A Wall Street analyst on Monday upgraded Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry, saying a recent decline in the share price ahead of a new raft of new devices makes the stock "attractively valued."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200...skJsaO2sWs0NUE

It had to happen. Olberman was far from objective in his reporting. A role as commentator is what he should have been doing all along. IMO, Matthews is just too shrill to be an anchor.

Quote: Olbermann was involved in several on-air incidents during the conventions that drew unwanted attention. He told morning host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, to "get a shovel" as Scarborough was defending the McCain campaign. And when GOP strategist Mike Murphy was debating Matthews, Olbermann could be heard saying, "Let's wrap him up."

These and other clashes fueled a sense that conservative voices are less than welcome at MSNBC as it has tried to position itself as a left-wing alternative to Fox News Channel. Olbermann disputes this view, calling the incidents "overblown." Still, the network canceled Tucker Carlson's show in March and has diminished his role. And Dan Abrams, the veteran NBC legal analyst and former MSNBC general manager, had his program dropped last month to make room for Maddow, an Olbermann protege.

The iPhone's 3G incarnation generated lots of hype at its launch, but it's quickly gaining a reputation for having slow data speeds and inconsistent voice service. Indeed, the iPhone 3G has been such a disappointment to a couple of users that they've even sued (one sued the company for allegedly producing misleading advertisements that promised data speeds at twice the rate of the original iPhone). 

Here, we examine the six most common gripes that users have had about the iPhone 3G, from dropped calls to problems with mobile iTunes to lack of enterprise features. (If you'd rather view this story as a slide show, click here.)

[ Read Tom Yager's review of the iPhone 3G and its over-the-air capabilities. | See InfoWorld's guide on how to make the new iPhone work in your business. ]

Slow data speedsAdmittedly it's silly to sue Apple over slow iPhone 3G data speeds, but this has been one of the most common complaints about the device since its release earlier this summer. 

A recent survey conducted by Wired Magazine has found that the speed of the iPhone 3G varies significantly from carrier to carrier, and that devices' slow data speeds in some areas may have much more to do with the quality of the 3G network they're running on than with the devices themselves. 

T-Mobile, which offers the iPhone 3G in Germany, offered the fastest average data speeds at 1,822Kbps, while iPhone 3G users in Australia experienced the slowest speeds at 759Kbps.

Dropped callsFor a company that prides itself first and foremost as a voice carrier, AT&T can't be happy to hear reports of dropped calls on the iPhone 3G. 

Network World's own Jason Meserve has said that he initially experienced voice call problems with his iPhone, because the device frequently would drop his call after a couple of rings, even in zones where the device said it had solid coverage. He remedied this problem, however, by downloading the 2.02 firmware update designed to eliminate the call-dropping problems.

Weak indoor signal qualityEven if users' calls aren't being dropped, many are still complaining about weak indoor signal power, which they say is negatively affecting their overall call quality. While no one from Apple or AT&T officially has placed the blame for poor signal strength on anyone, there have been grumblings that a faulty chipset supplied by mobile chip maker Infineon Technologies may be the primary culprit. 

Independently, Wall Street analyst Richard Windsor of Nomura Securities also tagged the Infineon chipset as a potential cause of poor signal quality and said the device's problems were related primarily to "an immature chipset and radio protocol stack." Microsoft Subnet writer Mitchell Ashley, the iPhone 3G has experienced many activation problems because iTunes' activation and download servers have been "woefully inadequate" to handle all the increased data demand caused by the advent of the iPhone 3G and by the AppStore, the addition to the iTunes software that sells mobile Web applications. Other reports have said that the mobile iTunes store has actually temporarily disabled the devices, leaving users only with the ability to make emergency phone calls.

The iPhone 3G is still a 'walled garden'Although the iPhone AppStore has generated some considerable buzz for its diverse selection of third-party iPhone applications, some open-source advocates are still dissatisfied that they cannot download any application they want onto their iPhone 3G. Because Apple ultimately controls which applications will be sold to users over the AppStore, reviewers such as Engadget have said the device is a new, though admittedly better, version of the "walled garden" devices that carriers have been selling for years. Network World blogger Craig Mathias, however, thinks that this walled garden approach has some advantages as well as setbacks, as many enterprise users want a device that will be functional and that will offer predictable service more than they want a device with a completely open approach to mobile applications.

MobileMe fails to impressOh boy, where to begin with this one? MobileMe was originally unveiled in June as an upgrade to Apple's online .Mac services, and it offers as much as 20GB of storage for mobile push e-mail, calendars, and contacts, and costs $99 per year. Since its launch, however, the in-the-cloud service has been besieged by setbacks. Last month, Apple acknowledged that MobileMe users were experiencing difficulties getting their e-mail services to directly sync up on both Macs and PCs without delay. A little later in the month, MobileMe experienced service outages that left approximately 1% of MobileMe users without access to e-mail on both their iPhones and their Mac or PC mail clients. And then there were the phishing attacks that occurred while Apple was transitioning from its .Mac to MobileMe services...

Network World is an InfoWorld affiliate

Smivs writes "The BBC reports that China will launch its third manned space mission in late September, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. The Shenzhou VII flight will feature China's first ever space walk, which will be broadcast live with cameras inside and outside the spacecraft. For the spacewalk, two crew members will go into the spacecraft's vacuum module. One yuhangyuan (astronaut) will carry out the spacewalk; the other is there to monitor the activity and assist in case of an emergency. Two types of spacesuits — one made in China, the other from Russia — will be carried up on the flight. It is unclear why China has opted for two different types of spacesuit. Spaceflight analyst Dr Morris Jones commented that China might want to test the suits against each other. Alternatively, he said, it might not be ready or willing to fly a mission exclusively with its own suits."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

VIENNA (AFP) - Iran led calls on Monday for OPEC to cut output ahead of a meeting of the oil producer group, with analysts expecting the cartel to begin scaling back production to help support prices.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will take its civilian nuclear deal with the United States to the world looking to secure fuel supplies and reactor technology, analysts said, while seeking to soothe critics with a strong non-proliferation pitch.

As Google enters its second decade of existence with no apparent rivals for the search-king throne, industry observers warn that the company's biggest enemy may be itself.

Ruling the search engine market year in and year out is no easy feat, and Google is continually improving its search technology to better index Web sites, analyze queries and deliver relevant results.

[ Read the related story "As Google turns 10, enterprise success in question." ]

However, instead of focusing exclusively on this search market, where Google generates most of its revenue via advertising, the company plays in multiple other markets.

As such, it has to devote effort and resources to maintaining a host of non-search services that could potentially distract the company and affect the quality of its core search engines.

And while Google dominates the search market, there is no shortage of competitors constantly trying to create a better mousetrap and capture Google's search users.

Some like Hakia and Microsoft's Powerset are betting on their semantic search engines, which don't use conventional keyword technology like Google's, and instead attempt to understand the meaning of Web pages.

Others like Mahalo and Wikia Search maintain that they will provide a better search engine by involving people in the process of building their indexes and ranking their results. Google has avoided that approach in favor of relying on automated processes.

Meanwhile, Yahoo, perennially the distant second in the search market, recently launched Search Monkey, a project to let external developers create applications to enhance its Web search results and make them more appealing and useful than Google's.

Still other search engines like Ixquick and Clusty hope to attract users by offering them more privacy than Google and not keeping records of things like their IP addresses and query terms.

And there are specialists in specific search segments, like Blinkx, which focuses on video search, an area of increased interest as online video's popularity rises globally. Others are going after what's called the "deep Web," documents that are difficult for conventional Web crawlers to find and index.

In all cases, the strategy is the same: identify a perceived Google shortcoming and try to improve on it. While Google retains a broad dominance in search, it's a market with very little lock-in favoring incumbents. It's very easy for people to switch search engines: there is no software to install or uninstall, no stored data to move from one place to another.

Since Google's ad revenue is in direct proportion to the popularity of its search engine, any significant drop in usage would materially impact Google's finances. "Google's fortunes could change dramatically overnight," said industry analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group.

Google's list of non-search endeavors is long and Google often shows signs of struggling to provide proper maintenance and development for these services.

For example, in June Internet consumer advocacy group Stopbadware.org reported that Google was one of the world's top five networks responsible for hosting "badware" sites, mostly due to scammers and online criminals abusing the company's Blogger blog hosting and publishing service.

At the time, Robert Hansen, CEO of SecTheory.org, a Web security consultancy, told IDG News Service: "The security community has known about Google's problems for at least a year or two now, and unfortunately Google has not responded with anything other than hand waving."

This year, security vendor MessageLabs reported spammers abusing Google's Picasa Web Album photo management site and its Docs suite of hosted software in schemes to lure people to spam and malware sites.

"Google has been very slow at reacting to this type of abuse after being alerted," said Matt Sergeant, a senior anti-spam technologist at MessageLabs.

Other companies that provide free hosting services for photos, documents and the like tend to be much more responsive. "Most of them deal with these abuses in a much more timely manner," Sergeant said. "It appears there isn't enough effort being put into addressing these problems by Google."

Asked to comment, a Google spokesman e-mailed: "We expect spammers to use every means possible to try to send spam. That's why we have a very robust spam-fighting effort at Google. We disable these accounts immediately and will continue to do so."

Enderle isn't sold on Google's spin. "They are ultimately responsible and it does tarnish their brand, makes it increasingly so people don't trust them. Microsoft had a similar problem with security coming into this decade and they got one hell of a wake-up call. Google is probably looking at a future in which they get a similar wake-up call," he said.

In addition to dealing with spam abuse, Google is on the receiving end, on a daily basis, of thousands of complaints, requests and questions from the users of these and the many other consumer online services it provides, like Gmail, GTalk instant messenger, Calendar, Reader RSS manager, Orkut social network, Knol online encyclopedia, Checkout online payment system, Notebook online bookmark, Lively virtual world, iGoogle personal home and the Chrome browser, to mention some.

In addition, Google has a separate unit called Enterprise which provides products for businesses like the high profile Search Appliance enterprise search device and the Google Apps suite of hosted collaboration and communication applications.

Google also has a long and ever-increasing list of APIs (application programming interfaces) for many of its consumer and enterprise services. The thousands of external developers who use them are very demanding and always looking for improvements in these programming tools.

Of course, Google also serves its very important search advertising customers, which it has historically supported via automated, self-service online systems. But Google wants to increase its brand advertising, and this requires more personal attention for big name advertisers. Google also has initiatives for offline advertising, like radio, TV, print publications and billboards.

Cutting across all these areas are mobile initiatives, including the ambitious Android mobile platform, to bring Google's services and ads to cell phones.

Whether each of these endeavors is worthwhile to pursue is up for debate on a case-by-case basis, but the number of areas in which Google plays is staggering, even for a company with almost 20,000 employees.

"Google is so distracted by the number of things they're trying to do that they're not focused on assuring the quality of any of them. The end result is they're building a foundation for failure," Enderle said.

Google wouldn't be the first large company to get sidetracked by too many side projects -- it has happened to vendors like Microsoft and Intel in the past, Enderle said.

"It's a common mistake: trying to do too many things at once and forgetting what your core business is," he said.

Also of concern is that for all its hyperactivity in launching new services and projects, Google has delivered some real stinkers and missed the boat entirely on important trends, said industry analyst Greg Sterling from Sterling Market Intelligence.

For example, Google Video was a disappointment and the company wound up spending US$1.65 billion to buy YouTube, the startup that rose quickly to lead the video sharing market, he said.

Google also failed to capitalize on the growth of social networking, devoting little attention to Orkut while MySpace, Facebook and others grew rapidly, Sterling noted.

Other products arrive with much fanfare and end up being underwhelming, like the combination of Checkout and Google Base, which together pundits predicted could have become an e-commerce threat to eBay, something that never happened.

Other services are acquired and then languish in obscurity for long periods, some never to be seen again.

"Google doesn't do everything well. They're not infallible. Some products are hits, others are misses," Sterling said. "The company is doing a lot of things to branch out defensively and offensively, but it's definitely not the company it was two years ago. It's become a big entity, more bureaucratic."

It thus remains to be seen whether 10 years from now Google will still be at the top of the search heap while maintaining a bulky menu of side projects.

 

Earlier today, I spent a delightful hour with Vinnie Mirchandani, a well respected analyst in the enterprise software industry, mostly because he knows how to figure out the impact of big technological trends on software. Accompanying him was George Gilbert, formerly an enterprise software analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston, a Wall Street firm. While [...]

Growth in the worldwide online services market is expected to be fostered by the increased utilization of Internet as a medium for commercial activities. Availability of efficient and faster broadband with the ability to host a wide range of online services including gaming, advertising, shopping, recruitment, tourism, and financial services, among others is anticipated to boost industry prospects. (PRWeb Sep 8, 2008)

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/online_services_banking/gaming_advertising/prweb1292074.htm

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The odds of the U.S. Congress passing a U.S.-India civil nuclear deal this year are long, U.S. congressional aides and analysts said on Sunday, but the deal is all but certain to win approval eventually.

Congolese bloggers Musengeshi Katata and Shaka Bantou have been closely following the American Democratic and Republican conventions at Forum Realisance. Both are staunch supporters of Obama and sharp critics of the Republican Party.  Like many around the world, bloggers in Congo and across Africa have been following this American election with the belief that its outcome is incredibly important not only for America, but for the world.

Bantou writes that the American election is “a good chance to learn certain profound truths.”  He advises everyone, especially Africans, to follow the elections so as to learn how to “decode the intentions and the strategic labyrinths the West uses to arrive at its ends” [Fr].

Katata explains why he thinks the world is watching the American elections:

…parce les 8 ans de George W. Bush l´ont profondément choqué, et parce que, comme un miracle sorti des légendes des mille et une nuit, un brillant et talentueux Obama venait y défendre la commune renomée du fameux rêve americain.

…because the eight years of George W. Bush have been profoundly shocking, and because, like a miracle out of the legends of one thousand and one nights, a brilliant and talented Obama comes to defend the famous American dream.

Katata writes that America, “with her economic power or the influence she likes to impose or transmit around the world to establish her interests,” has created an image of herself around the world of actually being that dream.  It is a dream that has always been plagued by its own history:

Chaque fois qu´on parlait du rêve américain…on ne manquait, hélas pas…de s´interroger sur le contenu réel de ce fameux rêve américain né de la dépossession territoriale des indiens d´Amerique et leurs massacre ou consignation dans des reservoirs reculés. Oui, un rêve qui se servit de l´esclavage des africains pour accumuler, orienter son bien-être social et propager les inégalités ainsi établies des siècles durant comme principe social dominant. Et même si ces inegalités, avec le temps, se résolvent lentement sous la pression et l´évolution des droits et des libertes sociales aujourd´hui, les lésions causées par l´injustice, le racisme ou la discrimination sociales, elles, perdureront encores leurs effets négatifs loin dans les génerations à venir. Ainsi, ce rêve américain, au fait, pourrait-on se demander à juste titre, est-il sincère ou n´est-il rien d´autre qu´une demi vérité qu´on vendait comme l´idéal le plus juste et le plus fier de l´existence humaine pour que ceratins en profitent, sous cette ombre trompeuse, pour exercer toutes leurs bassesses les plus viles comme jadis ?

Each time we speak of the American Dream…we should not fail to question the actual content of this famous American dream, born of the disposession of Native American territory, the massacre of Native American peoples, or their relegation to remote reserves.  Yes, a dream that used the slavery of Africans in order to accumulate, to direct its social well-being and to propagate the inequalities established over centuries as the dominant social principle.  And even if today these inequalities, over time, are slowly being resolved under pressure and with the evolution of rights and social liberties, the negative effect of these lesions caused by this injustice, by racism, or by social discrimination, will be felt by generations to come.  So can't we quite rightly ask whether the American Dream is in fact genuine, or nothing more than a half-truth that is sold, as the most proud and right idea in human existence so that the few who benefit from it can, under this deceptive shadow, exercise do their worst as they always have?

Blogging the Republican convention: Stuck in the past

Of the Republican convention, which wrapped up on Thursday, Katata writes:

Depuis que la Convention Républicaine a ouvert ses portes ce lundi 1er septembre 2008, on apprend, une nouvelle fois, ce qui différencie fondamentalement les républicains des democrates. Tous aiment leur pays, tous sont touchés par la crise économique qui le secoue dans ses structures autant sociales que financières; mais sur les moyens de mieux gérer ou répondre aux exigences que leur imposent à tous l´avenir, les méthodes divergent diamétralement dans leur systématisme. L´Amérique…Un pays à part ou un pays qui a oublié, depuis qu´il est devenu le pays le plus puissant du monde, que les autres pays, les autres peuples avaient, eux aussi, droit à la liberté et au bien-être matériel auxquels tout americain se réclamait si fièrement sans pour autant y être socialement ou intégralement admis comme on le sait…?

Since the Republican Convention opened its doors…we have learned, yet again, the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats.  They both love their country [and] are affected by the economic crisis that is rattling social and financial structures; but in terms of the way to better manage or respond to the challenges they all face in the future, their methods are diametrically opposed.  America…a country isolated or a country that has forgotten, since it became the most powerful in the world, that other countries, other peoples also have a right to the liberty and the material well-being all Americans invoke so proudly, without necessarily being socially or fully accepted, as we all know…?

Katata was not impressed by Sarah Palin's debut:

Son discours à la convention, par ailleurs, n a rien été d´autre qu´un vide cancan de femme inexperimentée jouant à l´agression bon marché. Ah, quelle difference de style et de contenu intellectuel et politique avec Hillary Clinton ! Le jour et la nuit la plus noire qui soit. Si c´est tout ce qu´elle sait faire…sa nomination n´est pas un compliment pour McCain ou avait-il à ce point besoin d´une chienne de garde plus hurlante que mordante ?

Her speech at the convention was nothing else than the empty quacking of an inexperienced woman playing with cheap aggression.  Ah, next to Hillary Clinton, what a difference in style and intellectual and political content!  The difference was night and day.  If that's the only thing she knows how to do…her nomination does not pay compliment to McCain; was he really that much in need of a guard dog, whose bark is worse than her bite?

Nor was Bantou:

Si sa propre fille ne fait cas de ses conseils éducatifs, comment diable veut-elle s´imposer chez les autres avec lesquels elle n´a aucun lien étroit et familial ? Avec la violence et l´intrigue, peut-être ? Crédibilité, hein!

If her own daughter can't follow her advice, how in the world does she hope to impose it on those with whom she has no direct family relation?  With violence and intrigue perhaps?  Where's her credibility?

Blogging the Democratic Convention: The race for the future in a changing world

Katata and Bantoul also wrote last week about the Democratic convention. Katata was impressed by the Clintons and the Obamas, and especially by Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia who is now running for the U.S. Senate:

Parce que mieux que tous les orateurs précédents, il alla en détail et avec précision au cÅ“ur du problème américain contemporain en qualifiant avec justesse que ces élections n´étaient pas, contrairement à ce que les gens le prenaient par trop spontanément, un choix entre démocrates ou républicains, entre ceux du Sud ou du Nord, entre les riches et les pauvres ; mais bien entre le passé et l´avenir ou encore entre un président ancré dans le passé et celui qui aurait une vision ambitieuse et innovatrice pour promouvoir un meilleur avenir aux américains. Il parla de l´indépendance de l´énergie que l´Amérique d´Obama voulait réaliser, et critiqua une gestion bushiste illuminée qui avait dépensé les ressources humaines et financières dans des guerres grotesques et ruineuses, ainsi que dans des structures économiques et industrielles conservatives et dépassées, sinon incapables à préserver l´avenir dans le monde changeant et exigeant de demain. Apparemment les républicains ne semblaient pas saisir que face à la Chine accourant à grands pas à l´excellence mondiale, la course pour l´avenir était ouverte. Et celle-ci ne pouvait se gagner que par l´innovation, la créativité industrielle assidue et l´utilisation optimale des facteurs de production.

Better than any of the other speakers, [Mark Warner] got at the heart of the contemporary American problem in detail and with precision, rightly describing the elections not as a choice between democrat or republican, between South or North, between the rich and the poor; but between the past and the future, between a president stuck in the past and someone with an ambitious and innovative vision to work for a better future for Americans.  He spoke of the energy and the independance that an Obama America hopes to realize, and criticized the Bush administration which has wasted vast human and financial resources on ridiculous and expensive wars, as well as in its conservative and outmoded economic and industrial structures, otherwise incapable of securing a future in the changing and world of tomorrow.  Apparently, the Republicans seem not to have gotten that with the grand strides towards global success China is making, the race for the future has [already] begun.  And this can only be achieved through innovation, industrial creativity and optimal usage of their productive capacities.

Et je dois avouer qu´avec Mark Warner j´ai été autant séduit que réconcilié avec les démocrates. Parce que cela m´a laissé entendre que le discours si souvent incompris d´Obama a été bien perçu par ceux qui s´étaient donnés la peine d´aller au fond du problème qui sous des aspects divers et des variantes contextuelles ou géopolitiques, touchait le monde entier, mêmes les africains ou les islamistes extrémistes qui trompaient leurs monde avec un absolutisme religieux qui, en lieu et place de s´industrialiser, de créer le bien être pour les leurs, croyaient primitivement qu´il ne s´agissait, dans l´existence, que de croire aveuglement à une religion quelconque !

And I must say that with Mark Warner, I was as seduced as I was reconciled with the democrats.  Because [his speech] helped me understand that Obama's discourse, so often misunderstood, has been understood by those who have gone to the trouble of going to the heart of the matter which, with its many aspects and varied contexts or geopolitics, affects the whole world, even Africans or Islamic extremists who, with their religious absolutism, instead of industrializing, instead of increasing the well-being of their own, that in this existence all one need do is believe in whatever religion!

Croyait-on que le progrès se ferait à coup de sourates aussi passionnées soit-elles ; ou s´achèterait chez ceux qui se seraient donnés la peine d´inventer et de produire ? Mais alors il faudrait avoir les moyens financiers d´acheter...indéfiniment. Est-ce possible sans produire soi-même et développer l´intelligence et la créativité des siens ? Faut pas rêver...Les démocrates, en tout cas, ne se font aucune illusion : il s´agit de protéger et de garantir l´avenir de chacun de leurs enfants dans un monde où la concurrence, prochainement, deviendra accrue et sélective au plus haut niveau.

Do they believe, passionate as they are, that progress will come from some chapter of the Koran; or will they keep buying from those who have gone to the trouble to invent and produce?  But that would mean having the financial means to buy…indefinitely.  Is that possible without themselves producing and developing their own intelligence and creativity?  They're dreaming…the democrats, at any rate, are under no illusion: it's about protecting and safeguarding the future of their children in a world where, in the very near future, competition will only increase.

Bantou also has high praise for Obama but wonders if the American electorate will make the right choice this time:

En fin de compte, et après 8 ans de visible gestion cabalistique de la part de George W. Bush, le peuple américain sera-t-il capable, est-il capable de juger adéquatement et objectivement ? Rappelons-nous, c´est ce même peuple qui, contre l´avis certain candidat Kerry et même de beaucoup d´analystes politiques avisés, vota, contre tout bon sens, George Bush à la tête de ses institutions ! Comment réagira-t-il le 4 novembre prochain ; qui le sait ? Peut-être que les douleurs, les blessures ou l´amère pilule républicaine que subissait la société américaine actuellement n´étaient pas encore assez cruelles... ? Ou ce peuple dira-t-il, comme Obama : 8 ans, ça suffit, nous en avons assez!

At the end of the day, and after 8 years of the patently of George W. Bush, will the American people be capable, are they capable of making an adequate and objective assessment?  Remember that these are the same people who, against the advice of and many informed political analysts, voted, against all good sense, George Bush to the head of its institutions!  How will they act on next November 4th; who knows?  Maybe the pain, the wounds or the bitter Republican pill American society is being subjected to have not been cruel enough…?  Or will this people, as Obama, say: 8 years, that's enough, we have had enough!

The stakes are high:

Mais nous souhaiterions aussi, et cela est un vÅ“u pieux de haute espérance éthique et morale humaines, que ce pays ne ferme pas toujours les yeux sur les droits et les libertés des autres peuples. Même dans l´intérêt d´un quelconque rêve américain d´hégémonie et de domination sur le monde. Ces temps-là sont révolus, et devant la Chine, il est temps de défendre des valeurs qui soient valables pour tous. Sinon la Chine pourrait invoquer ces écarts et ces interprétations restrictives pour faire la même chose...

But we also hope, and this is a a solemn vow of the highest ethical and moral aspiration, that this country will no longer close its eyes to the rights and liberties of other people.  Even in the interest of a mundane American Dream of hegemony and world domination.  Those days are over, and in the face of China, it is time to defend the values that are good for everyone.  Otherwise China can invoke these gaps [between rhetoric and reality], these limited interpretations, to do the same thing…

VIENNA (AFP) - OPEC ministers headed for Vienna on Monday to wrestle with the issue of falling oil prices, with analysts expecting them to agree to trim output to help keep crude above 100 dollars a barrel.

via AppleInsider:

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu put out a call to clients on Friday, saying they should be prepared for a slight letdown at Apple's event next Tuesday unless chief executive Steve Jobs pulls a rabbit from his black turtleneck....


More...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The odds of the U.S. Congress passing a U.S.-India civil nuclear deal this year are long, U.S. congressional aides and analysts said on Sunday, but the deal is all but certain to win approval eventually.

The CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency are reportedly testing a new social-networking site designed for use by analysts within the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

The CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency are reportedly testing a social-networking site designed for use by analysts within the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

The CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency are reportedly testing a social-networking site designed for use by analysts within the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

Good ol’ Napster. Granted, this ain’t the same Napster as the popular music download service from the late 90’s and early 00’s, but it’s still alive despite naysayers and industry doubt. Napster has had a positive cash flow for five straight quarters but investors and analysts are still doubting the company amid poor stock valuation, net loss, and dropping subscriber levels.

Although it has survived the harsh birth of the digital music market when bigger and richer companies failed, the company has struggled to convince Wall Street that an unlimited, all-you-can-eat subscription service is the model of the future.

Comments

The McCain campaign appears to have one answer to questions about how it will address a faltering economy, foreign policy issues and national security -- energy, analysts say.