Why There Will Never Be Another RedHat: The Economics Of Open Source

Why There Will Never Be Another RedHat: The Economics Of Open Source

Posted yesterday by Peter Levine (@Peter_Levine)

Editor’s note: Peter Levine is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He has been a lecturer at both MIT and Stanford business schools and was the former CEO of XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. Prior to XenSource, Peter was EVP of Strategic and Platform Operations at Veritas Software, where he helped grow the organization from no revenue to more than $1.5 billion, and from 20 employees to over 6,000. Follow him on his blog and on Twitter @Peter_Levine. Read more of this post

Bhavish Aggarwal: Bringing Technology to Fleet Taxis

Bhavish Aggarwal: Bringing Technology to Fleet Taxis

by Ashish K Mishra | Feb 12, 2014

Bhavish Aggarwal’s Olacabs is running smooth on new technology

Bhavish Aggarwal | 28
Co-founder and CEO at Olacabs
Bhavish Aggarwal is a man of few words. Sample this. “Everybody in IIT Bombay is bright.” “Man, not even my girlfriend knows my GPA. I got married last week.” “I was born in Ludhiana but grew all over the place.” “I always wanted to be an entrepreneur.” Push him for details and he retreats. Maybe he’s shy, maybe not—certainly not when it comes to talking business.  Read more of this post

The Weather Channel’s cable fight is the tip of the iceberg; Better technology gives forecasts more value, making meteorology a fiercely competitive business

The Weather Channel’s cable fight is the tip of the iceberg

February 11, 2014: 4:35 PM ET

Better technology gives forecasts more value, making meteorology a fiercely competitive business

by Erika Fry

FORTUNE — The weather this winter has been particularly frightful—crippling cities that aren’t accustomed to snow and ice, and making commuters in colder climes slosh to work, week after week, in duck boots. Treated to a polar vortex, or two, and 15 winter storms—Atlas to Orion, by The Weather Channel’s mythological name count (Pax is currently heading for the Southeast)—Americans have been transfixed by the elements. Read more of this post

What WeChat needs to learn from Facebook

What WeChat needs to learn from Facebook

February 12, 2014

by Paul Bischoff

WeChat is doing things in China no other app in the world is doing right now. It manages to innovate with every update, having added social feeds, games, voice-to-text, and mobile payments since its launch back in 2012. Commendably, WeChat is staying on the cutting edge, transforming the way China communicates for the better. Read more of this post

This $10 Billion Company You’ve Never Heard Of Is The Reason Your Internet Is Fast

This $10 Billion Company You’ve Never Heard Of Is The Reason Your Internet Is Fast

KYLE RUSSELL ENTERPRISE  FEB. 13, 2014, 7:36 AM

If you’ve been watching the Olympics online, you’ve got one company to thank for the quality of your stream.

It isn’t NBC or your cable provider. It’s a company based out of Massachusetts with a funny-sounding name that few outside of tech have heard of: Akamai — which is Hawaiian for “intelligent,” in case you were wondering. Read more of this post

Microsoft PR Chief Shreds New New York Times Columnist Over His Advice Column

Microsoft PR Chief Shreds New New York Times Columnist Over His Advice Column

JAY YAROW TECH  FEB. 14, 2014, 2:52 AM

The New York Times recently hired former Slate (and former Wall Street Journal) technology columnist Farhad Manjoo.

In his first column for the New York Times, Manjoo told readers to buy Apple’s hardware products (iPhones/iPads/Macs), use Google’s services (search/Gmail/Maps), and to buy media from Amazon (movies, books, music). He also mentioned Dropbox as the best storage service. Read more of this post

Apple Collects 87% Of All The Profits In The Smartphone Handset Industry

Apple Collects 87% Of All The Profits In The Smartphone Handset Industry

JAY YAROW TECH  FEB. 14, 2014, 2:22 AM

Monopoly!

Apple has a relatively tiny slice of the smartphone market, measured by phones shipped to consumers.

According to the latest data from IDC, iPhones were 17.6% of smartphones shipped last quarter. Android-based phones were 78.1% of the phones shipped. Read more of this post

GPS pioneer warns on network’s security; founder Colonel Bradford Parkinson has warned that it is more vulnerable to sabotage or disruption than ever before – and politicians and security chiefs are ignoring the risk.

February 13, 2014 7:22 pm

GPS pioneer warns on network’s security

By Sam Jones and Carola Hoyos

The Global Positioning System helps power everything from in-car satnavs and smart bombs to bank security and flight control, but its founder has warned that it is more vulnerable to sabotage or disruption than ever before – and politicians and security chiefs are ignoring the risk.

Impairment of the system by hostile foreign governments, cyber criminals – or even regular citizens – has become “a matter of national security”, according to Colonel Bradford Parkinson, who is hailed as the architect of modern navigation. Read more of this post

1-800 Flowers.com’s response to a downturn; flower delivery company worked with florists to focus on innovation

February 13, 2014 4:45 pm

1-800 Flowers.com’s response to a downturn

By Jayashankar Swaminathan

James McCann, CEO of 1-800 Flowers.com, has focused on promoting top-quality floral design

The story

From a single shop in New York founded by James McCann in the 1970s, 1-800 Flowers.com has become one of the world’s leading retailers of floral arrangements and gifts, with a broad range of cut flowers and plants, gourmet foods and gift baskets. Read more of this post

How Charter’s Time Warner Cable bid woke up a ‘sleeping beast’; For Comcast, Daring Deals to Expand Its Reach Across Industries

How Charter’s Time Warner Cable bid woke up a ‘sleeping beast’

Thu, Feb 13 2014

By Soyoung Kim and Liana B. Baker

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Talks between Comcast Corp and Charter Communications Inc over how they could together buy Time Warner Cable Inc quickly soured as the two bickered over price and the feasibility of engineering a split of the No. 2 U.S. cable operator. Read more of this post

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger on the massive disruption in the IT industry

Voices From the CIO Network Conference

VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger on the massive disruption in the IT industry

Feb. 10, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

‘When we think about this period that we’re in—the combination of cloud, mobile, and big data disrupting both consumer IT and enterprise IT—we are in the period of the greatest tectonic shift in the IT industry in the last 30 years. We think about the Internet wave, the mainframe, the minicomputer—this is the granddaddy of them all. And the companies that we’ve seen fall so far, these are the minor tremors of the things that are going to happen over the course of the next few years.’

The Social Data That Business Should Use; Focus on how people relate to each other, says MIT’s Sandy Pentland

The Social Data That Business Should Use

Focus on how people relate to each other, says MIT’s Sandy Pentland

Feb. 10, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

Social-physics expert Sandy Pentland from MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory says that face-to-face social connections are the most effective way of communicating information and getting results. He speaks at The Wall Street Journal’s CIO Network conference in San Diego. Read more of this post

The CIOs’ Top Priorities No. 1: Build a Data-Driven Culture

The CIOs’ Top Priorities

No. 1: Build a Data-Driven Culture

Feb. 10, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

The five task forces at the CIO Network conference presented their recommendations to the full conference, which voted these as the top five overall priorities:

1. Build Data-Driven Culture

Create data culture at all levels of the business. Create data strategy that can be driven back into business units. Have data that is easily accessible and consumable. Read more of this post

Ray Kurzweil: Technology and the New, Improved You

Ray Kurzweil: Technology and the New, Improved You

Ray Kurzweil says technology will make us smarter, healthier and more productive

Feb. 10, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

Author, Google engineer and futurist Ray Kurzweil tells Wall Street Journal Editor in Chief Gerard Baker that advancing technologies will be integrated into ourselves. He speaks at the Journal’s CIO Network conference in San Diego. Read more of this post

Information Security? What Security? Forget Prevention, says Venture Capitalist Ted Schlein, Focus on Limiting Damage

Information Security? What Security?

Forget Prevention, says Venture Capitalist Ted Schlein, Focus on Limiting Damage

Feb. 10, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

Venture capitalist Ted Schlein from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers discusses the effects of crowd funding and angel investors on venture capitalism. He talks at The Wall Street Journal‘s CIO Network conference in San Diego. Read more of this post

How Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ boosted Silicon Valley

February 11, 2014 6:43 pm

How Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ boosted Silicon Valley

By Swaminathan Aiyar

The rapid rise of the US tech sector can be attributed to enlightened policies, writes Swaminathan Aiyar

The choice of Satya Nadella

as Microsoftchief executive drives home the fact that the US has become the world’s leading technology power by harnessing the skills of millions of skilled Asian immigrants. It is also a vindication, 50 years after the fact, of US President Lyndon Johnson’s legislation to create a “Great Society” that uplifted the poor and ended racial discrimination. Read more of this post

Foxconn Is Quietly Working With Google on Robotics

Feb 11, 2014

Foxconn Is Quietly Working With Google on Robotics

LORRAINE LUK

Foxconn has long been associated as the partner for Apple, assembling the majority of the U.S. company’s iPhones and iPads.

But few people know the Taiwanesecontract manufacturer, also known as Hon Hai Precision industry, has been quietly working with Google. Read more of this post

No Law of Large Numbers for Yelp

No Law of Large Numbers for Yelp

DAN GALLAGHER

Feb. 6, 2014 3:46 p.m. ET

For a small company, Yelp YELP +18.92% commands some big numbers.

For instance, there’s the 67% revenue-growth rate year over year that the online-review site has averaged each quarter since it went public in March 2012. There is also the site’s 120 million average monthly visitors in the fourth quarter, up 39%. And 53 million of those are coming from mobile, up 60% in the fourth quarter. Read more of this post

CIOs Eye the Corner Office; At the CIO Network conference, it’s clear they’ve left their narrow, geeky world behind

CIOs Eye the Corner Office

At the CIO Network conference, it’s clear they’ve left their narrow, geeky world behind

JOHN BUSSEY

Feb. 10, 2014 4:47 p.m. ET

Who is today’s chief information officer? Still the techie in the windowless office behind the mainframe?

Not by a long shot. Today most CIOs have a more expansive role—and a set of aspirations to match. Now that the CIO manages the ever more complex information flow that drives a company’s internal decisions as well as its links to customers globally, the job has the look of a corporate steppingstone to higher ground. Read more of this post

U.S. tech startups: An endangered species?

U.S. tech startups: An endangered species?

Source: Kauffman analysis of Census and BDS data – The number of technology startups has dropped off significantly since the turn of the century and is falling even faster in the wake of the recession. Read more of this post

This malware is frighteningly sophisticated, and we don’t know who created it

This malware is frighteningly sophisticated, and we don’t know who created it

BY TIMOTHY B. LEE

February 10 at 5:40 pm

Most of the early Internet malware were simple programs created by bored amateurs. But it’s not 1999 anymore. As the Internet has grown more sophisticated, so has malware. A new report from Kaspersky labs dissects what could be the most sophisticated malware yet discovered in the wild. Read more of this post

Is it game over for Nintendo? Critical business decisions made by the videogame king in years past have come to haunt its future business prospects.

Is it game over for Nintendo?

February 11, 2014: 4:35 AM ET

Critical business decisions made by the videogame king in years past have come to haunt its future business prospects.

By Peter Suciu

FORTUNE — Nearly 30 years ago, Nintendo essentially gave the videogame industry a new life, and a second chance. In 1985, when the original Nintendo Entertainment System debuted at the North American International Toy Fair, no one even wanted to think about videogames after the great crash that saw revenues fall from $3.2 billion in 1983 to just $100 million in 1985. Read more of this post

iTunes is now nearly half the size of Google’s core business

iTunes is now nearly half the size of Google’s core business

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt February 11, 2014: 7:50 AM ET

And at 34% year over year, it’s growing slightly faster says Asymco’s Horace Dediu.

Click to enlarge.

FORTUNE — Is Apple is still a growth company? With the Wall Street Journal‘s question still hanging in the air, Asymco’s Horace Dediu has found a novel way to highlight a source of growth within Apple (AAPL) that is often overlooked. Read more of this post

Israeli startups dream of a Bitcoin world

Israeli startups dream of a Bitcoin world

6:51am EST

By Ari Rabinovitch

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – “Welcome to the new economy,” boasts a sign at the entrance of the self-styled Bitcoin Embassy in the heart of Tel Aviv.

The sparely furnished property opened a few months ago to support a community of Bitcoin fanatics, perhaps the most active in the world, who are out to build just that – a next-generation trading system based on the digital currency. Read more of this post

Tech Investor to Entrepreneurs: A Harvard Degree Is a Liability

FEBRUARY 10, 2014, 11:04 AM  3 Comments

Tech Investor to Entrepreneurs: A Harvard Degree Is a Liability

By WILLIAM ALDEN

BOSTON — Baked into the curriculum of Harvard Business School is a course in entrepreneurship. A number of students and alumni of the school have started successful companies of their own.

But on Sunday, a prominent start-up investor had a sobering message for the elite entrepreneurs of Harvard: You are at a disadvantage when it comes to attracting capital. Read more of this post

‘The New Normal’ for Tech Companies and Others: The Stealth I.P.O.

FEBRUARY 9, 2014, 8:58 PM  1 Comment

‘The New Normal’ for Tech Companies and Others: The Stealth I.P.O.

By DAVID GELLES and MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Shhhh: A wave of tech start-ups are secretly seeking to go public.

Choosing to file confidentially for an initial public offering is fast becoming the norm for young technology companies. On Friday, GoPro, the video camera maker favored by extreme athletes and everyday adventurers, became the latest to file such a “secret I.P.O.” Read more of this post

The Red-Hot Biotech Sector Has Experts Screaming Bubble

The Red-Hot Biotech Sector Has Experts Screaming Bubble

SAM RO

FEB. 10, 2014, 8:55 PM 1,208 2

There’s just been so much talk about bubbles lately. And Business Insider has been reporting on many of these bubbles. Apparently, there are bubbles in tech stocks, craft beers, Norwegian housing … PIMCO’s Bill Gross once even said, “All markets are bubbly.”

So, why stop there? Read more of this post

In Recruiting, Amazon Prefers MIT Grads Who ‘Have No Idea What To Say To A Woman In A Bar’

In Recruiting, Amazon Prefers MIT Grads Who ‘Have No Idea What To Say To A Woman In A Bar’

JIM EDWARDS

FEB. 10, 2014, 11:06 AM 5,625 4

Want to get a job at Amazon? You might want to consider whether you have the right personality-type first. According to a deep-dive on the company in The New Yorker, Amazon recruits for very specific people — and an interest in books isn’t required. Read more of this post