“Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a hastily called news conference in the Capitol. “Hopefully in another week or two we can see a plan.” - USA Today

That is the part that scares me.  By telling them they must have plan, you are implying that we are just going to hand them the money when we do.  When is this crap going to stop?  Business’s run themselves into the ground, and instead of failing and learning from it like any normal business, we hand them billions and say “do better.”  Where the hell is the incentive for them to do better?

Rob over at Sayanything blog had an excelent post on this issue just yesterday.  Basically Mitt Romney says to let Detriot go backrupt, for a lot of the reasons I mentioned above.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

Will it be bad for all of us in the short term?  I am sure it will.  Jobs will be lost, companies will have to restructure, etc.  Will it force the automakers to kick it into gear and actually make their companies profitable?  Yes.  Bailouts are incentive to continuing the bad behavior that got them there in the first place.  Hopefully our elected leadership will catch onto that.  (Especially since the 700 billion bailout plan isn’t going like they thought it would… though it is going like a few of us feared it would.)

Technorati Tags: auto bailout, politics, government

Post from: Jake's Corner

Auto Bailout on Hold - Good

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So here you go:

Boeing 787 Wing Test - Via TechEBlog.  As my company (Goodrich) supplies parts for it, we all found this kinda cool to watch at work today.

Sick of Googling for people? Try this! - Via Supergeekblog.  A fun site I found.  Google humor.

Puppy Cam - It is just plain cute.

Gmail Themes - Via TechCrunch.  Rolling out now, looks like this will be a pretty cool feature.  I have been waiting for it myself for a while.

Computer Cats - Via GeeksAreSexy.  Another just plain cute post.

Conjunction Junction - Via Logan’s blog.  Apparently Slate.com is posting clips of the old School House rock videos online.

Well hope you enjoy those links!

Technorati Tags: boeing 787, link roundup, olorinpc

Post from: Jake's Corner

Link Roundup 11/19/08

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First let me say, I grew up reading Asimov, Heinlein, and many other scifi greats.  I love the genre and have pretty high standards to become really impressed.  Weber simply takes the cake.  His works are more a subset of scifi (military scifi) however, don’t let that deter you.  The rich stories will keep you locked into his novels.

Empire from the Ashes is my favorite set of books from him. Enter Commander Colin Maclntyre, USN.  What starts out as a routine training mission to the moon, Colin discovers that the Moon wasn’t a natural body, but rather a massive warship.  A “planitoid.”  The “moon,” 3000 kilometer diameter warship, calls itself Dahak of the 4th Imperium. Dahak, or the artificial intelligence that calls itself Dahak, has been stuck without a crew or a way to complete its mission for 51,000 years.  Colin is recruited to be its Commanding Officer.

In Mutineers’ Moon, (the first of the 3 books) Colin has to fight the original mutiny that caused Dahak to be in its predicament, as well as human insurgents. Dahak must also try to contact and reunite with the Imperium.

In The Armageddon Inheritance, (the second of the 3 books) Colin must fight against an invasion of genocidal aliens, the Achuultani. This has a feel of continuation from the first book.  These aliens periodically swarm through the galaxy exterminating all other races. Earth, at its present level of technology, can’t resist them.  Dahak is working with them to bring Imperial technology to Earth as quickly as possible, but old warning arrays are being activated.  So Colin and Dahak leave in search of the Fleet that should be responding to the warning arrays.  This novel is different from the first in that it really ramps up the scale.  We go from fighting a group of mutineers planet side, to actual Fleet action.

In Heirs of Empire, Colin’s children take much of the lead.  This third and final book has a bit more separation between it and the second book.  We have had a few years pass, giving the kids time to grow up.  Our time is spent between viewing them and their battles and the plots against Colin’s government back on Earth and Bia.  This novel does a great job of balancing intrigue and action.

Weber is my favorite, and if you pick this up and give it a try.  I think you will see why.  It is an epic space opera that keeps you in its grip the whole time.

Technorati Tags: Empire from the Ashes, Book Review, David Weber, Mutineer’s Moon, Armageddon Inheritance, Heirs of Empire, olorinpc

Post from: Jake's Corner

Empire From the Ashes - Book Review

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Ede certainly had an interesting weekend.  He, his wife, and the little guy, left for L.A. to partake in his brothers wedding.  This also happens to be right in the area of the extreme Cali wildfires that are going on at the moment.  I will let Ede do a post about things, and hopefully post some pics too.  From the news, other bloggers, and calls from over there - it was something else.  So make sure to keep an eye both here and on his blog.  I look forward to seeing the pics myself - so am sure to do a post.

They are on their way back now safe, with a brother married, and sound.

Technorati Tags: ThatEdeGuy, California Wildfires

Post from: Jake's Corner

Ede Returns

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Basically the plan seems to be to have weekly YouTube addresses.  I actually like this plan.  I am a little leery of it in light of the Twitter Feed not having been updated since the election.  However, if it is done, perhaps that will be the nudge people need to keep more informed on what their government is doing.  Sure it will probably be partly PR, but that is to be expected.  Yet, if it allows people to stay more connected with what is going on in Washington, perhaps it will also equate to people taking more ownership and responsibility in their government as well.

It is still a government in transition, so we are going to have to wait and see how it pans out in the long term.  I think we can expect though other parties and politicians to finally start taking note on what technology is capable of.  Perhaps even start making use of it.

Technorati Tags: Obama, YouTube, Olorinpc

Post from: Jake's Corner

Obama 2.0 - The YouTube Prez

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Rob over at Sayanythingblog has a few exerpts from an article discussing it.  It actually isn’t the first time the world has entered into a period of global cooling.  I think the problem with the whole global warming impact is that a lot of the numbers we see are from a narrow set of variables or a narrow time-frame.

It is an interesting read - so head on over and check it out.

Technorati Tags: Global Warming, Mini Ice Age, olorinpc

Post from: Jake's Corner

Global Warming? Just kidding!

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There is some time left in the year of course, but that got me to thinking… what are my greatest accomplishments of 2008?  Two things come to mind right away, purchasing a house with my wife, and being voted a full member of the Jamestown Rural Fire Dept.

I know there are a zillion other little things, Sparky, going back to the Y to get into shape, etc… which both fold into those 2 big things.  I think I am going to wait close till the first of the year to figure out if I have any big goals for 2009.  How about you guys - any accomplishments in ‘08 that you are proud of?

Technorati Tags: olorinpc, Jake Barnard, 2008 goals

Post from: Jake's Corner

Lunch Break with Jake: 11/13/08

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I really hope this is a start of a trend.  Yet Obama’s staffers have proven they don’t quite have a firm grasp of the technology.  Once you put something on a website and it is there long enough to be cached, it is permanent.  There is no “undo.”  Especially in the case of the President Elect.

A few - “Computers can do that???” moments:

Mandatory Community Service policy disappears

Assault weapons ban disappears as well

That being said, I look forward to seeing how are next President uses technology to connect with his constituents.  Can he keep going what he had during the campaign?  Seeing as the Twitter feed hasn’t been updated a single time since the election I am not sure.  However, I am willing to reserve judgment on that one as the guy (or staffer) probably deserves a break.  The people will be watching from both sides of the fence.

Technorati Tags: Obama, Twitter, website, change, Jake Barnard, Olorinpc

Post from: Jake's Corner

Obama 2.0 - The Connected Prez

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So here you go:

“Winter is coming to H.B.O” - GRRM’s A Game of Thrones - Via Tor.com

Ancient Rome in 3D - Via the Official Google Blog (As a guy with a History degree, Ancient Rome was my favorite topic in college - so looking forward to checking this out.)

Where have all the Pagers gone? - Via AskSlashdot.  (Interesting commentary.  The only people I know who still have pagers are emergency service workers like myself.)

A Checklist of Obama’s many promises - Via IBDeditorials.com  (Fairly comprehensive list… like McCain, Obama made a lot of promises to his supporters.  Though like most Presidents, we know there is no way to get through them all in 4 years.)

How Twitter is a Communications Game Changer - Via Web Worker Daily (Makes some interesting points and helped confirm to me that Twitter is a communications tool that I want to try and make use of.)

50 biggest movies of 2009 lineup - Via Geeks are Sexy (Waiting on the Harry Potter and Star Trek ones the most myself!)

Some British Schools Stop Teaching About Holocaust Because It’s Not Politically Correct - Via Say Anything Blog (I couldn’t believe this one when I read it.  The whole point of teaching it is because it isn’t politically correct.  It should make people uncomfortable!  “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”)

Well those are the main highlights from the first half of the week.  Let me know if there is a particular one that you find interesting - and why!  I can either feature more like that on this site, or we can start a rousing discussion.  Either is fun

Technorati Tags: twitter, GRRM, HBO, History, Ancient Rome, Google, Pagers, olorinpc, Jake Barnard

Post from: Jake's Corner

Link roundup - November 12th

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Write a Killer Haiku for the Win

As you might have gleened from the headline, this time we’re going to write Twitter haiku. There’s already a healthy group of people who tweet clever little haiku poems on Twitter due to the constrained size, so it seems a natural for Twitter Writing Contest 2.0.

If your memory is a little rusty on what haiku is, here’s a refresher:

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. It consists of 17 syllables broken up into three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively.

Here is my entry for the contest:

Reporting is fun / Meaningless data crunching days / solutions discovered daily

https://twitter.com/olorinpc/status/1002296279

Not bad, and it was a fun little distraction to think outside the box on a Twitter post.  Twitter posts being limited to 140 characters already forces one to be a bit more concise and limited in posting, so having to follow the rules to make an actual Haiku was a fun change.

If anyone has a Twitter account, feel free to visit my page and follow me.  Also - sign up for the contest and come up with your own Haiku!  Might not win the MacBook Air, but it is fun to try!  ThatEdeGuy gets the credit for finding this contest and pointing it out to me.

Ede’s entry:

Win a MacBook Air / A Catastrophe for me / For I’m a PC

http://twitter.com/thatedeguy/status/1002262444 (Seems to be a delay in Twitter showing this post, but it is there.)

Technorati Tags: twitter, olorinpc, copyblogger, twitter contest, contest

Post from: Jake's Corner

Twitter Writing Contest 2.0

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