| This week's winners and losers in Oregon
WINNER: Searchers. They rescued Kati, Penelope and Sabine Kim and tried desperately to find James Kim. Snow stranded the San Francisco family on a remote road in the southern Coast Range. Seeking help, James Kim managed to walk 10 miles before he died. LOSER: TTM Technologies. Last summer, the company said it wouldn't cut jobs at its Dallas plant, which it acquired through Tyco Printed Circuit Group. So much for that promise. TTM said this week that the plant will close in February, putting 300 people out of work. WINNER: Highway 35. Thanks to 12-hour days by a contractor, the Mount Hood highway will reopen Saturday while repairs continue. Flooding washed out parts of the road last month, cutting access to Mount Hood Meadows. The ski resort also will open Saturday. LOSER: The gun deal that led to the death of Johnny Jesus Borrego.
Notebook Review : IBM Lenovo 3000 N100
For long, the name IBM has been associated with quality, service and reliability. So when Lenovo bought out the PC division from IBM, certainly many eyebrows were raised, with questions about whether this would impact their QSR (Quality-Service-Reliability) metrics. I did not think up till this point that it would change, but I am quite sadly mistaken. My experience over the past two weeks working on Lenovo laptops and working with their representatives, right from call center people to high-profile men in leading positions like "VP of Web Marketing", has been nothing short of painful, with general sense of I-don't-really-know-what-you-are-talking-about attitude displayed by all and sundry. Given that Lenovo now also markets Thinkpads, one wonders how long will it be before Thinkpads reach the trash-bin too.
The It Toy
Hasbro asked its top engineers and marketers to turn a germ of an idea - a life-size, interactive pony - into the one toy every little girl would crave. But overcoming design hurdles and sticker shock were just the first of many challenges the Rhode Island company would face. .
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