Allen Bukoff on the great hype behind hybrid cars. Hybrids have a great reputation now, but Bukoff says that the piper will be paid when the batteries must be replaced when the cars are out of warranty (and their used car value will plunge).
Monthly Archives: December 2004
Hanauma Bay
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Click to view larger photos. Learn more about Hanauma Bay here.
Politics & Money
Governor Doyle’s recently announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on biotech initiatives evidently faces a small problem – the money must be found. Paul Gores digs in.
I think the state should focus on basically two things:
- True broadband (2 way at 100mbps plus speeds – 100X today’s dsl/cable modems)
- Simplify the taxes/paperwork for small businesses.
Hackworth Does the Math on Troops in Iraq
David Hackworth writes that army recruiters are falling far short of targets. He muses a bit on what’s next.
Marketing & Technology
Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy is noted for his viewpoints on a variety of topics. One of my favorites is this: “The quality of a Company’s software has an inverse relationship to the amount of money spent on marketing.”
I often use this quote when speaking about our products and services as we try to be a function over form type of company. There are others like this, including Sybase. Sybase is not a household name vis a vis it’s database competitors such as Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. However, it’s software runs some of the largest financial institutions along with our products.
Interestingly, Microsoft’s very popular SQL server was originally based on Sybase’s database (MS did a licensing deal with Sybase in the 1990’s. I wonder if Sybase would do that again today?)
Sybase is taking a bit more of an aggressive posture with small business opportunities. They now have a free linux version available. There are some limitations on this product (memory and database size), but for many projects, it’s potentially great place to start.
Free doesn’t pay the bills, so they do need to have a realistic glide path from “free” for a low end implementation to a pricing model that small businesses can actually afford. These are interesting times for many tech firms.
Corporate Illiteracy
R. Craig Hogan, a former university professor who heads an online school for business writing here, received an anguished e-mail message recently from a prospective student.
“i need help,” said the message, which was devoid of punctuation. “i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you”.
Hundreds of inquiries from managers and executives seeking to improve their own or their workers’ writing pop into Hogan’s computer in-basket each month, he says, describing a number that has surged as e-mail has replaced the phone for much workplace communication. Millions of employees must write more frequently on the job than previously. And many are making a hash of it.
“E-mail is a party to which English teachers have not been invited,” Hogan said. “It has companies tearing their hair out.”
Christmas VR Scene: Bremen Germany
Willy Kaemena just posted a gorgeous Christmas Quicktime VR Scene from Bremen.
The Coming Tax Increase
For more than a year, I have been predicting?not advocating, just predicting?a significant tax increase to deal with the budget deficit. My hypothesis has been that sooner or later financial markets would put pressure on Congress to act on the budget deficit, and that the magnitude of the problem would be too great to deal with on the spending side alone.
I was unsure where, when or how this financial market pressure would arise. But it now seems clear that it will come through the foreign exchange market. The dollar has been dropping rapidly and this is setting in motion forces that eventually will impact on domestic stock and bond markets. The possibility of a major crash cannot be ignored.
The root of the problem is the U.S. current account deficit, which includes the trade balance for goods and services, plus receipts on U.S. investments broad minus payments to foreigners on their investments here. There is also a large negative figure for unilateral transfers abroad, such as those for military programs and foreign aid.
Economic Time Bomb: US Teens are Among the Worst at Math
June Kronholz summarizes the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment, which finds that:
The percentage of top-achieving math students in the nation is about half that of other industrialized countries, and the gap between scores of whites and minority groups — who will make up an increasing share of the labor force in coming decades — is enormous.
Here’s the report. Slashdot discussion.
Norm Brodsky on Employee Retention
Norm Brodsky offers up some useful tips on employee retention in his article: “Pennies from Heaven”.