patrick.net

To no-one in particular,

I can't believe that I find myself defending ANY aspect of the dysfunctional idiocracy that is Detroit. I hate their god-awful gas-guzzling ways, but I cannot stand for this type of right-wing propaganda being spread out for the purpose of blaming the workers for management malfeasance.

>>Note from the article: Big 3 have about 3x as many active UAW workers as they have retirees — planning for the retirement cost is part of their responsibility.

CORRECTION, it should have stated "3 times as many retirees as actives"

Malcolm,

I appreciate it. Will be very interested in hearing what you find out.

Anyhow, I am completely against chipping in for the Big 3.

If they cannot straighten things out and come up with a sustainable operating model that sells enough cars to keep themselves alive, I am not going to pay another car tax on top all the income tax, FICA, medicare, state income, sales tax I am already paying.

Big 3 can roll over and die for all I care, they have proven in the last 20 years that they are not viable business entities, why should we bear the burden of their stupidity? Mass unemployment in Detroit? Like Detroit is not already a ghost town that nobody cares about?

For those who have been pampered with a low-skilled job that pays $120K+, it is about time they wake up to the reality. Most people in America are NOT making $120K, so why should those making far less bail out those making far more?

If the government wants to secure more employment for the US car workers, give the $25B to Toyota, ask them to take over part of GM for free and set up an All-America sourced and built car. That will create far more long-term sustainable employment than the impotent big 3.

Or they can simply seek anti-trust action against the unions.

I am not just directing my disapproval to the GM workers, the management is nothing short of a colossal fuck up themselves.

I think any upper management coming out of the big 3 should be banned from taking any senior jobs in other US corporations. People should be ashamed of having big 3 on their resume.

It is definitely a weird disconnect since you can buy a house in Detroit for less than a car costs.

But then again I come back to this hypocrisy. Grind and complain about direct labor costs, that is capitalism at its best, make a whistle sound in a graduate class when you find out CEOs at automakers make 10s of millions of dollars a year and the CEO of Toyota makes less than 500K and a Peter P type starts in with the 'It's the American way' rhetoric.

OO, no fucking kidding. You would think the free market would stop these people from getting jobs of that caliber in the future. The truth is, these boomers go from train wreck to train wreck. Somehow they are considered seasoned and experienced.

Peter, here in CA at least there is a compromise. A union can't stop you from working like they could in other places, and still can I think in some states. California is a 'right to work' state. For all the crap people dish on California I think we have found the best compromiises on a lot of social issues like working.

Peter, here in CA at least there is a compromise. A union can’t stop you from working like they could in other places, and still can I think in some states.

That's good to hear.

The truth is, these boomers go from train wreck to train wreck. Somehow they are considered seasoned and experienced.

LOL!

I don't consider Obama to be a boomer. Now I really hope that he can save us, or at least mitigate our pain.

Obama is like a Harm type counter-boomer. I really don't lump those under 50 or so in the same grouping in general anyway.

From Yahoo Answers:

According to the Indianapolis Star:

Base wages average about $28 an hour. GM officials say the average reaches $39.68 an hour, including base pay, cost-of-living adjustments, night-shift premiums, overtime, holiday and vacation pay. Health-care, pension and other benefits average another $33.58 an hour, GM says. - September 26, 2007 UNITED AUTO WORKERS OFF THE JOB, Striking back at globalization. By Ted Evanoff

------------------------------------------------------

There is a long way from $28 to $73.28, and a big portion of the difference is attributable to retirees that depend on underfunded or un-funded reirement and helath plans.

I really don’t lump those under 50 or so in the same grouping in general anyway.

Yep. Their Pluto is in Libra, that makes that NOT boomer.

Nice job Justme.

90K getting a loan of 400K? That insane still?

Normal pmt would be about $3,000 per month. 90K/12 is just under $8,000 per month. A little uncomfortable for my taste but IMO they are barely qualified. It's better than the clowns who used to get $500,000 motgages on $25,000 a year, remember those guys?

Are there any thoughts on the new FDIC plan for mortgage modification, as proposed by Sheila Bair, to the tune of 24B?

Every time I hear about mortgage modification, I wonder whether modification is even worth the trouble attempting in non-recourse loan cases.

Here is a list of which states are directly or effectively non-recourse loan states:

http://www.mortgagereliefformula.com/recourse/

Florida is notably absent from the list.

German auto workers are heavily unionized. I think if you look at the workers in Korea and Japan, there is also a large union membership. Is anybody else sick of hearing the workers take the blame for poor management? How many more years do we have to put up with this charade?

At least in Japan, there is NO union power.

It is based on mutual conscience, yes I am talking about conscience. There is an implied lifetime employment, which is still the case with large Japanese corporations. However, Japanese corporations are also hiring more contractors so that they don't have to take on too many lifetime "burden".

So in the still-existing lifetime employment arrangements, employers are expected to take care of the workers throughout his life, and the CEO's best packages kick in AFTER he retires, so that he will be long-term focused, because bankrupting the company obviously isn't going to help his retirement benefits. While serving as the CEO, his pay is capped at a relatively low multiple of average workers.

Detroit is just a colossal cluster fuck, there is no conscience to customers, or to each other. Let'em die, the earlier the better. And please blacklist all the Detroit execs, these morons should only be given ONE chance to ruin a company, and they have done enough.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10988123

now this marked the official beginning of silicon valley recession.

As far as I remember, there were at least 3 incidences in the Bay Area in 2001/2002 in which either a laid off employee took his own life, or took the life of those who laid him off. Be careful if you need to let someone go.

Just the first of many I fear.

This highlights the importance of concealed carry weapons. Gunmen can always find the source of illegal firearms. The only way to stop them is having legally armed bystanders.

But I would like to express sympathy to the victims and, at the same time, to condemn the gunman who carried out the crime. May God deliver him to the authority.

No, rather it highlights the danger of everyone having a handgun either at home or in their pocket, so that when for some reason they have a mental breakdown, carnage is near inevitable. And that is the end of THAT discussion on my part.

Not everyone is going to have a breakdown. And those who do are not necessarily going to go for their guns. I see it like this:

If you are going to have guns available, you must educate people on the proper and ethical use of such weapons. Which is to say, primarily as a defensive tool and a deterrent to violence. And obviously as something that needs to be handled and stored with extreme care. Not a glamorous toy but a huge responsibility. I'm not talking a weekend course here, but a comprehensive system that places the ethics deeply into the culture.

If you are not going to go all out with education, then, yeah, guns maybe should not be quite so available.

But Peter does make a good point: the bad guys can almost always find a way to get a gun.

I agree with Eliza.

I would agree with justme if and only if he has a real idea to remove guns from everybody.

People also need to improve their emotional intelligence. I know getting laid off is not fun, but it is most definitely not worth committing murder. I personally know many people who ended up in better places (career-wise) after getting laid off during the last cycle.

The truth is: 99.9% of all people are stuck in their lives somehow, somewhere. A disruptive career shock may just be that catalyst to unstuck someone. Look towards the bright side.

However, one must develop a positive mind set. If one is desperate, one can never get a job. Employers do not like to hire people who _need_ a job, just like banks do not lend to people who _need_ credit.

I want to know... IF you get laid off, what upsets you the most?

1) your finance is threatened
2) you honor is violated
3) you feel mistreated after putting in so much for the company

(2) and (3) are EQ issues.

I do blame the system for pushing people so hard on people's finance. People should not feel that they must overpay for homes and other toys. Perhaps this is a flaw of the credit-based society.

TOB, Japan has a huge generation gap issue too. It is not going to be pretty with such a big difference in expectations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale

Man who lost job at Santa Clara startup killed 3, including CEO and another top executive, police say

A recently laid-off tech employee Friday opened fire inside the Santa Clara office where he used to work, police said, killing three people, including the CEO and another top executive — and sparking a massive dragnet throughout the Bay Area.

Santa Clara police identified Jing Hua Wu, 47, of Mountain View as the man who shot to death two men and one woman with a handgun before driving off in a silver sport-utility vehicle, believed to be a rented Mercury Mariner.

Wu remained at large late Friday, and police warned he should be considered armed and "extremely dangerous."

Friday's violent scene erupted just before 4 p.m., when police say Wu arrived at SiPort, a small semiconductor company at 3255-7 Scott Blvd. and opened fire. Wu, an engineer, had apparently lost his job either Friday morning or Thursday, Santa Clara police Lt. Mike Sellers said.

When police arrived, the gunman already had escaped and was initially believed to be on his way to Mountain View, where police had staked out his home into the night. Other reports indicated he may have been headed to an airport.

Late Tuesday, police identified the two men killed as Sid Agrawal, the company's chief executive, and Brian Pugh, vice president of operations for the company. The identity of the third victim had not been released as of early today.

SiPort is a relatively small company that specializes in developing digital radio semiconductors. It raised at least $20 million in venture capital last year.

Park Square, the complex that includes SiPort's offices, was in lockdown immediately after the shooting as more than two dozen police officers blanketed the sprawling facility and cordoned off the buildings near Octavius Drive. Workers, meanwhile, huddled inside their offices as police with guns drawn cased the area.

Throughout the night, officers stopped and questioned employees in their vehicles as they left the complex.

And, hours later, employees in neighboring businesses were still shaken.

"I was on the computer and a co-worker was going home, and we heard this commotion," said Linh Nguyen, a mechanical engineer who works next door at Excel Precision. "People were running inside our building, strangers, I didn't know who they were. They were very upset, they looked disturbed and then we that three people had been shot."

When Nguyen looked outside, he saw armed officers. So Nguyen and others locked their doors and waited.

"It's very unreal to me," said Nguyen, who added he didn't know anyone who worked at SiPort. "With all these people being laid off, I mean, I know people are upset, but it's hard to imagine that anyone would do this."

"It's certainly a tragedy any time someone feels like this is an action they have to take," Santa Clara Police Chief Stephen Lodge said. "These are truly innocent people whose lives were taken. It's just not right."

In his SiPort biography, Agrawal is described as having more than 25 years of experience at both startups and established tech companies. He had held positions at Adobe Systems, Intel and Bell Labs, as well as at Alliance Semiconductor, Layer Five Networks and Synaptics.

Reached by a Mercury News reporter an hour after Friday's shooting, his wife said she had not yet heard from her husband, and was worried that he hadn't been picking up his cell phone. Agrawal's family could not be reached later in the evening, after his identity was released.

Pugh also is listed on the SiPort biography as having 25 years of experience in semiconductor operations. He attended the University of California-Berkeley and Stanford University and had previously worked at Samsung and IBM.

According to a national study on workplace violence, such crimes account for 20 percent of all violent crime.

Although most workplace violence is not fatal, an average of 500 homicides occur in U.S. workplaces each year. Friday's homicide by a worker who may have been upset about losing his job appears to be the first reported in the South Bay since the economy began to turn sour.

Wu, in some news reports, was said to have a wife and two children. He is described as 5-foot-11 and weighing 170 pounds, with black eyes and black hair. The Mercury Mariner he is believed to be driving has a license plate of 6CJU602.

People who encounter Wu are urged to keep their distance and call Santa Clara police immediately at (408) 615-4700. If Wu is in another city, witnesses should call 911 to reach that city's police department.

Most of the links are not functional

http://www.siport.com/

SiPort’s All-In-One SP1010 Terrestrial Radio Receiver Chip Gains HD-Radio
Certification

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 18 /PRNewswire/ — SiPort Inc., a leading
developer of digital terrestrial broadcast receiver ICs for use in consumer
electronic devices announced today that its SP1010 single-chip HD Radio(TM)
Receiver has received HD Radio Ready(TM) certification from iBiquity Digital
Corporation, the developer and licensor of HD Radio technology. The SP1010
single chip HD Radio Receiver provides category leading digital and analog FM
performance for the mobile, tabletop and automotive aftermarket market
segments.
“HD Radio certification is an important milestone for SiPort and validates
our unwavering commitment to delivering the highest performance HD Radio
solution,” said Mr. Sid Agrawal, CEO of SiPort. “The certification of the
SiPort single-chip SP1010 HD Radio solution gives our customers a
best-in-class solution for audio and data services on both mobile and
traditional radio platforms.” The SP1010 completed comprehensive product
qualification and has been released into full production. SiPort will begin
shipping the receiver chip in volume in September, 2008.
HD Radio was developed by iBiquity Digital Corporation. The breakthrough
technology allows digital radio signals to ride the same airwaves as today’s
ubiquitous analog AM and FM radio broadcasts, bringing additional content,
crystal-clear sound, and location-based data services. “SiPort has done an
outstanding job implementing and adhering to the rigorous requirements
specified by the HD Radio certification process,” said Mr. Jeff Jury, Chief
Operating Officer, iBiquity Digital Corporation. “SiPort’s innovative HD Radio
solution provides OEMs and ODMs a much needed single chip solution, enabling
portable as well as traditional HD Radio platforms.”
LG-Innotek is currently sampling its HD Radio module based on SiPort’s
SP1010 single chip HD Radio receiver for the automotive, tabletop, home
theatre and mobile HD Radio market segments. The company will be in full
production in Q4 2008. “The SP1010 provides a best-in-class, highly integrated
single-chip solution that allows us to deliver multiple platforms for mobile,
automotive aftermarket, tabletop and home theater applications,” said Mr. Lee,
Vice President of LG-Innotek.
About SiPort:
SiPort is a venture backed fabless semiconductor company developing mixed
signal RF and digital baseband wireless receiver chips supporting multiple
Digital Broadcast Standards. SiPort’s innovations in algorithms,
architecture, and design are the foundation for breakthrough solutions that
enable the delivery of mobile broadcast audio and data services on Personal
Navigation Devices (PNDs), automotive navigation systems, Personal Media
Players (PMPs) and other consumer electronics platforms.
The SiPort team has an enviable track record designing complex RF and
mixed-signal circuits that leapfrog current performance metrics and deliver
the best broadcast performance per milliwatt (mW). The team is focused on
enabling ubiquitous delivery of mobile digital broadcast media to all handheld
media platforms at attractive price points and form factors.

>> Perma likes to point out when the Chinese are being shits.

That's your jaundiced view ... I agree on mortal combat point

Anyway, let's hope the police will get the monster soon.

Firstly someone who commented on Activity based costing does not know what that subject is. Secondly all the americans would know how vulnerable they are. Otherwise they always put themselves as those who have everything and are the king of the world.

Rajen Says:
November 15th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
"Firstly someone who commented on Activity based costing does not know what that subject is."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activity-based_costing

Oh boy, here we go.

OK, since I'm probably not going to get an answer I'll just show everyone how a company screws itself using ABC. Activitiy based costing attempts to use a driver to allocate costs. I'll give the example of a payable's department. The company wants to know the true cost of a payables check to determine whether to outsource the function or keep it in house.

The company will add up all the costs, the footage, the clerks, the paper, the supplies, but also the payables manager which is the typical boomer overpaid slob who actually doesn't contibute that much to the process but they need to because they want to know the whole cost of processing the payable. After they've done that they divide that number by the number of checks on average or actual, whatever.

With the boomer's pension plan and all that shit we discussed above, if the number of checks is small all of a sudden they go, holy crap, it costs a lot of money to write these checks, we need to find someone out of house to do it for us. So, what ends up happening? The boomer stays on, because you need him or her to manage the outsourcing partner and the clerks are fired. Of course there is a bonus for the boomer for realizing all of the cost savings.

Rajen, would you care to disagree? Are you going to say this doesn't happen?

>> With the boomer’s pension plan and all that shit we discussed above, if the number of checks is small all of a sudden they go, holy crap, it costs a lot of money to write these checks, we need to find someone out of house to do it for us. So, what ends up happening? The boomer stays on, because you need him or her to manage the outsourcing partner and the clerks are fired. Of course there is a bonus for the boomer for realizing all of the cost savings.

I have seen this many times over ... I am convinced this is what happens.

>> Peter P Says:
>> Anyway, let’s hope the police will get the monster soon.

Done.

There was no indication that Jing Hua Wu posed any danger when he walked into the offices of his Santa Clara employer on Friday, a few hours after he'd been fired. So there was no reason for three top company officials to refuse his request for a meeting.

But some time after Wu and the three executives went into a room to talk, police say, the 47-year-old engineer pulled a 9 mm handgun and shot all three dead.

Nineteen hours later, a Bay Area manhunt ended when police cars swooped into the parking lot of a shopping center at El Camino Real and Grant Road in Mountain View. Wu was unarmed and made no attempt to struggle, police said, when officers piled out of the cars at 10:45 a.m. Saturday and handcuffed him in front of the Home Consignment Center store.

The shootings caused "genuine fear in the community," said Santa Clara police chief Stephen Lodge at a news conference Saturday afternoon, adding that it was a relief "to be able to take him into custody."

VICTIMS IDENTIFIED

Authorities said Wu would be booked on suspicion of three counts of homicide for the Friday afternoon slayings at SiPort Inc., a small semiconductor firm at 3255 Scott Boulevard.

Police identified the victims as Marilyn Lewis, 67 of San Jose, who was the company's head of human resources; Brian Pugh, 47 of Los Altos, who was vice president for operations, and Sid Agrawal, 56 of Fremont, who was the company's co-founder and chief executive officer.