ICSTIS in meltdown - MPs
Grok Headline matches for ICSTIS in meltdown - MPs
ICSTIS blames dialler scams for premium
rate freeze
ICSTIS blames dialler scams for premium
rate freeze
06/25/2004 11:47 AMThe Register Jun 25 2004 3:59PM GMT
P2P set to cause 3G meltdown
P2P set to cause 3G meltdown
11/17/2003 05:34 PMPersonal Computer World Nov 17 2003 4:09PM ET
Meltdown on CNN
Meltdown on CNN
07/08/2004 08:59 AM
Andrew Dice Clay
loses it on CNN/fn. Just lovely. Don't have any details on this
but it's worth a look.
Meltdown BBS
Meltdown BBS
02/11/2004 04:33 PMMeltdown BBS 1.0 alpha 4 released
On the meltdown at the Guardian...
On the meltdown at the Guardian...
03/14/2003 12:59 PMMad outbursts in national newspapers are like the rays of sunshine
glinting through the storm clouds of international news. It's lovely
to be able to sense the person who wrote the news, and get a sense of
his or her vibrant perspective on the events they're writing about. It
adds interest to information that you might otherwise wish to totally
disregard. Like for example information on Cricket! So let's turn
towards today's cricket report on Guardian Unlimited. It
starts reasonably enough:
"It's really simple: India are already through, New
Zealand have to win."
But then it goes a little pear-shaped:
"Meanwhile, have you ever thought what sort of life is
this and what the hell am I doing boarding a train for Moorgate at
6.30 In the morning and then standing around for ages waiting for a
tube while staring at a sign telling you that if you wait for four
minutes you can board a train to Uxbridge I'd rather wait four hours
for a journey with the Grim Reaper quite frankly and then you get to
work and then there's this and I know the cricket's good and all that
but I've got out of the wrong side of bed this morning and in any case
it's not as if I'll write a cracking match report and then get
rewarded by being sent on a wonderful assignment around the world
because I'll be very surprised if any of my bosses will read any of
this let's be honest they won't although on the other hand that's
probably just as well.."
And that's before the weblog-style grumpy commentary kicks in! I
mean - classy, fascinating comments emerge like, "Asger Kring works
for a Copenhagen media company that publishes several newspapers. "Do
you want me to inquire whether they are looking for an over-by-over
commentary guy?" Yes. Yes. YES! YES! YES!!!! Not that I'm
desperate or anything." By the ninth over, people are writing in with
their improvisational 'hit the keyboard with your fists' comments:
"I must have a different keyboard-banging technique from
Leonard," types John Kirby with his big fists. "I get
'ytcdskljojnvds.lkzsedli;j un fesalmjni vfesa;lmija;mju fceiv
faewj;omivrewaomiu; svfeomijuhlvesmu;oilgvrstmjloivtrseomiju,' which
looks rather like Finnish."
God, my sides would be shaking hard as Shakin' Stephens if it
wasn't (as Matt has pointed out to me) potentially a 'wacky' Red Nose Day thing. Wouldn't
that just drain all the life out of it? Like all the life out
of it? I hate Red Nose Day. It's so desperate and tiring and forced.
And they think they're being so cool and down with the kids. Grrr.
Wankers.
Motherboard meltdown
Motherboard meltdown
07/25/2004 08:56 AMMy motherboard completely melted this morning. One minute I'm
computing fine, the next my screen is frozen. On a cold boot, it can't
get past the opening bios welcome screen. I can't even enter the bios
setup page. Heck, it was almost a year old, so it lasted longer than
most of my electronic equipment. And I was in the market to spend a
few hundred dollars getting myself back to where I was anyway.
Sigh....
Ski Industry Facing Meltdown?
Ski Industry Facing Meltdown?
12/03/2003 11:01 PMCBS News Dec 3 2003 10:24PM ET
Other News: Internet Meltdown
Other News: Internet Meltdown
03/08/2004 11:09 PM"People For Internet Responsibility is pleased to preliminarily
announce an 'emergency' conference aimed at preventing the 'meltdown'
of the Internet."
BT reveals phones meltdown cause
BT reveals phones meltdown cause
06/09/2004 11:54 PMNews.bbc.co.uk - Wed Jun 9, 03:57 pm GMT
The Factor of Four: Preparing Yourself
for Economic Meltdown
The Factor of Four: Preparing Yourself
for Economic Meltdown
06/22/2005 02:38 AM
 The cover story
of this month's Atlantic is
editor James Fallows' Countdown to a
Meltdown,
a look at the implications of reckless Bush-Greenspan economic
policies
for the next generation. The only thing that isn't entirely credible
to
any student of history about Fallows' portrait of coming economic
collapse is the date -- while
he sees it coming quickly and convulsively by 2016, I believe it will
take a full generation to play itself out, and I would have been
happier to see his scenario placed closer to the centennial of the
last
horrific depression, which was also caused by reckless economic
mismanagement -- 2029. But aside from the date, you need only read the
history books (and the very recent history of countries like
Argentina)
to see the rationale, and even the inevitability, of Fallows'
predictions.
The article is still on the newsstands, and hence not yet available
online, but in essence it sees three deliberate Bush-Greenspan
policies
leading to economic collapse in 2009:
- Starving the government -- funding massive tax cuts for
the
rich by incurring monstrous debts that will have to be paid off by
future generations and administrations,
- Complete reliance on cheap energy, commodities and
Chinese manufactured goods instead of promoting conservation, and
- A policy of artificially suppressing interest rates
to
encourage reckless borrowing at all levels (personal, corporate and
government), so that saving is discouraged, seniors cannot generate
enough interest income to live on, and the economy becomes extremely
fragile to economic changes (exactly as occurred in 1929).
The collapse scenario identifies a number of changes that occur like
falling dominoes. What is interesting is that, much like the articles
I
have read about Peak
Oil,
about the non-sustainability of low interest rates, and about coming
bubble burst in housing prices and (again) in stock markets, there is
a
recurrent 'Factor of Four' in this scenario1:
- Energy, heat and electricity prices will rise by a
factor of four ($160/barrel and $9/gallon)
- The prices of goods dependent on energy will rise by
a
factor of four (foods, which grow in oil-derived nitrogen fertilizers
and chemicals; anything transported a significant distance; plastics
and medicines; clothes made with synthetic fibres; asphalt and tar for
roads and roofing; furniture with hydrocarbon-based fire-retardants
and
cushion fillers; cosmetics and cleaners; coatings, paints and
dyes)
- Inflation, interest and mortgage rates will rise by a
factor of four (making most debts unrepayable, leading to massive
defaults, foreclosures and evictions)
- The value of homes, stocks and bonds will fall by a
factor
of four (wiping out personal net worth, collateral and retirement
savings)
- The value of the US dollar will fall by a factor of
four relative to most other currencies
- The unemployment rate
will rise by a factor of four
- Business failures will rise by a
factor of four (and
foreign companies will bail out and buy out most large US businesses,
since the US government will have no revenues to continue to bail them
out)
- Tax revenues will fall by a factor of four (bankrupting
many municipal and state governments, and possibly the US federal
government as well)
Fallows' thesis is that, even
more than economic bungling, the
Bush-Greenspan ideology of government doing as little as possible
(other than pursuing insanely expensive foreign imperialistic wars and
trampling on civil liberties) will soon lead to an America that has
squandered all four of its competitive advantages:
- A healthy rate of savings, providing resiliency in
the face of downturns
- Investment in good public infrastructure
(e.g. in health care and transportation)
- Investment in
education (and in the key assets -- people and knowledge -- of value
in the 21st century)
- Investment in innovation (e.g. in real
research)
|
It seems to me that progressives' inability to explain to the average
voter the importance of these competitive advantages (not easy in our
dumbed-down world, but doable) is one of the key reasons they are, at
least in the US, in the political wilderness2.
The consequence of this "every man for himself" doctrine is that in
the
event of a severe economic downturn (and there is evidence it has
already begun if you look at the real indicators and not the phony
ones
like GNP), the vast majority will be "priced out of any chance for
real
opportunity". The consequence of a population (a global population, because the US
will take down most of the rest of the world with it) which is without hope
of climbing out of desperate circumstances is almost too horrible to
imagine -- we need only look to Afghanistan, Rwanda, Palestine, or
Darfur to see what happens when people just give up trying.
Fallows suggests that only the rich and powerful elite will be immune
to, and separated from, the effects of this economic collapse.
Shielded
by security guards in their homes, limos, penthouse offices and
retirement villas from the staggering masses, they will be oblivious
to
it all (my grandparents regularly handed out food and other essentials
to house-to-house beggars in the 1930s, to the great consternation of
some of their peers and neighbours, who feared hordes of others would
follow -- they didn't).
But it seems to me that there's a second way to insulate yourself from
the impact of economic collapse, other than by becoming fabulously
wealthy. And that is to be prepared. If you knew that in ten years the
Factor of Four would be upon us, and the eight drastic changes in
rates
and prices bulleted above would then be in effect, what would you do
starting now to prepare for
it?
The obvious steps:
- Reduce your need for energy: Buy an energy-efficient
vehicle. Insulate your home better. Conserve
energy. Reduce your need to work (by Radical
Simplicity)
or at least your need to commute. Strive for energy independence
(explore community wind projects, solar and geothermal energy
options).
But make sure your replacement for oil doesn't depend on corn --
because corn depends on both subsidized oil (for fertilizer etc.) and
subsidized agribusiness, neither of which is sustainable, especially
in
an economic collapse. Understand where your energy comes
from
-- oil may be running your car but filthy coal and vulnerable nukes
probably provide your electricity, heat and air conditioning.
- Buy local,
natural and organic. Support small enterprises that depend less on
government welfare. Buy stuff that lasts. Don't buy what you don't
need.
- Get out of debt. If you can't, go for low rates that are
fixed for the entire term of the mortgage or loan. Pay off credit
cards
and other usurious loans on time every month. Don't buy non-essentials
you can't pay for immediately.
- Find out how you're exposed if the housing bubble
bursts.
If your house is suddenly appraised at much less than the amount of
your mortgage, can you be required to pay down the mortgage in cash
immediately? If so, are you prepared to just walk away from your
house?
- Find out how your savings are exposed if the stock and
bond
markets collapse. Will you have enough to retire on? To live on?
Consider moving investments to 'near-cash' certificates that keep
their
value even when markets crash. Consider investments in Euros or other
currencies less vulnerable than the US dollar.
- Try to wean
yourself off dependence on any government
subsidies, pensions, and allowances, especially in the US. If the
government suddenly becomes unable to pay its debts, it's not going to
be able to pay you either. Just ask the ex-employees of Enron what
that
feels like.
- Work to get Bush and Greenspan, and those with
similar
extreme economic policies, out of power. The earlier we start working
on fixing the mess they've created, the better the chance for a 'soft'
landing.
- Don't hoard goods or other physical assets. It's
wasteful, ineffective, selfish and expensive.
You don't need to do any of these things tomorrow, but it would be
prudent to think seriously about doing them over the next few years.
Think of it being like betting on a gambler in a casino who's on a
roll, tossing sevens and elevens one after the other. If you cash out
of the living-beyond-your-means lottery too early, you'll probably
kick
yourself for losing faith too soon, for not hanging in a little
longer.
But there's lots of evidence from history that the consequences of
cashing out too late will be much worse. And alas, as with all
gambles,
you'll only know whether you did the right thing in hindsight.
A final thought from Fallows' article, and it's about education. He
quotes Danish executive Niels Christian Nielsen, a Director of
companies on both sides of the Atlantic, from a U.Cal presentation
earlier this year on the subject:
The big difference between
Europe
and America is the proportion of people who come out of the
[education]
system really not being functional for any serious role. In Finland
that is maybe 2-3%. In Europe in general maybe 15 or 20%. For the
United States at least 30%, maybe more. In spite of all the press,
Americans really don't get the education difference. They generally
still feel this is a well-educated country and workforce. They just
don't see how far the country is falling behind.
These two main themes from Fallows' scenario -- how reckless economic
policy is leading inevitably to economic meltdown, and the importance
of having a government that sets a good example of economic
responsibility and public investment for the benefit of all its
citizens -- are inextricably intertwined. Bush's failure on both
counts
threatens not only to lead to the ignominious end of the world's last
superpower, but to drag the rest of the world needlessly into a long
period of great suffering and deprivation in the process.
Notes:
1. One qualification about the Factor of Four, in case any economists
or
other number crunchers are reading this -- the rates and prices above
are subject to continuous adjustment for changes in supply and demand.
Because the domino effect will lower demand, prices that spike to
quadruple current levels will fall off as a result of this adjustment,
so in some cases the net effect may be closer to a Factor of Two or
Three. Fallows' scenario reflects this. But if we're trying to
visualize how such a change will affect
our economy and our lives, thinking in terms of today's purchasing power, it still
makes sense to use the Factor of Four.
2. I suspect that Europeans and Canadians take for granted the
importance of these things, but do not really understand why
they're important -- which is why it is not unthinkable that
Bush-Greenspan thinking could happen elsewhere (as it did with
Thatcherism), even without the religious undercurrent. That's
something
for us outside the US to think about seriously. |
MoD insists on computer meltdown clause
MoD insists on computer meltdown clause
01/03/2005 09:45 PMTelegraph Jan 4 2005 12:22AM GMT
E-mail meltdown claims take heat
E-mail meltdown claims take heat
02/05/2005 09:11 PMZDNet Feb 4 2005 6:22PM GMT
eyeing oracle for the orbitz meltdown
eyeing oracle for the orbitz meltdown
01/09/2004 09:58 PMmr. ellison, it's a bad thing for any service associated with plane
flights to have to worry about "crashing"
Bank customers hit by computer meltdown
Bank customers hit by computer meltdown
03/28/2005 05:56 AMIrish Examiner Mar 28 2005 9:14AM GMT
Apple Courting Core Meltdown
Apple Courting Core Meltdown
06/22/2005 02:01 AM By Troy Wolverton, TheStreet.com
"Wizbang covered the Kerry meltdown"
"Wizbang covered the Kerry meltdown"
09/03/2004 09:28 PMInternet meltdown predicted for tomorrow
Internet meltdown predicted for tomorrow
08/27/2004 01:45 PMBOFH: One double espresso from meltdown
BOFH: One double espresso from meltdown
05/26/2004 04:22 AMEpisode 16 Total Component Fatigue
Tech Job Meltdown in Final Stages
Tech Job Meltdown in Final Stages
11/19/2003 05:49 PMThe bad news is that high-tech employers are set to lay off another
234,000 workers this year. But analysts say the high-tech industry
should begin adding new jobs this spring.
"The Long Tail: Mainstream Media
Meltdown"
"The Long Tail: Mainstream Media
Meltdown"
04/13/2005 08:20 AMThe Long Tail: Mainstream Media Meltdown
The Long Tail: Mainstream Media Meltdown
04/13/2005 04:29 AMThe Mainstream Media Meltdown .. kind of a win-win .. very useful
post
longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2005/04/media_meltdown.html<
br />track this
site | 3 links
The Republican Party's Terri Schiavo
"meltdown"?
The Republican Party's Terri Schiavo
"meltdown"?
03/24/2005 07:54 PMNumerous conservative bloggers continue to blast the Bush
administration over the case -- and see a Republican Party in big
trouble.
TCS: Tech Central Station - Mainstream
Meltdown
TCS: Tech Central Station - Mainstream
Meltdown
01/04/2005 06:18 PMMAINSTREAM MEDIA MELTDOWN? ..
Pejman
techcentralstation.com/010305F.html
track this
site | 4 links
Comair Blames Software Meltdown for
Flight Delays
Comair Blames Software Meltdown for
Flight Delays
12/31/2004 12:00 AMAfter stranding tens of thousands of air passengers over the holidays,
Comair has finally resumed its customary flight schedule. But upon
blaming the delays on a "major computer malfunction," it joined U.S.
Airways in the Department of Transportation's hot seat.
Comair computer meltdown raises backup
questions
Comair computer meltdown raises backup
questions
12/27/2004 11:56 PMMENAFN Dec 28 2004 3:47AM GMT
High-tech jobs continue to evaporate in
industry meltdown
High-tech jobs continue to evaporate in
industry meltdown
11/19/2003 01:33 AMAP via New Jersey Online Nov 19 2003 0:34AM ET
High-tech employment stable after job
meltdown in 2001: StatsCan
High-tech employment stable after job
meltdown in 2001: StatsCan
11/17/2003 01:55 PMCanadian Press via Canada.com Nov 17 2003 12:17PM ET
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh
explains why Silicon Valley fears a
meltdown if trade and geopolitical fri
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh
explains why Silicon Valley fears a
meltdown if trade and geopolitical fri
04/18/2005 08:41 AMSympatico Apr 18 2005 12:16PM GMT
Register Now for Meltdown 2004, July
27-28, 2004
Register Now for Meltdown 2004, July
27-28, 2004
06/17/2004 01:54 AMMeltdown 2004 is two intense days for gaming industry experts to test
your limits.
Go one-on-one with leading hardware developers. Learn the latest news
about gaming's hottest advances. Get straight-up answers to your
toughest questions.
Because there is more at Meltdown than any one person can absorb, most
companies will want to send everyone who wants to learn how to get the
most from Microsoft® Windows® XP and DirectX, as well as prepare for
the next generation software development platform for gaming: XNA.
This event isn't just for game developers anymore. Meltdown 2004
provides content for nearly everyone in the gaming business, with
tracks covering graphics development, publishing/business development,
Quality Assurance, game testing, and of course, a track for hardcore
game programmers.
Grok Description matches for ICSTIS in meltdown - MPs
GrokA matches for ICSTIS in meltdown - MPs
ICSTIS in meltdown - MPs
