Hiatus

At the beginning of January, I set myself a goal to see if I could make at least one post on flow|state a month. January's now over, with no post. I've had a draft of the promised follow-up to the last post on the Shared Suffering Hypothesis under construction for three months. (Thanks to Michael, Barry, Evan, & co. for their comments, the most interesting dialogue I've received on a post in a long while.) I still can't find the time to finish off the darn post.

It's sinking in that helming a startup through a stormy economy while adequately parenting three young children just doesn't leave enough personal time to do this blog justice. FeedBurner says I've got several thousand subscribers, and I've occasionally run into readers who offered me their encouragement (thanks, John F.!). I would prefer not to leave them wondering why there's no activity.

I need less stress, not more, right now, and think the safest thing to do is declare an indefinite blog hiatus. There are still countless UI topics on which I would like to write, and I hope at some point to find the time to get some down. At that point you—and I—can be pleasantly surprised. Until then, thanks for reading.

Best,

Jan

Comments

[daves561]

Color me understanding but sad. How about one last easy post: Two must-have books on the topic of UI design...?

[Max Howell]

A real shame since some of your posts have been truly enlightening for me.

[zaine_ridling]

I encourage this. Once a year, I proclaim a tech-vacation for 1-2 months just to recharge the batteries. Besides, tech is a treadmill that never stops. And trying to keep up will kill the spark of what inspires this fantastic blog. So take all the time you need, even a year. The world will still be here when you get back, and so will we. And trust me when I say, when you do come back, we'll spread the word!

[raivo pommer-eesti]

Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee

KfW Bank

Die staatliche KfW Bankengruppe hat 2008 einen Verlust von 2,66 Milliarden Euro verbucht. Ursachen waren unter anderem die Rettung der früheren Tochter IKB und die Pleite der amerikanischen Bank Lehman Brothers, sowie die Probleme in Island in Höhe von zusammen 0,7 Milliarden Euro, wie die KfW am Freitag in Frankfurt mitteilte.

1,2 Milliarden Euro verschlangen allein die Risikoabschirmung und der Verkauf der IKB. Insgesamt habe das Engagement bei dem Düsseldorfer Institut, das sich mit riskanten Wertpapieren verspekuliert hatte, damit 8,4 Milliarden Euro gekostet. Abschreibungen auf Wertpapiere belasteten die KfW 2008 mit 1,5 Milliarden Euro.

„Dieser Abschluss ist in Gänze überhaupt nicht befriedigend“

Bereits im Vorjahr war bei der Bank, die dem Bund und den Ländern gehört, ein Verlust von 6,2 Milliarden Euro entstanden. „Dieser Abschluss ist in Gänze überhaupt nicht befriedigend“, sagte KfW-Vorstandschef Ulrich Schröder.

Im operativen Geschäft sei die Ertragskraft aber hoch und das Geschäftsmodell müsse nicht angepasst werden. Das Betriebsergebnis vor Bewertung stieg auf den Rekordwert von 1,58 (1,36) Milliarden Euro. Von dem für 2009 geplanten Refinanzierungsbedarf von 75 Milliarden Euro habe die KfW bereits 37 Prozent gedeckt. Im laufenden Jahr wolle die Bank wieder „deutlich schwarze Zahlen“ schreiben.

Die KfW ging aus der Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau hervor und ist zu 80 Prozent im Besitz des Bundes. 20 Prozent halten die Bundesländer.

[von raivo pommer-www.google.ee.]

raivo pommer-www.google.ee
raimo1@hot.ee

SLOW- MOTION

Federal regulators on Friday will privately begin telling the 19 largest US financial institutions how well they performed in stress
tests to assess their soundness.

Regulators trying to stabilize the financial system also will release the test methodology they used, which could provide clues about which banks may be in trouble - but also could could unwittingly roil the industry.

The results of the stress tests won't be publicly released until May 4.

The slow-motion rollout is intended to blunt market reaction to the news of which banks are healthy, which ones could fail if the recession worsens and which need more money to survive.

News reports, including a confidential outline of the tests first reported by The Associated Press this week, have led analysts to start handicapping which banks could fail. The speculation will intensify with Friday's release of the test methodology.

``I'm worried about the overreaction - people selling every bank short and pulling out all their deposits and hiding their money in the mattress,'' said Scott Talbott, a lobbyist with the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents the biggest financial firms.

Regulators are striving to release enough information about the stress tests to inspire confidence. But they don't want to give analysts so much detail that they can run their own tests on the banks before the official release of results.

[Jennie]

Just came across your blog and have been going through the archives. Hope you return to writing - love your style and topics!