[Quote:]

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) told Microsoft Corp. this week that U.S. citizens should get priority over H-1B visa holders as the software vendor moves forward on its plan to cut 5,000 jobs.

“These work visa programs were never intended to allow a company to retain foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American workers, when that company cuts jobs during an economic downturn,” Grassley wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The letter asked Microsoft to detail the types of jobs that will be eliminated and how those cuts will affect the company’s H-1B workers.

And Microsoft’s answer to the gentleman from Iowa came quickly:

[Quote:]

Microsoft Corp. has delayed plans to build a $500 million data center in West Des Moines.

West Des Moines City Manager Jeff Pomerantz said he received a call from Microsoft on Friday morning, telling him that plans for the data center have been postponed.

So, Senator, do you really want the jobs in your state?

[Quote:]

Listing your name on Canada’s new do-not-call registry could actually increase the likelihood that you will be targeted by unscrupulous telemarketers.

The Consumers’ Association of Canada says it has been inundated with complaints from people who have been called by scam artists after placing their telephone numbers on the registry, which went into effect last September.

The do-not-call list was created to prevent telemarketers from contacting people who do not want to be pestered with uninvited sales pitches. For companies to find out who they are not permitted to call, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission sells the list online for a fee.

“You can buy any list you want of people who subscribe to the do-not-call registry online. The whole of Toronto costs you 50 bucks for 600,000 names,” Bruce Cran, president of the CAC, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“That’s just perfect for any telemarketer, because these are good names which they would otherwise have to pay money for to verify. In addition to that, there’s no index list of cell phone numbers that you can get. However, people were encouraged to put their cell phone numbers on there as well.”

This is exactly why I’ve always maintained these lists are bogus. The dutch company maintaining such a list went bankrupt a while ago, and their list was sold at that time as well.

Instead, just write a law that forbids telemarketing calls except for people on the opt-in list. Make the fines large enough, and make sure offenders do actually get fined.

[Quote:]

In the Gaza Strip people are returning home — or to the rubble that was once their home. Many are blaming Hamas for the destruction because the militants hid among civilians and attracted Israeli fire. Yet no one dares to speak out openly.

What is left over when a person is hit by a tank shell. Blood, tissue, bone splinters, splatters on the wall.

And anger.

[..]

“Many people are now against Hamas but that won’t change anything,” he says. “Because anyone who stands up to them is killed.” Since they took power Hamas has used brutal force against any dissenters in the Gaza Strip. There were news agency reports that during the war they allegedly executed suspected collaborators with Israel. The reign of terror will go on for some time, says the neighbor who doesn’t want to give his name. “There will never be a rebellion against Hamas. It would be suicide.”

http://www.nrcc.org/issues/default.asp?ID=47

[Quote:]

President Barack Obama today made the most contentious move of his young administration with an order, overturning a ban on federal funds to foreign family planning organisations that either offer abortions or provide information or counselling about abortion.

The rule change continues the dismantling of George Bush’s conservative policies. It is likely to encounter fierce criticism from the still robust anti-abortion movement.

It will allow US aid, usually through the US agency for international development, to flow to HIV/Aids clinics, birth-control providers and other organisations that advocate or provide counselling about abortion across the world. It is known as the “global gag rule” because it denies US taxpayer dollars to clinics that even mention abortion to women with unplanned pregnancies.

The rule was signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, overturned by Bill Clinton in 1993, and reinstated by Bush. Critics of the rule say it deprives the world’s poor women of desperately needed medical care, while proponents say US tax dollars should not promote abortion.

[Quote:]

“It would be naïve to identify the Internet with the Enlightenment. It has the potential to diffuse knowledge beyond anything imagined by Jefferson; but while it was being constructed, link by hyperlink, commercial interests did not sit idly on the sidelines. They want to control the game, to take it over, to own it. They compete among themselves, of course, but so ferociously that they kill each other off. Their struggle for survival is leading toward an oligopoly; and whoever may win, the victory could mean a defeat for the public good. …We could have created a National Digital Library—the twenty-first-century equivalent of the Library of Alexandria. It is too late now. Not only have we failed to realize that possibility, but, even worse, we are allowing a question of public policy—the control of access to information—to be determined by private lawsuit.”—Robert Darnton on what the proposed Google Book Settlement could mean for the pursuit of knowledge—Google and the Future of Books

[Quote:]

Internet service providers (ISPs) have charged child sex abuse investigators over £171,000 for access to data since 2006.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) told the BBC following a freedom of information request that since April of 2006 it had made 9,400 requests for user information, at a total cost of £171,505.99.

In an interview with the BBC, the CEOP centre’s chief executive Jim Gamble said the body expected to pay as much as £100,000 to ISPs to get the information they needed to find children who were being abused – and the criminals hurting them. “That could have put a number of specialists to work here – doing the right thing, making the environment safer, making it even more commercially viable,” he said, later adding that figure could fund two extra investigators.

[..]

Gamble said companies clearly have the right to cost recovery, and said he does not think a change to the law is necessary. “We don’t need new legislation, we need new thinking. We need sensible thinking,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is to say that I don’t believe that ISPs should give us everything for free, of course not.”

But he added that any firm which claims it can’t afford to provide such data in support of police protecting children “simply can’t afford to do business”.

I wonder if he’s using the same logic for the cars his investigators drive – after all, the money spent on those could have gone to investigators as well, and any car manufacturer who can’t afford to provide such transportation in support of police protecting children “simply can’t afford to do business”, right?

Why the fuck does this moron think that just because it’s computers and internet, the work should be done for free?

It appears the Democrats have hot chicks too, except they are actually intelligent.

irrelevant detail – I started her current wiki entry back in august ’06 when she was running for congress…

As a follow-up to the “can free content boost your sales” article two posts down, André sent me this:

[Quote:]

Nothing prepared us for the phenomenal success of Museo and Museo Sans, the year’s top geometric display fonts. When introducing Museo, a clean yet unconventional semi-serif, designer Jos Buivenga got everyone’s attention by offering three out of the five styles for free. On the strength of the paid weights alone, Museo made it to the top of our list of hot new fonts. When its sans-serif companion was launched some months later, again with part of the family offered at no cost, it smoothly sailed to the top spot as well.

[Quote:]

Have you checked out Monty Python’s YouTube channel? It’s got a selection of their brilliant (as always) clips, and it’s got links to buy their DVDs on Amazon. As those crazy Monty Python dudes put it,

“We’re letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! But we want something in return. None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”

And you know what? Despite the entertainment industry’s constant cries about how bad they’re doing, it works. As we wrote yesterday, Monty Python’s DVDs climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.

[Quote:]

Hidden in the new Coroners and Justice Bill is one clause (cl.152) amending the Data Protection Act. It would allow ministers to make ‘Information Sharing Orders’, that can alter any Act of Parliament and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to use information obtained for one purpose to be used for another.”

“This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID Scheme. Combine it with the index to your life formed by the planned National Identity Register and everything recorded about you anywhere could be accessible to any official body. If Information Sharing Orders come to pass, they could (for example) immediately be used to suck up material such as tax records or electoral registers to build an early version of the National Identity Register. But the powers apply to any information, not just official information. They would permit data trafficking between government agencies and private companies – your medical records are firmly in their sights – and even with foreign governments.

[Quote:]

her plan unraveled when she appeared at her own funeral service, claiming to be her own long-lost identical twin sister.

“Hello, Governor Palin? This is President Sarkozy. No, really, it IS me this time. So, what are you wearing?”

[Quote:]

Microsoft Windows is an installable device driver under MS-DOS 2.0 using ordinary MS-DOS files. Complete compatibility with MS-DOS means that Windows will at least let you run any application that runs under MS-DOS. In the worst case, Windows will turn the fill display over to an MS-DOS application and return you to your place in Windows.

[Quote:]

My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

Use the controls to zoom and pan around the photo. You can also double click to zoom in and double click again to get even closer.

[Quote:]

In the case of the Letter of Last Resort, the reference turns out to be factual: At this very moment, miles beneath the surface of the ocean, there is a British nuclear submarine carrying powerful ICBMs (nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles). In the control room of the sub, the Daily Mail reports, “there is a safe attached to a control room floor. Inside that, there is an inner safe. And inside that sits a letter. It is addressed to the submarine commander and it is from the Prime Minister. In that letter, Gordon Brown conveys the most awesome decision of his political career … and none of us is ever likely to know what he decided.”

The decision? Whether or not to fire the sub’s missiles, capable of causing genocidal devastation in retaliation for an attack that would—should the safe and the letter need to be opened—have already visited nuclear destruction on Great Britain. The letter containing the prime minister’s posthumous decision (assuming he would have been vaporized by the initial attack on the homeland) is known as the Last Resort Letter.

The only purpose of the letter must be to say “don’t shoot,” at least in certain circumstances. The reason for all of the secrecy is because if “don’t shoot” was revealed as the strategy, the deterrent value of the nukes would be lost.

Put differently — if the message says “kill them all,” there would be no reason to keep it secret as it would be completely consistent with the deterrent value of the nukes. The letter must be inconsistent with deterrent value at least in some respect.

Either that, or it reads:

Commander:

Yours,
G. Brown

[Quote:]

When President Bush left office on Tuesday, America marked 2,688 days without a terrorist attack on its soil.

[..]

If Obama weakens any of the defenses Bush put in place and terrorists strike our country again, Americans will hold Obama responsible — and the Democratic Party could find itself unelectable for a generation.

I guess it’d just be the Greens and the Libertarians left, then.

So if it happened before 9/12, it was Clintons fault, and if it happens now, it’s Obama’s fault, right?

And about those “without a terrorist attack”, let’s have a look…

There was the anthrax. So, no terrorist attacks except anthrax!

Well… and pipebombings in the midwest. So, no terrorist attacks except anthrax and pipebombs!

…and the shooting at LA International Airport at the El Al ticket counter. So, no terrorist attacks except anthrax, pipebombs, and airport shootings!

…and the DC Sniper. So, no terrorist attacks except anthrax, pipebombs, airport shootings, and the DC sniper!

That just gets us to the end of 2002. I’m tired of typing now, so find it out for yourself…

[Quote:]

We did a follow-up interview with Jony Ive at Apple in California last week, and enjoyed the opportunity of filming inside Apple’s design facilities. I felt like Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, except everything was made of shiny aluminum instead of candy. And there were no oompa loompas.

Those are waterjet-units in the background. How many prototyping shops have you seen where you can eat off the floor?

The full trailer for the movie is here.

The Head of Mobile at Microsoft UK appears to be so utterly clueless I’m starting to wonder if this is a fake article by PC Pro:

[Quote:]

Microsoft yesterday unveiled its MSN Mobile Music service – and a surprise return to digital rights management (DRM).

While companies such as Apple and Amazon have finally moved to music download services free of copy protection, MSN Mobile locks tracks to the mobile handset they are downloaded to.

[..]

The fee for downloading tracks – £1.50 – is relatively high compared to 79p on iTunes and less than that on certain Amazon tracks. Why is that?

We’re constantly reviewing our pricing and if we feel this price point is incorrect, we’ll look to amend it.

If I buy these songs on your service – and they’re locked to my phone – what happens when I upgrade my phone in six months’ time?

Well, I think you know the answer to that.

Q: If you try to run a business with your services and business model as they are now, what will happen to them in six months time?
A: I think you know the answer to that.

There, fixed it for him.

[Quote:]

On Day Two of his administration, President Barack Obama began overhauling U.S. treatment of terror suspects, signing orders to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, review military trials of suspects and ban the harshest interrogation methods.

With three executive orders and a presidential directive signed in the Oval Office, Obama started reshaping how the United States prosecutes and questions al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters who pose a threat to Americans.

The centerpiece order would close the much-maligned U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year — a complicated process with many unanswered questions that was nonetheless a key campaign promise of Obama’s. The administration already has suspended trials for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo for 120 days pending a review of the military tribunals.

[Quote:]

Local police have found at least 3,000 automobiles — sedans, SUVs, regulars — abandoned outside Dubai International Airport in the last four months. Police say most of the vehicles had keys in the ignition, a clear sign they were left behind by owners in a hurry to take flight.

The global economic crisis has brought Dubai’s economic progress, mirrored by its soaring towers and luxurious resorts, to a stuttering halt. Several people have been laid off in the past months after the realty boom started unraveling.

On the night of December 31, 2008 alone more than 80 vehicles were found at the airport. “Sixty cars were seized on the first day of this year,” director general of Airport Security, Mohammed Bin Thani, told DNA over the phone. On the same day, deputy director of traffic, colonel Saif Mohair Al Mazroui, said they seized 22 cars abandoned at a prohibited area in the airport.

Faced with a cash crunch and a bleak future ahead, there were no goodbyes for the migrants — overwhelmingly South Asians, mostly Indians – just a quiet abandoning of the family car at the airport and other places.

[Quote:]

Zombies. Seen one lately? If not, you may soon, because they are about to menace the U.S. economy. In financial lingo, zombies are debtors that have little hope of recovery but manage to avoid being wiped out thanks to support from their lenders or the government. Zombies suck life out of an economy by consuming tax money, capital, and labor that would be better deployed in growing companies and sectors. Meanwhile, by slashing prices to generate sales, zombie companies can drag healthier rivals into insolvency.

Sometime in the past few months, zombies went from being a latent risk to a genuine threat—one that is likely to increase in the months ahead. The Bush Administration has already ladled out billions of dollars in assistance to weak banks and automakers. As the economy goes into what may become the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the Obama Administration will come under even more pressure to prop up sick financial and nonfinancial companies to save jobs. The debate will center on wounded giants such as Citigroup (C), General Motors (GM), and insurer American International Group (AIG). Other sectors with their hands out include steel, airlines, retail—and homeowners, who may be the scariest zombies of all.

[..]

When a big employer runs into trouble, it’s tempting to keep it going at any cost. Economists call this “lemon socialism”—the investment of public money in the worst companies rather than the best. The impulse is misguided, says Yale University economics professor Eduardo M. Engel. “You don’t want to protect the jobs,” he says. “What you want to protect is workers’ income during the transition from one job to another.”

There’s already a powerful and underused weapon against zombies: bankruptcy law. Bankruptcy courts liquidate the weakest companies while allowing the potentially viable ones to extinguish enough of their debts so they can make money again. Even GM, which is staggering now, could emerge as “a new, revitalized company” if it goes through a cleansing bankruptcy reorganization that changes its obligations to dealers, workers, and retirees, says economics professor Edward W. Hill of Cleveland State University.