Progressive disillusionment are the bon mots used today to describe the state of Obama supporters and liberal/progressives in general. It is not pretty as there is great discord and apathy among Democrats and Progressives as seen in the quotes below. This, despite the fact that the President and Party have managed to pass major Health […]
Progressive Disillusionment Read More »
Marketwatch’s Paul Farrel is at it again – speaking his mind. Paul has taken former Ronald Reagan Budget Director David Stockman’s article in the NYTimes and played it back again and has come up with the most popular posting on Dow Jones Marketwatch today. Paul minces no words, just like David Stockman: Stockman is equally
Reagan Republican: How GOP Destroyed the US Economy Read More »
Okay, a slight exaggeration; but the announcement this last Thursday that Google Android [a Linux variant] has won the top spot among smartphone OS may be a precursor of what is to come. This Fall, a wave of Android slates, netbooks, pads and tablets are going to arrive on the scene – and change the
Linux Takes the Desktop!? Read More »
RIM is the Rodney Dangerfield of smartphone providers – it gets no respect. Need an example – here is the killing lines from the Gizmodo review of the recently announced Torch 9800 with the new Blackberry OS6 driving it: The distillation of this grand mishmash of observations and scenarios is this: BlackBerry isn’t good enough
Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs is finally emerging, 3 years after the great financial debacle, as the number 1, number 2, and number 3 economic and social problems facing not just the US but most developed countries in the World. And its not easy – just ask the Japanese who had to suffer the
Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs, Manufacturing Jobs Read More »
Google waves goodbye to Google Wave – a technical note on the Official Google Blog by Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow officially declares Google Wave as uhhh … not dead … just discontinued. …. despite these wins, and numerous loyal fans, Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have
Google Waves Goodbye Read More »
Apple’s Magic trackpad is getting more coverage and print than a simple pointing device seemingly deserves. Takethe5th sees it as a delay in game penalty for Mac OS/X. Gizmodo sees the Magic Trackpad as a precursor to the displacement and end of Mac OS/X and the emergence of a new OS4-inspired OSMac operating environ with
Apple Magic Trackpad: UI Revolution ? Read More »
A few moments of conciliatory silence for the legion of Apple Mac Desktop and laptop users. They will have to wait maybe for Christmas or maybe the NewYear for their multi-touch screen computers. There was no touch+gestures in the MacMini announcements this past May . Ditto again for yesterday’s iMac announcements.
Apple Shorts Touch Screen for Mac Desktops and Laptops Read More »
Want to supercharge your laptop? Then do consider the Super Talent UltraDrive MX SSD. This Solid state drive comes in 60GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities [prices not available util early September. Current 64GB UltraDrives using SATA-only are in $140 range]. The UltraDrive also has both SATA and USB ports so users can mount it
Super Talent UltraDrive MX SSD Read More »
China has become the 2nd largest economy in the World today; and will become the largest if the government and people maintain there pact -“authoritarian one party rule in exchange for rapid economic development”. Takethe5th will link to articles that illuminate the progress China is making towards achieving that end. This first article originates with
One of the major security problems is that data on the web often runs naked. This is due to two reasons – 1)the HTTPS protocol can be more difficult and costly to implement and 2)there is a notable performance hit to be taken in most situations. Network World is reporting work done at Stanford University
Enabling Web Encryption Easily Read More »
The Obama team here seems so happy with delivering only what the Republicans and the Financial Lobby would allow. And that is unfortunately playing to the weaknesses in the Executive Branch that have continued through the last two presidencies – a)a grossly poor financial management and regulatory record with a tough choice among Alan Greenspan
The Obama Flaw in Financial Reform Read More »
In Taketh5th’s coverage of the Summer IT Soap Opera, one of the most commented and controversial stories was the status of Windows Phone 7. The tech reviewers were all over the place on the July 2010 revealed developer editions of Windows Phone 7 on a Samsung smartphone. Here is the must reads to date: Gizmodo
More on Windows Phone 7 Read More »
Summer Theater is well …. soapy, meller-dramatik, and often tainted with fits of outrighteous comedy and unexpected self-satire. And this season’s IT Summer Stock is packed to the gilt edge with certified Box office bonanzas. First there is a new Summer Stock Valuation leader – AAPL, displacing vaunted enemy number one, MSFT from the top
Summer IT Soap Season: AAPL vs GOOG vs MSFT Read More »
Picnik is one of the best online photo editors – it is now a part of Google’s Picasa line of free online photo albums. The good news is that Picnik is fast and has some of the best online photo edit features plus context-sensitive help & hints. The system seems to be a bit slower
Google Adds Online Photo Editor to Picasa Read More »
The first post on iDevices argued that the currently breaking wave of new iPhones, smartphones, iPads and tablets represent a major new face to personal computing. The common denominator among these iDevices is high portability, Web and WiFi connections, touch+gesture powered ease of operations, plus small but dense screens that are visible in most lighting
iDevices II : Rapid Evolution Read More »
Peering into ongoing innovation is like looking at a prism. One can see images of what is emerging but the various shapes of an evolving idea in the market are like the facets of the prism – each one sees different forms, strategy and structure. iDevices presents just such a kaleidoscope image as a mix
iDevices – the new Face of Personal Computing Read More »
Football[soccer in North America] after World Cup 2010 can make its case as the World Cup of Sports – the most popular in the world especially if TV ratings are used as a measure of popularity. The 2006 Word Cup Final had an estimated 600++ million TV viewers . North American World Cup 2010 TV ratings
World Cup of Sports Read More »
Forecasting as Larry Summers and the other members of the US Economic team have learned is a very risky business. Eight percent unemployment rate by this time with TARP fund assistance. No worry about a double dip recession. So fearless and without further to-do, here are Takethe5th’s World Cup forecasts for the Semifinals: Netherlands 2
Fearless World Cup Semi-final Forecasts Read More »
The World Cup is providing great TV, Press and Internet coverage and there-in lies the lessons for World Leaders. Great coverage means bad plays as well as good ones get big coverage. Take the tic-tac-toe passing of the top clubs like Germany, Spain and the Netherlands – all 3 teams are semi-finalists. But bad play
Lessons for World Leaders from the World Cup Read More »
The other shoe has fallen –China announced today that its currency would be priced based on a basket of currencies rather than exclusively on the US dollar. The net result is that Chinese goods should become more expensive. But this broader pegging announcement has been heard before and the Chinese manage to wriggle free of
Made in China: Rising Costs Read More »
One can hardly expect MarketWatch, being in the Dow Jones stable of financial news powerhouses like the Wall Street Journal and Barrons to be the most impressive. But Marketwatch is making a superb case for itself with a)its independence of point of view and b)its willingness to take on major issues and not tow the
MarketWatch: Going Beyond the Instant Financial News? Read More »
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show is making a case for being the best National News anchor. It shows how rotten the TV news has gotten when the Host with The Best F#@king News Team Ever and with the most baudy language, cheapshot headlines, and kiddies bathroom humor rises to the top of the TV
Jon Stewart as the Best TV News Anchor Read More »
Popular Mechanics has a very interesting article in its July 2010 issue – Energyland – The Race to Cheap, Sustainable Power. On the cover of the magazine PM promises “The truth about energy”, “No more hype-real world ideas to power our future”, “Debunking myths about: wind power, solar, shale oil, bio fuels”, “The Clean Coal
Strategic Energy Coverage Read More »
As noted here news coverage in the US TV media has been faltering badly, with Fox News being allowed to employ blatant lies and distortions while defiantly proclaiming itself as a source of “fair and balanced coverage”. But other networks, seeing Fox anomalous ratings success [the more you prolong and comfort public misconceptions the better
News Coverage on TV Read More »
Takethe5th modestly notes that it has scooped the NYTimes on its Apple Bully Boy story. In today’s NYTimes [June 24th, 2010] the story headlined for the Technology section is: Long the Upstart, Apple Plays New Role: Goliath. Here is a summary of the NYTimes storyline: Apple is now seen by some as an anti-competitive industry
Takethe5th Scoops NYTimes Apple as Bully Boy Story Read More »
BAM Investor has rattled Wall Street cages by releasing a prediction of a $45 Apple stock price as of 3rd quarter 2010, latest 1st quarter 2011. Ha! Poppycock and nonsense. Apple as of June 23 end of day is at $270 and the cash and equivalents alone is north of $27/share. Who do these BAM
BAM: Apple at $45… Read More »
For the past few weeks, a Labor revolt has been occurring in China … with hardly a peep about it in the TV media. First, there were the string of suicides at the Foxconn plant in Shenzhen which employs nearly 500,000 workers alone and manufactures almost all of Apple and Dell electronics and a big
Made in China: Prices Going Up Read More »
Progress on smartphones and tablets which are touch and gesture enabled are moving so rapidly that laptops and PCs are in danger of becoming redundant. Well if not redundant, consigned to specialized development tasks. What has happened is that woefully untapped need for touch-enabled computing has been explosively released first with the iPhone then Android
Are PC’s in Danger of Becoming Redundant ? Read More »
Takethe5th has been following the Apple versus Adobe debate with a bit of a jaundiced eye – wondering how Flash video and all its broad range of applications can run so fast on Windows yet slow on Macs [and Linux too]. Adobe claims that the latest Flash player 10.1 has not been tuned quite yet
Apple vs Adobe: Take 6, Apple Graphics HW is SLOWWwwww Read More »
There is no doubt that there is an emerging contest open now for becoming the next and new World Financial Center. The opportunity broke with the breakdown of financial responsibility on Wall Street and European financial centers plus the caving of fiscal discipline [consistently running increasing budget deficits over the past 5-10 years]by many developed
Singapore Ups the Ante Read More »
There is a a fascinating post on Goldman Sach’s committment to Ethics at the Financial News: Goldman Sachs, which publishes an ethics code on its website that emphasizes its “integrity and honesty”, adds a rider that reads: “From time to time, the firm may waive certain provisions of this Code.” Yes indeed, the sound of
Goldman Sachs on Ethics Read More »
