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When Warren Buffett talks, Wall Street – and Main Street – listen. And now he’s talking about the future of the U.S. economy. In a wide-ranging, three-hour interview on CNBC yesterday, Buffett said, “the economy has fallen off a cliff.” Noting people have "changed their habits", Buffett seemed very frustrated … |
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Charlie Payne, sounding a lot like Revolutionary War pamphleteer Thomas Paine, says that we're in the 2009 version of “these are the times that try men’s souls”. Of course, the historical Paine once also said that those who want to reap the benefits of this great nation must bear the … |
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Two pieces of dispiriting information on the economy hit the big wire services today: The Associated Press -- The economy contracted at a staggering 6.2 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, as consumers and businesses ratcheted back spending, plunging the country deeper into … |
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Boy. What does a tech outfit have to do to get some love on Wall Street? Intel announces a $7 billion effort to upgrade a pair of chip manufacturing centers in the U.S. and Intel’s stock price actually drops by over 3% in Tuesday trading (to $14..44 per share). I’ll … |
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Today is Black Friday and people are going a bit insane standing on sidewalks overnight waiting for the the big deal on their desired electronics. Everyone from WalMart to Target to Best Buy to the Apple Store is getting involved. And so are online retailers like Amazon. And to be … |
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Some good news - rare good news - from the U.S. stock market late today as reports and rumors seem to point to a new U.S. government agency to assume and/or manage bad debts for financial services companies. The new agency, similar to the Resolution Trust Corp of the early … |
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First, the not-so-good news, then on to some encouraging revenue numbers for Motorola. Below I’ve condensed today’s big economic news as reported by the Associated Press, with the second quarter gross domestic product numbers coming in less than expected . . . -- Economic growth clocked in at a 1.9 … |
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The stock market is taking another major hit today after consumer confidence numbers came in well below expectations. The Conference Board, which measures the monthly consumer confidence number, reports that June’s number fell to 50.4%, down from 57% in May. Big investors had been anticipating consumer confidence numbers in the … |
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Oh boy, just when we thought we were out of the woods, high oil prices are pulling us back in again. Oil prices skyrocketed by $7 a barrel today to $135 a barrel, gathering even more momentum after Thursday's big bump-up, and that, unfortunately, is the good news. A new … |
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Taxes, inflation, oil prices – even the price of corn are dominating the economic headlines these days. But should they overshadow the story of the (briefly resurgent) U.S. dollar? I don't think so - and I don't think anyone in the tech sector should sell the dollar story short, either. … |
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With the semiconductor market on the ropes, Intel is doing all it can to stay relevant - financially and globally. To that end, today's news that Intel has "doubled down" on China by rolling out its second venture fund in the burgeoning Far East Tiger. The fund, to be called … |
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Ugh. The tech meltdown turn toward the telecom sector this week, fixing its dark gaze on companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint Nextel, among others. On Thursday, shares of telecommunications companies fell badly from the ongoing fallout amid credit concerns. The carnage was grim and deep. U.S. traded shares of … |
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Anybody reading this blog knows that the media has been adamant about the U.S. economy tanking into recession, with reporters putting their notebooks and tape recorders down and waving pom-pom's in support of economic strife for millions of Americans. Why? Once again, who knows? Probably because it's a compelling story … |
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It was supposed to be Christmas in May, with technology company executives harboring visions of wallet-waving consumers dancing in their heads. The reason? The proposed tax rebates coming from Washington that would put up to $1,500 in many Americans back pocket, and hopefully send them out to buy things like … |
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Let's all take a breather at the end of another topsy-turvy week on Wall Street, where things have calmed down as of mid-morning on Friday (the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off a mere four points at 11:30 AM EST, and is actually up for the week . . . … |
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Today's batch of economic news is mixed, and seemingly conflicted as ever. Hey, don't shoot me - I'm only the messenger. But for techies wondering how secure their jobs really are these days the news from the most recent Federal Reserve Beige Book report signaled economic growth for November and … |
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Okay, I was downed by technology issues for a few days but I'm back up with a vengeance. And just in time, as the major technology companies begin to release their quarterly earnings statements. IBM was first up earlier this week, and easily surpassed analyst expectations. Wall Street attributed Big … |
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I'd like to dive into the technology stock sector for '08 this week, but let's first tee things up with the outlook from the folks who do most of the IT spending -- small business owners. According to the numbers from the Discover Small Business Watch, released this morning, small … |
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From what I'm seeing out here in the trenches, economists just can't seem to agree on the health of the U.S. economy, in general, and the technology economy, in particular in 2008. Last week's consumer numbers seem to suggest that people are still willing to break out the checkbooks and … |
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Intel officially announced the introduction of 10 Core 2 Duo and Core Extreme microprocessors for desktops, workstations and notebooks. Intel said it has over 550 customer system designs underway, with the CPUs built on 65 nanometre technology. Machines using the desktop chips will be available in early August, while notebooks … |
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After months of possible merger information it finally happens and I am surprised at the amount of money that AMD had to spend on this. This is a huge step for both companies. Currently Intel is the lead manufacturer of microprocessors, semiconductors, and graphics chips with AMD being the second … |
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The world of malware could be turned upon its head if the Blue Pill virtualization based rootkit due to be demonstrated at the [URL="http://syscan.org"]SyScan 06[/URL] Conference, Singapore, in a couple of weeks proves as undetectable as the security researcher who has created it claims. [URL="http://invisiblethings.org/"]Joanna Rutkowska[/URL] is a stealth malware … |
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The triple-gate transistor is not new, almost exactly three years ago on June 12th 2003 at the [URL="http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20030612tech.htm"]Symposia of VLSI Technology and Circuits in Kyoto[/URL], Japan, [URL="http://www.intel.com"]Intel [/URL]was heralding it as the future of chip design. However, the fact that at the same [URL="http://www.vlsisymposium.org/index.html"]Symposium this week in Hawaii[/URL], Intel reveals … |
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Multiple core processors are set to dominate the marketplace by the end of 2007, after [URL="http://www.amd.com"]AMD [/URL]follows [URL="http://www.intel.com"]Intel [/URL]down the ‘more performance for less power’ road. Having already beaten Intel to the dual-core processor punch, the announcement from AMD that it will ship four-core processors for high end desktops, servers … |
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In 2002, IBM scientists managed to produce a magnetic data tape capable of a storage density of 1 billion bits per square inch. This week the [URL="http://www.almaden.ibm.com"]IBM Almaden Research Center [/URL]boffins have done it again, in conjunction with Fuji, to the tune of 6.67 billion bits per square inch. That … |
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Microsoft this week updated Microsoft Works -- the consumer-level "home" edition of Microsoft Office. Microsoft Works Suite 2006 is now available for SRP $99.95 Microsoft Works is an integrated word processor, spreadsheet, database, calendar, and email client wrapped up into one large program. The programs are sufficient for most home … |
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Microsoft's new Digital Locker system allows users of Windows computers to download computer software from a variety of vendors. A number of software vendors already provide this functionality -- Microsoft's system brings those vendors under "one roof", manages the financial transactions, and then stores the license information for later use … |
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OpenOffice.Org, the creaters and maintainers of the open-sourced OpenOffice, have just released version 1.1.5 of their office software suite. The update addresses a security problem concerning a buffer overflow; there are other issues that are repaired since version 1.1.4, such as porting updates (OpenOffice was developed for Linux first, and … |
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Microsoft is currently reorganising itself into three main divisions, in an effort to streamline the processes of decision making and bringing products to market. The three divisions will be: [b]Microsoft Platform Products and Services Division[/b] Responsible for Windows products, corporate server products and MSN web services. [b]Microsoft Business Division[/b] Responsible … |
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Last week, Intel announced a new chip design that promises less power use per unit time, along with embedded security and management functions. The goal is to provide a 3.5 times performance-per-watt improvement over today's single-core Xeon based server CPU. Intel's CEO Paul Otellini said that this new design goal … |
The End.