models

Ars Technica's Ken Fisher recently wrote an impassioned plea to turn off ad-blocking software like AdBlock Plus to save the online publishing industry. His attempt to turn back the clock on digitization, however, would likely accomplish the opposite.

Fisher has a good point: ad-blocking software almost certainly does hurt sites like CNET by denying them revenue. As he points out, "[m]ost [large] sites...are paid on a per view basis," not a click-through basis, which means that ad-blocking software very literally takes money out of the pockets of publishers, leading consumers to "devastat[e]...the … Read more

Competition in the personal computer market is heating up, even as it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish just what we mean when we talk about a PC. Airline flight attendants seem to be able to discern the difference between mobile phones and personal computers in their in-flight announcements, but the vendors who make and sell them increasingly can't.

It is precisely this fuzziness that offers Google and Apple a chance to get a leg up on Microsoft, but is also why Microsoft may be able to cement its lead.

Google is clear about its aims: it wants to get … Read more

Consideo's Modeler is the sort of unusual software that turns up from time to time. It's designed to visualize and analyze "connections of arguments, ideas, strategies, projects, and processes." It can model complex, multifactor business strategies, but it's useful to everyone from scientists to students. Among the real-world virtues it claims are the ability to shorten meetings by focusing questions and clarifying arguments. It functions as both a qualitative analysis tool, identifying, tracing, and describing factors and connections ranging from "weak" to "strong," and a quantitative modeler, running simulations based on … Read more

A roundup of Toyota's ghastly week--yet that doesn't stop Tesla from tapping a Toyota exec to build its cars. Jag has a crafty new idea for hybrid power trains. And we take a ride in the love-it-or-key-it Porsche truck!

• CNET runs around in the delightful and infuriating Porsche Cayenne GTS

• Toyota boss makes apology to the world as recall debacle grows

• Mitsubishi and Isuzu join an odd EV venture

• What exactly is in a Toyota gas pedal, anyway?… Read more

Information doesn't want to be free. It wants to be managed.

We live in the midst of a digital cornucopia that our brains simply cannot manage without help. Whether it's our 150 Facebook-friend limit or our ability to find and store iTunes songs, we need help processing the sheer abundance of digital goods.

Sure, most of us will take something for free if we can. Just ask the music industry, which has been battered by peer-to-peer piracy.

But not all of us. And not all of the time. … Read more

If there was ever a doubt as to whether open-source software could be big business, Google has eradicated it. The Silicon Valley giant shovels open-source software out the door like Santa Claus, all the while monetizing it with cloud-based services.

Google' strategy is no longer in question. What does remain a question is why more companies aren't following its lead.

Gartner analyst Brian Prentice argues:

By 2020 open source will be so conceptually and practically integrated into the way business is done that the concept of blogging on open source in 2030 will be about as interesting as predicting … Read more

In an interview this week, Greg Ness, a senior director at network automation vendor Infoblox, outlines the problems lurking in today's network architectures and processes in the face of dynamic distributed computing models like cloud computing and data center virtualization.

The interview focuses on the concepts behind Infrastructure 2.0, and how vendors and enterprises are working together to address the many opportunities and challenges they present.

Take a look at the core TCP/IP and Ethernet networks that we all use today, and how enterprise IT manages those services. Not long ago, I wrote an article that described … Read more

For those entrepreneurs looking to make a living from open-source software, Index Ventures general partner Bernard Dallé has some advice: get thee to a cloud strategy.

Why? At a time when enterprises may be less willing to spend on software, they're increasingly interested in spending on the operation of that software through cloud computing, an interest that can be bought...and sold.

The cloud isn't simply a clever way to provide social-networking services, either. As Dallé suggested in a phone interview on Wednesday, cloud computing may well be the best way to monetize enterprise-facing open-source software.… Read more

In the past week, the open-source business community appears to have reached consensus: making money from open-source software is a bad model, but making money with open source is golden.

This can't be good for Microsoft.

Microsoft has long maintained that as the open-source industry has matured, it has become more and more like the commercial world it sought to leave behind. Fundamental freedoms of open source, like the right to modify source code, are signed away to secure a support contract with Red Hat or another vendor.

In many ways, Microsoft was right. Unfortunately for the Redmond giant, … Read more