economic stimulus

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley doesn't have to guess where federal stimulus funds will do the most good in his state: He can see for himself -- and his constituents can, too.

A few weeks ago I aired my worries about how the broadband funding in the Federal stimulus package was going to be spent. The government has now released documentation on that part of the package, and so far things look mostly OK.

The Obama administration's demand that government officials closely track and report how $787 billion in economic stimulus money is being spent was not lost on major software vendors such as SAP and IBM, which have quickly rolled out BI tools that are supposed to help meet the mandate.

The U.S. government is beginning to spend billions of dollars quickly to stimulate the economy. And that may be why AMD said this week it is releasing its six core Opteron chip in June, well ahead of schedule, and plans to follow it early next year with a chip code-named Magny-Cours that will ship in eight- and 12-core models. After that, it plans a 16-core chip in 2011.

If lengthy requirements were a measure of success, then smart grid technology is well on its way to being an anomaly in the environmental controls space. But I'm not going to try to hold my breath for that to happen.

The kick-off public meeting to determine how two U.S. government agencies should spend about $7 billion to improve broadband deployment across the nation produced more questions than answers.

I like presents, even when they're bought with my own money. So you can imagine my delight over the broadband stimulus package. If we're spending my money, at least it's going toward my industry. That's a good thing, right? Having carefully studied the stimulus package -- or "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," as it's formally known -- the answer is a qualified "maybe." Here's the rundown:

Broadband experts say U.S. agencies will have difficulty allocating broadband money in the recent U.S. economic stimulus package.

Stimulus packages that are being put in place in response to the global financial crisis are overly focused on physical infrastructure, and not the digital agenda, said Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen, during his keynote at the Cebit trade show in Hanover, Germany, on Tuesday.

The economic stimulus package that President Obama has signed contains upwards of $20 billion to create electronic health records for most Americans within five years.

Could $7.2 billion in federal funds committed to boost broadband in the U.S. transform small towns like Truckee, Calif., into the next Mumbai, India, filled with beehives of call centers that employ local residents?