Wise Guys on WHO Radio - October 25, 2014
The WHO Radio Wise Guys airs on WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa on 1040 AM or streaming online at WHORadio.com. The show airs from 1 to 2 pm Central Time on Saturday afternoons. A podcast of show highlights is also available. Leave comments and questions on the Wise Guys Facebook page or e-mail them to wiseguys@whoradio.com.
Please note: These show notes may be in various stages of completion -- ranging from brainstormed notes through to well-polished monologues. Please excuse anything that may seem rough around the edges, as it may only be a first draft of a thought and not be fully representative of what was said on the air.
In the news this week
Company directors may be abusing the "right to be forgotten"
European law tells Google that it has to take down certain links from its search results upon request when the material becomes "irrelevant" to the subject. Fortune Magazine points out that a lot of British and Spanish company directors have asked that their content be taken down, probably because it would show that their businesses failed. Meanwhile, the BBC is going to start publishing a list of stories that are being pulled from the Google index in order to protect the "right to remember" on behalf of the public.
Alibaba's profits make Amazon's non-profitability look worse
A lot of companies get by on investor cash while they try to kick-start their business model. But Amazon has gone on basically making no meaningful profits ever since its launch. The company managed to lose money on $21 billion in sales. Now that investors can choose to invest in Alibaba instead (which is making money), their patience with Amazon's strategy may wear thin.
Cloud services help Microsoft's bottom line
And that's good news for Iowa, since Microsoft has two large server farms in West Des Moines -- one finished, and one under construction
Robotic companions are promising, but there are risks
They could provide a fantastic means of providing surrogate sentient conact for people who are isolated, lonely, sick, or mentally debilitated. But that also means they may be used unethically to steal information from unwitting victims.