(( At first, I had to recheck this story wasn't posted on April 1 or some cruel end-of-year joke. It's apparently really for real... ))
Rest of s = Young Men, that is...
The cute cuddly white cat from Japan's Sanrio Co., usually seen on toys and jewelry for girls and young women, will soon don T-shirts, bags, watches and other products targeting young men, company spokesman Kazuo Tohmatsu said Friday.
"We think Hello Kitty is accepted by young men as a design statement in fashion," he said.
Umm, no, I don't think so. Ok, I like the B/W color scheme, but that's about it. Good luck to the Sanrio Marketing Department trying to pull this miracle off. Full story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_as/japan_hello_kitty_for_men
((Maybe they should have kept the pink scheme and opted to serve the gay crowd instead... :) )),
Wes Anderson's new movie is out in Europe... ((needless to say, Wes Anderson fans will love it and almost everybody will hate it and/or find it boring)). Meta-review here...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/darjeeling_limited/
But you will almost certainly like one of the classic songs ((played from the iPod/Bose combo in the short prequel 'Hotel Chevalier'))...
Although a few companies have beeen around for some time, so technically these aren't startups ((Bittorrent ?)) to me - but who is to criticize almighty Wired...
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/news/2007/12/YE_10_startups
The list is interesting and at least two company names I didn't hear of before ((Powerset and Slide)).
Crazy yet eye-opening ideas. I especially liked the first one...
http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/multimedia/2007/12/YE_10_geoengineering
Let's hope the Swiss Innovation Park comes to fruition, so we can add some more ideas...
http://www.nzz.com/nachrichten/schweiz/aktuell/militaerflugplatz_duebendorf_soll_innovationspark_werden_1.555159.html
((German link))
News from Nanosolar. From R&D to production and sales...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/technology/18solar.html
This is a big step for competitive solar cell manufacturing and lifecycle costs:
While many photovoltaic start-up companies are concentrating on increasing the efficiency with which their systems convert sunlight, Nanosolar has focused on lowering the manufacturing cost. Its process is akin to a large printing press, rather than the usual semiconductor manufacturing techniques that deposit thin films on silicon wafers.
Nanosolar’s founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal.
“With a $1-per-watt panel,” he said, “it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems.”
According to the Energy Department, building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said.
I guess Nanosolar will have a highly successful IPO in the near future if all works out as promised. Competitors such as Avasolar will only start production in 2009...
http://www.avasolar.com/
There's also Miasole...
http://www.miasole.com/
Sunny times for Alt Energy ((outside the US, at least)).
I have long been a proponent of WiMAX, but I admit the uptake in highly developed countries is a bit slow ((and there is a setback in the US due to the recent Clearwire <-> Nextel/Sprint disagreement...)). More on the US softlaunch by Sprint-Nextel and Clearwire ((under the XOHM brand)) in late 2007/early 2008 can be found here...
http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=141271
More importantly, WiMAX will find its use in lesser developed countries. Interesting article why Cisco opted for WiMAX and a general outlook on the technology in the coming years...
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/140579/ciscos_wimax_focus_is_international.html
((Cisco recently bought WiMAX maker Navini. Disclosure: I wrote about WiMAX stocks Alvarion and Airspan and recommended them in late November 2007 after the price drops and uncertainties... ))
Speaking of longer-term developments, the 'next' important WiMAX specification will probably be 802.16m coming around 2010 and push speeds to 1Gbit...
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) has started working on a new version of the 802.16 standard -- the technology that WiMax is based on -- that could push data transfer speeds up to 1 Gbit/s while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing WiMax radios.
...
Nonetheless -- despite possible future bumps in the road for 802.16m -- the move to develop a faster spec comes even before products based on the current mobile WiMax specification are generally available. This once again indicates the way certain parts of the industry are trying to aggressively push WiMax forward as the only the possible choice for future 4G networks.
Source: http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=117363 ((Feb 2007))
Excellent summary of all the problems Windows Vista is facing ((and don't forget that XP Service Pack 3 is coming out soon))...
It's just that Vista isn't all that good. Many of the innovations the operating system was supposed to bring--like more efficient file and communications systems--got tossed overboard as Microsoft struggled to get the OS out the door, some three years after it was first promised. Despite its hefty hardware requirements, Vista is slower than XP.
When it debuted last January, incompatibilities were rampant--in part because hardware and software makers didn't feel any urgency to revamp their products to work with the new OS. The user account controls that were supposed to make users feel safer just made them feel irritated. And at $399 ($299 upgrade) for Windows Ultimate, we couldn't help feeling more than a little gouged.
No wonder so many users are clinging to XP like shipwrecked sailors to a life raft, while others who made the upgrade are switching back. And when the fastest Vista notebook PC World has ever tested is an Apple MacBook Pro, there's something deeply wrong with the universe.
We have no doubt Vista will come to dominate the PC landscape, if only because it will become increasingly hard to buy a new machine that doesn't have it pre-installed. And that's disappointing in its own right.
Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140583-page,5-c,techindustrytrends/article.html
The title is not even a rumor, but a very vague idea of mine where Apple's MacBook / iBook could be headed in the next 12-24 months...
Intel Viiv is almost gone, another ((rather dull)) acronym is in: Intel MID. I wonder hope Apple will fit into these plans..
Instead, Intel will use a modified version of the brand on entertainment-oriented personal computers that use its dual-processor chips. They will be labeled Intel Core 2 with Viiv technology, said Jeffrey McCrea, a vice president in Intel's digital-home group.
Intel still has big plans for this year's CES show in early January. Among other things, it is trying to spur creation of a category of products it calls MIDs, for mobile Internet devices.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119766800257230083.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Macworld 2008 will for sure be interesting.
Personally, I'm still waiting for Apple's answer to the Amazon Kindle, ie. a notebook or subnotebook with an external/second eINk screen...
http://www.mac-essentials.de/index.php/mac/article/19414/
and a more detailed description of the most interesting feature...
One side features a screen made of material devised by E Ink, one of the recipients of investment by Intel Capital. It can display a picture, the calendar, or your schedule for the day.
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2007/tc20070523_272039.htm
As for the name ? Apple iBook of course ((in my armchair dreams)), Apple has already registered and used the name in the past :)
Summary: iBook 2.0 coming in 2008 ((again in my armchair dreams)). An Apple version of the Amazon Kindle, even if it would arrive, Macworld 2008 is probably too early...
Den besten zusammenfassenden Kommentar zur Bundesratswahl 2007 liefert meiner Meinung eine ausländische Quelle, der Stern:
http://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/:Wahl-Schweiz-Revolution-Schweizer-Art/605199.html
((Demgegenüber übernahm Spiegel Online relativ peinliche Fehler von der DPA und verwechselte Linksautonome mit SVP-Anhängern, sind aber mittlerweile korrigiert...))
Allerdings bin ich - wie gestern geschrieben - nicht so optimistisch wie der Sternautor, was die nächsten 4 Jahre angeht. Ob die SVP ihre bisherige Doppelposition mit Opposition und Regierungsverantwortung ((das übrigens auch die SP pflegt, das vergessen viele Leute oft...)) trotz allem nicht pflegeleichter war, wird sich zeigen müssen.
Jedenfalls wird es bei Abstimmungen wie Kohäsionsbeiträgen und freiem Personenverkehr nicht einfacher werden - besonders nicht beim Politstil und langfristigeren Perspektiven, bei denen nicht immer ein Referendum droht.
Auf SF TV in der Wahlsendung kurz nach der Abwahl von Bundesrat Blocher eingeblendet: Die Sendung "Mysteriöse Schweiz" entfalle aus Zeitgründen. Wie passend. Ich glaubte, die Sendung laufe schon.
Nun, das vorläufige Resultat ist bekannt. Was wenn Frau Widmer-Schlumpf die Wahl nicht annimmt ? Findet man dann einen weiteren SVP-Dissidenten ? Wohl kaum.
Was, wenn sie die Wahl annehmen wird ? Dann hätte man wohl zwei fraktionslose Bundesräte, da die SVP ihre Oppositions-Drohung wahrnehmen wird ((oder es gibt höchstens noch eine relativ schwache SVP-Splittergruppe um diese zwei Bundesräte)). Oder zwei CVP-Bundesräte und noch einen SVP- fraktionslosen Bundesrat wenn denn Herr Schwaller portiert wird...und ein fraktionsloser Herr Schmid. Das geht mit einem Wähleranteil von 29% der SVP auch nicht auf.
Den Grossteil der SVP in der Opposition wünsche ich mir jedenfalls nicht. Wer behauptet, die SVP sei sowieso schon in der Opposition, unterschätzt wohl das finanzielle ((Mobilisierungs-))Potential der SVP und die Blockademacht durch Referenden und Initiativen.
Nach gehässigen 4 Monaten Wahlkampf nun 4 gehässige Jahre mit einer finanzstarken SVP in der Opposition ? Oder wie die NZZ schreibt...
In gewisser Weise hat jedoch das Parlament der SVP heute auch einen Gefallen getan. Mit der Ohrfeige wird Blocher zum eigentlichen Märtyrer gemacht. Wie hat doch ein SVP-Parlamentarier gesagt? «Denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun».
Da wäre ((langfristig)) meiner Meinung nach ein Herr Blocher im Bundesrat weiterhin das kleinere Uebel gewesen ((unabhängig von den jeweiligen persönlichen politischen Präferenzen)).
