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I thought kids just squirted their info these days.

Nice straw man and projection, dude (or dudette). But you're projecting a no-nuke agenda. What I do have is a no-regulatory-capture agenda. I have this quaint notion that regardless of industry if you deliberately shave your safety margins to the point of causing a BP Macondo or other disasters of that scale, you should go to jail for a significant portion of your life. Without the fear of jail these disasters will continue to happen, at least in the US. I imagine in China some folks got bulletized.

The Fukushima meltdown didn't have to happen: Japan Nuclear Disaster Caps Decades of Faked Reports, Accidents. I've read other reports of non-functioning standby diesels in US-based boiling water reactors. Do you really think it's any better here or whereever you live?

The current business as usual culture where you can gut safety margins in favor of profits, and collect and keep huge cash bonuses during the years that go by until the blowup happens, make nuclear power untenable. Nuclear energy accidents destroy land for centuries. By contrast even the gulf of mexico will mostly recover in my lifetime, though I won't be eating any food from the gulf for a decade.

And yes, I cheerfully acknowlege that scary fusion reactor that's irradiating me multiple frequencies every day. I'll walk on the shady side of the street.

I know this is a cold question to ask, but I keep thinking that this is Japan, not Haiti, which is still working to put itself back together a year after its earthquake (for example: http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/healthday/650833.html )

If donations are needed, I'll gladly chip in. I just hate the idea of making "feel-good" donations when there are equally pressing issues around the globe that may be in greater need of support.

> It is actually rare to have a company succeed by
> increasing prices by distorting the value of their
> product (for example, Apple).

It is 2011, can we GET OVER this meme that all Apple gear is overpriced? There IS great value in those products. Yes, you can get cheaper PCs but they're generally crappy. If you spec one out feature-for-feature they're pretty close. Just because they don't want to make cheap gear does not mean they're overpriced. And Apple has the best customer service of any computer maker. THAT'S what your money gets you. They're #3 in customer service out of ALL industries--only behind L.L. Bean and USAA Insurance. The next highest computer or electronics company is Dell, way down at #23. Again, this is stuff that's worth something.

iPods were a bit overpriced at the start (then again, you're comparing a small device with an expensive, 1.8" HDD to heavier devices with 2.5" drives and worse battery life) but they became competitive across the board pretty quickly. Here's Steve Ballmer talking about iPod pricing vs. Zune pricing in 2006:

Q: How much money will you lose per Zune?
A: None. Apple put the hammer down there, dropped the price down to $249. If they had been $299, it would have been nicer... So we're at $249, too. We don't make a lot of money, not to start out.

And we've seen in the last year that NO ONE can deliver a tablet with the speed, size, weight, and battery life of the iPad. Devices with the same size screen cost hundreds more, or for the same price you can get something half the size.

TFA's conclusion is that prices need to be lower but what it SHOULD be is that things need to be a better value. I don't pirate music because you can't beat $.99 or even $1.29 for a song that is complete, high quality, no gaps, isn't cut off at the end, doesn't have one second of the following track, and has good metadata and album art. I don't buy movies online, though, because that is NOT a good value proposition: you're much more limited on how many and what kinds of devices you can watch it on. I get more features AND more portability by buying and ripping a physical disc.

> It is actually rare to have a company succeed by
> increasing prices by distorting the value of their
> product (for example, Apple).

It is 2011, can we GET OVER this meme that all Apple gear is overpriced? There IS great value in those products. Yes, you can get cheaper PCs but they're generally crappy. If you spec one out feature-for-feature they're pretty close. Just because they don't want to make cheap gear does not mean they're overpriced. And Apple has the best customer service of any computer maker. THAT'S what your money gets you. They're #3 in customer service out of ALL industries--only behind L.L. Bean and USAA Insurance. The next highest computer or electronics company is Dell, way down at #23. Again, this is stuff that's worth something.

iPods were a bit overpriced at the start (then again, you're comparing a small device with an expensive, 1.8" HDD to heavier devices with 2.5" drives and worse battery life) but they became competitive across the board pretty quickly. Here's Steve Ballmer talking about iPod pricing vs. Zune pricing in 2006:

Q: How much money will you lose per Zune?
A: None. Apple put the hammer down there, dropped the price down to $249. If they had been $299, it would have been nicer... So we're at $249, too. We don't make a lot of money, not to start out.

And we've seen in the last year that NO ONE can deliver a tablet with the speed, size, weight, and battery life of the iPad. Devices with the same size screen cost hundreds more, or for the same price you can get something half the size.

TFA's conclusion is that prices need to be lower but what it SHOULD be is that things need to be a better value. I don't pirate music because you can't beat $.99 or even $1.29 for a song that is complete, high quality, no gaps, isn't cut off at the end, doesn't have one second of the following track, and has good metadata and album art. I don't buy movies online, though, because that is NOT a good value proposition: you're much more limited on how many and what kinds of devices you can watch it on. I get more features AND more portability by buying and ripping a physical disc.

Unlike at traditional software companies, there are no deadlines. The Linux kernel is done when Torvalds decides it's ready.

Canonical would like everything to be synchronized because that helps their marketing. However, open source is a meritocracy. Good code gets picked up because people find it useful, not because of billion-dollar marketing campaigns for things like WP7..

Ubuntu is a good example of the slip in quality when you try to meet an artificial schedule. People are complaining about how every new release breaks something. Contrast that with the market leader - RedHat. Look how long they've been between release cycles. Canonical might want more rapid releases because they need the hype. RedHat doesn't. And unlike Canonical, RedHat is profitable.

There are a few ways in which gasoline in subsidized in the US. First oil firms tend to pay a lower tax.

A lower tax than...? According to Business Week in 2008:

According to Securities & Exchange Commission filings, Exxon paid an effective tax rate of 34% to the U.S. government in 2007, or $5.12 billion. While cheaper than rates from some foreign governments, it's still a higher rate than many U.S. companies pay. A BusinessWeek collaboration with Capital IQ in December, 2007, found that the average percentage of earnings spent on taxes by companies that make up the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was 26%

What do you mean by them paying lower taxes?

Some distort the truth by bringing up laws that have not existed in 20 years. Such subjects are useful to consider as the repeal of such tax was a increase in subsidy

Really, you're counting the repeal of a tax as an increase in subsidy? So since the high water mark for income tax is right after WWII when the highest tax rate was over 90%, according to you the entire population, along with every single company, is being heavily subsidized? And since we no longer pay any taxes to Britain, but we used to, we're being subsidized by them too?

The real subsidy is that fuel, not a critical item like food, is not subject to sales tax.

I don't understand. You already mentioned that there are state and federal taxes on gasoline. Sales tax is just a state-level tax. Why do you care that it's called a gasoline tax and not a general sales tax?

This means that while in most states people pay tax on food but not fuel. This makes no sense that we would make food more expensive but not fuel.

My state has separate sales tax rates for different types of food. Basic food items have low taxes, or even no tax.

I am not sure how Oil is overly taxed. Exxon paid no income taxes in 2009.

I was curious about this bold claim so I looked it up. I'm assuming you read the ABC, Forbes, or Mother Jones article that whined about Exxon paying $0 income tax to the US in 2009. And then you failed to read the followup from the original journalist who started it all by misunderstanding a financial statement.

Microsoft couldn't let this go unchecked.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-06/microsoft-s-ballmer-to-invest-billions-in-cloud-data-centers.html

Someone at the top of the ladder @ Microsoft must have seen where this was going.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-06/microsoft-s-ballmer-to-invest-billions-in-cloud-data-centers.html

i wonder if western governments know about that argument - it might be convenient when it comes to providing support for foreign regimes that do horrible things like torture and murder their citizens. hey, you could call it Realpolitik...?

Many times the complaint about western governments is that they impose their morals and customs on other countries. In this case, the western custom of an 8 hr work day must be adhered to is being advocated by you.

Also the problem was the number of suicides, not murders. Out of the hundreds of thousands of workers that Foxconn employs I think there have been 20 reported suicides. I don't to belittle the deaths of those who died, but that's a very small percentage considering that the two major plants of Foxconn employ about 750,000 workers.

Working for Foxconn means long hours, however, such is the normal in China. According to this BusinessWeek article, the employees want long hours because it means more money for them as they are paid overtime. As for the controlled environments, Foxconn has said initially when these factories were built, there was nothing around them: no shops, no restaraunts, etc. as they tended to be in the middle of nowhere. To keep employee turnover low, they had to build the amenities in the factories. If you're not aware even today, keeping employees is not easy in China today. Employees jump companies all the time.

Really good article this past week on Japan's ebook industry.

In Cramped Japan, the iPad Is the Home Library
Families save space by paying startups to digitize their books
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_08/b4216033233882.htm

For $1 a book, I would be digitizing darn near all my books.

Which further proves his point. Bringing in an American MS guy is not in line with the aforementioned strategy.

Angry but polite mob of Canadians arriving in 5... 4... 3... 2....

(Yeah, I know, the reply will say "North America", but, still....)

Yeah, that's great. Too bad most of the Tea Party supporters seem to be oblivious or unconcerned that a ton of the money flowing into the "movement" is actually coming from some wealthy quarters (Koch Brothers, anyone?). They have no interest in you, your common cause, or any ideology. I'd question whether or not they even really care about the country or society. Folks like that just want to stay on top. They're using the Tea Party to make sure they're unregulated - so they can do whatever they want to their workers, pollute, lower their own taxes, move money around, and make sure that anything they need - infrastructure, pollution cleanup, whatever, are being paid for by the rest of us.

Your genuine dissatisfaction with how things are today is being used by the very people who have caused the situation to line their own pockets. Americans actually think that income is more evenly distributed than it actually is in this country today, and think it should be even more evenly distributed than they think it is. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_44/b4201008238184.htm

Enjoy serfdom. Because to a large part of that that upper 1%, that's all most Americans will ever be.

Which coincidentally is more or less the position of Russia's president.

Why not mandate that all travel plans must be sent ahead of time to a central data base that will keep the records just in case?

Oh, you mean like "Secure Flight"?

Yes, right now ARM + Android is about tablets and other mobile devices. But who said that they will stay there?

What keeps the wintel duopoly going is not the superiority of their technology, but all the software that run on the platform.

When there are sufficient number of quality application available for the ARM+Android platform, the new platform will be able to replace the old one by moving into PCs and laptops as well

This is a classic example of the kind of development discussed in "The Innovator's Dilemma" by By Clayton M. Christensen http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/christensen.htm

Considering the love-fest for Google around these parts, but they've been effectively dodging taxes for a few years. Why would it be a shock if politicians, celebrities and sundry millionaires / billionaires do the same?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_44/b4201043146825.htm

While I am all for businesses making a profit, I am NOT all for a multi-billion dollar company paying effectively 2.4% while I continue to pay nearly 30% of my income. The argument "Well, that gets turned into research and good pay for employees" still doesn't float IMO, when you have the higher executives of Google being paid millions. Reduce the salaries of those PHBs down to something reasonable, pay the rank and file programmers and researchers that money, and pay taxes like everyone else.

The statement This comes a week after Trend Micro released a mobility security app for Android. is pure fact.

There is no opinion in there, only the one you inferred in your head. And at least it was a fact, not some leading rhetorical question that is obviously known to be false by the asker (think TV news stations and their "Could XXX be the YYY that kills you? More at 11." bullshit).

And that's pretty much what T linked FA did with their title...
Either The Trend Micro Chairman Is Completely Clueless Or He Is Spreading FUD

The problem is when editorials are submitted as "news" instead of spending 10 seconds googling for the actual source.

Now here's some editorializing for you, since I'm a proud member in this gallery of peanuts:

Yes, it's damn fishy and damn obvious that TM is using this as a "free" marketing ploy. It's a press release, you know where those things usually come from? Marketing departments. I would bet that that Mr. Chang himself didn't even make the statement, but maybe approved it be released under his name during some board meeting.

Bloomberg Businessweek has a great story about Wikipedia.
FTA: A 2005 study in the journal Nature found that in a sample of articles, there were an average of 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia. (Britannica objected to the Nature study, calling the methodology "fatally flawed.") Wikipedia, however, has problems Brittanica doesn't. An error corrected in Britannica stays corrected; in Wikipedia, it may not. (By the same token, rapidly changing events can be covered in pace by Wikipedia.)

Yeah, and ask Mathew Shepard [wikipedia.org] about Christian tolerance. It's easy to find the exception that proves the rule, but the reality is that Christians are hardly better than Muslims in that respect. They just have better PR.

How about if I ask you since he is dead? Could you provide some actual evidence that Christianity played role in his murder, or are you simply engaging in casual libel as a result of unenlightened views or ignorance? From what I see, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of Christian practice or belief involved, quite the contrary. A gay man who took drugs was killed by two drug users/dealers, one of whom was apparently a bisexual. I realize that make the narrative a bit messy, but please, enlighten us.

Former Laramie Police Detective Ben Fritzen, one of the lead investigators in the case, also believed robbery was the primary motive. "Matthew Shepard's sexual preference or sexual orientation certainly wasn't the motive in the homicide," he said.

"If it wasn't Shepard, they would have found another easy target. What it came down to really is drugs and money and two punks that were out looking for it," Fritzen said.
New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder

O'Connor says he never heard McKinney express any anti-gay attitudes. In his interview with Vargas, O'Connor reveals his belief that McKinney is bisexual. "I know of an instance where he had a three-way, two guys and one gal," he said. "Because he did it with me."

O'Connor added, "I know he's bisexual. There ain't no doubt in my mind. He is bisexual."
New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder

Asked directly whether he targeted and attacked Shepard because he was gay, McKinney told Vargas, "No. I did not. ... I would say it wasn't a hate crime. All I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him."

But if the attackers were just trying to rob someone to get a drug fix, why did they beat Shepard so savagely?

Rerucha attributes McKinney's rage and his savage beating of Shepard to his drug abuse. "The methamphetamine just fueled to this point where there was no control. It was a horrible, horrible, horrible murder. It was a murder that was once again driven by drugs," Rerucha said.

Dr. Rick Rawson, a professor at UCLA who has studied the link between methamphetamine and violence, tells "20/20" the drug can trigger episodes of violent behavior.

"In the first weeks after you've stopped using it, the kinds of triggers that can set off an episode are completely unpredictable. It can be: you say a word with the wrong inflection, you touch someone on the shoulder. It's completely unpredictable as to what will set somebody off" Rawson said.
New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder

If they were doing meth, they were probably doing pot too.
Long-Time Marijuana Use Linked to Psychosis in Young Adults

Another widely held belief about the case is that McKinney and Shepard had never met before their fateful encounter at the Fireside Lounge. But a number of sources tell "20/20" the two were not strangers.

"Everybody knew Matt Shepard was a partier just like Aaron, just like the rest of us," said Bopp.

In fact, Bopp said he had seen Shepard and McKinney together at parties. "Aaron was selling [drugs] and him and Matt would go off to the side and they'd come back. And Matt would be doing some meth then," he said.

Though they frequented the same party scene, McKinney maintains he had never met Shepard before the night of the crime and wonders why people might

Addictive Potential

Long-term marijuana abuse can lead to addiction; that is, compulsive drug seeking and abuse despite the known harmful effects upon functioning in the context of family, school, work, and recreational activities. Estimates from research suggest that about 9 percent of users become addicted to marijuana; this number increases among those who start young (to about 17 percent) and among daily users (25-50 percent).

Long-term marijuana abusers trying to quit report withdrawal symptoms including: irritability, sleeplessness, decreased appetite, anxiety, and drug craving, all of which can make it difficult to remain abstinent. These symptoms begin within about 1 day following abstinence, peak at 2-3 days, and subside within 1 or 2 weeks following drug cessation.3

Physical Dependence

Two decades ago, addiction medicine doctors and counselors believed that the difference between substance abuse and substance dependence was whether tolerance and withdrawal were present. Now it is known that, although tolerance or withdrawal may occur in individuals with addiction, the condition of addiction can exist without any sign of tolerance or withdrawal. Still, a common question of interest is, does marijuana produce physical dependence (that is, tolerance or withdrawal)?

By the twenty-first century, the answers to these questions are clear. Tolerance does develop to THC (the active chemical in marijuana). Moreover, withdrawal definitely occurs in some users. The effects of this withdrawal are generally the opposite of the effects of intoxication: anxiety and insomnia instead of relaxation; loss of appetite rather than hunger; excessive salivation instead of dry mouth; and also decreased pulse, irritability, and sometimes tremor. People who have used marijuana as a way to control underlying anger may also experience irritability, increased mood swings, and even an increase in aggressive behavior, as symptoms of withdrawal.

Long-Time Marijuana Use Linked to Psychosis in Young Adults

Respiratory Effects of Marijuana and Tobacco Use in a U.S. Sample

Emphysema linked to smoking marijuana

I think of scams as cheating someone. The growers, distributors, and consumers are consenting adults happily do business with each other. The only scam I see is big, intrusive government types propping up a failed policy.

On the contrary, the growers and distributors are cheating the consumers. They allow them to believe that it is a harmless product, when that isn't really true.

On the other hand...

Long-Time Marijuana Use Linked to Psychosis in Young Adults

Young adults who used marijuana as teens were more likely than those who didn’t to develop schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms including hallucinations and delusions, an Australian study found.

Those who used the drug for six or more years were twice as likely to develop a psychosis such as schizophrenia or to have delusional disorders than those who never used marijuana, according to research released online by the Archives of General Psychiatry. They were also four times as likely to score high on a list of psychotic-like experiences.

The findings build on previous research and shows that marijuana use isn’t as harmless as some people think, lead study author John McGrath said yesterday in an e-mail. The study was the first to look at sibling pairs to discount genetic or environmental influence and still find marijuana linked to later psychosis, the authors said in the study.

You left off the part where other people tell groups of potential crazies WHO TO KILL.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/sarah-palin/dont-get-demoralized-get-organized-take-back-the-20/373854973434

Scroll to the bottom.

The read up on her rhetoric about reloading.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-10/-don-t-retreat-reload-palin-tells-republicans-in-new-orleans.html

Who is doing the buying though? It seems many large companies in China are owned, or at least in the control of, the government. So when an overseas company is bought, is the buyer basically the Chinese government?

I can imagine that being the real problem here - not Chinese "commercial interests", but rather the Chinese government controlling all these foreign assets. Even if they are being privately bought, surely the Chinese government can tell them how high to jump at any time.

We have a similar problem here in Oz. It has recently come to light that China is "investing" quite seriously is our farm land.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-14/china-investment-in-australian-farms-rises-10-fold-agents-say.html

As an aside, we are now importing apples from China - either because they're cheaper to produce than our own, or as part of some trade deal, as we grow more than enough here. Either way, it's insane, particularly given China has lax, in any, controls over pesticide use, environmental damage, etc. - all those things we fight so hard for in the West. All now completely undermined by globalisation.

I think nowadays we can see that unconstrained capitalism is completely dysfunctional, and that Globalisation was entered into without any decent controls or forethought over market and other abuses. But the real hypocrisy is that governments will cry "free market" while manipulating it to suit themselves, often at the long-term expense, since governments only think till the next election.

Which is what makes China and its ilk so dangerous. They are in a position to think long term. The winner of a chess game is usually the one who can plan more moves ahead.

Why the hell is Slashdot linking to some cnet blog instead of the actual article? Is it because "anonymous reader" is a cnet shill?

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-30/apple-sued-over-applications-giving-information-to-advertisers.html

And you still don't seem to understand what "monopoly" means. Here's a hint: there's a reason it starts with "mono".

there is no difference in between oligopoly or monopoly from citizens' side.

- Can amazon send cops to raid my house or give me a Rodney King-style beating? Nope.
- Can amazon arrest me and put me in jail? Nope.

Under a capitalist state, corporations like Amazon have the government to raid your house or put you in jail for them, under laws like the DMCA. Adobe had the FBI to arrest Dmitry Sklyarov. The BSA has U.S. marshals to carry guns for them. Why should they bother to have their own cops or jails?

The overwhelming consensus SPI for flying cars is twenty years.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2004/tc20040825_4462_tc119.htm
http://www.kurzweilai.net/forums/topic/why-flying-cars-are-a-long-way-off
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:TuZyTN2xWuwJ:www.slideshare.net/RichStrong/magic-dragon-flying-car-project-presentation+flying+car+20+years+-%22your+flying+car+awaits%22&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us http://www.davinciinstitute.com/papers/where-is-my-flying-car/
http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/flying-cars-just-give-it-20-years-or-so/page-2/
http://markctu.blogspot.com/2007/08/failed-prediction-flying-car.html

Despite the story's GO AMERICA slant, a lot of material is going straight to Japan, where most of it is consumed in the first place. Like to Hitachi: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BK5PL20101221

Oh look. They also signed deals with Sumitomo and Mitsubishi: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T101219002181.htm

They got huge piles of cash from Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi...which is why it's hilarious to hear the CEO of Molycorp waving American flags in various quotes. Oh, and Molycorp's stock has shot up since their IPO in July: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-28/molycorp-s-ipo-aims-at-chinese-grip-on-smart-bombs.html

Also, how interesting that the EPA announces cleanup plan of Molycorp site just a few days ago: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12460111

The EPA said contaminated material from the Molycorp site includes about 328 million tons of acid-generating waste rock, more than 100 million tons of tailings and acid-rock drainage at the mine and seepage at the tailings facility.

Anyone want to place bets on whether or not the US government will press environmental regulations on Molycorp this time, now that national security interests are involved?

This smacks of isolationism and ignorance as to how economics work. My guns and butter are more valuable being sold to Japan than in America, then sell to Japan. I get more money out of it, Uncle Sam gets more taxes out of it, my American employees get paid for creating the product, and I don't have to worry about Japan suddenly stockpiling MY products in order to stifle trade. It's literally the biggest amount of Win/Win that can occur. China made mining in America not as profitable as importing it. Now that that is over, the mine is reopening. It's as simple as that. That radioactive waste water snippet did raise my eyebrow though.

Despite the story's GO AMERICA slant, a lot of material is going straight to Japan, where most of it is consumed in the first place. Like to Hitachi: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BK5PL20101221

Oh look. They also signed deals with Sumitomo and Mitsubishi: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T101219002181.htm

They got huge piles of cash from Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi...which is why it's hilarious to hear the CEO of Molycorp waving American flags in various quotes. Oh, and Molycorp's stock has shot up since their IPO in July: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-28/molycorp-s-ipo-aims-at-chinese-grip-on-smart-bombs.html

Also, how interesting that the EPA announces cleanup plan of Molycorp site just a few days ago: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12460111

The EPA said contaminated material from the Molycorp site includes about 328 million tons of acid-generating waste rock, more than 100 million tons of tailings and acid-rock drainage at the mine and seepage at the tailings facility.

Anyone want to place bets on whether or not the US government will press environmental regulations on Molycorp this time, now that national security interests are involved?

I sent this in to Slashdot yesterday and it was, of course, not used.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-23/why-businesses-can-t-stand-free-markets-veronique-de-rugy.html

It's a great article in Bloomberg businessweek about how so many companies DON'T want a free market and all the hypocrisy going around about the term...

Isn't it illegal for MasterCard to knowingly take part in illegal transactions anyway?

This is hardly "internet police", this is common sense.

Anyway, if MasterCard is so bad you can go to the other vendor. Although when they both block something legal, this can cause problems.

What is needed here is that they either get in big trouble for taking part in illegal transactions even if they don't know, or they have to agree to some "common carrier" like status in which they are not allowed to discriminate against any transaction that is legal.

Which probably has nothing to do with Zynga surpassing EA in net worth.

The fact that Zynga makes crappy, bug filled games for 1/100th of the money that EA does, and then runs them chronically underpowered with a shoestring data center budget (constant complaints from users about speed and performance) would give most of the EA guys a hissy fit in the back rooms.

Then there is the piracy deal. Zynga stole some of its ideas, and hardly anybody can compete with them anyways on Facebook. Either way, they are not spending tons of money on SecuROM and the like.

So from EA's executives perspective Zynga does not have to work nearly as hard or deal with nearly as much bullshit and gets more money doing it......

It's Jealousy and now EA is going to try and imitate Zynga :)

So... an American jury finds in favor of an American company in an American court, and orders a foreign company to pay a huge sum after almost no deliberation at all.

SAP abandoned - in August - any pretense of contesting Oracle's claims of copyright infringement. SAP Proposes Not to Contest Oracle's Copyright Claims

That implies as well that SAP had accepted the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal court.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- On the losing end of a $1.3 billion jury verdict for stealing a rival's intellectual property, SAP AG is facing the difficult decision about whether to double down -- by appealing -- or folding.
Either route is going to cost the German company dearly, and will have implications for how other technology companies approach copyrights.
A jury in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Tuesday found that SAP's behavior in plundering software and documents from archenemy Oracle Corp.'s secured websites was so egregious that it awarded Oracle nearly all of the damages it was seeking.
If SAP appeals, it will have to endure several more years of disastrous publicity, a jackpot for Oracle.
"I'm not sure what the grounds for an appeal are -- I'm not sure what the argument would be," said Patrick Walravens, an analyst with JMP Securities. "It's not like this was a trial that was done in a quick and dirty manner. It was three years and hundreds of millions in legal fees -- things were pretty well vetted."
The judge in the case still has to formally affirm the jury's verdict, and could reduce the award. An order could come sometime in the next week.
Many analysts suspect that SAP will stand down and try and figure out a way to pay one of the biggest software piracy penalties on record. Doing so would put the $10 million acquisition of the tiny, now-shuttered company called TomorrowNow that landed SAP in this mess that much farther in the rearview mirror. SAP at a crossroads after losing $1.3B verdict

A disruptive technology is more along the lines of stuff described in The Innovator's Dilemma

That's why they've introduced the body scanners.

...which only penetrate a few tenths of a millimeter into the skin. Consequently, nothing stored within any of areas of the human body "that are used primarily for the storage of liquid" will be visible to the body scanner.

Please try to keep up, here!

May I humbly suggest that perhaps before being snarky to others, you should try some critical thinking? Because clearly, you either haven't got the faintest idea what you are talking about or you are being deliberately obtuse.

if you own the factory, you actually own the means of production, and therefore you actually are in power

This must be the reason that why FoxConn has a gross margin of 2.8% (previously 6.6% before the suicide workers scandal) http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-31/hon-hai-foxconn-international-tumble-after-earnings.html, while Apple has a margin of 41% http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/Ratios.jsp?tkr=AAPL, because Foxconn has control of manufacturing and therefore has all the power.

Having this power, FoxConn can "lock" Apple out of its factories and Apple will do absolutely nothing instead of shifting production to any number of interchangable factories not just in China but anywhere in the world. And of course, since FoxConn has all the power, if they end their partnership with Apple they will be able to sell fake Apple products because they will magically have the Apple brand and distribution channels in the West (which is still where a great deal of the money is). And using their enormous leverage of selling products at a 2% margin FoxConn will be able to attract the engineering and design talent that will come up with the next product that will render current Apple products completely obsolete.

Get over yourself. Manufacturers in China have no power unless they are actually able to sell their products for a reasonable profit, and they have even less power because they are competing in a commodity market where one manufacturer is no better than the other and only have direct access to the Chinese marketplace (which has nowhere near the amount of money as the West). Companies in the developed world, on the other hand, have direct access to rich consumers and can draw on talent not just from the advanced nations but anywhere in the world. And this will remain so, as long as the companies in the West stay ahead do not become complacent (like the American auto industry in the 80's). If the Chinese do catch up, then all the better, competition is always good. Witness how the rise of Japan, Taiwan and Korea has made electronics much, much better during the 80's and 90's.

This is Apple's Achilles Heel. When demand outstrips the AT&T bandwidth, an iXxx will no longer be as desirable.

Demand has already outstripped AT&T bandwidth. That happened two years ago. That's the whole point of the story.

With that as the historical base, we look at AT&T exclusivity ending just at the time when AT&T shows signs of catching up with demand.

Or is that iPhone new contracts actually tapering off. Even tho Apple is selling iPhones like crazy, it hasn't translated into that many new customers for AT&T. They activated a record 5.2 million of the devices last quarter, but gained a net of only 2.6 million new mobile customers. See. So clearly the bandwidth demand growth is starting to slow down.

No one else could have handled the iPhone bandwidth demand back in 2007-2009 period any better than AT&T did.

The Achilles heel of Apple may be when they release a CDMA iPhone for Verizon and people suddenly realize half the stuff they used to do on the iPhone does not work on CDMA where you get Talk OR Data. For that reason, I suspect Verizon does not get an iPhone till Verizon gets LTE.

Also, they never tried to build planes, since it requires a lot more work than trains.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries would beg to differ.

Myth.

I visited some technical factories in China earlier this year and they have gotten to the point where they know they have a high, high turnover rate. The average worker jumps ship in 18 months to get a much, much higher salary.

Obviously, subjecting large corporations to serious penalties under law would be unamerican, and we generally avoid it; but America is crawling with angry and well armed people, many without too much to lose, and spree-killing is something we start practicing in high school.
 

BP could face as much as $17.6 billion in civil penalties, based on a federal panel of experts' estimate on Aug. 2 that about 4.1 million barrels of oil leaked from its well into the Gulf. BP: Now Come the Fines

  BP paid the two largest fines in OSHA history – $87.43 million and $21.36 million – for willful negligence that led to the deaths of 15 workers and injured 170 others in a March 2005 refinery explosion in Texas.
o In September 2005, OSHA cited BP for 296 “Egregious Willful Violations” and other violations associated with the explosion, fining BP $21.36 million and entering into a settlement agreement under which BP agreed to corrective actions to eliminate hazards similar to those that caused the explosion. Cost of Doing Business: BP’s $730 million in fines/settlements + 2 criminal convictions

They don't seem to care about fines, so I guess that trhey are just that ingrained that hurting them is like hurting yourself.

"Protests? In CHINA?!"

Yes, and to great effect:

Strikes in China signal end to era of low-cost labour and cheap exports
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/17/china-strikes-economy

Toyota China Supplier Strike Over; Honda Still in Negotiations
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-17/toyota-china-supplier-strike-over-honda-still-in-negotiations.html

China labor unrest spreads as workers seek more
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6590XX20100610

Foxconn to up wages again at suicide-hit China plant
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6551EX20100606

Chinese workers are demanding a raise
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-06/suicide-tops-2-8-million-years-work-william-pesek-update1-.html

Foxconn, Honda Increase Factory Wages in China
http://www.2point6billion.com/news/2010/06/07/foxconn-honda-increase-factory-wages-in-china-5920.html

Chinese workers are demanding a raise
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-06/suicide-tops-2-8-million-years-work-william-pesek-update1-.html

"Protests? In CHINA?!"

Yes, and to great effect:

Strikes in China signal end to era of low-cost labour and cheap exports
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/17/china-strikes-economy

Toyota China Supplier Strike Over; Honda Still in Negotiations
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-17/toyota-china-supplier-strike-over-honda-still-in-negotiations.html

China labor unrest spreads as workers seek more
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6590XX20100610

Foxconn to up wages again at suicide-hit China plant
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6551EX20100606

Chinese workers are demanding a raise
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-06/suicide-tops-2-8-million-years-work-william-pesek-update1-.html

Foxconn, Honda Increase Factory Wages in China
http://www.2point6billion.com/news/2010/06/07/foxconn-honda-increase-factory-wages-in-china-5920.html

Chinese workers are demanding a raise
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-06/suicide-tops-2-8-million-years-work-william-pesek-update1-.html

"Protests? In CHINA?!"

Yes, and to great effect:

Strikes in China signal end to era of low-cost labour and cheap exports
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/17/china-strikes-economy

Toyota China Supplier Strike Over; Honda Still in Negotiations
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-17/toyota-china-supplier-strike-over-honda-still-in-negotiations.html

China labor unrest spreads as workers seek more
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6590XX20100610

Foxconn to up wages again at suicide-hit China plant
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6551EX20100606

Chinese workers are demanding a raise
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-06/suicide-tops-2-8-million-years-work-william-pesek-update1-.html

Foxconn, Honda Increase Factory Wages in China
http://www.2point6billion.com/news/2010/06/07/foxconn-honda-increase-factory-wages-in-china-5920.html

Chinese workers are demanding a raise
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-06/suicide-tops-2-8-million-years-work-william-pesek-update1-.html

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2010/tc2010061_798891.htm

> Online retailer Diapers.com employs more than 350 of the robots in three warehouses, and is adding "hundreds per month,"

> At El Camino Hospital in Silicon Valley, 19 robots fulfill a range of tasks, from delivering medication and food to taking out trash. Hiring as many humans to make deliveries would have cost the hospital more than $1 million a year, says Ken King, vice-president of facilities and support services. Leasing the robots from Aethon costs $350,000 a year, which helps the hospital contain costs and offer patients affordable health care, he says.

It's already here.

The new Nokia CEO is Stephen Elop, the former head of Microsoft Corp.’s business unit.
Source.

Also there have been talk of and/or more integration of their services:
https://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/aug07/08-22NokiaMSLiveServicesPR.mspx
https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/aug09/08-12pixipr.mspx
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/15/will-microsoft-and-nokia-team-up-to-take-on-apple-google/

As opposed to the union paymasters who donate just as much purely out of feelings of patriotism? The Democrats actually spent $270 million more on this election than the Republicans did:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44216.html

And of course, the real story is how little campaign spending actually appears to impact the outcomes of elections. The Democrats spent less on the Senate and held it. The Republicans spent less on the house and cleaned up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/us/politics/02donate.html

Brown spent a third of what Whitman did and still won as Governor:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-03/brown-beats-whitman-for-california-governor-while-outspent-3-1.html

Fiorina and McMahon spent tens of millions of their own money and lost big for the Senate. etc. etc. etc.

7 to 1 in September, then later in the year it almost evened up to 40% spent was for democrats.

Then the totals for ALL races in House it was 2:1 and total for ALL senate races 4:1 - So yes A HUGE SPENDING SPREE BY GOP PACS. Just not 7-1 outside of September:

In all House races, Republican-leaning outside groups spent $38 million on television, compared with $13 million by Democratic-oriented groups. But Democratic candidates outspent Republican ones, $97 million to $49 million. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also outspent the national Republican Congressional Committee, $30 million to $26 million.

In the Senate, television spending by the candidates has been roughly equal, with both sides spending more than $80 million, while Republican-leaning third-party groups have swamped their Democratic counterparts, $58 million to $21 million. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has outspent its Republican counterpart, but the difference comes nowhere close to eliminating the gap among independent groups.

That's just it - they haven't done anything to reverse the disaster.

The voters collectively know that, despite any propaganda you get out of the media. If the economy was actually improving the voters would not have voted as they did.

Now the Republicans will not do anything different - they are just as beholden to the white collar gangsters in New York as the Democrats were.

I appreciate that you seem to be a well informed conservative, however any number of polls have shown that likely voters have no idea of what any of the facts are regarding the state of the economy and the performance of the Obama administration. This applies to both Dems and Repubs.

For example

This election was about pure emotion and nothing else.