mad_ddog
Friday, April 30, 2004
  The New York Times: Google's Sale of Its Shares Will Defy Wall St. Tradition

Google reported that it earned $106 million on sales of $962 million last year. But after taking into account several unusual bookkeeping techniques, Google has actually generated much greater profits, largely from selling small targeted text ads tailored to the interests of the more than 200 million Web searches conducted through Google daily.

Jordan Rohan, an analyst with Schwab Soundview Capital Markets, calculates that in the first quarter of this year, Google had pretax profit margins of 59 percent.

'That is extraordinarily profitable,' Mr. Rohan said. 'Very few companies of any sort reach those levels.'"


  IBM Linux Portal News

I call bullshit. The lady is way too optimistic.

"Within the next three years I believe Linux will overtake Windows as the number one operating system based on new server shipments."


Thursday, April 29, 2004
  Google Form S-1

Hmm. The SEC website is slow as a snail right now. I guess everyone is taking a look under Google's covers.


  Why US troops have new shoulder pads | csmonitor.com

  The New York Times - Gretchen Morgenson: Why Not Restate Bonuses?

  NYTimes: Send Jobs to India? Some Find It's Not Always Best

Outsourcing is not a silver bullet. It certainly adds to the uncertainty unless you've worked with the outsourcing firm before.


Tuesday, April 27, 2004
  Will Senator John Kerry become the next President of the USA?

According to Presidents Bio - William Harding, William Harding and John F. Kennedy are the only two seated senators elected President of the USA. Now if you look at the circumstances of those two elections 1920 USA Presidential election, 1960 USA Presidential election, their opponents were not the incumbent President. Kennedy did beat the vice-president at the time. It seems state governors tend to be elected President more than U.S senators. Perhaps it's because they have 'CEO'-type experience? Or an installed base of supporters? So unless Kerry starts a new precedent, George W. Bush should be elected to another term. Should be interesting...


Saturday, April 24, 2004
  The New York Times : Studios Rush to Cash In on DVD Boom

Thursday, April 22, 2004
  MSNBC - White-collar crime sentencing goes overboard?

You won't get much sympathy from me. White-collar crime affects way more people than blue-collar stuff, unless you can arrest one of the ringleaders. "No blood, no foul" has been used as an excuse for too long.


Friday, April 16, 2004
  TheStar.com - Mogilny puts mansion up for sale

On Monday, the 35-year-old right-winger, whose NHL team is locked in a playoff battle against the Senators, placed his Bridle Path mansion up for sale for $7,950,000, raising speculation as to whether he sees dim prospects for a future in Toronto, or may be on the verge of retirement.

Mogilny, his wife Natalia and two children, who have such well-heeled neighbours as media baron Conrad Black and Hong Kong magnate Stanley Ho, live in the 14,000-square foot mansion, which sits on nearly two acres of land and features eight bedrooms, 11 washrooms and a 16-car garage.
According to the listing sheet, the home is 'completely redecorated and restored to its original brilliance. Wonderful principal rooms with elegant details, antique fireplaces.'

The home features a pool, a spa and a security system with closed circuit television. There is limestone flooring through parts of the home, which has three fireplaces and a bar in the library.
The only thing missing for Mogilny, who is an avid golfer. is an 18-hole course in the back yard.

Mogilny purchased the home for $5,550,000 last August with a down payment of $1,425,000, leaving a mortgage of $4,125,000.


Thursday, April 15, 2004
  Microsoft.com: Windows Security Updates for April 2004

Whole slew of of bundled security updates. I wonder how long it'll take for the black hat hackers to develop an exploit? Looks like MS04-011 is the worst of the lot, including the size of the patch (6.8MB). In fact all of the patches look much larger than many of the patches from 2003. Probably due to the bundling of various fixes.


  The Globe and Mail

Hmm. So the Bank of Canada's rate is the same as after 9/11? Is the country's and the global economy in a similar situation? No. Mr. Dodge should have left rates where they were. He's too quick to react on minor bits of trailing indicators. Sheesh.

"Rate hikes may not come quickly, but come they will, and likely a series of them that will bring the overnight target rate closer to what the Bank of Canada believes is the 'neutral' rate, or about 4.75 per cent. In other words, the central bank's rate is going to double over the next year or so and that is something both stock markets and borrowers as a whole will have to deal with."


Thursday, April 08, 2004
  CNN.com - Man�to bet all on Vegas roulette spin - Apr 8, 2004

Dumbass


  The Globe and Mail: Housing starts climb 14%

So interest rates are going lower, if long term rates head down too, then housing will continue to thrive


  TheStar.com - Canadian dollar drops about one full U.S. cent

Bank of Canada was on the sidelines for most of 2003 after jacking up interest rates early in 2003. They are going to be dropping the rate as fast as possible in 2004. I expect rate cuts into the summer since the Bank of Canada is in pure reactive mode, so they are going to oveshoot on the downside as they overshot on the upside. The Bank of Canada thinks they're driving a speedboat, but they're driving a fully-loaded oil tanker.

"Soft Canadian employment points to a near certainty that the Bank of Canada cuts rates by a quarter-point April 13 and keeps the door open for additional action thereafter," commented John Johnston, head of global markets research at RBC Capital Markets.

Johnston added that "the odds favour the market now discounting a greater likelihood of a move" to cut rates further in June, further reducing the attractiveness of Canadian financial assets and the Canadian dollar to international investors.

If the Bank of Canada cuts rates in its next scheduled announcement Tuesday, that would be the third time this year it has cut rates, so far by a quarter-point each time.


  The New York Times: China, as Summer Nears, Braces for Power Shortages

Last year electricity shortages affected about two-thirds of China, and seven provinces had serious shortages, Chinese energy officials said.
While generation capacity has grown rapidly in the last two years, it has not been enough to keep up with demand.

China has 385 million kilowatts of generating capacity, and another 130 million kilowatts of power plant construction has been approved by the government, Zhang Guobao, a deputy chairman of the State Development and Reform Commission, which oversees China's energy policy, said recently.

This year some generating capacity may remain idle for lack of coal, energy officials have warned.
China's coal production grew 22 percent in the first two months, but bottlenecks on congested railway lines and price disputes forced power plants to curtail generation, tThe Economic Daily of China reported recently.

Currently, about 80 percent of China's electricity is generated by coal-fired plants, with most of the rest from hydroelectric plants.
In an effort to ease electricity shortages, the government has announced plans to restrict approvals for electricity-hungry industries like aluminum smelting, and electricity authorities have developed plans to ration distribution.

But serious electricity shortages are likely to continue until 2006, when generating capacity is expected to catch up with demand, Mr. Zhang said."


Wednesday, April 07, 2004
  MSNBC - Woman performs own Caesarean to save baby

“She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts ... and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried,” said Dr R.F. Valle, of the Dr. Manuel Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico.

Valle recounted the event in a report in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.



  Without a genetic fix, the banana may be history

"The problem is that bananas have not had sex for 10,000 years. Edible bananas are mutants with three sets of chromosomes instead of the two found in wild bananas, causing the edibles to be seedless and therefore sterile.

Without seeds, the edibles cannot reproduce -- something discovered by Stone Age foragers, probably in Papua New Guinea, some 5,500 years before the pharaoh Cheops built the largest of the Giza pyramids. Since then, the banana has spread around the world, every plant grown by replanting shoots that sprout from the base of mature stalks. Most banana plants come from the original trees of 10,000 years ago."

With its DNA frozen in time, the hapless banana has not been able to modify itself genetically through natural selection to fend off pests and bugs that have appeared in the past 1,000 centuries.


Saturday, April 03, 2004
  nearwildheaven.com: The State and Future of GNOME

This is a lame article. The authour keeps on harping about how simple various features of GNOME are. But he doesn't explain why those things ARE simple. Sure, some of the dialogs are smaller and less cluttered than the equivalent Windows versions, but why are they simpler? The article is a response to a blog entry criticizing open source software usability. But the authour hardly touches on how GNOME has improved its usability. Weak. Very weak. Big hat, no cattle. It's like lipstick on a pig. They think they get it, but they don't.


Friday, April 02, 2004
  CNN.com - Brawl breaks out at anger management assembly - Apr 2, 2004


Powered by Blogger