IBM aims to bolster partnerships amid weak economy

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• Bionic legs?.

  Wow.

  07/17/10

• The PCI uses a very specific industrial measure to represent the overall strength of the broader U.S. economy: diesel fuel sales at roughly 7,000 truck stops across the country.

  Economy: These Below-the-Radar Indicators May Signal Growth - BusinessWeek

  06/16/10

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  Ok, I need this: Fuji Instax Mini Instant Camera

  
  

  04/07/10

• Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said there is a 70 percent chance Apple will roll out a mobile search engine tailored for its iPhone within the next five years. As the search provider for the iPhone, Google sees what iPhone users are searching for, which can help it tailor software and services for its own mobile smartphones. This competitive advantage has not gone unnoticed by Apple. Building its own iPhone-centric search engine would help Apple shield Google from its App Store data, Munster said in a March 30 research note.

  Apple May Build a Search Engine to Shield iPhone Data From Google - Search Engines from eWeek

  04/04/10

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  stormicus:

  I always wondered what Manhattan would look like if the sea levels rose. Well, here you go.

  via DETHJUNKIE*

  
  

  04/04/10

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  Amazing workday look via www.thesartorialist.com

  
  

  04/04/10

• Including presales, Apple will sell 600,000 to 700,000 of the new tablet this weekend, according to estimates released by Piper Jaffray Gene Munster, more than twice the senior analyst’s earlier prediction of 200,000 to 300,000 first-weekend sales. More than 730 people in line at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store—more than the numbers that showed up for the iPhone or iPhone 3GS launches, he said.

  Analyst expects 700,000 iPads to sell this weekend | Apple - CNET News

  04/04/10

• BETHLEHEM, Pa. - St. Luke’s Hospital and Health Network plans to stop hiring people who are smokers, saying it hopes to improve the health of its 7,000 employees and reduce health costs. Beginning May 1, all prospective employees will be screened for nicotine and will be ineligible for a job if they test positive. Anyone rejected may take the test again in six months. Current employees will not be affected. Bob Zimmel, senior vice president of human resources, said the policy will be good for business as well as health, since it will reduce health insurance claims.

  Bethlehem hospital to stop hiring smokers | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/31/2010

  Wow—while I hate smoking and tried to get my staff to stop that did—i’m not sure I would want to work for a company that was this aggressive with testing of new employees. Will this increase productivity and cut costs as it is expected to “be good for business” or will this alienate staff and put the fear of big brother in them? Shouldn’t firms be pro-employee and pro-rights for their employees? At Apple, we believe in “assuming positive intent” and we seem to be doing well for ourselves.

  04/04/10

• A major shift in the way companies obtain software and computing capacity is under way as more companies tap into Web-based applications.

  How Cloud Computing Is Changing the World - BusinessWeek

  04/03/10

• Certainly, it’s not hard to find bad news within the report. For one thing, 162,000 new jobs is not even a drop in the bucket of the more than 8 million jobs lost since the recession began (and don’t forget the number of new jobs that need to be created simply to keep up with new entrants into the labor force). Also, a chunk of the new jobs last month were temporary U.S. Census positions. While temp hiring among private employers often is considered a leading indicator of future permanent jobs, that’s not the case for census work. And, ominously, long-term unemployment got even worse in March. A record 6.5 million people have been out of work for longer than six months.

  Jobs data has plenty of bad news to mar the good Personal Finance Daily - MarketWatch

  04/02/10