LibertyNewsprint 3-28-08 Edition

8/14/2019 LibertyNewsprint 3-28-08 Edition

1/25

Your Click and Print Newspaper LibertyNewsprint.com U.S. Edition24/03/08 - 28/03/08

Reform Plan Contradicts ClintonCampaignBy Mark Impomeni (PoliticalMachine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 1:45:00 PM

Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Democrats,Breaking News, 2008 President In aspeech before the Florida State Senate,U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), asupporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton in theDemocratic primary race, announced plans

to introduce a Federal presidential electionreform plan that contains features at oddswith the Clinton campaign's rationale forsecuring the nomination. Nelson's planwould establish regional primaries thatwould take place between March and Juneand would rotate in order, eliminating theinfluence of early voting states like Iowaand New Hampshire. It would also allowearly voting in all states and absenteevoting for any reason, as well as call forthe elimination of voting machines that donot produce a paper record of votes cast.

But the plan also calls for awarding thepresidency by popular vote and does awaywith the Electoral College. That aspect ofthe plan undercuts a key justification that

Sen. Clinton is making to superdelegatesthat will likely decide the outcome of theDemocratic primary. Clinton has won a lotof large, electoral vote rich states, and isrelying on her strength in potentialElectoral College scenarios to sway thesuperdelegates into supporting her bid forthe nomination. Sen. Clinton cannot bepleased that one of her most prominentsupporters in the Senate is making aproposal to eliminate the very electionfeature that she is using to her advantage inthis election season.

Nelson's plan is inspired by the 2000presidential election debacle in Florida.

George W. Bush won Florida by just over500 votes, giving him all of Florida's 25electoral votes and the presidency, despitelosing the national popular vote by about600,000. Democrats, stung by thenarrowest of losses, called for theelimination of the Electoral College as aresult of the disputed election. Sen. Clintonwas among those calling for a presidentelected by the popular vote. But those callsfaded in the aftermath of the 2004 election,when Democratic nominee Sen. JohnKerry lost the popular vote by a wider

margin, about 3 million votes, but wouldhave won in the Electoral College with aswing of just 50,000 votes in Ohio. To thisday, some Democrats harbor resentmentthat Kerry did not contest the electionthere.

Now, however, as Sen. Clinton faceslong-shot odds of overtaking Sen. BarackObama in the delegate race, her campaignis trumpeting her strength in the electoral

vote rich states. Earlier this week, anotherU.S. Senate backer of Clinton's, Sen. EvanBayh (D-IN), said that one of the keyfactors that superdelegates should consideris the potential for carrying an ElectoralCollege majority.

"Well, I do think the popular vote isimportant. But that's a circular argument. Itbrings us back to Florida and Michigan.

So who carried the states with the mostElectoral College votes is an importantfactor to consider because ultimately, that'show we choose the president of the UnitedStates." Nelson's announcement, in thesame week that surrogates began to makethe Electoral College argument, isproblematic for the Clinton campaign. It

leaves the impression that her campaign ista lk ing out of both s ides of i t scommunications shop, and adds moreconfusion to an already hopelesslymuddled nomination battle. Nelson hasintroduced election reform legislation inthe Senate before, failing to garnersignificant support. Because this plandirectly impacts on one of the Clintoncampaign's strongest selling points to thesuperdelegates, it may never see the lightof day.

Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs|Comments

Barack, the ConservativeChoiceBy Dave (Political Machine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 6:44:00 AM

Filed under: Barack Obama, 2008President

Well I guess if you want to writecontrarian articles that grab attention,alleging that Barack is the best choice forconservatives isn't a bad place to start. Butit takes a long time in this column to get to

the nugget. Much time is spent first onexplaining how both Bush and McCain arenot conservative. This, of course, is nosurprise to anyone who's been payingattention, but the columnist acts as if Ishould be surprised, so I'll play along.

Fact: GWB is not a conservative.Me: No way! oh wait, now that you

mention it, high spending + Medicareentitlements, + no child left behind, Egad!you're right, Bush isn't a conservative and Ionly just now realized it! Thank you sir forpointing out the obvious.

But on to the main point here, which iswhy, after explaining how the Republicancandidates are not conservatives, why theyshould turn to Obama (of all people!)

So why consider Obama? For one reasononly: because this liberal Democrat haspromised to end the U.S. combat role inIraq. Contained within that promise, iffulfilled, lies some modest prospect of aconservative revival.

To appreciate that possibility requiresseeing the Iraq War in perspective. As anepisode in modern military history, Iraqqualifies at best as a very small war. Yetthe ripples from this small war will extendfar into the future, with remembrance ofthe event l ike ly to have grea te rsignificance than the event itself. How

Americans choose to incorporate Iraq intothe nation's historical narrative will eitheraffirm our post-Cold War trajectory towardempire or create opportunities to set asaner course.

And there it is. to Andrew Bacevich, thedefining issue for conservatism is whetherto limit or expand American efforts topolice the world. Everything else (taxes,abortion, limited government, everything!)

pales in significance. And because Obamais the only candidate likely to stop a"march toward empire". Conservativesshould support him.

This is of course a steaming load of you-know-what. The argument of involvementin the world versus minding our ownbusiness goes all the way back to thepresidency of Thomas Jefferson, (if notbefore) who campaigned, indeed embodiedthe idea of minding our own business andrugged individualism.

So of course among the first things hedoes as president is doubles the size of thecountry then building a navy and sending itto fight pirates across the ocean(Muslimpirates at that). Which means that

Americans would like to mind our ownbusiness, but it never seems to be apractical option. No change here and nowon that either.

But all this goes to say that it is absurd tosay that conservatives, as such, willnecessarily land on one side or the other ofthe question about policing the world. Andso much for the conservatives for Obamaargument.



2/25

2 Your Click and Print NewspaperIs 'Sniper-Gate' Hillary's Dukakis Moment?By Tommy Christopher (PoliticalMachine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 2:39:00 AM

Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Democrats,Featured Stories

The reporting on Hillary Clinton's

inaccurate recollections of her trip toBosnia as First Lady has been escalatingsteadily over the past week or so, as eachday brings new revelations, or some newfact dug up out of the archives of theClinton-era internet, ironically now notbenefiting from the dot com boom. Justyesterday, Brandon Barker posted thevideo below, from BarelyPolitical.com.

Hillary Clinton's account of the tripincluded references to sniper fire, acanceled welcome ceremony, and running,heads-down, to their cars. As the week hasprogressed, her campaign's increasinglyham-handed attempts at damage controlonly succeeded in amplifying the issue,until finally, they were left with a horrible

excuse about being tired, made worsewhen juxtaposed with the now-infamous 3a.m. ad.

The worst thing about this is not the"misstatements," although that's whatmade it such a huge story. People willclaim that, but I don't buy it. The mostdamaging part of this is that it makesHillary seem like another weak, humiliatedDemocrat. The Dukakis comparison hasbeen kicking around in my head for a fewdays, but it really came into relief when Isaw the video. After the jump, will thisstory sink Hillary Clinton? Is the Dukakisanalogy really appropriate? Why doDemocrats think they have to be near gunsto get elected?

Update: Reaction from the Clintoncampaign at the end.

I was only 19 or so during, so a lot of thedetails are a little fuzzy, but I will neverforget the slap I gave my forehead when Isaw Mike's head popping up out of thattank like a jack-in-the-box. That was themoment the Democrats completelysurrendered to the Republicans on nationalsecurity issues, and on the larger issue oftoughness. It was at that moment that thecollective Democratic cojones wentPOOF! and disappeared.What they shouldhave done was to fight the un-Americannotion that the American President needs

to be some kind of militaristic Marlboroman. They've been reeling ever since. EvenBill Clinton only managed to skirt this bycampaigning on a "peace dividend."

Now, the Dukakis chickens have comehome to roost again. It will be known inshort order just how damaging this is toSenator Clinton. A new NBC/Wall StreetJournal poll taken Monday and Tuesday,as this story was unfolding, indicates that itcould be significant: As expected, one ofthe two major Democratic candidates sawa downturn in the latest NBC/WSJ poll,but it's not the candidate that you think.Hillary Clinton is sporting the lowestpersonal ratings of the campaign.Moreover, her 37 percent positive rating isthe lowest the NBC/WSJ poll has recordedsince March 2001, two months after shewas elected to the U.S. Senate from NewYork. Recent polls show that Obama'ssupport has stabilized, and even edged up

slightly, since his speech on race inAmerica. The full effect of the Bosniastory won't be measurable for a week or so,and will be magnified in November ifHillary is the nominee.

Of course, there are other analogies tothe Dukakis bid. The issue of race was putfront-and-center with the Bush campaign'suse of black boogieman Willie Horton toscare voters away from Mike. I neverthought that this had nearly the impact thatthe tank thing did. I remember thinkingtwo things: If they could only find one guyfrom that furlough program who messedup, maybe it wasn't so bad. Secondly, Iwondered why no newscasters everclarified that the man in the ads was notDetroit Tigers slugger Willie Horton. If theUnabomber had been named Cal Ripken, Ibet they would have mentioned it.

A key difference here is that the Hortonand National Security attacks on Dukakis

came from a Republican, not a fellowDemocrat. One detail I did not remember,that is directly comparable to thiscampaign, is that Dukakis' camp sank JoeB i de n ' s c a nd i da c y by r e l e a s i ngembarrassing evidence of plagiarism.

It remains to be seen if Hillary Clinton'scampaign can effectively counter this, or ifthey will even try. The strategy of ignoringthe issue is what blew it up in the firstplace, so they do so at their own peril.

Update: On today's Clinton campaignconference call, I asked Howard Wolfsonabout this. Here is an abridged version ofthe exchange: TC: How does yourcampaign plan to counter the "DukakisEffect" of the Bosnia/Sniper story goingforward, particularly as you press Sens.Obama and McCain on national securityissues?

Howard Wolfson: I think that's ratheroverstated. I do not expect it will have that

kind of impact.TC: Senator Clinton has said that she

"believes" she has passed the Commander-in-Chief test, and she is "certain that JohnMcCain has." When I asked this questionearlier in the week, you essentially saidthat McCain is wrong about Iraq, but I

want to ask you what is there, positively,about Senator McCain that shows hepassed the test, and failing that, do younow think he did not pass the test?

Howard Wolfson: I think Senator Clintonwas clearly speaking in the broaderpolitical context, that Senator McCain hasthe experience, but he is clearly wrong...

TC: This is Howard?HW: Yes.TC: So what you are saying is that he

passed the test by being wrong?HW: No, well, I appreciate the follow-

up, and I would appreciate being able tofinish my answer to you without beinginterrupted. Senator Clinton was speakingabout Senator McCain in a broad political

context. He served in uniform, as a POW,he has served in the Senate, he has theexperience, Senator Obama does not, butwe have been clear that Senator McCain iswrong on Iraq.

TC: Wouldn't a fairer and wiser contrast,then, be that Senators Clinton and Obamaare right on Iraq, and McCain is wrong?

HW: I appreciate you having asked thisquestion several times, but I think you areconflating two things that are not related.We have been clear, and I'm sure SenatorClinton has said it before, at the debates,that Senator Obama's and Senator Clinton'spositions on Iraq are in clear contrast withMcCain's. So, there you have it. Am Imissing something? How do you pass atest by being completely wrong? How doesSenator Clinton defeat John McCain whenhe beats her at least 2 to 1 on her own test?As for the Dukakis Effect, time will tell,and not that much time.


Politics *


3/25

3Your Click and Print Newspaper

Iraqi Death-Rate RisingBy David Knowles (PoliticalMachine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 3:29:00 AM

Filed under: Breaking News, IraqAccording to statistics compiled from

news reports, the death-rate among Iraqisoldiers and civilians has gone up for fourstraight months. Most troubling, however,is the marked jump in the number of Iraqiswho have been killed in March. As of thiswriting, 768 Iraqis died in fighting relatedto the war. The actual tally is sure to bemuch higher, given that these figures arebased only on those fatalities that make itto the pages of newspapers.

Of course, the reason March has seensuch a spike in casualties can be attributedto the fact that Moqtada al-Sadr's militiaseems to have decided to end its cease-firewith the Iraqi Government and Americantroops. What's odd, however, is the spinthat the Pentagon has offered up regardingthis worrisome development:

The Pentagon on Wednesday said an

eruption of violence in southern Iraq,where US-backed government forces werebattling Shiite militias, was a "by-productof the success of the surge."

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, youare asked to believe that the surge is asuccess because it has curtailed violenceAND because it has not curtailed violence.Let's not be fooled by a return to theOrwellian P.R. machine that once assuredus that an up-tick in bloodshed signaledthat our enemies were in the " last throes"of their dramatic performance. Perhaps wedo have the "insurgents" right where wewant them now. By supporting an ineptgovernment for so long, we've rooted outthe dissatisfied, and heavily-armed Shiites.Now fed up with the non-existent pace ofpolitical progress, they've taken to thestreets and are ripe for the offing. 72-hoursfrom now the Iraqi army should have it allmopped up.


Hillary to Supporters:Don't Vote for McCainBy David Knowles (PoliticalMachine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 3:11:00 PM

Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Democrats,Barack Obama, John McCain, FeaturedStories

Good for her, she's talking sense again.From CNN:

Hillary Clinton pleaded for partisan unityon Thursday, urging Democrats not toabandon their party to vote for JohnMcCain if their preferred candidate fails tosecure the nomination...

..."First of all, every time you have avigorous contest like we are having in thisprimary election, people get intense," shecontinued. "You know, Sen. Obama hasintense support: I have intense support."

Clinton stressed that there are"significant" differences between her andObama, but said "those differences pale tothe differences between us and Sen.McCain.

This i s a new and re freshing

development in strategy. Heretofore,Clinton seemed to suggest that McCainwould be a better choice than Obama, ifshe were to lose the nomination. I hope wecan close the book on that ambiguity. Ifyou are a Democrat, and you admireHillary Clinton's policy proposals, thenBarack Obama is your most sensiblesecond choice. Likewise, if you really kickthe tires and check under each Democrat'shood, then Hillary is your plan B, shouldBarack fail to win.

According to a new Pew poll, 32% ofClinton supporters say they'll vote forMcCain if Hillary doesn't take thenomination. An almost identical 28% ofObama's faithful claim they'll pull aRepublican lever if Clinton tops theircandidate.

Perhaps cooler heads are starting toprevail. I'd like to think so, anyway.


SuperdelegateIndictedBy Faye Anderson (Political

Machine)Submitted at 3/27/2008 7:45:00 AM

Filed under: Democrats, Barack Obama,2008 President Another Barack Obamasuperdelegate bites the dust. Today, thegovernor of Puerto Rico, Anibal AcevedoVila, was charged with campaign financev i o l a t i o n s a n d l y i n g t o f e d e ra linvestigators. The Washington Postreports: Democrat Anibal Acevedo Vila,48, and his top advisers acceptedthousands of dollars in illegal campaigndona t ions from Phi lade lphia a reabusinessmen and their employees to wipeaway substantial debts stemming fromcampaign expenses prior to 2002, whichwere never reported to federal electionofficials, Justice Department officials said.

Acevedo Vila, who served as PuertoRico's resident commissioner in the U.S.House of Representatives between 2001and 2005, also took money in connectionwith his official role but did not declare theincome for tax purposes, according to theindictment unveiled this morning.

Vila's endorsement was touted onObama's web site, but the campaign nowsays he's just one of many. "Though he is asupporter, he holds no title and has noformal role with the campaign," saidObama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

As the Post reports, it wasn't always so:When Obama landed Vila's support inFebruary, he had welcomed what a

campaign press release called the"potentially key support from one of theisland's superdelegates in a close fight forthe Democratic presidential nomination."

Hey, that is so last month.Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs|

Comments

Politics *


4/25

4 Your Click and Print NewspaperKlein Suggests Gore-Obama a PossibilityBy Jay Allbritton (Political Machine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:08:00 AM

Filed under: 2008 President, Al Gore

Mike Allen of The Politico dropped atantalizing nugget in a post this morning. Itappears Time Magazine's Joe Klein isfloating a Gore-Obama ticket as a possibleresolution to the fight over the Democraticpresidential nomination.

The pitch from Klein goes like this: Let'ssay the elders of the Democratic Partydecide, when the primaries end, thatneither Obama nor Clinton is viable. ... Allthey'd have to do would be to convince asignificant fraction of their superdelegatefriends, maybe fewer than 100, toannounce that they were taking a pass onthe first ballot at the Denver convention,which would deny the 2,025 votesnecessary to Obama or Clinton. What if

they then approached Gore and asked himto be the nominee, for the good of the party-and suggested that he take Obama as hisrunning mate? ... A prominent fund raisertold me, 'Gore-Obama is the ticket a lot ofpeople wanted in the first place. A former

Gore adviser told Allen that a much morelikely scenario would involve Gore makinga strong closing argument to the superdelegates for one candidate or another.

This week, Democratic RepresentativeTim Mahoney stoked Gore-mania when hetold a Florida paper, "If it (the nominationprocess) goes into the convention, don't be

surprised if someone different is at the topof the ticket."Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs|

Comments

Gore Won't Put His Money Where His MouthIsBy Justin Paulette (PoliticalMachine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 2:19:00 AM

Filed under: Environment, Al GoreToday is the deadline of the Global

Warming Challenge- a bet proposed by J.Scott Armstrong, a climate-change skepticwho doubts the varsity of climateforecasting models upon which Al Gorehad based many of his dooms-daypredictions.

The challenge dictates that Armstrongand Gore each put $10,000 into aCharitable Trust Fund. Armstrong thenproposes to forecast temperature changemore accurately than any climate modelGore chooses over a 10-year period.

Armstrong forecasts that global meantemperature will not change.

Gore insisted that he was too busy toenter into the bet by the original deadline,so Armstrong extended until today. Gore

has failed to accept.Of course, this entire ordeal is a political

stunt. The cash involved is minuscule andthe bet requires an excessive duration.

However, it does illuminate a single point:Gore is willing to wager taxpayer moneyon his wild, the-sky-is-falling hypothesis,but he feels that personal risks are beneathhis merit. I commend Mr. Gore forrefusing to wager his wealth on such a bet,and hope that voters do likewise wheneverthe issue is brought before them on aballot.


"Obama Opportunity" - NewAdBy Greg McNeilly (Political Machine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 12:34:00 PM

Filed under: Barack Obama, Ads, 2008President

Barack Obama's campaign is airing anew :60 second ad in Pennsylvania. It istitled "Opportunity."

The script for "Opportunity" reads:Barack Obama: I'm Barack Obama and Iapproved this message. My own storywouldn't be possible if it weren't for theAmerican Dream... I was raised by a singlemom and my grandparents . . . Mygrandfather served in Patton's Army. Mygrandmother worked on a bomberassembly line. They didn't have money.But they gave me love, a thirst foreducation and a belief that we're all part of

something larger than ourselves. So Iworked my way through college and lawschool.

I first came to Chicago because I sawpeople being laid off of steel plants that

were closing... and nobody was fightingfor them... As an organizer with Christianchurches I helped those workers and tooktheir fight to the state Senate---- passingtax cuts and health care for families. InWashington, I got better care for woundedtroops who'd been neglected. And passedthe toughest law ever to rein in lobbyists sowe can make government work for people.

The Keystone primary is April 22nd.Permalink| Email this| Linking Blogs|

Comments

When Genius Fails Again, and Again(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)Submitted at 3/27/2008 2:30:00 PM

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.Was this the motto for Long Term CapitalManagement alumni?

It certainly seems that way. But perhapsit's time to find a new one.

It turns out that Long Term Capitalfounder John Meriwether isn't the onlysurvivor of the hedge fund that implodedspectacularly in 1998 who is havingtrouble surviving today. Eric Rosenfeld, aformer Salomon Brothers trader whohelped Meriwether start both L.T.C.M. andJ.W.M. Partners, has his own troubled taleto tell, Portfolio.com has learned.

Rosenfeld parted ways with Meriwetherto start his own fund last year. He reunitedwith L.T.C.M.'s former chief financialofficer, Robert Shustak, and the fund'sformer controller, Bruce Wilson, to startQuantitative Alternatives LLC in RyeBrook, New York.

The plan, according to reports, was touse statistical models for trading strategiesmuch like those employed by the ill-fatedL.T.C.M. It had hoped to start trading by

the end of last year.But that day would never come. The

fund never got off the ground, and thethree partners decided to fold the operationat the end of last year. But unlike thedramatic finale of L.T.C.M., QuantitativeAlternatives exited the scene in silence.

"The capital raising environment wasvery challenging," says Shustak, who wasreached by phone in his new off ice at QFSAsset Management. "At the end of theyear, we just decided it wasn't the righttime to raise a new quantitative fund. Wedidn't feel it was appropriate."

No one knows about today's challengingenvironment better than Meriwether, whois now struggling to keep his n ine-year old

hedge fund solvent, the Wall Street Journalreported yesterday. Meriwether startedJ.W.M. Partners with five other principalsof L.T.C.M., including Rosenfeld, and itsbiggest fund is down 28 percent so far thisyear.

As for the defunct QuantitativeAlternatives, Shustak declined to say howmuch money the trio raised before quietlycalling it quits. He landed on his feet atQFS earlier this year, and Shustak says

Wilson is now working for Third PointPartners, an activist fund run by theoutspoken Daniel Loeb.

Rosenfeld, however, is still "exploringhis different options," Shustak says. Effortsto reach Rosenfeld both at home and at theformer offices of Quantitative Alternativeswere unsuccessful.

So is there a Long Term Capital curse?When two or more former L.T.C.M.traders enter the same room, does lightningstrike?

Shustak doesn't think there's enoughevidence that the shared experiences atL.T.C.M. have anything to do with thesuccess or failure of a new joint venture.

And he has reason to hope that's true.

One of the principals of QFS, Shustak'scurrent firm, worked in the back office forL.T.C.M., according to his bio.

Related LinksIt's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad WorldMeriwether Decimates his Partners'

Capital, AgainAnother Hedge Fund Tracker Launches

Politics * Business *


5/25


Politicians: How Much is TMI?By Denise Williams (PoliticalMachine)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 10:10:00 AM

Filed under: Scandal, Eliot SpitzerNewly inaugurated NY Governor David

Paterson, who has already to admitted toaffairs and cocaine use, held a pressconference today and told the gathered, "Ithink that, more than any elected officialon the planet and probably in outer space, Ihave discussed my personal situation overthe last week" and that there would be nomore press conferences about his privatelife.

I'm not a New Yorker and certainly don'tknow the governor, but somehow I don'tbelieve that this will not be the last we hearfrom Paterson regarding his personal life.Call me cynical...

Well, New York Magazine has made ahandy chart to reference all the mostpopular sexual scandals while we wait forthe inevitable press conference from thenext pol that can't keep it in his pants orout of his nose.


Comcast Backs Down(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:30:00 AM

Comcast, the nation's largest cablecompany, said today that it will change itscontroversial network managementpractices and work with file-sharing

services to address complaints that itunfairly blocks certain peer-to-peer traffic.But consumer groups weren't buying it.

The Federa l Communica t ionsCommission is currently investigatingComcast over charges that it stifles legalpeer-to-peer traffic on its network.Consumer groups and network-neutralityadvocates have been pushing the F.C.C.and Congress to forbid Comcast todiscriminate against legal traffic on itsnetwork.

Today's announcement is a stunningturnaround for a company that until justmonths ago denied it engaged in any Webblocking at all. After the Associated Presscaught Comcast blocking certain traffic,

the company was forced to admit that it"delays" certain peer-to-peer traffic, but itdefended the practice as "reasonablenetwork management."

Comcast said that by the end of 2008, itsnetwork-management policy will be"protocol agnostic"meaning it will notfavor one type of traffic over anotherandwill instead focus on users who consumethe most bandwidth.

"This means that we will have to rapidlyreconfigure our network-managementsystems, but the outcome will be a traffic-management technique that is moreappropriate for today's emerging internettrends," Comcast chief technology officerTony Werner said in a statement.

Comcast will also expand its networkcapacity to better accommodate rapidlyincreasing bandwidth consumption, saidJohn Schanz, a Comcast Cable executivevice president.

"We plan to more than double theupstream capacity of our residentialinternet service in several key markets byyear end 2008," Schanz said.

Comcast also said it had agreed to workwith file-sharing service BitTorrent in aneffort to address the best way to manage

peer-to-peer traffic, one of the mostbandwidth-intensive activities on the Web.

"Recognizing that the Web is richer andmore bandwidth-intensive than it has beenhistorically, we are pleased that Comcastunderstands these changing traffic patternsand wants to collaborate with us to migrateto techniques that the internet communitywill find to be more transparent," said EricKlinker, BitTorrent's chief technologyofficer.

Meanwhile, consumer groups reactedwarily to Comcast's about-face. NicholasReville, co-founder and executive directorof the Participatory Culture Foundation,wasn't buying what Comcast was selling.

"Comcast is taking a page right out of the

auto-industry playbook: Car companiesdeny the importance of global warmingwhile using announcements of futuretechnology to b lock meaningfulenvironmental protections," said Reville."Comcast can see that public demands forn e t - n e u t r a l i t y p r o t e c t i o n s a r egrowingthis announcement i s atransparent attempt to distract from thatdebate."

"The announcement from Comcast andBitTorrent has absolutely nothing to dowith the need for net-neutrality protectionsand BitTorrent certainly does not speak forother torrent technology companies,"Reville added.

Gigi Sohn, president of consumer rightsgroup Public Knowledge, called Comcast'sagreement with BitTorrent "irrelevant,"and said in a statement that it does nothave "any bearing on the complaint andpetitions pending before the Federal

Communications Commission on whatrights users have on the internet."

"The F.C.C. should continue to reinforceits principles of internet access and shouldcontinue to work for the benefit ofconsumers regardless of any particulararrangements made by the private sector,"

Sohn added.Markham Erickson, executive director of

the Open Internet Coalition, which lobbiesfor net neutrality, said that "despite thewelcome news tha t Comcas t andBitTorrent are working together, theF.C.C. still needs to reinforce these effortsby establishing the basic rules of the roadfor BitTorrent users and all internetconsumers by defining permissibleb ro a d b a n d n e t wo rk -m a n a g e m e n tp ra c t i c e s . "

"Time and time again, when the telcomsand cable companies engage indiscriminatory behavior against certaintypes of speech and contentas we'veseen with AT&T, Verizon, and most

recently with Comcasta familiar patternemerges," Erickson said."First, a spotlight gets focused on the bad

behavior," he said. "Then, when exposed,the companies state such action is withintheir power as network operators. Afterthat, the F.C.C. and Congress focus onthese discriminatory acts, and finally, thecompanies do a U-turn and apologize.

"While it's always a positive step whenthese companies admit the error of theirways," added Erickson, "it's a bad way torun the internet."

Related LinksComcast Has Plenty of Room for Video

Its OwnF.C.C. Warns Comcast Over Web

'Blocking'Crackdown: Comcast Blocks Peer-to-

Peer Web Traffic

See a recession ahead? Think ColgateBy Joseph Lazzaro(BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 10:13:00 AM

Filed under: Colgate-Palmolive (CL),Stocks to Buy With the markets still in achoppy/consolidation mode (or perhaps

worse), it's best to consider including a fewdefensive stocks in your portfolio, andwith the aforementioned in mind Colgate-Palmolive is worth an evaluation.

Colgate-Palmolive Company(NYSE:CL)'s restructuring is working, and its2008/2009 results will continue to show it.

In late 2004 CL initiated a 4-year costreduction program including a 10%workforce reduction, new product roll-outs, an emphasis on larger-growthmarkets, and the more-savvy deploymentof marketing resources.

The results to-date? The CL train is

moving forward, with analysts generallyseeing near-double-digit annual revenuegrowth through at least 2009, and probablylonger. An eye-opening stat -- Colgate isan enhanced, global consumer productsdefensive play: 65% of CL's revenue stemsfrom personal, oral, and home care sales

outside North America.Continue reading See a recession ahead?

Think Colgate Permalink| Email this|Comments

Politics * Business *


6/25

6 Your Click and Print NewspaperFee for All(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 11:00:00 AM

Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Warner MusicGroup has tapped industry veteran JimGriffin to spearhead a controversial plan tobundle a monthly fee into consumers'

internet-service bills for unlimited accessto music.

The planthe boldest move yet to keepthe wounded entertainment industry giantsafloatis simple: Consumers will pay amonthly fee, bundled into an internet-service bill in exchange for unfetteredaccess to a database of all known music.

Bronfman's decision to hire Griffin, arespected industry critic, demonstrates thedesperation of the recording industry. Ithas shrunk to a $10 billion business from$15 billion in almost a decade. Compactdisc sales are plummeting as online musicdownloads skyrocket.

Also on Portfolio.com:MySpace and Friends Need to Make

MoneyThe answer may lie in creating "socialads."

Future PopCDs are history. U.S. labels should look

to Jin-Young Park if they hope tosurvive."Today, it has become purelyvoluntary to pay for music," Griffin toldPortfolio.com in an exclusive sit-down thisweek. "If I tell you to go listen to thisband, you could pay, or you might not. It'spretty much up to you. So the musicbusiness has become a big tip jar."

Nothing provokes sheer terror in therecording industry more than the rise ofpeer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Foryears, digital-music seers have argued therise of such networks has made copyright

law obsolete and free music distributionuniversal.

Bronfman has asked Griffin, formerlyGeffen Music's digital chief, to develop amodel that would create a pool of moneyfrom user fees to be distributed to artistsand copyright holders. Warner has given

Griffin a three-year contract to form a neworganization to spearhead the plan.

Griffin says he hopes to move beyondthe years of acrimonious record-industrylitigation against illegal file-swappers,college students in particular.

"We're still clinging to the vine of music

as a product," Griffin says, calling theindustrys plight "Tarzan" economics.

"But we're swinging toward the vine ofmusic as a service. We need to get ready tolet go and grab the next vine, which is apool of money and a fair way to split it up,rather than controlling the quantity anddestiny of sound recordings."

Warner Music Share PriceIn the last year, the Recording

Association of America, the industry groupthat represents the major labels, has sent5,400 threatening letters to students atmore than 150 schools, and reachedsettlements with more than 2,300 them. Ithas filed formal lawsuits against 2,465others, who did not respond.

"I don't think we should be suing studentsand I don't think we should be suingpeople in their homes," says Griffin. "Wewant to monetize the anarchy of theinternet."

Griffin says Warner Music is "totallycommitted to this." The fundamental issue,he says, is whether music consumers willbuy songs and albums individually, orwhether they will subscribe monthly toaccess a "universal" database of songs.

Wil l Tanous , Warner Music 'scommunications chief, said Griffin'sinitiative is part of Warner's "ongoingeffort to explore new business models inthe music industry."

In recent weeks, major music industryplayers have signaled their interest in the

"music as a service" model.Sony BMG Music Entertainment is said

to be developing an online musicsubscription service that would give usersunlimited access to its catalog.

Apple is reportedly negotiating with themajor record labels to offer consumers free

access to the entire iTunes library inexchange for paying a premium for Applehardware.

Warner's plan would have consumerspay an additional feemaybe $5 amonthbundled into their monthlyinternet-access bill in exchange for theright to freely download, upload, copy, andshare music without restrictions.

Griffin says those fees could create apool as large as $20 billion annually to payartists and copyright holders. Eventually,advertising could subsidize the entiresystem, so that users who don't want toreceive ads could pay the fee, and thosewho don't mind advertising wouldn't pay a

dime."Ideally, music will feel free," saysGriffin. "Even if you pay a flat fee for it, atthe moment you use it there are nofinancial considerations. It's already beenpaid for."

While few of the plan's details haveemerged, critics have begun their attacks.

David Barrett, engineering manager forpeer-to-peer networks at Web content-delivery giant Akamai, says he's opposedto it on principle. Griffin's plan, he says, istantamount to extortion, because it forceseveryone to join.

"It's too late to charge people for whatthey're already getting for free," saysBarrett. "This is just taxation of a basic,universal service that already exists, for thebenefit a distant power that activelyharasses the people being taxed withouto f f e r i n g t h e m a n y m e a n i n g f u lr e p r e s e n t a t i o n . "

Griffin, who in 1994 was part of the teamthat made Aerosmith's "Head First" the

first song available on the internet, goes togreat pains to emphasize that the collectivelicensing plan is not "his" plan.

"This isn't my idea," says Griffin. "WhileI would gladly take the credit, blanketlicensing has over 150 years of historybehind it."

"Collective licensing is what people dowhen they lose control, or when control isno longer practical or efficient," Griffinsays. "A pool of money and a fair way tosplit it up replaces control."

Griffin was quick to point out that the $5figure is arbitrary.

"We negotiate in every place," Griffinsays. "Clearly $5 per month would be aninsane number in China or India. If youcould get a nickel a month you could growthe business tenfold in those countries. Inanother country that had a high G.D.P., anickel per month would be ridiculouslycheap. So you negotiate. Fair is whateveryou agree upon."

Griffin says Bronfman and Michael

Nash, the company's digital-strategy chief,brought him into Warner to create anorganization to negotiate collectivelicensing deals. But Griffin's ambitionsextend far beyond just Warner Music.

"We're building a [as yet unnamed]company inside Warner that is notintended to be solely owned by Warner,"Griffin says. "We hope all of the rightsholders will come in and take ownershipwith us, and Warner will not control it. Ourgoal is to create a collective society for thedigital age."

Meanwhile, critics have already attackedthe plan as a kind of mandatory "culturetax."

"Jim will vehemently deny the 'tax'label," says Akamai's Barrett. "But it's a

tax nonetheless. It'll be a government-approved cartel that collects money fromvirtually everyoneoften without theirknowledgeand failure to pay their taxwill ultimately result in people with gunscoming to your door.

"Jim's proposal does nothing but direct

money to the very people that tried toprevent this future from coming to be,"Barrett adds, "while further legitimizingthe terror being waged in the courtroomsagainst their members."

Griffin dismisses such criticism."I understand what David is thinking, but

I assure you, we have no such interest ingovernment running this or having any partof it," he says.

Griffin says that in just the few weekssince Warner began working on this plan,the company has been approached byinternet service providers "who want todischarge their risk."

"But more important than the risk for anI.S.P. is the marketing," Griffin says,drawing a comparison to Starbucks'marketing of "fair trade" coffee.

"I.S.P.'s want to distinguish themselveswith marketing," Griffin says. "You canonly imagine that an I.S.P. that marketed a'fair trade' network connection would see amarketing advantage."

Gerd Leonhard, a respected music-industry consultant who has advisedSony/BMG, which recently announcedplans for a flat-rate-subscription model fordigital music, rejects Barrett's argumentthat the monthly fee amounts to a tax.

"This is not a tax," says Leonhard. "It'sbundled into another charge."

"People should not be too harsh on Jimfor trying to get the ball rolling," saysLeonhard. "At this point, 96 percent of thepopulation is guilty of some sort ofinfringement, whether they're streaming ordownloading or sharing."What we have here is the widespread use

of technology that declares all of thepopulation to be illegal."

Related Links

The Pirates Can't Be StoppedComing Down Hard on DownloadersSplitting the Apple Online

Andreessen, Worthwhile ReadingBy Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:Tech Observer)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 7:14:06 AM

Marc Andreessen has a new company,

Ning, and seems to be active in business.But really, he seems to be morphing intos o m e t h i n g o f a s c r u f f yphilosopher/preacher pumped up onmassive quantities of Red Bull. Somehow,

he manages to find time to pop out long,well-argued blog posts that wouldchallenge most professional writers.

Marc has started on a series that riffs ontheories espoused by Charlie Munger, who

is the quiet business partner of WarrenBuffett. It's quite a start, and will beinteresting to see if Marc will the see seriesthrough.

Related Links

Andreessen's Truth-Telling, and Lots ofIt

Andreessen's Amazing Blog, Cont'dSowood: Long Debt, Short Equity

Business * Technology *


7/25

7Your Click and Print NewspaperWorthless Wall Street Research(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 3:00:00 AM

Why does anyone still pay attention toanalysts covering Wall Street banks? In atime when Bear Stearns is worth $30 ashare one week, $2 the next, and then $10

the next, is it any wonder that Wall Streetresea rch on Wal l S t ree t f i rms i smeaningless?

Yet still, investors eat up their researchreports, selling on downgrades, buying onrare positive comments, and holding unlessotherwise instructed.

Take Meredith Whitney. Shares ofCitigroup plunged nearly 6 percentyesterday after the Oppenheimer analystquadrupled her estimate for its lossesduring the current quarter. Whitneybecame the latest star research analyst lastOctober, when she correctly predicted thatCitigroup would need to cut its dividendand raise billions in capital. Ever since,she's been the bear that the Street loves to

hate.But in her report yesterday, aside fromthe pages upon pages of disclosuresrequired by regulators of equity analysts,what was perhaps Whitney's mostimportant disclosure evidently got verylittle notice: "[W]e have very little earningsvisibility and very little confidence in ourestimates." She goes on to say that shedoesn't believe she 's alone in thispredicament.

She may have little confidence in herestimates, but that doesn't stop her fromchanging her mind about them. A lot. Itwas just a month ago that Whitney made

headlines when she slashed her first-quarter estimate for Citigroup from a profitof 68 cents per share to a loss of 28 cents.Now the estimate stands at a per-share lossof $1.15.

Lehman Brothers evidently presents asimilar conundrum. After the bank

reported earnings last week, Whitneymaintained her buy rating and her $63p r i c e t a rge t , c a l l i ng t he r e po r t" e nc ou ra g i ng . "

But less than one week later,Oppenheimer downgraded Lehman stockto neutral and Whitney removed her pricetarget without replacing it. The reason wasthe "protracted challenging capital marketsenvironment," the very same environmentduring which Bear Stearns' valuequintupled.

Whitney is right about one thing, though:She isn't alone. William Tanona atGoldman Sachs is another analyst who haswon accolades by making smart calls onexpected losses during this credit crisis.

His latest research is only bound to baffleinvestors further.After Lehman's earnings announcement

last week, Tanona raised his estimates andhis price target, and called the stock's price"an attractive entry point." He wrote thathe expects the Fed's liquidity facility willhelp alleviate some strains on the entirebroker-dealer industry.

Tanona apparently hasn't gottenwhatever memo Whitney got on Lehmans e ve ra l da ys a f t e r i t s e a rn i ngsannouncement. His recommendation stillstands.

And after Morgan Stanley reported better

-than-expected results last week, Tanonawas positively elated (by today's standards,anyway), and wrote, "We do believe theworst is behind us and that Monday of thisweek marked a turning point in the stock."

But others at Goldman Sachs aren't sosure. Earlier this week, Andrew Tilton, the

bank's chief economist, reported that, byhis estimates, the banks haven't even comeclose to disclosing all of their lossesrelated to the credit crunch. He predictsbanks and brokers will eventually own upto $460 billion in credit losses, more thandouble the $120 billion they've announcedso far.

What's it going to be? Are we nearly outof the woods, or so thick in them still thatwe can't see our hands in front of ourfaces?

To be fair, it's not easy being an equity-research analyst. And it's even moredifficult in an environment like we're in,where no one seems to know whatanything is worth, and banking leaders

have lost credibility. Throw in theconfusion around the Bear Stearns fallout,and you've got the making of a perfectstorm for anyone in the predictionbusiness.

It's easy to pick on them, but the analystsare arguably doing the best with whatthey've got. They shouldn't stop now. Butinvestors should stop listening.

Related LinksAwaiting Citi's Big NumberA Tale of Two Wall StreetsMark-to-Model on Wall Street: The

Numbers

MySpace and FriendsNeed to Make Money. AndFast.(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/26/2008 1:30:00 PM

The numbers are amazing. MySpace'smembership has ballooned from 20 millionpeople in 2005 to 225 million today, anaverage annual growth rate of 513 percent.Rival Facebook grew at 550 percent a yearduring the same period. LinkedIn's ratewas 182 percent.

Yet one social networking metric isdistinctly underwhelming: the one with adollar sign. Lookery, an ad networkspecializing in social media, offers displayads on MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo foronly 13 cents per thousand times the ad isserved (CPM); Yahoo's average CPM isestimated at $13. Video ads on MySpace

reportedly fetch just $25 per thousandshowings; CBS charges $50 on affiliatedsites, NBC as much as $75.

Social networking was supposed to bethe Net's next rocket to riches. But manysocial sites are having trouble capitalizingon their audiences, and it's looking like theconvivial atmosphere that promised toboost the value of commercial messagesmay actually diminish it. Even the bigbrains at Google are stumped. The searchking, which pays a special rate to place adson MySpace, has suggested that it may bepaying too much. "I don't think we havethe killer best way to advertise andmonetize the social networks yet," SergeyBrin admitted during a January conference

call with analysts.

Some smaller competitors are doingbetter. LinkedIn, for example, has a CPMas high as $75. The difference: The sitecaters to professionals, making it easier totarget ads. (It helps that the company alsocharges for premium features and joblistings.)

For sites with broader audiences, the keymay be to give advertising a socialdimension. Facebook tried to do just thatwith Beacon and Social Ads. Theseformats send users an alert or display adwhen one of their pals patronizes anadvertiser. But Facebook has yet to gaugethe effectiveness of these programsbecause online privacy watchdogspounced, and the site moved quickly to letmembers opt out.

Still, the idea that ads can be a socialexperience is the industry's best hope.Social Vibe encourages members tochoose brands to endorse on their pages.AdRoll shares ads across related nichesites, turning a blogroll into an ad network.But it may take time to work out thebusiness ramifications of online friendship.The first site to meld commercialmessaging gracefully into these new groupdynamics will have advertisers pokingthem to be friends. Related Links

MySpace Is This, And Your Space isThat

Facebook Page? Or Exhibit A in Court?Diller Disses Writers Strike, Facebook,

and MySpace

Harvard's New Stockpicker(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:30:00 AM

Look out, Harvard. There's a new girl intown.

Actually, it's a familiar face to theCrimson crowd. After an extensive search,Harvard has hired Jane Mendillo tooversee its $35 billion endowment.

Mendillo spent 15 years at HarvardManagement Company before leaving in

2002 to manage the endowment forWellesley College. During her five years atthe women's school, the fund grew from $1billion to $1.7 billion, and had annualizedreturns of 13.5 percent, according to anannouncement by Harvard.

She returns to Harvard to run thecountry's largest university endowment, aposition that was vacated by Mohamed El-Erian last year. El-Erian returned to thegiant bond fund Pacific Investment

Management Co.Mendillo worked at Harvard from 1987

to 2002 in a number of differentmanagement positions. During most of thattime, she worked under the legendaryinvestment manager Jack Meyer.

When Meyer joined Harvard in 1990, theendowment was worth $4.7 billion. Underhis oversight, aggressive fundraisingefforts and more diversified investmentstrategies helped it grow to nearly $23

billion by the time he left in 2005. Meyerlaunched an investment strategy that's stillpaying off handsomely todayone thatrelies less on stocks and bonds and moreon alternative investments like real estateand hedge funds.

He left to start his own investment firmwith several of his top managers fromHarvard after a firestorm erupted over thecompensation packages of the fund'semployees.

As a protg of Meyer's, Mendilloshould be a welcome sight to theendowment office, which has been withouta leader during one of the most tumultuousmarket cycles in its history.

Related LinksBack to the Beach, as Heir ApparentHarvard Gets It Right AgainEl-Erian Leaves Harvard, Returns to

Pimco

Business *


8/25

8 Your Click and Print NewspaperRadio Deal: Dont TouchThat Dial(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 4:30:00 AM

The fight over a $19 billion buyout of

r a d i o c h a i n C l e a r C h a n n e lC ommuni c a t i ons ma y ha ve j u s tstartedbut it has already drawn blood.

Clear Channel says it has won atemporary restraining order from a Texas

judge against the banks that had agreed tofinance the deal, requiring them not tointerfere with the buyout by refusing tofund it or demanding new terms.

Six banksCitigroup, Morgan Stanley,Credit Suisse, the Royal Bank of Scotland,Deutsche Bank, and Wachoviahad madecommitments for more than $22 billion offinancing for the buyout by Bain Capitaland Thomas H. Lee Partners. But themarket for deal debt has eroded.

The company said that Judge John

Gabriel of the state district court in BexarCounty, Texas, found on Wednesday nightin favor of its claim that "irreparable harmwould result if the banks were notimmediately enjoined from tortiouslyinterfering with the merger agreement."

The banks have not yet responded to thejudge's order.

On Wednesday, both Clear Channel andthe two buyout firms sued the banks inNew York and Texas courts.

"The financial risk to the banks in thissuit dwarfs any risk they think they have infunding the debt," said Mark Mays, chief

e x e c u t i v e o f C l e a r C h a n n e lCommunications. "The behavior of thesebanks is irresponsible, unprofessional, andunjustified."

The firms say that the banks have tried torenege on the commitments they madenearly a year ago. "It seems clear thatlenders' remorse set in when credit marketsworsened," the firms said in a statement."Now they are trying to walk away fromtheir commitment letter which clearlystates that they bear all the risk thatconditions in the debt markets mightchange."

The deal, first announced in November2006, is now for $39.20 per share. OnWednesday, Clear Channel shares tumbled17 percent, to $26.92, amid reports that thebuyout was collapsing.

The question is whether the legalsquaring off is all for showa prelude to a

renegotiated buyout at a lower price.Steven Davidoff, the deal professor onDealBook, points out that the plaintiffs inthe Texas lawsuit have brought in a biggun: Joe Jamail, the lawyer who in 1985won a $10.5 billion verdict against Texacofor interfering with a deal betweenPennzoil and Getty.

Related LinksHow Big Is Too Big?Recipe for SuccessDon't Trust Prediction Markets in the

Final Hours

What's Up With Lehman?(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 11:30:00 AM

Now that Wall Street has taken a deepbreath and relaxed over the fate of BearStearns, it apparently needs to startworrying about someone else.

Shares of Lehman Bothers have beenbattered today by rumors of a possibleBear-like run on the bank. A spokeswomanfor Lehman denied that there was anythingto the rumors and the stock, which wasdown by 10 percent earlier, recovered a bitby mid-afternoon, trading at $39, down 8percent.

Also on Portfolio.com:The Debt Shuffle New questions emerge.Burned on the Street Why investors

should stop listening. Earlier in the day,April options to sell Lehman at $30 werevery active. As the headline on the WallStreet Journal's MarketBeat blog put it:"Your Weekly Scheduled Bank StockFreak-Out"

Kerrie Cohen, a spokeswoman forLehman Brothers, told Reuters, "There area lot of rumors in the marketplace that aretotally unfounded. We are suspicious thatthe rumors are being promulgated by short

sellers of our stock that have an economicself-interest."

Lehman, which like Bear has been ahuge player in the mortgaged-backed-securities business, has in recent weeksbeen very vocal in emphasizing that itsliquidity position is much stronger than

Bear's was.Still, questions about Lehman persist.Jesse Eisinger last week gave a skepticalassessment about Lehman's balance sheet,noting that its leverage and assets rose inthe first quarter. More troubling, Eisingersaid, was that the firm changed the way itdefines "tangible equity" or the hard assetsthat it has left over after subtracting itsliabilities.

To be sure, when it comes to marketworries, Lehman is not the only financialfirm. Shares of Merrill Lynch were down 5percent today after analysts forecast a lostfor its first quarter.

Related LinksFor the Record

S u b p r i m e : I t ' s N o t A b o u tC r e d i t w o r t h i n e s sIlliquidity and Insolvency in the

Commercial Real Estate Market

Samba in the Air(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:30:00 AM

Brazil offers something that U.S. airlinescan only envy: rising fares.

Airfares in Brazil, already 50 percenthigher than comparable fares in the UnitedStates, are expected to rise 15 percent thisyear. Brazil is becoming an economicpowerhouse, and more of its citizens arestarting to fly.

Facing that kind of opportunity, DavidNeeleman, the founder of JetBlue,announced plans today to start a domestic

airline in Brazil that will take on the twogiants that dominate the market, TAM andGol.

He says he has raised $150 million andthat the airline plans to start next year, withas many as 76 Embraer aircraft by 2013.

"Our target market is the 150 millionpassengers who travel annually by long-distance bus as well as those who, for lackof a convenient alternative, don't travel atall," Neeleman said. "We respect TAM andGol as well-run companies with deeppockets. We believe, however, that theBrazilian market is ready for a third major

airline and that there is sufficient untappedpotential to support all of us."

The name of the airline has yet to bedecided. Neeleman has a website,www.voceescolhe.com.br, that inviteswould-be passengers to choose a name (inPortuguese, of course).

Neeleman was born in Brazil and livedthere as a Mormon missionary. As a result,he is able to overcome Brazil's restrictionson foreign investment in airlines.

JetBlue has been a rare success story inU.S. aviation. But it had an embarrassingsetback in February 2007, when an ice

storm stranded hundreds of passengers atJohn F. Kennedy International Airport formany hours. Neeleman stepped down aschief executive in May, but remains aschairman.

In Brazil, he won't have to worry aboutice storms.

Related LinksTips for a Sky-High SpringAchtung, JetBlueJetBlue: When Irish Skies Are Smiling

New internet reportwelcomed by musiclabel trade groupBy Richard Driver (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 8:46:00 AM

Filed under: International markets,

Industry International music industry tradegroup IFPI is applauding recommendationsmade in a new British report about "thepotential hazards the Internet can pose tochildren." The Byron Report is beingaccepted and implemented by the Britishgovernment, calling for new gamingreview systems and having the BritishDepartment for Children Schools andFamilies and the Department for CultureMedia and Sport "vowing to work withindustry, schools and parents to ensurechildren and young people remain safe inthe online world." Billboard also reportsthat the IFPI is planning its "own guide forparents and teachers informing them onhow to obtain music safely and legallyonline."

The merits of commending the newreport on Internet safety are obvious, so itis no surprise the IFPI would welcome it.At the same time, one has to wonder howillegal music downloading is connected tothe fears of the violent nature of onlinegames. Regardless, as Billboard notes,greater fears of identity theft and onlinefraud were pertinent in the report and it ispossible to understand where fears ofchildren and illegal downloading wouldcome in.

Unfortunately, despite the merits andvalue in the Byron Report, the fact that theIFPI would applaud it so greatly onlyspeaks to the lengths that trade group iswi l l ing to go to prohibi t i l l ega l

downloading. With as much resistance asthe IFPI is facing in a number of countriesabout having Internet providers turn overusers that i l legally download, theconnection to fears based on children'saccess to the Internet makes sense becauseit markets the IFPI to consumers whomight otherwise be unaware of theirexis tence . Permal ink | Emai l th i s |Comments

Business *


9/25

9Your Click and Print NewspaperAnd we thought Floridareal estate was badBy Zack Miller (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:19:00 AM

Filed under: International markets,

Housing, Recession In an article I wroteyesterday, entitled Hitting the skids inFlorida, I examined the fallout ofdepressed real estate prices and how folksare coping with a new reality. Today, theFT has an article about how the changes inglobal real estate are affecting places likeSpain.

In Spain's Property Market Headed for aFall, the FT examines financial conditionsin Spain that are leading to a perfect storm.The story cites tightening credit conditions(ie, it's harder to borrow money), theoversupply of houses, and rampant priceinflation as leading to a precarious presentfor Spanish residents. Spanish prices havedropped almost 30% from where they were

at this time last year.

Sound familiar?We're suffering from some of the same

malaise but I have to say, that after a slowgoing, our Federal Reserve has moved

quickly and decisively to address some ofthe same issues on American soil.The difference between the Spanish

situation and our own appears to begovernment intervention. Where ourFederal Reserve has added a lot ofliquidity into ailing banks, lowered interestrates, and even orchestrated a bailout,Spain's Socialist government seemsfocused on job retraining and stepping uppublic works projects.

We'll see where this all pans out.Zack Miller is the managing editor of

IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equityanalyst for a leading multinational hedgefund. Permalink| Email this| Comments

Banc of America giveseBay a liftBy Michael Fowlkes(BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 8:43:00 AM

Filed under: Major movement, Analystupgrades and downgrades, eBay (EBAY)Shares of the online auction site eBay,Inc.(NASDAQ: EBAY) have been surgingtoday after positive remarks from Banc ofAmerica Securities analyst Brian J. Pitz,who stated that the company is on track fora"solid" first quarter to the year.

Pitz made his remarks after analyzing thecompany's recent proprietary listings andconversion rate tracking data. As a resultof his findings, Pitz gives the stock a pricetarget of $38, and lifted his revenueforecast for the quarter from $2.03 billionup to $2.08 billion. This is slightly higherthan the $2.06 billion that Wall Street isexpecting to see, and as a result shares ofthe e-commerce giant have surged 5%today to $30.96, and hit a high earlier inthe session up at $31.21.

eBay has been in the news a lot lately,but for the most part, it has not beenpositive. The company has been fightingoff speculation that a seller's strike late last

month that extended into the first week ofMarch had had any material impact on thesite's listing numbers. Some have arguedthat the strike led to a 13% drop in productlistings, but eBay has adamantly deniedany impact what-so-ever, and instead hasinsisted that a promotion that ran rightbefore the strike had artificially inflatedproduct listing numbers that were used tocompute the strike's effectiveness.

Continue reading Banc of America giveseBay a l ift Permalink| Email this|CommentsFord sells off premium brands

By Bruce Watson (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 10:47:00 AM

Filed under: Ford Motor (F)Reading the newspaper, there are times

when I wonder if certain companies areactually trying to fail. Recently, the Ford

Motor Company(NYSE: F) announcedplans to sell its Jaguar and Land Roverbrands to Tata, an Indian car company.While Ford paid $5.2 billion for the twocompanies ($2.5 billion for Jaguar in 1989and $2.7 billion for Land Rover in 2000), ithas sold them for a combined $1.7 billion,

less than a third of the purchase price.I don't really have anything against Ford.

I once owned a Mustang convertible,which was a lot of fun to drive. Better yet,it was not that hard to work on, whichproved helpful given its tendency towardconstant technical problems. However,

Ford's corporate governance has neverbeen all that hot. I'm sure that there's aperfectly reasonable explanation for thefact that Ford hasn't been able to makemoney off of either of these impressivebrands, but I wonder why the companyspent money picking up luxury marques

when it was on somewhat shaky footing.Now that they've gotten rid of these twogreat companies, I hope that Ford willfocus on the problems with its main carlines and the fact that they are gas-guzzling, poorly-designed, and prone totechnical problems.

Of course, if that fails, they can alwaystry buying Fiat and then reselling it to anEthiopian manufacturer. Permalink| Emailthis| Comments

Obama: Just becauseyou're rich doesn't meanwe need to pay more taxesBy Aaron Katsman (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 10:32:00 AM

Filed under: Interviews, Personal finance,Politics, Presidential elections

In an interview with CNBC's MariaBartiromo, Presidential candidate BarackObama started to spell out his economicplan. Obama said that he would raisecapital gains taxes, "Well, you know, Ihaven't given a firm number. Here's mybelief, that we can't go back to some of the,you know, confiscatory rates that existedin the past that distorted sound economics.And I certainly would not go above whatexisted under Bill Clinton, which was the28 percent. I would--and my guess wouldbe it would be significantly lower thanthat. I think that we can have a capitalgains rate that is higher than 15 percent."

Just because the Senator got rich fromhis book doesn't mean that the rest of usshould be punished for trying to grow our

savings and our investments. Why shouldthe middle-class have to pay higher capitalgains tax so that Obama can bailoutirresponsible home buyers?

Hasn't he learned economics? It's prettyclear that if you punish and make it harderfor wealth creation and invesment, thatthere won't be as much, and as a result theeconomy will get much worse.

Continue reading Obama: Just becauseyou're rich doesn't mean we need to paymore taxes Read| Permalink| Email this|Comments

Joost in the BrowserBy Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:Tech Observer)

Submitted at 3/25/2008 5:52:02 AM

A few blogs have pointed out that there

was a bit of news buried in my story onJoost in this month's Portfolio magazine.(Working for a monthly, I didn't knowwhether the news would be out before mystory ran -- but as it turns out, this is the

scoop, as they say.)Anyway, it's the bit about Joost soon

playing inside the browser, rather thanonly in a special Joost player that must bedownloaded. Joost did not say exactly

when this will happen -- only "later thisyear." But clearly it's important to CEOMike Volpi.

Business * Technology *


10/25

10 Your Click and Print NewspaperClosing Bell: More negativeclose than it felt likeBy Jon Ogg (BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:57:00 AM

Filed under: Google (GOOG), ConAgraFoods (CAG), Oracle Corp (ORCL),

Lehman Br Holdings (LEH) TheCommerce Department's Q4-2007 finalrevision for GDP came in at +0.6%, butthat was in-line and the data is now morethan 75-days old. But it does highlight theconcerns that the growth rates this quarter

just can not be good. It also set the tone formore selling. It just goes to show that itstill pays in today's climate to sell whenyou are feeling good about the market andbuy when you feel overly concerned.

The Federal Reserve also auctioned offsome $75 billion in treasury securities after

receiving bids for some $86.1 billion. Thiswas the first auction of its kind and thenext auction is set for April 3. Below arethe unofficial closing prices: DJIA 12,302.70 (-120.16; -0.97%)

NASDAQ 2,280.83 (-43.53; -1.87%) S&P500 1,325.77 (-15.36; -1.15%) 10YR-TBond 3.534% (+0.04%) Key 52-Week LowsIf you look at the unusual increase seen

in short selling in many of the NASDAQnames from this morning, you mightscratch your head. But that's the world welive in.

Continue reading Closing Bell: Morenegative close than it felt like Permalink|Email this| Comments

Marathon Oil: Too cheap to notconsiderBy Joseph Lazzaro(BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:40:00 AM

Filed under: Stocks to Buy Readers ofthis space know that oil/oil services hasbeen a preferred sector. Given rampingdemand in the developing world and oil'simportance in a growing global economy,oil and oil services companies are likely tocontinue to experience steady demand fortheir services/products, and a providerworth a review is Marathon Oil.

Marathon Oil Corporation(NYSE: MRO)has what analysts like to see in an oiloperation: a large/geographically-wide

explora t ion footprint , ve ry goodproduction, and strong refining operations.

Further, that last tangible may be themost valuable, given the barely-adequaterefinery capacity in the United States.What's more, the stock market's early 2008sell-off has created a buying opportunitywith Marathon. With a p/e of about 9,MRO's risk/return ratio is low. The ReutersFY 2008/FY 2009 EPS consensusestimates for MRO are $6.33 to $6.77.

Continue reading Marathon Oil: Toocheap to not consider Permalink| Emailthis| Comments

Martin Wolf: 'Heads I win, tailsyou lose' financial incentives muststopBy Joseph Lazzaro(BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 8:59:00 AM

Filed under: International markets, Otherissues, Columns, Housing Financial eras,like social periods, are often defined bymoments or epiphanies when decisionmakers and/or citizens realized that aserious flaw/mistake/problem wasoccurring through time, and across space,and needed to be corrected.

The ever-incisive FT columnist andeconomist Martin Wolf describes onecontemporary concern that's likely to be

addressed: the failure to align the interestsof managers with those of investors.

My BloggingStocks colleagues Peter

Cohan and Zac Bissonnette have alsowritten on the subject on several occasionsin this space, and now the FT's Wolf hasassembled additional data that may verywell lead to public policy changes, both inWolf's United Kingdom and in the UnitedStates.

Continue reading Martin Wolf: 'Heads Iwin, tails you lose' financial incentivesmust s top Permal ink | Emai l th i s |Comments

Skechers has outlined a plan forprofit growthBy Joseph Lazzaro(BloggingStocks)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 10:58:00 AM

Filed under: Stocks to Buy Thechoppy/consolidating (or perhaps worse)market conditions sometimes give theimpression that growth plays do not exist,but that is not the case, and one growthcompany worth reviewing is Skechers.

Skechers USA Inc.(NYSE: SKX)designs and markets contemporaryfootwear for men, women and childrenunder seven individual brands, includingthe Skechers, Michelle K, and Somethin'

Else names.In general, analysts expect adequate

same store sales gains in FY 2008 forSkechers' 150 company-owned stores, andvia department store distribution. Analystsalso expect new product introductions toproceed cautiously, as the footwear sectorbraces for continued discretionaryspending reductions by U.S. consumers,due to the sluggish U.S. economy.

Continue reading Skechers has outlined aplan for profit growth Permalink| Emailthis| Comments

Cayne Sells Out(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 2:00:00 PM

It's over.Any hope that there will be a deal other

than J.P. Morgan Chase's $10-per-sharestock offer for Bear Stearns should now befinally dashed.

James Cayne, the chairman and former

chief executive of Bear Stearns, has sold5.6 million shares of Bear for $10.84 ashare, or about $60.1 million, on Tuesday.

It's quite a comedown for a man who wasa billionaire about a year ago, when Bear'sstock price was near $160. He had beenamong Bear's largest shareholders.

The Securi t ie s and ExchangeCommission filing indicates that Cayne's

wife sold 45,669 Bear shares.Related LinksThe Age of Reregulation

Will Asking Mortgage Servicers toModify Mortgages Have Much Impact?

Bear Funds Being Liquidated: WhoWants to Buy?

NVIDIA driversresponsible for nearly 30%of Vista crashes in 2007By Nilay Patel (Engadget)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 12:41:00 PM

Filed under: Desktops, LaptopsThat huge bundle of damning emails and

documents Microsoft produced as part ofthe Vista-capable lawsuit is full offascinating information about how thecompany developed, planned, and

launched Vista, but the latest juicy nuggetto come out if it suggests that a lot ofproblems faced by the troubled operatingsystem are actually NVIDIA's fault --nearly 30% of logged Vista crashes weredue to NVIDIA driver problems, accordingto a Microsoft data included in the bundle.That's some 479,326 hung systems, ifyou're keeping score at home, and it's infirst place by a large margin -- Microsoftclocks in at number two at 17.9 percent,and ATI is fourth with 9.3 percent. Now,the chart doesn't contain a ton of additionalinformation that would help put it incontext -- a specific time period in 2007would be nice, as would and driver and OSversions -- but we've been hearing about

NVIDIA issues with Vista from the start,and this seems to confirm it. So that'spressure by Intel to support incompatiblechipsets, outrage by Dell and Wal-Martthat the Vista Capable program wasconfusing customers, Microsoft executivessaying they had been"personally burnt" byVista, and now what looks like a hugeNVIDIA driver problem -- who knowswhat else is going to come out of thislawsuit? At this point we're half expectinga photo of Gates signing a Save XPpetition.

Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Happy birthday: take atrip in America's largestBy Ryan Block (Engadget)Submitted at 3/27/2008 1:21:00 PM

Filed under: TransportationSometimes even the plugged-in

Engadget reader needs to pick up and headout for more relaxing climes. Well, for our

fourth birthday this month we're treating

Business * Tech Gadgets *

HAPPY page 11


11/25


HAPPYcontinued from page 10

destined for anywhere Virgin Americaflies. We wouldn't want you traveling insomething that doesn't have power,network, and a seatback terminal, though,so you don't have to sweat aboutcompletely unplugging to get from point Ato point B. Check out the rules below, andgood luck!

Leave a comment below.It is in honor of our fourth birthday, afterall, so we wouldn't mind a bit of adulation-- but it's up to you.

You may only enter this specificgiveaway once.

Although you can enter up to six timesthrough the course of this six partgiveaway, if you enter this specificgiveaway more than once you'll beautomatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, wehave robots that thoroughly check toensure fairness.)

If you enter more than once, onlyactivate one comment.

This is pretty self explanatory. Just becareful and you'll be fine.

Contest is open to anyone in the 50States, 18 or older!

Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hateexcluding

anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest

laws if you have to be mad. Winner will be chosen randomly.

That winner will get two round tripticketsanywhere Virgin America flies. Tickets are valid through May 31st,

2008, and are blacked out May 22-26.Approximate value is $599 per pair. Youcan only win once.

Entries can be submitted until Friday,March 28th, 11:59PM ET.

Good luck! Full rules can be found here.Oh, and be sure to enter part 1, part 2,

part 3, or part 4 for another chance!Permalink| Email this| Comments

MIT spin-off 1366Technologies touts better,cheaper solar cellsBy Donald Melanson (Engadget)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:57:00 AM

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets In what'sbecome an increasingly familiar tune, astartup company has announced that it's

just pulled in a significant haul of fundingbased on its promises of better, cheapersolar power. In this case, the company inquestion is 1366 Technologies, which wasspun out of research from MIT and isheaded by MIT professor Ely Sachs (whois taking a leave of absence to focus on thecompany). According to the company, it'sfound a way to make solar cells frommulticrystalline silicon that are just asefficient as ones from single-crystalsilicon, which is normally much moreexpensive to produce. In terms of hard

numbers, that translates to solar cells thatare 27 percent more efficient than youraverage solar cell, and (in its current state)a cost a $2.10 per watt. Sachs says that

cost will come down to $1.65 per wattwhen manufacturered on a commercialscale, however, and will eventually drop to$1.30 a watt with some "plannedimprovements." That's still short of the $1a watt goal they're aiming for (which isroughly the cost of coal), but the companyseems confident they can hit that mark by2012 with some "anticipated advances."[Via Physorg]Read| Permalink| Email this| CommentsOLPC keyboards literally being ripped apart

By Nilay Patel (Engadget)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 8:22:00 AM

Filed under: LaptopsYou'd think that with a name like "One

Laptop Per Child," NickNeg and companywould have stress-tested their laptop withsome actual children, but it looks likeeveryone's favorite green machine just isn'tup to the toddler challenge -- OLPC

owners are reporting that the laptop'srubberized keyboard is easily destroyed byinquisitive kids, who are peeling the keysoff like so many scratch'n'sniff stickers.Apparently the keyboards start to split

above the U and J keys, and then Junior'soff to the races. What's worse, OLPCdoesn't appear to be shipping outreplacement keyboards right now, leaving

frustrated owners in the lurch. Not to fear,though: Instructables is to the rescue with apretty sweet USB keyboard mod. Here'swhat we're wondering though -- if theOLPC can't handle the abuse of someungrateful little yuppie larvae, how is thisthing supposed to hold up in thedeveloping world?

[Thanks Sanjay; photo courtesy ofNiels_Olson]

Read- Thread about OLPC keyboardsRead- Instructables keyboard moddRead| Permalink| Email this| Comments

Duo steals hundredsof iPhones, sells themall to one personBy Darren Murph (Engadget)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 8:57:00 AM

Filed under: Cellphones Apple's nostranger to having its wares ganked( a lot),but this one really has us scratching ournoggins some kind of fierce. Apparently acouple of meddlesome 20-somethingsworking at a Salem, New HampshireApple store managed to scoot away withsomewhere between 330 and 700 iPhones.After somehow stuffing that manyhandsets into a panel van / pickup truck /privately owned C-130, they seeminglysweet talked a single high-roller intosnatching up their entire stash for upwardsof $138,000 -- which could be a bargain(or not) depending on the actual quantityincluded in the deal, internal capacity, etc.Minutiae aside, both individuals arecurrently residing under the strong arm ofthe law (surveillance cameras are hard tododge), but curious ly , nothing i smentioned about the buyer who didn't findspending over a hundred large with acouple of average joes (who just happenedto have an inordinately large amount ofiPhones for sale) the least bit odd.[Thanks, Scott]Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments

What Can a Tech Fan Do With That Tax RebateBy Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:Tech Observer)

Submitted at 3/24/2008 7:25:10 AM

It's getting to be tax crunch time, andmaybe you're looking forward to thatrebate that President Bush signed into law

despite the fact that the government canhardly afford to give back $120 billion.Anyway, you can go on the Web andfigure out with a few clicks what youprobably will get. For me, about $1,300.

Let's see, for that I could buy a decentSony Vaio or Lenovo ThinkPad laptop. It's

also about the price range for a 47- inch flat-panel TV. I could buy a couple ofunlocked iPhones.

Although, it's a little depressing to knowthat Exxon made $1,300 a SECOND in2007. Or that Wikipedia founder JimmyWales paid that much for a dinner with a

VC. Kind of puts your refund inperspective.

Related LinksFollow the Bouncing MarketWar of AttritionVenezuela: No Oil for You!

PWN 2 OWN over:MacBook Air getsseized in 2 minutes flatBy Darren Murph (Engadget)Submitted

Filed under: LaptopsAnd just think -- last year you were

singing Dino Dai Zovi's praises for takingcontrol of a MacBook Pro in nine whole

Tech Gadgets * Technology *

PWN page 12


12/25

12 Your Click and Print NewspaperAT&T announces AT&T MobileTV for May launchBy Chris Ziegler (Engadget)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 10:09:00 AM

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds,Portable Video

They haven't revealed anything we didn'talready know, but AT&T's finally comeout with a semi-firm date for the launch ofits MediaFLO-powered mobile TV servicewhich will be branded simply as "AT&TMobile TV." It ' l l be available tosubscribers in May -- no specific date justyet -- on two exclusive handsets, the Prada-esque LG Vu and the more pedestrianSamsung Access; the Vu features anexpansive touchscreen and 2 megapixelcamera, while the Access makes do with asmaller landscape display and a 1.3megapixel sensor. Both feature Bluetoothand 3G data, but the real story here isMobile TV itself, which will come withtwo new channels that are exclusive toAT&T (in other words, unavailable on the

other live MediaFLO service, VCAST TVfrom Verizon). The latest, hottest way toburn productivity on the go gets real in justa few short weeks, folks, so finish upwhatever remaining work you have now.


Ericsson set to demo 42 Mbpsend-to-end HSPA EvolutiontechnologyBy Donald Melanson (Engadget)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 9:28:00 AM

Filed under: Cellphones Apparently notcontent to let Nokia Siemens have theupgraded mobile broadband spotlight toitself today, Ericsson has now announcedthat it's set to demonstrate what it's toutingas the "world-first end-to-end HSPAEvolution technology" at CTIA next week.That, the company says, should allow forspeeds up to an impressive 42 Mbps, a featmade apparently possible by a combinationof higher order modulation technology(64QAM) and 2x2 Multiple Input MultipleOutput (MIMO) antenna technology. As

for the actual demonstration, Ericsson isonly going so far as to say that it'll beconducted with an unspecified "handheldform-factor device" that's based on theEricsson Mobile Platforms accesst e c h n o l o g y . O t h e r d e t a i l s a r eunsurprisingly pretty light at the moment,but we're betting Ericsson will have plentymore to say about it when they actuallylight things up at CTIA.


PWNcontinued from page 11

hours. This year, the PWN 2 OWNhacking competition at CanSecWest wasover nearly as quickly as the second daystarted, as famed iPhone hacker CharlieMiller showed the MacBook Air ondisplay who its father really was.Apparently Mr. Miller visited a websitewhich contained his exploit code(presumably via a crossover cableconnected to a nearby MacBook), whichthen "allowed him to seize control of thecomputer, as about 20 onlookers [read:unashamed nerds] cheered him on." Of

note, contestants could only use softwarethat came pre-loaded on the OS, soobviously it was Safari that fell victimhere. Nevertheless, he was forced to sign anondisclosure agreement that'll keep himquiet until "TippingPoint can notify thevendor," but at least he'll have $10,000 anda new laptop to cuddle with during hissilent spell.


Samsung launches 10.2-megapixel L210 point-and-shootBy Darren Murph (Engadget)Submitted at 3/27/2008 11:48:00 AM

Filed under: Digital CamerasNow isn't this bugger just as cute as a

button? Even if red isn't your hue ofchoice, Samsung's L210 point-and-shootcomes in black and silver motifs too, andwhile the 10.2-megapixel sensor isprobably a bit much for a shooter this size,we suppose Sammy's just following thetrend. Aside from the pocket-friendly

design and 3x optical zoom lens, you'llalso find a 2.5-inch LCD monitor, red eyecorrection, optical and digital image

stabilization, face detection, an SVGAmovie mode and ten whole megabytes ofinternal storage. Should that fill up on youduring your outing (we know, chances areslim), you can slam an SD / SDHC / MMCcard in for additional space. Not tooterribly shabby for $199.95, yeah?[Via Gadgets-Weblog]

Gallery: Samsung launches 10.2-megapixel L210 point-and-shoot


Surface to hit consumerdom in 2011, maybe soonerBy Nilay Patel (Engadget)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 3:29:00 PM

Filed under: DesktopsThe last we heard about a consumer-

oriented version of Microsoft Surface,Steve Ballmer was saying that thecompany was trying to get it out ASAP--which is apparently three years, we've justlearned. That's the word from TomGibbons, the MS VP in charge ofSpecialized Devices and Applications, who

says Microsoft can "absolutely see how" toget Surface to consumers by 2011, but thatit'll try to beat that deadline if possible. Of

course, the $10,000 commercial version ofSurface still hasn't been released to high-profile customers like T-Mobile andHarrah's, and although it's starting to makesemi-random promo appearances here andthere. Still, though, 2011? We're gettingpretty sick of old-school Hungry HungryHippos here, people -- let's make thishappen.


Ballmer: We're Not Behind on Search; JustWaiting to Make Our MoveBy Kevin Maney (Portfolio.com:Tech Observer)

Submitted at 3/25/2008 10:50:27 AM

In a quickie interview on 24/7 WallStreet, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmermaintains that Microsoft's search situationis more like a distance runner waiting to

make his move past the leader -- i.e.Google. And he says a little -- very little --about Yahoo and Microsoft's future asprovider of software that sits on PCs.

Related LinksThe War for the InternetBallmer's Big PlaySearch Mission

NCAA Tourneycauses internet trafficjams!By ncaahoops

Submitted at 3/25/2008 9:09:14 AM

The internet traffic monitoring websiteCompete.com is blogging that the free

online March Madness On-Demand hasgenerated waves and waves and spikes ands p i k e s o f t r a f f i c t o w a r d sN C A A S p o r t s . c o m .

As you can see from their second graphthe spikes are happening every March.Coincidence? :)

Compete was also tracking the jump intraffic as people were e-lining up to sign-up for the free VIP access passes.

Tech Gadgets * Technology * Sports*


13/25

13Your Click and Print NewspaperAn Interview with Virgin Americashead of In-Flight EntertainmentBy John Biggs (TechCrunch)

Submitted at 3/27/2008 2:23:45 PM

In honor of Linux week at CrunchGear

we sat down with Charles Ogilvie,Director of In-Flight Entertainment, to talkabout how this start-up airline made Tuxfly.

CG: Why did you pick linux for RED?CO: Linux is very stable and agile. We

were able to pare down the embedded seat-back side to only the libraries we need,license a container app and then write thecode needed to tie everything together

Which distribution are you using?Flavors of Red Hat & Fedora (we have

embedded seat-back units, seat &distribution boxes and a head-end thatconsists of some file servers)

How long was it in testing?Weve been developing it for 4 years and

it has gone through numerous iterations.Before a new version is released, it istested on a simulation rack

Did Microsoft approach you aboutrunning Windows on the back end?

Weve talked with a lot of softwarevendors.

What was the hardest part about creatingthe system? Was it the software? Thehardware?

The hardest part is maintaining agility.The beauty of the architecture is that wecan continue to move forward, innovateand constantly look for additional areas toadd new, unprecedented functionality likeour inflight food ordering system or seat-to-seat chat.

Why dont more people use Linux inhigh traffic

Date post:	31-May-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	liberty-newspost-corp
View:	215 times
Download:	0 times

LibertyNewsprint 3-28-08 Edition

Documents