7:09 PM
The news that TI is buying National Semiconductor that came out after the stock market closed gave a huge boost to National Semi's stock (up 70% since their stock was at $14 and TI is paying $25) and other chip stocks got a nice boost:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2011/04/04/ti-national-semi-deal-picks-up-sector.html
DARPA says that the conflict of interest due to $1.7 mil in contracts being awarded to the DARPA Director's family company (which owes the DARPA chief $250k) is not a big deal because they have conflicts of interest all the time. The director of investigations at the Project on Government Oversight points out that if he was a DARPA employee, he wouldn't want to deprive his boss' family members of a large contract:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/darpa-we-have-conflicts-of-interest-all-the-time/
The IMF analyzed the US budget and deficit and found that to get a full elimination of the US fiscal and generational imbalances we would need all taxes to go up and all transfers to be cut immediately and permanently by 35%. The longer the politicians (and the voters) bury their heads in the sand and refuse to address the problem, the more costly things will be:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/imf-analyzed-us-finances-and-indicates.html
Interesting report about the economic ends of empires goes over why the Soviet Union collapsed due to economic pressures, how the British Empire declined rapidly after they almost went bankrupt in 1946, and they paint parallels to the current economic situation with the US. The fact that $4.45 trillion of US debt is owed to foreigners is concerning, especially when you see how the share for US debt held by foreign governments went from 13% in 1988 to 25% in 2007 to 47% of our debt at the start of this year:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/economic-ends-of-empires-soviet-union.html
I find it interesting that Disney's 3D movie "Mars Needs Moms" might have been hurt because audiences didn't like that the animated characters looked too real. The "uncanny valley" theory says that people are attracted to inanimate objects with human traits (teddy bears, rag dolls, etc.), but if the object looks too human we suddenly become repulsed:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Too-real-means-too-creepy-in-apf-3403076673.html?x=0
Base station in German was developed by Nokia Siemens that does not use any electricity from the grid. The base station uses solar and wind power, with fuel cell and deep cycle battery technology, for its power. The solar tracking system turns the maximum surface of the solar panels towards the sun all day, increasing solar energy production. The software allows the operator to remotely maintain and install new software remotely, preventing CO2 emissions and saving money by eliminating the drive to service the base stations:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=206306
Verizon is looking to have its LTE network to serve as a DSL replacement for home broadband internet service. So, Verizon sold off its DSL business...and now will use its LTE network to compete with the companies that bought that business:
http://gigaom.com/broadband/verizon-sold-its-dsl-subs-but-now-it-wants-them-back/
One of the key reasons that AT&T has said that their acquisition of T-Mobile should be approved is that the combined network will be 30% more dense, providing better coverage and capacity in cities that AT&T has been having trouble with like NY and San Francisco. However, a number of experts are telling the FCC that buying T-Mobile is not the best way for AT&T to improve its network and spectrum needs:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/atts-justifications-t-mobile-deal-run-static/2011-04-04
AT&T plans to double the speed of its planned LTE network by combining the 700 MHz spectrum it is trying to buy from Qualcomm with its existing spectrum at 1.7/2.1 GHz, 1.9 GHz, or 850 MHz. AT&T apparently cannot use carrier aggregation technology to combine Qualcomm's 700 MHz spectrum with AT&T's 700 MHz spectrum due to interference:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/special-reports/carrier-aggregation-how-att-will-use-qualcomms-mediaflo-spectrum-double-lte
comScore reports that 1/3 of smartphone users are using Android, with Android going from 26% to 33% while RIM dropped from 33.5% to 28.9%, Apple staying about the same at 25.2%, and Microsoft and Palm both dropping quite a bit...it looks like Android is taking all the market share that RIM, Microsoft and Palm are losing:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/comscore-reports-february-2011-us-mobile-subscriber-market-share
It sure sounds like Android phones won't be able to be rooted in the near future, aside from some less advanced devices designated as developer phones:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/04/04/are-the-days-of-rooting-android-phones-coming-to-an-end/
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2011/04/04/ti-national-semi-deal-picks-up-sector.html
DARPA says that the conflict of interest due to $1.7 mil in contracts being awarded to the DARPA Director's family company (which owes the DARPA chief $250k) is not a big deal because they have conflicts of interest all the time. The director of investigations at the Project on Government Oversight points out that if he was a DARPA employee, he wouldn't want to deprive his boss' family members of a large contract:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/04/darpa-we-have-conflicts-of-interest-all-the-time/
The IMF analyzed the US budget and deficit and found that to get a full elimination of the US fiscal and generational imbalances we would need all taxes to go up and all transfers to be cut immediately and permanently by 35%. The longer the politicians (and the voters) bury their heads in the sand and refuse to address the problem, the more costly things will be:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/imf-analyzed-us-finances-and-indicates.html
Interesting report about the economic ends of empires goes over why the Soviet Union collapsed due to economic pressures, how the British Empire declined rapidly after they almost went bankrupt in 1946, and they paint parallels to the current economic situation with the US. The fact that $4.45 trillion of US debt is owed to foreigners is concerning, especially when you see how the share for US debt held by foreign governments went from 13% in 1988 to 25% in 2007 to 47% of our debt at the start of this year:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/04/economic-ends-of-empires-soviet-union.html
I find it interesting that Disney's 3D movie "Mars Needs Moms" might have been hurt because audiences didn't like that the animated characters looked too real. The "uncanny valley" theory says that people are attracted to inanimate objects with human traits (teddy bears, rag dolls, etc.), but if the object looks too human we suddenly become repulsed:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Too-real-means-too-creepy-in-apf-3403076673.html?x=0
Base station in German was developed by Nokia Siemens that does not use any electricity from the grid. The base station uses solar and wind power, with fuel cell and deep cycle battery technology, for its power. The solar tracking system turns the maximum surface of the solar panels towards the sun all day, increasing solar energy production. The software allows the operator to remotely maintain and install new software remotely, preventing CO2 emissions and saving money by eliminating the drive to service the base stations:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=206306
Verizon is looking to have its LTE network to serve as a DSL replacement for home broadband internet service. So, Verizon sold off its DSL business...and now will use its LTE network to compete with the companies that bought that business:
http://gigaom.com/broadband/verizon-sold-its-dsl-subs-but-now-it-wants-them-back/
One of the key reasons that AT&T has said that their acquisition of T-Mobile should be approved is that the combined network will be 30% more dense, providing better coverage and capacity in cities that AT&T has been having trouble with like NY and San Francisco. However, a number of experts are telling the FCC that buying T-Mobile is not the best way for AT&T to improve its network and spectrum needs:
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/atts-justifications-t-mobile-deal-run-static/2011-04-04
AT&T plans to double the speed of its planned LTE network by combining the 700 MHz spectrum it is trying to buy from Qualcomm with its existing spectrum at 1.7/2.1 GHz, 1.9 GHz, or 850 MHz. AT&T apparently cannot use carrier aggregation technology to combine Qualcomm's 700 MHz spectrum with AT&T's 700 MHz spectrum due to interference:
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/special-reports/carrier-aggregation-how-att-will-use-qualcomms-mediaflo-spectrum-double-lte
comScore reports that 1/3 of smartphone users are using Android, with Android going from 26% to 33% while RIM dropped from 33.5% to 28.9%, Apple staying about the same at 25.2%, and Microsoft and Palm both dropping quite a bit...it looks like Android is taking all the market share that RIM, Microsoft and Palm are losing:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/press-releases/comscore-reports-february-2011-us-mobile-subscriber-market-share
It sure sounds like Android phones won't be able to be rooted in the near future, aside from some less advanced devices designated as developer phones:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/04/04/are-the-days-of-rooting-android-phones-coming-to-an-end/