The same thought as Karlin's crossed my mind when I saw Red Herring was back .. kind of. In my previous employment, day traders were the engineers in the cubes all around me permanently logged in to their Datek accounts. Bowing to the peer pressure, I opened an account myself but never put any money in it which meant I missed all the margin calls and losses when everything went pear-shaped.
Funny I managed to surf through several sites last week that had index quotes (e.g. Dow Jones, Nasdaq) on the home page, which I hadn't seen for a while. Either my travels on the web are changing, or quotes are coming back into fashion.
I am happy to report that I'm pretty sure we are emerging from the downturn. Why? Day trading and Red Herring, that's why.
This week, the Wall Street Journal was happily weeping over the return of day trading. Remember day trading? Scruffy guys in pyjamas causing the fortunes of newly public companies to fluctuate as they debated over their morning coffee whether to buy or sell swathes of IPO shares over their home PCs? Of course you do.
Yes, day trading is back, and according to the Wall Street Journal, "online brokerage firms are slashing commissions to woo quick-fingered stock investors." They profile an 82-year-old retired contractor from San Diego, California who buys and sells as soon as he can make even a 50 cent per share profit from his investments. Go, grandpa!
I was at the MLE last week to hear Negroponte's keynote, and also Hishoro Ishii later in the morning. There was some cool stuff that's new to me, such as ZUIs and using everyday objects as controls for technology driven experiences (one example is taking the top off a decorative bottle to 'release' music) but where the technology has been made invisible to the user.
Negroponte: Tough Times? Go Crazy The founder of MIT's famed Media Labs wants his researchers to work the lunatic fringe. Out-there concepts could lead to innovation that will give the lab's backers a leg up in today's tough economic climate. Karlin Lillington reports from Dublin, Ireland. [via Wired News]
Rumors of an HP Pocket PC Phone with WiFi There aren't any pictures or anything, but there are some rumors of a new "iPAQ 6000" Pocket PC from HP. This one looks like it'll be more of a Pocket PC Phone, and have quadband GSM/GPRS, built-in WiFi, Bluetooth, an SD card slot, and an integrated digital camera. Could this finally be the cellphone with WiFi we've been dreaming of? Read... [via Gizmodo]
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Bad news for bookstores: instantly check Amazon prices with a cameraphone This is Barnes & Noble's worst nightmare: a company called NeoMedia has new application for Nokia cameraphones called PaperClick that let's you walk into any bookstore, take a picture of any book's ISBN, and automatically get its pricing information from Amazon. It's bad news for any bookstore, but something like this is especially troublesome for independent booksellers who are having a hard enough time competing with Amazon as it is. Will bookstores be the next places to ban cameraphones? Read [Via PicturePhoning.com]... [via Gizmodo]
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