Posted 10:14 AM (0) comments

Dumb report on Smart systems

CNET is carrying a story on how "Smart systems" will erode the number of jobs in the service industries. Harvey Cohen, president of Strategy Analytics, who authored the report has evidently never sat on the phone trying to decipher the menu tree nor attempted to follow an automated trouble-shooting web application. He couldn't have, because he concludes that "In the coming years, a large number of first-level jobs in service industries related to customer service, help desk and directory assistance will be lost due to the advent of intelligent systems."

Now I'm willing to admit that human-based first-line support isn't all that good, either, but at least you can stop the airhead and ask to speak to a supervisor - not something you can do when trapped in the endless loop of 'automated' support. Just as we've been patiently waiting for almost 50 years for the predictions about artificial intelligence to finally occur, so too will we be waiting almost as long for Mr. Cohen's prediction to take place.

Posted 11:38 AM (0) comments

Comdex takes a vacation - will anybody notice?

Last fall, I predicted the death of the large, non-focused trade show such as Comdex. But promoter Eric Faurot (vice president of Comdex organizer MediaLive International) urged me to re-think that position. Now its Faurot who's feeding the theory by announcing that Comdex is being cancelled, at least for this year. Although the group has a contract with the Las Vegas Convention Center through 2007, and although Faurot vows that they'll be back, this sounds - to me - like the death knell for the huge, non-focused technology trade show.

Posted 11:29 AM (0) comments

Hoist with their own petard?

Just as the pack of jackels called "personal injury" lawyers tend to sue whoever has the deepest pockets, so too does the RIAA try to get congress to outlaw activity by legitimate businesses, rather then spend the effort to prosecute those actually guilty of a crime. Sen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who usually understands technological issues, has a huge blind spot when it comes to peer-to-peer networks as evidenced by his introduction of the so-called Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004. Peer-to-peer software vendors, such as Kazaa, are no more offering inducement to copyright infringement by peddling their file-sharing software then the RIAA is by artificially keeping the price of recorded music so high.

Hmm, maybe Hatch does understand. Maybe, if this passes, we can get the trial lawyers to sue the RIAA!