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Most recent blog entries
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May 29 News |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
5/29/2008 5:01 PM
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So many things to comment on today; too little time…
1. Scott McClellan’s new memoir about the Bush 43 White House
2. Bear Stearns disappearing into JP Morgan Chase
3. SPAM sales on the rise
4. Q1 GDP being revised up from 0.6% to 0.9%
5. …and many more
We’ll leave most of these to another time soon, although #3 is immediately tempting, mostly due to Monty Python and to the fact that dinner time is near.
No, today we’ll talk about #4.
I just have one question: Do you feel luckier, now that the Q1 GDP was actually 0.3% higher in Q1 2008? Well, do ya?
Not I !!.
The number of US jobs lost in Q1 2008 remains at 240,000. There were still 7.6 million US people unemployed at the end of Q1, up from 6.8 million unemployed only a year earlier, and est ...
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Break out the Champagne? |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
5/27/2008 4:54 PM
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On Tuesday May 27, 2008, the price per barrel of oil dropped from the mid-$130’s that it “achieved” last week, to end trading below $129. Hallelujah?
Well, maybe not! Just as General Petraeus recently warned us all to keep the champagne in the back of the fridge when it comes to IRAQ, maybe likewise we’d better hold off on the “economic toasting” for awhile.
Because the latest economic news is not good, my friends.
While the price of oil did close down a few percentage points on May 27, US average gas prices hit another record high at almost $3.94 a gallon of regular, according to a survey of stations by the AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Now, enterprising thieves have added puncturing gas tanks and gas lines to steal gasoline to their previous nefarious methods of either siphoning gas, or just driving off without paying after fill ups at gas stations.
While the Dow ticked ...
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Autodesk vs. Vernor: It's a big precedent for ALL software vendors |
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Brad Holtz
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By Brad Holtz on
5/23/2008
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Here's all you need to know about the Autodesk vs. Vernor ruling:
1. Software "licenses" where the customer pays upfront a single fee for perpetual use of the software, with no obligation to return the software, must be treated by the courts as if it were a sale. Therefore the application of copyright law follows the first-sale principle.
2. Software vendors can get avoid have this ruling apply in any one of several ways.
a. renting the software. The Autodesk vs. Vernor ruling interprets a fully paid up perpetual license as a sale. If the license is not perpetual and fully paid, the interpretation of sale would not apply.
b. require the customer to return the software at the end of use. This would leave open the possibility of negating one of the conditions of the Wise decision on which this ruling is based.&l ...
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Economic Data Continue Grim |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
5/18/2008 4:48 PM
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Here are a few more data points that have emerged since the last blog entry in this space:
In 1993, the richest 1% of American families pocketed 14% of the nation’s income. By 2006, their slice had grown to 23%.
In a new US corporate IT spending survey by ChangeWave Research in April 2008, 25% of the respondents said their company will spend less on software in coming months. This figure is 3 points higher than a study ChangeWave conducted in January and 11 points higher than one completed in October 2007, indicating a deepening trend.
Consumer prices increased a hefty 0.6% in April 2008, the US Labor Department said on May 15, 2008, if you take out seasonal adjustments. Of course, if one does not eat or drive (i.e. ignoring price increases in food and gas), April consumer prices increased only 0.2%. During the last 12 months, overall consumer prices increased 3.9%. Food alone has risen 5.1%; gaso ...
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April Jobs Report – the Worst is Over! |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
5/3/2008 8:23 AM
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Yesterday, May 2, 2008, the US Labor Department issued its monthly Jobs Report for April 2008. The Report estimates that “only” 20,000 more US net jobs were lost in the month. Hey, the recession is over, right?
Not so fast!
Lest we forget, April marked the fourth consecutive month of declining US jobs. During that 4-month period, 260,000 net jobs were lost –- an average of 65,000 jobs lost per month. Since it takes 127,000 new jobs every month just to stay even, that means the US has fallen behind some 192,000 jobs in each of the last four months, or 768,000 for the 4-month period.
And as usual, April’s mix of jobs lost & gained was telling: 46,000 US manufacturing workers were laid off last month; 326,000 such positions have been lost over the last year. Construction lost 61,000 jobs. In April alone, that’s 107,000 more workers lost in these two key wealth-producing sectors where ...
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Blade Workstations: Surprisingly NOT Boring |
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Brad Holtz
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By Brad Holtz on
5/1/2008
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I was at COE earlier this week when HP announced their new blade workstations. As a courtesy, I attended HP's product release reception, where I had the "opportunity" to learn about the announcement. I was expecting to be politely bored. HP is not the only company out there with a solution (IBM was showing its own workstation blade server at COE too.) But who cares about a workstation blade?
Well, now I do. This technology is a game changer. It addresses very real issues of security, intellectual property, centralized maintenance, access to power on demand, and can remove heat and noise generation to remote areas where they are not problematic and perhaps even beneficial.
Resist the urge to ignore. Take a deep look at workstation blades -- I expect you'll be surprised too.
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The new CAD Society |
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Rachael Taggart
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By Rachael Dalton-Taggart on
4/29/2008 10:30 PM
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Recently, the CAD Society experienced a little bit of a rebound: with a vitalized strategy from president Mike McGrath, and VP, Tom Lazear, the Society decided to revive itself as a cross-industry organization that will tackle both the positives, and the negatives, of the industry as a much stronger voice and organization.
The CAD Society is looking for new members, ones who want to benefit from a range of discounts available to members, including hardware discounts from HP, software discounts from Archway Systems, and training from companies such as i.get.it. Members only gain access to about 13 discounts currently on offer - an offering that is set to rise across the coming months.
As for what else? The CAD Society is going to issue a newsletter, a job forum eventually, as well as forums, networking, and ultimately a program for mentoring engineers and an intern connection program. In addition, the CAD Societ ...
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"Slowdown" or "Recession" ?? |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
4/25/2008 6:31 AM
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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%.< ...
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The US Economy -- not so good... |
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Russ Henke
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By Russ Henke on
4/23/2008 4:55 PM
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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 U ...
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The Ninth COFES is over, and I am thrilled, drained, energized - and have no clue as to what it all means! Help me! |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
4/22/2008
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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 ha ...
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