gotta love alliteration.

so syntax-brillian filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. if you bought an Ölevia TV you're screwed (but hey, you got what you paid for).

anyways, here's what i don't understand. how does a company ever end up using "Ölevia" to brand anything, especially televisions?? every time i saw one of those televisions, i'd think of it as a supplement for a certain anal-leakage inducing fat substitute. ("Ölevia: relieve your anal leakage now") did nobody else at that company realize this? 

And just to be mean: I see a disproportionate number of companies that I track which are run by asians that end up sucking. I'm not going to include Yahoo on this list cause i think the perception that it's a sinking ship are largely overblown (people forget it's still a pretty kick-ass company) ... but stocks that I've tracked/owned which fall under this umbrella which have been under pressure over the past three years: Sigma Designs (SIGM), Cogent (COGT), and now Syntax-Brillian (BRLC). And really, I'm not sure if there's a single American-based company stock left that I track on a semi-occasional basis which has an Asian in an executive position.

 . . .

And the edits keep on coming... I've been feeling the pain that my coworker's has been feeling lately... thus the additional snark. I noticed my recent link collections page has some choice items (I've been keeping that page pretty active, but I doubt any of you care).

Some recent links I've read:

• Russia threatens military response to US missile defence deal - Times Online - "Russia threatened to retaliate by military means after a deal with the Czech Republic brought the US missile defence system in Europe a step closer. " I love how our foreign policy is dictated by the status quo - hey, Europe's never had problems with egotistical dictators or anything! (Ok, I got lazy with linking every word, but I guarantee there are at least four more examples if we go earlier on in the century) <sarcasm>Let's build these missile stations in countries which will almost assuredly always be our friends!</sarcasm>
  
• My Way News - Fed to curb shady home-lending practices - "Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke of the much-awaited rules in a broader speech Tuesday about the challenges confronting policymakers in trying to stabilize a shaky U.S. financial system." I propose the Fed just rebrand itself as the "Bank of America" (of course, they'd buy out the real company first). This would be a killer business model, because, hey, if your profits are a little low ... just print some more money! I can't believe somebody didn't think of this business model: printing money! Or maybe designing some trees to grow money. I'll propose these at the next MT meeting. (With as much gravitas as I can muster)
• Brit is banged up for boozed-up Dubai bunk up | The Sun |HomePage|News After a woman who lived in the UAE for three years was caught having sex with a man on a beach, she was given a warning. Then, when the policeman caught them a second time, she "is alleged to have called the cop a f****** Muslim **** and tried to hit him with her high-heeled shoe before being restrained." In a country she lived in for three years. One would assume that she figured out how to balance out the cultural differences of living in a conservative society. And somehow she's painted as the VICTIM?
  
• Congressional Approval Falls to Single Digits for First Time Ever - "This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job." And yet we keep re-electing them ... representative democracy at work, ladies and gentlemen! 
• The onion conundrum: no futures market, high volatility - Jun. 27, 2008 - "Onions have no futures market, yet their recent price volatility makes the swings in oil and corn look tame." I know there's a lot of people who (a) think speculators are the main reason behind the oil spikes and (b) we can do something about this ... but as someone with a strong free-market bias, articles like these reaffirm that the knee-jerk reactions usually never work.
  
• Philip Greenspun’s Weblog » Any VMware experts reading this blog? - "Isn’t it the job of programmers to render worthless the accomplishments of hardware engineers?" Amen to that (with much apologies to hardware engineers for my liberal use of for loops)
  
• Core team statement on replication in PostgreSQL - "Historically the project policy has been to avoid putting replication" Looks like Postgres finally woke up to the fact that mySQL kicked their ass even though Postgres had an (arguably) better product the whole way.
  
• Talking Business - On Day Care, Google Makes a Rare Fumble - NYTimes.com- "Having conquered the Internet, Google’s executives tend to believe that they can do pretty much everything better than everybody else — even day care." I don't know ... but seriously, if I ever get into a (perceived) position of success, please don't let this type of hubris consume me. 

Phew. Now you get an idea of what type of stuff I read on a daily basis.