http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2009/11/30/numbers/

The 20 minute point is where it gets interesting to me. I had never heard of Bedford’s Law.

music?

Clearly music

“Some people think the personal computer is strictly a way to present advertisements”

It was like hearing that Santa Clause isn’t real. My mind feared it might be true, and fought against it. Over the past 10 years I have seen the internet fail to become the micropayment universe where people pay for what they felt was valuable. Instead the internet contributors are rewarded based on revenue from advertisements.

In college there were constant debates about open source vs closed source. Linux vs Microsoft. I recognized that open source was a superior pure software development model yet lacked industry acceptance to solve certain problems.

Microsoft’s operating system business is being threatened head on by Google. Even in 2005 Micorsoft was concerned.

A wise comment:

“….Googlestore.com won’t save them either. They need to start releasing products that cut at the core of the microsoft empire. An office sweet, browser, OS, the works”

And so nearly 3 years later Google has done this. Email, Gmail and Google Docs render Microsoft Office far less relevant then ever. Crome is a solid no nonsense web-browser. Android is an solid Open Source OS that will give not only completely enrage Microsoft, but will force every cell phone manufacturer to either adopt it or have inferior software / data technology.

All of Googles headway ultimately represents the final conversion of the personal computing experience from a tool to a way to present advertisements. Its going to be very difficult for Microsoft to sell software in such a world.