March 19, 2005

March 19, 2005 by yorksranter 1 comment

Anatoly Chubais – politics of electricity

Yesterday, the Unidentified Gunmen attempted to kill Anatoly Chubais, former Russian cabinet minister and head of UES, the Russian electricity monopoly. Apparently there was an explosion by the roadside – funny how these things get around – followed by small arms. Chubais’s bodyguards shot it out with the attackers and he survived. It should never…

March 19, 2005 by yorksranter 1 comment

Google, Libraries and Jacques Chirac

A little while ago I had some fairly harsh things to say about the French national library’s response to Google’s project to put major library collections on the internet (Google Print). I basically said that their objections were based on chauvinism, and asked why they were doing nothing constructive in placing their own collections in…

March 19, 2005 by yorksranter 0 comments

Macs!

Via IT Week’s in-house blogger, I learn that Apple are going to introduce a mouse with two buttons. This is good news, I suppose, but I’m not going to jump for joy, because I’m currently experiencing my first extended use of the computer designed for graphic designers by graphic designers. And it’s like rolling in…

March 19, 2005 by yorksranter 1 comment

Pakistan: why isn’t everyone else worried?

Why is it that only Soj and me seem that worried about the events in Pakistan, where it is reported that serious fighting is going on between the Pakistani army and Baluch rebels. Al-Jazeera is reporting that at least eight soldiers were killed (it isn’t clear whether that includes casualties suffered by the Frontier Corps…

False evidence by Post Office’s expert contradicted his own report - BBC News
Mr Jenkins, Fujitsu's former chief IT architect, is currently being investigated by the Metropolitan Police for potential perjury, the BBC understands.
Cost of Birmingham council equal-pay claim probably far lower than £760mn
Both the GMB and Unison unions and Max Caller, the commissioner appointed by Michael Gove, secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities to oversee the council, said the original estimate far exceeded any likely payout. The real liability may be closer to £250mn. Based on the higher projection, however, Birmingham has already agreed […]
Meta struggled to monetize AI products in near term
The in-house MITA chip has been used to support core inference workloads and is now being deployed for tasks such as advertising and organic content recommendations starting in 2024, with hopes for broader support in AI training and certain generative AI applications.
Anglesey: Solar farm plans described as frightening - BBC News
What's "frightening"? What are they frightened *of*? It's House Prices of course
In ‘Morning After the Revolution,’ Nellie Bowles takes aim at today’s left - The Washington Post
“Morning After the Revolution” demonstrates that, if leftism is a hazard of adolescence, conservatism is all too often an unfortunate symptom of aging, not unlike senility....Now that Bowles is employed by the Free Press, a bastion of free thought, what free thoughts is she thinking? Very few, as it turns out. In fact, it can […]
Wenn Empathie dich fies und ungerecht macht
„Ich bitte darum, dafür zu sorgen, dass solche unmenschlichen Taten unterbleiben oder an einem Ort geschehen, wo es niemand sieht“, schrieb die Frau aufgebracht. Würdest du, liebe:r Leser:in, sagen, dass diese Frau eine gute Nachbarin war? Ein guter Mensch? Sicher nicht. Aber was würdest du sagen, wenn ich sie als besonders empathischen Menschen bezeichnen würde?...Sie […]
Is America’s oldest Chinese restaurant in a tiny suburb of Sacramento? Historians investigate | California | The Guardian
Ben Ruilin Fong, a comparative literature PhD candidate at UC Davis who is of no relation to the restaurant owners, said the Fongs seemed to be constantly negotiating with their identity as natives of Taishan, a city in China’s Guangdong province known as the “first home of overseas Chinese”. Like many others from the region, […]
How to Actually Implement a Policy - by Santi Ruiz
The bigger principle at play here is that decisions are a hot potato in government. Nobody wants to be the person who made the decision, because making the decision is risky. And, not only can you shove decisions to another person, you can shove it all the way to the process, and say, “Look, this […]
A simple theory of cancel culture - by Joseph Heath
As the institution of the charivari makes clear, people in medieval European societies took a keen interest in one another’s domestic affairs. Private life, as most of us understand it, is an 18th century innovation. The important point is not that society is reverting to an older set of norms, but that the scale of […]
Intel 2Q24 guidance disappoints, Gaudi 3 sales expected to reach US$500 million in 2024
Intel said that it expects a meaningful Gaudi ramp in the second half of the year and forecasts more than US$500 million in revenue from the accelerator.