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Quoted – High-Tech Tax Subsidies Do Little Good – Heartland Institute

February 26, 2010 by 9 Comments
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High-Tech Tax Subsidies Do Little Good

Pennsylvania’s attempts to lure high-tech companies by offering big tax incentives have brought only marginal gains, according to a new study.

The Keystone State had a net gain of 43 high-tech employers between 1990 and 2006, but a net loss of 2,850 jobs, according to the study, funded by the Pittsburgh nonprofit Heinz Endowments and conducted by a Washington nonprofit organization called Good Jobs First.

Some, though not all, of these jobs go overseas. Others go to Silicon Valley or other areas with established technology infrastructures that include potential business partners and support businesses—such as law firms—and low-cost utilities and other resources.

“I love Pennsylvania. I live and work here; it’s a beautiful state,” said Scott Testa, professor of business administration at Cabrini College in Philadelphia. “But it’s not the center of the universe as far as technology is concerned.

“That’s Silicon Valley or, to a lesser extent, the Boston area,” he added “Most tech start-ups are small anyway, so they would have a very small tax burden. High-tech companies want a good ecosystem of technology business partners, lawyers, accountants, and talent. Despite globalization, there’s something to be said for being close to the people you are going to do business with.”

Expects States to Persist
That’s why many tech companies, including start-ups, gravitate to Silicon Valley despite a high cost of living and other expenses higher than those offered through some incentive programs, Testa said.

Yet Testa expects state governments to continue to offer targeted tax breaks because they are much easier to get approved than across-the-board corporate tax cuts.

“It’s a lot easier to use a pistol than a shotgun,” Testa said.

http://www.heartland.org/article/27129/Study_HighTech_Tax_Subsidies_Do_Little_Good.html

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Quoted – Learning the Way of the Snow Leopard – MacNewsWorld

November 30, 2009 by 3 Comments
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When confronted with a new piece of technology, some users will jump right in, but others may want to learn from an expert how to get the most out of it. Class On Demand puts 13 lessons onto a DVD that Mac greenhorns can use straight from their new computers. However, as many vendors operating in the Apple universe have found, one of their biggest rivals may turn out to be Apple itself.

As many developers have learned, operating in the Apple universe can be an uncertain proposition because one never knows when one may be in a face off for market share with one’s benefactor. “Apple’s going to get more involved in training themselves,” Scott Testa a professor of business administration at Cabrini College in Philadelphia told to MacNewsWorld.

“They’re going to start wrapping around training more and more with the retail experience,” he continued. “You’re going to see stores that are larger and have a larger training component in them.”

“They see training as a business that’s complementary to the rest of the things they’re doing,” he added. “An educated customer is generally a better customer. The more educated your customers are in your products, the less chance you have of losing them.”

“That’s not going to make trainers happy,” he declared, “but the market is so large that Apple could in no way satisfy the whole demand in it.”

http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/Learning-the-Way-of-the-Snow-Leopard-68712.html

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Quoted – Microsoft Opens First Retail Store – Brandweek

October 30, 2009 by 8 Comments
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Microsoft has jumped into the retail arena and opened its first store in Scottsdale, Ariz., featuring interactive technology and a sleek modern design. This is the first of several planned stores for the software giant, the next opening on Oct. 29 in Mission Viejo, Calif., and is being celebrated by the company as an opportunity to connect with customers and elevate the Microsoft brand. But some analysts see this move into retail, and even the design of the stores, as derivative of archrival Apple.

Microsoft is emphasizing the personalization that the new stores will offer, with consumers able to customize their hardware with external “skins” and create an original ring tone for their Windows mobile phone. When a customer purchases a computer, they will have a 15-minute session with one of the employees to get set up their applications, passwords and personal preferences. The store includes a Microsoft Answers Suite, where technical advisors offer assistance to patrons with tech issues.

“The idea of customizing a product on a mass scale, there’s a branding experience about that and there’s a connection with the customer—all that stuff is usually good,” said Scott Testa, professor of business at Cabrini College. But Testa supports Frankel’s outlook on Microsoft’s originality as a brand: “Microsoft copies everything from Apple, so why wouldn’t they copy their stores?”

Testa believes that in opening stores when it has, Microsoft followed the company pattern of waiting until something was “tried and true” before jumping in. Nonetheless, he believes that entering the retail arena will be a good thing for Microsoft, and that it is better late than never.

“I don’t think they see it as a big profit driver. I think they see it as a brand-building experience and marketing experience more than anything. This will be a grain of sand on the whole beach of Microsoft’s revenues and operations,” said Testa. “But from a branding perspective it makes a lot of sense. The timing’s good, they get some press for the stores, Windows 7 is coming out and the holiday season is coming up. It makes sense.”

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/shopper-marketing/e3i834106c352ea8687e4f54f2a9dc07fc1

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Quoted – Ecommerce Times – Wikipedia to Tinge Suspect Entries With Orange Cast

September 4, 2009 by 10 Comments
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Wikipedia wants to give users more confidence in the reliability of its information, so it has come up with a color-coding scheme that will assign an orange background to less-trustworthy information — the darker, the more suspect — and a white background to content that ranks high for accuracy. However, Wikipedia hasn’t said much about how it will arrive at its rankings.

College students rely on Wikipedia too much, said Scott Testa, a business professor at Cabrini College, the problem is not limited to that site. Rather, many younger people have developed the habit of automatically turning to the Internet to find authoritative resources.

Wikipedia is not riddled with errors, in Testa’s view: “Nine times out of 10, I would say, an entry is accurate.”

The problem is that 1 percent of errors.

“That has soured it as a source, especially for people in academia,” noted Testa.

WikiTrust will help — as will the larger push to greater transparency and credibility on the Web.

“Web 2.0 information sources, in general, are moving in this direction,” Testa observed. “It is a sign that the technology is maturing.”

sers more confidence in the reliability of its information, so it has come up with a color-coding scheme that will assign an orange background to less-trustworthy information — the darker, the more suspect — and a white background to content that ranks high for accuracy. However, Wikipedia hasn’t said much about how it will arrive at its rankings.

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Wikipedia-to-Tinge-Suspect-Entries-With-Orange-Cast-68004.html?wlc=1252062543

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More cell phone users dropping landlines

May 16, 2009 by 2 Comments
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_go_ot/us_cell_phones_only;_ylt=ArgTH1S1CPZatxb6.KR0tArv5rEF

In a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession, the number of U.S. households opting for only cell phones has for the first time surpassed those that just have traditional landlines

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