GhettoRacer

NOTICE: Sonic's AIM has been renamed to protect the innocent... so she would not get harassed by the ****-tards like Julia the lawyer... (she and I are cool despite the effort of the tards... she's just a hard worker that doesn't get home until 9 pm usually).

--------------------------------------------------------

sonia (10:50:15 AM): dude
theghettoracer (10:50:42 AM): hi babe
theghettoracer (10:50:50 AM): how is work today
theghettoracer (10:51:45 AM): busy again i see
sonia (11:11:35 AM): yes
sonia (11:11:36 AM): i am
sonia (11:11:39 AM): doing accounts
sonia (1:14:05 PM): weiii
Auto Response from theghettoracer (1:14:15 PM): I am online, but may be away from my computer right now.
theghettoracer (2:23:12 PM): la la la
Auto Response from sonia (2:23:24 PM): I am currently away from the computer.
theghettoracer (2:23:19 PM): just woke up from my beauty rest
sonia (2:23:51 PM): hahah
theghettoracer (2:25:41 PM): wassup babe
theghettoracer (2:25:51 PM): finished with your work?
theghettoracer (2:25:58 PM): it's Friday lah.. what's going on??
theghettoracer (2:26:13 PM): so is your boss a handsome rich lawyer?? hahaha
theghettoracer (2:26:17 PM): or old fart
theghettoracer (2:27:39 PM): you are testing my patience again darling
heghettoracer (2:27:55 PM): i think i'm going to get me some food. i haven't ate any breakfast or lunch today
sonia (2:30:40 PM): my boss
sonia (2:30:41 PM): is a woman
sonia (2:30:45 PM): this is a woman
theghettoracer (2:30:38 PM): ohh
sonia (2:30:49 PM): ran company
theghettoracer (2:30:42 PM): you are a lesbo lover ehh
theghettoracer (2:30:43 PM): j/k
theghettoracer (2:30:44 PM): haha
theghettoracer (2:30:51 PM): how old is she??
sonia (2:31:08 PM): X-O
theghettoracer (2:31:11 PM): so i was talking to a mate from down under
Auto Response from sonia (2:31:22 PM): I am currently away from the computer.
theghettoracer (2:31:19 PM): he said you guys have more kargaroos than ppl
theghettoracer (2:31:22 PM): that cracks me up
sonia (2:31:41 PM): hahah
sonia (2:31:45 PM): ask hom
sonia (2:31:46 PM): him
sonia (2:31:54 PM): what part of australia does he live in
sonia (2:31:56 PM): the bush
theghettoracer (2:31:48 PM): okie
theghettoracer (2:32:34 PM): so you have been in brisbane most of your live?
theghettoracer (2:32:38 PM): life rather
theghettoracer (2:36:24 PM): born in Darwin (far north), lived in Adelaide (south australia) for 10 years then sydney for 5 years
sonia (2:39:43 PM): i was in adelaid
sonia (2:39:44 PM): for
sonia (2:39:45 PM): 7 months
sonia (2:39:51 PM): sydney for
sonia (2:39:54 PM): 2 months
sonia (2:39:59 PM): and melbourne
sonia (2:40:03 PM): for 1.7months
sonia (2:40:06 PM): was in perth
sonia (2:40:08 PM): for 3 days
sonia (2:40:10 PM): hahahahahaha
sonia (2:40:13 PM): and in brisbane
sonia (2:40:15 PM): for the rest
sonia (2:40:25 PM): in cali for a month
theghettoracer (2:44:09 PM): ohh so most of your life in Brisbane??
theghettoracer (2:44:22 PM): how much population in Brisbane?
theghettoracer (2:44:41 PM): are you in the city or suburbs?? or is there even any difference in brisbane lol
theghettoracer (2:44:50 PM): you live in chinatown there with ur folks??
theghettoracer (3:09:46 PM): babe?
.............

GhettoRacer

hey ****-tard, did you know that, the more you stimulate the brain, the better the interconnections work? didn't know that did you? so many you need to get your *** off the rennlist board and stop being so fascinated by my brain. get a life you old fart, it's never too late to change. the human brain/body is an amazing machine with unlimited potential but it is only as good as the inputs... garbage in, garbage out. and you are only feeding it ****s... i feel sorry for you.

GhettoRacer

I'm so happy to live in this time... the Internet and technology are changing the world faster than ever.

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The Face of the $100 Laptop
One Laptop per Child's breakthrough software replaces the standard PC look with a design for the networked age

by Steve Hamm
Innovation & Design

* How Symbol Got Its Mojo Back
* Forget Davos: I'm Booked Up For TED
* Hugging the Tree-Huggers
* The Face of the $100 Laptop
* Museums: Teaching with Tech

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The so-called $100 laptop that's being designed for school children in developing nations is known for its bright green and white plastic shell, its power-generating hand crank, and for Nicholas Negroponte, the technology futurist who dreamed it up and who tirelessly promotes it everywhere from Bangkok to Brasilia. What has not received much attention is the graphical user interface—the software that will be the face of the machine for the millions of children who will own it. In fact, the user interface, called Sugar, may turn out to be one of the more innovative aspects of a project that has already made breakthroughs in mesh networking and battery charging since Negroponte unveiled the concept two years ago.

Sugar offers a brand new approach to computing. Ever since the first Apple Macintosh was launched in 1984, the user interfaces of personal computers have been designed based on the same visual metaphor: the desktop. Sugar tosses out all of that like so much tattered baggage. Instead, an icon representing the individual occupies the center of the screen; "zoom" out like a telephoto lens and you see the user in relation to friends, and finally to all of the people in the village who are also on the network.
Child-centric

It's the first complete rethinking of the computer user interface in more than 30 years. "We're building something that's right for the audience," says Chris Blizzard, the engineering project leader for Sugar. "We don't just take what's already there and say it's good enough. You can do better."

The audience he and his colleagues have in mind is the hundreds of millions of poor kids all over the world. Negroponte came up with the nonprofit "one laptop per child" idea when he was chairman of the MIT Media Lab and observed the failure of standard attempts to use computers in education to improve the lives of underprivileged children. Typically, a handful of computers, designed for business applications, are installed in schools; students only use them in special computer classes and are forced to share. Negroponte's idea was to give a laptop to each student that he or she could take to every class and bring home at the end of the day. "OLPC is child-centric, designed to be a seamless part of their lives at home, at school, and in play," he says.

Nearly a dozen countries, including Brazil and Thailand, have committed to buying the computer, now officially called XO. The UN Development Program will administer the program locally. About 2,500 beta test machines ran off assembly lines in Taiwan in February and are now being shipped to participating countries so they can kick the tires on the technology. The final version is supposed to be ready by August.
"You Just Do It Right"

While XO has been greeted warmly by many, some technologists criticize Negroponte and his colleagues for not testing out their new ideas on underprivileged school children earlier in the process. And that goes for the user interface as well. Jakob Nielsen, a user interface designer and principal in the consulting firm Nielsen Norman Group, falls into the critical group. While familiar with the design of Sugar, Nielsen’s criticisms focus on the process. It’s only in the coming weeks that they’ll begin to get feedback from kids. “It’s always dangerous to release any product without the safeguard of user testing,” says Nielsen. “But it’s outright reckless in a case like this.”

complete article at: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate...pStories_ssi_5

GhettoRacer

I've used Apple since 1984... the original Apple ][ to Apple ][gs, to several Mac's. I used them until about 1998. Then I've been using mostly Windohz and occasionally Mac's. This article is interesting... and it makes some great points about investing for the future. I wonder if Jobs has read it.

=================================================

What to Do with Apple's Cash
Launching a venture capital fund would allow Apple to fund its vision for the future without making awkward acquisitions

by Arik Hesseldahl
Technology

* Wireless Rivals Primed for Mobile TV
* XM-Sirius Grilled on the Hill
* The Face of the $100 Laptop
* Negroponte's Sweet Brainstorm
* Goodbye to Office? Not Yet

What would you do with $12 billion?

You might have two ideas in mind, neither of which is necessarily exclusive of the other: First, do some good; and second, make sure that money keeps growing.

It's the kind of question that the financial minds over at Apple (AAPL) have to consider, for that is about the amount of cash the company had on its balance sheet the last time it reported earnings on Jan 17.

If the last year is any judge, Apple's cash position—the combination of its cash on hand and short-term investments that can quickly be converted to cash—is growing at a rate of about a billion and change per quarter. It's high time Apple spread some of that cash around, and I think one good way to start would be to launch a venture capital fund.
Big Acquisitions Don't Work

Opinions will vary about what Apple should do with all that cash. At other companies, the urge to grow by acquisition is hard to resist. But history shows that large acquisitions in techdom generally don't work well. And as I look around the digital landscape, I don't see a company that Apple has any compelling reason to acquire. A few names that have come up in the past several years are Tivo (TIVO); Roxio, now part of Sonic Solutions (SNIC); YouTube, now part of Google (GOOG); Connectix, a software outfit now part of Microsoft (MSFT); and Universal Music, part of Vivendi Universal (V).

But Apple's not that kind of company. When Apple makes acquisitions, they tend to be focused on small companies that can be integrated into projects that are already developing internally. In 2002, Apple acquired EMagic, the small German company behind the professional music software Logic. That acquisition helped begat a popular Mac software program called Garage Band. Several of the applications built into what we now call iLife were cobbled together from the acquisition of a few small, smart, software outfits. So acquisitions—at least big ones—don't seem to be a priority.

In other cases, Apple has used its considerable cash reserves to ensure a solid supply of components, like the time it bought up a big slice of the NAND flash memory manufacturing capacity around the world from companies like Samsung and Hynix (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/26/05, "A Memorable Deal for Apple and Samsung").

And sure, Apple could make investor-friendly gestures like buying back some of its stock, or paying dividends like it did during the period from 1987 to 1995. And perhaps it will.
Seeding the Software

But think of what might happen with an Apple-backed venture capital arm, funded at say, an even $1 billion, parsed out over five years. Consider this: The market share for the Macintosh is back on the rise, and Mac OS X has more buzz around it than anything coming from that little company outside Seattle. The iPod is clearly the biggest thing in consumer electronics in a decade, and the iTunes Store is the one single force to contend with in the still-nascent age of digital media distribution. The iPhone may prove to be even bigger than the iPod, and may make iTunes even more important. Apple TV, though late (see BusinessWeek.com, 2/27/07, "Apple's TV Revolution Delayed") will round out an ever more exciting product portfolio around which an ecosystem will no doubt spring up—and to a large extent already has. But why not encourage it further?

What to Do with Apple's Cash

(page 2 of 2)
Technology

Third-party software availability for the Mac is still not always as good as it should be. Once you get beyond the big names, like Microsoft, Adobe (ADBE), Intuit (INTU) and a batch of others, the most prominent names in Mac software development are usually small companies with limited marketing resources. Gaming on the Mac, as I've written before (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/01/06, "Apple Needs to Get Its Game On") still lags far behind the Windows world. And while there's a healthy industry variously estimated to be worth more than $1 billion in iPod accessories, the ideas for products built around enhancing the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV are just now beginning to take shape.

I can't count how many times a software startup has come to me, shown me a great idea, and then said "We'll build a Mac version eventually." The most widely cited reason is that the company can't afford to develop both a Windows and Mac version at the same time, and Windows is where the market volume is. An investment stake from Apple would go a long way toward bridging this gap by helping small companies hire more developers, some of whom could be dedicated to Mac development. This might mean more simultaneous releases of Windows and Mac versions of cool new applications.
Beyond the Short Term

Think of the companies who do it already: Intel Capital (INTC) has invested $4 billion in 1,000 companies over the 15 years of its existence—$1 billion of that in 2006. Some 160 of them have been acquired by other companies, while another 150 have gone public, in both cases enriching Intel's bottom line in the process. Intel Capital's investments added $214 million to Intel's bottom line in its 2006 fiscal year.

But it's not always a winning year. In 2005, Intel Capital's holdings yielded a net loss of $45 million. You win some, you lose some, as they say, but getting richer in the short term isn't exactly the point. Intel's agenda is to use its considerable resources to help foster an environment where the demand for computers, servers, workstations, flash memory, and everything else it makes is constantly growing. Investing in a few dozen brilliant startups now could lead to a surge in demand for all these chips down the road.

Intel's not the only one with its own venture capital fund. Qualcomm (QCOM), the $7.5 billion wireless chip giant has one. Motorola (MOT), the world's second-largest handset maker, has Motorola Ventures, which has investments in companies like Dart Devices and Ruckus. IBM (IBM) does it, too. All of them have their own agendas and their own —often competing — visions for how they'd like to see the technology world turn out in the next decade or two, and they're putting money behind companies they see fulfilling those visions.
A Win-Win

Given Apple's impact over the course of the last decade, I'd argue that its long-term vision compares favorably with that of any of these companies, and its financial, technical, and aesthetic resources could go a long way with many small companies just starting now. An Apple investment would do much toward helping these companies grow, but also help Apple craft its strategic vision and shape the technology market of the future.

Apple wasn't always so successful. There was a time in the mid-1990s when the company had just enough cash to keep the doors open for two months. Those days are gone, and not likely to return—at least from the vantage point of today's market. It seems to me that Apple could do itself a lot of good by helping other would-be entrepreneurs start new companies with great new products that will contribute to the ever-growing Apple ecosystem. Over the long term it could probably do right by its shareholders in the process. And isn't that what success is all about?

Hesseldahl is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

Mike in Chi

You've started almost half the threads on this board, and you have the most posts on many of the threads. Frank, as dense as you are, can't you see the hypocricy in that. How can you even utter it?

And of course we're fascinated by the fart bubble with a wet lump in it that resides in your cranium. It defies logic, reason, and the probablity that eventually, even a crude, witless cretin can come up with something funny.
(You know what a crude, witless cretin is don't you? It's someone who only can come up with retard or ****tard as a retort)
Tell us again how you respect your elders. Ever the hypocrite, always the moron

GhettoRacer

Do I have to repeat again? Respect is reciprocated.... as long as bull**** remains bull****, that's what he will get. You on the other hand, seem to have a little bit of chi at least. Don't forget, for as long as you have a breath and you are alive, you can change. It's never too late, unless you are dead. Old people in their 80's has been shown to grow muscles when they do very light weight training. So as long as life force has not left your body, you can make the body and your mind do amazing things.

Mike in Chi

Yesterday you were advocating Anti-Capitalism. Today you're interested in how Apple can best invest its cash.

Ever the hypocrite, always the moron.

Let me ask you again:


Or intelligent.

GhettoRacer

Mike you will never understand me, so don't even try. Now, back to my musing...

There are evils in this world. Why?!?! God bless these woman and children. RIP.

=================================================


Mass murder suspect in confession
Surendra Koli
Surendra Koli was given 24 hours to decide about the confession
One of the two men accused of the rape and murder of at least 19 women and children in India has made a confession before a magistrate.

A video recording of Surendra Koli's statement has been made which will be used in evidence in the trial.

The details will be revealed only when the trial is underway.

Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant Koli were arrested in Noida, an industrial suburb of capital Delhi, in December.

The duo are in the custody of the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Consequences

Metropolitan Magistrate Chandrashekhar recorded Koli's statement in a video-conferencing room at Delhi's Patiala House Court. Journalists were kept out.

Koli offered to make a confession on Wednesday before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau.

Magistrate Lau explained to Koli the consequences of making a statement and gave him 24 hours to think about it.

Relative in Noida, Delhi
Distraught relatives say up to 40 children are missing in Noida

Koli returned to the court again on Thursday, saying he still wanted to make the statement.

Legal experts say the confession will be used as evidence during the trial and cannot be retracted.

Police and investigation agencies have recovered skulls and body parts from a drain outside the businessman's house in Noida.

Public resentment against the accused is high. No lawyers could be found who were prepared to represent them.

The court intervened and appointed three lawyers to defend Koli. Two later backed out saying they had received death threats.

In January, the two accused were attacked by a crowd of onlookers, as well as lawyers, outside a court in Ghaziabad, near Delhi.

Negligence

The CBI took over the case a fortnight ago amid anger at local police inaction.

Residents say as many as 40 children have disappeared in the area over the past two years.

The accused have been questioned by CBI officials and have also undertaken lie detector tests.

The crime has shocked the country with many people accusing the local police of negligence and dereliction of duty.

Many locals say police failed to act over the abductions and murders because many of those reported missing came from poor families.

Six Noida policemen have been sacked for alleged incompetence. Three senior officers are suspended.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6408071.stm

Mike in Chi

You can do it Frank. You can change. You don't have to be a hypocritical moron.

Learn from your elders here. You are still in denial. You can change. It will only take 12 steps

Mike in Chi

Alright, alright, I'll never understand you.
But you have to admit, I was right about "the fart bubble with a wet lump inside residing in your cranium" wasn't I?

GhettoRacer

This one is interesting... $7 mil is a good amount of money, but that THAT MUCH if one is a successful business person. This story kind of stinks. I think I'm more sided with the businessman. But... never know... just my instincts.

===================================================


India wants suspect extradited
Ottavio Quattrocchi
Ottavio Quattrocchi is on Interpol's wanted list
India has made a formal request to Argentina for the extradition of an Italian businessman named in a major bribery case.

Ottavio Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on 6 February. A court released him on bail last week, but barred him from leaving the country.

He is accused in the Bofors corruption case, one of the highest-profile and longest-running in India.

Authorities say Mr Quattrocchi took $7m in bribes in the deal, which he denies.

The businessman says he is the victim of a political vendetta in India.

'No proof'

A team of federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrived in Argentinian capital Buenos Aires on Thursday and filed paperwork needed for the extradition with the foreign ministry.

"We have submitted our documentation. It is now for the Argentinian authorities to take the case," CBI director of prosecution, SK Sharma, told reporters outside the foreign ministry.

But Mr Quattrocchi's lawyer, Alejandro Freeland, said, "There is not a single proof (against my client). We cannot understand how this order of arrest is alive."

Argentinian officials declined to comment.

India has no extradition treaty with Argentina.

Earlier in the week, India's Supreme Court gave the federal government and its top investigative agency, the CBI, a week to explain why it was not informed of Mr Quattrocchi's arrest.

Politically sensitive

Mr Quattrocchi was arrested almost a month ago, but news of his arrest emerged only last week.

The issue is extremely politically sensitive as Mr Quattrocchi was known to be a friend of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born chief of India's governing Congress Party.

The issue has also rocked the ongoing Parliament session this week with opposition MPs calling for Mr Quattrocchi's immediate extradition.

Swedish firm AB Bofors was alleged to have paid $1.3bn in bribes over the sale of 400 Howitzers to India in 1986.

Bofors howitzers in action in Kashmir
Illegal commissions were allegedly paid on the Bofors guns

The Indian authorities say Mr Quattrocchi was the intermediary in the deal, and received $7m in bribes and other illegal payments.

For much of the last decade, they have been trying to get Mr Quattrocchi extradited to India.

Interpol has issued a notice against him.

Mr Quattrocchi says he is a victim of a political vendetta because of his links to the Gandhi family.

The Bofors case led to the election defeat of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989, two years before he was assassinated.

In 2004, Mr Gandhi was posthumously cleared of any wrongdoing in the deal, which was signed when he was in office.

In May 2005, three of the billionaire Hinduja brothers were acquitted in the case.

The Delhi High Court threw out all charges against Britons Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja and Swiss citizen Prakash Hinduja for lack of evidence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6410533.stm

GhettoRacer

Err, I meant to say $7 mil doesn't seem that much for a well run profitable business mid size business...

Mike in Chi

Actually Frank, the last sentence is very funny, but it wasn't intentional, so it doesn't count.

Bull

Here we have the endless loop tape that runs every time we really get under his skin and **** him off big time! Somebody must have provided this reply to him, but only gave him this one. So, he uses the above over and over and over.........I love to drag it out of this low-life every few days, just to show how completely lost he is in a creative environment.

Maybe Dung Pile will change the tape when he gets back from his stint as Suzuki San's House Boy.

Veloce Raptor

He is sofa king easy to play, over & over again. And he is not quite smart enough to see that we are playing him like a fiddle.