While acknowledging outsourcing isn't going to come to a halt, the report states that higher-level, or what it calls "dynamic" engineering work, will stay within US borders.

"We are not competing for jobs with China and India. We are competing for capital and technology. And they're winning."

11 Indian engineers can be hired for the cost of hiring one American.

"In regard to other countries, the US is 25th per capita in undergraduate engineering degrees awarded."

U.S. engineer education not in dire straits: study

The magnetic hotel room key, one of the lodging industry's most popular but controversial creations, is losing some of its attraction.

I figured Acidus might want to see this.

"Do the research," he said. "The truth is out there."

Indeed.

Hotels are also considering another key system that employs proximity cards, according to a national sales manager for a manufacturer of security locks. "There is no strip that needs to be read," he said, so it is also harder to penetrate than a magnetic card.

Yeah, that's right.

The Embattled Swipe-Card Hotel Key

How much can be read into whether "sector" or "space" is one's preferred descriptor in this context?

Think about it. Don your semiotics hat and ponder it for a while.

"The problem is that you've got all these software VC's, they don't know what to do with themselves."

"I think it's great that the Internet consumer space is heating up again. But consumer is also quickly becoming a space where lots of venture capitalists are diving in without a clue."

There will be some big winners in this round, but many more losers along the way.

Woo hoo! Let's hear it for the Losers!

Venture Capital Rediscovers the Consumer Internet

The merger of AOL and Time Warner has long since become a symbol of the misbegotten assumptions and skewed calculations among old and new media at the height of the technology bubble.

The challenge is how to create a free Internet site compelling enough to attract traffic and advertising -- with much of the content it previously reserved for paying customers -- without hastening the demise of its subscription business.

"The question remains, How does AOL fit into that new world? Is there a place for AOL in the Internet?"

"My biggest problem is the walled garden," said Mr. Kelly, who runs all of AOL's Web properties in addition to ad sales. "The world can't see the good stuff we do every day."

Free Internet Site: A Portal to AOL's Future?

Marc Andreessen continues to fill up notebooks with ideas and sketched-out business plans for new companies. Among the gossipy cognoscenti, it's a poorly kept secret that in recent months he has been occupied starting a new Internet company.

Improbable as it may seem, given the breadth and depth of the dot-com collapse, not to mention the emergence of hivelike high-tech centers in places like China and India now available for off-shoring and outsourcing, Silicon Valley is starting to feel like 1995 -- the year Netscape went public -- all over again.

The miracle of Silicon Valley is that it is a system finely calibrated to spit out new companies -- some of which have come to be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, within a few years' time.

"I think the mistake now is holding back when you've got a good idea." Particularly with the rich scent of investment money once again in the air.

They form the core of a revived entrepreneurial network drunk on the idea of creating the next big thing. None have to work another day in their lives, yet they still routinely work 60 to 70 hours a week -- except those who sheepishly confess to working 80.

"You can't underestimate the good feeling you get when people in your wider social circle think you created something really, really cool."

"It's like the word 'opportunity' is there in front of you in red flashing lights and you feel you have no choice. I'm having the time of my life."

"I know one venture capitalist who's basically reviewing scores of ideas from 1999 [2], figuring there's all these babies thrown out with the bath water. I think he's right."

"We are not ready to stop changing the world."

If You Can Make It in Silicon Valley, You Can Make It . . . in Silicon Valley Again

In one of the most entertaining presentations from OSCON 2004, Paul Graham answers the questions:

What motivates great hackers?
What do they need to do their jobs?
How do you recognize them?
How do you get them to come and work for you?
And how can you become one?

What Motivates Great Hackers?

A year-and-a-half ago, I invested in Visible path, a social-networking company totally dedicated to enterprise relationship management. Visible Path is built on search technology using algorithms to look at data, like Google. Where Google looks at Web pages and links, Visible Path looks at people pathways. They'll be lots more applications developed using search the same way we used relational databases 25 years ago. It's a different way of looking at the network of data.

The numbers are unbelievable in the software world. The top 15 software companies are 84% of the revenues in the industry. The top three generate 75% of the profit, and the top one generates 57% of the profit. [Underneath that] it's becoming a wasteland.

Ego. It's all about ego. The way I look at it is: If you knew you had five years to live, would you give those five years to shareholders, would you give it to entrepreneurs, or would you give it to kids? How do you want to spend your time?

What I want to do now is: I want to have a Google. Visible Path is a candidate.

A Bad Case of Google Envy

A successful company needs to have a "clearly articulated product and service," that will "save time or money, offer something someone can't find somewhere else and fulfill a greed or lust factor." The service offered should be "compelling," and one which "draws in new users to get organic grass-roots growth."

Student's Start-Up Draws Attention and $13 Million

Well, if Esther Dyson says so, then it must be true.

Another path for technology can be seen in the proliferation of new services and networks on the Web that are being built, largely from the ground up, by ordinary people.

"Ordinary people", and it's not even an election year!

There is mounting evidence that this grass-roots media hybrid is moving into the mainstream. Last week, Yahoo announced that it had bought Flickr.

Jerry Yang, a Yahoo founder, said candidly, "We are venturing boldly, and somewhat blindly, into this world of user-generated content."

So when is Jerry going to buy MemeStreams? Has he even called yet?

Is Silicon Valley Similar to Detroit?

Where Do Transactions Come From?
The Fundamental Theorem of Design Economics
The Technology of Design and its Problems
The Architecture of Cooperation
Modularity after the Crash

Design Rules, Volume 2: Evolution