Today's articles of interest include another Wired article on big media in the US, a fairly good summary of why monolithic media is a bad idea, and exactly how close the US already is to this being the case. Funny quote: "There are six or seven media conglomerates that rule the world... [b]ut how many companies do you need to provide programming to mass audiences? Six companies should be enough. At least it's not two." Scary in a completely different way is the robot with the mind of an eel, a probably-cool concept but I dunno, how big an animal will they do this kind of thing to? Am I comfortable using my smart TV if there was a cuddly-puppy brain powering it? Ick.

On the business front, a very interesting article (Wired again) which explains why the Dot-Com crash is as much hype as the Dot-Coms were themselves. Unemployment is 4.3% in the US, even lower in the UK, the US still has a shortfall of over 400,000 tech jobs (!), and even though announcements of layoffs have risen by 113%, actual layoffs rose only 9%. So, unsurprisingly, all that's happening is stupid people with ridiculous business plans are biting the dust (and their investors with them) while the industry itself continues to roar ahead. My current prediction: in six months time the Dotconomy will be just another industry sector, with most of the hype potential gone, growing steadily. So invest now, in a sensible business plan, while the stocks are still undervalued. This is all a side-effect of people confusing "slowdown in growth" with "recession". Just because it's slower doesn't mean it's not growth.

This is another newsy blog isn't it! You can tell I should be working. An interesting what-works story about why Minitel is making a profit in an age of Internet access. Websites need micropayments. Desperately. On their phone bill, if possible. Why aren't any phone companies doing this?