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12 Apr 2010 09:43

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Biz: Toyota’s way of handling recalls: Cover up, then come clean

  • I hate to break this to you, but we have a tendency for mechanical failure in accelerator pedals of a certain manufacturer on certain models. … The time to hide on this one is over. We need to come clean.
  • A note from Toyota executive Irving A. Miller • Admitting that they would have to recall millions of vehicles. Over a four-month period, the company had made an active effort to hide the problems with their cars from the government. Unsuccessfully. The New York Times’ document analysis suggests that there was a whole lotta fail going on with the vehicles, and a lot more cover-up. While the company obviously screwed up, some congressmen are suggesting that federal regulators should shoulder some of the blame. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2010 10:35

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Tech: Microsoft admits it screwed up search, focused on the wrong thing

  • Google owns the “long tail” results. MS is just trying to accept its niche. Why did Microsoft reboot its entire search engine last year? Simple. They realized it was focusing on the wrong thing, good results for obvious searches, when the real money was to be made in more obscure results. “On any given a month,” said Microsoft Bing manager Yusuf Mehdi, “one-third of queries that show up on Bing, it’s the first time we’ve ever seen that query. A huge chunk of those, we’ll never see again.” As a result, Bing has a different focus, one that involves partnerships with startups and depth on intelligent queries. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Mar 2010 12:32

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Biz: Bank closings didn’t stop just because of a new year!

  • 140 number of banks that closed in 2009, that’s a depressing record
  • 30 number of banks that have closed already in 2010, which is high
  • 152 number of banks that could close this year if that rate keeps up source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

13 Feb 2010 20:12

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Culture: James Cameron says some amazing stuff at the TED conference

  • Curiosity is the most powerful thing you own. Don’t put limitations on yourself. Other people will do that for you … failure has to be an option in art and exploration because it’s a leap of faith. In whatever you’re doing, failure is an option, but fear is not.
  • “Avatar” director James Cameron • Giving a pretty awesome speech at the TED2010 conference today. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, has regular speeches like this. In Cameron’s, he talked about how his desire to explore led him to ideas like “Avatar” and “Titanic.” Part of his exploratory nature has been nurtured by his deep-sea diving. He’s spent 3,000 hours underwater over the last 40 years (and 500 inside of a submarine), which is kind of a lot. A very inspirational speech for sure. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Jan 2010 10:58

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Politics: “Forgot he was black”? Chris Matthews stumbles on his words

  • Dude. Dude. Dude. Why do pundits think it’s a good idea to bring up Obama’s race? It’s clearly a boondoggle every time it happens. He’s trying to make a good point about how his race doesn’t matter, but it’s worded so poorly that it just makes him look like a massive moron. “I maybe shouldn’t talk about it, but I am.” Yeah, pretty much.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Jan 2010 10:52

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Tech: Internet Explorer 6 fans get a taste of a major in-the-wild exploit

  • It’s the same one that led to Google’s Gibson getting hacked. It’s been warned about for weeks, and Microsoft patched Internet Explorer ahead of its normal release cycle to prevent it, but it’s official – the hack exploited by the Chinese is out in the wild. The exploit was bad enough, but what might be worse is the fact that Microsoft reportedly knew about it in freaking September and only patched it this week. Massive fail. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Dec 2009 20:40

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Politics: We screwed up the Underwear Bomber thing. Let’s stop dwelling.

  • You know they had information that an analyst could have quickly put together and said ‘something’s wrong here’ and it didn’t get done.
  • Former CIA and military intelligence officer Joseph Cuellar • Describing what CBS News refers to as “no sense of urgency” to stop a terror attack like the underwear bomber. Cuellar and others are calling the response inexcusable. OK, guys, after days of establishing this, how are we going to fix it? Right now, the incident is a total political echo chamber we need to escape, stat. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Dec 2009 13:29

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Offbeat: This girl falls on a bouncy ball, and you laugh. We promise.

  • You know, seeing people fall is one of those things that should get old, but never really does. Especially when it’s on a ball. Especially when nobody really gets hurt. She didn’t get hurt, right?
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

18 Dec 2009 19:13

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Politics: Let’s use a metaphor to explain the climate change deal

  • Like riding a bike Let’s say you gave yourself two weeks to learn how to ride a bike, hoping you’d be able to ride around the neighborhood with your friends. But your mom was scared you might ride too far away, so you rode around the block a few times using training wheels. You’d been working on it, hoping you could eventually take off your training wheels.
  • Hopes dashed A couple weeks later, you ask your dad (who’s been absent lately, on account of work) if you can ride your bike around the neighborhood. Your dad said no. However, he’ll let you take off the training wheels and said things will change “someday.” Problem is, by the time “someday” comes, your friends won’t be around anymore.
  • Metaphor to realityThe “bike” is climate change. The “training wheels” are the deal in Copenhagen. “Mom” is the U.S. and other western powers, and “Dad” is Barack Obama. Your “friends” are other, less powerful nations who were held at the G8’s mercy. And, well, the “neighborhood” is how far we can go with emissions. We failed today, guys. Badly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Oct 2009 09:36

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Biz: Bank Failure Friday continues to live up to its name

  • nine more banks failed this Friday, including CalNational, the fourth-largest to fail this year source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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