In response to a spanking from the FCC regarding throttling users based on applications 24-7, Comcast will start throttling heavy internet users during times of high network utilization, which is what they should have done in the first place.
There now, that wasn’t so hard, was it.
Their real problem, of course, is an architecture that is inadequate, but we know what cable companies do when there is a choice between screwing the customer, and fixing the real problem.
Because OPEC is talking about output cuts to stabilize the price.
I don’t think that they will allow it to break $100/bbl.
Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI), who make the Subaru, are looking at manufacturing a Subaru branded light bizjet.
It’s actually not as whack as it sounds, FHI started as Nakajima Aircraft Company in the early 20th century, and it made the T-7 trainers for the JASDF, and is a major structures subcontractor to Boeing, so the basic know-how is there.
Still, I think that going with the Subaru brand for a business jet???
The intersection of Subaru owners, and business jet owners seems awfully small.
That has fail written all over it.
An executive at Huron Consulting Group has filed a complaint that he was fired, in part, for not donating to the Mitt Romney campaign (he is also alleging age discrimination):
The company denies that charge. But officials confirm the authenticity of emails showing that the CEO of the Chicago-based corporate consulting firm, Gary E. Holdren, repeatedly linked his requests for donations to Huron’s business prospects. The emails were provided to The Wall Street Journal by Mr. Pimentel.[the complainant]
In another email, dated Sept. 21, 2007, Mr. Holdren wrote, “I wanted to thank all of you who contributed to Mitt Romney. You can’t realize how much leverage this gives Huron going forward to ask various people for business.”
Other emails from Mr. Holdren refer to conversations with Mr. Romney, deals Huron supposedly won from Romney supporters at other firms and promises to reward Huron executives with “business for your contributions.”
It’s why, when Republicans talk about running government like a business, you should run the other way. It’s all graft and back scratching.
They can get $5-10K for donations, and the economy is driving a surge in donations.
Poor women selling a part of their body out of financial need. How long until it’s kidneys like in India?
The consultancy firm Johnson & Assoc. is predicting that bonuses on Wall Street will be lower this year because the firms have lost so much money.
Given the history of American business, and Wall Street in particular, in the past few decades, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Only the little people pay for senior executive’s mistakes.
There are objections to holding it at the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt, which is owned by Douglas Manchester, who has donated 125 grand to California’s anti-gay marriage initiative.
Surprise. Outside of your cloistered world, Mr. Manchester, some gays have positions of authority and influence, and they don’t like lining the pockets of bigots.
Endorsing wind sounds nice, but why is he saying, “use wind for electricity, and use natural gas for cars”?
It’s pretty simple. Mr. “I funded the swift boaters in 2004” has extensive holding in natural gas, including, “Clean Energy Fuels Corp., a natural gas fueling station company”.
Additionally, if he gets to put up his wind farm, he will undoubtedly get lent to send the power to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and he can also run a water pipeline, using the water rights that he purchased.
Getting eminent domain for water is tough. Getting for clean, safe, renewable wind power? Not so hard.
To paraphrase Abe Vigoda, “It was just business.”
It appears that oil tanker companies may direct their captains to slow down to save fuel, which would cause a shortage in the supply of tankers, and higher rental rates.
They are looking at a slowdown to 12 knots from 15 knots, which would save about 20 grand a day in fuel costs.
I would imagine that we would see a similar process unfolding with container ships, and this may contribute to increased costs for non-petroleum imports too.
Retailer Boscov’s has filed for bankruptcy reorganization, as has homebuilder WCI, which has fired its CEO.
The CEO and founder of Eclipse Aviation Vern Raburn has stepped down. It appears that their major backer European Technology and Investment Research Center Aviation (ETIRC) made this a condition of additional funding.
As a part of the leadership change, there is an announcement that their Eclipse 400 single engine VLJ is not a done deal.
Eclipse is not even close to approaching its intended production rate for the Eclipse 500, 4 planes a day, it’s currently at less than 1, and I think that ETIRC wants to get the ducks in a row on the 500 before moving on the 400.
Hmmm….It looks like Cirrus is developing a dingle engine business jet, the SJ50, that looks an awful lot like the Eclipse 400 (previous posts here) that I discussed a couple of months ago.
It’s pretty clearly a form following function thing, rather than any outright copying. There are relatively few configuration options for a single engine very light jet that the marketplace will accept.
Interestingly enough, it appears that Cirrus will sell it with a recovery chute, as it does on its piston engine models, which will be a challenge, given the higher speeds and energy involved.
First, Diamond International expects to certify its D-Jet and start deliveries some time in Q2 2009.
Seeing as how their engine supplier is not Thielert or some other new entrant, it’s a Williams FJ-33-4A-19 turbofan, I would expect them to be on schedule.
Honestly, I think that the single engine VLJ is likely to be a winner in the VLJ sweepstakes, because the operating costs will be lower.
In the two jet VLG category, the Adam A700 has been rescued from bankruptcy, albeit absent the “Adam” name, as AAI, who purchased the company out of receivership, thinks that there is some bad market mojo there.
It appears to be among the most spacious of the VLJs, which may, or may not, be a function of its twin boom design.
Finally, Piper has flown it’s VLJ Piperjet, which is another of the single engine VLJs, though it’s somewhat larger then the D-Jet, the Eclipse 400, and Cirrus Jet.
It appears larger than its single engine competitors, but it just doesn’t look right. Something just looks wrong about the aircraft, but then again, so did the F-4 Phantom.
As they get further down the production road, it looks like Airbus will get closer to the originally intended structure weight for the A-380.
According to Airbus and Emirates Airlines, it should add about 13 hours more endurance, and allow flights from their home base to SFO and LAX.
Additionally, Emirates is looking at pulling the retail catalogues out of the seats (!), and replacing them with a interactive channel on inflight entertainment system, which could save nearly a ton.
I think that this may make the aircraft far more competitive vs. the 747-8.
GM, Toyota, Ford, and Chrysler and Nissan took huge US sales hits, were down year over year by double digits in July, while Honda was down by about 3%, and Nissan was up by 8%.
GM got hit particularly badly, they posted a $15.5 billion loss.
Well, first, and least important is the appearance on Wikileaks of a document on the fast track process which seems to imply that the fast track approval of the Microsoft® OOXML document standard was improper.
Someone with more knowledge than me needs to check it out though, it’s only 2 pages.
Of more note, is that Microsoft® will natively support ODF in Office. The head of Griffin Brown, the organization nominally in charge of maintaining the ODF standard thinks that this will relegate OOXML to second place status, but I’m more inclined to believe that this is an attempt to “embrace and extend” (damage) ODF to the maximum degree possible.
Linen ‘n Things and SHOEQ Shoe Pavilion, both filing Chapter 11, reorganization, as opposed to Chapter 7, liquidation.
Since Israel has been getting the desert to bloom for about 60 years, it had developed a fair amount of expertise in water purification and desert agriculture, and it’s now befitting from a worldwide boom in demand.
Between trickle (also called drip) irrigation and various water purification technologies, the sector is experiencing a boom.
Delta is doubling its baggage fees, from $25 to $50.
Amtrak for that cross country trip is sounding better and better.
Well, at the rate that they are going, there won’t be any more passengers to annoy their staff.
It turns out that they are getting hammered as people return fuel hungry SUVs at the end of their lease, and no one wants to buy them.
Leasing used to be a major money supply for the auto makers, and now Chrysler is getting out effective August 1.
RR is starting to look at the future of air transport propulsion, and it has everything on the table right now, including increasing maintenance to reduce fuel burn, which is as close to heresy as you can find in commercial aviation.
Time on wing has been king for a very long time. It’s one of the things that allowed early jet liners to beat their piston, and to a lesser degree turboprop (gearbox maintenance), competitors: that the could stay in service, and flying for a very long time.
It’s an interesting testament to the changes wrought by the increasing oil price spike, and it convinces me that open-rotor propulsion will make it to commercial use this time around.