Joe-the-Plumber Demonstrates Business and Tax Ignorance in America

I am not picking on "Joe the Plumber", though I need to start with this very current and in-your-face example that both candidates used in yesterday's presidential debate (quote from Fox news article link above):

Joe Wurzelbacher, 34, told Obama that he was preparing to buy the plumbing company he works for, and that its revenues come to more than $250,000 a year.

Does everyone realize how sad it is that people do not understand the difference between REVENUE and INCOME?! There is no income tax plan in America (whether presented by a Democrat or Republican) that sets tax threshold based on *revenue* of a company.

I could not believe it when Obama did not jump right on this fact and clearly say something like, "you know John (McCain), nobody is proposing taxing revenue, but rather *income*. It is only the business *income* that matters, and I will only increase taxes on the *income* over $250K/year. And, nobody is taxing a purchase of a business either, so the purchase price is irrelevant (except for the seller, who is presumably getting a favorable cap-gains rate already)." But, Obama and McCain, like most Americans, obviously lack the understanding of our current tax-code, even as they propose changes to it to improve it.

In addition, people incorrectly seem to think that if a tax-rate increase goes into effect for >$250K earnings that it raises taxes on dollars #1 through #250K, which is NOT the case. Our tax-tiers are additive bands, and the money earned in each "band" is taxed at that band's rate and that rate only, and have always been so. I.e., even if you make $300K, and taxes are raised by 3% on any income over $250K, you are paying 3% on the 50K beyond that 250K threshold, which is $1500/year. You are NOT paying 3% more on the entire 300K. No tax plan EVER has implemented such a thing. Again, I fault Obama for not pointing this out CLEARLY to everyone so as to dismiss the McCain fear-factor approach regarding Obama's plan to raise taxes on the income earned that EXCEEDS the $250K threshold, and ONLY on that amount. This is simply trying to return tax-band-rates on the upper-most tax-bands to rates similar to the Clinton era (which, if you noticed, we experienced a prolonged economic expansion during such times, and had much smaller deficits - it surely did not punish business or job-creation!)

American ignorance (in general) when it comes to understanding business and taxes is sad. It should be a requirement that we ALL learn about how a small business operation works, and about income taxes and how they are structured, so we know the basics. This should be a high-school class. The basics can be learned in just a couple weeks. And, it needs to be taught without regard to politics: we do not need teachers saying that either the Democrat's or Republican's version of taxation is "better" or "more fair" or whatever. Let people learn the tax code, and about how revenues, expenses, tax-credits, incentives, and all that come into play, and how it is net-profit (i.e., income) that is what matters most when it comes to taxation at a Federal level.

But, for now, the average American remains absolutely clueless with regards to taxes (in general), and especially in regards to taxes as they apply to small businesses. As such, John McCain can use the fear of taxes as a weapon against Barack Obama. And, because Barack seems to not command the details behind our tax-code, he is ill-equiped to stave off these attacks even though doing so should be SIMPLE.

Out candidates both prove that THEY are clueless in the matters of business and taxation, especially in regards to the "little guy"... they talk about education in America, but show they have no knowledge of how business and finance work for most of America. So, please candidates, get on the ball. I doubt John McCain really cares to learn (since his policies target large business and the absolute upper-few percent of incomes more than anything), but certainly Obama should be able to get some people onboard with his campaign to help him counter the fear/scare tactics of McCain. Talk to me Barack, I will GLADLY help your campaign with small-business issues... I own a few small businesses, and have for many years. I understand this all rather well, and can help explain to others that your plan really is not going to hurt small business AT ALL.

Sure, you have Warren Buffet and Robert Rubin as advisers, but you need someone that also represents the "small guy", the small business owner, and the concerns of the average American business owner. I will join your advisory board, and I do not expect compensation. I will make the same offer to McCain, but I really do not believe his interests lie in helping those that make less than $250K/year (income! not revenue people... income!), and as such, this would exclude 98% of small businesses from his target audience (though he surely has tried to scare ALL small business by misrepresenting tax-code and Obama's tax plan).

And, I have not even started on how insanely stupid McCain's health-care proposal is... he is incentivising me to drop the health-care plan I currently offer my employees and sticking my employees with the burden of acquiring healthcare for themselves at (I guarantee) a MUCH higher price than what I, as a business owner, get group-rates for. But, that is another issue.

Intel X-25M SSD Benchmark Results (NASDAQ:INTC)

I just purchased an Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) X-25M 80GB SATA SSD (Solid State Drive) from Buy.com (search for:X25M80GB) for $638.00 (a splurge, but I really wanted to speed up my primary software development desktop system!) I am pleased to report that, even with this "investment" coming at a rather steep price compared to traditional SATA hard-drives, I think it is worth it because of the massive productivity improvements I am seeing.

This "disk drive" (or, more appropriately, RAMDISK), is tiny and has no fan and makes zero noise because there are no moving parts. It is 2.5" form-factor drive, like a notebook drive, with a standard SATA interface and SATA power-cable (low-profile) connection. It installs just like any other SATA disk, and all I had to do was open up my machine, connect the cables, boot Windows (I still use XP Professional, as I have a dislike for Windows Vista still), and format the drive from Disk Manager utility.

TEST SETUP
I performed my tests on my Dell Dimension 9150 Desktop which has an Intel Pentium D 2.80Ghz Dual Core, 4GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, and SATA drives.

I do nearly all my work inside virtual machines, and as such, it is the performance of launching those VMs and running applications within those VMs that I have compared. For my Virtual-Machine testing, I am using VMWare Player 6.0 to run the VMs I created with VMware Workstation 6.0.

I especially do a lot of development in the Borland Delphi (aka, CodeGear Delphi, aka Embarcadero Delphi) IDE application. So, I have Delphi 2006 (D2006) Enterprise running under Windows 2003 Server with SP2 inside a VM, with a few Delphi component-sets installed that load into environment on startup (like Rave Reports, Raize Components, MustangPeak listview and treeview components, and QuickReports).

The Virtual Machine used in any benchmark below resides fully on whatever device it is that I am testing.


BENCHMARK RESULTS
For the speed comparison, I tested the same features and functionality with my test Virtual Machine running from either 1) a local Western Digital 7200 RPM SATA drive, 2) a QNAP NAS RAID-1 Gigabit-Ethernet connected device, or 3) the new Intel SSD installed on my local machine.

I saw INCREDIBLE RESULTS with the Intel SSD delivering MASSIVE SPEED IMPROVEMENTS for every operation I tested, as you will see in the table below. My tests were limited, as the speed-improvement trend was quickly apparent in everything I tried. In general, execution/load times when using the Intel SSD device were reduced by 50-80% as compared to the other devices - WOW! My tests included:

• Booting WindowsXP to login prompt. Just like it sounds.
• Starting Delphi 2006 "cold" after Windows first booted up, with D2006 loading the last-used project (same for each test) and to the familiar Delphi "Welcome" page.
  
• Using D2006 to compile my largest project - that project is my own custom software that is 50+ units and 50,000+ lines of my own code, not to mention 10's of 1000s of lines of linked in code.
• Using the BDS (Borland Developer Studio) Help System to "filter" the results in help to a particular language (in this case: language = Delphi), since Borland also includes other Help for C++ and Windows APIs and all sorts of stuff I don't normally want my search to encompass. Though this may sound trivial, just selecting the "filter" operation drove me nuts in the past due to how slow it was. Thankfully, the SSD speeds this up INCREDIBLY!
• A "Find-in-Files" operation, where I search my large Delphi project for instances of various words, including searching files that are not already open in the IDE.
  

Here is a table showing how long the same operation took to perform in one of three configurations.

Elapsed times are in SECONDS(Lower is better!)	INTEL X25M SSD	QNAP SATA RAID over Gigabit Ethernet	Local WD 7200RPM SATA
Boot Windows XP to Login Prompt	36s	83s	112s
Delphi 2006 : Launch IDE	17s	40s	35s
Delphi 2006 : Compile a large project	Instant	4s	4s
Delphi 2006 : Filter Help by "Lang : Delphi"	2s	10s+	8s+
Delphi 2006 : Find-in-Files operation	Instant	1.5s	1.5s

CONCLUSION
As I expected when I wrote about the Intel X-25M, X-25E, and X18M SSD Specifications on my blog recently, Intel's new Solid State Drive delivered a substantial performance boost to my desktop. I am now limited only by the throughput of my somewhat outdated desktop CPU and the bandwidth of the SATA bus that I have the SSD installed on. If cost were no concern, I would definitely install a SATA RAID card and RAID 4 of these SSDs together to achieve insane throughput rates. But, that will have to wait until prices fall dramatically to become an option that is more affordable.

I do expect the price to fall somewhat quickly by the second quarter of 2009 as other competitors come on line with SSD offerings, and as production is ramped up in general. In the short term, I actually noticed that Buy.Com increased the price by $30.00, perhaps due to strong demand, to $668.99. I will be waiting for a price drop or promotion before getting a second one for my primary Windows XP boot / OS drive.

I think there is certainly potential for ROI (Return-On-Investment) justification for this Intel SSD already. Fact is, if you find yourself spending a fair amount of your day waiting for your computer to keep up with you (due to slow disk drives), the Intel SSD will deliver outstanding improvements and make your day more productive and tolerable. If the drive saves even 15minutes/day of a $40/hour employee's time that is otherwise wasted sitting there while a disk-drive does something, that is $10/day of savings if the newly found time is used for more productivity. As such, the ROI period would be only 2 months!

Sure, many people will not save 15minutes per day unless they do a LOT of disk-intensive work, but even 5 minutes per day savings (loading office applications and such) would pay for the Intel drive in 6 months, not to mention the MTBF (Mean-Time-Between-Failure) should be VERY low thanks to the fact there are no moving parts - so, less maintenance or down-time = money saved too. And, this device uses nearly ZERO POWER, and you will save there too (and, you will save on cooling costs, as thermal footprint is much lower than a standard disk). Consider this Intel SSD either now or in the near future... it may save you a bundle.

Wall Street Executive Compensation Manifesto & Challenge: I will risk working for free, will you?

This financial and investing blog entry is directed at Mr. Paulson, The Treasury, The Federal Reserve, Congress, The White House, and Wall Street in general.

My Challenge to Wall Street and Executive Management

I hereby challenge Wall Street executives to meet or exceed my personal commitment to fixing the financial system problems in this country, and doing so with the same promise I make to REQUIRE ZERO PAY unless I, through managing such a firm, achieve success not just in the short-term, but the long-term as well, for shareholders and/or the American taxpayers. IF you believe in your abilities as much as I believe in mine, especially when you perhaps have more "experience or qualifications" to perform the job of Senior Executive of a public company than do I, you should have no problem signing onto my plan. If not, step aside and allow me, and perhaps a few associates of mine that will offer equal commitment to the task, to take over the situation and fix the problems.

I have outlined my corporate-compensation manifesto below, to which I will subscribe, and I suggest the government force other CEOs and highly compensated managers of public companies to subscribe to, especially in light of the latest "private profits, public losses" shift that leaves us ordinary citizens to bailout the result extremely bad management decisions of recent, and especially where any CEO's will be managing what is essentially a government-backed / taxpayer-backed venture going forward.

After reading this New York Times article describing the Wall Street Bailout Terms, which absolutely infuriated me, and forced me to make as clear as possible how adamant I feel about how MR. PAULSON IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG WITH CONCERNS ABOUT LIMITS ON EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION. I hereby call you and your other cronies out on the floor for a debate about WHY such high-compensation is "needed", when I am quite willing to work without pay unless I perform! Here's the quoted text that got me fired up:

"Under a so-called claw-back provision, the secretary would have the power to force companies to recoup previous payments to executives of companies involved in the program. And Mr. Frank's plan would give broad authority for the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, to audit and oversee the program.

But Mr. Paulson said that he was concerned that imposing limits on the compensation of executives could discourage companies from participating in the program.

"If we design it so it's punitive and so institutions aren't going to participate, this won't work the way we need it to work," Mr. Paulson said on "Fox News Sunday." "Let's talk about executive salaries. There have been excesses there. I agree with the American people. Pay should be for performance, not for failure.

But he quickly added: "But we need this system to work, and so we — the reforms need to come afterward.""

OK, Hank,... let us focus on your statement about "Pay should be for performance" instead of the sentence (expressing concerns about compensation limits) that simply furthers the Wall Street mantra many years in the making which justifies exceedingly exorbitant salaries, options, and bonuses for executives even while companies are losing money, going under, laying off thousands, and so on. And, that part of Hank's statement about reforms needing to come afterward: BULL #@$! Reforms must happen NOW, or no (lasting) benefit will arise from these bailouts!

If that part about pay-for-performance is real in your own belief system, it is NOW time to start making executive compensation what is SHOULD be: a true risk/reward system, where for being that high-level executive and leader, you are taking the "risk" of not meeting or exceeding company profit goals, which would make your pay essentially disappear, while at the same time you have the potentially LARGE reward that comes with creating corporate and shareholder profits that lead to your own salary and bonuses being large. This is the age-old risk/reward concept.

Notice how this differs from what led us to this mess on Wall Street to begin with; i.e., the current "reward/reward" system, whereby executives get massive compensation packages even when a company makes nothing and shareholders lose millions or billions, and/or employees take the brunt of the impact of "cuts" while executives reward themselves for these actions. It is so utterly obvious that current executive management at most publicly traded firms (most: there are some exceptions) have absolutely no belief in their abilities, in their company's ability to ever generate profits, or in the prospects of their stock price ever increasing. If they did, they would not have to receive massive compensation packages for simply "doing their job" whether doing it resulted in company growth, shareholder value growth, and so on.

Right now, many corporate executives are essentially just like ANY other employee that shows up for work and gets paid whether they are an *exceptional* employee, and average one, or a complete screw-up!... but, there is one big difference: currently, these upper-level executives are getting stellar pay packages for their "efforts" whether such efforts are fruitful or fruitless or downright calamitous. This has to end.

My proposal for executive compensation change will fix Wall Street and restore investor confidence in a MEANINGFUL LONG-TERM WAY, not like this current bandage-approach of yet another bailout package. Bailouts like those being done now, and proposed now, are perhaps the WORST way to achieve any LONG-TERM investor-confidence, as there will be no fundamental change with one of the main negative influences on stock prices, investment returns, and investor confidence (i.e., corporate management whose primary concern appears to be how much, and how quickly, they can suck from the company for personal gain regardless of shareholder returns). In fact, it is quite simply a reinforcement of wrongdoing and broken practices when failures are "bailed out" without serious changes to the rules of the game.

My Executive-Compensation Manifesto
(and Challenge); circa, bailout-mentality-decade, early 21st Century.

This compensation manifesto is certainly not perfect, nor the end-all of compensation directives, but it should serve as a decent bit of foundation work to get the discussion headed in the right direction, and with additional time and effort (and input from others), I am sure it could be tuned into a doctrine that could be applied to public companies in order to reign in outlandish compensation, and more so return investor confidence and long-term shareholder value.

1. As I stated in a prior financial blog about the Government rewarding financially irresponsible companies and individuals:

"If you have risen to the level of CEO [or other Senior Executive] of some major corporation and can not afford to not make ANY money for a year or two, you do not have the financial responsibility to run such a company - period!" This should be rather clear, but if not, let me restate this: if the executive(s) have not managed their own personal finances well over the years, and built up their own "retained earnings" (i.e., some substantial savings) over the years, then they do now show financial responsibility adequate to justify their position.

Sadly, the current pool of "executive talent" that is running these public companies will perhaps meet my 1st condition simply due to the fact they have already ripped off the investors and given themselves massive financial cushions during this recent age of reward-reward executive compensation (note: I think those that fit this bill should be banned from further consideration, pending a rather detailed review into how they acquired their compensation – some of these people may be just fine for consideration, though many will prove out to be the rip-off artists that took massive pay packages for essentially, failure). I'd love to further apply this same concept to elected officials, as our government is currently made up of masses of individuals that show little financial aptitude, beyond getting elected with hopes to increase their personal fortunes after making all sorts of connections that will pay off later (most likely via the revolving door between Washington, Wall Street, and Lobbyist firms). These same people then sit down together and dream up bailout packages and debt-spending frenzies like none other, perhaps in part because they have no clue what real financial responsibility entails.

2. See item #1 for reference continually as I further expand on my executive compensation manifesto. The only exception to the zero-pay potential is that I suggest meeting any Federal or State or Local "minimum wage" base requirements, and to offer any legally-imposed benefits or benefits applied to *every* employee regardless of their pay-grade (e.g., Health Insurance plans, Sick Leave, etc.). And, to handle work-hours laws and/or overtime regulations, even though I consider Senior executives "exempt", for purposes of this manifesto adhering to any possible legal requirements, I suggest that the Senior executives, while earning the minimum-wage figure, be compensated for all hours works, and at 1.5X minimum-wage for overtime and perhaps 2X for weekend time.

3. Note how my doctrine still supports successful "startup" firms, like Google for example, that created enough wealth for their upper management through product and service innovation that resulted in strong demand for their initial public offering that their executive leadership team certainly would have met the criteria set forth in #1. These persons may have received compensation prior to going public, and I consider such compensation irrelevant for my doctrines, as shareholders in the IPO must choose what value to place on the new firm upon entering the stock-market (and, that value includes prior compensation and stock holdings by insiders). But, like any public company, after these startups have entered the realm of publicly-traded stocks (via IPOs), these people will be subject to all the terms of the manifesto from then on.

4. Any compensation packages for senior executives should be awarded in arrears. The basic reasoning is simple: as we have learned, "good" quarterly or annual financial reports can be completely and utterly misleading when viewed in the context of the long-term implications of what made particular periods "good". Examples abound, whether the "good" numbers were due to intentional hiding of the bad (like in off-balance-sheet vehicles, or just plain and simple cooking of the books), or due to overly-optimistic and aggressive tax-stances or accounting policies that will require "earnings restatements" and the like (e.g., FedEx trying to classify employees as contractors to save money - which I hear recently backfired), or due to any other reason that "good" values would be front-loaded with a pending disaster to follow (e.g., the current sub-prime mortgage debacle and resulting imminent bailout!).

The arrears-period should be long enough to make obvious any attempt to circumvent the discovery of reality by shareholders. Meaning, if actions of senior executives were truly "good" then those actions should appear good at 5 to 10 years out, when looking back upon them. This leads me to a key concept in my compensation manifesto and challenge: the current insanely-large rewards of Wall Street (to senior executives) should only remain possible IF the executives take the risk that their strategies and management decisions lead to long-term rewards for the average shareholder as well.

Here's the basic idea, which can be tuned as needed (but, not tuned to avoid the spirit of the time-proven rewards structure)

• All earnings to be held in arrears, whether salary, bonuses, or stock-options (hereinafter referred to as "potential compensation" or "compensation" for short), will be held in a financially "safe" storage mechanism, such that executives need not worry about their potential compensation disappearing if it is indeed "earned" over time.
  
The compensation potential must be sufficiently large to induce qualified executives to take on this "risk" in order to have the chance for substantial "rewards", but, if all (publicly held) companies employ the directives contained in this manifesto (whether voluntarily, or by law), the definition of "substantial" will likely vary considerably from the insanely high and ever-increasing compensation packages management has been rewarding themselves with for the past decade or more. This leads to setting a maximum compensation potential based on a variety of data-points and criteria, which will be outlined next (others will certainly arise)…


• Data-point 1) the company-average-employee wages. It seems only sensible that there be some correlation to the pay of the "average person" within an organization in order to encourage paying a fair living wage to all employees. Likewise, if outsourcing is employed for cost-savings initiatives within a company, any labor that is essentially replaced with outsourced-labor or other contractors will still be counted towards this average-wage by determining the end-worker's average wage.
  
• Data-point 2) stock dilution. In as much as common stock (or preferred for that matter) is diluted during the tenure of executive management, their potential compensation should be diluted by an equal percentage. Contrarily, if outstanding shares of stock are reduced (i.e., concentration vs. dilution), then compensation can by multiplied by the same percentage. This should help reign in the massive dilution that seems to occur constantly in public companies as executives essentially "print stock at will" to self-reward, whether they should be rewarded or not. So as not to think this metric would encourage management to jeopardize cash-positions for the sake of stock buybacks, keep reading…
  
• Data-point 3) Cash and equivalents vs. Short and Long-Term Debt. Some multiplier force will be involved to reflect solid financial practices. Now, since management must make decisions that are best for the LONG TERM corporate and shareholder returns, this consideration should in itself not dissuade management from considering financing (or, per data-point 2, equity issues) if it is truly the right thing to do for growth.
  
• Data-point 4) Earnings. Another "multiplier" factor when calculating compensation (and, other factors to follow). Plain and simple, the bottom line. And, this is not any "before extraordinary items" and the like; this is the real deal and is truly net income.
  
• Data-point 5) Dividends paid to shareholders. Higher payout to shareholders equals higher compensation potential. Again, this must be balanced with the preceding metrics to ensure dividends are not being paid out at the expense of corporate health (something that seems all to common these days!), but…
  
• Data-point 6) Stock price. Again, decision balance is important, as stock price is directly correlated to compensation potential.
  
• Data-point 7) Environmental impact. This one is not in my short-term "requirements", though it needs to be addressed soon. Fact is, a company should not reward executives that increase short-term profits at the expense of simply shifting environmental disasters to foreign countries or the like.
  
• Data-point 8) ratio of total "senior executives" to normal workers. Positive correlation to compensation package. There needs to be a reason to keep some "depth" of talent in the upper ranks. But, this too needs weighed with total cost-structure for the company. The idea here is to "spread the talent, spread the responsibility, and spread the wealth" so as to potentially encourage more of a management-by-consensus or better group-dynamic at the top vs. the often highly corrosive infighting among top-management seeking power-grabs and such.
  
• Data-point 9) time-delay for receiving compensation. Highly correlated multiplier to total compensation potential, offering much greater rewards for demonstrating faith in the long-term outcome of decisions. This one is quite important.
  
• Data-point XYZ) I believe there are others, though for now, this is enough detail to begin a discussion certainly.
  
• "Releasing" of compensation will be "tiered", with "earned" compensation being released from its holding in arrears-state in smallest portions for most recent completed time-period, and largest-releases for oldest covered time-periods. I.e., time-proven "earnings" are truly earned and delivered to the executive, and in greatest percentage for the longest-term proven results. Finally, if executive actions lead to failed long-term returns for the shareholders, or are proven to have resulted from illegal action or actions that were taken simply to manipulate compensation formulas (as I first discussed), some or all compensation for the time-period(s) in question is released back to the COMPANY immediately and into general operational assets (or, in the case of stock-options, returned to the treasury).

5. "Golden Parachutes": GONE! This practice of rewarding failure with mega-bonuses when someone is "let go" must end! This is an integral part of the RISK/reward concept. The fact is, the average employee, who doesn't enjoy the prospect of potentially earning 10's or 100's or 1000's of times their base-pay, faces the simple exit-package they deserve if they do not perform: they are fired or "downsized" or laid off or whatever. The average employee gets to collect unemployment, and/or perhaps they get a few weeks severance per year of service. Well, same should go for Senior Executives! Period!
And, to the argument that perhaps a company would engineer the early departure of an otherwise successful executive just to not pay them the rewards they have earned: I think not. Fact is, this plan of mine encourages GROUP SUCCESS, as everyone's fate is tied together, from the lowest employee to the top of the company - it is all about performance. See next point...

6. I am not ignorant of the fact that, to have one's compensation so tied to the performance of not just one's own efforts, but potentially the efforts of subsequent management, is a tough concept to accept. But, again, if you have reached the level of executive management of a public company, you best have the insight to recognize real opportunity, a solid Board of Directors, and have faith in succession planning (in fact, my plan should encourage SOLID succession planning that, again, is focused on the long-term benefit to the company and shareholders, and not just instantaneous riches through "Golden Parachutes" and the like). The goal of this overall manifesto is to encourage hiring the right people for the job, especially executive management positions, with more regard for qualifications than connections. The fact is, the entire executive layer in corporations should have an interest in the same outcome: solid corporate returns and stockholder value and growth.

SUMMARY

I guarantee that, if (the essence of these concepts are) implemented, the policies I have enumerated herein will have lasting positive effects on investor confidence in publicly traded companies and financial institutions. This will NOT be the case with a bailout plan that does nothing to fundamentally alter the way that executive pay is tied to performance. In fact, any bailout without something as sweeping as what I have described will likely just (very temporarily) postpone complete collapse that will follow, as executives will take the bailout as nothing more than reinforcement for their actions that led us here to begin with.

Some Related Observations and Discussion

I am sick of hearing that there are not "qualified people" to run these firms. Obviously the ones that have run the firms into the ground were not the best qualified, though we certainly heard much testimony to the contrary during the hiring and tenure of these individuals. It is time to expand the scope of who is capable of leading such firms to go beyond the traditional system of connected-individuals, and Boardroom-kickback-friendly stooges that so often end up running the show.

Fact is, a major change needs to occur on Wall Street before it all ends, or before we simply repeat this bubble-mentality that will yet again POP, and pop in ever larger ways, taking everything with it and starting the insane cycle of bailout-based-recoveries all over again, where the overpaid executives that cause it all will once again be the ones most highly rewarded, even as they cause the mess!

Intel Solid State Disk Drives - Awesome!

For years I have been awaiting the release of SSDs (Solid State Disks, aka Solid State Drives, aka RAM disks) that were affordable, offered great performance, require nearly zero power consumption to operate, and come from a "mainstream" technology company in a standard interface (SATA).

Well, you can't get more mainstream than Intel, and Intel has just recently announced / released their first SATA Flash Memory SSD products (production to start this month - September 2008):

• Intel® X18-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive (80GB Capacity - 1.8" Form Factor)
• Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive (160GB Capacity - 2.5" Form Factor)
• Intel® X25-E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drive (32 and 64 GB Capacities - 2.5" Form Factor)

You just have to see the specifications to believe them (see below), as these drives are just unreal! Check out that super-low power consumption, and those blazing fast speeds! Oh my god I am looking forward to building the most insanely fast disk-array ever!

And, I have already purchased, and I am purchasing more, Intel stock (NASDAQ:INTC) based on the potential I see for this product. If you have been following the news about the issues large data-centers in the USA are experiencing, with regards to power-density (and not being able to get enough physical electrical power to run all the servers in a room) and the related cooling issues (again, buildings housing server rooms are being tapped-out with regards to the air-conditioning and climate-control systems, and the power to run those systems), you will see why I am so excited.

Ignoring all other performance factors of these new flash-memory standard SATA-interface hard-drives, I still see massive potential for companies to swap-out their existing spinning-disks (i.e., traditional hard-drives) in there data-centers and replace them with these new Intel Solid State Drives. It's a "no brainer" in my opinion. And, I am just talking data-centers here, and for simple power-density and heat (or lack thereof) considerations.

I have yet to even describe the incredible performance gains that some applications, like databases and the like, are going to realize from these drives. Physical IO (Input-Ouput) has always been the Achiles heel of any high-end server, as disks (in general) can not even come close to keeping up with the speed of today's modern processors (like the latest Intel and/or AMD 64-bit and multi-core offerings). But, with these new Solid-State-SATA-Drives, things are about to change... the power of the CPU(s) is about to be unleashed! I am picturing incredible new database applications, analytics, and more.

And, if that wasn't enough, couple all this new super-speed-storage from Intel with technologies like NVIDIA's CUDA - which gives programmers the ability to exploit the incredible parallel processing power of the modern NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA - another stock I am betting on for the coming years) GPUs through their CUDA development framework (essentially, Nvidia's extensions to C language). With CUDA, Nvidia has a product offering that is not just interesting, but substantially amazing, in its potential for massive financial analysis applications, data-analysis programs, and the like - by offloading compute-intensive (especially mathematical and matrix type) operations to the GPU. Nvidia only requires you own one of their GPUs from this list of CUDA-enabled Nvidia Products (GeForce 8 series ++ basically, or one of their "Tesla" servers). Oh, and what kind of processing power am I talking about here? Well, the new NVIDIA S1070 server (1U form factor too) has 4 Teraflops of performance (yes, 4 TRILLION OPERATIONS PER SECOND!). Holy $%*! So, I need only learn how to couple these new Intel SSDs and CPUs with this NVIDIA technology, and Skynet will be born! (a Terminator movie reference folks. lol.)

If that was not enough, I also guarantee that gamers (by the millions) are going to want these drives. Gaming afficionados have no problem dumping thousands on their "ultimate gaming computers" just to get a 10% speed-advantage over someone else. They will spend a thousand bucks on two new Nvidia GeForce SLI graphics cards for maximum frame-rates, and extra money on the fastest DDR RAM, and up until now, extra money for traditional RAID implementations (i.e., multiple hard drives with multiple spindles moving simultanesouly to serve up not just redundancy-enhanced data-storage, but speed given the right confiuration). Well, there is nothing even close to the speed of these new Intel SSDs when it comes to random reads, sequential reads, and nearly anything else. And, latency? Nearly non-existent!

From the Intel web-site...:

Technical specifications (Extreme SSD)

Model name	Intel® X25-E Extreme SATA Solid-State Drive
Capacity	32GB and 64GB
NAND Flash components	Intel® Single-Level Cell (SLC) NAND Flash Memory 10 Parallel Channel Architecture with 50nm SLC ONFI 1.0 NAND
Bandwidth	Sustained sequential read: up to 250 MB/s Sustained sequential write: up to 170 MB/s
Read Latency	75 microseconds
I/O Per Second (IOPS)	Random 4KB Reads: >35,000 IOPS Random 4KB Writes: >3,300 IOPS
Interface	SATA 1.5 Gb/s and 3.0 Gb/s
Form factor	2.5" industry standard hard drive form factor
Compatibility	SATA Revision 2.6 Compliant. Compatible with SATA 3 Gb/s with Native Command Queuing and SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface rates
Life expectancy	2 Million Hours Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF)
Power consumption	Active: 2.4W Typical (server workload¹) Idle (DIPM): 0.06 W Typical
Operating shock	1,000G / 0.5ms
Voltage	5V SATA supply rail
Operating temperature	0°C to +70°C
RoHS compliant	Meets the requirements of EU RoHS Compliance Directives
Product health monitoring	Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) commands, plus additional SSD monitoring

Technical specifications (Mainstream SSD)

Model Name	Intel® X18-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drive
Capacity	80GB and 160GB
NAND Flash Components	Intel® Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash Memory 10 Channel Parallel Architecture with 50nm MLC ONFI 1.0 NAND
Bandwidth	Up to 250MB/s Read Speeds Up to 70MB/s Write Speeds
Read Latency	85 microseconds
Interface	SATA 1.5 Gb/s and 3.0 Gb/s
Form factor	X18-M: 1.8" Industry Standard Hard Drive Form Factor X25-M: 2.5" Industry Standard Hard Drive Form Factor
Compatibility	SATA Revision 2.6 Compliant. Compatible with SATA 3.0 Gb/s with Native Command Queuing and SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface rates
Life expectancy	1.2 million hours Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF)
Power consumption	Active: 150mW Typical (PC workload¹) Idle (DIPM): 0.06W Typical
Operating shock	1,000G / 0.5ms
Operating temperature	0°C to +70°C
RoHS Compliance	Meets the requirements of EU RoHS Compliance Directives
Product health monitoring	Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) commands plus additional SSD monitoring

I have looked at other proprietary SSD / RAMDISK solutions over the years, and they were always insanely expensive to say the least, and the performance just wasn't worth the investment. In the past, most drives were tiny by comparison (4GB, 8GB, and maybe 16GB) for insane prices (yes, thousands; even for tiny capacities).

But now, with these new mainstream Intel SSD drives, things are about to change in a big, industry-transformational, way (and, in a "green" way too - from massive power savings and reduced cooling requirements). You wait, and you will see. The end of the hard-drive as we know it is coming, and SSDs are going to become the "standard", and I have a feeling Intel is going to lead the way with Solid State Drives using their dominant technology brand and value-proposition.

I will be anxiously awaiting the shipment-date so I can get my hands on a few of these drives. The possibilities are just too wonderful to not try these drives out in my production systems! And, even for the higher price (which, I expect will fall considerably as early as next year when production ramps up), I should see instant returns on investment by replacing my disk-drives that I launch VMware Virtual Machines from, drives that I have SQL-Server database on, and so on. My electric bill is certainly going to show some downward movement!

If you want more detailed information, I found a nice article at TG Daily - Intel SSD Discussion.

UPDATE:
Intel announced a $595 pricetag for the mainstream 80GB SSD, which comes in 1.8-inch (X18-M) or 2.5-inch (X25-M) sizes for the same price; the 160GB version is coming later this year (Q4), and pricing has not yet been announced.

For this price, I will definitely grab a couple and put them to use in my primary desktop and notebook to see how they perform. If they meet expectations, I'll soon thereafter upgrade my servers.

I saw that PC Connection has a web-page listing the SKU for the 80GB mainstream model (Intel X25M) for $731.35 (though, the Manufacturer Part Number (SKU) being shown is SSDSA2MH080G1C5, which is supposedly a 5-pack, is obviously incorrect). I expect other vendors to have pricing online soon, and to hit Intel's target pricetag (or perhaps undercut a bit for the large volume dealers, since Intel's pricing was for 1000 or less drives - which suggests a volume disount above 1000 drives). Heck, some data-centers easily have over 1000 drives, if not 10,000... perhaps they should buy direct from Intel :)

United States Unemployment Rate

Reuters just reported the August 2008 Unemployment Rate, and I couldn't help thinking that ECONOMISTS ARE IDIOTS as a whole! If you want more background on why I think so, see my prior blog posting on the Inflation rate, and how "I told you so".

Per Reuters today:

The US unemployment rate unexpectedly shot up to 6.1 percent in August, its highest in more than 4-1/2 years, as employers cut payrolls for an eighth straight month and labor markets showed signs of accelerating decline.

WHY is this "unexpected"?? morons! The only ones that seem to keep saying how great our economy is are the elected officials running the show currently (and perhaps the Republican follow-up show that is running for office right now too). Everyone else in America (aside from the very upper end of the income scale) can see first hand that inflation is rampant, housing prices are slumping, credit is tight, and people living rather near the "edge" of their means, which is all forcing spending to slow to include primarily the "essentials" (though, my view of essentials differs from most other peoples', as I exclude things like cell-phones, cable TV, and the like - those are choices people).

I see this first hand. My wife and I sell our Gluten-Free Recipes Book directly via the web, and I have seen a direct (inverse) correlation between gas prices and my book sales. It has only gotten worse as gas passed through $4.00 mark. The recent easing of gasoline prices helped stimulate sales a bit, but they are still lagging the pre-$3.00/gallon days considerably.

The fact is, people are TAPPED OUT! And when people stop spending and/or are forced to spend just on the basics (well, at least the American version of basics), that means that various product and service providers are losing their ability to sell things (like my book), which can lead to staff being reduced and unemployment increasing. Heck, just the massive housing decline alone should be enough for most idiot economists to see that there are going to be long-term and far-reaching implications for unemployment as the trickle-effect of products/services sales revolving around real-estate slow down.

I can't help thinking that perhaps the timing is perfect for all this. America needs to wake up to the fact that there is a fundamental problem with this economy. We are shipping insane amounts of our assets to energy-producing countries and foreign suppliers of cheap consumer goods. Where do you think that money ultimately goes? Sure, it may come back here in part, but not as reciprocal purchases of United States sourced goods and services for the most part -- instead it comes back by way of financing of our debt and as purchasing of our business assets and the like. We're selling everything that isn't nailed down in order to finance this insane need to fuel our vehicles at any cost, even as it is forcing us out of work by pushing all our much-needed capital out of American business and individuals' hands and into the pockets of foreigners that we will owe forever.

Wake up America! This is JUST THE BEGINNING, unless we make some substantial changes. Oh, and by the way, in addition to any personal debt you may have, do you want to know what your government, under this spend-crazy leadership, has obligated you and your family to?

The following is a quote right from the Treasury's own 2007 report:

Federal debt managed by the bureau totaled about $9 trillion at the end of fiscal year 2007. However, that number excludes many items, including the gap between scheduled and funded Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans' health care, and a range of other commitments and contingencies that the federal government has pledged to support. If these items are factored in, the total burden in present value dollars is estimated to be about $53 trillion.3 Stated differently, the estimated current total burden for every American is nearly $175,000; and every day that burden becomes larger. Given the size of the projected imbalance, the U.S. government will not be able to grow its way out of this problem; tough choices will be required.

Notice, this is JUST the FEDERAL OBLIGATIONS... add on State, County, Local, etc. How much more obvious can it be - we CAN NOT and WILL NOT EVER be able to get out from under this national debt. There is absolutely no way that every man, woman, and child in this country can fork over $175K each - OBVIOUSLY. The relative "strength" of the USA, especially over the past couple decades, is nothing short of a mirage. It is smoke and mirrors folks. It was a series of "bubbles" (tech bubble, then real estate, and TONS of government spending throughout).

Our coffers are drained, and the signs are showing more and more. This doesn't mean immediate doom though, as our government has shown an incredible ability to keep the house-of-cards standing via ever-more debt... including the latest "stimulus checks" (which I posit were to BLAME for much of the inflation spike and gas-price spike - see that link for my predictions and outcome.) And, of course, more government officials are calling for further stimulus packages (which of course mean, just put it on the giant credit-card of the US government to hide the fact we are seriously hosed!).

I am perhaps a bit alarmist, but the fact is, something has to change. Unemployment increases should not be seen as a "surprise" or "unexpected" event in the least bit given the fact that our financial underpinnings are built on a foundation of quicksand. Get ready for more such "news" going forward, as the ripple-effect spreads. Don't confuse ripple with trickle (like the supposed "trickle down economics" that are supposed to save us through tax-cuts, and extended tax-cuts, to the upper income levels -- though, there is some relation between two, as this tax policy has helped lead us to this current state).

Ohio Payday Loans

It is no surprise that even national television shows like Bill Moyer's journal and others have featured segments on the State of Ohio's Payday Loan businesses recently. These overnight lending or short-term lending facilities have been charging rather absurd interest rates to anyone willing to subject themselves to what may best be termed "credit for the desperate", but is sold as a short-term "advance against future earnings".

These Ohio payday loan companies had been allowed to charge nearly unlimited interest rates, up until quite recently, where their annualized interest rates would reach nearly 400% (391% I believe). But after quite a drawn out fiasco, the Ohio legislature finally reached agreement earlier this year to pass a law limiting those exorbitant interest rates to a meager 28% (meager is sarcastic here folks!) It only took the discovery and public news of (the usual) rotten political lobbyist connections (to State officials) to embarrass the Ohio government into pushing through a law that was previously going nowhere fast.

Here's what I think about these "payday loans" in general: fact is, if someone that wants to borrow money is such a credit risk that a 28% interest rate won't cover the potential losses and give you a bit of profit in addition, you shouldn't lend money to them anyhow. But, of course, the real objective with these Ohio payday loan companies has not been to make sure they make good loans, smart loans, affordable loans, or reasonably priced loans that can be repaid with relative certainty... the objective instead has always been to get the must vulnerable people hooked into a short-term revolving loan system that is incredibly lucrative and never ends.

This is essentially just another chapter in the Ohio predatory lending pursuits, though of a different nature than the other well known and nationally publicized mess known as subprime lending that really showed itself early here in Ohio when compared to the rest of the Nation. Oh, and in case you didn't know, the Republican legislature in the early 2000's made sure they overturned a Cleveland, Ohio law against such predatory lending practices on the grounds of arguments like: who are we to say we can do a better job managing the loan business than the free market and private sector? Of course, we know where this lobbyist and special-interest driven legislative push at the State level ended up taking Ohio over the coming years! (by the way folks, there are video tapes of the various Republicans in the Ohio House and Senate earlier this decade making these speeches to protect their backers' interests - again, Bill Moyer's show broadcast these videos for all to see and remember recently, since it is unlikely the politicians will be showing you proof of what they said in the past).

Well, you'd think perhaps this time we learned. The warning bell was sounded in Ohio in the subprime mortgage meltdown mess WAY AHEAD of the National alarm. And, the State of Ohio government simply made sure they did their part to not allow something as troublesome as a City law (Cleveland's anti-predatory-lending one) get in the way of "progress" or "free markets" or "capitalism" or what have you. So, this time around, having looked really bad (or, perhaps simply corrupt) in the recent past (oh heck, and again now with the lobbying connections!), Ohio pushed through this new Ohio Payday Loan interest rate limits law.

But, trust me, that Law is nothing short of a well choreographed measure to make it LOOK like they are trying to do what is right. I say this because now, here in Ohio, we are bombarded with the TV Commercials from special interest groups that call themselves things like "Financial Freedom Ohio" or "Ohioans for Financial Freedom" or some other such sickly misleading label for nothing short of what should be called REINSTATE ULTRA-HIGH PAYDAY-LOAN INTEREST RATES AND CALL IT "FREEDOM" GROUPS. Here we go again...

Do not fall for this hype (aka, CRAP) people. Be very concerned whenever you see labels for such political action groups and lobbying groups use nebulous terms like "FREEDOM". The only freedom desired by the Payday Loan Businesses in Ohio is the freedom to charge whatever they want, and the freedom to do so with little to no fear of being reigned in until this turns into yet another massive national issue where the Federal Government has to get involved to "fix" (or bail out) someone or some business (well, a massive number of someones or businesses by then of course).

Please, everyone, remember the last bill of junk we were sold here in Ohio when the "free market economy" was allowed to play out via predatory sub-prime lending. Fact is, if you own a house in Ohio, you are probably paying the price for that in the way of reduced home values. Heck, it spread like a plague throughout the entire nation, so again: wake up and say NO to this push to create yet another wave of mass sub-prime lending that takes advantage of those who can least afford insanely high interest rates. Fact is, when the people that take out 400% loans get into dire straights, all bets are off and anything is a reasonable action for paying back the loan, including stripping the copper pipes out of a house, the aluminum siding off houses, removing catalytic converters from cars, or any other act of desperacy to "stay afloat".

Sure, some people can get themselves out from under these types of loans without resorting to anything illegal or immoral, and without begging, borrowing, or stealing, but the fact is that this business of short-term high-interest loans will provide zero-to-little benefit to anyone over the long-term. The payday loan firms in Ohio and everywhere else do not want customers that can borrow once, pay back a loan, and never return... they want life-long indentured customers that ensure them a steady cash stream forever via the bindings and chains of ultra-high interest rates.

If you really feel strongly about "financial freedom" and allowing loan businesses to charge rates otherwise illegal (you realize your credit-card firm can't charge nearly the rates desired by these payday loan organizations, right?), I have a few simple thoughts I want you to consider.

First, I sure hope YOU never require a loan so desparately that you would take on outlandish interest-rate terms that will cause you to forever be in their grasp.

Second, if you say "I will never need to", great! Now, how about considering the fact that someone else may, whether for reasons acceptable to you or not, find themselves in a position where they see a payday loan as their only option, after you have decided to lend your support to the current Ohio lobbying movement to reinstate and allow essentially unlimited interest rates to be charged of that borrower.

Sure, it is not YOU, so what do you care? Search yourself here, and ask: is it even slightly acceptable to allow someone to pay an interest rate for a small loan, that if continually renewed, levies a nearly 400% annual rate? Borrow $100, and owe $500 if you take a year to pay it back. Better yet, if you know someone in this situation, maybe you should consider the possibility that by risking $100 (and personally lending that person the money), you could perhaps save a person from a situation they can never dig themselvs out of. And, for what? The cost of a couple tankfuls of gasoline?

I can't help thinking how credit in America has changed over the decades - both in the ease of credit, and the attitude towards credit. When I was a child, I remember my parents and grandparents thinking that ANY credit was a last-resort measure, and that any credit to be obtained was only done so under the utmost of need and kept to the absolute minimum required. Additionally, credit was first looked upon as something that with luck, some inter-family borrowing could help with. And, because of the absolute conviction by which all credit repayment was to take precedence over other expense-priorities, everyone involved just knew that people were good for their word and would ultimately pay back any loan given. Wow, have things changed! If only people still treated their finances, loans, and the repayment of loans with such responsiblity, I doubt the concept of a Payday Loan would ever have come to exist in anywhere near its current magnitude. Certainly it would never have become an industry with the power to essentially buy the legal outcome they want.

So, let's not make things any worse than they already are. Fact is, Payday Loans and other cash advance loans are probably here to stay, as is the day of rather lax credit and an overwhelming "need" people have in general to spend beyond their means (exacerbated by inflation and wages not keeping up with inflation of course, but also as part of this modern "must have everything NOW" culture that is mixed in).

So, when someone has to obtain that cash-advance loan for whatever the reason, let's at least consider Ohio's latest law (the one being challenged by the special interest groups) reasonable when they cap such loans' interest rates at 28%. Next, if you have the chance to help someone avoid this payday-loan mess to begin with, do so. And, even if you can not offer someone direct financial assistance, offer them advice and help them understand finances and options for improving their situation... even that can be a help.

Microsoft SQL-Server 2008 Final Released

It is about time! I have been anxiously awaiting the much overdue and delayed release of Microsoft SQL-Server 2008. Microsoft just released SQL-Server 2008 to manufacturing, and if you are lucky enough to have a MSDN / Technet subscription, the SQL-Server 2008 download files are supposed to be available now.

For those that have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on a copy of SQL-Server 2008, you can spend the time waiting studying up on what is new in SQL-Server 2008 and be ready to plan your migration from SQL-Server 2005. Microsoft has put the new SQL-Server 2008 Books Online up for everyone to download, and I suggest doing so if you want to get a jump start reading up on the new features and upgrade / migration implications.

Oh, how can I forget? You can always download the 180-day TRIAL VERSION of SQL2008 until you get the real thing purchased and installed. Or, certainly performing an evaluation prior to purchase is an option, but call me a SQL-Server groupie... my past experience with SQL-Server 6, 6.5, 7, 2000, and 2005 has always been a positive one in that I absolutely was thrilled with the improved functionality and features with each subsequent release, and overall the database management system has been quite stable even prior to a "service pack 1" or such. SQL2005 annoyed me with how Microsoft made mega-changes to their query-scripting tools from SSMS that effectively removed functionality that SQL2000 offered, but that was probably my only major gripe.

I have been looking forward to some of the new features in SQL-Server 2008 for quite some time, like native data-compression for backup files, and native data encryption improvements (like indexable encrypted fields - about time!). But, as always, Microsoft annoys me with how certain enticing features (like the compressed-backups) are only enabled with certain "versions" of the product - like the Enterprise or Data Center version or what have you. So, before you get TOO excited about a new feature, make sure that whatever new SQL-2008 feature you want to use is actually included in the version of the product you buy or develop for and/or deploy databases too.

Either way, some features to keep an eye out for that are quite cool (at least in my opinion) and available in all or some versions of the product include:

• native data-compression and/or compressed backups
  
• indexable encrypted columns
• LINQ integration
• log-stream compression (nice for when you are using log-shipping for mirroring between various participants)
• Star-Join query optimizations and other data-warehouse related optimizations
• Office2007 Integration (if you care - I know I surely do not)... now you can export directly to Word. Perhaps I should open my mind to this a bit, since it would make giving ad-hoc query results to end-users and managers a bit easier in that they can be in a form those persons are more comfortable with than a CSV or text-file dump. heh.
• A resource governor - not sure if I will use it, but hey, it is there.
• FILESTREAM storage. In today's day of all sorts of binary data (like music files, be it MP3 or OGG or WAV or whatever, and video files like MPEG-4, etc.) there needs to be an easy way to make these accessible from database applications. Well, FileStream Storage is the answer, as it enables SQL Server applications to store unstructured data, such as documents and images, on the file system. I will most definitely be using this feature.
• Sparse Columns and Column Sets : these are columns that are optimized for storing null values when you have at least 20-40% of the values in a column as NULL. I know for sure I can use this to my advantage.
• Spatial Data handling. Basically this is geometry and geography type data handling related. I need to research more, but it may be of use if you are dealing with map data, etc.
• "Wide Tables" - how about 30,000 columns in your table? That is now possible, along with up to 1000 indexes. That should take care of most any "need" imaginable. Part of me worries that people without a clue with "design" insanely poor SQL-Server database now by creating a one-giant-file (versus making it relational correct or normalized) just because they can easily do so. Let's hope I am wrong! Though, if this is the case, I guess I will have a lot of consulting work FIXING it all after the fact. lol.
• Full-Text Search catalogs are integrated into the DB (meaning, you can move your database and have the catalogs automatically come along for the ride -- this sure beats the old SQL2005 implementation).

Transact-SQL (T-SQL) improvements / enhancements:

• COMPOUND OPERATORS - WOOHOO! Being able to type @myIntVar += 5 sure beats the current need to type SET @myIntVar = @myIntVar + 5 just because the TIME SAVINGS TYPING LESS STUFF!
  
• Finally, better Data AND Time datatypes support - not just "DateTime" any more.
• Grouping-Sets : an extension to the GROUP BY clause which has interesting potential... I am already dreaming up ways to use it, since it allows multiple groupings in the same query.
• the new MERGE SQL-statement. Call it a "smart" combo insert/update command of sorts. Should simplify some of my code :)
• Row Constructors : SQL-Server 2008 now allows you to insert multiple values with a single INSERT statement. Again, it is about time, as this will save a LOT of typing for some programs.
  
• Table Value Parameters -- I am looking forward to this feature, as it gives you the ability to pass an entire table to a stored procedure. But, unless by some miracle Microsoft took user feedback into consideration since late Beta versions, this was only *inbound* into a Stored Procedure (i.e., read-only by the SP) and did not allow you to output a table value parameter (i.e., you could't pass updated information back through the parm). To me, this rather crippled the whole "feature", but perhaps SQL-Server 2008 Service Pack 1 or SQL-Server 2008 Service Pack 2 will implement this? (wishful thinking?!)

Now, keep in mind that I tend to focus on Programmability Enhancements to the Database Engine, and other software development related aspects of the SQL-2008 upgrade, so you may want to look into the rest of the "What's New in SQL-Server 2008" information in detail in those SQL Books Online and / or in the MSDN Library on the web (msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library). Have fun with SQL-Server 2008!