Buttonwood Still earning after all these years May 3rd 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Source The legendary investor who stood the efficient-markets thesis on its head has hit a spot of bother. But Warren Buffett has survived such spots before “I’M WARREN. He’s Charlie. We work together. We really don’t have any choice, because he can hear and I can see.” Thus Warren Buffett and his viby archive - Archive
GATES VS. GOOGLE Search and Destroy Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? The darling of search is moving into software—and that's Microsoft's turf. FORTUNE Monday, April 18, 2005 By Fred Vogelstein Source Microsoft was already months into A massive project aimed at taking down Google when the truth began to dawn on Bill Gates. It was December 2by archive - Archive
The Daily Reckoning London, England Tuesday, May 03, 2005 The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: Those who went to Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder's meeting expecting a straight-laced event full of serious people would have been in for a surprise. Read on, as Sala Kannan describes the funniest lesson in economics she has ever experienced... THE ORACLE OF OMAHA by Sala Kannan Berkshireby archive - Archive
Letters to the business editor: 5/3/05 Tuesday, May 03, 2005 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Source Music stealing all around Cary Sherman's opinion piece on Sunday, "Mellifluous Discord: Universities' High-Speed Internet2 Used by Students to Pilfer Music," was as one-sided and illogical as the whole Recording Industry Association of America he represents, as president. Sherman suby archive - Archive
A Call to Arms From Databases Vol. 3, No. 3 - April 2005 by JIM GRAY, MICROSOFT MARK COMPTON, CONSULTANT Source Long anticipated, the arrival of radically restructured database architectures is now finally at hand. Avalanche of Information We live in a time of extreme change, much of it precipitated by an avalanche of information that otherwise threatens to swallow us whole. Under the mby archive - Archive
THE ROVING EYE Iraq's hostage cabinet By Pepe Escobar Source "We fasted for three months; then we broke our fast with an onion." - Iraqi proverb After fasting - or watching non-stop squabbling - for almost three months since the January 30 elections, Iraqis finally got their onion: a new cabinet no one likes (except the Kurds). Shi'ite Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari diby archive - Archive
Small box 'to end digital divide' By Jo Twist BBC News science and technology reporter Friday, 29 April, 2005 Source A pared down "computer" to replace bulky, grey desktop PCs could help close global digital inequalities. Not-for-profit developers, Ndiyo - the Swahili word for "yes" - said it could open up the potential of computing to two billion more people. Tby archive - Archive
Buttonwood The cyberbuttonwood era arrives Apr 26th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Source America’s fragmented stockmarkets are consolidating with a vengeance as electronic trading increases. This must be good news for investors—but for some more than others IT IS not widely appreciated—even by the willing but baffled Family Buttonwood—where the name of this column comes from. So casby archive - Archive
Arab democracy Should the West always be worried if Islamists win elections? Apr 28th 2005 | CAIRO From The Economist print edition Source In Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, Islamists seem to be gaining ground. Many want the chance to prove they are real democrats IT MAY be four decades since Saudis last voted, and only in a limited local way, but elections for town councils across the country, tby archive - Archive
Cold fusion Honest! Apr 28th 2005 From The Economist print edition Source A report of a desktop experiment that produces nuclear fusion is bound to raise eyebrows. But this time, the results look convincing PHYSICISTS who meddle with cold fusion, like psychologists who dabble in the paranormal, are likely to be labelled quacks by their peers. This is due to an infamous incident in 1989 whenby archive - Archive
The Daily Reckoning Ouzilly, France Friday, April 29, 2005 The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: Often, the best way to deal with something, or someone, that you find absurd is to take a step back and laugh. Bill Bonner advises his readers to employ this strategy when trying to decipher what our world leaders are really trying to save the world from... A THOUSAND CLOWNS by Bill Bonner Economics hasby archive - Archive
Open Wallets for Open-Source Software By GARY RIVLIN April 27, 2005 Source SAN FRANCISCO, April 26 - The first time Marc Fleury tried to raise money for his technology start-up company, in mid-2000, a venture capitalist told him that he didn't have merely a bad business plan but a terrible one. Not only was Mr. Fleury planning to compete against the likes of I.B.M., but his product was opeby archive - Archive
The Daily Reckoning Ouzilly, France Wednesday, April 27, 2005 The Daily Reckoning PRESENTS: The notion of one's child wanting to be a doctor sends chills of fear down parents' spines, engineers gravitate to plying their craft on money instead of real stuff, and the $600/hour lawyers are depressed to the point of either padding their accounts or working nearly 24/7. Money shufflers areby archive - Archive
Linux to get trusted, better desktop support Rodney Gedda, Computerworld 26/04/2005 14:35:29 Source Microsoft may have raised eyebrows when it announced its intentions to turn Windows into a "trustworthy" platform, but the open source Linux is set to support trusted computing, among other enhancements, in its next release. Speaking at Linux Australia's annual Linux conferernce,by archive - Archive
Nuclear fusion on the desktop ... really! Mini-reactor yields neutrons, could power spacecraft A key part of the apparatus for the nuclear fusion experiment is in the foreground. In the background are researchers Seth Putterman, Brian Naranjo and Jim Gimzewski. MSNBC staff and news service reports Updated: 2:56 p.m. ET April 27, 2005 Source Scientists say they have achieved small-scale nby archive - Archive
John Bluck NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. Phone: 650/604-5026 or 650/604-9000 Email: jbluck@mail.arc.nasa.gov Valerie Williamson Open Source Technology Group, VA Software Corporation, Fremont, Calif. Phone: 510/687-7116 April 26, 2005 RELEASE: 05_28AR New NASA Softwaby archive - Archive
Easy Money By Marc Faber April 13, 2005 Source THE FED EMBARKED on an ultra-easy and expansionary monetary policy whereby, despite six interest rate hikes over the previous six months, real interest rates remained negative. Then, after 2002, the impact of the tax cuts began to kick in; combined with the ultra-expansionary monetary policies, this led to rapid credit expansion, asset inflationby archive - Archive
"I am very sure that China has not only supplied nuclear technology to North Korea but is actually encouraging North Korea to pursue its nuclear weapons program. So, we are living in a world where the dangers of war are increasing. I suppose that, one day in the future, we in the West will wish we were still engaged in the Cold War, during which the three great powers (the West, the Soviet Uby archive - Archive
Peeling Away the FUD Wrapping on Linux/Windows "Studies" Saturday, April 23 2005 @ 12:17 PM EDT Source You just have to read this, The Truth About Linux and Windows". Business Week's Steve Hamm looks more carefully than most at Laura DiDio's latest piece of work and finds it wanting: I've got a bone to pick with the never-ending stream of studies by tech rby archive - Archive
Biotech critics at risk : Economics calls the shots in the debate By Mark Dowie Sunday, January 11, 2004 Source Four biologists from Europe and North America met face to face for the first time on the UC Berkeley campus last month. Although none of them is particularly famous as a scientist -- not one Nobel among them -- they know each other's names and work as well as if they had been woby archive - Archive
SEGMENT #3: THE SECRET GOVERNMENT – The Constitution In Crisis Bill Moyers, Secret Government, PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) 1987 Source Moyers: “The Secret Government is an interlocking network of official functionaries, spies, mercenaries, ex-generals, profiteers and superpatriots, who, for a variety of motives, operate outside the legitimate institutions of government. Presidentsby archive - Archive
Delving into mind over matter By CLAIRE SMITH Source IT WAS during a weekend of fire-walking in the Welsh hills that scientist David Hamilton decided to change his life. As an organic chemist with a major pharmaceutical company, he was on a good salary, developing a new generation of drugs by synthesising molecules found in nature. But Hamilton was never convinced that man could improve on natby archive - Archive
'Little progress' in malaria war BBCNews Thursday, 21 April, 2005 Source Little progress has been made in the war on malaria because the global body launched to fight the disease in 1998 is failing, a medical journal says. Roll Back Malaria, an international group of 90 organisations, was set up to co-ordinate the response to malaria. But the Lancet said the number of cases was risby archive - Archive
Do Firefox browser bugs matter? BBCNews Friday, 22 April, 2005 Source No program is perfect, but bugs in open source software are less of a problem, says technology analyst Bill Thompson. The Firefox open source browser is full of bugs, some of which are rather serious. In March Danish security firm Secunia reported that it had found eight. Some could be used to trick users into giving awayby archive - Archive
'Infomania' worse than marijuana BBC News Friday, 22 April, 2005 Source Workers distracted by email and phone calls suffer a fall in IQ more than twice that found in marijuana smokers, new research has claimed. The study for computing firm Hewlett Packard warned of a rise in "infomania", with people becoming addicted to email and text messages. Researchers found 62% of peby archive - Archive
Will the walls come falling down? Apr 20th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Source House prices have been growing at a breakneck pace in many developed countries. This has encouraged householders to keep spending even during the global slowdown. But now that housing markets are looking soft, consumers may be forced to retrench AMERICAN homeowners, particularly those who have just boughtby archive - Archive
Expatriate workers In search of stealth Apr 21st 2005 From The Economist print edition Source Today's global businesses have created a new kind of expat CARLOS GHOSN is a Brazilian who, from next month, will be spending 40% of his time in Paris as the new boss of Renault, 35% in Tokyo where he will continue as the head of Nissan, and 25% elsewhere, most of it in America. Jean-Pierre Garnby archive - Archive
Open source developers provide 'glimmer of hope' By Ingrid Marson ZDNet UK April 22, 2005, 11:25 BST Source An eminent software developer has claimed that the pressure to be first to market with new technology is leading to a decline in software quality, but that standards are higher in the open source world. James Coplien, a software design expert who currently works as an object arby archive - Archive
Gore Vidal on war for oil, politics-free elections, and the late, great U.S. Constitution The Undoing of America by Steve Perry Friday 25th March 2005 Source For the past 40 years or so of Gore Vidal’s prolific 59-year literary career, his great project has been the telling of the American story from the country’s inception to the present day, unencumbered by the court historian’s task of makiby archive - Archive
"According to the health organization, the higher costs of private insurers are "mainly due to the extensive bureaucracy required to assess risk, rate premiums, design benefit packages and review, pay or refuse claims." Public insurance plans have far less bureaucracy because they don't try to screen out high-risk clients or charge them higher fees." Passing the Buck Bby archive - Archive