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04 Feb 2010 10:15

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Biz: People working harder so companies have to hire less

  • 6.2% increase in worker productivity in 2009 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2010 10:10

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Biz, U.S.: Many homeowners choosing to give up on their worthless mortgages

  • Since the beginning of December, I’ve advised 60 people to walk away. Everyone has lost hope. They don’t qualify for modifications, and being on the hamster wheel of paying for a property that is not worth it gets so old.
  • Scottsdale, Ariz.-based mortgage broker Steve Walsh • Regarding the depressing, sad state for many homeowners – many who giving up on their homes due to mortgages that cost more than the homes are actually worth. 4.5 million homeowners have homes that are worth just 25% or less than the cost they paid. Many are choosing to foreclose rather than stay stuck in a property they don’t want. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Feb 2010 09:58

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Biz: Toyota says an evil computer is causing the Prius’ brake problems

  • This company has just had a lot of hell lately, haven’t they? A software glitch is to blame for the 2010 Prius’ brake issues. It causes a one-second disconnect between the brakes and the computer – long enough to go 90 feet if  you’re driving at 60mph. They plan to offer a fix for it, but one thing they aren’t doing is offering a recall. The Prius, BTW, doesn’t have the accelerator problems that caused many of the company’s non-hybrid cars to get recalled. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2010 22:35

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Biz, Tech: Why does Wal-Mart have a limit on buying new release DVDs?

  • five the number of copies of a newly released DVD you can buy from Wal-Mart; Target also does this
  • 40% the percentage of DVDs that kiosk company Redbox buys from Wal-Mart or Target; hmm source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2010 21:32

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Biz: A good sign for jobs? Monster.com buys HotJobs from Yahoo

  • $225 million for a job-listing-site mega-merger source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2010 13:00

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Biz: The Adventures of Newsday Customer No. 36: Week in review

  • Today, they ran a story about a mannequin in the HOV Lane. For most papers, they’d think, holy crap! Perfect viral news opportunity. But not the Cablevision-run Newsday. They’re trying to make the newspaper into the Web equivalent of a cable channel. It’s designed as if it’s a TV station’s Web site, not a newspaper. And in our week of subscribing, that was the prevailing message: We don’t understand the market. Here are some quick numbers.
  • 18 number of e-mails we got from Newsday; two-thirds of those were “breaking” news
  • 8 number of text messages we got from the service; seven of them had links to ads
  • no it’s not worth the $5 a week, and no, we still haven’t been charged, either, guys source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2010 11:48

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Biz: Everyone’s talking about Ray LaHood and Toyota this morning

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Feb 2010 10:38

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Biz: Toyota’s myriad car problems extend to another pedal

  • accelerator The car company just recalled a ton of vehicles due to a faulty accelerator which would get stuck. They’re in deep doo-doo.
  • brakes Now, Toyota’s getting reports of malfunctioning brakes on its Prius hybrid cars in Japan. Tokyo has pressured them to investigate. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Feb 2010 10:31

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Biz: AOL’s first post-Time Warner quarter shows a (tiny) profit

  • $1.4
    million     the amount AOL made in profits this quarter, their first since being spun out of Time Warner’s lair
  • $1.96
    billion     the amount AOL lost in the same quarter a year ago; their subscriber rates are still dropping source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Feb 2010 20:35

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Biz: The Adventures of Newsday Customer No. 36: We’ve been counted!

  • In response to a question, Terry said that we had approximately three dozen subscribers who have signed up to pay $5 per week for access to newsday.com.
  • Cablevision President of Local Media Tad Smith • In a memo regarding Newsday’s plan for subscriptions and Cablevision’s overall media strategy. Sure, he’s full of it and then some, but we have to admit we got a kick out of the fact he noted our subscription in the note. We’re No. 36! We’re No. 36! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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