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From the New York Times, G. Paschal Zachary presents a brief discussion of the risks of innovation. if consumers are motivated, they may accept tecnological changes more readily. Professor Zachary uses the Toyota Prius and its unusual user interface as an example.

BoingBoing had another post on a similar theme. Joel Johnson is glad his father replaced his old Windows computer with a Mac. Johnson describes how he uses the Mac’s features to help his father by remote control.

Here’s a bit of chill in the broadband economy.

Monday, rumors swirled that Sprint would lay off several thousand workers this year, after laying off 5000 employees last year. The Nextel network integration has taken more time and money than anticipated, while the company’s WiMax venture stagnates.

Mobile telcos live and die on corporate sales. Nextel customers have been loyal to a fault, but that annoying push-to-talk feature is old news. Companies want lower prices, more features, and superior coverage.

Tuesday, Nokia announced it will layoff 2300 workers at a German manufacturing plant. Production will be moved to lower-cost countries like Romania. Nokia has laid off 9000 more workers in its joint venture with Siemens.

InformationWeek mentions both companies in this article.

In this Reuters article that appeared on Friday, German politicians have vowed to punish Nokia for the plant closure.

Another Reuters article on Friday confirmed that Sprint is laying off 4,000 workers. The company has also confirmed that over 900,000 subscribers have left Sprint in the last year. Sprint stock took a 25 percent dive on the news.