May 08, 2008

Want the Citibank Co-Head of Investment Banking? Call Dubai

Link: Deal Journal - WSJ.com : It's Dubai, Mumbai or Good-Bye.

Investment banks following the money trail are shifting some top earners to Dubai to help tap the booming oil-rich Persian Gulf economies and the estimated $1.5 trillion held by sovereign wealth funds there.

The latest is Alberto Verme, the co-head of its investment-banking unit. He is supposed to help win more business in what his employer describes as “one of the world’s fastest-growing and most important regions.”

...Bankers moving to the region get a big perk: no local taxes on their six- or seven-digit pay packages.

Posted by Anupam Chander on May 8, 2008 at 01:44 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Slouch! Study Argues that Sitting straight 'bad for backs'

Link: BBC NEWS | Health | Sitting straight 'bad for backs'.

Posted by Anupam Chander on May 8, 2008 at 11:51 AM in Life | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 07, 2008

Developing Country Researchers To Receive Free Access to Nature Journals

Link: Nature grants free access for biomedical journals - SciDev.Net.

Developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America will gain free access to more than 65 Nature journals, it was announced last week (22 April).

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) have teamed up to make NPG's collection of biomedical journals available to more than 20 partner countries, as part of INASP's Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI).

Posted by Anupam Chander on May 7, 2008 at 07:32 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Special Effects of Golden Compass Carried Out in India

Link: Special effects of outsourcing: Hollywood heads to India - Times Online .

As outsourcing projects go it is rather fantastic: the Oscar-winning special effects for The Golden Compass, the Hollywood blockbuster that took $370 million (£187.7 million) at the box office last Christmas were put together in a thatched village hut in India.

Well, almost.

The huts in question are replicas — stylised office cubicles made to look like rural Indian dwellings. Situated in Mind Space, a vast, grey commercial complex on the outskirts of Bombay, they form the Indian headquarters of Rhythm & Hues (R&H), the leading Los Angeles-based special effects studio.

The Times visits on a national holiday, but several of R&H's 250 India-based staff are hunched over their computers, working overtime on the visual pyrotechnics that will feature on the next outings of the Spider Man, Mummy and Incredible Hulk film franchises. The labour is painstaking. Each employee will struggle to produce the equivalent of five seconds of screen time in a month.

The results are usually worth the wait. Babe, the talking pig who won an Academy Award and earned more than $250 million at the box office in 1995, was an R&H creation. Alvin and the Chipmunks, the recent surprise hit for which R&H created the eponymous rodents, has now grossed nearly $360 million — not bad for a film with a $60 million production budget.

Posted by Anupam Chander on May 7, 2008 at 03:08 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 04, 2008

The Revolucion Will be Computerized: Cubans Now Permitted to Buy Computers

Link: Cuba Puts First Computers on Sale to the Public - washingtonpost.com.

Cubans are getting wired. The island's communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro.

A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind.

Posted by Anupam Chander on May 4, 2008 at 06:19 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 30, 2008

IP, Post-Bush

Here's an Adobe PDF version of a talk that Professor Sunder and I just gave before a joint meeting of the American Constitution Society and the Information Society Project.

It characterizes some of the principal elements of a progressive IP agenda, post-Bush, and then examines the IP-related platforms offered by the three leading Presidential candidates.

Download IPPostBush.pdf

Posted by Anupam Chander on April 30, 2008 at 11:20 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 29, 2008

Is a Web Site Affiliate "physically present" in New York for tax purposes?

Link: New York State Girds for War With Amazon - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog.

Posted by Anupam Chander on April 29, 2008 at 08:15 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 25, 2008

9.5 Theses for Technology Policy

Link: CFP: Technology Policy '08.

Yale's Information Society Project has presented its (our) recommendations for technology policy for the next administration.

It's a powerful statement, produced in a bottom-up manner by the ISP.

The statement has 9.5 theses--and recognizes that it is incomplete. Please critique or expand the list at the Computers Freedom and Privacy website.

Posted by Anupam Chander on April 25, 2008 at 04:50 PM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 23, 2008

Some Universities Oppose Patent Reform

Link: Patent reform tackled before hitting the floor - Chris Frates - Politico.com.

After news spread about the bill moving forward, the president of the University of California dropped a letter to the state’s Democratic senators — Judiciary Committee member Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer — to reinforce concerns the system had shared at the staff level.

Colleges and universities continued to oppose several provisions because they worried they would hurt their ability to license patents for commercial development, said an Association of American Universities official.

Posted by Anupam Chander on April 23, 2008 at 11:22 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 18, 2008

Privacy for Your Video History Alone

Link: Blockbuster sued over Facebook ad feature - SiliconValley.com.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A Texas woman has sued Blockbuster Inc. alleging the video rental company transmitted her personal information to Facebook.com through the Web site's Beacon marketing program.

Cathryn Elaine Harris, of Dallas County, Texas, claims that Beacon, which Facebook launched in November, got information on her movie renting and buying habits from Blockbuster through computer tracking programs without her permission.

In her complaint, filed April 9 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Harris claims that Blockbuster violated the Video Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits a video store from disclosing information about a person's video rentals or purchases.

Posted by Anupam Chander on April 18, 2008 at 07:24 AM in Digitization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)