Van Smith

I am best known as a writer and analyst on computer technology topics. One of my articles was widely credited with causing Rambus stock to plunge $150 per share in a single day. In that article, I showed that the performance claims the company made did not hold up under testing. That article and a few others were used in the FTC case against that company which eventually led to conviction. I have covered computer benchmarks for many years. Computer benchmarks are typically software programs that are used to measure how fast computer systems are. I am probably one of the world’s foremost authorities on consumer and business level computer benchmarks. I have influenced or directly contributed to many of the most widely used computer industry benchmarks. For instance, I wrote the cryptography benchmarks in SiSoftware Sandra. Information I uncovered on Intel’s influence over industry benchmarks is now being investigated in FTC's current case against Intel. I was the only analyst in the computing industry to identify the shortcomings of Intel’s NetBurst architecture used in the now defunct Pentium 4 line of microprocessors. The flaws I identified eventually caused Intel to lose market share to its rival AMD. These flaws eventually led to Intel’s abandonment of NetBurst many years ahead of initial expectations. I am less proud of the fact that I was instrumental in the demise of x86 microprocessor designer Transmeta. Representatives from one of Transmeta’s most important customers told me that they dropped Transmeta products after reading my articles on Transmeta CPUs. Additionally, I created the performance message that allowed VIA Technologies to become the world’s leading supplier of x86 thin client CPUs. VIA took this crown away from Transmeta. For about eight years I was head of benchmarking for Centaur Technology, one of three remaining x86 microprocessor designers. I recently resigned from Centaur to form my own company, Cossatot Analytics Laboratories – Cana Labs for short. My company provides validation, performance testing, energy consumption characterization and software development services. We also write software tools for benchmarking and validation testing.

Circuit City to Close Its Doors

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Jan 162009

American electronics retailer Circuit City will be closing its doors as another victim crumbles beneath the weight of the ongoing global economic collapse.

The bankrupt US retail giant Circuit City will be fully liquidated after the company failed to find a buyer in time.

The company will be presenting the results of an auction for its assets at a hearing in US Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia later today.

Circuit City said in a statement that it will seek approval to begin the process to liquidate its assets.

“We are extremely disappointed by this outcome,” said Circuit City vice chairman and acting president and chief executive officer James A Marcum. “The company had been in continuous negotiations regarding a going concern transaction.

“Regrettably for the more than 30,000 employees of Circuit City and our loyal customers, we were unable to reach an agreement with our creditors and lenders to structure a going-concern transaction in the limited timeframe available, and so this is the only possible path for our company.”

Cold Extends Icy Grip on U.S.

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Jan 152009

Brutally cold temperatures continued to maintain an icy grip on much of the U.S. today.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Bone-chilling cold settled in Thursday from the Midwest to the Northeast Thursday, bringing teeth-chattering misery with temperatures that sank as low as 47 below zero.

Israeli forces shell UN office

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Jan 152009

Israel bombarded the U.N. headquarters in Gaza today. The compound reportedly was struck about six times with either tank fire or artillery rounds, earning the outrage of the visiting U.N. chief.

After nightfall, shells landed near Gaza City’s Quds Hospital, where many families had sought refuge, and the building caught fire, forcing staff to evacuate hundreds of people. According to a hospital medic, some patients were pushed down the street on gurneys; a few held white flags.

The destruction added to what aid groups say is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ratcheted up tensions between Israel and the international community even as diplomats indicated progress in cease-fire talks.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was departing Thursday night for Washington to discuss a Gaza cease-fire with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The United States and Egypt have been working to forge an agreement to end 20 days of bitter fighting.

The U.N. compound, made up of workshops and warehouses as well as offices, was struck about a half-dozen times over a roughly two-hour period while more than 700 civilians were sheltering there, said John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency.

The civilians were huddling in the compound’s vocational training center when it was struck by a tank round or an artillery shell, causing the three injuries, Ging said. Throughout this time, he said, U.N. officials were frantically contacting Israeli officials to urge an end to the firing on the U.N. compound.

Oil Tumbles Below $34 per Barrel

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Jan 152009

The price for a barrel of light, sweet crude fell to $33.41 today, approaching a five year low.

NEW YORK (AP) – Oil prices tumbled below $34 Thursday, closing in on five-year lows as employment claims rose and OPEC cut demand expectations for 2009.

“The bull oil era is officially over,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell more than 10 percent, or $3.87, to $33.41 a barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At one point prices fell as low as $33.20.

Crude prices have fallen so fast, the cost for retail gasoline has yet to catch up. Pump prices nudged up again overnight, but is likely to fall.

An oil industry report Thursday showed just how much energy use eroded over the past year.

For all of 2008, U.S. petroleum deliveries—a measure of demand—fell 6 percent to 19.4 million barrels a day, with declines for all major products made from crude, according to the American Petroleum Institute.

That trend appears to be ongoing this year, with millions now out of work and bad jobs data continuing to roll in.

The Labor Department reported first-time requests for unemployment insurance jumped to a seasonally adjusted 524,000 in the week ending Jan. 10. Analysts had expected 500,000 new claims.

An analyst with the Labor Department said the increase is partly due to a flood of requests from newly laid off people who delayed filing claims over the holidays.

Collapse of Mexico Imminent?

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Jan 142009

The El Paso Times cites a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats that claims Mexico might collapse at any moment. Under almost constant siege from organized crime fueled by the drug trade, human smuggling and kidnapping, many Mexican government employees have been viciously slain in recent years.

The command’s “Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)” report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. “In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico.

“The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.”

The powerful and shadowy Council on Foreign Relations has expressed a desire to take the first steps toward creating a North American superstate consisting of the United States, Canada and Mexico by the year 2010. If its southern neighbor were to melt into chaos, the U.S. would almost certainly respond with security forces to protect itself from encroaching criminal activity. Combined with a collapsing economy, Americans might feel predisposed to absorb Mexico into a burgeoning superstate.

It is probably more than mere coincidence that Mexico is suffering turmoil at a time convenient to the CFR’s schedule. Recently, a jet plane used by the CIA for torture rendition crashed inside of Mexico overloaded with cocaine. Langley spooks have a long history in the drug trade, false flag operations and in subverting governments. Mexico is ideal territory for their favored activities.

Record Cold Hits North Dakota

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Jan 132009

The AP reports today that portions of the Great Plains has been hit by record setting cold:

BISMARCK, N.D. – Residents of the upper Midwest bundled up or just stayed inside Tuesday as a wave of bitterly cold air barreled south out of the Arctic, following on the heels of a fast-moving blizzard.

Some schools closed because of the cold and temperatures hit the single digits as far south as Kansas and Missouri.

The coldest air spilled across the Canadian prairie into the Dakotas and Minnesota. Grand Forks, N.D., dropped to a record low of 37 degrees below zero Tuesday morning, lopping six degrees off the old record set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.

In northern Minnesota, it was 35 below zero in Roseau and 36 below in Hallock, with wind chills down to 45 below in Hibbing. Just to the north, Winnipeg, Manitoba, also hit minus 36, according to Environment Canada.

Predictions for 2009

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Jan 082009

The economy will continue to worsen throughout 2009. The U.S. will officially be in a depression by years end.
After a few more months of deflation, the value of the dollar will become unstable and retract.
Talk of dumping the dollar as the global reserve currency will accelerate while a North American currency dubbed the “Amero” will be proposed.
A “major event” will occur soon after Obama is inaugurated.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average will slide below 7,000.
Housing prices will continue their decline.
An event will occur in America that will be used to place a great deal of pressure on the Second Amendment.
A false flag event officially and falsely attributed to foreign terrorists will be carried out inside the United States.
A false flag event will be exposed, but mainstream media will try to ignore it.
There will be major riots in the United States.
Iran will be attacked.
India and Pakistan will be provoked to the brink of war by various intelligence operations.
A major war will begin that may eventually lead to a much broader conflict.
The price of gasoline will remain low until the value of the U.S. dollar begins to slide.
Federal troops will be deployed within the U.S. for the purpose of law enforcement, violating the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
Talk of censoring the Internet inside the United States against broadly defined hate speech will erupt and build throughout the remainder of 2009.
A major political activist will be jailed inside the United States.
A major political activist will be slain inside the United States.
A major U.S. politician will be assassinated.
A well known entertainer will be jailed for political reasons provoking outrage.
A major disease outbreak will occur.
Globalist bankers and industrialists will be attacked in the U.S. as their role in the collapse of the the economy will become more widely recognized.
The National ID Card will move to the forefront of discussion within the United States.
As earth’s climate continues to cool as predictied by heliocentric climate models and with more and more experts publicly expressing skepticism over manmade, CO2 driven Global Warming, popular support for carbon reduction initiatives wanes dramatically, particularly in the U.S.. Despite flagging support, the Obama Administration, with the support of a friendly Congress, successfully rushes through legislation to heavily tax the carbon emissions of coal fired power plants, resulting in higher electricity costs for most Americans.
The college football BCS system will be abandoned in favor of a playoff system due to antitrust court case developments.
All major CPU and/or GPU vendors will survive 2009, but layoffs will continue. At least one vendor will be in imminent danger of failure by the start of 2010.
Linux will gain market share away from Microsoft despite the critical success of Windows 7.
So-called “touch” interfaces will become popular in desktop and mobile applications.
The line between “Netbooks” and lowcost thin-and-light notebooks will be blurred. This combined segment will experience explosive growth.
ARM vendors’ attempts to capture a slice of the netbook market will fail due to performance shortcomings and the depressed economy.
Digg and reddit, two sites that once held great promise for furthering the cause of freedom and serving as springboards for revolution, decline into banal outposts of kitten photos, porn, pop culture and lunatic rants on wedge issues.

The First Day of a New Year

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Jan 012009

Kathy’s grandmother died today in her sleep.

Soon afterward, Kathy and I saw two mature bald eagles perched on a tree at our large pond. Bald eagles are relatively rare around here and today is the first time we have ever spotted one on our property. It was a beautiful sight.

We will miss you, Grandma.