NYT: China, Willing to Spend, Wins

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=521074&f=110

That exploration - a detailed overflight of much of the country by American surveyors in middecade - showed Afghanistan to be far richer in oil, natural gas, iron, copper and coal than anyone had imagined. Aynak, in particular, was judged a world-class copper deposit, not just huge but of unusually rich quality, and the government chose it as the first major mineral concession to be auctioned to developers.

Guardian.co.uk: How do I know China wrecked the Copenhagen deal? I was in the room

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/22/copenhagen-climate-change-mark-lynas

All this raises the question: what is China's game? Why did China, in the words of a UK-based analyst who also spent hours in heads of state meetings, "not only reject targets for itself, but also refuse to allow any other country to take on binding targets?" The analyst, who has attended climate conferences for more than 15 years, concludes that China wants to weaken the climate regulation regime now "in order to avoid the risk that it might be called on to be more ambitious in a few years' time".

This does not mean China is not serious about global warming. It is strong in both the wind and solar industries. But China's growth, and growing global political and economic dominance, is based largely on cheap coal. China knows it is becoming an uncontested superpower; indeed its newfound muscular confidence was on striking display in Copenhagen. Its coal-based economy doubles every decade, and its power increases commensurately. Its leadership will not alter this magic formula unless they absolutely have to.

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : Another brief chat with Randall Stephenson

http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/12/another-brief-chat-with-randall-stephenson.html

He says he has no idea what I'm talking about and I said, Dude, I'm talking about the fact that over the past eight quarters you've reduced your capital expenditure even while we've been sending you loads of new data subscribers. Last quarter you spent $4 billion on capex, which was $1.6 billion less than you were spending two years ago, at the end of 2007. Meanwhile your data revenues in the most recent quarter were $3.6 billion, up from $2.0 billion at the end of 2007. In other words, you took in $1.6 billion more on data plans, mostly thanks to iPhone, and then you boned us by slashing your capex. What the fuck, dude?

Which Is the Top Tech Company to Work For?

http://gigaom.com/2009/12/15/which-top-tech-company-to-work-for-not-google

Looking for a tech job? Well read on for the results of a new poll from Sausalito, Calif.-based Glassdoor.com as to the best — and worst — tech companies from which to draw a paycheck. I had expected Google to take top honors given its stock performance, not to mention what it spends on food and other amenities for its employees. I guess money really doesn’t buy happiness — the search giant ranked No. 3 on the list, while Apple came in at No. 5. The top-ranked company? Router maker Juniper Networks. (Full results of the survey will be released tomorrow.)

Lowest-Rated Tech Companies

Rank	Company	Company Rating	CEO	CEO Approval Rating
1	Xilinx	2.3	Moshe Gavrielov	12%
2	Affiliated Computer Services	2.4	Lynn R. Blodgett	21%
3	Hewlett-Packard	2.4	Mark V. Hurd	22%
4	Avaya	2.5	Kevin Kennedy	24%
5	Real	2.5	Rob Glaser	12%
6	NVIDIA	2.5	Jen-Hsun Huang	52%
7	Infosys	2.6	Kris Gopalakrishnan	35%
8	Nortel Networks	2.7	Mike S. Zafirovski	2%
9	Perot Systems	2.7	Peter A. Altabef	35%
10	Dell	2.8	Michael S. Dell	28%

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs : Re: our patent application for an evil advertising scheme

http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/11/re-our-patent-application-for-an-evil-advertising-scheme.html

Thus Apple now becomes the cable company. And the cable company dies. Yes, friends, another enormous, ridiculous, old-fashioned, greedy, fat, slow-moving, change-averse, stupid industry falls before the power of Steve. Or, as we call it, "Internet + Steve = you're dead." We did it to music retailers. Doing it now to mobile phone companies. Why not cable TV? These guys are ripe for a takedown.

SDSJ: Why Mainstream Media is Dying

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheSecretDiaryOfSteveJobs/~3/FzWGCAUikW0/why-mainstream-media-is-dying.html

Um, New York Times? If you guys are still wondering why people are dropping their subscriptions and getting their news from blogs instead of you -- this is why.

...As for the newspapers: Faced with their own demise, fearful of losing even more advertising, newspapers have made the huge mistake of becoming ever more timid, more cautious, more in bed with the companies they cover.

It's the exact opposite of what they should be doing. The truth is, if newspapers want to survive they should go back to doing what they started out doing -- muckraking, stirring the shit, calling bullshit.

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NYT: The Motorola Droid

Almost makes me want to switch from my BB bold:
Because not only iPhone'rs are sick of AT&T!!

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=483933&f=24
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100,000 apps - 2B downloads - 50M devices

actually the math on 2B downloads doesn't add up to me. that means every device has downloaded 2000 apps on average. we dont use every app we download but we've only downloaded 93. in fact, those 93 take up about 1G of space on my device. assuming those are average-sized apps, 2000 apps would require 20G of space which some devices dont even have.

and even if you downloaded 5 per day, and didn't use them cause they were junk (entirely possible), it would still take you over a year - 400 days -to get thru 2000. i just dont see it.

CORRECTION - math is wrong. 50M devices/2B downloads = 40 downloads per device. now you're talking. 2000 is the average # of times each app was downloaded - not a very interesting stat, unless you're selling apps for a dollar. Hmm - wonder how much Apple takes as their cut? Even 50% of $2k is not bad. Maybe i *should* go back to programming...

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/11/04appstore.html
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Toyota Accelerator Problems

http://wireless.go.com/wireless/abcnews/section/topstories/8980479_1?&page=5
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Facebook is the "other Internet": 1 in 4 pageviews

lots of interesting stuff going on these days, or maybe i just have less homework...

How to Spam Facebook like a Pro

The underlying premise of all the advertising techniques we’ve discussed so far is that trickery is profitable. Fool them into thinking the new friend request is from Facebook, lie to them that the miracle skin crème is actually free, tell them they’ll earn points if they just click this button – which then puts their email address on a list that’s resold to the top spammers in the world. Incidentally, if you hate someone, sign them up for one of those free offers – it will burn their email to a crisp. Just kidding – don’t do that. The local and big brand advertisers are slow to react, but will eventually shift their ad dollars to Facebook, as they figure out how to advertise effectively. Facebook is the “other Internet” and represents 25% of all pageviews in the US.

Say that again: Facebook Now Accounts for 1 in 4 Internet Pageviews
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The Droid you've been waiting for (I love saying that)

A few good Droid reviews. It sounds like this *is* the Droid we've been waiting for -- all the features you want, on a network that might actually work (although it remains to be seen whether Verizon's network can really withstand a true smartphone that keeps people online virtually continuously like the iPhone). Told DH to pick one up pronto!! He's still using his LG Dare - a dumbphone trying to act like a smartphone.

Best review so far, because the reviewer is a long-time iphone user and not an apple fan-boy: http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/10/30/smartphone-showdown-iphone-3gs-vs-motorola-droid/

Other good reviews:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/30/more-on-the-droid-thoughts-from-the-rest-of-engadget/ :

At the end of the day, realities of the US wireless industry are as likely to decide whether you're getting a DROID as anything else. For Verizon -- historically known for one of the worst smartphone selections of any carrier in North America -- the DROID instantly vaults to the top of the heap, so if you're on Big Red or you want to be, the phone may very well be a no-brainer.

http://cellphoneforums.net/cell-phone-reviews/t304605-motorola-droid-review.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354951,00.asp
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NYT: Family Fights Odds, Retrieving Child from China

Http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=480868&single=1&f=22

In the end, it took an extraordinary international effort, including months of legal and diplomatic advocacy, criminal investigation and Internet sleuthing, to locate the child - who was found on Sunday, abandoned in an orphanage many miles from Beijing - and bring her safely home to New York. She and her mother arrived at Kennedy International Airport on Thursday night, amid balloons and tears.

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NYT: New (and Improved) Models From BB, Mot, HTC

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=479310&f=24&p=1

Alternatives to the iphone: Mot Cliq, HTC Hero, BB Storm2

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The iPhone juggernaut

even more amazing of course - the iphone juggernaut, these 2 slides tell the story:





read more at: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/how-the-iphone-is-blowing-everyone-else-away-in-charts/
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Droid vs iPhone vs...RAZR?

http://gigaom.com/2009/10/28/forget-the-iphone-can-droid-top-the-razr/

Can today’s Droid phone top the world’s most ubiquitous mobile gadget (>100M Motorola RAZR's) on its path to crush the iPhone? Can it even get close to the (34M) iPhone(s)?

cellphone statistics are just astounding. the industry ships ~1 billion cell phones per year.

IDC data

Vendor	Q1 2009 units shipped*	Q1 2008 units shipped*	Q1 2009 market share	Q1 2008 market share
Nokia	93.2	115.5	38.1%	39.7%
Samsung	45.9	46.3	18.8%	15.9%
LG Electronics	22.6	24.4	9.2%	8.4%
Motorola	14.7	27.4	6%	9.4%
Sony Ericsson	14.5	22.3	5.9%	7.7%
Others	53.9	44.9	22%	18.9%
Total	244.8	290.8	100%	100%

*Units shipped in millions
Source: IDC, April 2009
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augmented reality

Augmented Reality was not meant to hit the iPhone 3GS until at least the release of iPhone OS 3.1. Augmented reality uses your iPhone’s camera, GPS, and compass to show virtual items in the real world. Put your camera in front of a restaurant and it will come up with info, or use it to find nearby Twitter users. The potential is endless.

yelp can do it, so can urbanspoon. and wikipedia. you've got to see the pictures in the articles. or better yet, watch the wikitude video at the bottom of this article.

this is really cool, except i have an ipod touch and not an iphone, so i'm missing the GPS and camera...

NYT: Is It Safe to Post Children's Pictures on the Web

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=476442&f=24&p=4

The possibility always exists that pedophiles are lifting such pictures, Professor Finkelhor says, but it is not something he has encountered. And, he said, it's unlikely for a discomfiting reason: actual child pornography is so readily available that pedophiles aren't likely to waste time cruising social networks looking for less explicit material.

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NYT: Safety Nets for the Rich

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=473518&f=28&sub=Columnist&p=2

"Enough! Goldman Sachs is thriving while the combined rates of unemployment and underemployment are creeping toward a mind-boggling 20 percent. Two-thirds of all the income gains from the years 2002 to 2007 - two-thirds! - went to the top 1 percent of Americans.

We cannot continue transferring the nation's wealth to those at the apex of the economic pyramid - which is what we have been doing for the past three decades or so - while hoping that someday, maybe, the benefits of that transfer will trickle down in the form of steady employment and improved living standards for the many millions of families struggling to make it from day to day.

That money is never going to trickle down. It's a fairy tale. We're crazy to continue believing it."

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NYT: After New Ads, iDoubts Grow About Verizon iPhone

Could it be the iPhone is NOT coming to Verizon?

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=1CC1802220D011BCA753FE6F00F3B01A.w5?a=472322&f=24
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Difference between H1N1 and regular flu becoming clearer

Deaths in children from H1N1 have already claimed twice the typical number of victims for an entire flu season. A WHO symposium addressing the management of pandemic influenza confirms the ability of the new H1N1 virus to directly cause severe pneumonia. In severe cases, patients can progress to respiratory failure within 24 hours. 30% of these cases are complicated by secondary bacterial infections, some of which are antibiotic resistant. “Prompt treatment with the antiviral drugs, oseltamivir or zanamivir, reduces the severity of illness and improves the chances of survival. These findings strengthen previous WHO recommendations for early treatment with these drugs for patients who meet treatment criteria, even in the absence of a positive confirmatory test.”

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/notes/h1n1_clinical_features_20091016/en/index.html

Participants who have managed such cases agreed that the clinical picture in severe cases is strikingly different from the disease pattern seen during epidemics of seasonal influenza. While people with certain underlying medical conditions, including pregnancy, are known to be at increased risk, many severe cases occur in previously healthy young people. In these patients, predisposing factors that increase the risk of severe illness are not presently understood, though research is under way.

In severe cases, patients generally begin to deteriorate around 3 to 5 days after symptom onset. Deterioration is rapid, with many patients progressing to respiratory failure within 24 hours, requiring immediate admission to an intensive care unit. Upon admission, most patients need immediate respiratory support with mechanical ventilation.

Participants agreed that the risk of severe or fatal illness is highest in three groups: pregnant women, especially during the third trimester of pregnancy, children younger than 2 years of age, and people with chronic lung disease, including asthma. Neurological disorders can increase the risk of severe disease in children.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_SWINE_FLU?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-10-17-12-07-17

Eighty-six children have died of swine flu in the U.S. since it burst on the scene last spring - 43 of those deaths reported in September and early October alone, said Schuchat.

That's a startling number because in some past winters, the CDC has counted 40 or 50 child deaths for the entire flu season, she said, and no one knows how long this swine flu outbreak will last.

NYT: Darkness on the Edge of Monotowns

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=469650&f=28&sub=Contributor&p=4

According to the World Bank, this year the number of Russians below the poverty level has grown by 7.5 million to 24.6 million, or 17 percent of the population. An additional 21 percent, or almost 30 million, have incomes less than 50 percent over the poverty level. Together, that's 4 out of 10 Russians. The Federation of Independent Trade Unions predicts that up to 400,000 more Russians may become unemployed in the next three months, while the World Bank projects that the unemployment rate there will reach as high as 13 percent by the end of the year.

There may, in fact, be nothing that can be done to prevent these ticking time bombs from exploding. And as the Iranian protests recently proved, in an age of cellphone cameras and the Internet, one demonstration in one monotown could ignite a wave of nationwide protests that Russia's news media could not cover up, its riot police could not properly contain and its government may not be able to survive.

Certainly, this crisis sends a message of utmost urgency to a country still groggy from the oil-boom intoxication of the past eight years: go back to the decentralization and democratization reforms of the 1990s and early 2000s - or face the political, economic and social calamity of the monotowns on a national scale.

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NYT: Disney Plans Extensive Overhaul of Retail Stores

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=455478&f=23

The company followed his advice, working for the last year on a full-scale, fully stocked store inside an unmarked warehouse in Glendale, Calif. The prototype was crucial to shaping an overall philosophy, Mr. Fielding said, noting that he discovered the shops needed more "Pixar-esque winks and nods." To that end, one sales area is now labeled "WWTD: What Would Tinker Bell Do?"

Disney will adopt Apple touches like mobile checkout (employees will carry miniature receipt printers in their aprons) and the emphasis on community (Disney's theater idea is an extension of Apple's lecture spaces). The focus on interactivity - parents will be able to book a Disney Cruise on touch-screen kiosks while their children play - reflects an Apple hallmark. Employees can use iPhones to control those high-tech trees.

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Zakaria: Nobel rewards Obama's 'big, bold gambit' - CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/09/zakaria.obama.nobel/index.html

Zakaria: It may not influence the far right, but it may make clear for many other undecided Americans what President Obama hopes to achieve. Obama's outreach to the world is an experiment: He wants to demonstrate at home that engagement does not make America weak.

For decades, it's been thought deadly for an American politician to be seen as seeking international cooperation. Denouncing, demeaning and insulting other countries was a cheap and easy way to seem strong. In the battle of images, tough and stupid always seemed to win.

President Obama is gambling that America is now mature enough to understand that machismo is not foreign policy, and that grandstanding on the global stage just won't succeed. In a new world, with other countries more powerful and confident, America's success -- its security, its prosperity -- depends on working with others. It's a big, bold gambit.

The Nobel committee wanted to encourage this sentiment. I hope Americans will see that and encourage the path President Obama is taking

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NYT: In Rural Africa, a Fertile Market for Mobile Phones

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/science/06uganda.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Africa has the fastest-growing mobile phone market worldwide. Entrepreneurs and development organizations are eagerly seizing the opportunity presented by such growth. They are creating mobile phone applications for profitable and nonprofit ventures across the continent. Millions of Africans, for example, now use their mobile phones to transfer money, turn on water wells, learn soccer game scores and buy and sell goods.

NYT: Woman's Shattered Life Shows Ground Beef Inspection Flaws

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html

NYT: A Wi-Fi Alternative When the Network Gets Clogged

I need MiFi! For both my at&t blackberry and for my ipod touch!

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=444050&f=24&p=3

I found JiWire's free Wi-Fi Finder iPhone app particularly useful. The software sniffs out your location and offers a list of nearby hot spots, free and paid. If you're a customer of one of the big Wi-Fi networks, like iPass, Boingo or AT&T, the app will tell you where to find those.

AT&T says its free Wi-Fi initiative isn't a response to a recent avalanche of complaints from iPhone users that they cannot connect via 3G. Still, Jeff Bradley, the company's senior vice president of devices, said that if more AT&T users shifted to Wi-Fi, the performance of the 3G network should improve.

also, "Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/technology/personaltech/07pogue.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

The Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May ($100 with two-year contract, after rebate). It’s a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone. When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot.

The MiFi gets its Internet signal the same way those cellular modems do — in this case, from Verizon’s excellent 3G (high-speed) cellular data network. If you just want to do e-mail and the Web, you pay $40 a month for the service (250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that). If you watch videos and shuttle a lot of big files, opt for the $60 plan (5 gigabytes). And if you don’t travel incessantly, the best deal may be the one-day pass: $15 for 24 hours, only when you need it. In that case, the MiFi itself costs $270.

NYT: The Holy Grail of the Unconscious

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/magazine/20jung-t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

[Jung] later would compare this period of his life — this “confrontation with the unconscious,” as he called it — to a mescaline experiment. He described his visions as coming in an “incessant stream.” He likened them to rocks falling on his head, to thunderstorms, to molten lava. “I often had to cling to the table,” he recalled, “so as not to fall apart.”

Had he been a psychiatric patient, Jung might well have been told he had a nervous disorder and encouraged to ignore the circus going on in his head. But as a psychiatrist, and one with a decidedly maverick streak, he tried instead to tear down the wall between his rational self and his psyche. For about six years, Jung worked to prevent his conscious mind from blocking out what his unconscious mind wanted to show him. Between appointments with patients, after dinner with his wife and children, whenever there was a spare hour or two, Jung sat in a book-lined office on the second floor of his home and actually induced hallucinations — what he called “active imaginations.” “In order to grasp the fantasies which were stirring in me ‘underground,’ ” Jung wrote later in his book “Memories, Dreams, Reflections,” “I knew that I had to let myself plummet down into them.” He found himself in a liminal place, as full of creative abundance as it was of potential ruin, believing it to be the same borderlands traveled by both lunatics and great artists.

Jung recorded it all. First taking notes in a series of small, black journals, he then expounded upon and analyzed his fantasies, writing in a regal, prophetic tone in the big red-leather book. The book detailed an unabashedly psychedelic voyage through his own mind, a vaguely Homeric progression of encounters with strange people taking place in a curious, shifting dreamscape. Writing in German, he filled 205 oversize pages with elaborate calligraphy and with richly hued, staggeringly detailed paintings.

NYT: iPhones Overload AT&T's Network

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=427739&f=24&p=3

(I have noticed this on my blackberry as well.)

"It's almost worthless to try and get on 3G during peak times in those cities," Mr. Munster said, referring to the 3G network. "When too many users get in the area, the call drops." The problems seem particularly pronounced in New York and San Francisco, where Mr. Munster estimates AT&T's network shoulders as much as 20 percent of all the iPhone users in the United States.

AT&T might be in the spotlight now, analysts say, but other carriers will face similar problems as they sell more smartphones, laptop cards and eventually tablets that encourage high data usage.

Globally, mobile data traffic is expected to double every year through 2013, according to Cisco Systems, which makes network gear. "Whether an iPhone, a Storm or a Gphone, the world is changing." Mr. Munster said. "We're just starting to scratch the surface of these issues that AT&T is facing."

In preparation for the next wave of smartphones and data demands, all the carriers are rushing to introduce the next-generation of wireless networks, called 4G.

Analysts expect that in a year or so, AT&T's network will have improved significantly...

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NYT: In Silicon Valley, the Jobs Picture has changed

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=AC111CE8775C9C83084580B680E4CED8.w5?a=428643&f=24
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FSJ: I'm really thinking maybe I shouldn't have yelled at that Chinese guy so much

article here: http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2009/07/im-really-thinking-maybe-i-shouldnt.html

We all know that there's no fucking way in the world we should have microwave ovens and refrigerators and TV sets and everything else at the prices we're paying for them. There's no way we get all this stuff and everything is done fair and square and everyone gets treated right. No way. And don't be confused -- what we're talking about here is our way of life. Our standard of living. You want to "fix things in China," well, it's gonna cost you. Because everything you own, it's all done on the backs of millions of poor people whose lives are so awful you can't even begin to imagine them, people who will do anything to get a life that is a tiny bit better than the shitty one they were born into, people who get exploited and treated like shit and, in the worst of all cases, pay with their lives.

You know that, and I know that. Okay? Let's just be honest here. Just for a fucking minute, let's all be honest.

Wired: Robots of Arabia

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/camel.html?pg=2&topic=camel&topic_set=

For their 10 grand, the Qataris will get an aluminum frame on shock absorbers, hinged arms, and, for a thorax, a box about the size of a hardcover book. Inside the box there's a processor, four microcontrollers, and a soundboard. On the racetrack, trainers follow each camel in an SUV, wielding a remote. With a joystick and buttons they can maneuver the whip, striking the camel in front, on the side, or on its flank; control the force of the blow; and spin the whip so it whistles past its ear (a goading action known as khali). With a slider, they can tighten or lengthen the reins; a screen on the remote displays the camel's speed and heart rate, and the life left in the battery.

Still, there are aspects of the design that only this project, in this culture, could inspire. The robot camel jockeys have plastic heads that wear wraparound sunglasses and bicycle helmets. Their features are vaguely childlike, and their skin is an odd orange color - part Swiss, part Arabic, and part Bedouin, or so it seems. Fair enough, but the heads are as empty as a department store dummy's. There are no electronics in there: They exist only to anthropomorphize the robots to the point where the camels - skittish creatures - will accept them.

AP: Popular San Diego seals win reprieve from governor (AKA I am not making this up)

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_8586/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=2PZ2In1q

...the city said it planned to hire someone to walk the beach with a public address system broadcasting the sound of barking dogs to scare off the seals...The issue is so hotly contested that the city had planned to deploy two police officers to the site to prevent interference by pro-seal activists, he said...

Wired: Speechless: Dilbert Creator's Struggle to Regain His Voice

http://www.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/17-08/ff_adams

According to the National Spasmodic Dysphonia Association, there are an estimated 50,000 SD sufferers in North America. Their ranks include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., NPR host Diane Rehm, and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run-DMC, who developed the condition a decade ago and whose acceptance speech at this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony was noticeably strained.

NYT: The Meaning of Life

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/opinion/16iht-edcohen.html

"Which brings me to low-cal Canto and high-cal Owen: Canto looks drawn, weary, ashen and miserable in his thinness, mouth slightly agape, features pinched, eyes blank, his expression screaming, “Please, no, not another plateful of seeds!”

Well-fed Owen, by contrast, is a happy camper with a wry smile, every inch the laid-back simian, plump, eyes twinkling, full mouth relaxed, skin glowing, exuding wisdom as if he’s just read Kierkegaard and concluded that “Life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward.”"

CNN: Zakaria: 'Fatal wound' inflicted on Iranian regime's ideology

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/19/zakaria.iran.elections/index.html

"Something very important has been laid bare in Iran today --- legitimacy does not flow from divine authority but from popular support."

behavior of complex systems & Air France Flight 447

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0619/p02s01-usgn.html:

That theory was gleaned from the burst of automated messages about mechanical events sent during the last four minutes of the flight. Most of the messages appear to be linked to "incoherent" speed readings, which then affected other systems of the plane, Mr. Arslanian said.

But the report that one of those automated messages also indicated problems with the rudder limiter has renewed concerns first made public during the AA587 crash investigation in 2001.

At the time, a group of American Airlines pilots presented to the NTSB a 68-page dossier documenting incidences of uncommanded rudder movements in the A300 series jets.

In addition to the rudder incidents documented by American Airlines pilots prior to the 2001 crash of AA587, last year two Qantas Airlines Airbus 330s experienced uncommanded pitches nose-downward.Nine months before that, in January 2008, an Air Canada Airbus 319 also "experienced a sudden upset when it rolled uncommanded 36 degrees right and then 57 degrees left and pitched nose-down," according to a report on file at the NTSB.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0617/p02s04-usgn.html:

Airbus has taken this system "a step further" than other manufacturers, according to the A330 pilot. That's because it also designed into the computer various "protection modes" that automatically move the plane's components if the aircraft is suddenly thrown off course by a powerful air current or some other natural event, or if a pilot simply makes a foolish error.

"It's designed to limit the ability of pilots or nature to put the plane in a stall or over-speed situation" that could jeopardize the plane, says the pilot, who has 22 years in military and commercial aviation and is certified to fly in four types of Airbuses and four types of Boeing planes. "However, the problem with these systems is that once they're activated, they are designed so the pilot cannot easily override them. So, if the computers have bad information because of an electronic anomaly or because of nature (say, the Pitot tubes are frozen and sending bad information), these built-in protections are activated immediately, and they can make it difficult for the pilot to control the plane."

In the Qantas mishap in October, the captain reported that he twice had trouble regaining control after the aircraft abruptly pitched nose-down.

"The captain reported that he applied back pressure on his sidestick to arrest the pitch-down movement. He said that initially this action seemed to have no effect, but then the aircraft responded to his control input and he commenced recovery to the assigned altitude," according to the report from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Less than three minutes later, the plane again suddenly pitched nose-down for no discernible reason, and the pilot again had trouble regaining control, the report found.

JOB ALERT: NYT: Contractors Vie for Plum Work, Hacking for the United States

New York Times article is here.

"At a Raytheon facility here south of the Kennedy Space Center, a hub of innovation in an earlier era, rock music blares and empty cans of Mountain Dew pile up as engineers create tools to protect the Pentagon’s computers and crack into the networks of countries that could become adversaries. Prizes like cappuccino machines and stacks of cash spur them on, and a gong heralds each major breakthrough.

The young engineers represent the new face of a war that President Obama described Friday as “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.” The president said he would appoint a senior White House official to oversee the nation’s cybersecurity strategies.

Computer experts say the government is behind the curve in sealing off its networks from threats that are growing more persistent and sophisticated, with thousands of intrusions each day from organized criminals and legions of hackers for nations including Russia and China.

“Everybody’s attacking everybody,” said Scott Chase, a 30-year-old computer engineer who helps run the Raytheon unit here."

NYT: Intel Adopts an Identity in Software

Over the last year I have become convinced that the laptop/desktop computer is going to evolve into the smartphone, that everyone on the planet will have a cellphone, and that eventually all cell phones will become smartphones. I realized this the day I bought a new laptop and when I got it home, all of a sudden wondered why i bought it...since i already had a personal computing device that met 99% of my needs...my smartphone. Remember how most folks just want to check email and browse the internet? how much computing power do you need to do that? now add digital camera, digital camcorder, and portable phone. Can you think of a device that does all those things already? PC's will become a niche product for hobbyists and gamers and students. Why do you think hardware makers like HP and Intel are already investing in phones...and software?

The low-power, low-cost Atom chip sits inside most of the netbooks sold today, and smartphones using the chip could start arriving in the next couple of years.

To make Atom a success, Intel plans to use software for leverage. Its needs Moblin because most of the cellphone software available today runs on chips whose architecture is different from Atom’s. To make Atom a worthwhile choice for phone makers, there must be a supply of good software that runs on it.

“The smartphone is certainly the end goal,” said Doug Fisher, a vice president in Intel’s software group. “It’s absolutely critical for the success of this product.”

Article here

Is voicemail obsolete?

@tonyrobbins Says,

"Ok is voicemail dead? 20% of those with voice mail never call in to check them.30% of voiceM remain unanswered for 3 days. text within hour"

I thought I was the only one who stopped using vmail. In comparison to I.M., SMS, email, it's waaaay too much overhead.

Here is my brilliant thought for the day:

What if all corporate email was restricted to 140 char or less, with no attachments only links. That would really speed things up. I'm guilty of too many lengthy emails myself.

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NYT: Trackers Deem North Korea's Missile Flight a Failure

"It's got to be embarrassing," said Geoffrey E. Forden, a missile expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "I can imagine heads flying if the 'Dear Leader' finds out the satellite didn't fly into orbit," he said, referring to the name North Koreans are obliged to use when speaking of Kim Jong-il, North Korea's reclusive leader.

"It's a setback," Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks satellites and rocket launchings, said of the North Korean launching. He added that the North Koreans must now find and fix the problem. "The missile doesn't represent any kind of near-term threat."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=352642&f=20

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IT Facts Blog

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/wp-mobile.php

Demographics of Social Network Users

All adults	35%
Sex
Men	35
Women	35
Age
18-24	75
25-34	57
35-44	30
45-54	19
55-64	10
65+	7
Race
White, non-Hispanic	31
Black, non-Hispanic	43
Hispanic	48
Annual Household Income
Less than $30,000	45
$30,000 - $49,999	38
$50,000 - $74,999	30
$75,000 +	31
Education
Less than HS	43
HS grad	31
Some college	41
College grad	33
Locale
Urban	34
Suburban	26
Rural	23
Source: Pew Internet Project

NYTimes.com: Vast Spy System Loots Computers in 103 Countries

The malware is remarkable both for its sweep - in computer jargon, it has not been merely "phishing" for random consumers' information, but "whaling" for particular important targets - and for its Big Brother-style capacities. It can, for example, turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of an infected computer, enabling monitors to see and hear what goes on in a room. The investigators say they do not know if this facet has been employed.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.xml

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New definition of mindboggling

[note: changed 10 to 100M and 20 to 200M] Facebook gains 1 million new accounts PER DAY. Since last august, they doubled from 100M to 200M accounts. http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=350567&f=19

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"If you need a ghostwriter for 140 characters, I feel sorry for you" says Shaq

Wanted: personal assistant to tweet for me: When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking (NYT)

Check out:

@robcorddry - "Oh no! My local Curves is closing! And during Girl Scout Cookie season too! Aack!"

@cwalken - "I am now invited to a dog wedding. I don't have the words to make that stupider than it already sounds. They're registered at Whiskers" (thanks eric for the pointer to this twitterer (twit?))

@clairemc - claire mccaskill, D senator from missouri "Lunch w/Lily in Sen dining rm. Sen Bennett at large table surrounded by journalsts. Don't know whethr to say congrats or try to save him."

@lancearmstrong - "all went well. Lance is in recovery. Same guy just 12 screws in his collarbone"

@tonyrobbins - "simple rule.. must play full out and you must take what you learned and help two other people in the future with what you learn best. tony"

Employees take charge

And hold the boss hostage in anger over job reductions

http://wireless.go.com/wireless/abcnews/section/topstories/7170102_1
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Goodbye Google | stopdesign

Is it possible for an organization to be too analytical? Sounds like my shop.

http://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-
google.html
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Another perfect beach on Oahu

Test of the photo uploading.
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cheery huh

ok, that's most of the recent stuff i was bumming out the facebook crowd with. hey - this is reality, not american idol.

NYT: What's in the Stimulus Bill for you

Most of us will be able to use at least one of the tax breaks and handouts included in the proposed stimulus bill.

the duration

from the International Herald Tribune, Krugman: What will stop the pain?:

"All participants anticipated that unemployment would remain substantially above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011, even absent further economic shocks; a few indicated that more than five to six years would be needed for the economy to converge to a longer-run path characterized by sustainable rates of output growth and unemployment and by an appropriate rate of inflation."

SoCal Real Estate predictions

Comment by Chuck Ponzi from the Southern California Real Estate Bubble Blog: "If you think the defaults are mostly behind us, you’re more than welcome to go back into the market. I’m very confident that we’ve got at least 2 more years of actively falling prices for now."

NYT: Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?

This is one of the most thought-provoking articles i've read lately:

...even very poor families invested a significant amount of money in the I.C.T. category — information-communication technology, which, according to Al Hammond, the study’s principal author, can include money spent on computers or land-line phones, but in this segment of the population that’s almost never the case. What they’re buying, he says, are cellphones and airtime, usually in the form of prepaid cards. Even more telling is the finding that as a family’s income grows — from $1 per day to $4, for example — their spending on I.C.T. increases faster than spending in any other category, including health, education and housing. “It’s really quite striking,” Hammond says. “What people are voting for with their pocketbooks, as soon as they have more money and even before their basic needs are met, is telecommunications.”

Also - "The world added the last 1 billion [cell phone] subscribers between the third quarter of 2007 and the end of 2008" -- in less than 18 months. Staggering!!

AIG

i've been trying to understand what caused the financial crisis to happen. wish i had more time to read what has been posted to the blogosphere. a great post over at The Big Picture discussing AIG is here; i'm still reading it. it suggests a definition of "too big to fail": having as your creditors 25 major u.s. financial institutions; 7 countries (surely china is #1 on the list); $20B of assets of u.s. cities and state municipalities; and money market funds.

if you have time to only read one article, read AIG's rescue has a long way to go by Carol Loomis of Fortune magazine:

...on Monday, Sept 15 the government decided it could not or would not rescue Lehman but instead would let it go bust. Bankruptcy court records have since shown that Lehman had 900,000 derivatives and financial contracts with other parties, and each creditor holding these realized on Monday morning that its check wasn't going to be in the mail. The hazy financial concept called "systemic risk" immediately became hard reality. Credit markets froze worldwide and stayed frozen on Tuesday, which is the day when AIG was headed toward bankruptcy but didn't get there. The theory around, which all of financialdom seems to accept as received truth, is that the government realized by Tuesday that it had erred grievously in letting Lehman go down and knew that it could not compound the error by allowing AIG to fail a day later.

oh yeah, and china called: they're wondering if they'll get their money back.

consumption & the Compact

it occurred to me this weekend that if/when the economy ever returns to monotonically increasing, u.s. consumer consumption rates may never return to what we consider to be "normal" levels of the last 20 years. surely not of the last 5-7 years, that is for sure. i read about The Compact where folks have decided to literally buy nothing new for a year...except for health/medical necessities like food, medicine, toilet paper. if this becomes a way of life, as opposed to a fad...a preference, in combination with undoubtedly lower credit availability caused by lower risk tolerance, it will certainly change the business outlook going forward. i wonder if any marketing departments are modelling a sustained reduction in consumption rates, as a worst-case.

i work in consumer electronics and in my mba class, we are supposed to dream up some product or service that we will research and pitch to VC's at the end of the quarter. a fabulous opportunity, but i find myself really nauseated about thinking of some new widget that folks should buy. i'm trying to think of a service, or a way to increase efficiency, that would have value to people - something around saving energy, for example.

to start at the beginning

i have been frustrated for a while in my search for an appropriate forum to discuss technology and business topics. my daughter's blog, and facebook, seem like the wrong places to post content - it's either not relevant, or waaay too serious. and twitter isn't high enough bandwidth. so as an outlet to my serious side, here is where i can collect all my thoughts.

i work in high tech, at a company you have definitely heard of, coming up on 20 years in the biz. like everyone else, i am really not sure what is going to happen to the u.s. economy, or this company, or any other company, over the next few years. it is hunker down time.

it is fascinating to me to watch how business responds to today's challenges. after all, businesses are not impersonal "entities" but are made up of people, and people have blindsides, delusions, and imperfections; but also hopes, ambitions, and usually the best of intentions.

for now, comments are on but moderated. so if anyone in the universe can find me (besides spammers), post away!