Bear Flag Republic Radio WeblogLiving out on the left coast |
| Last modified: |
|
8/7/04; 2:36:01 PM |
| Feeds: |
|
LIVE webcam Cumbres & Toltec rail yard in Chama, New Mexico.
Current BlogRoll.
[Macro error: The server, api.google.com, returned a SOAP-ENV:Server fault: Exception from service object: Invalid authorization key:]
|
|
Sunday, June 13, 2004
More 3D Displays to Come [Slashdot]
comments < 5:41:21 PM 
>Ice cores unlock climate secrets. A three-kilometre long column of ice drilled from the Antarctic has revealed climate patterns for last 740,000 years of Earth's history, Nature reports. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition] Actually, it mostly measures Antartica's climate history ... the story says is measures the whole globe. One data point measures the whole globe? Overall, an interesting study, though. [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology] comments < 11:19:03 AM
>Forrester: CIO Optimism And IT Spending Outlook Increase Over Q1 2004 [Forrester Research: Press Releases] This is good news, although world-wide sales are estimated to increase about 10% to 14%, depending on who is doing the estimate. A big part of the growth in sales, though, is selling systems to Southeast Asia. Separately I read another survey of CIOs that said 5% plan to increase hiring, 2% plan to layoff, and the remainder expect to make no change in hiring the next 12 months. The survey also revealed that IT hiring was flat the past 12 months. Automation and improved management tools are enabling fewer workers to do much more. IT worker productivity has made big improvements. U.S. IT spending may be the same as Canada's 3% forecast... Meanwhile, at the Cato Institute "funny farm" a staff member writes , "the alleged offshoring of high-paying computer-related jobs is an obvious hoax". He says that people have been whipped into a fury by faulty projections and then proceeds to use out dated BLS projections to say that offshoring will have no impacts. Nonsensical. The BLS data he is using was collected by the BLS in late 2000 and early 2001, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But let's not let facts get in the way of a good argument... I contacted the author and he insists he's using up to date data, even if it does say "2002". Sigh.. [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology] comments < 11:18:52 AM
>NIIT, or just IIT, as Indian Institute of Technology, to enter U.S. education market. IIT has forged a strong brand name. IIT is said to be a good school but not on par with MIT, Stanford or CalTech. Yet they have successfully convinced clueless western reporters that they are the top school in the world and their graduates actually walk on water. That branding process will now be extended by exporting IIT to the U.S. and elsewhere. Wow. No wonder U.S. workers cannot compete with Indian workers. Besides having to pay for expensive health care services in the U.S., U.S. firms must compete with Indian firms that pay no taxes.. Really. Many software firms in India are exempt from income taxes. Will the U.S. and state governments level this playing field too? Fortunately it does not really matter since U.S. government claims almost no U.S. jobs lost due to outsourcing. Never mind that media in India and elsewhere frequently list the jobs they are importing and they are always big numbers! I expect to soon see a report saying that no U.S. workers have lost jobs due to temporary H-1B or L-1 visa workers. Nice to know that everything is peachy keen in IT again :-) Guess that explains why the IT industry salaries are dropping. We all know that increased demand translates to decreasing salaries, right? [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology] comments < 11:18:16 AM
>It's getting hotter! It's getting colder! The ice is melting! The ice is freezing! No it isn't. Yes it is! NASA says "oops", maybe the west Antarctic ice sheet really isn't melting like we thought it was. This is the normal give and take of science. It often takes a long time to solidify an hypothesis as new evidence becomes available. Unfortunately, the media and politicians will typically grab a hold of one study that meets their personal belief and then refuse to acknowledge contrary information. You probably won't see this kind of study given equal coverage in the NY Times or the Independent, both of which believe strongly in human caused global warming and will spin stories to their view of truth, where truth is not yet known. As noted on this web site in the past, what is known with high certainty is that carbon dioxide levels have seen a significant increase in the atmosphere during the past century. We do not know with certainty that this is human caused (CO2 levels have been high in the distant past long before people were a big factor in anything), nor do we know with certainty that this will lead to human caused global warming. The problem is when people speak of certainty when certainty is not there. Computer-based Global Climate Models are a long, long ways from certainty about anything, let alone that long range forecasts demand guesses about human behavior long into the future. Imagine sitting in your 1904 living room and trying to forecast all aspects of human behavior in the year 2004.... [Edward Mitchell: Common Sense Technology] comments < 11:17:04 AM
> |
| Archive: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|