 appears 17 percent of the time, and only 4 percent of the results end in the number 5. Two such departures from the average -- a spike of 17 percent or more in one digit and a drop to 4 percent or less in another -- are extremely unlikely. Fewer than four in a hundred non-fraudulent elections would produce such numbers.”

According to an article I came across last week in the Journal, the Moore’s Law of brands seems to be over at Intel. The article says the company will simplify its brand and logos, phasing out Centrino “to concentrate on promoting the microprocessors that are the company's hallmark.” The article quotes Deborah Conrad, an Intel VP and director of corporate marketing, as saying, "Things have gotten more and more confusing. A consumer doesn't need to see that minutiae."

For more on the real Moore’s Law, see Suzanne Deffree’s article, “Is Moore’s Law near its end?”