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Most recent blog entries
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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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At the CMU West "Mobile Future" conference in Santa Clara, CA |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
4/20/2008
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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 di ...
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Under-$10k 3D printer announced by 3D Systems |
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Joel Orr
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By Joel Orr on
4/3/2008
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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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