Category Archives: Uncategorized

by eubie

Reading around — Jan. 15

Social Media: If newspapers disappear, will it matter? — response to Goodin’s piece: The reality is that this kind of public-interest journalism has never been supported by the public.

Seth Goodin: When newspapers are gone, what will you miss? — Newspapers took two cents of journalism and wrapped in ninety-eight cents of overhead and distraction. The magic of the web, the reason you should care about this even if you don’t care about the news, is that when the marginal cost of something is free and when the time to deliver it is zero, the economics become magical.

Earth2Tech: U.S. Utilities Support 80% Emissions Reduction by 2050

CSMonitor: Five ways Bush’s policies changed world

by eubie

Reading around — Jan. 13

Washington Post: America Hunkers Down: A Nation of Savers?

USA Today: Treasury working on ways to tell if bank aid is helping

International Herald Tribune: Central bankers expect global recovery in 2010

NY Times: Let’s Invent an iTunes for News and Slate: Building an iTunes for Newspapers

WSJ: In line for first loss since ’88, Yale’s top investor still champions ‘alternatives’

Follow-up from TechCrunch: Revealed: The Times Made Up That Stuff About Google And The Tea Kettles

by eubie

Reading around — Jan. 12

NY Times: YouTube Teams With Congress to Show Lawmakers at Work

USA Today: Price of gas up nearly 12 cents after long slide

Globay Nerdy: The Air Force’s rules of engagement for blogging

London Times: The environmental impact of Google searches — Two search uses as much energy as a boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, physicist says. Also TechCrunch: Are We Killing The Planet One Google Search At A Time? and Google’s response.

USA Today: Universities offering in-state tuition to out-of-state students

WSJ: Obama Plans to Keep Estate Tax

WSJ: How golf allows opponents to get under your skin, and stay there

WSJ: California’s Gold Rush Has Been Reversed

by eubie

Reading around– Jan. 9

Wired: Five Things Google Could Do to Save Newspapers — First suggestion … but them.

Earth2Tech: Feds Could Have Saved $25.9B Since 2001: Report — That’s the value of ignored cost-saving suggestions made by Inspectors General, but not implemented.

CNN: How presidents age — How Obama might look in four years:

WSJ: Concerns About Big 3’s Pensions

Reuters (via Yahoo): Panel criticizes Treasury use of TARP funds

Wired: Netbooks Grow Up to Suit Business Users

Wired: Aviation Biofuels: More Hype Than Hope?

Reuters: Icahn says bankruptcy reform could help banks

by eubie

Reading around — Jan 8

WSJ: U.S.: Madoff Had More Than $173 Million in Checks in Signed Checks in Desk — There are a 100 investors who are glad Mardoff had not deposited their checks.

AP (via Wired): Obama Still Fighting For His Right To Blackberry

NY Times: Many Ways to Plug in to Tech Savings — Ideas I liked: cancel cellphone contract for pre-paid, cancel cable for Hulu, buying refurbished computers

NY Times: S.E.C. Said to Reopen Pequot Inquiry

Yahoo: U.S. companies face $409 billion pension deficit

ReadWriteWeb: Report: Apple Dominates the Mobile Web

Calculated Risk: Commercial RE Delinquencies Double over last 90 days

WSJ: Big Slide in 401(k)s Spurs Calls for Change — The most obvious pitfall is that 401(k) plans shift all retirement-planning risks — not saving enough, making poor investment choices, outliving savings — to untrained individuals, who often don’t have the time, inclination or know-how to manage them.

From WSJ:

wsj_401k_balance_change

by eubie

Reading around — Jan. 6

CNN: Fed predicts economy will get worse

Media Shift: Government 2.0: How Social Media Could Transform Gov PR

NY Times: Blu-ray’s Fuzzy Future

All Things Digital: Video, Which Already Killed the Radio Star, Is the Killer App Online for 2009

Washington Post: Data Breaches Up Almost 50 Percent, Affecting Records of 35.7 Million People

Washington Post: TV Converter Program Runs Out of Coupons

WSJ: Citgo Stops U.S. Oil Gifts

by eubie

Reading around — Jan. 5

NY Times:Fundamentally: 25 Years of Conventional Wisdom, Down the Drain

NY Times: Drilling Down: Web Passes Papers as a News Source

NY Times: As Vacant Office Space Grows, So Does Lenders’ Crisis

LA Times: Flat-screen TVs to face energy-efficiency rules in Calif.

WSJ: Why We Fall for Financial Scams

BoingBoing: Top 500 worst passwords

WSJ: Small House, Big Loan Spells Trouble

Washington Post: Economy Pushes Some to Seek Extra Work

by eubie

Founder of Charlotte’s Web dies

Steve Snow, the founder of Charlotte’s free web service, Charlotte’s Web died last month at the age of 60.

Snow was earlier a journalist, and he and I had common backgrounds and shared the hobby of woodworking.

In the mid-1990s, there was concern over a digital divide between those who could afford computers and internet access and those who could not. Several cities started free webs and offered dial-up email and tex-based web browsing, using Lynx. Charlotte’s Web was one of those free web services and was started in 1994.

He wrote of his early experiences about the web in 1993.

Charlotte’s Web lasted for five years and its operations were eventually absorbed and then disbanded by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. By then, most libraries had installed computers and internet access and free e-mail was available from Yahoo, Hot Mail and others. According to the Charlotte Observer, Charlotte’s Web had 10,000 accounts when the library system took it over.

Steve was also active in One Special Christmas, a group that makes and auctions handcrafted wood products to raise money for children’s charities. After he left Charlotte he eventually worked as a counsultant in Asheville.