Archive for March 28th, 2008Wow. More politicians (of all parties) need to be as open and thorough as Steve Novick is here. We selected 10 of the questions you submitted and sent them to him by email, and his responses… let’s just say that if each candidate spoke out like Steve, we’d have a much clearer view of our choices and would be able to cast our votes a lot more rationally. Read more of this story at Slashdot. eWeekPete writes “Is the pipe half full or half empty? Not surprisingly, the talk at the second annual Tech Policy Summit was decidedly mixed. ‘The US is still the most dynamic broadband economy in the world,’ said Ambassador Richard Russell, the associate director of the White House’s Office on Science and Technology Policy. ‘As opposed to being miles ahead, though, we’re only a tiny ahead.’ But Yale Law School’s Susan Crawford called Russell’s position ‘magical thinking. We’re not doing well at all.’ She proceeded to call the White House’s effort ‘completely inadequate on broadband competition.’” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
28
03
2008
 
Google’s YouTube gains video programming intel; Nielsen cringesPosted by: in Products and ServicesFiled under: Products and services, Google (GOOG)
YouTube is probably one of the most-used sites I see from friends and family these days. Hours upon hours can be wasted navigating through all the content there, and now that YouTube has launched its YouTube Insight tracking tool, the equivalent of viewership tracking is now available to those who upload videos to the site. Envision being able to see details like when, where and how often your videos are being viewed. Previously only available to advertisers at YouTube, all YouTube video uploaders can now see this kind of information. To those who think web surfing time may be eating into television-viewing time, this should provide more detail on whether this is actually happening. Nielsen, eat your heart out. Professionals and amateurs alike will now be able to test the popularity of different kinds of content at different parts of the days across different parts of each country to make the content as customized as possible. This is what Google is famous for — relevancy. No blanket ads here — the company wants its YouTube users to become more successful, which in turns makes it more successful. Rack up another content relevancy win for Google here. Filed under: Deals, Products and services, Consumer experience, Coca-Cola (KO), PepsiCo (PEP), Marketing and advertising
As Melly Alazraki reported Thursday, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling and Illycafe SpA put together a joint venture to get some ready-to-drink coffees out on the global playing field. The venture, dubbed Ilko Coffee International, will start distribution of its products in April in ten countries. Coffee doesn’t interest me, but this venture does, since I own shares of Coke. Just like PepsiCo, Coke wants to do all it can to supplement its flagship carbonated soda brands with different beverage categories. While I don’t like coffee, I know that it is a very popular drink around the world; in some respects, consumers are almost religious about coffee (and teas, as well). According to Bloomberg, the value of the ready-for-consumption coffee market is $16 billion, and it is focused in the Asian territory. This international scheme is therefore a great way for American shareholders to capitalize on a weak dollar. Many consumer companies these days are being helped out by currency valuations. I can only imagine that this market will grow significantly over time, and that Coca-Cola would be smart to aggressively invest in it and leverage its world-class distribution system to grab as much share as it possibly can. Future growth in case-volume is going to be directly dependent on Coke and its capability to work with its bottlers to efficiently exploit opportunities such as these. With its blue-chip marketing muscle, I have no doubt that Coke will be able to translate many of these kinds of deals, in conjunction with its already deep collection of beverage products, into quality cash flows and further increases in its annual dividend payout, which is the ultimate reason for being a shareholder. Disclosure: I own shares of Coca-Cola; positions can change at any time. holy_calamity writes “Nuclear powered space probes like Pioneer have ‘nuclear batteries’ that (very inefficiently) convert heat from decaying isotopes into electricity. US researchers think a new material that converts radiation directly into power instead could make nuclear batteries 20 times more efficient. (Unfortunately they will likely not be user-replaceable.) The material consists of gold, carbon nanotubes, and lithium hydride.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Bad news, Consumer experience, KB HOME (KBH), Lennar Corp’A’ (LEN), Housing
Including a charge of $223.9 million in write-downs, the residential home builder posted a quarterly loss of $268.2 million, or $3.47 per share, injured by lower new home deliveries and orders. The company’s quarterly numbers were also injured by higher impairment charges. Analysts expected KB Home to show a quarterly loss of “only” $1.17 per share. The global crisis in the credit market put pressure on the home builder’s revenue, which plunged 43% to $794.2 million. For this period, the slumping housing market and credit crisis came with a plunge of 75% for new home orders and with a drop of 57% for new home deliveries. Analysts, on average, predicted sales of $805.7 million in the quarter, according to Thomson Financial. Looking ahead, KB Home didn’t show too much optimism and stated it expects a further weak home demand related to the challenging business conditions.The company believes that difficult market conditions will not improve any time soon, which will results in a further slowdown in consumer confidence and weak home sales. Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the on the web investment advisory service Investor’s Observer. michuk writes “IBM’s representative for KT182 (the committee empowered to vote on OOXML in Poland) accused the committee’s chair of intentionally manipulating the process. A letter from the president of the body overseeing KT182, sent a month ago to the committee chair for distribution to all committee members, was never distributed. The letter recommended that, if consensus weren’t reached on the OOXML vote, then Poland should abstain. This follows up my recent report on the OOXML process in Poland (also covered by Groklaw), it looks like things are going bad this time, at least as bad as in October.” The EU is already investigating the Polish process based on complaints last fall. Is anyone tracking all of the allegations and investigations surrounding OOXML? Read more of this story at Slashdot. Matty the Monkey brings us a story from the BBC about silicon chips which can bend, flex, and even stretch. Researchers have developed a method to create circuits just 1.5 microns thick, which can then be bonded to a type of rubber to allow a great degree of flexibility. Scientists and companies see uses for these circuits in products ranging from “electronic paper” to form-fitting sensor devices to advanced brain implants. From BBC News: “To create the foldable chips, these circuit layers are deposited on a polymer substrate which is bonded in turn to a temporary silicon base. Following the deposition of the circuits, the silicon base is discarded to reveal delicate slivers of circuitry held in plastic. These are then bonded to a piece of pre-strained rubber. When the strain is removed, the rubber snaps back into shape, causing the circuits on the surface to wrinkle accordingly.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
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