Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times "Foreign Affairs" columnist and author of "The World Is Flat

Tom Friedman was a guest on Charlie Rose in April ('05) discussing a book he had begun in 1995.

He referred to Global Supply Chains and Geopolitics, explaining when a supply chin is disrupted by war, et. al., it's like puring cement down your oil well. Says Michael Dell can visualize his entire supply chain and he will adjust it as needed -- and not return to you for long time.

When you cn visualize your supply chain, it allows for demand shaping, when you see you're running low on 20 GB hard drives so you tell customer's "this is your lucky day, if you buy a 40 gb hdd, we'll throw in a printer or digital camera free".
Also suggested GWB read the book; needs an energy policy and we can't waste time.

Friedman refers to pivotal events, such as 11/9, when the Berlin Wall came down and Windows (MS) went up; 8/9/1999, when Netscape went public, fueling the "dot com" rush, fiber backbones were built.

Collaberative pivotal events, such as people beginning to connect with people; then pplications begin to connect with applications; outsourcing, off-shoring, open-sourcing; In-sourcing (UPS providing more than package delivery); Google; WiFi & VoIP. convergence: a) world became flat, b) adapted to flat world, c) 3 Billion new people now on the playing field.

Think in terms of the new global, horizontal process, where a dock builder in India is now on the same footing with IBM, subsequent to the above pivotal events.

Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times "Foreign Affairs" columnist and author of "The World Is Flat

Supposed breaking news is not necessarily

How's this for a tease? "We are following the breaking news out of Charles City. We have confirmed late tonight...Police blocking off a road near a river in Charles City and they say this is linked to missing Floyd County five-year-old Evelyn Miller."

Perhaps this sort of plastic drama reveals to the rest of us why Channel 13 is consistently a bridesmaid.

WHO TV - Des Moines: Home

A closer look at file sharing lawsuit

The Grokster case shed much needed light on the Betamax case, in which VCR makers were shielded from liability when users broke the law.

Grokster only lost that protection because there was compelling evidence that the software maker actually encouraged illegal sharing of protected materials. Authors of file sharing programs who practice a minimal amount of prudence appear to be unaffected by the ruling.

Betmax -- like the phone company before it -- claimed they could not be held responsible for content because it was up to the end users to obey intillectual property laws; or not, as the case may be. The government agrees.

USATODAY.com - Despite reports, Grokster decision is a win for file sharing