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The iFuture
by Jordan FurlongJordan is a partner with Edge International, providing consulting services to law firms on strategic planning and tactical matters. He's also a Senior Consultant with Stem Legal and principal of its Media Strategy consulting service. Finally, he's an award-winning blogger who chronicles the extraordinary changes underway in the practice of law at Law21: Dispatches from a Legal Profession on the Brink. Formerly editor-in-chief of the CBA's National magazine and a graduate of Queen's Law School, he lives in Ottawa with his wife and two children.
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February 3, 2010

For the record, I don’t intend to buy one. At least, not for a few more years and not until the inevitable upgrades, improvements, fixes, and content distribution changes have run their course. But well before the iPad 3.o arrives, the original version will have had a serious impact on the computer industry, on the [...]

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• Good and Boring | Op-Ed Columnist | NYTimes.com
  Iceland's meltdown made headlines; the remarkable stability of Canada's banks, not so much.Yet as the world’s attention shifts from financial rescue to financial reform, the quiet success stories deserve at least as much attention as the spectacular failures. We need to learn from those countries that evidently did it right. And leading that list is our neighbor to the north. Right now, Canada is a very important role model.
• Fraser Speirs - Blog - Future Shock
  What you're seeing in the industry's reaction to the iPad is nothing less than future shock. For years we've all held to the belief that computing had to be made simpler for the 'average person'. I find it difficult to come to any conclusion other than that we have totally failed in this effort.
• The iPad and publishers: A survey of early reaction - O'Reilly Radar
  the device is clearly built for media consumption. Movies, music, books, news -- the bread and butter content that keeps iTunes humming. That's good for Apple, obviously, but it also creates an interesting opportunity for publishers. They've got a new distribution mechanism and a new canvas.
• We don't need no stinking authority | The Economist
  "[I]n the history of the discussion over whether or not the drone strikes in Pakistan are a good idea, I don't think I have ever heard anyone ask where the CIA or the president get the authority for them. Now, reports Spencer Ackerman, the ACLU is asking . . ."
• Time to stand up for Parliament (Editorial | The Globe and Mail)
  It is time the rules governing prorogation changed. Canada's Parliament has shown itself vulnerable to an excessive concentration of power, and hence is hampered in fulfilling its role as the “ultimate sovereign body.” The prorogation of 2008 has now been followed by another, this time simply for partisan tactical convenience. The Prime Minister is misusing the power to shut down Parliament, and in the process destabilizing Canada's democracy. For that reason, prorogation should be made subject to legislative controls.
• ongoing · On the Blankness of Google
  "Today, without planning to, I visited the Google home page, then also Yahoo and Bing. They don’t look like each other at all. I think, first of all, that Yahoo is the past, Google the present, Bing the future. And second, that it doesn’t matter much."
• Duthie Books of Vancouver closing after 53 years (Duthie Press Release)
  (Jan. 19/10) For 53 years Duthies has provided a good book service to the city, championed BC and Canadian books, encouraged the public to read local writers, and helped to create a knowledgeable reading public...Everybody knows that Independent bookstores have been under pressure from the 'big box' operations for many years now and it is clear that it is not going to get any better; the likes of Chapters, and Amazon are ruthless in their drive for market share and we cannot compete on price anymore.
• DigitalKoans » Canadian Research Knowledge Network Completes License Agreements Worth $140 Million
  The Canadian Research Knowledge Network, which has 73 academic institutions as members, has completed three-year license agreements worth $140 million with 14 scholarly publishers. It is estimated that over $40 million was saved compared to institutional licenses for comparable content.
• A new approach to China (Official Google Blog)
  (Jan. 12/10) Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.
• Google’s Threat Ricocheted Around World, but Skipped Over China - NYTimes.com
  (Jan. 13/10) Google’s declaration that it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in China ricocheted around the world on Wednesday. But in China itself, the news was heavily censored.

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