The World Is Yours December 26, 2007

Twendy-One Robot Demonstrates E.T. Appearance and Disposition

Robotic development has taken a leap forward with the introduction recently of Twendy-one, a short, squat, and heavy device that researchers hope to eventually market to hospitals and offices. The system, which rises only five feet but weighs in at 245 pounds, has taken seven years to develop its speech recognition abilities and 241 pressure-sensored hands, which can gently lift objects when prompted. Waseda University professor Sugano, who led the project, hailed the robot's state-of-the-art systems integration, however, many obstacles remain. Twendy-one can only operate for fifteen minutes before the batteries fail. Costs also need to fall significantly before the device could become widespread. Sugano plans to begin marketing the robot sometime around 2015, at a price of $200,000.




New My Location App. Not for iPhone

Google has launched a new service within Maps entitled My Location but it is currently unavailable over Apple's iPhone. The locator approximates a user's position through surrounding cell. phone towers, rather than over G.P.S.. By pressing "0" within Google Maps, the location of the phone is displayed with a margin of error of about 1km.




Firms Adapting to Social Networking Demands

Older, more established workers are only beginning to adopt social networking tools within the workplace, a trend that must accelerate if firms are to be successful in accommodating demands by younger workers who have grown up with collaborative, rather than hierachical, communication systems. Some 80 million so-called "baby busters" are entering the work force today, and corporations that lag behind implementing social networking platforms will increasingly fail to attract talent to solve problems collaboratively. Furthermore, marketing must also adapt. Consumers are presently spending as much as 25% of their time online, whereas many companies budget only 8% of their marketing expenses on internet-related projects. While there is a certain degree of hype attached to social networking (witness 2007's Facebook bubble), the platform could potentially offer a very powerful model for problem-solving. Whereas today most problems are worked over in meetings, more meetings, e-mails, and more e-mails over several weeks or months, the future may reach a solution within an hour inside a social network composed of thousands of relevant employees.




Green Gift Guide, Belated

Now that the holiday season is (finally) wrapping up, this item may be somewhat belated, but it is useful nonetheless. Charitable giving is often the most rewarding, and occasionally the giver is also the receiver. For example, gifting GOOD Magazine only $20 will land six issues of their monthly periodical in one's mailbox. A $135 tax-deductible donation to the Environmental Working Group - a nonprofit org. that rates cosmetics for safety - will give the giver a bag of products including everything from a cast iron pan to an organic chocolate bar. Giving Co-op America - a publisher of eco- and socially-responsible companies - $15 makes someone eligible for their National Green Pages, along with a newsletter and a quarterly. Sending $75 to the World Wildlife Fund or the International Fund for Animal Welfare results in a variety of sendbacks: Stuffed animals of your choice, certificates, tote bags, and more. All of these are great ideas for next year's holiday season, which for many Americans, began today.


Delong reviews the latest Joseph Schumpeter biography: The brilliant Austrian economist totally fell apart in his political analysis, which facilitated ignorance of his academic achievements.

Krugman on health insurance mandates and universal care: Obama's health insurance proposal is not a universal health insurance proposal.

Krugman on financial innovation: New financial products were supposed to spread risk, not confusion.

Democrats would like Republican Raimondo to switch parties: The Nebraska Senate terrain is very fluid going into '08.

Guiliani's campaign deflating fast: Apparently, his firewall is now the Florida primary, having given up on the earliest states.

Will the 2008 election, like the 1932 election, realign American politics?: Democracy Corps is forecasting a Democratic U.S. House seat pickup of twenty or so next year.

U.S. House Speaker's office corrects the record: The President, naturally, does not know what he is talking about.

Welcome to the real world: The "surge" in Iraq has accomplished nothing.

December 20, 2007

St. Lawrence Seaway Overdue for Maintenance

The only passage between Duluth, Minnesota and the Atlantic Ocean will need a $2.45 billion refit over the next four decades in order to remain operational. The locks and channels have been open for nearly fifty years and have never met expectations for overseas traffic. They have, however, introduced several invasive species to a system that contains about twenty percent of the planet's freshwater. The shipping industry has pledged to install ballast water treatment systems that remove harmful organisms, which newly arrive on average about twice a year. The worst offender, the Caspian Sea-native Zebra Mussel, washed ashore two decades ago and has imposed pipe-fitting costs of approximately $2 billion since then. According to an Army Corps of Engineers study, only 7% of Great Lakes shipping involves foreign vessels, leading conservation interests to question the value of upgrading the system to facilitate larger, oceanbound superliners. They also noted that the Seaway will never be a player in global transportation networks since the entire route freezes over every winter.




Oak Creek Power Plant Must Meet Stricter Standards

A state administrative law judge recently decreed that the power plant currently under construction in Oak Creek must comply with stronger environmental rules. We Energies disagreed that the opinion would divert the project, scheduled to open in 2009. Environmental groups and the Illinois Attorney General have opposed the company's plan to use a nearly two-mile long intake pipe from Lake Michigan to cool the facility once it starts operating. Judge William Coleman ruled that the system, which would channel over a billion gallons of lake water per day, is sufficient to warrant a "new facility" designation that must meet more stringent standards. Best practices in this case generally point to cooling towers as a solution, however, the company contended that such a device would cost $300 million more and result in greater emissions of airborne pollution. Coleman's opinion merely requires the state D.N.R. to reevaluate that portion of the project and reissue a building permit, something that is expected to be done early next year.




Gadgettech for the New Year

Gadgets emerging next year will allow for much greater connectivity to one another and to the internet, while being ever-lighter on the environment. The portable media player industry will follow the example of this year's iPod Touch, resulting in browser and Wi-fi capability becoming the new standard. That is only the beginning, with interconnectivity set to diffuse into every media device, mobile or not. That means D.V.D. players, stereos, flat-panel displays, even photo frames and alarm clocks that are Wi-fi, Bluetooth, or ultrawideband-enabled. Better, manufacturers are gearing up to standardize wireless components, thus easing inevitable upgrades. Unfortunately, do not expect a pathbreaking clean-tech. rollout in '08. However, more will be done that follows up on current trends: More efficient power management and a heavier reliance on recycling of old electronics.




Music Delivered over Mobile Phones Becoming Norm

U.K. research firm Understanding and Solutions has released a new report that projects that mobile music sales will soar in the near-future to about one-third of music retail value by 2011. Only around 13% of global music sales are now delivered over carrier networks to mobile devices. Over the next four years, mobile sales are forecast to grow to $11 billion annually, offsetting declining interest in packaged music. The study noted that Japan (naturally) has the most efficient online music platform, followed closely by the United States.




Online Productivity Apps. Now in Public Beta

For those straight out of college, Yahoo recently placed in public beta its Kickstart social networking platform. However, unlike other social networks, it offers no space for conversation or photos, just a page that appears like a resume. If big into bookmarking, the Opera beta browser can now sync bookmarks with another device browsing the web, whether mobile or not. Opera can even do so if a user is browsing with I.E. or Firefox by maintaining the bookmark cache up at their site. Salesmen, or others who render a lot of visual presentations, can now look to GoldMail to really spruce up their work. This app. permits photos, screen shots, or Powerpoint pages directly into the message, along with a voice-over or music file on top. The presentation can then be embedded in a blog page for viewing by others.




The Nominations Are In for the Most Anti-Tech. Organization in America

These are the groups that always seem to appear on the radar screen in court or in power sessions at the Capitol when technology consumers get the shaft. The number one offender of technology-related interests? The Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) and the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.). While the diffusion of broadband internet capacity should be a gold mine to those who produce original content, these relics of a bygone era mostly view online distribution channels as pirates. They have fought from the very start to tightly control their content's D.R.M. and refuse to adapt their business models to reflect the reality that they no longer hold a monopoly on distribution. This, of course, was most infamously portrayed with the decline and fall of Napster, the popular P-2-P music exchange which was driven out of business by lawsuit in 2002. The lawsuit barrage has now reached video content as well and poses a real threat to the development of "Web 2.0" platforms. Whether all the court battles and strong-arm lobbying has paid off is debatable: Consumer resentment (and confusion) toward these dinosaurs is at an all time high, and file sharing has never been more widespread.

Number two in stalling technical progress is awarded to Big Pharma, and its lobbyists. The patent system in America is badly in need of reform, given that too many products are receiving copyright protection. Some innovations are not really innovations, but merely higher stages of a product's development. Other flawed patents cover too much ground, thus preventing investment in R&D. Two lobbies think this works just fine: Pharmaceutical and biotech firms, and the patent lawyers who toil for them. A bill passed by the U.S. House and scheduled for consideration by the U.S. Senate would amend this situation.

Most geeks have at least heard of network neutrality. It helps to think of the issue as cable T.V. pitted against the internet. Whereas cable has tierred service plans based on content quality, among other factors, the internet (at least up until recently) has maintained an open platform in which the heaviest downloads and uploads were treated equally with the lightest files. The telecommunication companies would like to change that by either a) Doing so forthrightly by offering tierred rates and content or, more likely, b) Doing so through the back door by restricting content with "traffic shaping." Comcast, a large I.S.P., has recently been accused of blocking Bittorrent file sharing, leading many users to demand legislation codifying net neutrality outright. Reform doing just that is currently floating around the U.S. Senate, but is being halted, naturally, by the telecom. lobby.

America remains an innovation leader, but its broadband penetration rates have recently slipped to 15th in the world, according to the O.E.C.D.. The Communications Workers of America commissioned a study which concluded that the average U.S. download speed is only 1.9 megabits per second, and is priced at between $15 and $40 per month. In stark contrast, consumers in Tokyo enjoy transmission speeds of 100 m.b.p.s. for only $10 a month. Major telecommunication companies (and their hired hacks) see no problem here, and have wasted time trying to discredit the O.E.C.D. report. Much of the reason why big telco. is satisfied lies with the current composition of the F.C.C., which has consistently ruled that telecommunication firms have no obligation to open their networks to competitors.




Sliding Japanese Population Encouraging Robotic Innovation

With Japan's shrinking birth rate, many robotic manufacturers are deploying prototype models to adapt to a future in which care for the elderly and young is unavailable by other people. For young Japanese would-be parents, there are infant-size robots that simulate a baby's behavior. Prospective Japanese mothers must resort to this technique, simply because they have never handled a child in a society unwilling to reproduce itself. Another demo., called Simroid, simulates the tension humans feel when lying back in a dentist's chair. While ordinary dummies can appear human, they do not react to procedures patients feel are painful. Simroid even incorporates a primative breathing reflex.


Big brother: This is a brief summary and timeline of Bush "Administration" efforts to undermine civil liberties and open government.

New Nine Inch Nails release: The Limitless Potential is reviewed by Andrew Earles, who feels it is merely another remix album.

December 19, 2007

Mayor Barrett Sailing into Second Term

Citizens of the city of Milwaukee are normally conservative in their picks for mayor, and that pattern is holding up this year. Tom Barrett, nevertheless, pledged to run hard for every vote, and to stick to his program of making Milwaukee a better place in which to live. The mayor's generally likable persona, a roughly $600,000 war chest, and a complacent electorate add up to a yawner of a campaign. This, perhaps, is a welcome change from four years ago, during which Barrett won the mayoral election with only 53% against the incumbent at the time, Marvin Pratt. Pratt, Milwaukee's first african-american mayor, lost largely as a result of late allegations of campaign finance irregularities. Political consultants have noted that Barrett has for the most part honored his promise to heal the deep racial acrimony following the last mayoral election.




Attendance to State Historical Sites Booming

The ten venues owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society registered the largest increase in attendance last season since at least the late '90s. Overall, 12% more tourists glimpsed a slice of Wisconsin's history than the previous season, while revenue generated there rose 7%, to $2.2 million. Old World Wisconsin, the largest state-owned historical site in the Town of Eagle, posted an 8.7% revenue increase, with attendance up 2.8% to 72,966. According to officials, this gain may have been the product of luck, given last season's favorable weather. But more importantly, they credited a shift in marketing strategy that allows each site to sell itself differently, a change from eighteen months ago.




Milwaukee County Exec. Walker Running Again

Vowing to continue his crusade of cost-cutting and streamlining of services, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is seeking a second full term on April 1. The irony that his re-election bid culminates on April Fool's Day is perhaps not lost. His platform consists of a greater emphasis on privatization, coordination with other units of government to deliver public services efficiently, and more focus on faith-based initiatives for troubled youth. Walker's strongest opponent so far is state Senator Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee), who the County Executive promised to label a "big spender" compared to his fiscal conservatism. Taylor has been in the Senate since 2002, the same year in which Walker replaced Tom Ament as Exec. in the wake of scandal.

December 16, 2007

Faster iPhone on Tap for '08

A.T.&T.'s C.E.O. recently trumped media-obsessed Apple C.E.O. Jobs in mentioning that a faster version of the iPhone will be rolled out next year. The Apple iPhone currently operates exclusively on A.T.&T. E.D.G.E. network, which, at 2G, is considered an industry laggard. Some 200 million people around the world connect to a 3G network, which offers state-of-the-art data transmission speeds and is available in locations outside Wi-fi footprints. Jobs has complained that 3G chips drain far too much power, but he expects better battery life to appear next year. Apple wants ten million iPhones sold by the end of 2008.




Manufacturing Headed for Fall

Pulled down by a sagging economy, production in the industrial sector registered tepid, slowing growth in November, and is forecast to decline outright in December. Manufacturing employment is already declining, according to the Institute for Supply Management, moving from 52 to 47.8 on its index (below 50 indicates decline, while above 50 notes growth). The chief suspect dragging down the economy next year will likely be commercial construction, which typically lags residential construction. One way out, at least for some manufacturers, is exports of industrial equipment, particularly construction cranes and the like to booming markets in China.


Online readibility test over at New Economist: His site rates at "genius" level.

The Economist decides that the recent conference in Bali does not matter, but it matters too: A framework for slowing deforestation would be a welcome response to global climate change.

Sir Nicholas Stern addresses the ethics and economics of global warming: For a modest contribution of about 1% of world G.D.P., we can avert the worst scenarios of global climate change.

GeForce 8600 GT graphics card at TigerDirect: Santa's elves are making this product just for me this holiday season.

December 14, 2007

Predictions Vague on Online Shopping Growth

Even though shopping online grew by 17% during the first eighteen days of November - from $6 billion to $7 billion - broader economic forces may slow growth from its historical 20% rate. ComScore forecasts that spending online will reach $29.5 billion during the holiday season (calculated over the months of November and December), which would translate into a 20% increase over last year's sales figures. Nielsen reports that shoppers expect to spend roughly the same percentage of their budgets online this year as last, however, due to a slide in aggregate purchases, overall spending online may grow little, if at all. The appeal in internet gifting lies in its convenience, with 81% of respondents to Nielsen agreeing that the ability to shop whenever they wanted was a motivator in shopping online.




Internet Pipes Could Burst by 2010

Unless up to $137 billion in new backbone is invested by I.S.P.s, corporate and consumer use of the internet could overwhelm the system, leading to occasional brown-outs by 2010. In North America, $42-$55 billion will be needed to meet increasing demand for multimedia content over the next three to five years. These projections, furnished by Nemertes Research Group, are the first to be calculated with a variant of Moore's Law, which long ago proved robust in forecasting the processing power of microprocessors. The study is the latest to warn that current infrastructure is inadequate to support the growing appetite for streaming and interactive video, P-2-P file sharing, and music downloads. Some 161 exabytes of new data will appear online this year. An exabyte is one quadrillion bytes of unique information, or 1,024 trillion bytes, equivalent to about 50,000 years of D.V.D.-quality video.


P.C. biz. is overdue for commoditization: P.C. vendors are finally cutting prices for basic models, because only Apple can credibly market itself as "cooler than everyone else."

Recession priced into credit market: The subprime mortgage market meltdown, among other factors, places the American economy dangerously close to recession territory.

Krugman on American economic pessimism: Overall economic health masks the fact that prosperity has not reached a majority of Americans.

The world is not flat: Recent research reveals that even jobs that are often thought of as vulnerable to offshore outsourcing are not nearly as endangered as commonly believed.

U. of Oregon alum. pub. profiles two popular blogs: Mark Thoma's Economist's View is known as the "L.A. Times of blogs" because of its widespread popularity.

New measure underscores middle-class anxiety: The most surprising (and disturbing) fact is that a majority of middle-class households have a net worth of less than or equal to zero.

Sweatshops, boycotts, and international trade: Boycotts may not be an effective solution to sweatshops, because an awful job is better than unemployment, but a middle-ground program by which consumers are better informed of working conditions and the market decides may be a practical answer.

American automotive innovation: Clean, efficient prototypes from Detroit are off the drawing board, on sale, and taking reservations.

S.U.S.A. presidential polls from Kentucky: Obama's numbers look terrible in this state, while Clinton is, perhaps surprisingly, strong.

Are the interests of American organized labor and the environment irreconcilable?: Global Labor Strategies believes that U.S. unions are far behind unions elsewhere in addressing global climate change.

December 13, 2007

New Urbanism Not Selling Around Here

While New Urbanism home designs, which reflect smaller and more sustainable plans, may be a hit on the east and west coasts, they have yet to catch on in the Milwaukee area. Factors that explain this include the fact that land here in southeastern Wisconsin is not nearly as pricey as that found on the coasts, and traditional real estate assessment and appraisal patterns which only account for standardized models. Housing appraisers often do not have the option to favorably evaluate a home's energy efficiency, for example, which is obviously (today) related to a unit's market value. Homeowners can best ensure that these amenities are properly covered by requesting a "complex property" appraisal, preferably before construction or renovation begins. Obsolete municipal codes and construction habits may also impede the diffusion of newer systems of residential development.




Retailer Opens V.R. 3-D Storefront

Combining a Second Life appearance with merchandise customers can purchase, specialty retailer Brookstone recently opened its three-dimensional storefront online. Like a bricks-and-morter retail outlet, consumers can browse the aisles and zoom in on a good using a mouse and keyboard. Detailed information on a particular product is available by stopping in front of an item. A spokesman for Brookstone said the firm is targeting the 25-40 year-old demographic, as the virtual environment is more familiar to younger (but affluent) shoppers. It also feels more like a game than the traditional shopping experience. If anything, the V.R. platform avoids jammed parking lots, long checkout lines, and stress-addicted strangers.




Terabyte Bandwidth Under Development

Rambus, Inc., a memory chip research outfit, recently revealed that it is developing onboard bandwidth capacity of one terabyte per second, which, when completed, would offer gamers and other users substantially faster data transmission rates. New multicore processors are stretching D.R.A.M.s, which P.C.s and game consoles use to retain data being worked on by the system, to their limits as users demand more vivid graphics capability and ever-greater frame rates. The firm's Terabyte Bandwidth Initiative aims for licensing of such technology by around 2011.




Almost a Quarter of American Workers Now Telecommute Regularly

A new survey has revealed that some 23 percent of American workers currently telecommute as part of their job routine, and 62 percent of those unable to telecommute would like to. The report also showed that employees value this benefit more than stock options or on-site day care. Telecommuting fits in well with corporate I.T. departments, since many tech. workers are on-call 24 hours a day. New skill sets are required for telecommuters, however, otherwise nothing gets done or work fills every corner of the day. In an age in which (especially) technology-related jobs are outsourced 10,000 miles away, it should make sense to send them across town as well.




Research Underway for Paralyzed V.R. Users

If research being conducted by Keio University bears fruit, severely disabled users of Second Life would be able to shop, make new friends, or just bum around with their brain waves. In a recent demonstration, a graduate student there was able to navigate the streetscape of Kyoto, Japan with a device attached to electrodes on his scalp. While the project is in early alpha testing, the researchers hope to try it out on victims of paralysis sometime next year. The key to success, as in real life, is focus, with loss of concentration resulting in dives off cliffs or into the sea. Other hurdles include the positioning of electrodes for optimal effect.




Easier Internet Search Arriving from Yahoo

Yahoo will soon introduce structured search results that are intended to make results (particularly e-commerce-related) from a query easier to navigate. Currently, if one enters into the search field the query "H.D.T.V." that user is directed to a list of U.R.L.s upon which the desired term appears. Structured search, rather, would contain additional information and menus listing attributes of H.D.T.V.s, such as brands, specifications, prices, and other features. This is intended to grease the wheels of e-commerce, making comparison shopping much faster and simpler. Yahoo is also distinguishing itself from its main competitor Google by developing distributed search, which would greatly accelerate local search queries. Long-term, the company and its rivals are researching semantic web search through which the meaning or context of the query is recognized. Unfortunately, this is very difficult since semantic search is not scalable across a billion web pages in many different languages.




Australian Recycling Program Leads to Zero E-Waste

"Cartridges 4 Planet Ark," a nationwide recycling program down under, has successfully diverted some 5.5 million printer cartridges away from landfills over the last five years. Every component of a cartridge is reused, with some ending up as "eWood." E-wood produces everything from furniture to a natural gas substitute. While this is a promising beginning, over 18 million printer cartridges still flow into landfills each year. In other words, about 3,000 tons of plastic, 1,500 tons of ferrous metals, 400 tons of aluminum, and 260 kilograms of gold are needlessly lost in the waste stream.




Arcade Fire's Neon Bible Among First Music Videos to Go Interactive

Launched online in early October, a clip of the indie rock band's Neon Bible allows users to adjust images through their mouse. Creator Vincent Morisset credited the emergence and diffusion of YouTube for the production, since most music videos are viewed on YouTube today. Spending only a fraction of typical production costs and gaining a reputation for innovation was a win-win proposition for Merge Records, the band's label. Such interactivity may evolve into an explosion of user-generated content in the near-future. Some even see dollar signs. Using embedded links and text books, Like the Sun by RyanDan features a "reactive video" in which users can click into forums, or get sent to iTunes where the band's content is available for sale.


Digital liberation on next year's to-do list: 2008 may usher in an era in which the transmission, storage, and processing of information occurs at no cost.

December 11, 2007

Wisconsin's Late Primary Not Likely to Matter Next Year

In order for Wisconsin's presidential primary to effect the trajectory of any campaign next year, the winner on either side would have to remain unclear for perhaps the longest period in American political history. Early contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina have traditionally been followed by media momentum leading up to Feb. 5th's delegate-rich mega-primary. If Feb. 5 events produce an uncertain result, Wisconsin's "second round" primary could be more decisive than most observers expect. Polls conducted in the early states suggest that the Democratic nominee may emerge sooner than the Republican, given Clinton's lead there and G.O.P. unease with their menu of candidates. One important factor in ending the nomination fight earlier rather than later is relatively less diversity within the political parties than before.




Columnist Saler on the Sluggish Economic Outlook

It is fashionable these days to predict impending recession in the United States. Business cycle predictions are notorious for their inaccuracy, and are almost always way off the mark. But, it is not difficult to be right about a number of big points when looking forward, and Tom Saler, Journal-Sentinel columnist, hits most of them. Consumer spending drives the economic trajectory of advanced nations, like the U.S., so if such flows dry up (or more likely slow down) G.D.P. will immediately be effected for the worse. Consumer debt as a percentage of disposable income has steadily increased as households have found credit card companies more inclined to offer cheap credit, and have cashed-out equity from rising house prices. Despite crashing residential investment, consumers have kept their wallets open, resulting in moderate year-over-year growth in spending. As the housing depression continues, as energy prices drift higher (or remain at historically high rates) and as corporate earnings growth slows, the labor market could, finally, be impacted. The key question is whether interest rate cuts, begun in August and lagged by at least nine months, will save the day or not.

December 9, 2007

Telecommuting Improves Morale, Reduces Stress

According to a recent report that analyzed the results of 46 studies on telecommuting, the practice is beneficial for workers, because it gives them more control over how they work, more balance between job and family, and a less stressful environment. Employees, and their bosses, seem to have noticed, with telecommuting growing steadily since the year 2000. Last year some 45 million Americans telecommuted, a four million gain from 2003. The new report also exploded several widespread myths regarding telecommuting's impact on career development and managerial authority. No impact was found on telecommuting's supposed link to slower career advancement or a breakdown in management's control over its work force.




Marijuana Possession Partially-Decriminalized in Waukesha County

Following Milwaukee County and several other municipalities, Waukesha County Supervisors recently decriminalized first-time possession of small amounts of marijuana. Offenders now will receive the equivalent of a traffic citation, whereas they previously were referred to the Waukesha County D.A. for prosecution. The move, intended to lighten punishment on behavior no longer considered criminal and to relieve court congestion, passed the Board 27-4. Both the District Attorney and Sheriff supported the measure, which is projected to raise $37,000 for the county in fines.



Protection of Freshwater Resource Urged

According to several climate change models, the Great Lakes could face a "one-two" punch in the coming decades, as global warming both drops their level and increases demand upon the largest freshwater system in the world by other parched regions of the country. The Great Lakes compact, endorsed two years ago by all eight governors from the Great Lakes area, would prohibit most diversions, exempting only regions that straddle the subcontinental divide. The accord requires approval by each state legislature and the U.S. Congress. So far, only Minnesota and Illinois have adopted it. In Wisconsin and Ohio, the only two states that have chosen to do nothing, progress on the measure has been stymied over concerns that many rapidly-growing regions lie just outside the Great Lakes basin (like Waukesha). Officials have expressed alarm that without this resource, economic development may be placed at greater risk.


G.O.P. recruiting headaches: These days, there is only one organization worse at selling itself than the military.

Outstanding at the office: Book reviews eccentric devices for any cubicle.

December 8, 2007

Bittorrent Trying to Shake Pirate Reputation

Distributed computing platforms such as Bittorrent are struggling to gain acceptance among I.S.P.s, who continue to view such P-to-P applications with suspicion. Bittorrent recently penned a deal with Brightcove to distribute legitimate A/V content online, however, I.S.P.s like Comcast are not cooperating, due as much to aging infrastructure as P-to-P's bad reputation. As Bittorrent distances itself from illegal file sharing, some users are complaining that this technology has become too corporate and are planning to launch an alternative protocol early next year. As demand for both download and upload volume continues to grow in the years ahead, rationing of content - known as traffic shaping - will become more and more acute, unless I.S.P.s upgrade their infrastructure.


Krugman on victims of the mortgage mess: Those responsible did not bear risks before the crisis and are not bearing costs now.

December 7, 2007

P.C. World Staff Writes to Santa

The editors of P.C. World have written their lists and checked them twice, now they will find out who has been naughty or nice. Most of their recommendations revolve around updating gaming platforms to accommodate newly-released titles, hunting for cheaper H.D.T.V.s, acquiring or updating P.C.s for optimal design, implementing G.P.S., and (curiously) shunning the Apple iPhone. Unfortunately, the article failed to focus at all on graphics cards, instead lauding whatever Nintendo's Wii console can now do. This is regrettable because a G.P.U. tops my holiday wish list this year.

December 6, 2007

Amazon Kindle Exercises 3G Mobile Network

The recent launch of Amazon's first hardware application, the Kindle e-book reader, has the potential to put high-speed third-generation wireless networks to their first real test. The Kindle is constantly in touch with Sprint's EV-DO, or evolution-data optimized, network within the coverage zone, otherwise it is connected to a slower 1x system. Books usually download in less than a minute, due not only to state-of-the-art mobile networking but also the relative weightlessness of the data stream (on average, a book is 500-800KB long). Most books cost $9.99 while newspaper subscriptions start at $5.99 per month.




Internet Traffic Jam Predicted by 2010

The transmission of video packets over the internet may choke networks and lead to occasional brownouts by 2010 unless major infrastructure refits are immediately undertaken. Modelling online traffic growth is difficult because packets of information can be sent and delivered away from the net's core, and new platforms are emerging all the time that weigh down the system (think YouTube, which did not exist before 2005, but soaked up an estimated 27 petabytes of bandwidth per month by mid-2007). Making predictions off local bandwidth use solves these issues because there is no need to forecast the emergence of future platforms. Demand for bandwidth is projected to increase exponentially until the physical plant limits it, which could occur as soon as 2010.




City Budget Marathon Finally Over

Partially due to the very tardy state budget, the City of Waukesha finally closed a nine-hour-long debate over its new fiscal plan. Aldermen voted down a revised budget once, ending debate at 4:25 a.m.. The Common Council eventually settled upon, 8-6, a 5.9% increase in the property tax levy that brings tax collections to about $46.8 million, compared to last year's $44.2 million. Assessed property values will be levied at $8.74 per $1,000, a hike of 3.9%, or 32 cents, from last year's rate. Mayor Larry Nelson had originally proposed a property tax levy of $47.1 million.




Business Lobby Asks Governor to Oppose Stricter Ozone Standards

New federal ozone regulations, set to begin in March, 2008, place the state's economy at too great a risk, according to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Wisconsin's largest business lobby. Nitrogen oxide emissions, which mutate into ozone, have been halved over the last five years in the ten counties which failed to meet E.P.A. standards. Earlier this year, Governor Doyle asked E.P.A. to redesignate eight of them as compliant with current standards. The state also has plans to cap and reduce ozone emissions by 60% beginning in 2009. According to another business lobby, the National Association of Manufacturers, rewriting ozone rules would nearly triple non-attainment counties nationwide. The governor's staff mused that the business lobby might instead lobby the Bush Administration, one of the most business-friendly administrations of the last century.


Increases in wages and rents of the native-born almost exactly wash due to immigrants's productivity: An increase in the percentage of immigrants in a metro. area of 1% leads to rent hikes of 1% and wage boosts of 0.3-0.4%, but since housing costs about 30% of the typical budget, immigrants's productivity effect on natives is transmitted into the value of homes.

McConnell's net disapproval rating highest ever: The Senator from Kentucky may really be vulnerable next year, should this trend continue.

Amazon Kindle's closed architecture: Another reason (other than the steep price, on both the hardware and software sides) to avoid this device is its D.R.M. architecture and the violation of the right to resell, or loan out, a copy of the purchased book.

The Economist focuses on California's slumping housing and labor markets: But the biggest threat, at least to the Los Angeles area, is the falling dollar, which makes imports pricier, thus generating lower traffic through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

December 5, 2007

Roundtable Discussion on Violent Crime in Milwaukee

One of the most severe problems facing the city of Milwaukee is its poor reputation, at least in the suburbs, of producing high rates of violent crime. The editorial board of the Journal Sentinel sat down for a talk with several local political and religious leaders on the nature of potential solutions to this important problem. Suggestions ranged over a lot of territory, however, too much discussion centered around cultural changes that are necessary to heal neighborhoods and families. It is true that, everything else being equal, children actually raised by their fathers, for example, are probably better equipt to deal with the real world, in which graduating from high school (much less going to college) is absolutely essential in the early 21st century. It is also true that tight neighborhoods probably do not breed "underclass values" of whatever description.

The problem with these assessments of where the city's population has fallen down is that government can do very little to implement solutions here. If a 14-year-old girl decides to reproduce herself, the state has no jurisdiction to stop her. If neighbors do not look out for each other, Mayor Barrett has no authority, tsk-tsk-like, to scold them. Furthermore, it is hardly productive to criticize the absence of media attention. Saying over and over and over again that the media only focus in on sensational stories is not brilliant social criticism. It is, rather, useless hand-waving. So is lambasting teenage pregnancy. Once local leaders roll up their sleaves and recognize that they are constrained by such facts of life, then, perhaps, respectable solutions to violent crime will emerge.




Amazon Debuts First Hardware App.

Priced at $399, the new Amazon Kindle e-book reader weighs in at 10.3 ounces and can contain up to two-hundred books. Downloads arrive over EvDO radio connection to Amazon's Whispernet service, which holds some 90,000 titles at launch. Although there are no additional charges through Sprint's EvDO network, individual titles must be purchased and cannot be exported onto a P.C. or swapped with a friend. The device also supports newspaper and weblog subscriptions. If a user loses a book, or needs to open up space in memory, Amazon archives purchases server-side - users can re-download any title at will for free. While the demise of the book is hardly imminent, a 1G e-book market may emerge now that Amazon has addressed content problems. Increasing interest in mobile access to the internet, more generally, and Kindle's support for online periodical subscriptions may be enough to create potential.




Flickr Places Opens Shop

A new service offered through the photosharing site Flickr allows geographic tagging of images by location, and features more than 100,000 place names of cities, states, countries, and regions. A global map is also updated daily to display the latest locations that users find interesting enough to shoot. These photos can then be tagged by category, allowing search capability much like that of the original version of Flickr. Some 2.5-3 million new images are uploaded daily, with a growing percentage geographically tagged. As a result, Flickr is adding 3,000-5,000 new location pages per week. The intent of this service is to assist prospective tourists who want to go beyond photos of monuments and other famous venues.




Marketing to the Virtual Generation

Going beyond analyzing traditional demographic groups, such as generation X or Y, a new report urges marketing professionals to target differently consumers who are attracted to the flat meritocracy of the internet and its diverse platforms. This class is defined as "Generation V," because it replaces the physical experience of productivity, social networking, gaming, and shopping with a virtual one. This is challenging given that expertise (or merely interest) in such behavior is not confined to any particular demographic cohort. Worse, increasingly consumers will interact with marketing representatives anonymously through an avatar, or, later on, an intelligent agent operating in their system's browser. Marketing must, therefore, adapt to sales to online personas, instead of actual persons.


Krugman (again) on racism and the G.O.P.: A permanent conservative majority, so obvious until recently, will never appear because the electorate has become more diverse and more racially tolerant over the last several decades.

Wolf Blitzer traps prez. candidate Dodd: The Connecticut Senator's signature issue has been the restoration of the U.S. Constitution after years of Bush Administration attacks, and he fell flat on his face when asked how to prioritize national security.

Time proceeds seven times faster when dreaming: Dreaming is all about memory consolidation, and it is much easier to pull pieces of events together in the mind (for example, a meal's taste, the restaurant's atmosphere, who attended, etc.) than to actually undertake them in the physical world.

Open Rights Groups turns two: The U.K. activists work to ensure that elections remain clean.

Haunting novel about first living creature in space: The story of Laika, the first animal launched into space aboard Sputnik II, is told through both fact and fiction.

December 4, 2007

Princeton Economist Blinder on Offshoring Jobs

35-40 million jobs are presently vulnerable to offshoring, economist Alan Blinder recently forecast to a group of about 180 economists and workforce developers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Although no robust measures yet exist to exactly compute how many positions may be electronically shipped to India, among other places, Blinder arrived at his figure based upon an analysis of 250 occupations. Accordingly, workers need to recognize that many jobs of today will no longer be done in advanced societies like the U.S. in even the near-future. The economist also recommended a much stronger social insurance system to assist displaced workers in locating other opportunities.




Dell Releases All-in-One XPS

Dell recently launched a P.C. in which all processing components are embedded in the display. Such systems are becoming increasingly common, with versions like the iMac, for example. All-in-one P.C.s are also marketed by Hewlett-Packard and Gateway. Dell offers the devices in four designs that target a particular audience.


Data paucity stymies insight into the deterrent effect of the death penalty: There are simply too few executions to isolate the relationship between execution and homicide rates.

U.S. House passes F.I.S.A. reform measure without telecom. immunity: Senate Judiciary earlier approved a similar bill.

What would happen if copyright laws were really enforced?: Just going about normal, everyday activities runs afoul of copyright to the tune of billions of dollars in potential liability.

Hillary Clinton's agenda for the economy: For the most part, specific proposals revolve around rising foreclosures and steep energy costs.

December 3, 2007

Emissions Accord Approved

Six midwestern governors and the premier of Manitoba recently signed onto a regional agreement designed to reduce area emissions linked to global climate change. An additional three governors agreed to be "observers" of the pact. Signatories believe that a side impact from the agreement will force the U.S. Congress to act more seriously to address global warming. Including regional accords already underway on the west coast and in the northeast U.S., some 48% of Americans now live in an area governed by rules that restrict emissions of greenhouse gases. Contained within the document is a cap-and-trade system to begin in the year 2010. Although the proposal does not include specific levels of emission cuts, many states are developing plans to slash greenhouse gases by 60-80% over the next several decades.

Also approved by all twelve participants at the regional summit was an energy security and climate stewardship platform. Like many plans to restrict emissions, the agreed-upon platform relies heavily upon targeted cuts to be reached in the distant future. Most important for Wisconsin, all new coal-fired power plants would be required to scrub away the carbon dioxide and sequester it underground after 2015. Another key goal is the generation of 30% of the midwest's electricity through renewable energy sources by 2030. Some area leaders and lobbyists (particularly from Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the leading business group) expressed reservations for the regional accord, noting that global climate change is a national issue and that imposing additional rules only on the midwest would entail a loss in the area's competitive edge. Others noted that by jumping in now, rather than waiting around for the feds to act, would place the region at an advantage in negotiations leading up to whatever eventually passes nationally.




A.M.D. Delivers New Graphics Cards Ahead of Phenom Launch

As part of its Spider platform, Advanced Micro Devices recently released new graphics cards prior to the launch of its Phenom processor. The G.P.U., processor, and chipset are all integrated on a single platform, delivering better graphics, performance-per-watt efficiency, and H.D. video. The Phenom is the precursor of A.M.D.'s Fusion chip, which, when released in late 2008 or early 2009, will place the G.P.U. and the C.P.U. on one die. Since A.M.D.'s acquisition of graphics card manufacturer A.T.I. the firm has struggled to capture market share amid poor timing for its releases and other problems. In order to regain its lead, A.M.D. feels that close coordination between the C.P.U. people and the G.P.U. people is essential.




30: The Year Many Young People Wake Up to How Miserable Their Careers Really Are

Vikki Ortiz discusses in her column a pattern that may be emerging among twenty-something college graduates. Many bright young people today attended college like they attended high school. It was always assumed that they would graduate from college, so, unlike in generations past, they went without the expectation of receiving training in any specific field. As a result, many end up in careers in which they perform well enough, but are miserable. Then along comes their late twenties, the dam breaks, and they go about finding a career that is far more satisfying. I suppose I can relate to this trend: I would hate being a professor of economics.




Amazon Kindle Device First Rival to Sony's E-Book

For the last year industry speculation of when Amazon planned to roll out its e-book device has created a lot of buzz. The W.S.J. reported its debut recently, following leads from two company insiders and CNET's site. Amazon has also been updating its product pages in anticipation of the launch of Kindle editions of various books. This first gen. device may require a long tail before taking off in the marketplace.


The Economist looks at the ramifications of an American recession: Developing economies need U.S. economic growth less than before to sustain their economic expansion.

What Would Jesus Buy? at the Onion A.V. Club: Reviewer Noel Murray complains that this work does not explore consumerism, but merely grabs some cheap laughs.

San Francisco Fed. believes recession avoidable: But woes in credit and housing markets will weigh on the economy, producing sluggish growth of only 2% or so for next year.

History of digital tampering: A photograph of Katherine Harris, former Florida Secretary of State who "certified" the 2000 election recount down there, hardly needs to be altered to show how ugly she is.

Krugman on "beltway maturity:" Entitlement hysteria, especially around the long-term fiscal health of Social Security, is regarded in the nation's capitol as a sort of badge of statesmanship.

House Oversight Committee to investigate whether State Department Inspector General perjured himself: He may have lied, under oath, about his knowledge of his brother's connection to security firm Blackwater.

December 2, 2007

Average U.S. Home Price to Fall 11% by Mid-2009

The current bursting bubble in real estate still has a long way to go before the market stabilizes, according to a recent report. Some $1.7 trillion will eventually melt away, resulting in ultimate losses of between ten and twenty percent, with the worst declines occurring in California and Florida. As the economy endures perhaps the harshest credit crunch in a generation, a double-whammy in rising fuel prices has sharply decelerated economic growth from 5% in the third-quarter of this year to an estimated stand-still by the first-quarter of next year. Clearly the festivities have ceased, but better times may return by the third-quarter of '08 once housing prices slow their long decline. The total stock of owner-occupied housing in the United States is valued at $21 trillion.




Dozens of New Features on Windows 7 Wishlist

The successor to Windows Vista is currently in development under the codename "Windows 7" and a list of improvements was recently leaked online. Most suggestions are relatively minor and involve tweaks in performance. Some, however, are potentially useful, such as the addition of tabbed browsing to Windows Explorer. There appears to be disproportionate interest in the project by gamers, with "allow backup of Xbox 360 games to the P.C." and "add Windows gaming mode" offered as improvements so far. Microsoft plans to release this version of its O.S. sometime in 2010.




Crysis: Just Short of Gaming Perfection

The latest entry in the shooter genre of gaming, Crysis depicts a gorgeous, tropical landscape on which the gamer plays a Delta Force operative under deep cover in a rescue mission of archeologists held captive by the North Korean military. That is more or less this game's plot, but Crysis offers such tremendous attention to detail and a "choose-your-own-adventure" feel that the usual A.I. gliches that developers avoid with less freedom games go away. All of this glitz, though, is very costly and the title is so advanced that it looks like future-fun, a time years from now in which the typical P.C. can actually handle the already-steep minimum system requirements. For those insistent upon playing the best, prepare to drop hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, on a hardware upgrade.


Impending recession may first emerge in commercial construction employment: Residential construction employment has remained curiously robust given the collapse in housing starts lately, leading to speculation that the figures mask movement of workers to the commercial sector.

Udall is unofficially in the New Mexico Senate campaign: The only U.S. Senate race now considered "toss-up" is Coleman's Minnesota seat.

An alternative to rational expectations and behavioral models of exchange rate movements: An announcement of purchasing power parity estimates by the Fed or E.C.B. might result in less exchange rate volitility around the P.P.P..

Krugman is unhappy with the W.S.J. editorial page's take on income mobility: "Regression toward the mean" is a statistical phenomenon employed by conservatives to confuse their readers about income mobility.

Draft Scott Kleeb movement alive in Nebraska: This state, despite its former ties to Senate Democrats, is still conservative territory unfriendly to progressives.

N.M. Senate candidate Udall destroys the competition: His numbers, among others, strongly suggest that barring disaster he will replace Domenici next year in the U.S. Senate.

Big wall in big garden knocked down: 1.8 million pages of federal case law is now hosted online for free.

How power-line networking works on HowStuffWorks: As A/V streaming within home networks deepens, firms are rolling out powerline capable of 100 m.b.p.s..

20 films directed by Alfred Hitchcock on HowStuffWorks: The portly "master of suspence" never secured the Academy's Best Director award.

December 1, 2007

Local Employers Band Together to Retain, Attract Talent

As retirements from the labor force swell and "brain drain" continues to mount, local employers are searching for new ways in which to retain and acquire talented employees. The so-called "baby bust" that followed the post-war baby boom generation is leaving many positions vacant. Up to 23 million jobs may go unfilled by the beginning of the next decade, and firms are stepping up their efforts to hire workers who the competition overlooks. This requires a high degree of agility in dealing with the work force, which has become far more diverse in recent years.




The Stars of Viral Video

Viral video, or, more broadly, user-generated video, is such a new phenomenon that most lack any semblance of quality control. However, a few productions are really funny, and often in a dark way. There is the coke-and-mentos trick, by which a can of Diet Coke and a handful of candy produces a geyser. Then there is the original viral video, which surfaced in 1990 and consists of outtakes from the filming of an R.V. commercial: The world's angriest salesman. And, of course, there is the off-the-cuff racism of Michael Richards, Kramer on Seinfeld. Finally, who can forget the worst sportscast of all time? The following are a few more classics of the viral world: