The company is removing almost 10% of the workforce in a measure that apparently no one saw coming.

from BBC online

US software company Adobe Systems has announced it is cutting 680 jobs, almost 10% of its workforce.

The software firm, best known for Photoshop, Flash and Acrobat, said the cuts were necessary to cut costs.

It added it that would be hit with pre-tax restructuring charges of between $65m (£39m) and $71m as a direct result of the cuts.

The lay-offs will not affect employees of web analytics firm Omniture, which was recently taken over by Adobe.

More than 7,000 people work for Adobe Systems.

I wonder how much of this is due to the recent trend away from Adobe products. Reader has had so many holes patched lately, it looks like a freshly darned sock when fired up. Flash is something everyone on the web is beginning to hate. Though not flawed in a major way, many people are using other means to accomplish what was once done by Photoshop, as the general agreement is that it costs too much.

With so many ways to author, or read, a PDF these days, and more and more graphics programs taking over chores that Photoshop used to do, and rival Silverlight eating into the Flash market, can Adobe survive the long haul?

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It seems that Blockbuster, the once darling of the movie rental business, is really grabbing at straws. Ever since Netflix started to take off with low pricing of DVD rentals and streaming of on demand movies, Blockbuster has been playing second fiddle in the rental market. With Redbox renting movies at a buck a pop, this has added to the problem that Blockbuster is facing.

But in what can only be described as a last ditch effort for survival, Blockbuster is going to rent movies on SD Cards at $1.99 per rental. The thinking is that consumers who have card readers built into their TVs, which I personally have on my Panasonic Plasma set in the living room, can use the card media to watch movies with.  I also have card readers in my laptop computers so this may be an easy way to watch flicks on an airplane.

A recent article also states:

Other obstacles remain. Many phones use micro or mini SD cardslots, and don’t take full-sized SD cards. Many TVs still aren’t built to play video of SD media, and most laptops don’t have them either, meaning that watching an SD video on the road means taking a long a USB card reader. Another problem: not everyone will enjoy the irony of driving somewhere to pick up a data-card the size of a postage stamp. Still, SD cards do represent a marked improvement over DVDs in durability and re-usability, so if they caught on it’d hardly be a step backwards for movie buffs.

The SD kiosks themselves will be built and operated by NCR corporation, in partnership with MOD Systems. Blockbuster already employs a network of NCR-build kiosks for autonomous DVD rental.

So what do you think? Is Blockbuster on to something or is this a last attempt to stay afloat?

Comments welcome.

Source.

Forty Years ago today, November 10, 1969 the pilot of Sesame Street aired. NYC has renamed a street in honor of this milestone. 

NEW YORK (1010 WINS)  — Today’s number is…40. That’s the birthday Sesame Street will be celebrating tomorrow and New York City will honor the show by naming an actual street after the famed children’s program. The city renamed a street at 64th Street and Columbus in front of Lincoln Center Monday in honor of the program’s impact on New York City’s history and four generations of children across the country.

The city will proclaim Tuesday as “Sesame Street Day” marking the show’s television debut 40 years ago.

The show’s first episode aired on Nov. 10, 1969.

Source: 1010WINS.Com

Reprinted under U.S. Copyright Fair Use Clause

GPS to Sesame Street

Nokia is initiating an exchange program for some units that may pose a shock hazard to users while charging the phone. The unit have covers that could come off and expose the internal components, which if touched, could cause a hazard when the unit is plugged into an electrical outlet. Nokia has a list of models that will be exchanged for new units:

The affected chargers are those manufactured by BYD between June 15, 2009 and August 9, 2009 and with the following model types
AC -3U
AC-3E
and those manufactured by BYD between April 13, 2009 and October 25, 2009 and with the following model type
AC-4U

Model number Identification number Your details Verification

Charger model number

If you have one of these Nokia models I would recommend you get the unit exchanged by Nokia for a new unit.

Comments welcome.

Nokia source page is here.

Walmart is going to be open all 24 hours on Thanksgiving Day in the hopes of alleviating some of the crowds that have caused problems in the past. You may recall that last year a security guard was crushed to death when a crowd of shoppers trampled the man to death.

Though shoppers will still have to wait until 5:00am to get at those door busters and cheap prices, at least the masses will be able to stay warm while they wait.

So what are your plans for Black Friday? Share what you have planned for the biggest shopping day of the year.

Me, I’m staying home nice and warm in my bed. LOL

Comments welcome.

Source.

This morning, as I was watching The Early Show, on CBS, I was astounded to hear, during one of the local news breaks, that a nearby municipality, Riverside, California, a city of approximately 300,000, is putting videos of crimes, committed under the watchful eye of security cameras, on YouTube, and asking people who might know the identities of people perpetrating them to call and give identification.

While I have no problems with any sort of privacy concerns, as some might voice, I look at it as something that uses public knowledge of another type to keep crime in check. I can see a brisk streak of higher quality cameras selling, in order to make the identification easier.

I wonder who thought this up, and also, what does Google think about it? As always, someone will soon be wanting to monetize it. Who will get the money from the views?

One last thought – will this catch on?

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Will these videos need one of these items?

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I make absolutely no excuses for voting for the current President. I believe that if John McCain had become the top executive, we would be further embroiled in an inexcusable, unwinnable war.

The President is a learned man, which is why I thought we could trust him to correctly interpret what has occurred in Afghanistan over the last few hundred years, and get the U.S. forces out of there.

History tells us that this is a country so inhospitable that only those stuck there, with no other options, will live there, and that the indigenous peoples are very tough, made more so by the many wars that region has been involved in.

In short, the British could not subdue the area, the neighbors in Pakistan could not do it, and the mighty Soviet Army went home after a few years of being soundly trounced (much of it because of our weapons).

Unfortunately, lots of those weapons are still there, now being used against us. What’s more, when more weapons are needed there always seems to be money for them, and a willing seller.

This morning on Bloomberg.com, the last President of the Soviet union, Mikhail Gorbachev, stated that the best most efficacious thing to do would be to get the hell out now.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, drawing on his experience of military failure in Afghanistan in the 1980s, said the U.S. can’t win the conflict there and should begin pulling out its soldiers.

Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO forces are battling a Taliban-led insurgency, is too fragmented between clans to be controlled militarily, Gorbachev, 78, said in an interview today in Berlin. While he said President Barack Obama would be unlikely to take his advice, Gorbachev said he saw no chance of success even with more U.S. troops.

“I believe that there is no prospect of a military solution,” Gorbachev said in Russian through a translator. “What we need is the reconciliation of Afghan society — and they should be preparing the ground for withdrawal rather than additional troops.”

Gorbachev, who became general secretary of the ruling Communist Party in 1985, at age 54, initiated a restructuring program known as perestroika that eventually led to the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. He spoke a day after he joined Chancellor Angela Merkel and current world leaders in the German capital to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.

As Soviet leader, Gorbachev pursued a policy of detente with the U.S. while overseeing the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 1989 after grappling with an unsuccessful decade- long presence in the country.

By sending in more troops, we are designing our own little 21st century Vietnam. The difference with Vietnam was that we went there because of allegiance to a treaty that was signed. In Afghanistan, we have no reason to be there, becuase, try as they might, the military can’t seem to find a nearly six-and-a-half foot Saudi, who needs dialysis frequently. Though this invites many jokes, it is not funny in the least.

We simply don’t need to be there. Trying to recruit and train these people to be a working military unit is getting to be like teaching a pig to sing. Worse still is the losses we are accruing without any real reason.

So, Mr. President, do some re-reading of history, talk to Mr. Gorbachev, and pray. I’m sure you will see the way out of this, and it does not include sending more troops to be shot at,  or supplies to be stolen by the bad guys.

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Google has announced that it will be offering free Wi-Fi at 47 airports this holiday season. The freebie is a gift to all who can use it from Google, which has provided a listing of airports it has contracted with. The list of airports are:

This should bring some holiday cheer to those who may have a long wait at the airport due to delays or bad weather. I’ll be traveling to CT in about a month, but we are going through Atlanta, which is not on the list.

What about you? What are your holiday plans? Will you be traveling through a free Google Wi-Fi airport?

Comments welcome.

Google source.

The European Union has made the feelings known officially. It does not like the idea of Oracle purchasing Sun. The reason is said to be because Sun’s MySQL database would be purposely limited, and that would be unfair.

That would seem to eliminate the purchase of Sun by IBM, as IBM also has a database, DB2. Perhaps since DB2 is not as big on the PC architecture, that might make a difference.

Still, one might think that Oracle might let MySQL go, and let it become a part of the Open Source community (really a part, as in completely unencumbered by anything Sun), rather than give up on all those Sun servers to run Oracle.

Maximum PC tells that Sun was not shy about the fact that MySQL was controlled by no one person, or entity, other than the Open Source community at large.

Coming as a surprise to absolutely no one, the European Union on Monday formally objected to Oracle’s proposed takeover of Sun. The EU’s hard stance could throw a wrench in the $7.4 billion deal that had already been approved by U.S. officials.

The sole sticking point for the EU is that the deal would give Oracle control over Sun’s free MySQL database software. Because Oracle sells its own database software, the EU fears the company would purposely hamstring MySQL in order to boost its own sales.

“The Commission’s Statement of Objections reveals a profound misunderstanding of both database competition and open source dynamics,” Oracle said in response to the objection. “It is well understood by those knowledgeable about open source software that because MykSQL is open source, it cannot be controlled by anyone. That is the whole point of open source.”

Oracle will have an opportunity to respond to the EU’s objections before it makes its final ruling on the deal by January 19. Even then, should the EU outright reject the deal, Oracle could file an appeal. The alternative is to back out of acquistion, which would cost Oracle a $260 million breakup fee, the Wall Street Journal reports.

So will Oracle capitulate to the EU demands? If not, $260 million is quite a blow to any company in the current economy. Is there another, as yet unspoken company ready to jump in with the big bucks?

The deal looked so sweet, with Oracle gaining control over the Sun servers that would power its database. Is that all gone?

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1483

Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, was born in Eisleben, Germany.

1775

The U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress. [Hoo yah!]

1871

Journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone in central Africa and delivered his famous greeting: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

1919

The American Legion held its first national convention, in Minneapolis.

1928

Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.

1938

Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” on network radio. [It had to be on radio, because they did not have large enough wide-angle lenses for television just yet.]

1942

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, discussing the recent victory over Rommel at El Alamein, Egypt, said “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

1951

Direct-dial, coast-to-coast telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, N.J., called his counterpart in Alameda, Calif.

1954

The Iwo Jima Memorial was dedicated in Arlington, Va.

1969

“Sesame Street” debuted on PBS.

1975

The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution equating Zionism with racism.

1975

The ore-hauling ship Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm in Lake Superior. All 29 crew members died. [Immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot!]

1982

Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died at age 75.

1997

A judge in Cambridge, Mass., reduced Louise Woodward’s murder conviction to manslaughter and sentenced the English au pair to the 279 days she’d already served in the death of 8-month-old Matthew Eappen.

1997

WorldCom Inc. and MCI Communications Corp. agreed to a $37 billion merger.

2001

The World Trade Organization approved China’s membership.

2004

President George W. Bush nominated White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general, succeeding John Ashcroft.

2007

Six U.S. troops died in an insurgent ambush, making 2007 the deadliest year for American forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

2007

Author Norman Mailer died at age 84.

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So the big winners on this day were children (Sesame Street), guys who like bad hair cuts (The Marines), and Hirohito [Emperor of Japan]!

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Lots of people believe that the science fiction genre was born in the  20th century. In fact, the writings of Jules Verne, in the nineteenth century were the real beginnings, with stories such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and From the Earth to the Moon. I remember reading these stories as a child of nine or ten and being amazed at the amount of foreknowledge that Verne seemed to have. I think that anyone who reads these stories today would feel the same.

It started science fiction as we now know it.

But it also started other things it seems. In a story on slashdot, we find that no less than the U.S.Navy was directed to begin a targeted search for extraterrestrial life long before anyone knew the letters, S.E.T.I.

“It seems that a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) experiment happened decades before the Project Ozma occurred in 1960. The historians at the blog Letters of Note have uncovered a telegram sent in 1924 by then Chief of Naval Operations Edward W. Eberle instructing the United States Navy to listen for radio transmissions from the planet Mars.”

The funny thing about these findings is that, as with many things, once the possibility is found to exist, we tend to find evidence of other work toward certain goals.

Many people remember the things discovered, and also asked, by the early Greeks and Romans, and then lost later, in the dark ages. In the last 200 years, there have been no dark ages, but things discovered and demonstrated by some people (I’m thinking of Nikola Tesla right now, but there are others)have apparently been lost, only to have us rediscover them.

It would not be surprising to find efforts to locate life on Mars or its evidence, beyond the casual observations by astronomers, which once made us wonder if there were really canals with water flowing on that planet.

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Quote of the day:

I like an escalator because an escalator can never break, it can only become stairs. There would never be an escalator temporarily out of order sign, only an escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.

- Mitch Hedberg

Back on August 19, 2008 I wrote an article about FinallyFast.com [see the orignal article here] after viewing a television advertisement for the product. Having not used the software personally, I posted a question asking for comments from users and for them to share their experiences using the FinallyFast product.

On Saturday November 7, 2009, Chris sent to me, via email, a letter from the legal representative of Ascentive, which operates the FinallyFast website. In the letter we were asked for clarification on the ratings I cited using McAfee Site Advisor and also WOT - Web of Trust.

At the time I wrote the original article I stated that McAfee Site Advisor listed FinallyFast,com as being untrustworthy and this was true at the time. 14 months later McAfee Site Advisor now lists FinallyFast.com as being trustworthy. However, WOT still advises users that FinallyFast.com is not a trustworthy site.

One advisory states that FinallyFast.com is a trustworthy site and another states that it is not.

So my question to the readers of Lockergnome is this.

How would you handle this conflicting information?

Comments as always are welcome.

While folks in more temperate climates might get a break in their utilities bills this time of year, winter comes at great expense for those who live up north. We have four distinct seasons here at Ranchero Indebto, marked by the movement of the programmable thermostat switch: from cool, to off, to heat.

Spring and fall are gifts when it comes to household energy expenditure. The central heating and cooling system can be switched off for a number of months. At some point (often in late October), the mornings become a bit too chilly to bear, the thermostat gets switched on, and the dollars start floating up the chimney.

Over the course of a winter heating season, we can spend thousands of dollars on fuel oil. Could there be a better metaphor for burning money?

The average house leaks a remarkable amount of heat through air infiltration. Cutting down on drafts by sealing windows and doors is the first step. Once you’ve identified and itemized the leaky culprits, take a trip to the local hardware store for caulk and weatherstripping.

A Saturday spent sealing those drafts will pay benefits all winter long …

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This time no promise of monetary reward, but something almost as good for many. The newest campaign to get you to use the search upstart is a natural tie-in.

In a campaign to get you to use their decision engine, you can pick up some wi-fi usage after searching with Bing.

Maximum PC explains the rest of the tie-in -

Microsoft’s Bing and JiWire have a proposition for you. Free WiFi in exchange for using Bing. Interested? The promotion would give users free Internet access at participating hotspots if they do just one search with Bing. In conjunction with JiWire’s advertising network, Microsoft will be extending the offer to various hotels and airports.

The campaign was started in September at several thousand locations. It managed to attract between 30 and 40 percent of visitors to the hotspots. This is extremely high, as most ads only get interaction from 0.1 to 0.2 percent of people. Microsoft reportedly plans to continue with the promotion, which is a part of JiWire’s Ads for Access campaign. The campaign allows companies to give customers something in exchange for their time. This can be taking a survey, watching a video ad, or (in this case) using the Bing search engine.

The next time you’re in an airport, keep an eye out for these ads. It could get you free access courtesy of a certain Redmond software giant.

I don’t remember Google doing anything like this when it began. But I don’t think Google was ever given a hand up by a company like Microsoft. With the relatively unlimited stream of dollars coming from Microsoft, Bing will continue to grow, but how long will it be before it stands on its own?

Experience shows that Microsoft quickly tires of things that don’t pay for themselves, so we must wonder how long Bing will be subsidized before Microsoft lets it stand alone to live or die.

In the mean time, lots of free wi-fi use is possible.

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Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. Henry Ford

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Lots of stories have been written about the Sprint and Clearwire buildouts of WiMAX in spots around the country. A while back there was a story about the actual performance in a semi-random test in Chicago, with promising results.

The only thing that was not being talked about was the wait that was being experienced by those manufacturers who make the network cards, which would work with those nifty WiMAX towers.

Just announced is the fact that Intel will be cranking out the basic chipset, which will operate at three different frequencies, so that one chipset will be the base for worldwide usage.

from PC Advisor

After keeping operators and users alike waiting for nearly a year, Intel has begun production of a wireless chipset, called Kilmer Peak, that will support three versions of WiMax, 2.3GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz.

Intel’s current WiMax chipsets only support the 2.5GHz version of WiMax, which is used markets like Japan, the US and Taiwan. The company doesn’t yet support the 2.3GHz profile, which is used by operators in South Korea and Malaysia, or the 3.5GHz version used in Pakistan. That will change with Kilmer Peak.

“Kilmer Peak is in production and will launch with the Calpella Arrandale notebook platform solution in Q1 2010,” Intel spokesman Barry Sum wrote in an email, adding that the chipset will support the three WiMax profiles.

“As for the availability of notebooks with Kilmer Peak built in, it’s more appropriate for you to check with the OEMs after the official launch in Q1,” he wrote.

Intel has been promising support for more WiMax profiles for some time, but hasn’t delivered any products.

In an August 2008 interview, Garth Collier, Intel Asia-Pacific’s general manager for WiMax, told IDG News Service that support for the 2.3GHz and 3.5GHz profiles would likely be available in 2009, but a definite release date would depend on user demand.

One month later, at the Ceatec exhibition in Chiba, Japan, Intel showed off pictures of its upcoming Evans Peak WiMax chipset alongside signs that said it will support all three WiMax profiles. However, Evans Peak - which is part of Intel’s upcoming Atom-based Moorestown platform, due next year - isn’t yet on the market.

Clearly, WiMAX figures heavily in the wireless plans for many manufacturers, and it will be interesting to see who moves more quickly on this, Sprint or one of the other competitors in the market.

Though I have not seen anything concerning the broadband stimulus appropriations, it makes sense that in many places the WiMAX buildout will be the last-mile solution, and give affordable speed to many who live in rural areas not yet served by any high speed service.

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Comcast has now decided how much NBC Universal is going to cost them, and the good news is that the first order of business is banishing Conan O’Brien  to channel 987.3, which is only viewable in Siberia!

That really would be Comcastic!

Actually, the story on the value of NBC Universal is  agreed by the parties at around $30 billion, and because there is no point in assessing the value other than for a sale, I suppose we can expect to see that sale taking place soon.

From AllThingsD

General Electric Co. (GE) and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) have settled on how to value NBC Universal now and in the future, clearing a key obstacle to giving Comcast control of GE’s television and movie company, according to people familiar with the matter.

After weeks of wrestling, both sides have agreed to value NBC Universal in the neighborhood of $30 billion, people close to the talks said. The agreement includes a mechanism that could reduce the cash Comcast would have to kick in when the deal closes, two of those people said.

The two companies are now ironing out the final details of an agreement, according to the people. An announcement could come as early as the end of this week, the people said.

The Grinch really could steal Christmas for some of the non-essential personnel at NBC, and Comcast, wishing to cut any losses and get profits up, just might be kicking some shows, and their stars, to the curb.

Of course, that could make lots of shows available on channel 987.3, and new show streaming for cable subscribers; the ones that can afford the usage fees.

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Kansas City running back Larry Johnson was released today. His behaviour on Twitter may have contributed to the Kansas City Chiefs’ decision:

“… According to the Kansas City Star, Johnson posted demeaning comments, directed at Chiefs coach Haley, on his Twitter feed hours after the 37-7 loss to the San Diego Chargers on October 25.

The newspaper reported Johnson also used derogatory language in a reply to a follower on Twitter and to a reporter.”

link: Chiefs release controversial running back Johnson

Larry Johnson now knows that it is very difficult to retract what goes on the internet, even in 140 character statements on Twitter.

Catherine Forsythe