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Analysis 2009: The Financial Crisis Hits IT Hard

The recession that started in January 2008 looks to be four phased. The first phase, The housing collapse, actually started in August 2007. The financial meltdown hit in September 2008, and likely will continue through to March 2009 or so.... Read more.

Analysis 2009: Some thoughts for a New Era

By Kurt Cagle
Comments: 4

This particular look forward is definitely longer than what I have written in years past, and for those of you who have managed to wade through the admittedly voluminous text I both admire your fortitude. This has been a hard... Read more.

Food, Technology, and Energy

By chromatic
Comments: 2

What are the true costs of getting fresh strawberries in Oregon in January? I don't know. Can we find out? Read more.

A Brief Guide for Mac Switchers/Try-ers (No Laments, Please!)

By Todd Ogasawara
Comments: 11

Wow, CNET's Rafe Needleman sure raised a ruckus with his Mac switcher's lament article. If you are thinking about moving from a Windows PC to a Mac and want to avoid the feeling of lament, read on, I have some advice that might help you make the change. Read more.

O'Reilly at MacWorld

Visit the O'Reilly booth (#2210) at Macworld in San Francisco, January 5-9! We'll have a dynamic lineup of entertaining talks and will be offering a 30% discount on timely new Mac and digital media titles during the conference. We'll also have goodies, and a raffle drawing. View the complete schedule of author presentations.

Learning Haskell

By Eric Larson
Comments: 0

Real World Haskell has revealed a huge gap in my experience with functional languages as well as presented me with an opportunity to make major strides towards growing as a programmer. Read more.

Get Our Top Selling Books as Ebooks

We now offer 700 books in DRM-free PDF format, including 130 of our bestsellers as Ebook bundles, which includes PDF, .Epub, and .mobi-compatible Kindle format. These can be easily read on the device and system of your choice, from your desktop or laptop computer, Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone or other mobile device. Also today, we've released all of our Head First titles in PDF format, and David Pogue's bestselling "iPhone: The Missing Manual," is now available as an iPhone App. Read all about it, and buy a few.

WSJ's End of Wall Street: Don't Order The Tombstone Just Yet

By Robert Passarella
Comments: 4

It's nice to be back after the holidays. I just watched a series of short videos from the Wall Street Journal's Digital Network. The series is called the "End of Wall Street". It is a short oral history of the past year since the demise of Bear Stearns and the current crisis. It ends with a part called "What Happens... Read more.

The Biggest Ponzi Scheme of Them All

By Tim O'Reilly
Comments: 69

Since Bernie Madoff has put Ponzi schemes back onto the front pages, it's worth considering whether we are all complicit in the biggest Ponzi scheme of them all, the idea that the global economy can grow indefinitely. I grew up on the idea that humanity would grow out into space, and that resources were for all practical purposes infinite. It... Read more.

An attack on public key infrastructure

By John Viega
Comments: 0

Any major changes to the way we establish trust are probably too big to actually happen. That leaves the Internet fundamentally broken. Read more.

O'Reilly Week in Review for Jan 5th, 2009

By James Turner
Comments: 0

O'Reilly Week in Review for Jan 5th, 2009

This week's podcast has a commentary from editor Kurt Cagle on the potential opportunities that this year could bring, a conversation with Tim O'Reilly about ways the SEC could leverage search technology, the answer to last week's quiz and a... Read more.

Admiring Bill Gates

By Dale Dougherty
Comments: 35

Dare I say this on O'Reilly Radar? I admire Bill Gates. If I had a vote for Person of the Year, Gates would get mine. Let me explain why. This year, Gates made an important and potentially difficult transition at age 52, leaving Microsoft as CEO and devoting more of his time and energy to the Bill and Melinda Gates... Read more.

Letter to the Algorithm

By Timothy M. O'Brien
Comments: 2

Is Digg Sexist? No. Is the community it attracts "sexist"? Likely. This post is a response to the recent criticism, a diagnosis, and a prescription for future collaborative filtering evolution. The problem with the current iteration of collaborative filters is that they don't account for more than one dominant preference cluster. Read more.