An article about the sneaky financial dealings of the telecom industry. Time Warner Telecom, Sonus, Qwest, Williams, Winstar, Global Crossing, Corvis, Tellium, Lucent, Sycamore, WorldCom, Alteon, Nortel, and others.

... The fact that companies and their executives profited from investments in fledgling suppliers may help explain why there was such a gross misallocation of capital in the sector, and why networks that cost billions to build fetch far less in bankruptcy auctions.

This article implies a problem that is much more broad then likely existed. There were a lot of these sort of relationships in the industry, and not just between big telecoms and small equipment companies, but also between small telecoms and big equipment companies. There are many reasons for getting involved in a deal like this. Telecoms want cheaper gear and good support for it. Equipment dealers want environments that push the technical limits of their gear and/or need large customers who validate their offerings in the marketplace. Throwing stock into the deal is little different then lowering a price. If the equipment didn't work, or wasn't used, or wasn't really bought, then thats obviously a problem, but the overall value of telecom networks in the current environment has to do with sellers pressured by debt and an overcapacity in infrastructure rather then an inflation of the value of *new hardware.*

Extent of network capacity in most cases was based on demand estimates made by investment firms. Most people were not building capacity just to buy equipment. Its not impossible that this occured, but most of the industry is not guilty of this.

Deals Within Telecom Deals

"At InnoCentive, scientific problems called InnoCentive Challenges are posted online to be solved by a pool of leading scientific talent. Scientists receive access to world-class scientific problems and significant financial awards. Solution-Seekers gain unparalleled access to skilled global talent resulting in innovative solutions to their tough R&D challenges. "

Hrm... Science problems are posted online along with a bounty. Solve the problem, get the cash...

InnoCentive

"The development of early American animation is represented by this collection of 21 animated films and 2 fragments, which spans the years 1900 to 1921. The films include clay, puppet, and cut-out animation, as well as pen drawings. They point to a connection between newspaper comic strips and early animated films, as represented by Keeping Up With the Joneses, Krazy Kat, and The Katzenjammer Kids. As well as showing the development of animation, these films also reveal the social attitudes of early twentieth-century America. "

Origins of American Animation, 1900-1921

Ed Felton's Weblog, stored so I can follow it.

Freedom To Tinker

Storing this in my MemeStream so I can keep up with it.

Lawrence Lessig's weblog

"The secretive federal court that approves spying on terror suspects in the United States has refused to give the Justice Department broad new powers, saying the government had misused the law and misled the court dozens of times, according to an extraordinary legal ruling released yesterday."

The court system is often an effective check against excess by the legislature and executive. This is one of the pieces of the system that works most of the time. Exceptions include drug related search and seizure.

Secret Court Rebuffs Ashcroft (washingtonpost.com)

"The controversial Houston Police Department captain who ordered last weekend's arrests of 278 people at a westside Kmart was suspended from his police duties Saturday afternoon pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation. "

HoustonChronicle.com - Controversial HPD captain from raid relieved of duty

Various Worldcom political cartoons...

Worldcom Cartoons

UM... ok... this is a banana dancing. Its weird. I was required to meme this...

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

You work in the IT department.....you're a ninja......sounds logical enough. GO!

IT Ninja Adventure