| Big Q4 Not Enough For Intel As Recession Talk Builds
Record quarterly revenues from Intel on Tuesday weren't enough to meet sky-high analyst expectations, as the chipmaker's stock took a 15 percent dive and speculation about a tanking tech sector ushering in a new recession heated up. The Santa Clara, Calf.-based chip giant reported a 10.5 percent year-over-year increase in fourth-quarter revenue from 2007, pulling in $10.7 billion over a quarter that saw the introduction of its first 45nm processors and unforeseen delays in the introduction of quad-core CPUs by its main x86 rival, Advanced Micro Devices. Intel's gross margins hit 58 percent for the quarter, up 8.5 points year-over-year, while also reporting record microprocessor and chipset shipments, as well as a 105 percent increase in operating income to $3 billion. But a 38-cents-per share gain in net income for Q4, representing profits of $2.3 billion (up 51 percent from 2006 and 27 percent from the third quarter), didn't meet Wall Street's pre-report expectations of a 40-cents-per-share gain.
RateMyProfessors — or His Shoes Are Dirty
Now student evaluations are part of educational business as usual, like customer surveys. But wait. One thing you immediately learn when you visit RATE is that students generally seem to care more passionately than you realized, and some are able to write with more wit than you saw in your own course evaluations. A Top Twenty from the site circulates online, including "Three of my friends got A’s in his class and my friends are dumb," "If I was tested on herfamily, I would have gotten an A," and, my own favorite, "BORING. But I learned there are 137 tiles on the ceiling." From a reader’s point of view, who cares if these comments are accurate? They’re fun to read. From a colleague’s point of view, who cares if just about any comments are just? They’re irresistible to read, like gossip.
A nation turning into a wasteland
I'd have no problem if food was presented with less packaging." Despite his good intentions he harbours pangs of guilt. "I have to put my hand up and say we use disposable nappies and that doesn't help," he said. "And although we regularly recycle newspapers and bottles one of the main reasons we don't recycle plastic and metal is the mountains of rubbish that would create in the back garden. If you have a load of plastic then the easiest thing to do is to chuck it in the bin. "A lot of this boils down to the individual and whether people are willing to go the extra centimetre to reduce waste. I've been to plenty of Hogmanay parties where all the bottles are piled into a black bag at the end of the night and destined for the skip. But it's a difficult thing to change people's habits and there's loads more to be done." According to the latest official report on Scotland's largely household-generated waste, Booth may also be guilty of understatement.
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