Andy Grove

choi

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You may not be interested in technology or joblessness. So you can skip to (d)--which is the last portion, about suicides--under "My comment."


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Andy Grove, How America Can Create Jobs; The former Intel chief says "job-
centric" leadership and incentives are needed to expand U.S. domestic
employment again. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, July 1, 2010.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_28/b4186048358596.htm

My comment:
(a) This was a cover story. I did not read it then. I just went through it
because a columnist in Washington Post mentioned it.
(b) True, Foxconn hires many but those are low-paying jobs.
(i) Even Taiwan can not keep those jobs. How can US?
(ii) Take Apple products for example. Design, marketing and distribution
take a big chunk of final price. There is no reason that Mr. Grove should be
unhappy.

(c) The article in web page 1 referenced "the first PC, the MITS Altair 2800
, was assembled in 1975."

It is not 2800, but 8800. See
Altair 8800
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800

Quote:

* "The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the
Intel 8080 CPU
* "Today the Altair is widely recognized as the spark that led to the
microcomputer revolution
* Ed Roberts and three others "founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry
Systems (MITS) in Roberts' garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico
* origin of the name:

"The typical MITS product had a generic name like the 'Model 1440 Calculator
' or the 'Model 1600 Digital Voltmeter'. Ed Roberts was busy finishing the
design and left the naming of the computer to the editors of Popular
Electronics [the magazine where MITS advertised]. At the first Altair
Computer Convention (March 1976), editor Les Solomon told the audience that
the name was inspired by his 12-year-old daughter, Lauren. 'She said why don
't you call it Altair - that's where the Enterprise is going tonight." The
Star Trek episode is probably Amok Time, as this is the only one from The
Original Series which takes the Enterprise crew to Altair (Six).

"A more probable version is that [magazine editors] decided that: 'It's a
stellar event, so let's name it after a star.' McVeigh suggested 'Altair',
the twelfth brightest star in the sky.

Note:
(i) Altair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair
(Altair is an abbreviation of the Arabic phrase whose English translation is
"the flying eagle;" its name in Chinese: 牵牛星  or 牛郎星; the brightest
star in the constellation Aquila)
(ii) Aquila (constellation)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquila_(constellation)
(Its name is Latin for eagle)

Chinese name: 天鹰座

(d) At the beginning of web page 2, the article states, "Until a recent
spate of suicides at Foxconn's giant factory complex in Shenzhen, China, few
Americans had heard of the company."

It is already said that the string of twelve (12) suicides in eight months
is below national average, which is about 14 per 100,000.

Compare a recent report, about Massachusetts:
Jonathan Saltzman, With 8th suicide, appeals for change in prison system;
State brings in a specialist. Boston Globe, July 16, 2010.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/07/16/with_8th_suicide_appeals_for_change_in_prison_system/

Quote:

"Suicides in Massachusetts state prisons are occurring at a rate more than
four times the national average this year [which is 7 1/2 months so far]

"With the discovery of an eighth inmate found hanging in his cell at Old
Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater yesterday morning, Massachusetts
prisons have reached a suicide rate of about 71 per 100,000 inmates so far
this year, more than quadruple the average annual national rate of 16 per
100,000 inmates reported by the US Bureau for Justice Statistics.

"The state’s prison system has more than 11,000 inmates.

Note: Massachusetts has two systems to house inmates: state prison and
county jail. The former, for more hard-core convicts, is what the Globe
refers to.

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