Six Questions The Senate Should Ask Gary Locke . . . But Won’t
Former Washington State Governor Gary Locke will undoubtedly face some tough questions during his confirmation hearing tomorrow, but the truly important ones will likely not be asked. The unfortunate reality is that the typical confirmation process provides little substance, but lots of political theater. Tomorrow is unlikely to be any different. The focus will be on political grandstanding over the census, the bailout, and the AIG bonuses. Meanwhile, some of the most important questions for the next Secretary of Commerce [...]
You sure you want to buy that really cool new Internet company that has no idea how to make a profit?
ZDNet has a worthwhile discussion of a research note recently issued by a Bernstein analyst who warned of the dangers of acquiring Internet “pre-businesses” – companies that have large user bases and have created lots of buzz but have no real revenue model. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that “[t]he U.S. and Germany signed an agreement Monday to share science and technology research in an effort to improve the security of both nations. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said [...]
ACT Joins Group Supporting Pi Day and STEM Education
ACT Joins Group Supporting Congressional Resolution on Pi Day and STEM Education "Designating March 14, 2009, as Pi Day and encouraging schools and educators to focus on activities that teach students about Pi, engage them in the study of mathematics, and provide relatable examples of how math and science education is a significant factor in future success is a great way to start improving U.S. test scores in these fields and build a more competitive tomorrow." The full letter signed [...]
All Hail the Pi!
It’s not just the fourteenth day in March anymore! Congress is recognizing March 14th for its mathematical significance as Pi (3.14-ish) in an effort to promote the importance of math and science education to a knowledge-based economy and American competitiveness. (Did you know that children who perform well in math and the sciences have higher graduation and college attendance rates? And that American kids are competitive in math and science in elementary school, but by middle school are outperformed consistently [...]
France and Ireland lobbying for cybercrime training program
Yahoo!News reveals that “France and Ireland are hoping the European Commission will back a plan to create an academically accredited cybercrime training program for law enforcement. The proposal calls for initially creating two training centers that would focus on defining topics for masters and doctoral theses as well as promoting cybercrime as a formal research area, according to a 55-page paper outlining the current problems in cybercrime education. The program is called 2CENTRE (Cybercrime Centres of Excellence Network for Training, [...]
IBM likes Open Source when it suits them, not when it costs.
Dana Blankenhorn has as an interesting but misguided post on IBM's commitment to Open Source. He suggests that support for OSS represents good citizenship, and a change of corporate culture. He actually opens by attacking another Open Source advocate, Matt Asay, for his questioning of IBM's motives. Dana says that:IBM is a hardware company, a services company and a contracting company. Notice what is missing? Any need to control code used by anyone but a customer IBM has contracted to [...]