Ready, Fire, Aim! - Mihail's Public Blog

From Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Two San Francisco entrepreneurs came up with this business idea while working out at a gym according to this San Francisco Chronicle story:

Give Something Back sells office supplies, competing with heavy-hitting corporate giants such as Office Depot and Boise Cascade. True to Hannigan's vision, GSB donates its after-tax profits to a variety of community organizations in Northern California. Since its inception, the company has donated more than $2 million to charitable causes, using Newman's Own food products as a model and inspiration.

Founded in 1982 by actor Paul Newman, Newman's Own has given $125 million to charity, all from post-tax profits.

From Wednesday, January 22, 2003

San Francisco multimillionaire and husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Richard Blum has made a $2 million donation to a leading thinktank to study how poverty can be reduced according to this San Francisco Chronicle story.

I am so glad someone gets it that the war on terrorism can only be won in the long term by starting to understand the reasons why young men (and women) can be convinced to become modern-day suicide-bombers etc. I believe it is the lack of opportunity and education, prevalence of poverty and disease, that makes so many young people across the Third World feel that they have no options.

Blum's gift to the Brookings Institution will fund research aimed at influencing the debate in Washington over America's foreign aid spending. President Bush has called for creating a Millennium Challenge Account that expands foreign aid by $10 billion over the next three years, but that idea faces a tough path as budget deficits widen and the public and Congress question overseas spending....

"We have to start dealing with the root causes of why we had 9/11," said Blum, chairman of Blum Capital Partners, a 28-year-old San Francisco-based merchant banking firm that has stakes in numerous companies, including Playtex Products and URS, an international engineering firm.

From Tuesday, January 28, 2003

The closely contested election for Director General of the WHO has finally ended after two ties according to this Press Trust of India story in the Hindustan Times. One of my closest friends Brian was working on the runner up's campaign in Geneva and is obviously disappointed but I hope that the WHO veteran who was elected to head it will do a good job as "WHO's chief technical and administrative officer [who] sets the policy for the organisation's international health work."

[South Korean] Jong Wook Lee was selected with 17 votes by the WHO's 32-member executive board against 15 votes for his main rival, the Belgian head of the UN's programme against HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Peter Piot, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters.

Since December 2000, Lee, aged 57, has headed the Geneva-based UN health agency's anti-tuberculosis programme. He joined WHO in 1983.

From Tuesday, January 28, 2003

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $200M for an international competition meant to encourage scientists to find solutions for the leading causes of death in developing countries according to this New York Times story (registration required):

The aim is to save many of the millions of lives lost each year to malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition and other pressing health problems, Mr. Gates said in announcing the grant yesterday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland. In speaking there, Mr. Gates, the founder of Microsoft, underscored the effects of poor health in stifling the economies of developing countries.

In creating the grant, Mr. Gates said he had been inspired by the success of a German, David Hilbert, who challenged his fellow mathematicians in 1900 to solve 23 problems over the next century. Dr. Hilbert's challenge led to mathematical breakthroughs, opened up fields of study and contributed to the development of computers.

From Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Now if only India could spend $100B on other needs of the country, maybe Pakistan would do the same, and the people of these populous countries would fare much better. According to this New York Times story (registration required):

Leading military equipment makers from around the globe are aggressively promoting their products to India's huge defense market, with its $100 billion in expected spending in the next decade.

Scores of companies converged in Bangalore last week for Aero India 2003, a trade show held every two years for aircraft and military companies. They included companies from the United States, Britain, France, Russia and Israel — countries that dominate the global military supplies trade. American companies had missed the last two shows because of sanctions imposed by President Clinton. Those sanctions have been lifted by President Bush.

From Wednesday, February 12, 2003

At the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, federal officials urged a greater use of the new rapid HIV test that's now available according to this New York Times story (registration required):

The test, which the Food and Drug Administration approved in November, can provide results in 20 minutes rather than the few days it takes to get results of the standard H.I.V. test. In many cases, patients who have taken the standard test have failed to return to learn the results, hampering efforts to control the epidemic

...An estimated 800,000 to 900,000 Americans are living with H.I.V. But about 280,000 do not know that they are infected, and the finger-stick test whose wider use was urged here today is intended to identify many of them.

From Wednesday, February 12, 2003

While the lifting of tariffs on textiles et al will have an incredible impact on poorer countries where textiles are a major export, the farm subsidies provided by the US government to American farmers will still remain a major issue, according to this New York Times story (registration required):

As the first stage in negotiations to expand free trade throughout the Western Hemisphere, the Bush administration is offering to lift all tariffs on textiles and apparel within five years.

...Last year, the United States approved an 80 percent increase in farm subsidies, promising to pay the nation's biggest producers nearly $180 billion over 10 years to grow wheat, corn, soybeans, rice and cotton. One-third of those crops are exported, amounting to a huge unfair trade barrier, according to many agricultural and trade experts.

From Saturday, February 15, 2003  

Mayor Bloomberg may have made an anonymous $10M donation to support many of the same arts organizations that are suffering in the face of his budget cuts according to this New York Times story (registration required):

There are times when disgruntled New Yorkers, frustrated by crippling budget cuts, are known to implore the billionaire mayor to open his checkbook and help plug the city's budget gap.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has done just that, again. This week, letters went out from the Carnegie Corporation to 162 small and medium-size cultural institutions around the city, informing them that they had been chosen to receive awards ranging from $25,000 to $100,000.

From Monday, February 24, 2003

Even with Roche reducing the price of one of the essential drugs Viracept used in treating HIV it is still baffling where George W. Bush came up with the low price he quoted in his State of theUnion address when he announced his $15B HIV/AIDS relief for Africa. Of equal concern is the lack of importance given by the Bush White House to those living with HIV within our borders. Responses to Roche's price move according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required)

But international humanitarian groups charged that Roche didn't cut Viracept's price as much as its competitors. Also, the groups said they often couldn't secure from local suppliers the discount price that Roche had pledged.

...Roche said it has taken steps to make sure the price of Viracept and other AIDS drugs are consistent and clear. In sub-Saharan Africa and other countries defined as "least developed" by the United Nations, an annual regimen of Viracept will cost about $900 a patient at current exchange rates, compared with $3,300 currently.

From Wed 2/26/2003 8:43 AM

With graduation rates falling, especially among minorities (55% for African-Americans, 53% for Latinos), the Gates Foundation is trying to turn things around with $31M for nine nonprofits to create 168 alternative schools according to this New York Times story (registration required):

 "When millions of children are not graduating, we have a civic, economic and social disaster on our hands," said Tom Vander Ark, the foundation's education director, adding that the gift is part of a campaign to create no fewer than 1,000 new schools in the next 18 months. "We think this is the most important problem in America, but what's so frustrating is that it's invisible. Very little attention is paid to the horrendous human toll that's going on."

After climbing in most of the 20th century and peaking in the late 1960's, the national graduation rate steadily declined, settling around 70 percent in the last few years, the Department of Education says.

From Fri 2/28/2003 12:50 PM

Dean Kamen, the man behind the Segway human transporter, unveiled his latest invention -- a portable water purifier for $1500 along with a generator for $3700 -- at the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, according to this San Francisco Chronicle story:

The purifier, combined with a new portable power generator also being produced by Kamen's Deka Research & Development Corp. of New Hampshire, could bring needed low-cost electricity and water to areas suffering the most from shortages of both, Kamen said.

...In addition, he said spending money on such technology could do more to help reduce hatred against America than hoping technology can make the nation more secure.

...The company claims the purifier can convert 75 percent of seawater and up to 95 percent of contaminated water into drinkable water, but it acknowledges that it does not yet have outside verification of the purifier's reliability.

From Fri 2/28/2003 12:50 PM

Dean Kamen, the man behind the Segway human transporter, unveiled his latest invention -- a portable water purifier for $1500 along with a generator for $3700 -- at the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, according to this San Francisco Chronicle story:

The purifier, combined with a new portable power generator also being produced by Kamen's Deka Research & Development Corp. of New Hampshire, could bring needed low-cost electricity and water to areas suffering the most from shortages of both, Kamen said.

...In addition, he said spending money on such technology could do more to help reduce hatred against America than hoping technology can make the nation more secure.

...The company claims the purifier can convert 75 percent of seawater and up to 95 percent of contaminated water into drinkable water, but it acknowledges that it does not yet have outside verification of the purifier's reliability.

From Fri 3/14/2003 1:12 AM

I'm not surprised at this news in the New York Times since many universities have built up pretty significant endowments and many have no desire to keep supporting them when there are so many other organizations needing money in these tough times:

For the first time in 15 years, charitable contributions to universities and colleges dropped last year, according to a survey of 960 institutions that will be released today. The figures provide some of the clearest evidence to date of the effect that a shrunken stock market and weakened economy are having on philanthropy.

Educational institutions vie with churches for distinction as the nation's top beneficiaries of philanthropy, but in the year that ended June 30, 2002, donations fell 1.2 percent, to $23.9 billion, compared with $24.2 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to the survey.

From Mon 3/31/2003 8:51 AM

Although one would have expected giving by foundations to have decreased last year, it has instead held steady according to this New York Times story (registration required):

Grants from the nation's more than 62,000 foundations in 2002 totaled $30.3 billion, basically keeping pace with those in the previous year, according to a survey to be released today by the Foundation Center, a research organization in New York.

But foundation executives and experts on philanthropy are bracing themselves for a decline next year, although no one was willing to guess how sharp reductions would be. Foundation giving did fall by 0.7 percent, a number that was statistically negligible but still the first decrease since 1983, after six consecutive years of double-digit growth.

From Sun 4/20/2003 1:15 PM

The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) is honoring a senior Nasdaq trader, Arthur J. Pacheco, of Bear, Stearns, at its 10th annual dinner in New York for his contributions to the nonprofit according to this New York Times snippet (registration required):

And he couldn't be happier: "N.F.T.E. does a great job teaching poor kids self-esteem," Mr. Pacheco said by telephone from his desk on the Bear, Stearns trading floor. "For a poor boy from the South Bronx, life has been pretty good to me."

The foundation, based in New York, teaches entrepreneurial skills to low-income youths aged 11 to 18.

It is not surprising to find a Bear, Stearns executive being honored for doing good works. Alan C. Greenberg, known as Ace, the firm's irrepressible former chairman, made it clear long ago to his top managers that he expected them to hand over at least 4 percent of their gross income to charity.

From Mon 6/2/2003 10:02 AM

I'm on my way to consolidating all my blogs into one, Ready Fire Aim. The way most of the world does it! Here are most of the entries from my third blog.

Thursday, April 24, 2003

The bandwidth cost perils of a digital giveaway

Glenn Fleischman on the perils of giving away things for free on the Internet according to this New York Times article (registration required). While things didn't turn out so bad in his case it is a good example of what might happen when something you decide to give away for free -- in his case the electronic version of a book he wrote last year -- suddenly gets promoted by another site resulting in a huge spike in traffic.

How much is a gigabyte? In my case, 10,000 downloads of my 922-page book represented about 200 gigabytes. With my account, I am charged additional fees based on the sustained traffic rate after excluding the busiest hours each month. The fees begin when I cross one megabit per second, or about half a gigabyte per hour; for 36 hours, I was well over that number, transferring more than 100 gigabytes during two of the busiest hours.

According to the records we had and discussions with the service provider, Level 3 Communications, I estimated that I could owe as much as $15,000. Level 3 couldn't give me an exact number until the end of the month, but the bandwidth graphs and reports boded ill.

posted by Mihail at 3:57 PM Comments (1) (link)

Saturday, April 19, 2003

RealNetworks signs up almost 1M subscribers paying $9.95/month

One subscription model seems to be working extremely well according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) about RealNetworks that's benefited from content that people want to watch and increasing numbers of broadband connections that at least make that content somewhat bearable to watch online. It ain't TV yet, but it is much, much better than it used to be.

While the giants scramble, one smaller company has divined a formula that seems to work. Seattle-based RealNetworks, once known mainly as a developer of software for playing multimedia online, has quietly built an online broadband content service that has attracted more than 900,000 subscribers at $9.95 a month.

What is Real's secret? It's streaming video, probably the most maligned type of content on the Internet....But video is beginning to be real and reliable for broadband users. It's not TV-perfect, yet it usually works, with decent flow and resolution, as long as you don't try to view it in a really large window or at full-screen size.

posted by Mihail at 7:40 PM Comments (0) (link)

Monday, February 24, 2003

Questioning Google's acquisition of Pyra

While Google and Pyra have yet to figure out all the potential synergies of Google acquiring Pyra (the creators of Blogger) there's much buzz in the blogosphere about what this deal means for Google, Pyra and blogging according to this New York Times story (registration required):

Google's recent purchase of Pyra Labs, creators of the Blogger service for publishing the online soapboxes known as Weblogs, was a happy ending for a much-loved startup that at times seemed on the edge of collapse.

...The combination of Pyra and Google seems unlikely on the surface. Google helps people find information online, while Blogger helps them publish it.

posted by Mihail at 1:43 AM Comments (0) (link)

Friday, January 31, 2003

Internet more important than TV, radio, magazines to those online

Interesting stats from the latest survey of Americans according to this AP story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required):

The Internet now exceeds television, radio and magazines in importance among online users, the third annual nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 households determined. Also, while the percentage of Americans who go online was essentially flat at 71% in 2002, Internet users are spending more time online, averaging 11 hours per week, up by more than an hour, or 10%, from a year earlier.

Only 53% of users believe most or all of what they read online, down from 58% a year earlier, according to the survey, which was to be released Friday by UCLA's Center for Communication Policy (ccp.ucla.edu). Further, nearly a quarter of those who expressed concern about using credit cards over the Internet say nothing can ease their fears.

posted by Mihail at 4:28 PM Comments (0) (link)

Profitability, stability comes to some Web publishers

While AOL Time Warner continues to struggle along with other technology-centric sites such as CNET, online contentn sites -- finananical and news in particular -- continue to thrive and are leading the online advertising turnaround according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

Online publishing revenue at MarketWatch.com Inc., Washington Post Co., New York Times Co., Dow Jones & Co. and others marched higher in the fourth quarter. While cautious, many of the companies see online advertising continuing to pull out of a two-year slump.

"The breeze is at our backs now," said Christopher Schroeder, publisher and chief executive of Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive. Revenue at the Post's online division was up 45% in the fourth quarter to $10.6 million, from $7.3 million a year earlier. Revenue for the year increased 18% to $35.9 million from $30.4 million in 2001. The company doesn't disclose profitability.

posted by Mihail at 8:42 AM Comments (0) (link)

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Glenn Reynolds: "This really isn't normal"

A New York Times article (registration required) on Glenn Reynolds and his well-known InstaPundit blog which he has written since August 2001 includes this amusing quote:

"Today, I was in the gym, on the treadmill, watching CNN," he said. "And as I was watching it, I was composing a blog entry in my head. Then I thought, 'This really isn't normal.' "

Money doesn't seem to be a motivator, either. While another prominent blogger, Andrew Sullivan, recently held an online "pledge week" that he says brought in about $85,000 for his site, Mr. Reynolds says he will not make a similar move, although he does have an online tip jar that has netted $1,800 since InstaPundit's introduction. Money would turn the blog into a job, he said. He doesn't want to spoil the fun.

"The Internet's just a big playground for guys like me," he said. "I've got all these ideas, and now there's a way to act on them."

posted by Mihail at 12:33 PM Comments (0) (link)

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Mass media can't deliver unique blog content

Many articles today on Steve Case's departure from AOL Time Warner as Chairman with everyone trying to pin down what it means for the online revolution. Does it signal the end of an era? Does it prove the skeptic right. And so on. One article in the New York Times (registration required) has an interesting quote about what people are looking for online, which may not be what traditional media has to offer. And this is exactly why blogs are so important -- they provide unique content that people cannot get from "mass media".

"Most people don't go online to see Warner movies or read Time Life magazines or watch CNN," said Vin Crosbie, managing partner of Digital Deliverance, a consulting firm. "They go online to communicate with one another and find information and content of interest to them that they can't get from mass media."

posted by Mihail at 9:43 AM Comments (0) (link)

Sunday, January 12, 2003

Hacker Mitnick's ban on surfing ending; first thing he'll check out--a blog

According to this New York Times interview (registration required) with Kevin Mitnick at one time the FBI's most-wanted hacker in the country who went to jail and wasn't allowed to go online for several years:

The ban on your Net surfing ends later this month. What's the first Web site you'll visit?

Labmistress.com. That's a Web site run by my girlfriend, and she keeps a daily blog on my activities and her activities. I wonder what she's writing that I don't know about.

Thursday, April 24, 2003

The bandwidth cost perils of a digital giveaway

Glenn Fleischman on the perils of giving away things for free on the Internet according to this New York Times article (registration required). While things didn't turn out so bad in his case it is a good example of what might happen when something you decide to give away for free -- in his case the electronic version of a book he wrote last year -- suddenly gets promoted by another site resulting in a huge spike in traffic.

How much is a gigabyte? In my case, 10,000 downloads of my 922-page book represented about 200 gigabytes. With my account, I am charged additional fees based on the sustained traffic rate after excluding the busiest hours each month. The fees begin when I cross one megabit per second, or about half a gigabyte per hour; for 36 hours, I was well over that number, transferring more than 100 gigabytes during two of the busiest hours.

According to the records we had and discussions with the service provider, Level 3 Communications, I estimated that I could owe as much as $15,000. Level 3 couldn't give me an exact number until the end of the month, but the bandwidth graphs and reports boded ill.

posted by Mihail at 3:57 PM Comments (1) (link)

Saturday, April 19, 2003

RealNetworks signs up almost 1M subscribers paying $9.95/month

One subscription model seems to be working extremely well according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) about RealNetworks that's benefited from content that people want to watch and increasing numbers of broadband connections that at least make that content somewhat bearable to watch online. It ain't TV yet, but it is much, much better than it used to be.

While the giants scramble, one smaller company has divined a formula that seems to work. Seattle-based RealNetworks, once known mainly as a developer of software for playing multimedia online, has quietly built an online broadband content service that has attracted more than 900,000 subscribers at $9.95 a month.

What is Real's secret? It's streaming video, probably the most maligned type of content on the Internet....But video is beginning to be real and reliable for broadband users. It's not TV-perfect, yet it usually works, with decent flow and resolution, as long as you don't try to view it in a really large window or at full-screen size.

posted by Mihail at 7:40 PM Comments (0) (link)

Monday, February 24, 2003

Questioning Google's acquisition of Pyra

While Google and Pyra have yet to figure out all the potential synergies of Google acquiring Pyra (the creators of Blogger) there's much buzz in the blogosphere about what this deal means for Google, Pyra and blogging according to this New York Times story (registration required):

Google's recent purchase of Pyra Labs, creators of the Blogger service for publishing the online soapboxes known as Weblogs, was a happy ending for a much-loved startup that at times seemed on the edge of collapse.

...The combination of Pyra and Google seems unlikely on the surface. Google helps people find information online, while Blogger helps them publish it.

posted by Mihail at 1:43 AM Comments (0) (link)

Friday, January 31, 2003

Internet more important than TV, radio, magazines to those online

Interesting stats from the latest survey of Americans according to this AP story in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required):

The Internet now exceeds television, radio and magazines in importance among online users, the third annual nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 households determined. Also, while the percentage of Americans who go online was essentially flat at 71% in 2002, Internet users are spending more time online, averaging 11 hours per week, up by more than an hour, or 10%, from a year earlier.

Only 53% of users believe most or all of what they read online, down from 58% a year earlier, according to the survey, which was to be released Friday by UCLA's Center for Communication Policy (ccp.ucla.edu). Further, nearly a quarter of those who expressed concern about using credit cards over the Internet say nothing can ease their fears.

posted by Mihail at 4:28 PM Comments (0) (link)

Profitability, stability comes to some Web publishers

While AOL Time Warner continues to struggle along with other technology-centric sites such as CNET, online contentn sites -- finananical and news in particular -- continue to thrive and are leading the online advertising turnaround according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):

Online publishing revenue at MarketWatch.com Inc., Washington Post Co., New York Times Co., Dow Jones & Co. and others marched higher in the fourth quarter. While cautious, many of the companies see online advertising continuing to pull out of a two-year slump.

"The breeze is at our backs now," said Christopher Schroeder, publisher and chief executive of Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive. Revenue at the Post's online division was up 45% in the fourth quarter to $10.6 million, from $7.3 million a year earlier. Revenue for the year increased 18% to $35.9 million from $30.4 million in 2001. The company doesn't disclose profitability.

posted by Mihail at 8:42 AM Comments (0) (link)

Thursday, January 16, 2003

Glenn Reynolds: "This really isn't normal"

A New York Times article (registration required) on Glenn Reynolds and his well-known InstaPundit blog which he has written since August 2001 includes this amusing quote:

"Today, I was in the gym, on the treadmill, watching CNN," he said. "And as I was watching it, I was composing a blog entry in my head. Then I thought, 'This really isn't normal.' "

Money doesn't seem to be a motivator, either. While another prominent blogger, Andrew Sullivan, recently held an online "pledge week" that he says brought in about $85,000 for his site, Mr. Reynolds says he will not make a similar move, although he does have an online tip jar that has netted $1,800 since InstaPundit's introduction. Money would turn the blog into a job, he said. He doesn't want to spoil the fun.

"The Internet's just a big playground for guys like me," he said. "I've got all these ideas, and now there's a way to act on them."

posted by Mihail at 12:33 PM Comments (0) (link)

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Mass media can't deliver unique blog content

Many articles today on Steve Case's departure from AOL Time Warner as Chairman with everyone trying to pin down what it means for the online revolution. Does it signal the end of an era? Does it prove the skeptic right. And so on. One article in the New York Times (registration required) has an interesting quote about what people are looking for online, which may not be what traditional media has to offer. And this is exactly why blogs are so important -- they provide unique content that people cannot get from "mass media".

"Most people don't go online to see Warner movies or read Time Life magazines or watch CNN," said Vin Crosbie, managing partner of Digital Deliverance, a consulting firm. "They go online to communicate with one another and find information and content of interest to them that they can't get from mass media."

posted by Mihail at 9:43 AM Comments (0) (link)

Sunday, January 12, 2003

Hacker Mitnick's ban on surfing ending; first thing he'll check out--a blog

According to this New York Times interview (registration required) with Kevin Mitnick at one time the FBI's most-wanted hacker in the country who went to jail and wasn't allowed to go online for several years:

The ban on your Net surfing ends later this month. What's the first Web site you'll visit?

Labmistress.com. That's a Web site run by my girlfriend, and she keeps a daily blog on my activities and her activities. I wonder what she's writing that I don't know about.

More on the PipeVine debacle. The closing of this company that processed nonprofit charitable donations for the United Way etc. is impacting a slew of nonprofits including one for which I serve on the board. In the latest news, California Attorney General has started an investigation into its affairs to determine whether charitable giving funds were used to cover administrative expenses and employee salaries according to this New York Times story (registration required):

PipeVine, which processed more than $100 million in charitable contributions last year, stunned the charity world on Monday when it sent out an e-mail message saying it had laid off its 55 employees and folded in the midst of "severe liquidity crisis." Two days later, it issued a statement saying it had uncovered accounting irregularities that masked a shortfall in revenues.