Supplier Ca-noodling

Couldn't resist the headline when I saw this AP story on purported price-fixing in the Chinese instant noodle (Ramen) industry.

The report came amid a nationwide probe into whether price-fixing or hoarding by producers is to blame for a 15.4 percent jump in food prices in July over the year-earlier period. The government accused violators of damaging social stability. [emphasis mine - Al]

and finally buried at the end of the article on Page 2, a better discussion of the real issue: collusion of the producers:

"Some industry groups have organized coordinated price rises," the agency said in an Aug. 3 statement. It said the collusion "influences social stability." [emphasis mine - Al]

There's that delicate social stability again.

Cheers China! Where everybody knows your name...

All in all

Thank you Pink Floyd, Facebook, and especially b3ta!

Follow-up on Blackle

Dear interweb (and Faceweb too),

You might remember my recent post on Blackle, in which I questioned the utility of said site in fostering more efficient energy consumption.

Well, none other than Google herself (itssself) has now weighed in on this matter, in an Official Google Blog post entitled "Is black the new green?".

That post confirms a few points from my original post:

1. Blackle is not affiliated with Google


2. They do use the Google Custom Search Engine (thus potentially earning money on AdSense)


3. A black background doesn't save money (they list some articles, including the WSJ)

I'm glad to see that Google felt the need to back me up on this...

Torvalds on OoO

NB - not OpenOffice.Org

Linus Torvalds on Via's new Isaiah / CN:

I really don't understand why some people are so against
OoO. Is it more complex than in-order? Of course!
But it's still better than the alternatives (one of which
is: "you can't sell it because it's too slow").

and

I may not be a CPU designer, but dang, I could play one on
TV.