TECHNOLOGY: OLPC has roll out problems — no leadership!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi

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Date: Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:46:36 +0800
From: jidanni
Subject: OLPC: Sic Transit Gloria Laptopi

…there was no one hired to work on deployment while I was at OLPC, with Uruguay’s and Peru’s combined 360,000-laptop rollout in progress. I was parachuted in as the sole OLPC person to deal with Uruguay, and sent to Peru at the last minute. And I’m really good at thinking on my feet, but what the sh*t do I know about deployment? Right around that time, Walter was demoted and theoretically made the “director of deployment,” a position where he directed his expansive team of — himself. Then he left, and get this: now the company has half a million laptops in the wild, with no one even pretending to be officially in charge of deployment. “I quit,” Walter told me on the phone after leaving, “because I can’t continue to work on a lie.”

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How can you have a roll out without leadership?
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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICS: Milton Friedman – Curing American Health Care

Thursday, September 17, 2009

POLITICS: Milton Friedman – Curing American Health Care

Five and a half safe for work minutes, this demolishes the concept of gooferment licensing medical practice. And, that it winds up in socialism. Where we are today. Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICS: An unreliable friend

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100010237/barack-obama-surrenders-to-russia-on-missile-defence/

Barack Obama surrenders to Russia on Missile Defence
By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: September 17th, 2009

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What signal does this send to Ukraine, Georgia and a host of other former Soviet satellites who look to America and NATO for protection from their powerful neighbour? The impending cancellation of Third Site is a shameful abandonment of America’s friends in eastern and central Europe, and a slap in the face for those who actually believed a key agreement with Washington was worth the paper it was written on.

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The USA has ALWAYS been an unreliable friend. I remember, as should any little insurrection, the ’57 Hungarian Revolution. Our Hungarian neighbor cried at the table with my father and uncles about how the State Department sold them out. At your own peril, trust ANY politician’s promise.

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Ignore the 5% “rule” at your own financial peril

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/q2c7fp

Tales From Lehman’s Crypt
By LOUISE STORY and LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: September 12, 2009

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“I spent a long time being very angry,” says Mr. Schaefer, the former Lehman executive turned gas station owner. “Angry for working so hard and doing so much. More importantly, for my family and all the time I was away traveling — the time I put in away from them. Now all that money I earned, the money paid in stock, is gone. I can’t go back and remake it.”

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When Lehman closed its origination business, Mr. Linton lost his job. Rich and single, he has pursued a life of leisure since then — sailing in his 37-foot boat, playing jazz trombone and, at the moment, taking a week to learn how to fly Russian fighter jets and gliders in New Mexico. He briefly considered attending culinary school.

Although Lehman laid him off in early 2008, his departure turned out to be a boon for Mr. Linton. Being forced out convinced him to bet against the firm’s stock as a counterweight against the Lehman shares he still owned, which protected him when the stock’s value plummeted. Combined with a well-timed sale of his Manhattan apartment and a stream of income from real estate investments, the moves gave him financial padding that frees him from job worries.

“I have been fortunate to have some nice toys,” he says. “And they are all paid up. It’s a nice situation to be in.”

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I don’t understand a lot of things.

I didn’t understand how smart people, with dependents, working on Wall Street, don’t have life insurance. 91101 exposed they didn’t.

I don’t understand how these ex-Lehman people, who worked on the Street, have all their portfolios so heavily weighted with Lehman. Guess they never heard of options or derivatives.

I don’t understand a lot of things. Wall Street’s “rules of thumb” have been time-tested. Ignore them at your own peril.

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2 Comments | MONEY | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj