Fox News

A very sad example of how the need for live news channels to feed the viewer news as it was happening went wrong:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19763649

So they should have been broadcasting a 5 second delayed picture, so they could cut if things turned bad - but the live pictures went out.

Still it is a sad situation that the news channel knew this would be bringing in viewers - and eventually they got more than they bargained for.

Employment Law

Newsnight has had some good stories about the state of low pay employment for immigrants in Britain. They exposed the fact that Romanina/Bulgarian workers who are not allowed to work as full time employees are exploited by being classed as contract workers. This happens to the extent of mininum wage laws being broken by insisting that payment is for the number of rooms cleaned (the example cites Hotel work).

This has pushed out reputable companies who cannot compete on those terms and lets cleaning contracts go to companies who exploit this type of law.

Part of this is down to the out source culture and contract at cheapest price - the government could go a long way to fine the Hotels involved to ensure they source labour from appropriately run companies.

The frustrating thing is Britain is not short of employment legislation to outlaw this practice - and to provide some protection to these vulnerable workers. As always, typical of the Blair era, we made laws we had no intention or idea of how to enforce - just assuming that everyone would abide by them.

Book read: Music of the Primes by Marcus du Sautoy

This is a book I've been meaning to read for a while. It is a mathematical history of prime numbers, and the Riemann Zeta hypothesis.

That may not sound too promising for a book, but it is a very interesting and readable account. The history side is fascinating, the great names that have worked on the this area over the centuries. The book also describes the use of primes in cryptography and also describes the use of computer power to verify (but not prove) Riemann.

So I wish I had read this sooner, but glad that now I have - a book that you could not put down once you had started.

Raspberry Pi Manufacture

Raspberry Pi manufacturing was being done in China - the only realistic option for the volumes they were thinking of making.

The first change was getting professional distributors involved once the scale of the orders became clear, and now the device will be manfactured in the UK - presumably the volumes now make it economic to do.

That is really good news, the first British made computer for a couple of decades?

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/1925

Apple v Samsung

I am sure this is only the start of the patent litigation in the tech industry. It looks like Apple have won their case against Samsung products copying Apple ideas that are patented.

Samsung shares have slid on the ruling that sees them paying $1bn dollars in compensation, and maybe having products withdrawn from the US market.

Overall I agree with those that say it will be bad for consumers in the market and limit competition. How long can ideas that are "out there" be something a company can protect, Apple sell a high margin product and locking out competition for many years is surely counter productive.

I always sympathise with the James Dyson views on patents, he won a case when he was trying to bring his vacuum cleaners to market - so I do feel they have a place. Here is his comments on the case:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/9500480/Its-obvious-that-British-courts-should-defend-firms-patents.html

Neil Armstrong RIP

Very sad news of the death of Neil Armstrong yesterday. Inspired a generation even though he kept out of the limelight and led a normal life after the landings.

I saw this quote and I think it sums him up very well:

"I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer -- born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in the steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace, and propelled by compressible flow"

Here is the link to the Telegraph obituary:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/science-obituaries/9499820/Neil-Armstrong.html

Facebook Economics III

I can't resist another analysis. There are 2.13809 billion shares issued. Currently trading at $19.41 per share, $41.50 billion market cap That's a loss of $44.02 billion...