Recent Articles

Video o’ the month (and maybe the year)

Video o’ the month (and maybe the year)

| September 25, 2008 | Reply

OK, I really don’t care about the political preferences of the people how made this — it’s just brilliantly done: And where’d they get the high-quality capture of The Dark Knight?  Hat tip to 2008 Central. ..bruce w..

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Cargo of doom

Cargo of doom

| September 25, 2008 | Reply

The following news item from the Long War Journal reads like the start of a Tom Clancy novel. It talks about an Iranian cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates. And then the pirates start dying (emphasis mine): The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured […]

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Quote o’ the day

Quote o’ the day

| September 25, 2008 | Reply

With all the high-level talks going on in Washington right now about the great economic crisis and the planned bailout, I found that the following passage from The Lord of the Rings came to mind: So great was the power that Saruman exerted in this last effort that none that stood within hearing were unmoved. […]

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Things to buy with $1.2 T

Things to buy with $1.2 T

| September 24, 2008 | Reply

I think it’s hard to imagine the scope of what is being considered. The total cost so far of the bailout, if they throw in the other $700B will be 1.2 TRILLION dollars. You have to wonder, what else could we do with that money…. Lets have a look! You could give every person in […]

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The Big Game – Bank Run in Hong Kong While Paulson’s Opening Gambit Falters

The Big Game – Bank Run in Hong Kong While Paulson’s Opening Gambit Falters

| September 24, 2008 | Reply

Word comes today that we have the start of another bank run. This one is hitting the Hong Kong based “Bank of East Asia”. According to the BBC: The Bank of East Asia has denied rumours that it is in financial trouble, after thousands of customers queued to withdraw their savings. After weeks of global […]

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The latest Baseline columns

The latest Baseline columns

| September 24, 2008 | Reply

The first column, “Second Class Software Quality for Major IT Projects”, talks about the curious fact that organizations are willing to spend millions, tens of millions, even hundred of millions of dollars on major IT project and yet still nickle-and-dime their software quality assurance (SQA) effort. It doesn’t help that SQA personnel are pretty much […]

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Rise of the machines

Rise of the machines

| September 23, 2008 | Reply

From Military.com (emphasis mine): A Virginia-based company is hoping to test-fly a vertical take-off and landing drone before the end of this year that, ultimately, could do triple duty as strike vehicle, medevac or special ops insertion/extraction plane. The Excalibur is currently being developed as an armed, tactical unmanned aerial vehicle by Aurora Flight Sciences […]

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The Gods of the Copybook Headings

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

| September 22, 2008 | 3 Replies

Jerry Pournelle over at his blog has linked to the Rudyard Kipling classic. Written nearly 90 years ago, it is remarkably apt right now, as our financial system threatens to melt down over human greed and stupidity: As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race, I make my proper prostrations to the […]

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Solid state music vs. solid state video

Solid state music vs. solid state video

| September 22, 2008 | Reply

John Paczkowski has a deservedly skeptical article today on how SanDisk’s announcement of the ‘slotMusic’ format, an effort to put individual music albums on microSD cards — so that you can plug an album into your cell phone or other devices that accept microSD cards. John pretty much sums up the problems with this format: […]

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The current financial mess explained

The current financial mess explained

| September 21, 2008 | Reply

Sort of: This stick-figure presentation at Google Docs (warning: explicit language) — which we linked to some months back — still remains the best (simple) explanation of just what went wrong in the global (not just US) financial markets. Think Lehman Brothers, Merril Lynch and Bear Stearns (not to mention Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac!) […]

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