This one caught my eye, because the title loudly proclaims that a PEW survey "shatters assumptions" about how people use technology. Maybe I missed it, but I didn't glean from this article which assumptions were shattered, nor is it self-evident. About the only thing I was surprised about was finding that I'm not the last person in America without a cell phone. There are evidently a few more out there.

Note the thrust of the article (this coming under the rubric of "News"). It's all about identifying who manufacturers can market (i.e., sell) products to. Nothing about how technology might be used to better society, or how we can better use technology. It just attempts to answer the question: what untapped market is out there? This is part of our culture folks.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070506/...internet_study

And here is another part of our culture:

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett said on Saturday problems in the U.S. subprime lending industry were unlikely to pose a major threat to the overall U.S. economy.


"I don't think there's going to be any huge danger to the economy," although the crisis is a "very big problem" to many in the industry, Buffett said at the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., his insurance and investment company.

As long as unemployment and interest rates did not rise significantly, Buffett said "it's unlikely that that factor triggers anything of a massive nature in the general economy."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070505/..._subprime_dc_1

Thousands have been devastated and forced out of new homes, and yet the main issue is how it will affect the economy.

Well it appears "marketing" analysis was the focus of the article, not new usage. Bottomline - use follows price. Want to increase usage, lower the price, want to enhance usage, offer it at affordable prices.

Most of elites out there are getting the enhanced service through their employer without having to pay for it. Want to bump that 50 year old off sdial-up lower the price of broadband. Want increase blackberry usage, lower the price.

Few folks out here opted for the cable compoany triple - Cable TV, broadband internet and telephone until competition occured with Verizon offering FIOS. As sonn as they came to the market place, the cable companies knocked 50% off their bills just keep their position with TV and internet. - Unfortunately, a lot of folks my self included thumbed their noses at the cable company and took the Verizon triple. I'm now paying $55 less per month for all three as a package.

The cable companies opted to rip the public off while they were a monopoly and now they are going to pay the price for it.

Originally Posted by Big

Thousands have been devastated and forced out of new homes, and yet the main issue is how it will affect the economy.

Thousands are being forced out because they bought on speculation and played dumb about mortgaging. 70% of the homes that are now on the market in Las Vegas are from speculative buyers that were fliopping the property to steal a ton from the market on the resale. No tears here for those folks.

Yes. Certainly, Buffet's comments are of interest to investors. However, the health of "the economy" as expressed in the story is really a concern about the health of the economy for a certain segment of society (NPR's core audience for example) rather than the whole. Like Big says, the people directly affected by the foreclosures are a bit of a non-story. What we really want to know is how this will affect the stock market. And there is no celebrity like Buffet championing the cause of the foreclosed.