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COFES Blog
By Russ Henke on
4/25/2008 6:31 AM
Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, the current administration continues to deny that a recession is abroad in the land. Just a few days ago, Bush 43 rejected claims that the nation was in a recession, instead saying only, “We are in a slowdown.” If the economic facts in my April 23, 2008 blog entry were not enough, here are some more depressing data points on the US economy --- data just released late on April 24:Sales of new homes dropped by 8.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the slowest sales pace since October 1991 (during Bush 41’s reign). The median price of a new home sold in March 2008 dropped by 13.3% compared with March 2007, the biggest year-over-year price decline since a 14.6% fall in July 1970 (during Nixon’s first term). New home sales were down in all regions of the country in March 2008: Northeast minus 19.4%, West minus 12.9%, Midwest minus 12.5%, and South minus 4.6%.Orders to US factories for durable manufactured goods fell for a third straight month...
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By Russ Henke on
4/23/2008 4:55 PM
Well, the US economy sure hasn’t improved any since my last blog entry in February 2008. Unfortunately, we are all sinking deeper into W’s second recession.Rising gasoline prices again tightened the squeeze on US drivers on Earth Day April 22, 2008, jumping for the first time to an average $3.50 a gallon of regular across the country - with no sign of relief. (Drivers here in the San Francisco Bay Area paid an average of $3.98 a gallon for regular). Crude oil set a record for the sixth day in a row on April 22, this time closing at $117.48 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Diesel prices at the pump also struck a record of $4.20 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That will add add to truckers' costs and drive up the price of food, clothing and other goods shipped by truck.It’s difficult to find good news anywhere across the US economic landscape.For example, it was revealed today (April 23) that Toyota took the global sales lead from General Motors in the first quarter,...
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By Joel Orr on
4/22/2008
Life goes by so fast! COFES 2008 was, well, outstanding - even more the prior ones, each of which outdid the ones before. But so much keeps going on! There is hardly time for thought, let alone reflection; stuff keeps happening too quickly for me to make sense of.We're doing a much better job of posting stuff quickly; explore this site, and you will find recordings, videos, and some comments on what went on at COFES, with more to come - hopefully, before it's all old hat...What do we do about this phenomenon that signal processing geeks call 'aliasing' - the challenges of representing a high-frequency set of events in a low-frequency medium. Stuff is pouring in as I sit here, and there is no way I can assimilate it all, let alone its implications. I can't even begin to assimilate the ruminations of gurus who are quick to analyze and summarize - and I certainly don't have time to think about how good those analyses are...I know I'm preaching to the converted here. You have told me, at COFES and elsewhere, that...
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By Joel Orr on
4/20/2008
I'm sitting in this wonderful conference, full of ideas from all the many powerful presentations I've experienced so far, and the people I've met - and I find myself actually distressed that the slides and more are not already online -- nor is there any indication that they will be! What does that say about us leading-edge scouts? Here's some text from the event site:
In a not-too-distant future, the computing platform of choice for a significant number of consumers will be a hand-held device. Signs of this trend are already apparent in Asia and Scandinavia, and all indicators suggest that this evolution transforms the lives and work of individuals in ways that are both chaotic and enriching. Given the diversity of global communications mechanisms, how can network operators, software vendors, and handset providers accelerate this evolution? The Mobile Future brings together experts from industry and the research community to share and discuss their visions of possible futures, along with technology and business...
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By Joel Orr on
4/3/2008
3D Systems, the company that coined "stereolithography," has just announced a printer for less than $10,000.
When the Apple Laserwriter came out in 1985, it cost $7,000 - and opened the era of "desktop publishing." Of course it's not the same thing, but perhaps there are some interesting parallels for us to think about.
At the very least, it will be something of a test of the assumptions of those like Dassault CEO Bernard Charles, who believe that 3D is a universal communication language. Simple CAD puts 3D modeling within reach of all; now this printer puts 3D "hard copy" within reach of many. I'm curious to see what will happen!
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