Posts By: David Firth

Alberta pot producer launches mobile app to buy medical marijuana

Posted by & filed under Amazon, App Economy, Entrepreneurship, health, healthcare, IT and the law, IT Trends, medicine.

Need some medical marijuana? There’s an app for that. An Alberta-based pot producer has launched a mobile app to make it easier for patients with a prescription to purchase federally-regulated medicinal weed. Cam Battley, of Aurora Cannabis, said the idea was to give customers the same service as giant online retailers such as Amazon. Source: CBC Date: September 15th,… Read more »

Why Microsoft Bought LinkedIn

Posted by & filed under Competitive advantage, IT Trends.

  Microsoft recently purchased the professional networking site LinkedIn for $26.2 billion dollars.  Is it a good fit? Source: Wall Street Journal Date: September 13th, 2016 Link: http://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-gains-link-to-a-network-1465922927 Discussion 1) Microsoft “hopes to jump-start its software packages by connecting them with LinkedIn’s vast network” of 400 million users.  “Hopes” seems a little weak a word when you spend $26.2… Read more »

How Amazon Organizes Its Warehouses

Posted by & filed under Amazon, Competitive advantage, data analytics.

How Amazon arranges its warehouses – it’s a total mess! Source: TechCrunch Date: September 13th, 2016 Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUVLZmDKeT-mV4H3ToYXIFYg&v=5TL80_8ACPc Discussion 1) What can other companies learn from the way Amazon does things at their warehouse? 2) Which companies might most benefit from copying Amazon?

How I caught my online scammer – and Facebooked his mum

Posted by & filed under App Economy, bitcoin, Cybersecurity.

A cybersecurity researcher living in Austria who was scammed out of $500 says his money was returned after he tracked down the scammer’s family and contacted them on Facebook. Source: BBC Technology Date: September 14th, 2016 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37348014 Discussion 1) “He had decided to accept payment in the digital currency as he thought it would be less of… Read more »

GitHub CEO Talks About How Microsoft and Apple Are Changing

Posted by & filed under Competitive advantage, Emerging Technologies, Open Source.

Big companies are now embracing open source.  If more companies are turning to software, they are going to need someplace to store all that code.  Enter GitHub, the hot startup behind the popular online source code repository used by thousands of individual developers as well as big-name companies like John Deere, SAP, and Microsoft. These… Read more »

Kim Dotcom wins fight to live-stream court hearing on YouTube

Posted by & filed under Civil Liberties, Ethical Issues, IT and the law.

  Internet mogul Kim Dotcom, who’s wanted in the U.S. on criminal charges, has won permission for his court battle to be streamed online. Dotcom is fighting extradition from New Zealand to the U.S., where he’s accused of reproducing and distributing copyrighted content on a massive scale. Source: CNN Tech Date: September 8th, 2016 Link: http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/30/technology/kim-dotcom-hearing-livestream-new-zealand-us/index.html Discussion 1) “This is… Read more »

Who’s responsible when an autonomous car crashes?

Posted by & filed under Artificial intelligence, Emerging Technologies, Ethical Issues, IT and the law, IT Trends.

  Joshua Brown died when his autopilot system did not recognize a tractor-trailer turning in front of his Model S and his car plowed into it. The Ohio man’s family is now being represented by a law firm with expertise in product defect litigation, and it’s conducting an investigation. The federal government is also investigating… Read more »

EU court backs Playboy in Dutch hyperlinks copyright case

Posted by & filed under IT and the law.

  The European Court of Justice has ruled in favor of Playboy in a long-running case over hyperlinks to copyrighted content.  The Dutch website Geenstijl, operated by GS Media, had posted links to an Australian site that was hosting photographs from Playboy.  The court ruled GS Media had broken copyright rules, in part because it… Read more »

As tech clusters spread, a fight to be Silicon Valley North

Posted by & filed under Competitive advantage, Emerging Technologies, IT Trends.

The stretch of the 401 that connects Toronto with Kitchener-Waterloo has many hallmarks similar to California’s Highway 101. Source: The Toronto Star Date: August 30th, 2016 Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/08/28/as-tech-clusters-spread-a-fight-to-be-silicon-valley-north.html Discussion 1) There is a notion explicit in this article that being like Silicon Valley in California, USA is actually a good thing.  What are some of the downsides of… Read more »