Just back from Sweden visiting tekgirl, and I have to say it is indeed eerie to see how much advanced wireless technology has insinuated itself in Europe compared to the States. (A cliche, I know, but striking to see it firsthand.) One example: all over town I saw huge ads for this Ericsson phone with WAP (http://mobile.ericsson.com/spg.asp?template=product_page&grid=grid2&Menuleft=menu_left_B&Subheadtext=sh_B1.Xa&Menumid=menu_mid_B&Menusub=menu_mid_sub&Combo=Inc_MobPhoneCombo&ProdId=9316), with the ads' texts featuring the various internet-related services it provided (directions, movie listings, traffic info, etc. etc.)...
Also, read Tim Berners-Lee's book Weaving the Web, which I heartily recommend to all. It's the story of how he invented it, how difficult it was to get it adopted at first, and where he thinks it should go now. Fascinating and written for laypeople, not techies (i.e., I could understand it). It made me reconsider yet again some of the valuation stuff we've been discussing, because it drove home just how extraordinary the rate of technological change has been in the last few years and will continue to be. It seems demonstrably clear, for example, that all our attempts at valuations involve projections of earnings out over several years or even decades, by which time the world (and the various companies' prospects) will have changed so dramatically (for better or worse) that the exercise has little point. Don't know where to go with this, really, but it did set me thinking again...
tekboy/Ares@homewiththecats.org |