Is the end nigh for the cheap universal internet?
THE MOST SUCCESSFUL TECHNOLOGY adopted in the last 50 years has undoubtedly been the internet. The mid 60s co-operative project between...
To sloganise: a substitute for reasoned discussion (dict)
IF YOU AGREE a slogan for a company or an enterprise, you are inevitably setting yourself up to be measured against it. So when Google...
Clash over ownership makes for start-up stalemate
ONE OF THE ENDURING mysteries about the Scottish economy is the chronic mismatch between the level of innovation in our universities,...
Wannabe entrepreneurs are being suckered by ‘reality’ TV
THERE HAS BEEN a recent glut in television programmes dedicated to entrepreneurial activities. Donald Trump’s Apprentice in the USA...
If Google is the Mother of Invention, then what can’t it do?
SILICON VALLEY, just south of San Francisco, is the most inventive strip of land on the planet. Companies such as Sun, Cisco,...
Scotland loses out in the digital switch-over chaos
THE BRITISH TELEVISION industry today is a bit like the proverbial swan — it may all look smooth and controlled on the top, but...
The just get it from IBM attitude is bad and lazy - let’s shop local
A POPULAR working definition of an expert is “someone who lives 5000 miles away”. When I ran a software company with headquarters in...
The vision of freedom has become one of repression
IN 1994 I invited Tim Berners-Lee, then a fairly obscure technical geek, to deliver the closing keynote speech at an international...
For richer or poorer, property rights transform lives
I HAVE OFTEN wondered if there is some kind of systemic difference between the western world, where wealth creation seems to be able to...
Famous faces can’t guarantee sales – they’re only human
TRICKY THINGS — celebrities. Being flesh and blood and having minds of their own can have drawbacks, particularly if you have hired them...
Fear of the download: it’s here to stay so exploit it
WHEN will they ever learn? Leading publishers are criticising Amazon for putting the full content of hundreds of thousands of...
How MSPs are wasting time, food and the democratic process
NOW THAT THE MSPs are fully installed in their shiny new parliament building at the bottom of the Royal Mile there is a sense that they...
Risk-all Rupert doesn’t do free, but could learn from his rivals
FEW businessmen in the world are as willing to take the really big risks as Rupert Murdoch. He bought the failing Sun newspaper from the...
Nice v nasty IT company. It’s not that black and white
EVERYBODY KNOWS what to make of the two superheroes of the IT industry: Bill Gates, the captain of the giant Microsoft ‘evil empire’,...
Funding the ‘soft’ options may be the ‘Smart’ option
THE GOVERNMENT has set a target of getting 50 per cent of the UK’s young people into higher education; a goal already achieved in...
Creatives aren’t the icing, but a slice of the cake itself
TIMES SEEM TO BE pretty tough right now for Scotland’s cultural sector. The difficulties at Scottish Opera have been well publicised —...
Scottish companies must adopt a new survival strategy
DESPITE THE HUGE success of the latest version of Grand Theft Auto — San Andreas, times have been pretty tough for the computer games...