John Naughton - The Japan Times

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John Naughton

For John Naughton's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Apr 3, 2013

Moleskines are shaping virtual notebooks

Australian author Bruce Chatwin has a lot to answer for. Specifically, he's responsible for a forthcoming initial public offering (IPO) on the Italian stock market. It all goes back to something he wrote in his 1986 book 'The Songlines.'

LIFE / Digital

Mar 27, 2013

Facebook, Google spreading 'their' Net

On March 18, amid great hoopla, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering was awarded to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, Louis Pouzin and Marc Andreessen.

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Mar 20, 2013

How Google made me get into bed with Hitler

One of the wonders of the online world is the "Downfall" meme on YouTube. (For those whose time is too valuable to be wasted watching video clips, I should explain that the parody is based on remixing a scene from Oliver Hirschbiegel's film, "Der Untergang [Downfall]," which chronicles Hitler's final days in his Berlin bunker.)

LIFE / Digital

Mar 13, 2013

Online, some are more equal than others

A few years ago, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman published a bestselling book with the title "The World is Flat." In it he used the concept of "flatness" to describe "how more people can plug, play, compete, connect and collaborate with more equal power than ever before — which is what is happening in the world".

LIFE / Digital

Mar 6, 2013

Not even Google will be around forever

Some years ago, when the Google Books project, which aims to digitize all of the world's printed books, was getting under way, the two cofounders of Google were having a meeting with the librarian of one of the universities that had signed up for the plan. At one point in the conversation, the Google boys noticed that their collaborator had suddenly gone rather quiet. One of them asked him what was the matter. "Well", he replied, "I'm wondering what happens to all this stuff when Google no longer exists." Recounting the conversation to me later, he said: "I've never seen two young people looking so stunned: the idea that Google might not exist one day had never crossed their minds."

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Feb 27, 2013

Glass may look geeky, but you have to applaud Google's vision

A few weeks ago, the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, spent four days in Cambridge as the Humanitas visiting professor in the university's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, where I work. Afterward, one of the questions I was most frequently asked by people who hadn't been around for his visit was: "Was he wearing the glasses?"

Japan Times

LIFE / Digital

Feb 20, 2013

Digital capitalism produces few winners

Need a crash course in digital capitalism? Easy: you just need to understand four concepts — margins, volume, inequality and employment.

LIFE / Digital

Feb 13, 2013

Streams of consciousness will kill off websites

The communications theorist Marshall McLuhan observed that "we look at the present through a rear-view mirror." And that "we march backwards into the future." Amen. Remember the horseless carriage? Not to mention the fact that we still measure the oomph of a Porsche 911 in, er, brake horsepower.

LIFE / Digital

Jan 30, 2013

Why the Apple and Facebook empires are destined to collapse

Nothing lasts forever: if history has any lesson for us, it is this. It's a thought that comes from rereading Paul Kennedy's magisterial tome, "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers," in which he shows that none of the great nation-states or empires of history — Rome; imperial Spain in 1600; France in either its Bourbon or Bonapartist manifestations; the Dutch republic in 1700; Britain in its imperial glory — succeeded in maintaining its global ascendancy for long.

COMMENTARY / World

Jul 2, 2008

Bill Gates' excellent adventure ends in tears

LONDON — The scene: a tasteful, wooded corporate retreat north of Seattle. The time: one day last March. A large group — mainly chaps in their mid-40s — stand around. They seem to be in quite a state.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

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