Author: Nathan Taylor

Identification using fingerprints dates to the 1890’s. But automated commercial biometric identification is much more recent. Some dates: automated fingerprint recognition (1969), hand geometry (1974), iris (1995), face (2000), vascular (2000). That last one is vein pattern recognition, typically done using IR sensors on the back of the hand. Continuing the trend, IBM put a fingerprint reader in… Continue reading Apple is taking biometrics mainstream. Watch out as software eats identity and payments.

Celebrity nude photos pilfered from iPhone accounts. Ferguson. Body cameras. Deemed the surveillance society or the transparent society, the rise of camera surveillance seems unstoppable. The parallel I’d like to draw is to the rise of equality, as observed by Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835 classic Democracy in America. From Tocqueville’s introduction:

Everyone loves a sure thing. And for Wall Street a sure thing is a monopoly. I’ve written about this before, e.g., The stock market blindly lusts after exploitative monopolies. But the siren call of monopoly is an evergreen topic. Especially as software eats the world, and natural monopolies become more common. So it’s worth a quick revisit.

One angle of attack on Clayton Christensen’s disruption theory is that it’s often stretched beyond it’s range of applicability, to the point of becoming unfalsifiable. For example, Benedict Evans tweeted: “‘Disruption’ Christensen reminds me a little of Marxist historians. Over-enamoured of the One True Theory, tempted to make the facts fit it.” And more recently: “Popper’s notes… Continue reading Disruption theory’s ultimate ironic success would be falsifying itself. Plus Newton, Popper and Darwin duke it out.

Long time Microsoft analyst Mary Jo Foley says the next release of Microsoft’s Windows operating system will “try to undo the usability mistakes made with Windows 8.” The release, currently code named “Threshold”, is likely to come out in Spring 2015 as Windows 9. As you’re undoubtedly aware, Windows 8 has a hybrid user interface that switches back and… Continue reading Windows 9 explained with smiley faces and Venn diagrams. An emoji update to my Win8 post.

Google had some interesting announcements for Android TV last week at their developer conference. So even though I did a post on TV and gaming a couple of weeks back, it’s worth an update.

Jill Lepore’s harsh critique of disruption theory hit a nerve because there’s a case to be made for Clayton Christensen’s theory as oversold. Which is where the resulting debate has focused. Fair enough. But since so many others have weighed in, I want to draw attention to a neglected subtext. Why did a critique of the rather arcane theory of technological disruption get featured… Continue reading On the fated path from disruptive startup to regulated tech monopoly

Ben Thompson’s recent piece on how Apple TV might disrupt the console gaming industry was called a “tour de force” by New York Times technology columnist Farhad Manjoo. Well said. Pause to read it now if you haven’t already. I want to build on a couple of important threads from that piece and project them into the future.