Fractals of Change: April 2009

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8 posts from April 2009

April 29, 2009

Stimulus Delayed Is Depressing

Some programs meant to be funded under ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act aka the stimulus bill) are dangerously delayed in getting under way. It is still not possible to submit applications for broadband or smart grid or e-health projects (just to name a few) because no final rules hav More...

April 26, 2009

PCs Under Fire

Smart reader Cletus White responded to my post predicting that netbooks will replace many PCs with this comment:

"Netbook, yes maybe...but I read your blog from a facebook link and responded here More...

April 22, 2009

Ryan InterContinental

Why is the luxury InterContinental like low-cost no-frill Ryanair? Read on.

What a deal! Mary went on Priceline and got us three nights in the Athenaeum InterContinental Athens for $100 night, just a little more than we paid for the three star Acropole Hotel in Delphi.

At check-in More...

April 19, 2009

How Projects Get Selected for Stimulus Funding

There's almost a trillion dollars of stimulus money available nationally under the American Reconstruction and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). There will be somewhere between $800 million to one billion available in Vermont. Despite these staggering numbers, only a fraction of the projects which people More...

April 16, 2009

On Executing Flawlessly

Every speaker at Vice President Joe Biden's stimulus czar summit told us that the act required us to be "extremely transparent". One woman went a bit further. "The press'll be watching you", she reminded us. "If you make a mistake, they'll be all over you. So you have to execute flawlessly," she More...

April 12, 2009

The Right Way to Stop Piracy

The crews of both the container ship Alabama and the USS Bainbridge just gave a good practical antipiracy course. The crew of the merchant ship fought back and avoided leaving the pirates in possession of a big ship full of hostages; Captain Phillips was apparently especially b More...

April 10, 2009

It’s The Netbook, Stupid

Personal computers are an obstacle to broadband use. They're complicated, expensive, heavy, take forever to boot up – and unnecessary. Ironically I'm writing this post on a computer because I'm on a plane, one of the few places (besides rural America and developing nations) where broadband isn't More...

April 05, 2009

The Most Sought After Money in the Stimulus Bill

Most of the money coming to states under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka ARRA aka the stimulus bill) is for very specific purposes and must go to very specific programs. Usually, but not always, there is also a maintenance of effort (MOE to us bureaucrats) requirement which assure More...

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