Declining PC Sales - A factor of the economy, shifting demand, or both?

Fading sales

PC shipments: 257 million units expected in 2009, down 11.9 percent

Previous biggest drop: 3.2 percent in 2001, after dot-com crash

Semiconductor sales: Dropped in January to $15.3 billion, down 28.6 percent year over year and 11.9 percent from December

Mobile phone sales: Dropped in fourth quarter, but rose overall in 2008

Source: Gartner and Semiconductor Industry Association

These stats give you an idea why Intel is currently in the process of massive layoffs, and major players in the industry including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Dell all saw steep declines in stock prices. This downturn will affect emerging markets, where technology companies live on the edge to survive. Without the growth in emerging markets we may be looking at slowed R&D for these companies, meaning slower technical advancements, meaning less fun for consumers and less growth for businesses alike. BAD!

Although, once again, this industry is probably just acting as a microcosm of the entire economy right now, so it's tough to say if the downturn is a sign of permanent market shift away from the PC model, or is just going through the trough of a regular cyclical model. Another theory to explain it off is that people are holding on to their current hardware longer because electronics are being considered "luxury" items and are probably taking a backseat to slightly more important things like food and shelter (damn you, stomach! I don't need you anyway).

Check out the full picture at this San Francisco Chronicle article.

Word of the Day!

in⋅cre⋅du⋅li⋅ty [in-kri-doo-li-tee, -dyoo-]
–noun
The quality or state of being incredulous; inability or unwillingness to believe.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME incredulite < L incrēdulitās. See incredulous, -ity

Synonyms:
disbelief, skepticism, doubt.

Antonyms:
faith.

Beard, Beard, Beard.

While talking about growing my "proposal beard" for the current stretch we are in at work, my buddy showed me this video which goes a little further to dissect the power of the beard:



Since I definitely want to rehearse my battle with the universe (you'd be foolish not to), I'll keep my beard until the bitter end of this proposal submission!

University Degrees - Do they still hold the same value?

This topic stems from an article written on Cbc.ca by Heather Mallick discussing the validity of a university degree. She's basically arguing that because everyone nowadays is walking around with a degree and employers are seeing it as a "first-step" it is just a tax-saving money sink for the institutions and governments involved, with relatively little benefit to the student. Essentially, she believes universities should go back to only providing education to the top tier students who show considerable aptitude, instead of accepting students with lower standards and dragging them along for at least for years while the student doesn't even know what he/she wants to do.

I'll start by saying that without trying to be elitist, I do agree with some of the basic points put forward by Mallick. First of all, we all know there is a significant percentage of people in university who just shouldn't be - usually with the help of parental coercion. Stuff like, "you have to do it", "you won't get a job otherwise" or "I saved for years to get you in" are common things to hear. So, trimming out the people who don't want to in the first place would be a good step. That bumps up the value of a degree a little bit.

Secondly, I think many universities DO currently accept people with lower than acceptable marks. I seriously think that if you aren't trying in high school, chances are you're not going to magically turn it around in university. It's a waste of time for all parties involved, and if you do scrape through, congrats, you've just devalued your degree for everyone else. You've probably found the "academic system" itself to be boring, and there are many other things that could make you just as much money that you would be much more interested in: specialized trades, armed forces, peripheral professional services, colleges, sports, music, film, writing, etc, etc, etc.

But, one thing I will argue with is the value of the experience. Over a 4 year period in university, you learn a lot about yourself in a lot of different ways. No matter what, you're probably going to grow in a bunch of different ways, and in ways you'd never expect. This is one of the greatest values of a degree - it has personal meaning and it's a salute to yourself that you've achieved growth. So basically, even if its extrinsic value is declining because everyone is getting one and it's seen as a necessity in most of today's job market, it still has intrinsic value and provides confidence for people moving forward in life.

So in the end, although a lot of deserving people are having to go further academically to differentiate themselves from the pack, making university degrees generally achievable is probably a boost to the morale of people as a whole. And I'm all for that.

My false hope is already waning....

Wells out with hamstring strain - Center fielder expected to miss one month after reaggravating injury.

The Blue Jays have experienced life without Vernon Wells before, and the club is preparing for precisely that once again this spring. Toronto's center fielder suffered a strained left hamstring during a workout on Monday, and he is expected to be sidelined at least one month.

Read on at bluejays.com

Are you a fan of movie butter?

I heard a ridiculous stat a few months ago from a friend that a tablespoon of movie butter had about 50 grams of fat. I was like, "50 GRAMS?!?! That's the near-equivalent of two Big Macs!"

In fact, mathmatically speaking, it's
x= Big Mac
y= 1 Tbsp. Movie Butter

y=2x-1

For those who question the constant, don't. It's there because I want it to be. Makes it look professional.

Anyway, there's more to the story than you think. Apparently even the popcorn itself is tainted! I'm not sure I even wanted to know that. And it's not only theatre popcorn, but microwave popcorn as well. Here's an excerpt:

The popcorn you find at the movie theater and in microwave boxes is likely to have been raised with the aid of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, and fumigants. For a less-than-soothing bedtime read on this delightful subject, download the Popcorn Agri Chemical Handbook. This chemo-phobe's horror story includes a section on "tolerances" -- that is, details on just how much pesticide the EPA will accept in your movie-time snack. If you don't have time to curl up with this PDF, let me cut to the chase: The list of acceptable chemical residues is long and includes malathion, a nasty organophosphate.

To make things worse:

You know the fake but yummy buttery smell that wafts out of microwave popcorn bags? Until very recently, it was due to a flavoring agent, diacetyl, which causes the serious, potentially deadly, and ignobly-nicknamed disease popcorn lung, that has sickened factory workers who inhaled the stuff. After popcorn lung sickened a consumer -- a Colorado man who ate a whole lot of microwave popcorn -- many big popcorn makers pulled it from their products. Despite pressure from lung doctors, public interest groups, citizens, unions, politicians, and so forth, the FDA still classifies diacetyl, as "Generally Recognized as Safe" (GRAS). California, meanwhile, is trying to ban it.

Read the full article here.

Meanwhile, I'm going to go brainstorm for another decent movie snack. Anyone have any ideas?

A quick synopsis of Friday the 13th

*Spoilers*

I found this funny as I was reading the user reviews for the new Jason remake (Friday the 13th). I guess what do you really expect? This review was done by Tom Foolery on IMDB.

In fact this movie raised nothing but questions. Who killed Mrs. Voorhees? What ever happened to her? Why did Jason miraculously come back from the dead? Why was his body still intact after all those years in the lake? Why does Jason wear a mask? How did he keep the rats from eating his mother's head? Why did the local cops not bother investigating anything? How did Jason learn to hook up electricity to his camp? Why didn't the power company notice nobody's paying the electric bill for an abandoned summer camp? Why would Jason keep some girl chained up in his basement? Why do all the locals of Crystal Lake appear to have come from Texas? Why did they bother doing makeup for Jason when they show his face for maybe two frames of the whole movie? Why does Jason pop out of the lake at the end with his mask on? What were they thinking? Why did I see this miserable attempt to remake a great movie? Why am I wasting more time on a bad review? Why are you still reading?

All in all, a terrible movie.

"I am better than your kids"

Introducing "The Shitmobile"

*Warning* This contains some serious kid bashing, but I owe you a dollar if you don't laugh while reading it, enjoy the captions:

Kids Art 1

Don't forget to click to Part 2:

Kids Art 2

The fun never ends with Arnold...

Ok, I'm having WAAAY too much fun with this. This one goes out to Skinner - may Arnold never die.

Why do I find this so funny?

I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

- French Soldier in "Monty Python and The Holy Grail"

Obama comes to Canada

Well, he's here, and with a very clear agenda it seems. The economy and Afghanistan will be the two topics covered off specifically.

Canada's position is clear on the Afghanistan mission. A total withdrawal of military troops and a shift towards humanitarian support, development, and peacekeeping. This is where Canada's presence should be felt anyway. It's what the nation is known for and excels at. I don't think Obama will disrespect the country in any way for withdrawing, however disappointed his nation might be at our actions.

My main concern is how the two leaders will deal with the issue of the $800 billion stimulus named "Buy American". The mandate of this stimulus is to force Corporate America to purchase only US supplied iron, steel, and manufactured goods for the creation of products.

Although Obama states that the US has no intention of breaking any NAFTA laws, they may very well violate the intent of those laws - to preserve the equilibrium of global trade markets. Bluntly put, a protectionist act of this nature could throw Canada's already precarious exporting market (our country's KEY market) off the brink of recession into depression.

Obama's counterpoint is as follows:

My administration is committed to making sure that even as we take steps to strengthen the U.S. economy, that we are doing so in a way that actually over time will enhance the ability of trading partners, like Canada, to work within our boundaries.

Obviously, this is something that will be played out in the coming months, but without clear direction on how Buy America will work, I'm not convinced our country won't be on the losing end.

Scott's video game band for the win.

So, my brother is becoming my greatest hero. Why? Because he is bringing people like this back to life:



That's right, a video game band. As soon as they have a site I can link to with the music, I will link to it. I may even set up one myself, but I don't want to leak any more than I have to. But yeah, this stuff is gold!

The Flash man theme is the first of what I would consider a grand many of his video game themes they are doing on a MACBOOK, no less. These sound awesome and I can't wait to hear more. It's amazing what you remember when you hear the songs again.

Apparently the FF6 battle theme is next in the pipeline....can't wait!

By the way...

For anyone who did pay any attention to my post below about the collapse of the dollar, well.... it happened. Now let's just see when it plays out to its final conclusion of sinking below the euro in terms of world currency reserves. I would expect we'll be off the US Dollar Standard by 2015. And for anyone who thinks that the recession in the States won't affect Canada, or specifically Newfoundland & Labrador, well think again. Spin offs of spin offs of spin offs.... the effects are wide and felt by all.

The aim of the member states is to make the euro as strong international reserve currency as the U.S. dollar is. Also, the unified currency lowers the barriers to trade within the single economic area, which has been the core target ever since the first plans for unified European currency were laid out in late 1960s.

Forex Guide
Euro Currency History

I'm back...maybe?

I just shook the dust off this thing...apparently it's been over a year since I posted. Which is completely and utterly UNACCEPTABLE.

I'm going to make a better effort at keeping on top of things this time, hopefully to the enjoyment of my legions of fans.

Might as well kickstart it with something that has currently rebounded in our workplace - the wondrous tale of Super Bingo.



Mmmmm...that's too hot.