Marty Manley on economics, politics, technology, and culture

Archive for November, 2009

The Death of the Desktop?

Google today revealed details of its operating system: Chrome OS. There is a reason that they named their operating system after their browser: their operating system IS a browser. Your computer boots in seconds and up comes a browser. Take more than a cursory look at Chrome OS and you realize that Google is offering [...]

Solar Power

There is a natural and healthy tension between politics and markets. The tension is the difference between socially oriented citizens who are often unfamiliar with business and in any case favor the strong, visible hand of government protection and their commercially-oriented brethren who prefer the invisible hand of market competition and generally view government as [...]

The Hamilton Mixtape: "Cause I'm the damned genius that shot him"

One of the cool things about being President is that talented people of all sorts are happy to drop by and perform for you. Last May, the White House sponsored "Poetry, Music, and Spoken Word", an opportunity to let people most of us have never heard of get their 15 minutes.   In the Heights [...]

Did Susan B. Anthony and Abraham Lincoln elect Barack Obama?

In the earliest days of the United States, only white protestant men with property were eligible to vote, Since that time however, the US has steadily, if unevenly, advanced the cause of suffrage. Has it mattered? To find out, ask how the 2008 presidential election would have turned out if only white men had voted. [...]

The Apple Squeeze

Have your noticed that Apple is getting squeezed? Consider these recent developments: 1. With Windows 7, Microsoft has substantially closed the performance gap with the Mac OS, thus quietly removing the major reason to switch to a Mac. Both professional reviews and personal experience confirm that with Windows 7, Microsoft got it right. In a [...]