The country that has produced the world’s cheapest car is now saying that it will produce the world´s cheapest computer. Now, being familiar with the OLPC project, and knowing how hard it is to produce a $100 computer, I can´t believe that anything other than a calculator can be made for $10.

I am at the session that discusses the migration away from paper. Michael Arrington refuses to disclose his own revenues and financial information. The Guardian says that 20% of their revenues come from online. 100 million pounds. And they are more transparent. Tyler Brule Monocle refuses to talk about revenues.

Michael Arrington says it is absurd to start a new print publication. He does not read anything in paper. Michael Arrington says the last standing newspaper will be the New York Times.

Carolyn McCall says that paper maybe not sustainable in the future cause paper is expensive and limited but so far it gives The Guardian most of the material they use for online publications. Carolyn also rightly says that the biggest problem of advertising online is an unlimited supply of inventory compared to paper.

Tyler Brule says that if the other choice to starting a new printed mag in Europe was to start a new airline. If it´s a joke it´s a good one.

Arrington says that print media has a hard time with office space and software developers competing with open source and blogging from your home but Arrington is getting sued cause he is accused of running a business from his home which in his condo is seemingly illegal. My comment: in Europe it would be the state not your condo cause you are supposed to provide certain accomodations for employees of a business that your home may not offer.

Arrington says that there´s a new breed of people who sit in between bloggers and the general public and are those who recommend blog posts on twitter, friendfeed, etc.

At a time when it´s so damn hard to make deals, my friend, Yat Siu, who is also our chief fonero in Hong Kong, among many other exciting activities, just sold one of his companies, Outblaze, to IBM. Genio!

I have been getting a lot of emails these days from people who lost their jobs. Invariably they come from Gmail addresses. For those who still have a job a Gmail address seems to be a sign that they are afraid they are about to lose it and are already looking for an alternative. Gmail´s growth seems to be inversely correlated with the economy.

I was trying to understand how people find me on Twitter. Could be my blog but I don´t have a Twitter box in it as I have for other media. Then I discovered Twubble. I tested it and it works as a recommendation engine for people to follow on Twitter. Maybe people are discovering my Twits through Twubble.

After reading in Bloomberg the enormous commissions that Fairfield was making selling fraudulent products, I more firmly believe now that it is imperative that Fairfield, Santander and all others who sold Madoff products at least return the commissions they made. One thing is to claim to clients you cannot return their money from funds you recommended, but another much worse one is to keep their commissions.

I just read this headline “Us Job Losses Worst since 1974“. Knowing that unemployment in the States is still way below the high of 11% in 1981 I checked the article and I see that the journalist chose to measure losses in absolute numbers and then compare. But the overall number of people employed has grown so much since 1974 that absolute numbers are confusing. I find this type of use of statistics misleading. I see it frequently in US journalism lately. Let´s remember that mass psychology plays a big role in recessions. Why push things?

Just read this. Its from the WSJ. It´s crazy. They managed to do a survey of rich people who owned private jets and their extra marital affairs expenditures in times of crisis. Results on this awkward survey on generosity were suprising.

Women were far more generous to their paramours in the face of financial crises. Less than 20% planned to lower allowances, gifts and perks, while more than half planned to raise them.

Instead here is a comment from a troubled man:

Before September the 15th, I’d promised my mistress both a breast enhancement and a liposuction for the Holidays. Now I can only afford one or the other…so she’s going for the enhancement next month. But, if things get much worse she’ll have to choose between enhancing just her right or just her left breast. Truth be told, I don’t really care. I love her just the way she is now.