11:37 AM
Defense Secretary Gates just proposed a radical overhaul of our DoD budget. Most weapon programs would be cut back or eliminated, with billions added for increasing the number of soldiers and robots in our forces:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/budget.html
Article about how Secretary Gates is planning to basically end the Future Combat Systems program:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/gates-rips-hear.html
Big U.S. companies have been cutting jobs and wages, with revenue falling 7.7% from last year, but their R&D spending is just about the same as last year:
Article link
Unfortunately, the credit crunch resulted in a 53% drop in investment in renewable energy:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123872015558285029.html
The false negatives from facial recognition machines at Manchester airport resulted in long lines of upset passengers. The airport recalibrated the sensitivity of the machines and they are now useless--they cannot tell Osama bin Laden from Winona Ryder now!
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7722
The Inspector General at the US Office of National Intelligence issued a report 5 months ago detailing problems inside ONI and the intelligence community. The director of ONRI fired the Inspector General on Friday:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7717
North Korea's rocket launch failed, but not as badly as their previous rocket failed:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/06/nkorea-missile-040609/?zIndex=78102
Analysis about how North Korea could benefit even though the rocket launch failed:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/north-korea-mis.html
Here is the resignation letter for an AIG executive (who wasn't involved with the credit swaps that brought down the company) who is donating his entire bonus to charity. Lost in the furor over the AIG bonuses is the note that he and others at AIG were asked to take a $1 per year salary, where they were told that they would be compensated for that with a bonus:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&pagewanted=all
Consumer group is trying to get the FCC to enable consumers access to Skype, responding to AT&T's ban of Skype despite it being available for the iPhone via the Apple Store:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10212102-94.html?tag=mncol;title
Things are really bad for Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy in January. Nortel's equipment outperformed Alcatel-Lucent's equipment in Verizon trials, but Verizon picked Alcatel-Lucent because of the uncertainty over Nortel's future. When you cannot win when you beat your competition's product in trials, in the biggest US contract for quite some time, then you are in big trouble!
Article link
Three major cable companies discuss their varied wireless strategies--one is doing LTE, one is doing WiMAX, and the other is doing WiFi:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=174819&site=cdn&
T-Mobile will introduce an Android-based home phone early next year, and soon after that they will sell an Android-based tablet PC:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/technology/companies/06android.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
IBM pulled its offer for Sun after Sun's board asked for conditions IBM considered unacceptable:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/06/1n6ibm1224726-ibms-bid-sun-now-table/?uniontrib
Sun's stock tanked once IBM withdrew its offer:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/06/ibm-sun-microsystems-040609/?zIndex=78190
Starting April 14 Microsoft will limit support for Windows XP and Office 2003:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/microsoft-limit-office-2003-support-290?source=NLC-DAILY
Man was upset that his wife was leaving him, so he killed their 5 kids and then killed himself:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008990987_piercekillings06m.html
An organized pillow fight was planned for Detroit on Saturday, but Detroit police confiscated the pillows:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30070062/
Michael Jordan's son led his high school team to a state title, something his Dad never won:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/highschool/chi-090403-marcus-jordan-athlete-of-the-month,0,7217212.story
A college basketball player could actually play more than 40 games over a 16 month period without receiving a single grade in school! Should he really be considered a student athlete if he's not getting grades?
http://www.courant.com/sports/hc-jeffcol0403.artapr03,0,4579474.column
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/budget.html
Article about how Secretary Gates is planning to basically end the Future Combat Systems program:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/gates-rips-hear.html
Big U.S. companies have been cutting jobs and wages, with revenue falling 7.7% from last year, but their R&D spending is just about the same as last year:
Article link
Unfortunately, the credit crunch resulted in a 53% drop in investment in renewable energy:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123872015558285029.html
The false negatives from facial recognition machines at Manchester airport resulted in long lines of upset passengers. The airport recalibrated the sensitivity of the machines and they are now useless--they cannot tell Osama bin Laden from Winona Ryder now!
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7722
The Inspector General at the US Office of National Intelligence issued a report 5 months ago detailing problems inside ONI and the intelligence community. The director of ONRI fired the Inspector General on Friday:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7717
North Korea's rocket launch failed, but not as badly as their previous rocket failed:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/06/nkorea-missile-040609/?zIndex=78102
Analysis about how North Korea could benefit even though the rocket launch failed:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/04/north-korea-mis.html
Here is the resignation letter for an AIG executive (who wasn't involved with the credit swaps that brought down the company) who is donating his entire bonus to charity. Lost in the furor over the AIG bonuses is the note that he and others at AIG were asked to take a $1 per year salary, where they were told that they would be compensated for that with a bonus:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&pagewanted=all
Consumer group is trying to get the FCC to enable consumers access to Skype, responding to AT&T's ban of Skype despite it being available for the iPhone via the Apple Store:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10212102-94.html?tag=mncol;title
Things are really bad for Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy in January. Nortel's equipment outperformed Alcatel-Lucent's equipment in Verizon trials, but Verizon picked Alcatel-Lucent because of the uncertainty over Nortel's future. When you cannot win when you beat your competition's product in trials, in the biggest US contract for quite some time, then you are in big trouble!
Article link
Three major cable companies discuss their varied wireless strategies--one is doing LTE, one is doing WiMAX, and the other is doing WiFi:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=174819&site=cdn&
T-Mobile will introduce an Android-based home phone early next year, and soon after that they will sell an Android-based tablet PC:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/technology/companies/06android.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
IBM pulled its offer for Sun after Sun's board asked for conditions IBM considered unacceptable:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/06/1n6ibm1224726-ibms-bid-sun-now-table/?uniontrib
Sun's stock tanked once IBM withdrew its offer:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/06/ibm-sun-microsystems-040609/?zIndex=78190
Starting April 14 Microsoft will limit support for Windows XP and Office 2003:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/microsoft-limit-office-2003-support-290?source=NLC-DAILY
Man was upset that his wife was leaving him, so he killed their 5 kids and then killed himself:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008990987_piercekillings06m.html
An organized pillow fight was planned for Detroit on Saturday, but Detroit police confiscated the pillows:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30070062/
Michael Jordan's son led his high school team to a state title, something his Dad never won:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/highschool/chi-090403-marcus-jordan-athlete-of-the-month,0,7217212.story
A college basketball player could actually play more than 40 games over a 16 month period without receiving a single grade in school! Should he really be considered a student athlete if he's not getting grades?
http://www.courant.com/sports/hc-jeffcol0403.artapr03,0,4579474.column