] Health care, most specialists agree, is a field where
] information technology, if properly used, could help
] reduce medical errors and reduce costs. And several
] companies at the forum were venturing into health care.

I feel a bit more qualified to answer this question than most. The answer is yes and no. Yes, companies like Cisco and Sun and even Microsoft will cease (ceased?) to be growth companies because they cannot innovate and branch off fast enough to keep up with the innovation needed. No, in that what Silicon Valley really is, is a place where new ideas can gain support and traction to grow and prosper. If other places could facilitate this, they could easily rob the Valley of it's station as the best place to start a technology oriented business.

Is Silicon Valley similar to Detroit?

] Under the terms of the agreement, SunGard stockholders
] will receive $36 in cash for each share of SunGard common
] stock they hold. Some $500 million in bonds will remain
] outstanding. In a morning conference call with analysts,
] SunGard valued the total transaction at $11.3 billion,
] including common shares outstanding, stock options, debt
] and excluding cash on the balance sheet.

More proof that the market does not understand how to invest in technology infrastructure companies. The fact that they can go private, move quicker, not worry about quarterly earnings pressure, and actually MAKE MONEY is a big middle finger to Wall Street. I wonder what inFlow's strike price was set at?

Sungard goes private

] Aside from users of naked DSL services, an FCC decision
] would also affect "cord-cutters," a group of about 20
] million U.S. residents who don't have local phone lines
] and go solo instead with their cell phones. As a result
] of the possible FCC ruling, cord-cutters would have to
] buy a local phone line in order to get DSL.

FUCK THE FCC! This is a death blow to any CLEC or competitive DSL provider and is obviously pandering to the Bell Lobby.

Source: FCC to dress 'naked' DSL

] "John DeLorean was one of Detroit's larger-than-life
] figures who secured a noteworthy place in our industry's
] history," said Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and CEO.

I know that people will remember DeLorean for things that aren't too respectable, but he was one of the greats during the US automotive heydey and this is a good article about them.

Flashy carmaker DeLorean dies at 80

] The toy association has lost members whose business
] evaporated because their top-selling products were
] duplicated for Wal-Mart by lower-cost manufacturers in
] China, Mr. Conley said. He said he worried about the
] future of innovation, since smaller companies tended to
] be the ones with the smart new ideas. "If they can't
] survive and innovate," he said, "what's going to happen
] to the business?"

*THIS* is the real threat of global marketeers like WalMart and Microsoft. This same effect will happen to other industries in the near future, and it will ripple through large swaths of the economy as industries are disrupted by it. Full tilt growth has it's price.

More Gloom on the Island of Lost Toy Makers

] But lawmakers from both parties and a broad range of
] public interest groups criticized the changes, saying the
] FCC regulations had given large media companies too much
] control over what people see, hear and read.

DUH! Michael Powell might rank in the top three Bush administration officials who have done the most lasting and caustic damage to the US landscape in four short years. The entire communications realm is now exclusively dominated by large lobby players and innovation and competition has ceased.

F.C.C. Officials Say Chairman Plans to Resign Today

] Trying to spur innovation and ensure competition when
] those who control the plumbing have so much power is no
] easy matter.
]
] The lawyers and lobbyists, it seems, are the only sure
] winners.

A fairly useless article, but I meme it only because of the fact that they point out the current situation in DC and these two nuggest of truth that seem to dominate most of the transition to an information wave of society.

The FCC Frenzy Over Controlling Your Cable Box

] At least one senator hopes Congress will let the new rule
] stand. "The issuance of FASB's new rule marks a victory
] in the decade-long battle to reform an egregious
] accounting practice that contributed to the worst
] corporate accounting scandals in our nation's history,"
] Illinois Sen. Peter Fitzgerald said in a statement
] Thursday. "In the aftermath of Enron, WorldCom, Global
] Crossing, Tyco, Adelphia and other corporate scandals,
] Congress should be trying to ensure that corporate
] earnings reports are more, not less, reliable."

You sir, are an idiot. The Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing, Tyco, and Adelphia scandals are NOT the result of lacking stock option reporting. They are ALL the result of rampant corporate greed and misuse of company funds WITHIN the company. It had nothing to do with stock options in any of these cases.

Thank you FASB for setting the US back 30 years in its ability to compete, innovate, recruit and retain supreme talent, and generate wealth for those willing to work hard for it. Now we'll just have a system where the top execs get ALL the wealth created in an enterprise. Good job.

Stock option expensing required next year

] Indeed, in the past couple of years, the increasing
] sophistication of search technology and
] comparison-shopping sites have allowed online businesses
] cheaply and effectively to market their products to
] millions of potential customers. Often, these innovations
] are bringing less-well-known brands and merchants to
] consumers' attention. People simply type what they're
] looking for into a search site, and they're instantly
] spoiled for choice. The forces being unleashed have not
] been lost on that icon of e-tailing, Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
] He recently told a New York audience: "We're going to see
] more richly varied products for people."

E-Tailing Finally Hits Its Stride

] Private equity firms, which hold $100 billion in
] uninvested funds, are coming into the improving economy
] with an appetite for large deals. In some cases, they are
] forging alliances to come up with enough equity to
] compete for promising opportunities, according to
] speakers on a panel titled, "Financial sponsors: Finding
] value in a competitive market."

Low Rates, Mixed Valuations: Searching for Growth in an Uncertain Economy - Knowledge@Wharton