HighEndBuzz

Engineers Vs. Stadiums

I posted this on another blog and thought I would re-post it here.

I'm an angry American.  I'm can't stand the Democrats and I'm really pissed at the Republicans. 

The problem in our country is political grid-lock and Football Stadiums.  Now I love football, I live for football season.  Football is the greatest sport of all time.  At 6'4, 265, I've played my share of football.  But WTF are we doing building stadiums with tax payer money when our education system in this country is at the bottom rung of developed nations. 

I attended the Minnesota High Tech Association's spring event in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago and heard some news about education in our country that should bring a chill to your spine. 

We suck. 

Last year we graduated about 60,000 engineers and scientists (many of them of foreign origin).  China graduated 350,000 last year. Furthermore, they're in year 3 of a plan to do 350k/year for the next 15 years.  The socialists in the EU graduated 120,000.  Isn't it fun to make jokes about the education system in your state compared to Mississippi or Louisiana?  New flash, we are Mississippi.  By removing competition, we've put ourselves right in the heart of Dixie (no offense to those who live there, just trying to make a point).

To add insult to injury, we're digging into the taxpayers pockets to build not one, but three new stadiums (Vikings, Gophers, Twins) in Minnesota.  Look how far our priorities have fallen.  Now I know education isn't black and white; we do spend close to $7k/student on education in our state, but are we spending it in the right areas?  Why don't we pay teachers six figures to teach our children; wouldn't that attract the best?  Just because you live in a great zip code doesn't mean your children are getting the right education.  Parental apathy is at an all time high.  You're doing nothing about your legislature spending your tax dollars to build a new stadium while our kids fall further and further behind.  SHAME ON YOU US ALL.

The final nail in the coffin comes form our elected politicians who ADMIT we have a problem.  All we get from those guys is "We're coming up with a comprehensive plan, blah blah blah..."  If it's a problem, DO SOMETHING NEXT SCHOOL YEAR, NOT NEXT GENERATION!!!

China and India aren't waiting around for our gridlocked politicians to "come up with a plan", they're acting.  Isn't it time we actually acted?

Dear Microsoft: Now's the time to go for the throat!

Not that they'll listen, but now is the time for Microsoft to go for broke in the console wars.  Sony has just reported a significant loss, much of which they blame on development of the PS3.  The cost of the device (about $500) is about $100 more than the selling price  This means that if they sell the 7 million they project by March of 2007 they take a $700M bath.

Now the console wars are important for both companies, currently Xbox consoles and games are 10% of Microsoft revenue, but at what point do the executives at Sony get fed up with competing at a loss?  Wouldn't now be the best time for Microsoft to drop the prices of their console in order to gain more market share?  I see the PS3 price going up (it has to).  Microsoft needs to step in the tub and discount their box in order to further put the hurt on Sony in this space.

We all know that the real money is in the game  titles, with long term margins in the 50%-70% range.  Obviously Sony has a better title launch strategy (which is why losing money on the console was acceptable).  Question is: did they foresee a delayed launch and a huge loss prior to the GA of their device?