EclecticLip

This semi-recent New York Times post is about DVD’s being unreadable four years after they were recorded.  It ties into one of my musings over the years — whether a medium’s information density is inverse to durability or recoverability. Or phrased differently, is the high storage density of electronic media a crippling strength, because the data becomes too “fragile”?
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The sturdy clay tablets of Sumeria have lasted thousands of years.

Paper and animal hide can store far more information per kilogram, but rarely last as long - if the Nag Hammadi Library or the Dead Sea Scrolls were stored in an area with any appreciable moisture (say, Vancouver, BC, Canada) they probably wouldn’t've survived the nearly two thousand years until rediscovery! Fortunately, copies are easier to make.

And electronic storage is the densest — but least durable — of all.  (Four years?!)

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In the past few decades, GM has sunk while Toyota has soared.  I suspect a big part of this is that GM extended division of labour too far.  The principle of division of labour went from being a strength, to a crippling strength.
Specifically, by dividing “manufacturing” from “improving manufacturing” and assigning specialists to each (line workers and engineers, respectively) GM dammed up the supply of cost-cutting solutions.  The people with the most expertise couldn’t contribute.
In contrast, Toyota kept “manufacturing” and “improving manufacturing” together — and so benefited (and continues to benefit) from a torrent of ideas for improvement.

Pericles made an analogous point in his Funeral Oration during the Peloponnesian War, describing why Athens would beat Sparta: words to the effect that “Sparta has one leader but we have thousands”, in reference to Athens’ democracy.

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Mish (Mike Shedlock) has a great article on the direness of GM’s situation. Will they — and Ford — survive the depression heading the US’s way? The stock charts (in the link) don’t give reason for comfort.

The stat which most caught my attention was the rate of new car sales — within a span of a month, down from ~14 million to a mere ~12 million, the lowest rate in 15 years.

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On the topic of stock charts, GE isn’t looking too good either (hat tip again, to Mish). From what I remember, in the 90’s and early 00’s, the thinking was that GE’s financial arm (GE Capital) was the engine of its growth.

Like so many “crippling strengths” it appears GE Capital will lead GE into dire straits. If its condition at all resembles other US lenders’, GE will be in for a world of hurt. In the next couple years, I wouldn’t be surprised if GE fell from 2nd-biggest market cap company in the US (as of late June 2008) to tenth. Or worse. This link here seems to track the Dow components’ market caps…