Misplaced Interferen...

One of the most troublesome high-tech news stories to linger in the media is the way that high-tech workers are treated in China. Foxconn, who employs a million workers in China building the iPhone and many other consumer electronic devices, has repeatedly come under file for creating working...

Kodak – The Google of its day – Bites the Dust Jan19

Kodak – The Go...

Kodak filed for bankruptcy this week. Everyone knew it was coming, but still it’s very sad. Kodak was the Google of their day. Kodak always attracted the best and brightest engineers to their campus, funding research projects far afield from their core business (the first OLED screen is...

Playing Doctor

I recently became concerned that I might have sleep apnea, a sleep disorder characterized by abnormally low breathing or missed breaths during sleep. Although an individual with sleep apnea is often unaware of having difficulty breathing, even after they awaken, the condition can cause the...

Why Our Economy Isn’t Going Down the Tubes May07

Why Our Economy Isn’t Going Down the Tubes

This week I received one of those alarmist chain letters decrying the collapse of the American economy and using for argument “19 shocking statistics” like: #1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation. #2 Dell Inc., one of America’s largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade. #4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide. So how many of them were manufactured inside...

American Airlines Makes a Bad Customer Experience Worse Mar18

American Airlines Ma...

Writing about all of my bad customer service experiences would be a full-time job, so I let most of them roll by with a shrug or a sad shake of the head. Yet every now and then, someone sets the bar so low, it’s remarkable. Take, for example, my experience with American Airlines yesterday....