How Microsoft Competes
Michael A. Cusumano and Richard W. Selby (2001.06.19 )
Beside Bill Gates, what does Microsoft have that contributes to their success? The authors spent a couple of years trying to find out. Their conclusions: seven complementary strategies and a small set of basic principals of operation. First, find smart people who know the technology and the business (market). The firm, from the beginning, has […]
Broadband Bruise
Alan Luber (2001.06.17 )
The other day, I became a victim of a broadband crime that apparently is becoming more and more common. Allow me to explain. I have three static IP addresses on my home network. I am not without concern for security — I run a firewall on each of my computers, I password-protect important documents, etc.. […]
Green Bigots vs. Human Beings
Thomas Sowell (2001.06.16 )
The red-legged frog is only the latest of many supposedly endangered species whose habitats may be kept off-limits to human beings, even if that means stopping the building of much-needed housing. We have grown so used to having the interests of millions of human beings sacrificed for some allegedly endangered species that we no longer […]
Free Trade with a Slave State?
Michael J Hurd (2001.06.16 )
Q: Should a free country trade with people who live under a dictatorship (e.g. China, Cuba)? And, if not, should the government of the free country restrict such trade with dictatorships? A: If you enjoy living in a free country, then you benefit from that freedom whether you care about political ideology or not. Unfortunately, […]
More Dads, Less Crime
Larry Elder (2001.06.15 )
“America’s Greatest Problem: Not Crime, Racism or Bad Schools — It’s Illegitimacy,” reads Chapter 5 from my book, “The Ten Things You Can’t Say in America.” Absentee, non-involved fathers are the primary reason behind recent Department of Justice statistics showing that 32 percent of young blacks possess criminal records, versus 7 percent of their white […]
Black Students as Meal Tickets
Walter Williams (2001.06.14 )
THERE’S A STORY about a visitor to an Indian reservation who sees a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer uncontrollably crying. He asks, “Why are you crying?” The officer sobs, “My Indian died.” The officer didn’t give a hoot about the Indian, he was worried about his budget that was determined by the number of “his” […]
McVeigh: King of the Hippie Nazis
Michael J Hurd (2001.06.13 )
Q: You condemn Gore Vidal for claiming that Timothy McVeigh has a sense of justice. You’re wrong. However unfortunate his target due to his ignorance of the presence of the day care center, remember that the Department of Justice and the FBI’s HRT did know that there were children present at Waco when they launched […]
Fuel Cells: The Future of Energy?
Tom Koppel Ph.D. and Jay Reynolds (2001.06.12 )
Part 2 of 2 By Tom Koppel Ph.D. and Jay Reynolds There are six major types of fuel cells with potential for a variety of commercial applications. The first to be fired into space was the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, which was developed by GE and performed successfully on the Gemini orbital missions […]
The Poverty Pimp’s Poem
Thomas Sowell (2001.06.11 )
MY FELLOW-ECONOMIST WALTER WILLIAMS has for years kept track of how much money it would take to lift every American man, woman and child in poverty above the official poverty level. That sum has consistently been some fraction of the money actually spent in “anti-poverty” programs. In other words, if you gave every poor person […]
New State Regulations During “Deregulation” are the Cause of California’s Energy Crisis
Mark Da Cunha (2001.06.10 )
The attacks against deregulation of the California power industry by the enemies of capitalism are attacks against a straw man. Deregulation means that government removes onerous regulations that violate the rights of producers and consumers to trade freely (markets do not need nonobjective regulations to control traders, but objective laws to protect rights). California never […]
Small Business Owners Speak Out
Conrad F. Meier (2001.06.09 )
A new national survey, sponsored by the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) and co-sponsored by the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC), National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reveals considerable support among small business owners for market-based solutions addressing the health insurance needs of the nation’s 43 million uninsured citizens. Kate Sullivan, […]
Self Confidence for Children
Michael J Hurd (2001.06.09 )
Q : My wife and I want to teach our four-year-old son to have self-confidence. How can we teach him? A: This is too vast a subject to appropriately answer in a short column. I can, however, give you some general principles. Here they are: Make sure you are confident about yourself, first. Credit yourself […]
SAT Spat Overlooks Real Admissions Barrier
Lance T. Izumi (2001.06.08 )
In proposing to drop the SAT I from the University of California’s admissions process, UC President Richard Atkinson implied it is the SAT that blocks most black and Hispanic students from entering the UC system. But even if the SAT I were dropped tomorrow, the vast majority of black and Hispanic California high school students […]
Deciding Upon A Career
Michael J Hurd (2001.06.07 )
Q: Eleven years ago, I chose my college major essentially on a whim, because I took a class in it. I enjoyed the subject and wanted to decide on a major quickly. I stayed in the field (recently obtaining a Ph.D.) all these years merely to avoid conflict, and to follow the “path of least […]
