Random Thoughts 9/24/10

• Comcast, the new owner of NBC, has fired Jeff Zucker, the recent CEO of NBC Universal.  Zucker you may remember is the genius that got rid of Leno, then brought Leno back to fail, then pulled the rug out from under Conan O'Brien, then re-installed Leno to fail more.  Rush Limbaugh thinks Zucker will end up on staff at the White House.  That would be perfect.
• Target will begin selling the iPad on October 3, as Best Buy is expanding sales of the tablet to all of their stores.  If I was buying a computer for my grandmother or for my 10-year old, I would seriously consider an iPad.  I might consider it for me, especially as the tablet gets increasingly capable/powerful.
• Socialism makes promises that can't be paid for… unless you cut your Navy in half.  Winston Churchill is probably rolling in his grave right now.
• The demise of the military pilot may have been greatly exaggerated.  Granted, high performance military fighters and long-range spy planes and bombers may all become automated but that doesn't cover all the bases.  Not only will human pilots be preferable in some circumstances (a computer hacker can't co-opt a human pilot) but those pilots may be flying "old-fashioned" propeller planes.  This article says it well; cheap, effective turbo-props put human pilots near the action when jets and drones are just too fast, too complex, and too expensive.
• Did you see the time-lapse video of the New Meadowlands stadium converting from a Giants home game to a Jets home game, in just over 24 hours?  That was kind of cool.