Greg In The Desert

The US Federal Trade Commssion is joining the EU and going after Intel on antitrust charges. Updated: link and text changed to the FTC’s website.

The Federal Trade Commission today sued Intel Corp., the world’s leading computer chip maker, charging that the company has illegally used its dominant market position for a decade to stifle competition and strengthen its monopoly.

In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Intel has waged a systematic campaign to shut out rivals’ competing microchips by cutting off their access to the marketplace. In the process, Intel deprived consumers of choice and innovation in the microchips that comprise the computers’ central processing unit, or CPU. These chips are critical components that often are referred to as the “brains” of a computer.

Intel responds. Updated: Link changed to Intel’s official press release.

“Intel has competed fairly and lawfully. Its actions have benefitted consumers. The highly competitive microprocessor industry, of which Intel is a key part, has kept innovation robust and prices declining at a faster rate than any other industry. The FTC’s case is misguided. It is based largely on claims that the FTC added at the last minute and has not investigated. In addition, it is explicitly not based on existing law but is instead intended to make new rules for regulating business conduct. These new rules would harm consumers by reducing innovation and raising prices.”

AMD isn’t the only one that dislikes Intel. Some Jewish persons don’t like Intel too..

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews have demonstrated at Intel Corp’s new electronic chip plant in Israel in protest against work taking place at the site on the Jewish sabbath.

The protesters said on Saturday it was a desecration of the Sabbath, which runs from Friday night to Saturday night.

They were dispersed by police and a company spokesman said the plant was operating within the law and would continue to do so.

Intel, the world’s biggest chip manufacturer, opened the west Jerusalem plant for installation work before its inauguration on Sunday.

Where these people don’t like Intel for religious reasons, some in Coralles, New Mexico think Intel is poisoning them.

Please understand that the new chemicals that are being used up there are causing illnesses as serious as we had in the 1990s. Vison is blurred, eyes are burning and skin is peeling off the eylids. One breath of the toxic air causes choking, coughing and in Patricia’s case gasping for air. The toxins collect in her west side patio and in her house. With me it settles all around my property and comes in the house. This morning my eyes were swollen shut and inflamed I could hardly see. Each day my vision seems to be getting worse

I should note that the State of New Mexico cleared Intel of making people sick in 2004 but that decision was very controversial.

I was really surprised by an AMD and Intel announcement today.

Intel Corp. is paying Silicon Valley rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. $1.25 billion to squash a legal battle over Intel’s sales tactics, a rift that led to antitrust charges against Intel in several countries and was headed toward a costly and nasty trial next year.

Intel still has to face government charges from the EU and NY State but it AMD will stay out of those and not start any lawsuits of it’s own.

Update: TechCrunch says 1.25 billion is nothing to Intel.

Just to put the size of the settlement in context, last year Intel’s revenues were $38 billion. Last quarter alone, it was making roughly $104 million a day. At that rate, Intel brings in $1.25 billion every 12 days. It can absorb the settlement pretty easily.

• Al Jazeera English – Asia-Pacific – Samoa set to switch road lanes – Drivers fear traffic chaos in Samoa as they prepare to switch from driving on the right-hand side of the road to the left. The small South Pacific nation of 180,000 people is set to change lanes on Monday, the first country to do so in nearly 40 years. The government has banned the sale of alcohol for three days and declared a two-day public holiday as a precaution, until people get used to the changes.
• Al Jazeera English – Europe – Three guilty of UK plane bomb plot – The bombers intended to simultaneously destroy at least seven planes carrying over 200 passengers each between London's Heathrow airport and the United States and Canada in August 2006, prosecutors said. The suspected al-Qaeda plot led to a tight of security restrictions worldwide on the amount of liquids passengers could take on board aircraft.
• Front Row Washington » Blog Archive » Obama to post White House visitor logs on the Internet | Blogs | – After early signs he might follow the lead of other presidents and keep his White House visitor logs secret, Barack Obama has decided instead he’s going to post it on the Internet.
• Brain scan: Paranoid survivor | The Economist – EARLIER this year Andrew Grove taught a class at Stanford Business School. As a living legend in Silicon Valley and a former boss of Intel, the world’s leading chipmaker, Dr Grove could have simply used the opportunity to blow his own trumpet. Instead he started by displaying a headline from the Wall Street Journal heralding the recent takeover of General Motors by the American government as the start of “a new era”. He gave a potted history of his own industry’s spectacular rise, pointing out that plenty of venerable firms—with names like Digital, Wang and IBM—were nearly or completely wiped out along the way.
• The elusive search for the sufficiently innocent criminal. – By Dahlia Lithwick – Slate Magazine – The state of Texas now has the opportunity to review Beyler's findings and conclude that it has carried out the "execution of a legally and factually innocent person."
• Intel spent $877K lobbying government in 2Q – Forbes.com – Intel Corp., the world's No. 1 computer microprocessor maker, spent $877,000 on lobbying in the second quarter, according to recent disclosure forms.
• Men lose their minds speaking to pretty women – Telegraph – The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.
• List of inventors killed by their own inventions – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – This is a list of inventors whose deaths were in some manner caused by or related to a product, process, procedure, or other innovation that they invented or designed.
• Man sentenced for selling bald eagle feathers – Authorities say a Dilkon man has been sentenced in federal court for selling 11 bald eagle tail feathers. Prosecutors say Cedric E. Salabye pleaded guilty in April to one count of a federal indictment charging him with selling eagle feathers in violation of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. A U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix on Friday sentenced Salabye to five years of probation, six months of home confinement and 150 hours of community service.
• Al Jazeera English – Asia-Pacific – China launches organ donor scheme – China is reportedly launching a new national organ donor scheme, aimed at reducing the health system's current dependence on body parts taken from executed prisoners. According to the China Daily newspaper, currently more than 65 per cent of organ donations come from executed convicts – a system that has been criticised as unethical and profit driven.

New Mexico Business Weekly has an article on Intel’s Fab 11X build out. This is the factory I work for.

When Intel Corp. finishes upgrading its chip-making factory in Rio Rancho next year, it will operate one of the world’s largest clean rooms.

The company started a $2.5 billion upgrade to its Fab 11X manufacturing complex early this year to produce Intel’s next generation, 32 nanometer chip technology. The new chips are smaller and faster and consume less energy than Intel’s current 45 nanometer chip technology.

When the upgrade is complete, Fab 11X will include 400,000-square-feet of clean room space, said Tim Hendry, vice president of the Intel Technology Manufacturing Group and the Fab 11X plant manager.

“It will be the largest clean room operated by Intel globally, and one of the largest in the world in general,” Hendry said. “The corridor that runs along the outside edge of the clean room is a quarter-mile long.”

Sometimes I have to walk the distance of that factory frequently. It’s a good way to get exercise. Read the whole article at New Mexico Business Weekly.

• Intel: Antitrust fine violated human rights – New Mexico Business Weekly: – Intel is appealing the record-setting antitrust fine that the European Union levied in May, saying that the fine violated the company's human rights, the Wall Street Journal reports. The exact arguments aren't known yet, but Intel and other companies who are arguing that the fines violate human rights, base their cases on the fact that a political bureaucrat, and not a judge, levy the fines. The bureaucrat is antitrust commissioner Neelie Kroes of the Netherlands.
• The Truth Behind Secret Recipes in Coke, KFC, Etc. | LiveScience – In his book "Big Secrets," William Poundstone revealed a laboratory analysis of Kentucky Fried Chicken: "The sample of coating mix was found to contain four and only four ingredients: flour, salt, monosodium glutamate, and black pepper. There were no eleven herbs and spices — no herbs at all in fact… Nothing was found in the sample that couldn't be identified." So much for the "secret." In fact, the chicken's ingredient statement is available on KFC's Web site.
• Annual New Mexico Photographers Art Show – Mission: The Annual New Mexico Photographic Art Show was created in order to provide an opportunity for the photographers of New Mexico to share, display and sell their images in a premier gallery setting that showcases local artists. The goal in this undertaking is to encourage statewide support of photographic artists and the activities and education of photography. ANMPAS will promote events that will feature the best photographic images from the best New Mexico photographers.

  Who is Eligible: The show is open to all photographers who are currently residents of the State of New Mexico.

• Experiments show ‘artificial gravity’ can prevent muscle loss in space | Science Blog – Now, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have conducted the first human experiments using a device intended to counteract this effect ? a NASA centrifuge that spins a test subject with his or her feet outward 30 times a minute, creating an effect similar to standing against a force two and half times that of gravity. Working with volunteers kept in bed for three weeks to simulate zero-gravity conditions, they found that just one hour a day on the centrifuge was sufficient to restore muscle synthesis.
• Gilbert man stung by scorpion on plane – A Gilbert man was stung by a venomous scorpion stowed away in his carry-on luggage on an Indianapolis-bound Southwest Airline flight. The toxic Arizona bark scorpion and five babies were killed after Flight 2093 from Phoenix landed at Indianapolis International Airport at 12:10 a.m. Sunday, Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said.
• Company Denies its Robots Feed on the Dead | Danger Room | Wired.com – “We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” stated Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO. “We are focused on demonstrating that our engines can create usable, green power from plentiful, renewable plant matter. The commercial applications alone for this earth-friendly energy solution are enormous.”
• Teenager wings it with a fake airline – Times Online – A TEENAGE boy from Yorkshire succeeded in persuading British aviation executives that he was a tycoon about to launch his own airline. Using the pseudonym Adam Tait, the smooth-talking 17-year-old told airport and airline executives that he had a fleet of jets. Tait, who said he was in his twenties, even flew to Jersey to attend a 1½-hour long meeting with the director of its airport. Their talks were considered promising enough for a further meeting to be arranged, which was due to be held next week.
• Intel PAC showing no love for former employee, Barela? – It's nice to be incumbent when coming up to an election (Nevada governor Jim Gibbons and Senator John Ensign notwithstanding), and campaign finance reports tend to show that. For example, Congressman Martin Heinrich received $6,000 from Intel's political action committee — the same company that employed Barela. The Associated Press points out, "Intel Corp.'s PAC contributed $6,000. The company is a major employer in the Albuquerque area."
• New SunCatcher™ power system unveiled at National Solar Thermal Test Facility – July 7, 2009 – ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Stirling Energy Systems (SES) and Tessera Solar recently unveiled four newly designed solar power collection dishes at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF). Called SunCatchers™, the new dishes have a refined design that will be used in commercial-scale deployments of the units beginning in 2010.
• www.KOB.com – APD says it’s swamped with robberies – Albuquerque police say they’re swamped with robbery cases, even though robbery cases overall are down.

• Buyers flock to cheap foreclosed homes – A Glendale home that sold less than two years ago for $259,000 sold again three months ago for $113,000. A Phoenix home that fetched $190,000 two years ago just went for $45,900. A Queen Creek home sold for nearly $275,000 when it was built in 2005. Last month's price: $78,000.
• Bomb threat prompts search at Dobson High – Police searched the school buildings and fields this morning before students arrived for school. Bareiss said the school day proceeded as usual.

  "I think this is a time of year when students get spring fever and may think this is a joke," Bareiss said. "It's not a joke, and as a district it's our responsibility to take every threat as real."

• Costco Homes in Tempe to close – Costco Homes in south Tempe will close July 3.

  ]The Tempe home store, which sells furniture and appliances, is one of just two Costco Homes in the nation. The other one, in Kirkland, Wash., also is closing.

  "Costco Home has been a valuable experiment for us," Costco's CEO, Jim Sinegal, said in a news release.

  "The current economic slowdown and resulting weakness in the home furnishings business in particular have led us to conclude that the single-format Costco Home concept does not fit into our long-term expansion plans."

• Whole Health Source: Reversing Tooth Decay – What about humans? Drs. Mellanby set out to see if they could use their dietary principles to cure tooth decay that was already established. They divided 62 children with cavities into three different diet groups for 6 months. Group 1 ate their normal diet plus oatmeal (rich in phytic acid). Group 2 ate their normal diet plus vitamin D. Group 3 ate a grain-free diet and took vitamin D.
• The Pragmatic Studio | iPhone Developer’s Roadmap – So where do you start on the path to learning how to create iPhone applications? Well, that depends. There's no single book, screencast, or training course that suits everyone. You'll need to take honest stock of your current skills and choose the appropriate resources. Here are some pointers to help you get started:
• Hulu tries HTML encoding trick to protect streaming content – Ars Technica – The discovery was made by TunerFreeMCE's Martin Millmore, whose media center software makes it possible for users to watch video feeds from a variety of sources in one application (similar to Boxee). Millmore noted on his website that new Hulu content contained a string of URL-encoded characters that are byte shifted from the original characters. "They then run the character stream through a series of JavaScript functions to convert it back in to plain text before pushing it in to your browser using DHTML," Millmore wrote. "That's quite a lot of effort just for fun, so I assume that is to stop screen scrapers from parsing content."
• GE and Intel to unveil health care partnership| Reuters – U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co and Intel Corp, the world's largest chip maker, have scheduled a joint press conference for Thursday, and are expected to discuss an alliance in health care, according to a source with knowledge of the plans.

  The companies' respective chief executives, Jeff Immelt and Paul Otellini, are scheduled to discuss their tie up at an event in New York.

• Windows 95 almost had floppy insertion detection but the training cost was prohibitive – One feature which Windows 95 almost had was floppy disk insertion detection. In other words, Windows 95 almost had the ability to detect when a floppy disk was present in the drive without spinning up the drive.

  The person responsible for Windows 95's 32-bit floppy driver studied the floppy drive hardware specification and spotted an opportunity. Working through the details of the specification revealed that, yes, if you issued just the right extremely clever sequence of commands, you could determine whether a disk was in the floppy drive without spinning up the drive. But there was a catch.

• Local Pistachio Farmers React To Recall – Albuquerque News Story – KOAT Albuquerque – Pistachio farmers in southeast New Mexico are angry over the Food and Drug Administration's warning that people should stay away from the nut.
  The warning comes after a salmonella scare at a pistachio plant in California, which accounts for about 99 percent of all pistachio harvesting in the U.S.
  Marianne and George Schweers own Eagle Ranch Pistachio Grove in Alamogordo.
  They said they have been busy doing damage control since the FDA's general warning to stay away from all pistachios.
  "We are not involved at all," Marianne Schweers said. "By painting with that big broad brush then people are really not looking to see the address on the bag."
• Current affairs, future outcomes? – t seems the real cost of building the [Eclipse] FPJ never dropped below $2.3 million dollars, even during the 'volume' days last summer. Current best estimates are that the bird will cost something like $2.5 million to build in low (1 per week) numbers, possibly dropping a little if the rate rises. The killer appears to have been the totally unrealistic number of build hours being spent on each one. Consensus is about 4,000 hours per aircraft, without fixing squawks. No matter which way you try to do this, you need to sell FPJ's at something north of $2.5 million to make a profit, and closer to $3 million to offer an ROI to the moneymen.

These are my links for February 10th through February 11th:

• Red Light Camera Contract Faces Opposition – Albuquerque News Story – KOAT Albuquerque – "This red light contract is an illegal contract. It was done without any public process, without any bids. This is a no-bid process that ties the city for another five years without the city council even being involved. I think it is illegal in any number fronts," said Albuquerque City Councilman Michael Cadigan.
• A Modest Change in our Tax Code = 3 Billion Gallons of Water per Year – Duke City Fix – Over 6 billion gallons of water are used for growing hay in Bernalillo County each year.
• ABQNews: 7:15am — Gang of Railroad Bandits Sought – Lawmen, BNSF Railway looking for five men targeting shipments between Barstow and Belen. Shades of the wild, wild West! Law enforcement officers and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway are asking citizens to be on the lookout for five rail bandits operating along Interstate 40 who are targeting high-value electronic rail shipments that travel between Barstow, Calif., and Belen, the Gallup Independent reported.
• Why Stock Option Compensation Will Kill Your Company – However, to pay anyone else in the organization in stock or options separates pay from performance. Over the long term, stock prices are determined by the earnings and returns that employees generate, but in the short and intermediate terms stocks can move for reasons entirely unrelated to a company's performance. Nothing makes investors cringe more than when a CEO or CFO predicts how high a company's stock price is going. As people paid to forecast where stocks are going to go, we know how inherently unpredictable the stock price for any one company is; too many exogenous factors influence prices.
• The Associated Press: Intel to invest $7B on factory upgrades – Intel Corp. plans to spend $7 billion upgrading its U.S. factories over the next two years, a sign that the recession hasn't extinguished chip makers' lust for cutting-edge equipment and engineering talent. Intel said the $7 billion will pay for new machinery at factories in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, which will be outfitted to produce chips based on 32-nanometer technology. The most advanced chips are currently made with features as small as 45 nanometers.
• Intel invests in Rio Rancho, Part II – Intel could produce 1,000 to 1,500 new “temporary” construction jobs over the next 18 months, state and company officials said Tuesday.

  “We usually have journeymen and advanced types of construction workers who are able to do the advanced piping as well as electrical,” Hendry said. “Typically the type of construction workers we have on the site are very highly skilled to be able to work in the environment we them ask to.”

• Intel construction in Chandler to begin by mid 2009 – The factories called Fab 22 and 32 at the Ocotillo campus will be converted into one giant facility called Fab 32. Fab 22 opened in 2001, and Fab 32, in 2007.
• The Associated Press: Circuit City seeks incentives for wind-down – Circuit City Stores Inc. is asking a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to allow it to give incentives to executives and other workers to stay with the company during the wind-down process, according to court filings.
  The company said the bonuses are needed to dissuade the 154 employees from leaving before what was the nation's second-largest consumer electronics retailer closes for good.
• A Modest Change in our Tax Code = 3 Billion Gallons of Water per Year – Over 6 billion gallons of water are used for growing hay in Bernalillo County each year.

• AAA weighs warning drivers about Ariz. speed cameras
  AAA is in the early stages of an unusual process that would designate parts of Arizona a “strict enforcement area” because of the proliferation of speed cameras, possibly creating the largest such area in the nation. 

  A strict enforcement area is a designated location set by AAA to remind drivers to be especially careful and obey the speed limit. This information would be included on AAA member materials, including state maps.

• Major cities lost 1.2M jobs in ‘08 – New Mexico Business Weekly:
  The nation’s major labor markets lost nearly 1.2 million jobs last year according to a new bizjournals analysis. Albuquerque lost 1,600 jobs.
• The Home Improvement Ninja: House Updates
  In other news, mice have once again invaded the ninja fortress. I set up traps for them and killed six (apparently it was a small crack squad of mice). I haven’t seen any in about a week and the last couple of mice were really small (babies actually) so I think I killed them all. I have a 100 pair box of rubber proctologist gloves that I use to get rid of the dead mice because I have a “thing” about germs. When my girlfriend first spied the box, she eyed me suspisciously and eventually mocked me mercilessly, but who’s laughing now?
• An Unsettling Discovery
  We sat down to wait. Later, the tech informed us that Dr. E. was with Zoey, and shortly after than we were ushered into an exam room. Dr. E. explained that Zoey had a mass, that it was large and firm, and that Zoey was in pain, but very stoic during the examination. She recommended that we have X-rays, bloodwork and an aspiration biopsy.

  We agreed.

• Bloomberg.com: Buy Cisco, Intel, U.S. Technology Shares, Faber Says
  Investors should buy U.S. technology stocks after prices fell near the lows reached after the dot-com crash in 2000, investor Marc Faber said. 

  Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. shares will outperform U.S. Treasuries over the next five to 10 years, Faber, managing director of Hong Kong-based investment firm Marc Faber Ltd. and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, said in a Bloomberg Radio interview today.

• Rachael Ray Show – Food – Chicken Parmigiano With Polenta
  (tags: recipes)
• Intel will design PlayStation 4 GPU – The Inquirer
  FOR THE NEXT next generation of consoles, PS4, XBox3 and Wii2, it looks like Intel is in, Nvidia is out. The picture for their GPUs is starting to become clear.

  Yeah, Intel won the PS4 GPU, no shock considering how much they needed a console win to get people coding for Larrabee

• Google and Amazon to Put More Books on Cellphones – NYTimes.com
  Also Thursday, Amazon said that it was working on making the titles for its popular e-book reader, the Kindle, available on a variety of mobile phones. The company, which is expected to unveil a new version of the Kindle next week, did not say when Kindle titles would be available on mobile phones. 

  “We are excited to make Kindle books available on a range of mobile phones,” said Drew Herdener, a spokesman for Amazon. “We are working on that now.”

  (tags: news google)
• Pink Visual Offers Compensation for ‘Superbowl Porn’ Mishap – MSNBC Wire Services – msnbc.com
  Adult entertainment studio Pink Visual announced today that it is offering its Tucson, Arizona-area customers $10 off subscriptions to its flagship mobile and “mega pass” adult sites to compensate Comcast customers who might have wanted to see the rest of the porn movie that interrupted Sunday’s Superbowl broadcast.
  (tags: funny tv)
• Tesla’s San Jose plans stall – Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:
  The Zanker Road location no longer works because it’s an undeveloped “greenfield site,” and Tesla would build on it from scratch. The federal loan program favors “brownfields,” sites on which factories or plants closed years ago and need to be rehabilitate
• How to Layout Recessed Lighting
  One of the most important principles to understand when designing a recessed lighting layout is beam angle. In recessed cans, the light is produced in the shape of a cone. You picture the light starting as a point at the light fixture and forming a circle on the floor. The beam angle is the angle of this light out of the bulb. For example a 60-degree beam angle will produce a circle of light about 9 feet across on the floor if the fixture is 8 feet off the floor. See a
• AIG, Citi deals gave U.S. Treasury least value: report
  The U.S. Treasury Department bank bailout program received the least value from its investments in the most troubled surviving institutions — American International Group and Citigroup, a new report from a watchdog panel showed on Friday.

• Intel's Barrett to retire as tech crisis simmers – Forbes.com
  Intel Corp said Friday that Chairman Craig Barrett, the former academic credited with building the company into the world's foremost chip maker, will retire in May after 35 years with Intel.
• GeoEye › Gallery
  This half-meter resolution image of the United States Capitol, Washington D.C. was collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Jan. 20, 2009 to commemorate the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The image, taken through high, whispy white clouds, shows the masses of people attending the Inaugural Celebration.
• iPhone Twitter App Battlemodo: Best and Worst Twitter Apps for iPhone
  (tags: iphone application twitter)