SNS: Broken Systems, Rebound Markets

STRATEGIC NEWS SERVICE

 

 

 

The most accurate predictive letter in computing and telecommunications,
read by industry leaders worldwide.

 

SNS Subscriber Edition Volume 12, Issue 2 Week of January 12th, 2009

 

***SNS***

Broken Systems,

Rebound Markets

 

 

 

 

In This Issue

 

 

Feature:

Broken Systems, Rebound Markets

 

Upcoming SNS Events & Media Links

 

Upgrades

 

Steve Leaves

After ChinaPan

AMD Redefines the Cloud

 

SNS TakeOut Window

 

NEW! Executive Postings

 

Quotes of the Week

 

Ethermail

 

In Other House News…

 

 New Members’ Welcome

 How to Subscribe

 May I Share This Newsletter?

 About SNS

 About the Publisher

 SNS Website Links

  Where’s Mark?

 

The FiRe Box:

 

   “FiRe 2009: Shaping the Rebound:

      Technology Driving Economics”

 

“FiRe is my home, the place I come back to every year.” – Larry Brilliant, CEO, Google.org.

 

You’ve been watching Hewlett-Packard’s gravity-defying performance over the last few months, noticing that Chairman, President, and CEO Mark Hurd not surprisingly spends most of his time at work (and not at conferences), which explains these amazing numbers.

 

If you want to meet and hear Mark Hurd, perhaps the most successful technology CEO at work today, come to FiRe 2009.

 

But what else will you find?

 

“The Battle Over Bandwidth Economics,” with Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo.

 

How “Cloud 2.0” will support corporations and consumers.

 

“Unleashing the Power of Dynamic Network Infrastructure,” an advanced look at the design and performance of next-generation Net infrastructure.

 

“Fixing Healthcare: Technology Following the Demographics.”

 

“Wireless Broadband: LTE, WiMAX, and Other Global 4G Alternatives,” with a separate look at NASA’s most advanced wireless broadband technology AND NASA’s WorldWind software.

 

 “The (Real) Science Behind Today’s Alternative Energy Solutions.”

 

“The Best-Selling Computer of All Time: Next Design Steps for the CarryAlong/Netbook/Mini.”

 

On-the-ground application of new green energy technologies in Hawaii and China.

 

“1:1 Educational Computing” in new Inkwell pilot programs in Mexico, the U.S., and Africa: perhaps the greatest computer sales opportunity of the decade.

 

“Supervisualization and Global Conferencing, and New Views of Supercomputing,” a series of stunning demonstrations by Larry Smarr and the “FiRe Lab,” Calit2 at UCSD.

 

“Nuclear Energy Without Nuclear Proliferation: A New Design.”

 

“Many people concerned about the consequences of future climate change would find abundant reason for optimism, were they to witness the spirit of innovation and commitment to solve this problem that pervades the discussions at FiRe.” – James McCarthy, Leader of the Nobel-Winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and Professor of Oceanography, Harvard University.

 

Elon Musk will describe being the first private party to launch a rocket into orbit, bring us the newest version of the Tesla electric car, and update us on large SolarCity installations.

 

And much more.

 

Member Price Alert:
Capture our Future in Review interim price of $3900 before January 31, and save $1000 off our $4900 registration fee.
Use “firecode2009” when registering, and save the usual member discount of $300. We have never offered this interim price before, but thought it might be a good answer to economic times and the need for some to use calendar 2009 budgets. Catch it now, before it slips away –

 

Date and Place: May 19-22, 2009, Hotel del Coronado, San Diego. Register here to join us for the best Future in Review yet:

 

www.futureinreview.com


 

» Broken Systems, Rebound Markets

 

I would like to think that SNS members have had “the best of bad rides” during this last couple of years: you have had a good view of all of the major changes in technology, while given good warning of the global liquidity bubble, and have managed to avoid much if not all of the carnage of the asset bubble collapses.

 

“Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?” one might ask.

 

I thought this might be a good time to reflect on secondary causes of carnage, how long they’ll last, and what markets might be most interesting for future sales and product introduction planning.

 

There is a silver lining to all of this tearing down, I believe, and it is rather obvious: we were operating a good number of systems that were broken, without our either knowing about it, or having the will or ability to do anything about it. If we had run these systems in this condition for any longer, things would only have been much worse.

 

In that sense, this crash was man-made, it was inevitable, and it was better coming sooner than later. Too bad it didn’t come a year or two earlier, before credit swap values exceeded the global national product.

 

I see two very large trends here: first, there were so many systems that were broken, or being looted, that the situation can be said to have had systemic failure. Second, there seems to me to have been a large-scale change, sometime in the last 5-6 years, in the nature of investing – which means, in the nature of the investor. We have always had hedge funds living on the edge, making some big mistakes, and so on; this was different.

 

Those paying attention probably know what I’m talking about: sometime, about that long ago, we saw the sudden and very large-scale rise of the investor class I now call Vampire Investing. This meant the creation and expansion of large-scale investment schemes and scams, some done by traders per se and some by program trading, the purpose of which was large-scale harvesting of money from these systems, without contributing anything to the process.

 

This change was much like Goldman Sachs turning from a partnership into a corporation, or professionals turning amateur, with all of the decline in ethics and restraint that that implies.

 

I will submit that those working on or near “the Street” knew about this, but perhaps didn’t know what to do about it, or somehow thought it wouldn’t come crashing down around their ears. SNSers will remember two pieces that I published on the subject of Intellectual Honesty (***SNS*** Intellectual Honesty, 8.28.2002, and ***SNS*** Intellectual Dishonesty: Part II, 10.24.2006); it’s too bad the Vampires weren’t getting the message at the time, as the timing was spot-on.

 

Here is a simple way to see the past and the future of financial trading: turn your satellite or cable TV to Jim Cramer’s Mad Money, and then, when you can’t stand listening any more, turn it to CNBC Squawk Box (Asia). On the former, you have an apparent mad man, jumping around, cutting the heads off plastic bulls, yelling marine “Booyahs!” at unexpected moments, and pushing one of 49 animal or crowd sounds on an oversized keyboard. On the other, you have some of the most cogent, thoughtful discussion of international trading and finance that I’ve found. There is no yelling, no stepping on others’ words, no theatrics: just rather quiet discussions about very serious issues, ranging from currency value expectations to Chinese bank health.

 

(You can replace Cramer’s money-losing anti-advice antics with my friend Larry Kudlow’s right-wing capitalism-at-any-cost, or CNBC’s Power Lunch, or any of the Pundits-yelling-over-Pundits picture-in-picture madhouses on the channel the rest of the afternoon. As my friend and past fund partner Scott McAdams once said: “It just gives me a headache.”)

 

We’ll come back to this difference shortly.

 

What has been the result of the breakdown of these already-broken systems? Corporate CEOs have done what the modern management book tells them to do: lay off first, ask questions later. Today’s CEOs face a very difficult challenge: react immediately, and cut jobs, or get fired later for not doing so. It doesn’t matter that this isn’t necessarily the “right” thing to do, by several important measures (long-term cost to the company, lost institutional knowledge of key players, increased costs of pension and separation, increased costs of lowered productivity and related lowered morale issues, etc.).

 

For CEOs today, it’s Ready, Fire, Aim, when it comes to layoffs; often a 10% total headcount reduction will come within days or even hours of the discovery of a revenue shortfall. This is particularly, and more widely, true when the future is relatively unknown, and when everyone else is doing it.

 

The result is obvious: more layoffs than you can count, at a time when the fewer, the better, would be the intelligent choice for the group. This is a bit like a reverse on the old tragedy of the commons: laying off protects the individual corporation in the short term, even though it harms the economic social unit of the country at the same time.

 

Nothing is more damaging to the economy than layoffs.

 

Nothing is harder to do, for most CEOs (and contrary to what is heard in chatrooms) than laying off the very people he has worked to add to the team. Yes, layoffs often lead to temporary improvements in flexibility and productivity (fear, combined with one doing the job of two, but that’s very short-term.

 

And, from the perspective of the economy, layoffs create that secondary layer of collateral damage which is much greater than the original. Imagine comparing the damage to a corporation with that of  keeping those workers on for an extra quarter. Earnings go down, so the stock misses targets, the stock drops. This is bad for CEO compensation plans, as almost all are based on short-term stock values. (Now there is something ripe for change!)

 

If the market improves the next quarter (or three), earnings go back up, and so does the stock. The money lost equals the earnings differential for one to three quarters: substantial, but not earth-shaking.

 

Now look at the costs from a country-economic perspective: a wage-earner is on the street. The house may go into foreclosure, ruining real estate values in the neighborhood (“zebra stripes”); local, state, and federal taxes are decreased; marriages and relationships often fail under the financial pressure. (As comedian Chris Rock said in his last tour: “She may be sayin’ we’re going to get through this, but she means you’re going to get through it.”)

 

The economic and social costs of layoffs far outweigh, even in total, the company costs of keeping people on.

 

This is not an argument against layoffs in general, but against layoffs made in the first weeks or days of a downturn. Purely reflexive layoffs – which seem today to be in the majority – are bad for everyone, except the CEO’s short-term personal bank account balance.

 

Look at the U.S., and then at Germany, and ask yourself: how many of the problems in the U.S. are self-inflicted, and how many are secondary collateral damage? I would guess perhaps 80%. Oops. Is it possible that the personal compensation clauses agreed by Executive Compensation Committees in the Fortune 500 are responsible for most U.S. economic carnage? I suspect the answer is, Yes.

 

Where is an investor or CEO to turn when it comes to future market planning?

 

Members know I have been suggesting that the U.S. economy would split during this crisis (it now has), and that large technology companies with global exposure would outperform companies in other industries with local revenue exposure, with real estate, construction, and finance coming in last.

 

This process is now half-done, with the split in the open, and what we need to follow now is the Asian rebound. Here is something new for SNS members: while the U.S. will take longer, on average, to make a comeback (two years or more), the Asian strength will be not only numeric by GDP, but in the speed of their rebound.

 

And members know where to look: not to India, where everyone else is pointing, and not only to China, where everyone’s attention remains, but to Japan. The top three rebound nations in Asia will be Japan, China, and South Korea.

 

For those who doubt SK’s place on this team, I would suggest looking at the agreement just released between Japan and SK (see “Upgrades”), which will have the effect of strengthening SK companies, reducing the SK/Japan trade imbalance, and strengthening the Won. Japan will increase its foreign direct investment, as it has already done in China.

 

Can you spell “East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”? These are the terms the brighter of our members will begin to think in, as they watch the near-term economic strengthening of these three countries. (Youngsters will need to look up this World War II-era relic.)

 

This plan was more obvious 15 years ago, but it hasn’t gone away. Rather, the Japanese have found a way to appear less threatening to the only market (and competitor) that could derail their national plans: the U.S.

 

While we weaken our allies with idiotic and wasteful policies and mistakes, they strengthen theirs with business and investment. The Chinese are copying the model, with that always-special “Chinese characteristics.”

 

How do U.S. companies benefit from the rise of Asian mercantilist markets? This is a tough call, because, by their definition, these markets are artificially closed to U.S. goods. Oh, you thought the U.S. was just getting old, fat, and non-competitive, with a lopsided trade balance sheet to prove it? Guess again: this is the result of one-way trade. You buy our goods, we’ll not buy yours.

 

Where, then, will non-Asian technology goods find a market? In Europe, which has been acting increasingly anti-U.S., but which may, post-Obama, come back as a less-threatened friend; and in South America, with the same recent history. (It is ironic that the Bush administration, with Condi and the cold war hawks throughout, has given China and Russia their first foothold in the Western hemisphere. Now there’s a bit of the Bush Legacy that will cost free-world businesses for years to come.)

 

Russia, increasingly, looks like the Stalinist state I’ve been calling it since Putin came to power (our name for this lad is Putin/Stalin). I don’t see a bright future for Russian economics for anyone involved, on either side of the trade.

 

It’s going to be a different world. This won’t happen in a week, but those who are watching for it will see it happening during this year; it is already under way.

 

Summary: the new world is not going to rebound back into the old world we left, but something different. An anti-U.S. trading bloc, centered in Japan but faced with South Korea and China, will lead Asia up and out of its current problems. With Germany (and Eastern Europe) hostage to Russia for energy, and already acting too much like a Russian satellite itself, wise investors and managers will look for niches of success, in geographies and sectors, rather than a general U.S., or global, rebound.

 

I expect North Europe to be very strong, including the Baltic states. So will Australia and Canada. Mexico begins to look like a failed state, a victim of narco wars now being passed on directly to and through newly minted U.S. barrios. Chile continues to look like a winner, perhaps with Peru and Brazil coming on strong.

 

France seems to have a strong hand, which, as always, is surprising; and the U.K. looks as though it will wobble on, deprived of a prime driver, and seeking a new vision of itself.

 

Next week, and not a minute too soon, the U.S. gets to start on its own version of the same.

 

 

Your comments are always welcome.


Sincerely,

Mark R. Anderson

CEO
Strategic News Service LLC                Tel. 360-378-3431
P.O. Box 1969                                       Fax. 360-378-7041
Friday Harbor, WA  98250  USA         Email: sns@tapsns.com

 

 

 

» Upcoming SNS Events

 

  • Seventh annual Future in Review (FiRe) Conference, May 19-22, 2009, at the historic beachfront Hotel del Coronado, San Diego. Named “best technology conference in the world” by The Economist, FiRe is a unique, world-class source of critical information on major trends in global technologies and markets, discussed by those who make and profit from them. Learn more, and register by January 31 for our “interim” pricing of $3900 – still $1,000 off our final, $4900 registration fee: www.futureinreview.com.

 

Our highest appreciation to The Rodel Foundations,

returning as the Thunderbird Internship Sponsors of FiRe 2009:

 

 

    

 

    

Many thanks to Deloitte LLP

 as a Primary Sponsor of FiRe 2009:

 

 

 

Sincere thanks to QUALCOMM

 as a Special Events Sponsor for FiRe 2009:

 

 

Thank you to Lux Research

 for its Media Sponsorship of FiRe 2009:

 

 

 

 

For inquiries about SNS Events and/or Sponsorship opportunities, please contact Sharon Anderson-Morris (“SAM”), SNS Programs Director, at sam@tapsns.com or 435-649-3645.

 

 

 

» SNS Media

 

  • SNS Members’ Book Lists:

 

A new library for a new year: here are your favorite books, including who has proposed them, whether they’re fiction or nonfiction, and ready clicks to Amazon:

 

http://www.tapsns.com/members/books.php

 

 

  • SNS Interactive News

 

“SNS iNews is a terrific idea.”

– Peter Petre, Author and Past Sr. Editor, FORTUNE magazine

 

Are you an AORTA (Always On RealTime Access) member of SNS? Use SNS iNews™ to stay in touch, in real time, with what your fellow members and FiRe Thought Leaders are achieving – and then help them get there.

 

Click here for the current iNews digest: www.snsinews.com

 

(For ID and password assistance, email lynne@stratnews.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Top Ten Predictions for 2009: Audio of the Fourth Annual Predictions Dinner in New York, presented on December 11th, 2008, at the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel:


Mark and Bill Janeway’s conversation on “Crisis and Consequences: Connecting Wall St. and Main St.: http://www.tapsns.com/media/nydinner2008/mark-n-bill.mp3

 

Mark’s Top Ten Predictions for 2009:

http://www.tapsns.com/media/nydinner2008/nydinner2008-predictions.mp3

 

 

  • SNS Blog, “A Bright Fire”: Please join Mark in this SNS forum and add your own comments: www.abrightfire.com. If you’re already a blogger, email sally@stratnews.com if you’d like to be added to our blogroll. You’re welcome to link to ours as well.

 

 

 

 

» Steve Leaves

 

Most SNSers will now have seen this Special Alert, sent out Wednesday:

 

To All SNS Members:

 

Steve Jobs took a leave from Apple, announced this afternoon. In his email to employees, he said:

 

“Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

 

“In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.”

 

SNSers will recall my past Alerts on this subject. I don’t see an Apple, the way we would define the company, without Steve.

 

Our members were already warned about the serious nature of all this, going back to issues and Alerts last year. Anyone who thinks Steve is Apple will now be recommended to look at Apple as Apple Without Steve.

 

This is extremely unfortunate, and I wish the best to everyone at the company, and to Steve and his family. I would not bet on Steve returning to Apple for any serious length of time.

 

 

 

 

» After ChinaPan

 

Members and past FiRe participants are aware of our long-term thread on the melding of Chinese and Japanese trade and hemispheric interests, generally discussed under the title “ChinaPan.” 

 

Members who attended the New York Annual Predictions Dinner are also aware of my feeling that Asia will counterbalance many of the current economic problems facing the West and the world; and, in particular, the three nations of China, Japan, and South Korea are likely to be the source of the new Asian growth.

 

Many of these loyal stalwarts may have been wondering about South Korea, given the behavior of its equity markets lately, together with the valuation swoon of the Won.

 

The predicted trend seemed underlined this week, when the leaders of the two countries (Aso and Lee) surprised the world with a mutual assistance and trade agreement which focused on moving forward, rather than dwelling on all those embarrassing details from the days of the Japanese occupation. The result, if it comes off according to plan, would include cross-water business alliances, and Japanese direct investment in South Korea – the point of which, according to one analyst, would be to reduce the Japan-SK trade imbalance. Which, if the books are right, ought to go a way toward supporting the falling Won.

 

 

Of course, if that doesn’t work, the central bank has proven, just lately, as willing as its Japanese counterpart to jump into the (thinly traded) Won market to keep things where it wants them.

 

Welcome to the two new faces of Asian mercantilism. One: open and frequent currency interventions and manipulation. And the second: replacement of the old Japanese/SK hatred, fed by racism and self-willed historic ignorance on one side, and righteous anger and Wannabe-ism on the other, with a new attitude: let’s make some money together.

 

If we can’t change the other feelings, let’s just not discuss them.

 

 

 

» AMD Redefines the Cloud

 

Smart SNS members will have noted the panel on Cloud 2.0 now set on the Future in Review agenda. The point is that there is a revolution in data center/server farm design afoot, which will do a much better job of supporting both consumer and enterprise use of these facilities.

 

AMD seems to have gotten this message on its own: last week it offered a new vision of What Farms Are For, with the announcement of the Fusion Render Cloud, powered by Phenom II Processors, AMD 790 Chipsets, and, of course, ATI Radeon HD 4870 Graphics Processors.

 

The basic idea is to do all the rendering for games and movies in the cloud, instead of on the device, thereby relieving the device of this time-consuming task and improving throughput and performance, even (and especially) on small devices.

 

Technically, the goal is to “process a million compute threads across more than 1,000 graphics processors,” according to the company’s CES comments.

 

The whole system is designed to break the Petaflop-per-second speed barrier, which would put it into contention for being among the fastest of global supercomputers.

 

Delivery is set for the second half of the year. Has AMD found the answer to parallel processing programming, while making financial and technical sense out of its ATI purchase? For the first time since the deal, the answer starts to seem like, “Yes.”


 

 

SNS TakeOut Window

 

 

 

 

View from high above the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as it stands vertical on its pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The SpaceX team completed vehicle integration on December 30, 2008, and the new SpaceX-built transporter and erector system raised the 17 foot diameter, 180 foot long rocket to vertical via massive hydraulic cylinders.


 

 

Moonrise behind the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as it stands vertical on its pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.


For those following the explosive growth of the CarryAlongPC sector, the CES show brought a slew of new offerings. Here are just a few of the more interesting CAPCs:

 

HP minijpg
The HP Mini 1000 XP 

 

CPU: Intel Atom

Memory: Up to 1.24GB

Hard Drive: 60GB

Size: 10” x 5” x 1”

Weight: 2.45 lbs.

Wireless: 802.11 b/g

Price: $399

Also comes in The HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition, with the same options/specs as the Mini 1000 XP, except that the case is covered in a peony pattern created by Vivienne Tam. Starts at $699.

 

The HP mini 1000 Mi is a bit different, the operating system is HP Mobile Internet built on Linux and up to 20884 MB memory. This starts at $379.

MSI Wind.jpg

 

MSI Wind U100

 

CPU: Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition

Memory: 1 GB DDR2

Hard Drive: 120 GB SATA I

Size: 10.23” x 7.08”

Communications: 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11 b/g WLAN Card, No Bluetooth

Weight: 2.3 lbs.


 

meso g.jpg

 

 

Digital Gadgets LLC

 

Operating System: Windows XP or Ubuntu Netbook Remix

CPU: Intel Atom Processor 1.6 GHz
Storage: 160GB Hard Drive

Memory: 1 GB

Display: 8.9” Screen
Colors: Onyx, Snow, Solar and Blossom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HK.jpgHWG Technology (HK) Co., Ltd.

Maruda 400

 

Operating System: Linux 2.4

CPU: Low Power 32 bit Core 400MHz
Display:7”TFT Display 800x480
Flash Memory: 256MB
Support: GPRS, CDMA, Wi-Fi Modem(Optional)
Battery Life: 3.5-4 Hour (Lithium Polymer)
Size:8.3” x 5.6” x 1.3”

Weight: 1.54 lbs.

 

 

 

elite g.jpg

Digital Gadgets LLC

Sylvania Magni Elite

CPU: Intel Atom 1.6 GHz

Hard Drive: 160GB
Memory:1GB RAM
Battery:6 Cell
Colors- Slate and Frost

 

 

 

 

sony-p.jpg Sony Vaio P Series

CPU: Intel Atom Z520 1.33-GHz

RAM: 2GB

Hard Drive: 64 GB

Display Size: 8”

Wireless: 802.11 b/g

Operating System: MS Windows Vista

    Home  Premium

Boot Time: 1:03

Size: 9.7 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches

Weight: 1.4 lbs.

USB Ports: 2

 

 

 

 

asus.jpgAsus S121

 

Operating System: Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows XP,

    GNU Linux

Processor: Intel Atom Z520

Memory: DDR2 533 MHz 1 x SODIMM up to 2 GB

Hard Drive: 1.8” SATA HDD up to 250GB

Communications: Wi-Fi 802.11 n, 10/100/1000 LAN, Bluetooth

Dimensions: 11.7” x 8.3”

Weight: 3.2 lbs. with 4 cell polymer battery

 

 

 

 

 

dell.jpg

 

Dell Inspiron Mini 10

 

CPU: Intel Atom Z530 1.6 GHz

Display size: 10”

Communication: 802.11 n Wi-Fi, 3G WWAN

Other features: 720p screen with end to end glass,

   and a TV tuner.

Other details such as price and release date have 

   not been specified.

 

 

asus 3.jpg

 

Asus Eee PC T91

 

Operating System: Windows XP

CPU: Intel Atom Z520

Display: Swiveling (180 degrees) Touchscreen, 8.9”

   Allows you to fold screen down.

Weight: 2 lbs.

Size: 1” thick

Other features: GPS antenna, TV tuner, FM transmitter

Other details have yet to be released.

 

 

 

 

acer 2.jpg

Acer Aspire One

 

Operating System: Windows XP

CPU: Intel Atom 1.6 GHz

Memory: 1GB

Storage: 120GB HDD

Battery: 3 cell

Display: 10.1” LED backlit screen

USB ports: 3

Other details have yet to be released.

Coming in February 2009

 

 

 

OQO Model 2+

oqo.jpg

CPU: Intel Atom Z540 1.86GHz

Operating System: Windows Vista Business,

   Windows XP Professional and Home Editions

Memory: 2 GB

Storage: HDD capacity up to 120GB, HDD

   protection: shock mounted, drop detect

   technology, also available  with 60Gb SSD

Memory: 1GB and 2GB available, speed: 533 MHz

Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth

Size: 5.6” x 3.3” x 1.0”

Weight: 1 lb

Price: Starting at $999

 

 

Note: this last is not a CAPC – it is considerably smaller – but we like OQO and wanted to include its latest.

 

 

 

Executive Postings

 

 

 

Our Newest Offering:

 

SNS members are encouraged to share postings that would be of interest to fellow members. This might include vacation rentals, job postings, jobs sought, business opportunities, funds needed for startups or expansion (no priced solicitations), and other categories. There is currently no charge for posting, and we reserve the right to veto offerings deemed unsuitable. We hope this will afford members yet another way of communicating and benefiting from their membership.

 

– mra.

 

For Rent: Old City Barcelona Apartment

 

I would be delighted to offer our small one-bedroom apartment in the heart of Barcelona’s old city to fellow SNSers, should they come to this great city.

 

~ The apartment is on the sixth and top floor of a small apartment building (with elevator) which sits on one of the very few traffic free streets in the historic center

~ The apartment, just being redecorated, has one double bedroom, bathroom with bath and shower and living room with a kitchen, television, CD player and music


~ It also has central heating and air conditioning

~ Best of all: two terraces overlooking the old city and the famous Gaudi masterpiecee La Sagrada Familia

~ Minutes from all the sights of the old city including the Picasso Museum, La Ramblas, and the world-famous La Boqueria market

 

SNS Member Discount Pricing:

 

      80 euros/night plus 40 euros final cleaning charge

 

 

 

 

For Rent: Luxury Home, Winter Wonderland

 

Enjoy 7,000 ft. altitude “Wow!” views from this Winter Wonderland Luxury Home for rent in Park City, Utah.

~ 4 private bedroom suites in separate wings of this 4,000 sq ft. home


~ 4.5 baths, 3 fireplaces, Wi-Fi



~ 15 minutes to Deer Valley, Park City, and Canyons resorts



~ 35 minutes from the SLC airport



~ Minutes from shopping, restaurants, grocery stores, world-class gym, movie theaters, art galleries, and an international destination outlet mall.

 


SNS Member Discount Pricing:

 

            $600/night prior to the Sundance Film Festival (January 15th-25th)

            $1000/night during the Sundance Film Festival


See more photos and details here: http://www.vrbo.com/153848

Contact: Sharon/”SAM” at sam@stratnews.com, 435-649-3645

 

 

 

Quotes of the Week

 

 

   “We’d probably better mentally prepare ourselves for two more years of this.” Shutoku Watanabe, executive vice president of Hitachi Ltd’s consumer business group, to Reuters in an interview, in which he said Hitachi was likely to miss its annual LCD TV sales target by as much as 10%..

 

 

   “We are preparing for a pretty tough environment here over the next 12 months.” Brian Dexheimer, president of Seagate’s consumer division, at CES.

 

 

   “TSMC has many high-tech manufacturers as clients. Among them, companies that also have their own chip-making facilities cut foundry ties first in the downturn and start ordering again when things are picking up. This makes the company a pretty good forward-looking indicator.” Daiwa Institute of Research analyst Kazuharu Miura.

 

 

   “The hormone interacts with the reward and reinforcement system driven by the neurotransmitter dopamine – the same circuitry that drugs such as nicotine, cocaine and heroine act on in humans to produce euphoria and addiction.” Professor Larry Young, Emory University, Georgia, on oxytocin, now sold in a commercial spray called Enhanced Liquid Trust.

 

 

 

 


Re: ***SNS*** Ten Things We Know

 

Mark,

 

Seasonal greetings to one and all from an unusually chilly Barcelona.

 

To take a few points at random from your latest letter:

 

1. Email: “Right now, the war is swinging toward Google, many thanks to Microsoft”. I’d say this is already happening in another dimension. How bad is the search function on Outlook? How good is the search function on Outlook when Google Desktop is doing the searching?

 

2. IPTV: “How long will it be until we can just turn on our television sets and get Internet Protocol TV directly? When will we jump the old-highway barriers and roam free in the Net world of content?” Are we heading there from another direction already? We spend more and more time watching content on our iMac with its beautiful 24” screen.

 

3. Vacation rentals. It’s not a ski lodge in Utah but we do have a delightful one bed apartment in the historic centre of Barcelona, two minutes from the Picasso museum and two terraces looking over the city. Special rates for SNS-ers at 80 Euros per night. Just redecorated, air con, elevator, heating, kitchen, bathroom. All enquiries to me

 

With best wishes

 

Richard Lander

Director and Blogs Editor

Citywire Holdings

Barcelona, Spain

 

Richard,

 

The search battle is pretty well understood, I’d say. We’ll see if Carol Bartz has a new perspective on it.

 

As for IPTV, you’re certainly correct: more of us are watching old-line TV-like content on new device screens than are watching it on TVs. We’ll see what kind of luck John Chambers has with his newfound consumer appetite for content distribution.

 

As for your rental, members will enjoy a view from the terraces in our new Executive Postings section. We welcome more postings of any kind, as long as they are useful and in good taste, from financing needs to ski chalet rentals. We are happy to serve as anonymizers in the case of job searches, etc.,  as long as we have your real name and contact data.

 

Mark Anderson

 

 

Mark,

 

More blog chatter and analysis about China devaluing the Yuan, their appetite for US treasuries, and similar.

 

The global currency war is in full swing, the bombs are falling. It’s a race to the bottom.

 

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/01/ny-times-china-cooling-on-us-debt.html

 

Cheers,

 

Alex Baluta

[Analyst]

Toronto

 

Alex,

 

It seems you have caught this aspect of my Mercantilism Thread more quickly and clearly than most other members. I am increasingly aware of currency conflict, from Russia’s rapid devaluation to South Korea’s arrest this week of a blogger accused of weakening the Won.

 

Why be competitive, when your currency exchange value can do the work for you, with just a few nudges from the Central Bank?

 

I think this war is playing out quietly, and expensively, in the background, with very few non-traders watching.

 

Mark Anderson

 

 

Mark,

 

I see Dell is at last getting the hang of good design. Who is Michael using?

 

http://www.anandtech.com/GalleryImage.aspx?id=5266

 

 

Tim Coldwell

CEO

TECSA

Diss, UK and LeTouque, FR

 

Tim,

 

Dell has obviously taken some serious design steps forward, coming at about the same time as it has moved seriously into the consumer space, with Michael Dell’s return and re-evaluation of the company model, and with bringing Consumer VP Ron Garriques on board from his prior place at Motorola (remember the RAZR?)  –

 

I asked Michael Dell for the answer to your question, and he replied:

 

“Ed Boyd, internal design guru at Dell.

 

Joined us from Nike.”

 

So there you have it, from Michael himself.

 

Mark Anderson

 

 

Mark,

 

Great commentary as usual. Your assessment of Microsoft is spot-on. It is its own worst enemy right now. It has become a big bureaucracy that is having a hard time letting good ideas in the company see the light of the day while competition grows potent.

 

Best,

 

Chetan Sharma

President

Chetan Sharma Consulting

Bellevue, WA

http://www.chetansharma.com blog: AORTA

 

Chetan,

 

There must be an increasing number of frustrated people in Redmond, since I know there are plenty of smart people there. The current serious cutbacks aren’t likely to help morale much, either.

 

Mark Anderson

 

 

 

 

» New Members’ Welcome

 

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SNS is the most accurate predictive letter covering the computer and telecom industries. It is personally read by the top managers at companies such as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Cisco, Sun, Google, Yahoo!, Ericsson, Telstra, and China Mobile, as well as by leading financial analysts at the world’s top investment banks and venture capital funds, including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Kleiner Perkins, Venrock, Warburg Pincus, and 3i. It is regularly quoted in top industry publications such as BusinessWeek, WIRED, Barron’s, Fortune, PC Magazine, ZDNet, Business 2.0, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.

 

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Where’s Mark?

 

On January 16th, Mark will give his traditional 2009 Predictions speech to the TAG section of the Washington Technology Industry Association, in Bellingham, WA, 12pm at the Syre Auditorium, Whatcom Community College. On January 22nd, he will be hosting speaker and past SmithKline Beecham CEO Henry Wendt at the Spring Street Discovery Speaker Series in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, at Friday Harbor House. February 13th-16th, he will be participating in the Aspen Institute Socrates series led by Judy Estrin, and March 26th-27th, he will be keynoting a special guest CEO meeting hosted by Orange Wireless in London. On March 31st, he will keynote the 2009 CRIM (Centre de recherche informatique de Montral) Crystal Ball Conference, at the Palais de congres de Montreal. On April 27th, he will be the opening keynote speaker for Accenture in Vancouver, B.C. And on April 29th, he will be speaking at the Family Circle conference, at the Hotel “Europischer Hof,” in Heidelberg, Germany.

 

 

 

In between times, he will be comparing his time-honored Suffolk sheep, munching away under the haphazard guard of the aloof llama, with the brand-spanking-new Dorpers. Who ever heard of sheep without fleece?

 

 

 

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ISSN 1093-8494