kaiyen: pepper

Articles from the Web

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Shuttle blasts off to fix Hubble

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Shuttle blasts off to fix Hubble.

Sorry for all the links to news articles, but how can one not promote news about a mission to repair the Hubble Telescope?  I remember all the hype when it was launched, the dismay when it turned out the mirror specs were wrong, the awe and amazement when the mirror flaw was corrected (through a compensating lens, I believe) and the just…stunning images that Hubble produced.  I think many (myself included) take it for granted now – “oh, we discovered a planet?  look at that tremendous picture!” – but this mission is a reminder that we should not.

May 11, 2009 Articles from the Web, 0 Read more >

Europe Looks Ready to Slap Down Intel – BusinessWeek

Europe Looks Ready to Slap Down Intel – BusinessWeek.

I have always found the differences between US and European Union monopoly laws intriguing.  Certainly, the additional measure against impact on one’s rivals that is applied in Europe opens the door for many successful anti-trust cases vs. in the US.  But one must wonder whether a loss for Intel in Europe will cause problems for the company here – legally, it should not, as we have a different standard and the company’s actions should be judged accordingly.  But justice is not immune to bias from outside sources.

May 11, 2009 Articles from the Web 0 Read more >

Building the Syndication Bus: Plugin Ingredients at bavatuesdays

Building the Syndication Bus: Plugin Ingredients at bavatuesdays.

I read Jim Groom’s blog on a semi-regular basis.  At the least, I always read the headers and take a quick glance via Google Reader.  

He has been working on a rather larger WordPress Multi-User (WP MU) project for a while now.  I’ve messed around with MU but haven’t had a good reason to implement it yet, but have been following his efforts.

Not only is it a pretty interesting project (though you have to read a lot of posts to really get a feel for it), but this particular post has links to some of the best RSS feed plugins for WP.  I use most of them myself, though I don’t have a multiple-author blog – otherwise that would be quite a nice feature.

May 11, 2009 Articles from the Web, , 2 Read more >

Bernanke: Stress tests to lead to improved bank supervision – May. 7, 2009

Bernanke: Stress tests to lead to improved bank supervision – May. 7, 2009 .

This is kind of crazy.  The results of the stress tests of banks to determine exactly how much more bailout money each needs came out, as far as I could understand, today, May 7.  Lots of news about the results were posted yesterday, May 6, with fairly consistent estimates (with Bank of America coming in a few billion less than expected (apparently a few billion is good news?), and Wells Fargo and Citi the other two that would need money).

Today, the day on which the results are actually posted, I can’t find any articles other than this one (at first glance, on my google reader lists), that actually talk about them.  And this is Bernanke’s response, not the actual results.

Weird.

May 7, 2009 2008 Economic Crisis, Articles from the Web 0 Read more >

Amazon’s Widescreen Kindle DX: Winners and Losers – BusinessWeek

Amazon’s Widescreen Kindle DX: Winners and Losers – BusinessWeek.

Eh.  Everyone knows by now about Kindle DX.  But there are a few points in here that I didn’t know.

  1. They won’t have any advertising.  “Being good and moral?”  I guess so.  Missing out on a massive revenue stream that would really challenge newspapers?  Uh. Yeah.
  2. No discount to existing customers.  Bastards.

Then again, I’ve had a Kindle on my wishlist since v1 came out and no one has bought one for me yet…

May 7, 2009 Articles from the Web, 0 Read more >

Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Two 47 USC 230 Defense Losses–StubHub and Alvi Armani Medical

Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Two 47 USC 230 Defense Losses–StubHub and Alvi Armani Medical.

When you work at a law school, and one that specializes in Intellectual Property, with some real experts in IP…you find a few with blogs, and some of those are pretty good.  Professor Eric Goldman has a great blog, which he updates regularly with really in-depth posts.  This one, on StubHub, and another one on cyber-squatting have really pulled me in.  And I do not have a JD…

May 6, 2009 Articles from the Web 0 Read more >

BBC NEWS | Technology | Norway tests laptop exam scheme

BBC NEWS | Technology | Norway tests laptop exam scheme.

This is kind of interesting.  Many, many Law Schools use a variety of different exam software packages that do far more than what the Norway system does.  It actually reboots one’s computer into a secure state, where one cannot access the internet or any files on the computer.  After the exam is finished, the student then has to reboot again to upload the encrypted file.

May 1, 2009 Articles from the Web, Can't be Contained 0 Read more >

BBC NEWS | Business | US factory output continues fall

BBC NEWS | Business | US factory output continues fall.

It’s a bit odd to cite a BBC news article for this but the point is the same.  The other day my international economics professor was talking about the advance GDP numbers released this week.  One of the negative but promising items was that construction was down so much.  The point is not that no construction labor is a good thing, but that we’ve probably seen that worn out as a negative factor for the overall GDP.  People likely aren’t still losing jobs in the field, but have already lost them.  There is nowhere else to go but up.  

It may be a similar case for overall factory output as well.  It’s so far down that perhaps it’s going to level off, then eventually climb.  In fact, the article mentions that the drop was not as bad as expected.

May 1, 2009 2008 Economic Crisis, Articles from the Web 0 Read more >