] Federal regulators say the specialists engaged in two
] illegal trading schemes: using knowledge of a trade to
] deal in front of it, and "interpositioning," which occurs
] when a specialist intervenes in a trade rather than
] matching buy and sell orders.
]
] The 15 specialists indicted, all but two of whom have
] left their firms, were members of the New York Stock
] Exchange's five major specialist trading companies. They
] are accused of making illegal trading profits from
] interpositioning of $13.4 million and costing investors
] more than $19 million from trading for their firms'
] accounts ahead of customers.

This is how the little guy always gets screwed.

15 Specialists From Big Board Are Indicted

] The Federal Communications Commission announced Friday
] that states cannot require regional phone companies to
] sell high-speed Internet service as a stand-alone
] product.

DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!

How is it that the Republicans have gone from 'fiscal conservatism' to 'corporate philantrophy'? This is the largest corporate welfare present with a bow on top since Haliburton got to 'repair' Iraq.

FCC: Phone companies don't have to sell DSL as a stand-alone product - 03/27/05

] While defending its policies in court, the FCC will need
] to address several issues related to broadband. For
] instance, should new services like voice over Internet
] Protocol, or VoIP, be regulated? And how should owners of
] networks recover their costs in areas that are expensive
] to serve?

This is ridiculous. I can't believe that the FCC would even consider continuing to support the practice of the Universal Service Fund. Why is it the government's job to subsidize providers to offer service to 'expensive' customers? Why can't they just mandate that everyone needs universal access at standardized pricing and let the damn industry figure out how to provide it in a cost effective manner which preserves their margin? Just because ole Grandma Jones out in the country 'costs more' to service using POTS doesn't mean that a Bell should get reimbursed with your tax dollars and phone bill for their incompentence. Give Grandma Jones a friggin wireless connection! Pulling cable out to her house in the middle of nowhere is STUPID!

Is an 'open' Internet a doomed concept?

] Health care, most specialists agree, is a field where
] information technology, if properly used, could help
] reduce medical errors and reduce costs. And several
] companies at the forum were venturing into health care.

I feel a bit more qualified to answer this question than most. The answer is yes and no. Yes, companies like Cisco and Sun and even Microsoft will cease (ceased?) to be growth companies because they cannot innovate and branch off fast enough to keep up with the innovation needed. No, in that what Silicon Valley really is, is a place where new ideas can gain support and traction to grow and prosper. If other places could facilitate this, they could easily rob the Valley of it's station as the best place to start a technology oriented business.

Is Silicon Valley similar to Detroit?

] Under the terms of the agreement, SunGard stockholders
] will receive $36 in cash for each share of SunGard common
] stock they hold. Some $500 million in bonds will remain
] outstanding. In a morning conference call with analysts,
] SunGard valued the total transaction at $11.3 billion,
] including common shares outstanding, stock options, debt
] and excluding cash on the balance sheet.

More proof that the market does not understand how to invest in technology infrastructure companies. The fact that they can go private, move quicker, not worry about quarterly earnings pressure, and actually MAKE MONEY is a big middle finger to Wall Street. I wonder what inFlow's strike price was set at?

Sungard goes private

] Aside from users of naked DSL services, an FCC decision
] would also affect "cord-cutters," a group of about 20
] million U.S. residents who don't have local phone lines
] and go solo instead with their cell phones. As a result
] of the possible FCC ruling, cord-cutters would have to
] buy a local phone line in order to get DSL.

FUCK THE FCC! This is a death blow to any CLEC or competitive DSL provider and is obviously pandering to the Bell Lobby.

Source: FCC to dress 'naked' DSL

] "John DeLorean was one of Detroit's larger-than-life
] figures who secured a noteworthy place in our industry's
] history," said Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and CEO.

I know that people will remember DeLorean for things that aren't too respectable, but he was one of the greats during the US automotive heydey and this is a good article about them.

Flashy carmaker DeLorean dies at 80

] The toy association has lost members whose business
] evaporated because their top-selling products were
] duplicated for Wal-Mart by lower-cost manufacturers in
] China, Mr. Conley said. He said he worried about the
] future of innovation, since smaller companies tended to
] be the ones with the smart new ideas. "If they can't
] survive and innovate," he said, "what's going to happen
] to the business?"

*THIS* is the real threat of global marketeers like WalMart and Microsoft. This same effect will happen to other industries in the near future, and it will ripple through large swaths of the economy as industries are disrupted by it. Full tilt growth has it's price.

More Gloom on the Island of Lost Toy Makers

] But lawmakers from both parties and a broad range of
] public interest groups criticized the changes, saying the
] FCC regulations had given large media companies too much
] control over what people see, hear and read.

DUH! Michael Powell might rank in the top three Bush administration officials who have done the most lasting and caustic damage to the US landscape in four short years. The entire communications realm is now exclusively dominated by large lobby players and innovation and competition has ceased.

F.C.C. Officials Say Chairman Plans to Resign Today

] Trying to spur innovation and ensure competition when
] those who control the plumbing have so much power is no
] easy matter.
]
] The lawyers and lobbyists, it seems, are the only sure
] winners.

A fairly useless article, but I meme it only because of the fact that they point out the current situation in DC and these two nuggest of truth that seem to dominate most of the transition to an information wave of society.

The FCC Frenzy Over Controlling Your Cable Box