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This is an old wive's tale that deserves to die. The ARPANet was NOT built as an experiment in resiliant networking; it was built by DARPA to connect scientists so they could share all the large computers that DARPA was funding.

See: Where Wizards Stay Up Late
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Wizards-Stay-Late-Inte rnet/dp/0684832674

and
http://www.businessweek.com/1996/38/b349359.htm

Don't pick sides, pick games.

If you want to try to predict games, here is an interesting news article on the Wii that was from a later /. article. Just some snippets that I found most interesting...

Miyamoto: We started work on the Wii around the time the GameCube went on sale in 2001. [Internally, the Wii had the codename "Revolution."] We started with the idea that we wanted to come up with a unique game interface. The consensus was that power isn't everything for a console. Too many powerful consoles can't coexist. It's like having only ferocious dinosaurs. They might fight and hasten their own extinction.

Miyamoto: We had to compromise on graphics and give up on a powerful chip. Many of our employees initially wanted high-definition graphics. But they agreed with us that graphics wouldn't matter if the games weren't fun to play. That said, the Wii is much faster than the GameCube.

Miyamoto: The DS prepared the way for the Wii. The DS's unique interface had traction with nongamers. That made us think we had a shot at reaching a broader audience.

Miyamoto: The classic controller was something we had become fond of and gamers had become comfortable with. It had many important elements. But it also had come to dictate a lot of what went into games--the way graphics were made, the way battles were fought in role-playing games, the arc of in-game stories. They were all being made to fit one standard. Creativity was being stifled, and the range of games was narrowing.

There are examples of controllers that were made for specific games such as Konami's Dance Revolution. And for a long time, we thought that changing the interface would broaden game design and loosen creative constraints on programmers. We found that to be true when we released the DS. Around that time, we were also agreeing that we would start from the drawing board with something entirely unlike anything we had made before.

Miyamoto: We don't use consumer focus groups. We got a lot of feedback from developers in the industry, and we invited family members of employees to test the prototypes. We took lots of precautions to prevent leaks.

There are some very interesting quotes in this article. Both on how Nintendo was to approach the game market now that there's much more competition in terms of consoles (Sony, Microsoft, and PC's). They wanted to think outside the box and decided to explore a new territory while the other guys are 'standing still' in a way and continue to argue the same things 'power'.

Second, it shows an interesting push on the interface. From looking at the success of Dance Dance Revolution, the Nintendo DS, and other 'non-traditional controllers' (perhaps Guitar Hero as well?), they believe that games can be better, or different, if the interface changes.

Lastly, they never performed any focus groups or tested the system on people other than employees. They didn't know if this was going to be accepted in practice as well as on paper. However, from the obvious viral marketing, it stands to be huge success for them... if the bug are really worked out and expectations are met. If it turns out that swinging the wii-mote like a sword/bat/club 'just doesn't feel right', then it's possible to go the way of the Virtual Boy.

Truly, I've not seen this kind of excitement for consoles since the N64 and PlayStation came out and people where excited to try things in 3D. This is a fun moment for many gamers.

Cheers,
Fozzy

From Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora's report in Oct '06: "Our checks indicate that Apple will produce these phones in limited quantities initially due to concerns over market acceptance and battery life."

Today: Apple orders 12 million iPhones

Seeing as how the Razr only sold 5 million units in the quarter it was released, I call for Tortora to be fired.

Another Music Phone - yawn - by Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora

What Would An iPhone Look Like? - by Forbes

I've read some other ones of similar style, laying out hurdle after hurdle (often imaginary) which Apple will have to overcome.. but I'm too lazy to find others. I'm sure you can, even just by searching Slashdot.

Myanmar, China, Belarus, Iran, Tunisia, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, North Korea, Syria, and Uzbekistan.

Technically we have a dupe here, the article is actually totally based on the Reporters without borders press release we discussed a few days ago. The list of enemies is also identical with the list of censors:

Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam (Only Burma is called Myanmar.)

Parent modded redundant? Why?

BTW I'm tired of Zonk's selective reporting. How about reporting that people who actually have seen/used the PS3 love it? Here: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8L73 QB00.htm

Perhaps most surprising, information technology, the great electronic promise of the 1990s, has turned into one of the biggest job-growth disappointments of all time. Despite the splashy success of companies such as Google (GOOG ) and Yahoo! (YHOO ), businesses at the core of the information economy -- software, semiconductors, telecom, and the whole gamut of Web companies -- have lost more than 1.1 million jobs in the past five years. Those businesses employ fewer Americans today than they did in 1998, when the Internet frenzy kicked into high gear.

True.. :-) I believe that many films do not make an actual profit, but its the "other stuff" that help them recoup most of the costs such as tieups and DVD sales http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_28 /b3942101.htm But with the forecast of flattening DVD sales, they are desperate to hang on to what they have.. as /. mentions many times, its about time the studios embrace a new marketing/distribution model. Also, they rely on that box office smash to cover the not so profitable ventures.

In related news, Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying:
Open source, my ass!

Why is Steve Ballmer always squirting something?

Does the book address how to budget for a large percentage of your money being wasted by fraud?

Click fraud is so rampant at this point, that I wouldn't consider using AdWords until they have a real solution to this.

. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_comp any.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/m ain632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004 /03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitraki s/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=New s&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.ph p

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.ht m
http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel 27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates /pfindex.html

10. Diebol

Speaking of past and future predictions, how about we all step back in time a bit down digital memory lane...

Tokyo train station gets facial scan payment systems

http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/27/tokyo-train-sta tion-gets-facial-scan-payment-systems/

----

RFID subway pass? Sure, New York says
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6033364.html

----

Radio-Frequenci ID: Asian Impediments
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct 2006/tc20061009_971601.htm

(page was ALL jacked up in my Konqueror browser....)

----

Suica

http://www.answers.com/topic/suica

Suica stands for "Super Urban Intelligent CArd"

"a rechargeable contactless smart card used as a fare card on train lines in Japan. Launched in November 2001,..."

"Technology
The card incorporates contactless radio frequency identification RFID technology developed by Sony, called FeliCa. The same technology is also deployed in the Edy electronic cash cards used in Japan, the Octopus card in Hong Kong, and the ezlink Card in Singapore."

----

RFID in Japan

http://ubiks.net/local/blog/jmt/archives3/2005/02/ index.php?page=all

----

RFID Cards Big in Tokyo

http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2003/03/15/rfid_c ards_big_....html

"Pockets in Japan, however, are getting lighter with the growing use of integrated-circuit smart cards. The size of a credit card, they are packed with thin antennas and an encrypted integrated chip that can be used thousands of times to pay for train fares, meals at restaurants and snacks at convenience stores. In less than two years, nearly seven million people in Japan have started using one of two types of cards, both based on technology developed by Sony.

So far, the main client for the cards is JR East, the largest railway company in Japan. Nearly six million train and bus commuters have started using the first of the two types, known as Suica cards, since they were introduced 18 months ago."

For those interested in similar devices (well, actually key fob) in the US, read 5-Peter Davidson's post about "Speedpass"

BUT, be sure to read # 7- "SUICA IS NOT RFID"

http://www.eurotechnology.com/store/suica/

----

heheh, slash image word: "rescuing"...

How is anyone supposed to read when they have to look at this:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_41 /b4004001.htm?chan=search

Sheesh

Tax shelters, and other creative interpretations of the tax code, are the bane of the IRS's existence. In the late '90s and early '00s, a few accountants went overboard with their tax planning strategies and started selling them as if they were "products", not unlike the what the law firms appear to be doing today. As a result of their marketing of products called BLIPS, FLIP, OPIS, and SOS, KPMG ended up paying the IRS $456 million dollars in penalties. Since 2003, the IRS appears to have focused on cleaning up the accounting industry and the rules around "reportable transactions" (transactions with attributes common to tax shelters) and seems to have the accountants in check. It looks like it's time to turn their attention to the lawyers.

Just like the "confidential transactions" of the accounting industry, where the taxpayer isn't allowed to disclose the details of a transaction to others (presumably for intellectual property protections for the accountant), a lawyer holding a patent on a tax strategy will only serve to draw attention to the strategy and get the whole thing shut down.

Boring but informative:
From the IRS Publication 550 on reportable transations:

Confidential transaction. A confidential transaction is one that is offered to you under conditions of confidentiality and for which you have paid an advisor a minimum fee. A transaction is offered under conditions of confidentiality if the advisor who is paid the fee places a limit on the disclosure of the tax treatment or tax structure on you and the limit protects the advisor's tax strategies. The transaction is treated as confidential even if the conditions of confidentiality are not legally binding on you.

See also: Inside the KPMG mess

The question we should be asking, is why is US growth so low, and how can we fix it.

Your post has the answer to your question:

Contrary to popular belief, a substantial amount of engineering for Dell is done in the US, not in Taiwan. Employees have constructed an effective wall to foreign design centers and have actually left the company any time mgmt has tried to tear it down (thanks to HP for showing employees what to be afraid of).

Dell is an exception, rather than the rule. Jobs have been fleeing the United States for years... First it was manufacturing, then engineering/technology too. Foodservice and low-level Health Care positions don't pay nearly as well as manufacturing, IT, or engineering used to. Wages in the jobs that are still in North America are being squeezed by competition from low-wage China and elsewhere.

There's no chance of fixing the economy now - the time for action was in 1992/1993, when Traitor Bush the Elder first negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement and Traitor Clinton pushed the NAFTA implementation bills through the congress. Or in 1995 when the World Trade Organization was first organized. Or in the 80's, when Reagan (really, Puppet Master Bush the Elder) was printing money to pay for his military buildup. Or in the late 60's/early 70's, when the Feral Government was printing money to pay for the Vietnam war. Or even more recently, when Traitor Bush the Junior negotiated the Central American Free Trade Agreement (and others).

There's also the hordes of illegal immigrants (encouraged by the corptocracy) depressing working class wages... But vdare was yesterday's story...

The best we can do now is elect a congress who will impeach/convict the Bush/Cheney junta. Tell your friends - Fire the [republican] incumbents, the Bush depression has already begun.

Economic restructuring is a good thing, because many of us are miserable in the current political/economic climate. Look at the people you see out in WalMart's isles: fat & sick, and looking for satisfaction in meaningless trinkets. Going to get a little rough, but it will certainly be worth the struggle in the end.

I've some earthboxes and seeds, so I won't be entirely dependant on produce shipments from far away, picked by mexican slave labor.

These earthbox pictures are from 3 weeks ago (start with the last picture). The plants are coming along nicely, and I'll be harvesting my first lettuce & tomatos soon (I'm in the desert southwest, so the plant-killing summer heat has just recently abated).

http://businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2006 /tc20061018_006862.htm

Dell sells in two weeks what Apple sells in a year.

It's fanboi comments like this that make the Apple Religious laughing stocks

Remember Pointcast. At it's height it was valued at over $240 million (this was the mid 90's - that was a lot of money at that time for an Internet company). Now *poof* gone. The founders hung on for the *big* payout only to watch their company die on the vine. Here's a Business Week article from 1999 http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_17/b3626167.ht m that chronicles Pointcast's rise and fall. Take the money and run. Don't be greedy. How many billions of dollars do you really need?

A recent BusinessWeek magazine article on Akamai Technologies, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts suggests they may actually be the content distribution network for Google. This is implied in the article:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_39 /b4002094.htm?chan=tc&chan=technology_technology+i ndex+page_more+of+today's+top+stories

It is highly likely that Akamai actually "owns" the internet content distribution backbone you describe.

Li'l Eva and Adolph's photo album http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/philips_si mplicity/image/share.jpg is nice, and who could possibly resist the Ambient Experience Catheterization Lab http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/philips_si mplicity/image/ambi.jpg? Nothing here that actually improves life, but it sure could make it look brighter.

Li'l Eva and Adolph's photo album http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/philips_si mplicity/image/share.jpg is nice, and who could possibly resist the Ambient Experience Catheterization Lab http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/philips_si mplicity/image/ambi.jpg? Nothing here that actually improves life, but it sure could make it look brighter.

How is Mr. Ozzie going to convince Microsoft that the desktop PC era is drawing to a close, when Mr. Gates thinks that The PC Era Is Just Beginning? This should be interesting....

I'm not sure why people think the iTunes Music Store makes Apple any money at all. Most of the money goes to whoever licenses the music. Apple provides the service to A) sell hardware (iPods with ~40% profit per unit, iTV?, mini?) and B) prove the feasibility and gain acceptance for digital distribution. Here are two of the big reasons for why the content from the iTMS has such low margins for Apple. They have the means and the motivation.

Motivation: As with all new products, Apple wanted iTMS to become popular and accepted. For any new technology to successfuly enter a market or create a new market, price and perceived quality are usually the most important factors. A cheaper better mouse trap with a pinch of good marketing will usually do well. Therefore Apple has an incentive to keep price as low as they can go.

Means: It is CHEAP to distribute digitally. Therefore Apple CAN sell for cheaper than the legacy content distribution moguls.

Note as evidence for at least the movies and TV episodes the recent Walmart vs. Apple articles, the articles usually contain some analysis that shows Apple undercutting Walmart's prices even though Walmart is selling new release DVDs at a loss! Trust me when I say that if anyone sells for less than Walmart (even if the products are not exactly the same), their profit margin is minimal. Then for music, even though this is not the greatest source, it's just one article of many that tell about the pennies made per song purchase on iTMS.

"The defendants, if convicted, face a maximum of 12 years in prison and a $30,000 fine"

The best part about the California AG's response is that the indicted HP execs are being arrested and jailed. A $30K fine for those people means nothing, especially if they pay lawyers $5M defending in court. And the "humiliation" that Business Week and its corporate media chorus usually like to claim is the "worst penalty" these execs could pay (like as the total penalty they tried to stick Enron with) cost them nothing, usually not even in business opportunities.

These perps are getting frogmarched to the pen, just like anyone else, regardless of how many keys they have to corporate washrooms. That action not only stops them from more abuses, but finally warns the thousands of other execs inspired by their "innovations" to steer clear or risk getting locked up, the great equalizer.

If only that also applied to Congressional child molesters.

Perhaps most surprising, information technology, the great electronic promise of the 1990s, has turned into one of the biggest job-growth disappointments of all time. Despite the splashy success of companies such as Google (GOOG ) and Yahoo! (YHOO ), businesses at the core of the information economy -- software, semiconductors, telecom, and the whole gamut of Web companies -- have lost more than 1.1 million jobs in the past five years. Those businesses employ fewer Americans today than they did in 1998, when the Internet frenzy kicked into high gear.

20 Amazing Facts About Voting In The USA
by Angry Girl of Nightweed.com

Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry. http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers. http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_comp any.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/m ain632436.shtml http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines. http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004 /03/03_200.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitraki s/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee. http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=New s&file=article&sid=26 http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.ph p

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates. http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.ht m http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel 27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes. http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/ 042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates /pfindex

According to Businessweek, most private sector jobs created in the 21st century have been in health care.

What's Really Propping Up The Economy

This is a remarkable trend. I don't know about the rest of you but I ain't none too excited about the prospects of a career in health care.

This is an awful, awful development. As a Mac zealot, video iPod owner and labor activist, I am in a complete bind.

Wal-Mart is a ridiculously vile company. Their monopsonistic business practices, abuse of employees and generally un-American attitude make them completely unworthy of any financial support. When BusinessWeek rails against a company, you know it's fucked up.

What happened to Apple's vaunted concern for the community. Ugh. U-G-H.

Buddy, hate to break your momentum but according to business week (see link below), Wal-Mart makes up for 40% of the $17bn annual DVD sales.
In my book that accounts to weekly sales of roughly $131mm

$131mm=40%*$17bn/52

I think Wal-Mart wouldn't give a fart even if iTunes sold $10MM worth of movies in the first week.

Money is Hollywood's lifeline, and cutting a weekly flow of $130MM sound's pretty life threatning to me .Yeah I know $130mm is sales, not cost of goods sold, but then again Wal-Mart sells DVD as loss leaders to get people in their stores. You get the point anyway.

Source --> http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/conten t/aug2006/db20060831_806225.htm

From the BW article:

According to a May, 2004 edition of Utility Federal Technology Opportunities, an obscure trade newsletter, EEStor claims to make a battery at half the cost per kilowatt-hour and one-tenth the weight of lead-acid batteries. Specifically, the product weighs 400 pounds and delivers 52 kilowatt-hours. (For battery geeks: "The technology is basically a parallel plate capacitor with barium titanate as the dielectric," UFTO says.) No hazardous or dangerous materials are used in manufacturing the ceramic-based unit, which means it qualifies as what Silicon Valley types call "cleantech."

Business Week link

I don't pretend to understand the "battery geek" stuff, but I bet someone here does...

I'm sorry... but this article is drivel. I mean, this is bad for slashdot. It's a month old story, from a joke of a newspaper source.

This is a bit of an old story... CNN.com allready has a story about how Wal-Mart is looking into opening its own movie downloads. It makes sense, seeing as they allready have a working music download service.

The article posted is a bit... Let's just say that the Businesweek article covering this has a much less "Wal-Mart is EEEEVIL" ring to it. I know it feels good to pat yourself on the back with the Coorporate hate feelings, but this NY Post article has a pretty blatant and nasty slant that shouldn't have make it to the slashdot front page.

This is what Zuckerberg should be having nightmares about. http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_17/b3626167.ht m

Plus, they are really selective in enforcing copyright. Which is fine. It's their copyright. There's a video (among others) on YouTube that is a clip of the new Studio 60 show. Judd Hirsch's "rant" that he has on live TV. It's not put up by NBC, but I'm sure they could care less right now. All it does is build buzz for the show.

I agree in that I don't think YouTube can possibly make their money back on ad revenue alone. I mean, they serve up, what, 100 million videos a day now? I think I saw that on a BusinessWeek article linked from Slashdot. Yes. Even assuming a benign 2 MB per video (and that's really low), they are going through 190 terabytes of data per day, and 5.6 petabytes per month? It's like trying to imagine stellar distances. The human mind has difficulty trying to fathom it.

I can't understand how ad revenue alone could pay for that bill from their ISP, but I don't know what pricing is like at that level of traffic. Anyone out there know any ballpark figures for that much in a month?

If you get out of your little tunnel and open your eyes, you'll find that the economy is not so great. Real wages have been going down since the 70's (following the start of the outsourcing trend), and many of our fellow americans have been financing the difference. In the last couple of years, this means Adjustable Rate Mortgages to afford payments on a house, 0% auto loans, growing credit card debts, growing trade deficits, growing federal budget deficits.

America has a problem with debt.

That's less than half of the story.

The other half of the story is the debt service ratio, which is the percentage of disposable personal income spent on interest on debts. The debt service ratio has risen only slightly since 1980.

This slight rise is to be expected, though, because real net household wealth is higher than ever and still rising. After all, the more money you have, the greater percentage of it you can afford to spend on interest payments.

Real net household wealth is rising because everyone is innovating, all over the world... and because we're exporting all the mindless jobs (read: assembly lines, manufacturing) to the countries whose technology levels have risen high enough to accept them. In time, those countries will re-export them downward, sort of like hand-me-down clothes you give to your little brother. In fact, the point of this slashdot article is that China is doing exactly that.

So. Either you are a clueless armchair FUDconomist, or you're a liar, or both.

note that SUV sales and gas sales have not been negatively impacted by the gasoline increases recently.

So no, raising the price of gasoline is an utterly inefficient way of doing anything other than causing inflation.

Like most market based solutions, they just don't work.

Point 1, point 2.

First link is 1.5 years old, second is 5 years old. Yeah, they're old, but they both show that Toshiba has an extremely large market share in the US. 5 years ago they had the third largest at 21%. 1.5 years ago, out of the they had 4 (including #1 & #2) of the top 10 selling laptops.

This in no way is to gain recognition because people don't know who toshiba is. They either got called on it privately, they're doing it in good faith, or they want to screw over Sony. Since they're targeting a rival laptop producer, I would say it's to make them look good, with the added benefit of making Sony look bad.

Nice sum up. I'd say that there is little hope of substantial change either. With plurality voting and corportate $$ the current system will always trend to the two party non-choice we face now. With the economy now based on Housing and Medical industries and real wages for most of us substantially down but not down far enough to cause revolution it seems that the US is on a collision course with "has been" status.

Economy: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_39 /b4002001.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_busines sweek+exclusives

For housing you'll have to do your own research there are hundreds of articles, try google with "housing bubble" for a start.

The one Ives design I really like is the stalk iMac. Putting the display on a stalk allows the user to optimize its place — good ergonomics, minimized footprint, yada yada. Except it now seems obvious that the stalk iMac, like all of Ives creations, was about branding. All iMac models are identifiable by the fact that they're a single unit. In the early iMacs they just crammed the system hardware into the monitor box. In the recent iMacs, the system hardware has gotten small enough so they just have to make the panel a little thicker. But in between, there was a time when they wanted to do an LCD iMac, but the system hardware was still to big for a "where's the computer" model. Solution: two boxes, but connect them with a stalk.

I see that in all the IVE designs. They're cool looking and they create a strong identity. Good branding. Nothing wrong with that — except there's more to good products than good branding. At least that's what I think. The industry obviously Thinks Different.

I recently bought an iAudio U2. Ugly little thing, but I like it a lot better than the 5 or so other MP3 players I've owned over the years. It just comes closer to my ideal feature set than any competing product. If products were more about good, easy-to-use features and less about "branding" and "style", I'd spend a lot more money on them. But I guess I'm just not a typical consumer.

They have a slide that talks about the Apple Remote but they don't actually show a picture of it.

They also don't mention the best part about the design: the fact that it magnetically sticks to the side of an iMac. It's always there when you want it and easily transforms the iMac from a computer to media center.

Motorola/Freescale held up as an example of good management? Maybe other divisions of Motorola, but even then I'm not so sure. As I recall, what became Freescale almost never made a profit when it was Motorola Semiconductor, and just ended up being a training ground for other companies. MSPS just liked to bleed money. That was true even before the tech bubble burst.

I won't comment on Freescale as my employer competes directly with them. I don't mind commenting on old news though.

One of the major initiatives of the Gates Foundation has been improving high schools in difficult regions. Their first attempt was to fund smaller schools, where it was thought students could manage better. This had not succeeded so they are trying other things now.

Google brought up a Business Week article with the top 10 city networks. Some are over 100 sq miles in size:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/08/muni_wifi/ index_01.htm

This seems odd, even by RadioShack's standards. Has RadioShack actually come out and said they did this? It's just seems kind of fishy...nd it reminds me of the movie Desk Set with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, when old IBM computers accidentally fired everyone in a massive office building.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8JR1 EEO0.htm?sub=apn_tech_down&chan=tc

Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

The system with the highest number of fun games always wins, and there's currently no reason to think that the PS3 will have less fun games than the PS2 did

There is ... You just refuse to see it

GOT GAMES? One troubling sign already indicates that the PS3 might not be quite the hit Sony expects. Game makers are steering development resources away from Sony and toward games for machines from Microsoft (MSFT) and Nintendo, says Hirokazu Hamamura, president of Enterbrain, a game-industry researcher in Tokyo. At its autumn games preview on July 13, for instance, traditional Sony ally Electronic Arts (ERTS) spent far more time showing off innovative Nintendo games than it did titles for the PS3. EA announced six Nintendo Wii launch titles and showed long working demos for two of those. But it offered only a short clip of a car-racing game for PS3. EA says it's still testing the potential of the PS3. "Many developers think the console's initial high price will lead to slow sales and are holding off on creating games for Sony," Hamamura says.

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2 006/gb20060720_962759.htm?chan=innovation_game+roo m_top+stories

An SNK Playmore executive has spoken out about PlayStation 3 pricing, indicating that the developer may wait as long as four years to begin work on it - despite having already pledged titles to Nintendo Wii.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 18699

EA Support: 80% for Wii60, 20% for PS3
http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/10038/

Even though Google is being overtly aggressive about online video market, it is trying to leverage its advertising network more than download sales. Is it too hard to imagine - watch the video on Google Video, and download it on iTunes store? Both parties win? iTunes being included as part of Google software pack, or part of Google Toolbar? Google driving music-related searchers to iTunes store?

Google must be paying handsomely for those searches emanating out of Safari browser (about 3% of the total market) and a soft alliance could help balance the books. In other words, Google gets paid for referring customers to the iTunes music/video store.

Just because you hadn't heard about it, or aren't forward thinking enough to do a search, doesn't mean it's not in the USA. Just because the article said "world's first" didn't make it so.

Business Week:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug 2006/tc20060814_285305.htm

Wi-Fi Planet
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/362874 6

Daily Wireless:
http://www.dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News &file=article&sid=5708

From the Daily Wireless page:
"Indeed, T-Mobile is not the only telco pushing into at-home wireless services. Already, AT&T (T) expects to introduce two new at-home offerings in the coming months."

This page:
http://www.blackberrytoday.com/articles/2006/7/200 6-7-28-Nokia-Takes-Dual.html
Says there's reportadly 20 UMA trials going on right now.

Keywords: google funded

Because Google has a real interest in taking down AOL considering that they paid a billion just to do business with them.

The Chinese (in both mainland China and Taiwan province) simply do not care about workers' rights. Foxconn is a Chinese company based in Taiwan.

To understand how horribly Chinese (from Taiwan) treat their workers, read a shocking article by the "San Francisco Chronicle". According to the article, the Taiwanese managers beat up their Central American laborers when they could not produce their assigned quota of blue jeans.

After the ambush by the Dwarf Planet camp, on the last day, the IAU appears ready to fragment into smaller sub-unions, or dwarf unions.

Meanwhile, astrologers going out of their minds over the contentious issue of what constitutes a planet, how many of them there are and how it will impact births, weddings and divining portents, have finally had enough. This evening Seoul, Mumbai and San Francisco are in flames as astrologers and their clients rampage.

today's lesson: if you don't like the result of the last vote, wait until your opposition has left and then call another vote.

And what's this 472 of 2,700 being 10% stuff?

Stern said like-minded astronomers had begun a petition to get Pluto reinstated. Car bumper stickers compelling motorists to "Honk if Pluto is still a planet" have gone on sale over the internet and e-mails circulating about the decision have been describing the IAU as the "Irrelevant Astronomical Union".

I want one of those bumper stickers. I mean, how geek!

Ah, here's more info on merchandising the Pluto debate and a place you can vote with your $.

It seems like every time some hack reporter or "inside" blogger comes up with stuff like this, it ends up on Slashdot. It's not news, it's speculation, and dodgy speculation. It reminds me of other invented news, like groundless top ten lists or supposedly new trends. Nothing more than one person's interpretation of a mixed bag of news and opinions. Real news is something like this. An event or fact of some sort is related. It's discrete. Stories such as this Microsoft takeover are simply conjecture. There's certainly a place for conjecture, and some is more informed than others. Rumors about the AMD/ATi deal were correct, and were also more plausible. That the Microsoft post itself acknowledges how entirely unlikely it is, I have to wonder... why then was it passed on?