Business of IT
IT Quote of the Week: Robert McNamara
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Robert McNamara was president of the World Bank, a US Secretary of Defense, father of the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System, man who put seat belts in cars, and creator of policy analysis. As such, he is perfect to join our other worthy additions to our IT Thought of the Day Quote of the Week Series
I like Information Age quotations. I find some of them very inspirational and like to carry a new one around about every week. I thought that i could share mine with you from time to time. This week it will be a funny quote. You can read more about the author at Wikipedia.
“A computer does not substitute for judgment any more than a pencil substitutes for literacy. But writing without a pencil is no particular advantage.”
Robert McNamara
What did you think of the quote? Did you like it? Do you know of any other similar ones? Please share.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for June 25, 2010.
quote credit: BrainyQuote
image credit: Madame Pickwick Art Blog
News Commentary: The Bit.ly Challenge
0As an active twitterer, I can certainly appreciate the value of a URL shortener – that is a service that takes a thousand character web link and shrinks it down to 10 or so for Twitter. However, I also am concerned that it violates one of the
fundamental value propositions of the world wide web – that of linking plain text, man readable, and enduring hyperlinks.
On Mondays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Today’s comments were generated after I read a CNN story. It is all about the rise of Bit.ly as the greatest URL shortener of them all. I recommend it to you. Give it a read below.
CNN.com – Clicking small links on bit.ly keeps getting bigger
“The rise of Twitter and instant messaging has been good to bit.ly — the URL-shortening service that has become a go-to tool for users across the web.
On Thursday, while announcing a host of new partners for its premium pay service, bit.ly trotted out a big number for a service based on little links.
Bit.ly is nearing 5 billion clicks per month, according to a post on the company’s official blog.”
There are many many hyperlinks that items that I have posted online that are still good links after 15 years. I know that they are good because I made them, I own them, and I pay to keep them live. The problem with URL shortener is that they are simply spreadsheets and look-up tables linking real hyperlinks to a shortened version that is in no way related to the original. They are great for ease of use, saving space on Twitter, and replacing overly cumbersome URLs with easy to remember ones. What they are not good at is being enduring, reliable, or permanent. If the URL shortener service goes away, so go the links. That is why, as a web author, I love to hate them.
I am resigned that they are a necessary evil for the time being, but I still am uneasy with how fragile the link to so much of what I have created really is on today’s web.
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for June 7, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: VEED.in – Tech News
News Commentary: The Lunacy of Follower Counting
0SPOILER ALERT! I am going to ruin the surprise! When it is all said and done, President Obama is going to have had a more substantial effect on our world than Lady Gaga. OK, now that being said, we can discuss our IT Thought of the Day News Commentary of the Week.
On Mondays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Today’s comments were generated after I read a CNN story. It is all about “race” between Lady Gaga and President Obama to get to 10 million Facebook followers. I recommend it to you. Give it a read below.
CNN.com – Obama, Lady Gaga compete for Facebook fan record
I am just going to go ahead and say it. WHO CARES! I cannot believe that so many people go through life trying to relive their High School Class President election. That is exactly what this manic obsession with Twitter and Facebook followers represents. Can you image if Ghandi, Albert Einstein, or Mother Teresa had spent even a millisecond worrying about what others thought of them – let alone who had more people willing to “follow”” them on these social media services?
OK, that is what I think of this topic. What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for June 28, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.