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Friday, October 31, 2003 |
 NYT. Mr. Gishi left a wife and nine children. His eldest son, Ala-Muhammad al-Gishi, 23, a student, insisted that his father's hands were clean. "No one had animosity for him," he said. "We didn't have disputes with anyone." A moment later he added, "A couple of days earlier another comrade was killed." Relatives standing near him suddenly blanched as they tried to quiet him. "Comrade" is the unmistakable greeting among Baath Party members.
10:05:13 PM 
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Washington Post: Israel's top military officer said that Israel's military tactics against the Palestinian population were too repressive and were fomenting explosive levels of "hatred and terrorism" that might become impossible to control.
9:52:03 PM
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Rajesh found a great article on Vietnam and open source. Sounds like an Asian consortium of like minded countries that combine what China has done with 3G (see below) and open source could turn the tables on the US and Europe -- or to put in a more positive light, tip the technology playing field in favor of helping developing nations catch up more quickly. Who will set up that regional bloc? Who has the clout?
9:24:05 PM
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Brent has some great insights on the concept of shareware vs. commercial software.
9:14:48 PM
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USA Today: Israel plans to use remote-control bulldozers to demolish Palestinian property. Question: unlawful attacks against property has been defined as terrorism by the US and many other states. Is the destruction of Palestinian property terrorism? Will the US use this tactic in Iraq (or have they already)? Does the use of robotic/remote-control functionality fundamentally change the nature of the act? Lots of questions: very few answers.
8:58:09 PM
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The Register (and 2): Extremely interesting. China has jumped into the standards game and they are throwing their weight around in a big way. This first forray is with TD-SCDMA (a combination of cellular technologies) for next generation 3G cellular handsets. Basically, they co-developed this technology with Siemens and own the IP jointly. This standard is in direct competition with Europe's WCDMA effort for 3G (and Qualcomm's CDMA solution).
The terms: deployment in China is royalty free and everywhere else it is 30% cheaper than alternatives. With 250 m cellular users, the ability to mandate faster acceptance, lower costs for upgrades (due to $0 royalties), and a spill over effect into the rest of SE Asia (perhaps another 100 m users): China may win big here (particularly Chinese consumers).
8:39:11 PM
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Reuters: In Washington, the independent Congressional Budget Office said the occupation of Iraq could cost up to $200 billion over the next decade depending on its size and length and that in a worst case scenario U.S. troops could be in the country to 2013. Answering questions from an opposition Democratic lawmaker, the Office said in a best case scenario, troop numbers would be cut in half each year until a withdrawal in 2007. In the worst, at least 50,000 troops would have to remain in Iraq through to 2013. Washington currently has 130,000 troops in the country. NOTE: Sounds like a conservative estimate to me. Frankly, most of our difficulties revolve around the idea of establishing Iraq as functional, democratic, and multi (ethinic and religious) nation-state. It would be much easier, safer, and less expensive to divide it up into autonomous regions. The question is whether the neo-con advisors in the White House can adapt to the reality on the ground or are they stuck in "policy space." Also note the contradiction in the article: independent CBO and opposition Democratic lawmaker...
8:08:05 PM
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CNet. Yahoo's enterprise software division is no more.
3:55:20 PM
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Ventureblog has an excellent article on how Dartmouth students and faculty are utilizing their ubiquitous wireless connectivity. Worth the read. NOTE: I want a matchbox-sized wireless access point (more a relay station than a wired access point) that I can plug into a wall socket. If anyone builds one, I will order a dozen (if less than $30 a pop).
1:26:20 PM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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