Blog

Filed under: Government/Legal, Recalls, Toyota

After much deliberation, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has decided to issue a $16.4 million penalty to Toyota – the maximum fine allowed – for failing to recall vehicles due to faulty accelerator pedals in a timely fashion. This will be the largest fine ever issued to an automaker by the government.

The U.S. DOT says that Toyota failed to promptly notify the government about the defective gas pedals amongst its model range. According to NHTSA, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says that there’s evidence to prove Toyota knew of the gas pedal problem as early as late September, yet the official recall was not issued until the end of January.

For now, Toyota has two weeks to either accept the penalty and pay up, or contest the government’s decision and continue deliberations. Hit the jump to read NHTSA’s official press release.

[Image: Alex Wong/Getty]

Continue reading Report: NHTSA to seek $16M fine against Toyota for recall scandal

Report: NHTSA to seek $16M fine against Toyota for recall scandal originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 16:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Take a picture and post to our Facebook page. We’ll take the top three snapshots and submit to the Iowa Library Association for Library Snapshot Day.

A lot of folks are interested in which apps I am using most on the iPad. There are already thousands of apps available in the App Store and I have been testing quite a few of them. There are 9 or 10 apps I am using the most on the iPad and in the video I show briefly what each one looks like while running.

I show how badly an iPhone-only app displays on the iPad, which is why I am sticking to iPad optimized versions. I also show how easy (and useful) it is to run a Mac and a Windows 7 PC using LogMeIn Ignition on the iPad.

Here’s a list of the programs you’ll see in the video:

• Twitteriffic
• NetNewsWire
• Kindle for iPad
• iBooks
• Browser Duo
• Zinio for iPad
• LogMeIn Ignition
• Mail
• Remember The Milk (iPhone only)
• NYT Editors’ Choice

Ironically, our embedded Flash videos can’t be viewed on the Ipad, so an YouTube version will be available later. We’ll embed it here when it’s ready, for you mobile/ iPad folks

Related iPad Content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d)

Half of getting solar to crank out some juice for your home is just getting it up on your roof; which is a construction job for a contractor.

Which to choose, and why? A great place to start is the Bay Area’s own Calfinder, that refers contractors nationwide for solar photovoltaic or solar hot water system installations.

Started by serial entrepreneur Jason Polka who began and grew Varsity Painting into a multi-multi million dollar business and then decided to go into specializing in the first Green painting business in the Bay Area with Moondance Painting. As with the first two businesses, Calfinder began as one of those businesses that grows out of the discovery of a need.

The solar part of the referral site has really taken off, as one of the first sites to focus on solar referrals nationwide. SolarCalfinder has now linked over 10k homeowners with solar installers to get local crews installing solar panels on their houses.
(more…)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Commission is seeking $16.375 million in civil fines against Toyota after the automaker was forced to recall 2.3 million vehicles over an accelerator glitch, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Monday.

The DOT says that the fine — the maximum allowable — is the largest civil penalty the NHTSC has ever assessed against a car maker for failing to report defects until long after they were allegedly discovered. Still, it’s irresistible to mention that the fine would represent $7.12 per car recalled.

by Kenneth Anderson

It’s not true that everything I do is about drone warfare, but it has taken a lot of my time lately and, of course, a lot of stuff is happening, both on the operational side as well as legal side.  So here’s a little round-up of links, more or less at random.

First, the New York Times has a front page article today, looking at the impact of drones on terrorist and militant activities in Waziristan.  It is an interesting piece, not least because it acknowledges not just the effectiveness of the campaign, but the effectiveness of the Obama administration’s sharply ramped-up CIA campaign.  (HT Instapundit.)

A stepped-up campaign of American drone strikes over the past three months has battered Al Qaeda and its Pakistani and Afghan brethren in the tribal area of North Waziristan, according to a mid-ranking militant and supporters of the government there.

The strikes have cast a pall of fear over an area that was once a free zone for Al Qaeda and the Taliban, forcing militants to abandon satellite phones and large gatherings in favor of communicating by courier and moving stealthily in small groups, they said.

The drones, operated by the C.I.A., fly overhead sometimes four at a time, emitting a beelike hum virtually 24 hours a day, observing and tracking targets, then unleashing missiles on their quarry, they said.

The strikes have sharpened tensions between the local tribesmen and the militants, who have dumped bodies with signs accusing the victims of being American spies in Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, they said.

The impact of the drone strikes on the militants’ operations — on freedom of movement, ability to communicate and the ease of importing new recruits to replace those who have been killed — has been difficult to divine because North Waziristan, at the nether reaches of the tribal area, is virtually sealed from the outside world.

None of those interviewed would allow their names to be used for fear for their safety, and all were interviewed separately in a city outside the tribal areas. The supporters of the government worked in positions where they had access to information about the effects of the drone campaign.

Along with that of the militant, the accounts provided a rare window on how the drones have transformed life for all in the region.

By all reports, the bombardment of North Waziristan, and to a lesser extent South Waziristan, has become fast and furious since a combined Taliban and Qaeda suicide attack on a C.I.A. base in Khost, in southern Afghanistan, in late December.

On the legal side, responses trickle in to Harold Koh’s statement about drone warfare in his American Society of International Law address.  As I’ve indicated, as someone who had been highly critical of the long wait for the US government to offer a defense of its lawfulness, I’m very pleased with the statement.  For precisely the reasons I’m pleased, of course, numbers of others are not so pleased, as Ari Shapiro, who was at the speech, noted in his story for NPR.  For a good, even-handed discussion of the Legal Adviser’s statement, see this analysis by Anthony Dworkin of Crimes of War, including the several links provided at the end.

At first sight, Koh’s justification appears to be based on the idea, familiar from the Bush administration, that the United States is engaged in a worldwide armed conflict with al-Qaeda and the Taliban and can use lethal force against anyone fighting on the other side. However a closer reading of Koh’s remarks shows that his position is not so clear-cut. Although Koh clearly refers to an ongoing armed conflict, he also offers the broader notion of self-defence as an alternative justification. This is clear when he answers the possible objection that drone strikes away from a battlefield constitute unlawful extrajudicial killing. Not so, Koh replies—a state “that is engaged in an armed conflict or in legitimate self-defence is not required to provide targets with legal process before the state may use lethal force.”

The suggestion here is that a state that is the subject of sustained threat from an armed group may use lethal force when necessary to defend the lives of its citizens, even outside the context of a recognisable armed conflict. And furthermore that this right of self-defence extends not just to targeting those individuals engaged in an imminent attack against the United States, but those members of the armed group who are integral to the group’s broader campaign of violence against US citizens.

What is striking in Koh’s speech is that the existence of an armed conflict and the broader right of self-defence are both offered as possible justifications without any attempt to delineate the boundary between the two: it is not clear how far Koh is claiming that the purported armed conflict against al-Qaeda and the Taliban extends. Does it cover military actions in Pakistan? Somalia and Yemen? The ambiguity here is consistent with the continued lack of a definitive statement from the administration about the precise legal contours of its fight against al-Qaeda, in a way that is visible as regards detention policy as well.

Koh’s suggestion that drone strikes might be justifiable as self-defence even outside a recognisable armed conflict is in line with the position of earlier US administrations, as the legal scholar Ken Anderson recently argued in an article for the Weekly Standard. But what is missing in the administration’s justification for the drone attacks is any sense of what the limits are on the use of lethal force against individuals who do not pose an immediate threat. The restrictions in the laws of armed conflict, which concern only whether the target is engaged in hostilities against the United States and the degree of harm to other civilians, do not seem adequate here.

I should add that although I do take the view that non-international armed conflict is defined by the facts of where sustained, intense, hostilities are underway — which is one reason I think the applicable legal ground in some cases is self-defense — and in that sense “geographically” limited, it is important to recognize that many in law and policy in the United States, at least, do not accept that at all.

The Wall Street Journal was one of the few major newspapers that said much editorially or as news about the speech; its editorial is here, overall praising the Koh speech:

Count us among those applauding last week for the Obama Administration’s robust defense of the use of unmanned drones for targeted strikes against al Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. In a speech to the American Society of International Law, State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh presented a broad assertion of the U.S. right to pursue and kill terrorists overseas, on or off an active battlefield.  In laying out the legal argument for the strikes, the former Yale Law School dean was, to put it mildly, meticulous, even fastidious.

Pushback was found, among other places, in some commentary at Huffington Post, for example, by human rights lawyer Chris Rogers:

Koh failed to address serious concerns over the U.S.‘s use of drones to kill al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, and in particular the debate over strikes in Pakistan and other areas outside Afghanistan. Hopefully Koh’s remarks indicate that a fuller account of the U.S.‘s legal position is forthcoming. But for now, the program remains shrouded in secrecy and Koh’s mere assertions of the program’s legality fail to provide the kind of accountability that is urgently needed.

My own assessment of the fall-out is that there is a general sense of satisfaction within the intelligence community that Dean Koh specifically distinguished armed conflict from self defense, although many in it would have preferred to see a direct reference to the CIA and the lawfulness of its role.  Those who were already critical are no more satisfied — partly, I don’t think it is snarky to say, because the issue is not really about knowing more about it, but fundamental objection to it.  Knowing more about it isn’t really the issue for the ACLU or the human rights groups or various UN officials.  Ben Wittes is right in saying that for the international soft-law community, it remains the Next Big Thing.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Qualcomm’s mobile broadcast television service called FLO TV existed for about five years under different wireless carrier brand names: Sprint TV, Verizon V Cast TV, and AT&T MediaFLO TV. But the carriers didn’t push it very hard, so it did not break through into the public’s consciousness.

But then Qualcomm began advertising FLO TV on its own, with its own smartphone-sized pocket TVs made by HTC, and it looks like it is finally beginning to stick.

At CES 2010, Qualcomm announced it had partnered with Mophie on an external battery pack that contains a FLO TV chip so iPhone users could tune into FLO TV without the need for a cumbersome dock, external antenna or anything other than what they have shown an interest in already.

The juicepack TV receiver slips onto the iPhone like any other mophie battery pack, and works in conjunction with a FLO TV app to let users tune into their FLO TV subscriptions. It has not yet been released, but is expected to hit the market soon (first half of 2010.)

I got a hands-on experience with the juicepack TV at CTIA 2010, and while the experience is great, there is one aspect to the system that is absolutely brilliant. The 30-pin connector inside of the JPTV unit does not have to be connected to the iPhone for signals to come through.

All of FLO TV’s signals are streamed to the iPhone via a Wi-Fi connection, and the 30-pin connector is used to supply the additional battery power.

Since a physical connection between the JPTV and the handheld device is not necessary, this means users could conceivably connect an iPod Touch or an iPad to the juicepack if they have an active FLO TV account and the iPhone OS-based app. A source close to both companies confirmed that iPod and iPad compatibility does exist, but did not say whether the functionality will be restricted when juicepack TV is released later this year.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

Over the past several years, unpaid internships have gained immense popularity. But since the onset of the recession, so many young people working for free has raised some eyebrows. Are companies just trying to save money by bring in these interns to do work that they would have paid for in a good economy?

The New York Times had an article this weekend addressing the topic. It said:

The Labor Department says it is cracking down on firms that fail to pay interns properly and expanding efforts to educate companies, colleges and students on the law regarding internships.

“If you’re a for-profit employer or you want to pursue an internship with a for-profit employer, there aren’t going to be many circumstances where you can have an internship and not be paid and still be in compliance with the law,” said Nancy J. Leppink, the acting director of the department’s wage and hour division.

Of course, this matter because in the U.S. workers must be paid. That’s why we have a minimum wage. Even voluntarily working for free is against the law if the company is for-profit.

So how do you tell the difference? The Times article looks to the following Labor Department directive (.pdf), which lists six criteria:

1. The training, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to what would be given in a vocational school or academic educational instruction;

2. The training is for the benefit of the trainees;

3. The trainees do not displace regular employees, but work under their close observation;

4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and on occasion the employer’s operations may actually be impeded;

5. The trainees are not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the training period; and

6. The employer and the trainees understand that the trainees are not entitled to wages for the time spent in training.

All six must be met.

These criteria are pretty strict. In particular, number four might be a hard one for many companies with internship programs to satisfy. It appears to require that the efforts of the intern not really benefit the company; in fact, they should sometimes impede it. Can you think of many companies that would be better off without their unpaid interns?

What would happen if the government ramps up enforcement to eliminate any internship that fails to adhere to this standard? Most firms would probably just attempt to tweak the internships to be in better compliance. But in cases where that’s impossible, a company would have two options: eliminate the interns or hire them as paid employees.

Obviously, if a business derives advantages through the activities performed by its interns, then it makes sense that they should be paid. But in this tough economic climate, not all firms would be able to afford additional labor costs. Consequently, those companies forced to hire the interns needed for necessary tasks would have a harder time surviving. Others would just eliminate the internship positions, unleashing these young adults on the already swelling ranks of the unemployed.

Neither of these consequences is desirable. Forcing firms to pay interns could do more harm than good. If some workers are willing and able to work for free and feel they’re benefiting from the experience, shouldn’t that be enough to legitimize the relationship? If the economy were flourishing, such arrangements might be harder to justify. But right now might not be the right time to crack down on unpaid internships.

As far as puns go, the Le Tigre billboards along the West Side Highway in New York have been fairly tame but still pointed squarely in the direction of philandering pro golfer Tiger Woods. They’re more along the lines of "Heh, that’s sort of funny" than "Oh, snap!" Still, you have to hand it to the marketer for its timeliness. The first campaign showed up in December with the tagline: "Golf needs a Tiger. Let’s get back on course." It promised 20 percent of net profits from polo-shirt sales would go to TheFirstTee.org, a youth program that uses golf to build character. The latest ad, launching as Woods preps his return to the game at the Masters this week (sans Elin!) calls the brand "Golf’s original Tiger. For those who play a round." Get it? The marketer’s upping the ante this time, with 100 percent of polo-shirt proceeds going to help youngsters "get on course" and "stay on course." Probably a lot cheaper than rehab.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

When we received an invite to an April 12th Microsoft event earlier today, we figured it was for the long-rumored Project Pink phones. The fonts and general styling were strikingly similar to the Project Pink materials we’d seen trickle out already, and the “It’s time to share.” message stamped on top fit perfectly with the teen-targeted, Social Network-focused mentality purportedly surrounding the project.

But just in case there were any lingering sparks of doubt that the event was going to be about Pink, the Wall Street Journal has just gone and stamped them out, confirming with their own “people familiar with the matter” that April 12th will be all Pink, all the time. You know, unless we’re still too busy talking about iPhone OS 4.0.

The FDA posted documents today saying the effectiveness of Forest Laboratories’ experimental lung drug Daxas was “quite modest” while expressing concern about side effects seen in clinical trials.

In particular, the FDA staff cited three suicides and two suicide attempts among patients using the drug who were studied. Here’s the Dow Jones article.

Despite the low efficacy and pscyhiatric side effects, many analysts think the drug has a good chance to win approval. A committee of outside experts is scheduled to meet Wednesday and review roflumilast, as Daxas is known. The panel will give its thoughts to the FDA, which will make the final decision.

The once-daily pill aims to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a nasty condition — often caused by smoking — that makes breathing difficult. There’s no cure available for the ailment, a big plus for the potential treatment aimed at a largely unmet need like COPD, analysts say.

It also helps Daxas’ cause, analysts point out, that Forest Labs took a number of steps to minimize the risks. The company recently narrowed the indication it was requesting to the treatment of flare-ups, rather than more frequent use to treat symptoms. It also said it would warn about the psychiatric side effects in the drug’s label. And it agreed to closely monitor patients taking Daxas for signs of trouble.

Approval would be a big victory for Forest Labs, which licensed the compound last August. Yearly sales could reach as much as $2 billion, says Jefferies & Co. analyst Corey Davis.

davebarnes points us to a recent response by the NYTimes’ ethicist, Randy Cohen, to a reader question, over the ethics of downloading an unauthorized ebook of a book where he already owned the physical book. Cohen, in no uncertain terms, points out that while illegal, it should not be seen as unethical, and suggests that the law needs to catch up with technology:

An illegal download is — to use an ugly word — illegal. But in this case, it is not unethical. Author and publisher are entitled to be paid for their work, and by purchasing the hardcover, you did so. Your subsequent downloading is akin to buying a CD, then copying it to your iPod.

Buying a book or a piece of music should be regarded as a license to enjoy it on any platform. Sadly, the anachronistic conventions of bookselling and copyright law lag the technology. Thus you’ve violated the publishing company’s legal right to control the distribution of its intellectual property, but you’ve done no harm or so little as to meet my threshold of acceptability.

He goes on to quote a publishing exec who disagrees, insisting that any unauthorized download is “stealing” and warns Cohen: “to condone this is to condone theft.” But, of course, that’s ridiculous. It is not theft at all. Nothing is missing. No one has lost out on anything. The publisher already got its money from this guy. To have a publisher make a statement that is clearly false makes you wonder what sort of strategic direction that publisher is heading in. If they can’t understand the difference between someone who already paid just downloading a digital copy, and someone “stealing” a book, they’re never going to understand how to compete in a digital world.

Thankfully, Cohen makes this same point, in noting (in response to the publisher): “it is a curious sort of theft that involves actually paying for a book.”

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

DWP Interim General Manager, refreshed from his extended vacation in Israel and France, retaliated against the City Council for its refusal to submit to a bigger rate hike and declared he won’t transfer the $73 million he promised to deliver without a problem barely two months ago.

His action — clearly on order’s from the mayor who has turned the DWP Commission and its managers into stooges — prompted Controller Wendy Greuel to put out her “most urgent” warning yet that the city general fund will out of cash to pay salaries and bills in 30 days.

She said she needs $90 million from the depleted reserve fund within two weeks to keep city employees working past May 5. The city could end the fiscal year June 30 in the red and with a “negative $43 million” in the reserve fund, she noted

Here is an excerpt of her letter to the mayor and City Council leaders (Go to OurLA.org for the full text and for the full text of Freeman’s letter):

“While we are still analyzing the .full impact of the actions taken – some tangible, some merely visual – to address the budget crisis, none of them have been successful in balancing the budget so far…

“This is the most urgent fiscal crisis that the City has faced in recent history, and it is imperative that you act now. The Charter authorizes the Controller to borrow funds but only for tardy receipt of revenue, not in the case where there is no anticipated repayment. The Charter also grants the Controller authority, with Council approval, for inter-fund borrowing, but only until April 26th, 2010. Thus I am asking you to immediately transfer $90 million from the City’s Reserve Fund to the General Fund so I can continue to pay the City’s bills, and to ensure the fiscal solvency of the City.

“With the City facing a massive budget deficit this year and a deficit twice as large next year, the time for talk is over, the time for action is upon us. As you know, City employees are paid two weeks in arrears and we cannot legally permit them to work when there are not sufficient funds to pay them. That is why I am alerting you that, unless you take action to transfer $90 million from the Reserve Fund, beginning April 19th, 2010, my office may not be able to pay the salaries of all City employees and/or make payments to vendors.

 “We have two weeks to address this crisis, which is why you must act immediately,” Greuel said in her letter to the mayor and City Council. “I cannot be more clear that urgent action is needed.”

Freeman escalated the war with his letter Monday to the mayor and Council, blaming the action on the Council’s refusal last week to grant the extra $2 million a month in rate hikes under the catchall Energy Cost Adjustment Factor.

“As stated many times during the past 11 months, ECAF expenditures are increasing by $550 million over the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009·2010 to FY 2010- 2011 time period. The proposed ECAF increases are needed to fund this and without increases we have deficits, not surplus,” Freeman wrote..

“While the Power Revenue Fund closed its 2009 fiscal year with $444.7 million in unrestricted cash, it also had an under collection of $113.9 million in energy costs already incurred. It was believed that when discussions began on May 19, 2009, relative to increasing the ECAF cap above the $0.001 amount, the request would be vetted for its merit, the City Council third-part consultant would make a final recommendation, and rate relief would be approved within the 2009-10 fiscal year. At the time, the increase was being sought to provide cash for operations beginning in fiscal year 2009-2010. Since rate relief has not occurred, LADWP will be forced to use all funds to pay for energy costs that should otherwise be fully recovered through the ECAF mechanism. There is no surplus money to transfer at this time.”

MY VIEW is that the American government’s approach to the Chinese currency issue has been pretty good, so far. Congress has been increasingly anxious to take some punitive steps against China, to try and get the Chinese government to allow the renminbi to appreciate. The White House, on the other hand, has not been bashful about letting its views on the Chinese currency be known. The Obama administration has said quite explicitly that the dollar peg is a macroeconomic problem and that China should take more steps to boost domestic demand. But it has declined to wave sticks at the Chinese government while carrying on a continuing dialogue with Chinese leadership. The administration seems to have the good sense to know that an aggressive stance might make for good populist politics, but it would likely delay a revaluation while potentially leading to a damaging increase in trade tensions between the two countries. An aggressive stance could be costly in other ways, as well; China and America are currently negotiating on a wide range of topics, from Iran to climate change.

So I think this doesn’t really add up. The Treasury Department had planned to release a new report on currency manipulation on April 15, and Treasury had faced significant pressure to officially label China a currency manipulator. Senate leaders have been demanding as much, and looking to follow such a declaration with the introduction of bills placing punitive surtaxes—tariffs—on imports from China. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced yesterday that this announcement would be postponed. Why? Well, Chinese President Hu Jintao will be visiting America next week for a summit with Barack Obama. The administration seems optimistic that between the intense negotiations and the delay of the report, it can create breathing space for China to begin easing the peg. Markets appear to agree. As Scott Sumner points out futures on the Chinese currency rose on news of the delay, indicating that pushing back the report’s release increased the probability of revaluation. But my colleague sees a betrayal:

Do officials from State set benchmarks for cooperation on important issues, and then, if enough checks show up on the checklist, head over to Treasury and say, “Listen, guys, hold off on the currency report”? Or does the White House bring Treasury and State into the room and decide what will happen? Is there some kind of metric that weighs the value of a certain amount of cooperation on North Korea against a certain amount of international macroeconomic distortion? What if Treasury thinks the currency manipulation is too serious, and the diplomatic cooperation isn’t sufficient to warrant delaying the report? Or perhaps Treasury never really wanted to state the obvious on Chinese currency manipulation, and the diplomatic progress gives them an excuse? How do they plan to win Chuck Schumer over?

If all this stuff does gets decided in meetings between State, Treasury and the White House, I sure hope some paranoiac is surreptitiously making digital recordings so that eventually, some years down the road, we find out what actually went down.

So once again, markets seem to have concluded that the softer line with China has made revaluation more likely. But let’s see just how hard the administration is working to avoid stating the obvious on Chinese currency manipulation. Here is Mr Geithner’s statement upon announcing the delay of the currency report:

As part of the overall effort to rebalance global demand and sustain growth at a high level, policy adjustments are needed that measurably strengthen domestic demand in some countries and boost saving in others. These are also important to ensure robust job growth. In the United States, private savings has increased, the current account deficit has fallen, and the President has outlined a series of measures to reduce our fiscal deficit.

Countries with large external surpluses and floating exchange rates, such as Germany and Japan, face the challenge of encouraging more robust growth of domestic demand. Surplus economies with inflexible exchange rates should contribute to high and sustained global growth and rebalancing by combining policy efforts to strengthen domestic demand with greater exchange rate flexibility.

This is especially true in China. China’s strong fiscal and monetary response to the crisis enabled it to achieve economic growth of nearly 9 percent in 2009, contributing to global recovery. Now, however, China’s continued maintenance of a currency peg has required increasingly large volumes of currency intervention. Additionally, China’s inflexible exchange rate has made it difficult for other emerging market economies to let their currencies appreciate. A move by China to a more market-oriented exchange rate will make an essential contribution to global rebalancing.

This is basically the worst cover-up ever. As you can see, Mr Geithner clearly has no trouble explaining that China is intervening to support the dollar, which has the effect of delaying aspects of global rebalancing. Having said all this, it would sure make the administration look bad if no progress was made in encouraging the Chinese to revalue. Given that presidents really don’t like to look bad, particularly ahead of Congressional elections, one might conclude that the administration is doing what it’s doing because it thinks that its current strategy is the most effective way to get what it wants. I’m inclined to agree.

I hope I didn’t bazinga you too badly with my lottery-winning April Fools post. The real reason I haven’t been posting Alternative Income Reports is because I’ve been living up to my Lazy hype. Before I get into that, I should take a step back and try to explain what I call Alternative Income for all those new to the site. The best place to start is to review my previous post on defining Alternative Income. If you don’t want to click through, the shortest explanation is earned income that is not restricted by the amount of time worked.

Here are some examples of income and whether I would classify them as alternative income or not:

• Hourly Contractor – I’m an hourly contractor for my full-time job. I don’t get paid if I’m not there and working. That’s straight income – not alternative income as it’s tied the amount of time worked.
• Salaried Worker – There’s an expectation that you will be working around 40 hours a week usually during set hours for the salary. That’s straight income as well as it’s also tied the amount of time worked.
• Musician – While there are forms of straight income here (perhaps playing in subways for donations), there are differences. Here’s an example of pure alternative income: I have read that Taylor Swift wrote her mega-hit Love Story in a half hour. She wasn’t on the clock for any company and earned millions for that small slice of her time. While that is a very extreme case, one can earn alternative income in other ways.
• Investing Dividends – I would count this as alternative income as it’s going on behind the scenes

Some may ask why I keep track of Alternative Income. My answer is that with enough Alternative Income combined with living frugally one can acheive some form of early retirement… read more in my article about my definition of retirement. Also, I track my Alternative Income after taxes because I want to think about it in terms of how much money I have to available to spend that month. That’s really the important number if you want your financial freedom.

Now let’s get back to my laziness of not reporting my Alternative Income. It’s mostly been a factor of my full-time job slowing my efforts to progress as much as I’d like with my alternative income. I know that may sound disappointing, but Winston Churchill has a famous joke about everyone having their price… and my full-time job hits that price quite well. Still there has been some progress in my Alternative Income and I thought I’d recap that.

I’ll begin right after where I left off and give very brief highlights of each month:

• November 2009 – Total $2,270.90 – Up until now, this was actually the most I’ve ever made in Alternative Income – though it really only the took the title by a few dollars. The biggest reason for the growth was a one-time ad buy from Prosper.com.
• December 2009 – Total $2,836.40 – Jinkies! That’s an all-time high. Occasionally all the pieces come together at one time and this was one such case. I had a residual month of the Prosper advertising as well as a new one from Bills.com. In addition to that, affiliate advertising (where I make money recommending products I know and trust) was at an all time high for the holiday season. Actually not all the pieces came together as it was my fourth worst month for pay-per-click advertising via Google Adsense.
• January 2010 – Total $2,096.70
  February 2010 – Total $2,055.01
  March 2010 – Total $1,996.97

  I’m grouping these months together because they are almost exactly the same – all within $100 of each other. The biggest reason for the drop off seemed to be the changing advertising budgets of Prosper.com and Bills.com in addition to the end of the holiday season. The other big thing I’d note is that I’m starting to see some diversification between other sites of mine such as How To Fix and MonaVie Scam.

That diversification is very important to me because I don’t want 30% or more of my financial road to freedom based on this advertising on this website. I hope to acheive this with income from other websites, investments through mutual funds, stocks, bonds, and more alternative investments like Lending Club.

Related posts:

1. Alternative Income Streams – November 2007 With the start of another month, it’s time to review…
2. No More Alternative Income Reports Today, I’ve decided to formally end my Alternative Income reports….
3. Alternative Income Streams Progress – June 2007 I’m a few days late on this on this usual…
4. Alternative Income Streams – October 2008 Another month is done and it’s time to take a…
5. Alternative Income Streams – December 2007 With the start of December, it’s a good time to…

Erin Kutz wrote:

Dyax (NASDAQ: DYAX), a Cambridge, MA-based developer of a drug for an inflammatory disease, has raised $59.6 million in a stock deal. Last month the company raised $51.8 million through the sale of 17 million shares at $3.25 per share, and raised an additional $8 million when underwriter Jefferies & Company exercised its over-allotment option to purchase an additional 2.55 million shares of common stock at $3.25 per share, in a sale that closed today. The funding from the stock offering will go to Dyax’s Kalbitor (ecallantide), a drug for treating acute attacks of an inflammatory disease called hereditary angioedema.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

On Saturday Apple let the public get their hands on their newest creation, the iPad, setting off a flood of hype and media coverage which has likely yet to reach its peak. Yes, this is yet another post about the iPad, and my apologies go to those who are tired of being choked by the frenzy of stories surrounding the iPad launch, but a few things I learned from this weekend might come in handy for undecided developers.

Sponsor

Personally I tried to avoid the iPad hype this weekend, and not because I’m not a fan of Apple products or because I have a specific disdain for the iPad; I tried, and failed, to avoid the hype because I believe I underestimated its potential impact. This is just part of the reason I believe any developer even contemplating the idea of making an iPad application should do it, and do it as quickly as possible. Here’s why.

There Aren’t That Many iPad Specific Apps Yet

When I first joined Facebook in 2004 it was still very small and very young and I could remember being able to page through the less than 100 groups that existed on the site. Then it was easy to either find a group you wanted to join or to create one and gain a large membership. Now, the network has hundreds of thousands, if not millions of groups and finding the ones you actually want is much harder.

The iPhone has gone through this same process. When the App Store launched, only a few thousand applications were on it, making searching for apps easy and making the potential impact of new applications much larger. Now, as we know, hundreds of thousands of applications clog the App Store and make searching and discovering new applications exponentially harder than before.

The same thing will happen to the iPad, which means now is the time to jump on the train. A current search of the App Store for iPad apps turns up just over 3,200 applications, a fraction of the number of iPhone/iPod Touch apps which will likely pass 200,000 later this year. While the iPad does run these other apps, there is a dearth of iPad apps, especially those that are not just scaled-up versions of their iPhone predecessor. The time has, obviously, never been better for app developers because right now with so few iPad apps, the probability of being discovered early is much higher.

The Apple Buying Culture Wants Your App

People don’t love Apple for their low prices; they willingly hand over hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for the company’s various products. The culture of the people who buy these products has taught them that price is not the main motivation behind why they buy something, while at the same time making them more willing to hand over their cash in micro-payments for individual games and applications.

From the iPod to the iPhone, iTunes and the App Store have bred a new a customer willing to pay $1.99 for music, or $2.99 for an app they’ve never tried without hesitation. I know I’ve done it before, and I should feel worse about it but I don’t. I’ve spent a few bucks here and there on applications that I used only a handful of times but I don’t get angry about it. Honestly, my music purchases are much farther scrutinized than my app purchases. For better or worse, we’ve been taught to accept the throwing away of a few bucks here and there, and app developers have been cashing in on that for a while now.

The other opportunity around this buying culture for the iPad is that people will likely pony up a few extra dollars for each app on average. While developing an iPad app may not be twice the effort it takes for an iPhone, the customer will likely be willing to pay $1.99 for an app that was $.99, especially just after launch. If I had an iPad right now, I’d want to test out the best applications on it, and some of those apps are likely to cost as much as $9.99, but I would likely still buy them because, hey, I just spent $500 on a device, what’s a few extra bucks?

The Hype Window Is Big, But Not Too Big

The hype over the iPad has just begun, and it will only get bigger as more people discover what it can do and start being stared at by strangers on the subway. The hype will continue later when the 3G version of the iPad launches, though it will not be quite as large as this weekend’s surge. The 3G launch will likely get the media buzzing about it again, and it will help the hype live longer than normal, however, that window of excitement could close this summer.

New MacBooks and new iPhones are expected to be announced, if not launched, this summer, and they could likely steal a majority of the spotlight away from the iPad, especially if the mythological creature that is the “Verizon iPhone” does in fact become a reality. Apple will likely do everything in its power to keep the hype surrounding the iPad up until the holiday season when the company does its best business, by then, however, there will be a lot more iPad apps than there are right now.

This Thing Is Likely Bigger Than Most Expected

Originally analysts had estimated that between 200 and 300 thousand iPads would leave shelves this weekend, but Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray revised his guess to between 600 and 700 thousand after seeing the hoards of people waiting in line Saturday. Numbers aside, the impact of the device before its launch speaks volumes to its potential from here on out.

Several media companies announced they would be developing special no-Flash sites specifically for iPad browsing, and others said they would be providing HTML 5 video capability in anticipation of the device. All the while, several outlets, like WIRED and the Wall Street Journal announced they were working on iPad applications for viewing their content.

After Apple’s past success with the App Store on the iPhone and iPod Touch, it’s no surprise that these companies are jumping on board even before the iPad is in customers’ hands; they recognized the importance of early adoption and being in the store at launch. Popular technology journalists have given mostly positive reviews of the device as it seems actually seeing, holding and using the device speaks louder than just reading, or hearing about it.

Personally, I didn’t think the launch would be this big, but it has certainly been another success for Steve Jobs and Apple. That being said, the reasons to develop on the iPad pile much higher than those not to, so if you’re even considering it, do it. Do it now.

Click here to see ReadWriteWeb’s full coverage of the iPad’s launch.

Discuss

In a poor farming village about 20 miles south of Mexicali, the Baja government was setting up a relief center Monday to distribute blankets, food and water for those whose homes were damaged or flooded. Hundreds of people, mostly families, have begun lining up, some of them walking miles to get to the center.

Scattered throughout Colonia de la Puerta, hundreds of ramshackle homes made of adobe or brick, with tin or tar-paper roofs, collapsed after Sunday’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake. Many people are sleeping outside or in tents.

Government workers were busy Monday setting up a large tent to provide shelter while social service agencies were setting up to offer assistance. There were no reports of injuries. 

The Mexican Army is here to help keep control and President Felipe Calderon is scheduled to arrive Monday afternoon.

The lines at the relief center were mostly orderly and government officials said they did not anticipate any problems.

“We all know each other in this area,” said Hugo Flores, a government worker. “No one will cause a problem because, if he does, we will know him.”

“This is a seismic area so we try to be prepared,” said Marco Antonio, Undersecretary for Public Security for Baja. “But this was bigger than we anticipated. We’re doing our best to put things together.”

Maria del Carmen, 21, said she and her family arrived at the relief center after walking seven miles from their home. “We have nothing,” she said. “We have no water for our family. We need help.”

Mario Jimenez, 41, said he lived in an area where the canals broke and flooded houses. “There was water everywhere, like a big rain, except it came in the house this time,” he said.

Evelyn Evangelista, 43, said her family’s tortilla factory was heavily damaged. The roof and walls collapsed and there is no electricity or water. “This shop was our whole life,” she said. “But at least our family survived.”

Roberto Gonzalez-Chavez, 45, and his common law wife, Virginia Rodriguez-Felix, said their whole house fell. “Thank god we are still alive,” Rodriguez-Felix said.

For now, the couple are sleeping in their backyard. They have no water or power. Later today, the president’s helicopter is expected to land in a ballpark behind their house.

— Tony Perry in Colonia de la Puerta, Mexico

Now that we’ve received official word that our broadband stimulus grant will be awarded, project staff Bill Coleman, Jack Geller, Ann Treacy and I have moved out of cautious hold-your-breath mode into active project launch preparations with a series of ‘courtesy calls’ with our new project partners.

Our visits have been very energizing – and have surfaced a few surprises. In many ways we will get the greatest value from the surprises; an early start will help turn surprises into opportunities, not issues.

On Monday we met with University of Minnesota Extension Service, Association of Minnesota Counties and the Minnesota Learning Commons.

University of Minnesota Extension Service

We started the day in Coffey Hall on the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul Campus meeting Joyce Hoelting and Dick Senese from the Extension Service’s Community Vitality and Public Engagement Program. Extension’s mission is to connect community needs and University resources, and they have a long history of working in agriculture, wellness, leadership capacity development and decision support, and more recently, helping communities use technology. Many readers will be familiar with their Access.E curriculum. Through MIRC, Extension Services with be able to update and develop training and technical assistance to more businesses.

Using technology to revitalize community: Making a difference by connecting community needs and University resources to address critical issues in Minnesota.

Dick and Joyce and their team bring to the project deep knowledge of community capacity building and extensive-on-the-ground technical experience. Joyce and I met through the Humphrey Institute’s MPA program, and she introduced me to Dick shortly after she went to work for him at Extension. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to work more closely with Extension ever since, and now we have that chance in spades. Dick and Joyce both had some good ideas about organization and information management tools that could help keep all 19 project partners well informed about what’s happening with everyone and across the entire project.

It was also interesting to hear about Extension Service’s new “Roadside Advertising in the Digital Age” GPS workshops. The training is based on the premise that more and more, travelers are using GPS systems such as Magellan to learn about the areas where they are visiting and vacationing. So it makes at least as much sense to make use of advertising on those online maps as it does to invest in traditional billboards. I don’t have a GPS locator yet, but I’ve driven with plenty of folks who do – Bill for example. I’m glad our demonstration communities will have a chance to learn more.

Association of Minnesota Counties

Next we headed over to downtown St Paul to meet Anne Olson, Director of MN Workforce Council Association and Laurie Klupacs, Membership Services Manager at the Association of Minnesota Counties. AMC is a voluntary association of counties – although all of Minnesota’s 87 counties are currently members. AMC represents their members to state government, striving to get the counties what they need; they also provide educational programs, training, research and communications for county officials.

Our conversation focused on healthcare needs – well technology-related health care needs — and it is clear that the counties could use some help. The lingering economic downturn continues to hit many rural people hard, and the state budget deficit is cutting into local government aid that counties have previously relied on. Technology planning, vision, capacity and support in each county is uneven. Some have highly performing, interactive web sites, other counties’ internet sites are static, some have nothing. Electronic health records need to be online by 2015, but there is little to no funding to make that transition. County social services are responsible for administering many different programs, but more often than not program data bases are not integrated, with few resources in sight to improve, rationalize, or update systems. It will be exciting to see how the MIRC project can help AMC help local counties extend and improve the delivery of mental health care online.

Minnesota Learning Commons

We finished out our first day of meetings with Gary Langer and Jerry Johnson at the Minnesota Learning Commons. The Learning Commons is both a clearinghouse of online curriculum (for kindergarten through college and beyond) and a pathway to help learners create an educational plan to meet their needs, whether you’re an exceptional first grader or returning vet interested in new skills. The clearing house includes curriculum for instructor-led classes to support teachers and classroom materials for students and parents. We hope MIRC can help raise awareness and use of this free and innovative resource for all Minnesotans; life-long learning is a core value of the Blandin Foundation.

The Minnesota Learning Commons will be creating new curriculum for MIRC to help workers learn more about career paths and options in the new information economy. Our shorthand for the new curriculum so far is: “knowledge worker course.” By that we mean a class that will introduce folks to the many new jobs and careers that are growing along with the new information economy, and the pathways to those jobs. The class will be online, but instructor-led, so that students have the support they need on-site to help them. Learning will happen on many levels: students will learn about knowledge worker career opportunities, they’ll learn how to better use technology, and they will have learned how to take an online course, which should open the door to greater learning.

So far a great group is emerging.