Revisiting the Rwandan genocide

Is a French court considering the possibility that Tutsi rebels brought a genocide upon their own kind? Supposedly, what triggered the genocide was the death of the former Rwandan president, which the Hutus blamed on the Tutsis. A French judge issued a warrant for the arrest of people in the current Tutsi controlled government relating to his murder.

SOURCE: BBC News

Not desperate enough

I have been without my iPod for a while and it's taking it's toll. This is not to say my iPod experience is flawless (need better headphones). I'm thinking of getting a shuffle to avoid cleaning my room as there's a small chance it could be somewhere there. Oh, and it also doesn't help that I rely on it to motivate my jogging.

BONUS: Zune is virtually a Windows CE powered portable media center edition that doesn't support Vongo : /

It's Election Day

Will you express your preference?

If you don't know, check OnTheIssues.

Wow, the bush administration is desperate

Hey, at least people take Kerry seriously (in contrast to when Bush screws up). Sorry for the lack of context, but I'm not sure it's needed.

Google Web Toolkit now for Mac OS X!

Google's java-based AJAX widget framework, the GWT, has a new version:

Mac OS X | gwt-mac-1.2.11.tar.gz | 22 MB | d649c6a6e30d4ba942576fb37b329841

SOURCE: GWT Blog

I have a strange relationship with my conscience

I have a strange relationship with my conscience. I think I ignore it too much because I rely too much on external cues (including physical ones saying eat another cookie!) or momentum in making decisions. Conscience, let's start over.

You can trust me now

I'm free from potential conflicts of interests as I've closed my positions in Apple and Google. Sad, but not a bad time, right. Apple still didn't revise the their earnings to take into account the options irregularities, but oh well. No more silly half-hearted disclosures like "the author of this article owns shares of the aforementioned company".

A more palatable color

Apple colors its logo for the Fifth Ave Apple Store in Manhattan to promote the (PRODUCT)^RED initiative. Plus, more red products on the way?

Behind Google's acquisition of YouTube

You will not get anything out of reading the rest of this post.

Sometimes, the people who don't ask questions know a little something. Following are a list of analysts present during the YouTube acquisition conference call.

Analysts:

Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley
Imran Khan, JP Morgan
Doug Anmuth, Lehman Brothers
Mark Rowen, Prudential
Justin Post, Merrill Lynch
Kevin Allison, Financial Times
Daniel Arnell[?], ABC News
Victor Anthony, Bear Stearns
Laura Lach[?], Time Magazine

Also, if Goldman handled the acquisition details, why have they been getting more Google business? Was it because they got on Google's good side after hanling their secondary stock offering almost for free?.

SOURCE: Seeking Alpha [via Google]

Maybe Jobs should pay up...

Whether or not Steve Jobs improperly benefitted from the backdated options really depends on whether Apple restates it's past earnings to account for costless shares (as far as earnings statements go) they gave him in return for him not having gained anything from the options they initially awarded him. It's worthwhile to note that he didn't really receive any other compensation (asides from a private jet, I think).

We'll know by October 18th, hopefully, when they announce their latest quarterly earnings.

SOURCES: Bloomberg [via TUAW], FASB

I currently own some Apple shares, but I probably won't sell them until after the earnings are released for all the stuff I've been posting and even then for some [innocuous] work reasons.

YouTube and Google

That's the way to do it:

It also means that Google just picked up YouTube for about 1 % of its equity. That’s the power of a $125 billion market cap.

SOURCE: DealBreaker

Former Apple CFO resigns following addition of Schmidt

Apple's former CFO, Fred Anderson resigned from its board of directors at the conclusion of an internal investigation that exonerates the rest of Apple's senior management. This follows the addition of Eric Schmidt to the board, lending credence to the speculation that Apple wanted to reinforce the credibility of it's corporate governance.

It's unclear as to whether this is the end or the end of the beginning of the controversy over it's past practice of options backdating, as it's the SEC's turn to review the findings. Anderson's comments over the situation in the quoted context imply that while he was responsible for the implementation of the practice, he wasn't directly responsible so.

UPDATE 1:46 AM: TUAW reports that two officers no longer with Apple were singled out in the report in relation to options accounting issues.

SOURCE: digg

A pill

Mohandas K. Gandhi:

Hate the sin, not the sinner.

On the new iPods

Personality is back in the world of iPod. While some may opine that the iPod is too popular, too conformist and losing appeal, Apple Computer seems to have deliberately let the iPod line run out of steam and flat-line in sales before releasing a revamped version in a variety of colors (5 including the original black and white). This comes after almost 10 months after releasing the original iPod nano.

A common theme with Steve Jobs' marketing strategy is to limit the amount of unecessary choice for the consumer and concentrate marketing efforts. Give them a great product. Differentiate later. This applied to the original iPod (white, then black), the minis (three-then five colors), as well as the original iMacs (one, then many). The original iMac came only in one color.

Finally, I wanted to note that the new shuffle fulfills the promise of an artist's conception of what was to be the budget under $100 iPod that led to some disappointment upon the announcement of what Apple actually released.

SOURCE: Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos meet Ginger via digg, new iPod nanos

Don't judge

While waiting for the bus the other day, I noticed a man wearing his iPod headphones oddly. They didn't protrude properly from his ears. It turns out that he had them switched--the left channel was playing in his right ear and vice-versa. I tried this and found it to enhance the volume of the sound.

Too bad they don't stay in my ears either way. My right-ear is not receptive to earbuds.

Arial vs. Helvetica

I'm on my new iMac 17" and thought the following might be interesting to analyze:

The goal for me is to be able to spot the difference between the classic Helvetica font from the Microsoft version, Arial.

Top 400/600 Image Labeler

A couple days ago, Google launched a beta product called Image Labeler. It asks people to dedicate 1.5 minutes at a time to tagging images so they become easier to find. It's like a game because you work with an arbitrary partner to cooperate on the task. When you both tag the picture with a common keyword, the picture is matched and you get a new picture. The more images you can successfully tag, the more points you get (as you can see here):


The only bummer is that it's hard to find compatible partners. Dead-beats that give up half-way are frustrating to encounter, but it was good partnering with you, nzodd.

added some context 5:15 PM 9/3

More than speculation

It turns out Schmidt isn't the only one who's cross-directing between Apple and Google. The New York Times also raises a good point (that I heartily agree with) about Schmidt's addition to Apple's board of directors--he's an outsider who can bring an (relatively) independent and trusted mind to a board whose credibility is hurt by the options backdating exposure. Interestingly, he refused the 300,000 options automatically granted directors of the company. That seems more of a gesture than a conservative action.

SOURCE: New York Times and StreetInsider [via digg and digg]

Remake of All the King's Men!

I saw an interesting trailer for a modern remake of All the King's Men! It's based on the story of Huey Long, a fascinating Democratic politician from Louisiana. You can get the old version on Vongo.

Saw my first first run movie

I've been meaning to see The Illusionist for a while since seeing Paul Giamatti on Charlie Rose (fast forward to 47:10 for free). Oddly enough it wasn't playing anywhere near my area, the closest theater showing it being in NYC. Since I am already there on weekdays for work/training, I saw it with a coworker after work.

The movie, starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti and Jessica Biel, is set in pre-WWI imperial Austria in a time of industrialism and civil unrest. A brilliant illusionist named Eisenheim (Norton) puts on a show that mystifies Vienna and attracts the attention of the crown prince but the heart of his fiancee Sophie, with whom he renews a youthful romance. The Chief Inspector of Vienna (Giamatti) warns Eisenheim about risking the ire of the tyrannical prince. The serious, but sympathetic admonishment falls on deaf ears because Eduard/Eisenheim embarasses the prince in his palace. In refusing to give up on his childhood love, he sets in motion a series of tragic events.

The Illusionist falls in the category of Drama, Romance, and Fantasy, bringing alive a short story by Steven Millhauser with good 'special effects'. [But don't be fooled, this isn't a movie about magic. They even stay true to the illusions performed in that historical era, in cases even completely avoiding special effects.] The role of the Chief Inspector as a storyteller and is developed in an interesting way and the plot is truly a piece of work made even better in movie form (speculation).

If you do see the movie, I'd like to know which movie, if any, it reminded you of. And about the title, I was confused for the longest time why the movie was playing so few theaters, but I just found out from a friend that today was the last day it was in limited release.