Reading
across disciplines is one of the best ways to improve our investment acumen.
Here is a summary of some of the best articles I read this week.
Augmented reality comes to
car workshops
Porsche Cars North
America is completing the rollout of its Tech Live Look program at its 189 U.S.
dealerships. The effort uses online augmented-reality technology to enable
dealership techs to communicate directly with Porsche's Atlanta-based technical
support team about thorny repair issues in real-time in such a way that the
factory experts see what the tech sees.
The new technology
enables a precise recalibration of cameras to specific distances and heights to
capture needed images. It also permits precise measurement of high-voltage
batteries on electric and hybrid vehicles.
Union in a tech firm
Employees at
crowdfunding platform Kickstarter voted Tuesday to form a union, the first of
it's kind in the technology industry, after an 18-month battle with the
company’s management.
Kickstarter United
will now be formally recognized by the management after a vote held by the
National Labor Relations Board, in which workers voted 36 to 47 in favour of
unionizing. It is the first union comprised of white-collar, full-time
employees in the technology industry. Toward the end of the dot-com bubble in
2001, customer service workers at a website called etown.com successfully voted
to unionize with the Communications Workers of America, which was reported by
The New York Times as the first dot-com union, but the company folded the next
month after it failed to secure more venture capital funding.
A brief history of
advertising
In the 1830s, New
York City’s most popular newspaper was just 4 pages and circulated to fewer
than 3,000 people in a city with a population fast-approaching 300,000. News
was a luxury item, costing 6 cents an issue, which was too expensive for most
people at the time.
Then 20-something
Benjamin Day had an idea. He would sell his own newspaper for just a penny,
undercutting the competition. To make up for a lower price, he would sell
advertisements. The idea, which was novel at the time, was not just to sell
newspapers to his readers, but to sell the attention of his readers.
It may be harder
than ever to get people’s attention these days because our entertainment
options are now seemingly unlimited.
But the leaps
forward in technology have given advertisers more avenues to reach us than ever
before. And they have the ability to personalize to the end-user because so
much of our lives are now available for everyone to see online.
The avenues will
change and things will become more personalized. The advertisers understand
human nature as well as any other industry.
When the security guard is
the thief
Avast, the
multibillion-dollar Czech security company doesn’t just make money from
protecting its 400 million users’ information. It also profits in part because
of sales of users’ Web browsing habits and has been doing so since at least
2013.
That’s led to some
labelling its tools “spyware,” the very thing Avast is supposed to be
protecting users from. Avast claims it recognizes customers use Avast to
protect their information and so it can’t do anything that might “circumvent
the security of privacy of the data including targeting by advertisers.”
The rise and reign of Jeff
Bezos
The last one today
is not an article, but a documentary. I have always been fascinated by Amazon
and Jeff Bezos. He is a person who has shaped how today's generation view
shopping. He has even changed our behaviour patterns. Very few people I know
of, who do not check amazon while making a buying decision. His next big
ambition of space expedition is another big and audacious goal. The recent
donation of $10 billion dollars to combat climate change is another remarkable
gesture. On the other hand, he also has his detractors. Those who paint him and
Amazon as the villain. The documentary explores some of these aspects. Worth a
watch for those who love documentaries.
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