Posted 8:05 AM by Marco (0) comments

You got to like a motion for summary judgement that starts off with a cartoon.

Posted 8:04 AM by Marco (0) comments

Is the market overvalued? Is a Dow of 5000 inevitable? Maybe not.

Posted 5:33 PM by Marco (0) comments

George Gilder may not be a genius stock-picker (who is?), but we should pay attention when he notes that China turns out 700,000 new engineers every year, ten times our output. OK, we can import some of the best, and not all engineers are equal, but how long would you bet against China, especially if they clean up other areas of their society, for example expanding the private sector? The third of the assets that are held by the non-state sector (private, foreign joint ventures, mixed shareholding companies, etc.) already account for two thirds of the China's output. So, when could China threaten Silicon Valley? And therefore, when could it threaten the US?

Posted 7:16 AM by Marco (0) comments

I have been in town lately, and have been making slow, but steady progress returning my apartment to a condition that would allow me to entertain houseguests. In the process, I have learned that a Spartan apartment does not hide dirt very well. Also, I returned to reading books, only partly to excuse myself from cleaning. After months on the road, I finally finished The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, and just started Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain, the author of "Don't Eat Before Reading This", an expose in the New Yorker. Think of it as The Jungle for modern foodies.

Posted 1:34 PM by Marco (0) comments

I admit I missed hearing the President make his case on Monday night. I am sure he would forgive me; I was at a delightful benefit with my inamorata. And, in any case, I guess SECDEF did just fine.

Posted 8:03 AM by Marco (0) comments

Pop-ups used to be a rare annoyance (remember when the X-Cam pop-under first made its appearance?), but now they have become a crushing burden. While the worst offences were pop-ups as I LEAVE a site (because one, I am trying to get out, and two, non-technical users may think the site I am going to served the ad), four United.com ads with loud sound in five minutes was the final straw for me, so I broke down and joined the mainstream and installed the free version of Pop-Up Stopper. Regaining (OK, mostly regaining it; some pop-ups slip through) my desktop never felt so good, but I could not help wondering if users like me would have been happy to endure a reasonable number of silent ads as a trade-off for decent content. Now I fear an escalation of hostilities. First shot: EarthLink's arsenal to lure away subscribers from its online rivals includes a multimillion dollar marketing campaign and new access software that will let Web surfers banish pop-up ads -- one of the most-often cited annoyances on the Web. The Internet service provider will unveil a major upgrade of its access software on Monday that will include pop-up blocker software and a $10 million (6.5 million pound) plus ad campaign as it steps-up its efforts against rivals Microsoft's MSN and AOL Time Warner's America Online. Return fire: Soon the commercial version of Antiadbuster, Antiadbuster Pro, will be launched, and it will also detect pop-up blockers. Now that I am used to almost no pop-ups, a website that insists on serving them had better offer unique, compelling content.

Posted 7:46 AM by Marco (0) comments

Doonesbury digs at Bush's cynicism. Funny, I thought cynicism was a sign of intelligence in DC. And, let's face it, United Nations credibility is oxymoronic.

Posted 7:40 AM by Marco (0) comments

Leave it to Andrew Sullivan to connect the cult of self-esteem with Bob Torricelli.

Posted 2:46 PM by Marco (0) comments

Ouch; 75 percent of top-earning [tech] workers reported taking a pay cut if they changed jobs in the second quarter of 2002.