Friday, June 28, 2002

THE INK WASN'T DRY ON THIS POST AND... A NEW XEROX AUDIT FOUND that the company improperly accelerated far more revenue during the past five years than the SEC estimated in an April settlement. The total amount of improperly recorded revenue from 1997 through 2001 could be more than $6 billion. [Wall Street Journal] 6:22:18 AM     Comments[]

NOSTALGIA Like it use to be! Recreating a Golden Age of Radio. Thouseands of items relating to the development of electricity and early radios plus hundreds of radios from the 1920's through the 60's are on display at the American Museum of Radio. By Suzanne Charlé. [New York Times: Arts] 6:14:48 AM     Comments[]

TELECOMS ARE GIVING BACK ILL-GOTTEN GAINS When you look at the collapse of the telecom business and the actual dollar volumes of market declines and losses, you begin to see a business that has been fundamentally flawed for a long time. If stories like this have even 10% truth (and they do), we're witnessing a great purge that has been needed for far too long. 'You have no idea the evil we do' - MCI insiders break their silence. Meet the High Toll Dept. [The Register] Behind each and every market decline is a group of "home town" investors who feel as if they've been betrayed. Whether the business in question has simply dropped with the telecom market or been a party to shenanigans, telecom investors are in the same boat: Jackson, MS - Worldcom Omaha, NE - Level 3 Denver, CO - Qwest The list goes on and on. 6:10:18 AM     Comments[]

CONFLICTS became obvious when we learned accounting firms were also providing consulting advice. Similar conflicts have been obvious between stock analysts and stock brokers. Until there are clear lines separating these two, no broker or analyst will get a fair hearing - no matter what he or she is suggesting! That assumes we're talking about someone who doesn't have any other ax to grind. Here's a guy who seems to be completely uncertain about his role! Timing of a Rating Shift Is Raising Some Questions. Stock analyst Jack B. Grubman is caught in the spotlight as government investigators dig in to the accounting mess at WorldCom. By Patrick Mcgeehan. [New York Times: Technology] 5:57:35 AM     Comments[]

AUDITS WILL NOW HAPPEN EVERYWHERE outside the normally scheduled annual audit. We'll also see a call for "second opinions" in audits. The accounting attrocities are likely to be deep enough that some of the "high flyers" of the '90's restate earnings to a degree that removes them from high flyer status. It will go something like, "those weren't profits; those were accounting errors." Audit Lapse at WorldCom Puzzles Some Professionals. How Worldcom hid $3.8 billion in operating costs in order to exaggerate its earnings is as big a puzzle for accountants and auditing experts as it is for lay observers. By Jonathan D. Glaterwith Kurt Eichenwald. [New York Times: Business] 5:48:51 AM     Comments[]

Miss Piggy. "Never eat more than you can lift." [Quotes of the Day] 5:42:09 AM     Comments[]

AN OPEN DOOR POLICY TO IMMIGRANTS, BUT You have to at least knock! 34 Asylum-Seekers Break Out of Camp. Thirty-four asylum-seekers escaped from Australia's most notorious detention center when their supporters dragged down fences with a car, the government said Friday. [AP World News] 5:40:10 AM     Comments[]

THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER Cnet Says It Will Cut 10 Percent of Its Work Force. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Cnet Networks Inc.(CNET.O), which operates a Web site offering news, shopping information and other technology items, said on Thursday it would cut 10 percent of its work force, and warned its second-quarter sales would be short of forecasts. By Reuters. [New York Times: Technology] 5:35:06 AM     Comments[]

AN INTERESTING PANEL I'M GOING TO BED EARLY, since I have to get up at the crack of dawn to fly to DC for the Blogosphere panel. [InstaPundit] This panel at the National Press Club, sponsored by The Idler, A Web Periodical (http://www.the-idler.com), has invited prominent "Bloggers" to answer these questions. Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Instapundit.com Mickey Kaus, Kausfiles.com James Lileks, Lileks.com Dennis Loy Johnson, Mobylives.com Doug McLennan, Artsjournal.com James Taranto, "Best of the Web," OpinionJournal.com John Hiler, Microcontent News Johsua Micah Marshall, TalkingPointsMemo.com Discussant: Alice Goldfarb Marquis, The-Idler.com. The National Press Club is located at 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor - Washington, DC. Admission is free. 5:32:20 AM     Comments[]

HOW IT ALL WORKS RSS news feeds unmasked RSS Tutorial. Publish and Syndicate Your News to the Web "In this workshop you'll learn how to create, validate, syndicate, and view your own RSS news channel. The emphasis will be the practical application of RSS XML/RDF metadata for dynamically publishing...." [via Serious Instructional Technology] Now this is an excellent resource! Put up by the Government Information Locator Service (GILS) folks in Utah, this one-page tutorial gives a brief overview of RSS, what it looks like, aggregators (they call them "viewers"), how to locate feeds, how to create your own feeds, how to validate your RSS, and more. [The Shifted Librarian] 5:27:10 AM     Comments[]

© Copyright 2002 Steve Pilgrim.