No.

tompeters management consulting leadership training development project management

It’s supposed to be launched in Europe today. So I went to Amazon and typed in olpc. The result is “disappointing” and maybe even upsetting.

Amazon.fr: olpc – Amazon.fr: Livres, Livres en anglais, Musique, DVD, Logiciels, Jeux vidéo, High-tech, Jeux et Jouets, Cuisine et Maison, Montres et Bijoux

…they take the premiums but they never pay. 

“But $1,080 an hour? In Boston, that’s seems to be the going rate, albeit at the high end. On the other hand, after dental insurance, it only cost me $1,080….because there’s no practical way for me to get dental insurance.”

Joho the Blog » $1,080 an hour

Don’t suppose it’s that funny but it’s certainly odd.

“Lastly, somebody ought to call Steve Jobs, who doesn’t need to be bribed to do innovation, and ask him if he’d like to do national service and run a car company for a year.”

Daring Fireball Linked List: How to Fix a Flat

What the motor companies need more than anything is someone at the top that doesn’t like cars. 

They got into this mess because the CEOs of these companies love big fast cars. Why not put someone who needs a good cheap mode of transport at the top?

…it was called Enron. 

Read “The Smartest Guys in the Room” and there is one thing that stands out. At the start they moved stuff off balance sheet as a short term gain. They intended to put things right later, instead they found themselves getting more and more daring as they tried to cover up their previous deceptions. 

“The only reason the government did not take 100% of the equity was for the same reason they only took 79.9% of Freddie and Fannie in their conservatorship: going above that level would force the Federal government to consolidate their balance sheets.

But instead, stunningly, the accounting fiction, that AIG is an independent operation with rights, as opposed to a ward of the state, is not only being dignified, it is being acted upon.”

naked capitalism: AIG: The Looting Continues (Banana Republic Watch)

I can’t imagine what runs through your mind when you find that you’ve no support at the age of 81…

To conserve its dwindling cash reserves, G.M. is eliminating lifetime health care coverage for its legions of retirees at the end of this year, leaving people like Ken Hewitt to fend for themselves in deciding how to cover their doctor’s bills and prescription drug costs.

“Everybody felt like they were set for life,” said Mr. Hewitt, 81, who retired from the former Chevrolet Engineering Center in 1982 and lives north of Detroit. “It’s been difficult, but the information they’ve given us has been beneficial. Still, when you get to be our age, it’s tough to make any big changes like that.”

Some G.M. Retirees Are in a Health Care Squeeze – NYTimes.com

“Denmark twice raised interest rates in October to help protect its currency, the krone, which is pegged closely to the euro. Sweden’s krona fell to a record low against the euro in October as the central bank there cut interest rates in the hope of fending off a recession. The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, says that being outside the euro zone during the financial crisis is “detrimental” to the economy, and he wants a referendum by 2011. Even in non-EU countries, such as Iceland, adopting the euro is now a hot topic.”

The shelter of the euro | Seeking shelter | The Economist

Surely a decision as big as this should be made for the very long term and not just as a reaction to the latest crisis.

Oh, the fun of linking to this from a blog!!!

“Gone, in other words, is any sense that blogging as a technology is revolutionary, subversive or otherwise exalted, and this upsets some of its pioneers. Confirmed, however, is the idea that blogging is useful and versatile. In essence, it is a straightforward content-management system that posts updates in reverse-chronological order and allows comments and other social interactions.”

Blogging grows up | Oh, grow up | The Economist

As normal our friends at the Economist miss the point.

Jason Calacanis quit blogging because he tried to turn himself into a broadcaster and found that the power of community was lost. Funny thing is that blogging is an opportunity to avoid the problems of broadcasting.

If blogging becomes just a content management system for big media we’re back where we started. Of course, that would fit the Economist just fine.

Election Night 11-04-08

We’re so used to it being scripted that to see normal people acting normally feels odd.

Same image in 2000!

Daring Fireball: Tangled Up in White