Bird’s Eye View

WHOA!

Intel settled with AMD to settle a legal battle over what AMD says are sketchy sales tactics. Despite the announcement of the settlement, Intel still has to deal with the antitrust charges filed by AMD to several governments.

The biggest of these is in Europe. Regulators fined Intel a record $1.45 billion over what they say was “bullying” PC makers into using Intel chips over AMD. European regulators are aware of the settlement, but, they also say it doesn’t mean Intel doesn’t have to comply with the European antitrust law.

AMD charges that Intel has used threats and financial incentives to keep AMD’s market share from rising above 20%. AMD has quoted a manager from Toshiba as saying the incentives from Intel are “like cocaine.” Similar statements have been made by reps from Gateway Computer Corp.

Intel has defended its actions, saying they are legitimate and that they benefit consumers.

AMD’s stock rose $1.19, a whopping 22%, to $6.51. Intel dropped 6 cents to $19.78.

Intel is still facing other legal issues in Korea, where a lawsuit was filed in New York by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. This filing has prompted investigation into the allegations by none other than the US Federal Trade Commission.

Read the full story here.

This is really cool.

The Unabridged Version

The guy who did this must have had a lot of time on his hands. Or maybe he just likes to look at statistical data and show people what it translates to. Either way, it is really cool.

According to the Communications Workers of America (CWA), America ranks 28th in the world in internet connection speeds. Who is leading the pack? South Korea is. And with a whopping 20.4 mbps! That’s 4 times faster than the US average - 5.1 mbps :(  Next in line is Japan with 15.8, Sweden with 12.8 and the Netherlands with 11.0 mbps.

In a recent study, it was found that the average US download speed only increased by nine-tenths of a megabit per second for 2008 - 2009. Booooo.

18% of people who took a speed test reported download speeds below 768 kilobits per second - can’t even be called basic. Tisk tisk.

Things aren’t all bad, especially if you live in the northeastern corner of the US.

Came across this story on one of my favorite websites. This has probably gone by mostly unnoticed by much of the worlds population. Here is the caption:

Eight major undersea Internet communication cables cut in 2008: We most definitely do live in interesting times

We certainly do…check out the story here.

This brings to mind some questions. How did it happen is the first. Aren’t these cables located on the ocean floor? Were they cut close to the shore? What were they cut by? Why stop the Internet? If you look at the diagram, you can see that it is no small task. 2 layers of braided steel cable. Conspiracy theorists are going to have a hay day with this one. Especially since industry experts say that, on average, 1 cable per year is accidentally severed.

Who is attempting to stop the flow of information and why? Are they attempting to stop the flow to or from these places? Both?

The world has said goodbye to a true American Pop Culture Icon, Bettie Page.  Bettie became the most well known and recognized pin up model in the 1950’s. As luck would have it, Bettie was discovered one day in October by an amateur photographer. Shortly after, her image began appearing in lingerie and skimpy swimwear on the barracks of soldiers and admirers everywhere.

Bettie is quoted saying “I never thought it was shameful. I felt normal.” when asked about posing for her racy pictures.

Bettie acquired her signature look in 1951, when she began posing in S&M pictures. Dark times were ahead for Page as a congressional investigation was begun. Moralists denounced the pictures as perverted, causing Bettie to withdraw from public exposure.

Page suffered a heart attack last week and was rushed to the hospital, she never regained consciousness. She was 85 years old.

Here are a few gems.