DWD's Reviews

Published by Simon and Schuster in 2013. Read by Pete Simonelli Duration: 12 hours, 2 minutes Computer expert (to say the least, the man was a pioneer in the field of virtual reality and was at the ground floor in multiple Silicon Valley projects and companies) Jaron Lanier discusses possible futures of the economy and the online community in this rambling, interesting audiobook. The author, Jaron Lanier Lanier spends quite a bit of time discussing what he calls Siren Servers. Siren Servers are massive collectors of data such as search engine sites, credit bureaus, the NSA, and some very large retail sites. These servers collect "free" data from you that is provided by tracking your searches, purchases, phone calls or GPS location on your cell phones and sell it to advertisers. Facebook is a sterling example. Lanier believes that you should be reimbursed for this information through a series of hundreds or even thousands of micropayments which would be used to...

A fascinating and enjoyable read Free: The Future of a Radical Price is an exploration of the future. It is an exploration of how advancements in computer technology, specifically the ultra-cheap price of computerized data storage, has changed the flow of information and data and has changed the rules of data-based business. Written on computers using free programs, accessing free internet at coffee houses and using as many free sources as possible, such as Wikipedia* and blogs, Anderson discusses the concept of "free" as a business tool from its beginnings to now. Anderson keeps a light and breezy tone throughout the book, but don't let that lull you into a sense that weighty business concepts are not being discussed. The exploration of "free" starts with marketing ideas such as the ubiquitous "Buy One Get One Free" to ideas such as giving the razor handles away but charging for the blades as he discusses the beginnings of American business i...