If a vote is taken on this, many people will have to examine their views about it in detail, and weigh the consequences of the vote.

In a moment of levity before getting serious - One group that must be all for the possibility of gay marriage is the divorce attorneys. Imagining all the new business must be making them salivate like the jackals they are!

The classically religious among us will call for the outright slamming of the possibility, as marriage is expected to be between a man and a woman both by tradition and scripture. However, also in several religious texts are evidence of polygamy, so if same sex marriage is allowed, why not polygamous marriage. How is one any more ‘normal’ than the other?

The thoughtful out there will explain that, since procreation requires one man and one woman, that defines the basic family unit, and therefore, marriage.

As someone brought up in a religious atmosphere, and also a clear thinker, both of the above sentiments ring true in my ears - yet I am open enough to allow freedom of people to live their lives as they see fit, including same sex unions. Also, we should not base any legal form upon cultural or religious norms, as we are supposed to be living in a country that separates church and state.

I’m sure that some gay people will shake their heads, and claim I ‘just don’t get it’, but I refuse to see why, if the legal benefits of marriage are given, why should it matter what the covenant is called? (If you give me a Payday -my favorite candy bar- but force me to ask for it using the name X22, but give me one every time I ask, without question, why should I care what you think it should be called…the caramel and peanuts are just as sweet.)

This is not meant to start a firestorm! Never before have I deleted any comment, but if I decide that someone is getting too abusive or rude, I will change that policy for this thread. I am simply trying to start a conversation, and further understand something I really don’t - see above.

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Quote of the day:
Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century. - Dame Edna Everage

Tags: referendum, california, vote, same sex union, gay marriage

Stories have been circulating for awhile, here on the outskirts of cyberville, about the unhappiness that Microsoft was causing with its schizophrenic policies, constant shifting of blame, and less than solid coding. Now on ZDNet, Jason O’Grady and David Morganstern have penned an article detailing how Microsoft may just have messed with the wrong people for the last time.

That is the developers. The people who make things to work with and support the code that comes from Redmond are not the least bit happy that Microsoft seems to be of two minds about the future of things - and one of those minds has Multiple Personality Disorder.

Could it be that a Macintosh program will be the tipping point for the confidence that ISVs have in Microsoft as a technology partner? One c-level technologist for a Windows enterprise app says “no more” to Redmond’s vision.

I wrote the other day about Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit’s announcements about the Office 2008 for Mac Service Pack 1 and the eventual return of support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to the Mac productivity suite.

One reader, a c-level executive at a enterprise ISV told me that this announcement out of Redmond was one waffle too many for his company, one that has relied on Microsoft since its beginnings. The company’s product is sold into Fortune 500 enterprises.

These are people that you want to keep happy, as without their business, Microsoft might have a few less billions to throw around at littler companies like Yahoo.

Another view from the person of some importance to the Microsoft coffers

“Office 2008 is indicative of a larger problem at Microsoft. To borrow from Alan Cooper, the inmates are running the asylum [the author of the 1999 Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity]. The engineers are making changes with little regard for the millions — maybe billions — of people who depend on Microsoft technology. I wish the VBA flip-flop was the only example.”

He then ran down a list of recent actions and inactions by Microsoft that concerned the company. He started off by pointing to the ribbon interface in Office 2007 for Windows. “By breaking the menus, this also broke hundreds of VBA add-ons for Excel.”

This is similar to the DVD Consortium suddenly changing the specifics to the way DVD players work. It’s not so bad to have to buy another DVD player, but when you look at the hundreds of discs you can no longer watch, and see the (deflated) dollars going up in smoke, you tend to get steamed.

Further reading into the article reveals that Mr. Ballmer’s jumping around, looking for all the world as though he was in need of the big men with the long sleeved white jackets, is nothing new. It was simply not chronicled until recently. (I’ll bet you have a crazy relative somewhere, not necessarily ready for the asylum, but then you don’t recount his exploits when company comes around.) There is even a name for it -

He ran around the stage in sweat-stained blue shirt and khaki chinos, which became known as “Dance Monkeyboy.

So what will they be doing about it?

“Don’t get me wrong, I know many developers at Microsoft and I’m amazed by their skill and talent. The problem is a management vacuum.”

He said the company will move its software off Microsoft developer tools and over to Web 2.0.

That is huge for Microsoft. If people start using other tools, things made simple by Microsoft tools will be harder, and they will change. Some things depending on low level code might start breaking. This will be on older stuff, so the word from everyone involved will be  ‘It’s old, get rid of it!’ and that costs lots of money. Money like that gets paid by every one of us in the chain in little ways we can’t account for directly - but the effect is there, nonetheless.

This anonymous person from the article stated flatly that the problem is not the workaday coders at Microsoft, it is the management that has nothing better to do than change their minds about projects, while playing with the propeller on their beanies, and calculating their profit sharing. (They are multitaskers, you know.)

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Technorati Tags: ZDNet,Microsoft,developers,disgruntled,management,Dance Monkeyboy,Steve Ballmer

Tags: zdnet, microsoft, developers, disgruntled, management, dance monkeyboy, steve ballmer

the HDMI interconnect - not only a demon of DRM, but also a positive force in control of componentry

Standards are a wonderful thing. The establishing of standards allows everyone to be on the same page. It allows cost reductions by streamlining the ways things work together. It would seem that all who manufacture in a market segment would be happy for standards, and adhere to them.

 and you thought the wiring inside was simple!

In 2008, it still is not so. Only the standards with the most stringent control are followed. Each manufacturer somehow feels that they must get ‘a leg up’ on the competition. So it is with the HDMI CEC standard.

As most know, HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interconnect, and now the CEC stands for Consumer Electronics Control. CEC is a feature of the HDMI 1.2 standard that should be implemented on every device with HDMI 1.3. Strange…you bet.

think about the connection mess that HDMI can save you from!

The CEC is designed (by a housewife masquerading as an engineer, no doubt, who detested any wires showing in her living room!) to allow things plugged together to work from one remote. Sounds great, and that’s how it was designed to be, eliminating extra remotes, IR blasters, and many other problems.

The problem is that not many people know about it, and the public needs to pressure all the manufacturers to standardize on a ‘cute’ name for it, and also allow full interoperability.

Right now, LG calls its version of CEC, SimpleLink. Toshiba calls its version CE-Link. Other manufacturers don’t bother with the cute names, allowing the prospective buyer to either dig for the specification, or remain ignorant. Ignorance can be a good thing, or so the folks at Sony think. You see, their CEC version only allows interaction and control of other Sony products. The unaware will probably think Sony has done them a huge favor, if only the customer will stay within the brand, not realizing that they are confining them in a way not necessary at all.

Remember, this is still an evolving standard, so it can change for the better.

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Tags: hdmi, hdmi cec, hdmi 1.3, standards, interconnect cables, electronic device control

Unlike the statements made by the corporate structure, the new information from outside the U.S. states that the biggest culprits in the torrent blockade are in the U.S., and specifically Comcast and Cox cable systems.

from Ars Technica

US ISPs are generally perceived by users here to offer unlimited and fairly neutral connections to the ‘Net for a monthly fee. Or they were, anyway, until Comcast admitted that it was “delaying” P2P traffic at peak times. New research from Germany now demonstrates that it’s not just Comcast; Cox is getting a piece of the P2P blocking action, too. What’s more, neither company blocks only at peak usage times. Paging the FCC!
Comcast-BitTorrent pact not a substitute for net neutrality
Vuze asks FCC to end P2P blocking as more reports of ISP shenanigans arise

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems have just released results of their own tests into BitTorrent blocking from around the world, and the results are startling: almost no one does it. In fact, out of 1,224 measured ISPs, only 13 were found to block BitTorrent traffic out. And where are the blocks coming from? Predominantly from the USA, where nine of the 13 ISPs were located.

Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, and Ireland each had one ISP apiece that engaged in blocking, though only Singapore’s StarCom did so with regularity (26 out of the 45 tests that used its network were blocked with TCP reset packets).

Of the nine ISPs in the US found to block BitTorrent, Comcast and Cox were far and away the most aggressive. Both blocked more than half of all attempted BitTorrent tests on their networks (82 of 151 tests on Cox were blocked, while 491 of 788 tests on Comcast met the same fate).

The tests were done using a piece of open source software called Glasnost that users around the world downloaded and installed on their machines. 8,000 users took part in the test, which used Glasnost to establish BitTorrent sessions with a set of test servers in Germany. Since the researchers can collect information about both sides of the connection, they can determine when a connection is artificially broken using TCP reset packets (Comcast’s preferred method).

One limit of such testing is that it can’t uncover throttling or shaping of any kind, so the Max Planck researchers are clear to note that their work represents a strongly conservative estimate of the number of ISPs who interfere with P2P traffic.

More than half blocked on Comcast and Cox does not speak very highly of either their policies, or their veracity in public admissions.

Also

The researchers also took a look at time of day to see if the blocks occurred only during times of peak usage (generally in the evenings). They did not. Blocks, in fact, were pretty consistent throughout the day, as the Comcast chart below shows.

Image courtesy Max Planck Institute

Free Press, one of the groups pressuring the FCC to take action in the current proceeding involving Comcast, responded with even more than its usual outrage to the news.

Ben Scott, the group’s policy director, said in a statement, “Consumers have no reason left to trust their cable company. These Internet experts have also unequivocally demonstrated that blocking is not limited to times of supposed congestion. Their sophisticated testing shows that Comcast and Cox block BitTorrent applications at all times of the day—not just at times of peak traffic. This research proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that consumers, Congress and the FCC must urgently pursue the complaints against network providers.”

And still they lie -

Update:

Comcast comments to Ars. Parse this as you will:

“Comcast does not, has not, and will not block any websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent. We have acknowledged that we manage peer-to-peer traffic in a limited manner to minimize network congestion.  While we believe our current network management approach was a reasonable choice, we are now working with a variety of companies including BitTorrent and confirm our March announcement that we will move to a protocol-agnostic network management technique no later than December 31, 2008.”

It becomes clear that Comcast and Cox users should probably start looking for a new provider, that is, if the integrity of their provider means anything to them.

To the FCC :  Isn’t it about time you earned some of the tax dollars that run your little part of the government? After a long history of being either completely ignorant or complacent, should we not start getting some value for our money?

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Tags: ars technica, bit torrent, blocking, net neutrality, comcast, cox, max planck institute

…and it appears that the One Laptop Per Child initiative has a few to deal with. So says a former security director, who states that the problem starts at the top, with Nicholas Negroponte.

Apparently Negroponte, for all of his blustering about Linux, wanted Windows XP to run on these machines all along. So much for the purity of motive, and the delight of Open Source.

Harsh words about the cost overruns, the marketing program, and the hardware failures round out the criticism of Ivan Krstić.

Former One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) security director Ivan Krstić is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. He opened up a massive can of damning allegations about OLPC earlier this week in a lengthy tirade on his personal blog. The blog post includes a deeply pessimistic appraisal of constructionist learning theories and some harsh words for OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte, but it also offers some valid and insightful observations about the project’s failings and what can be done to remedy them.

Krstić’s blog post is like an angry rant from one who has escaped from a sinking ship and is now shouting from the shoreline in a futile effort to get the ship’s crew to patch holes in the hull and change course. Despite the extremely caustic tone and occasionally contradictory arguments in the blog post, those of us who have been following OLPC from the start and have seen the litany of problems and failures from a safe distance can sympathize with his frustration.

The OLPC project aimed to produce low-cost, education-focused laptops to sell in large quantities to governments in developing countries. The OLPC XO laptop includes some unique and innovative hardware components and a Linux-based, open source software platform that was designed to promote a constructionist approach to education. OLPC has faced a steady stream of serious problems that have left the project on life support.

The price of the laptop has climbed to $188 per unit as a result of hardware changes and insufficient sales volume. In order to help account for slow sales, OLPC made the XO available in North America through the Give 1 Get 1 program (G1G1), which failed catastrophically as a result of egregiously mismanaged deployment. A growing number of users who received units through G1G1 have experienced hardware failures and a number of other problems. OLPC’s attempt to reorganize and make the project “more like Microsoft” was a complete bust too, and compelled Krstić and others to leave the project.

the article in Ars Technica continues with some other criticisms of the project, including the fact that the Sugar interface, which was to be a cornerstone of the ‘look and feel’, was never really seriously considered. It was given lip service, and  not much more.

Krstić continues by accusing Negroponte of lying about his intention to port Sugar to Windows. Krstić believes that the Sugar interface should be ported to as many operating systems as possible so that more users can benefit from it, but he fears that Negroponte will move to Windows exclusively and jettison the Sugar user interface.

“Nicholas knows quite well that Sugar won’t magically become better simply by virtue of running on Windows rather than Linux. In reality, Nicholas wants to ship plain XP desktops. He’s told me so. That he might possibly fund a Sugar effort to the side and pay lip service to the notion of its ‘availability’ as an option to purchasing countries is at best a tepid effort to avert a PR disaster,” Krstić wrote. “In fact, I quit when Nicholas told me—and not just me—that learning was never part of the mission. The mission was, in his mind, always getting as many laptops as possible out there.”

Such are the problems with many worthy efforts. One problem, from what I’ve been able to piece together, seems to fall into the category of “too many cooks spoil the broth”. There were/are just too many “idea people” and not enough “worker bees” who simply did as they were told. Why the original design was allowed to get so twisted is something Mr. Negroponte seems to want to keep to himself, but I’m certain one of the left turns along the way was thinking that using a Microsoft operating system on low end hardware would be a good idea. Children don’t really need to learn about the Blue Screen Of Death as one of their first lessons.

Ivan Krstić did lay out a fairly good set of things to change, to return the project to sanity, and possibly feasibility. Perhaps someone who can do something about it will read and comprehend.

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Quote of the day:
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. - William G. McAdoo

Tags: olpc, negroponte, microsoft, hardware, give one get one, sugar

while the software that powers it continues to disappoint.

It seems that after all these years, Bill Gates has run out of ideas for software, and doesn’t want to concern himself with the repair of software problems.

In a CEO Summit held in Greece, Mr. Gates showed off a project of Microsoft Research called TouchWall.

The prototype is designed to demonstrate how inexpensive hardware could turn a large surface — in this case a 6 x 4 foot screen — into a dynamic touch display. So while Microsoft is investing millions in hardware it will never sell, where’s the multi-touch version of Windows? Where’s the fix for Vista?

The Gates demonstration shows what previous demonstrations by Jeff Han and others have shown, which is that the next great leap in PC user interface design will have multitouch, gestures and physics like the Apple iPhone. Read all about that great leap here. These demos also show that there are many different ways to put together hardware that enables this next-generation user interface.

The hardware research is exciting as it is varied. But the magic pixie dust that will make all this happen is the user interface and operating system, with an ecosystem of developers and third party hardware and software makers to support it. You know, that thing Microsoft does for a living.

Windows Vista, which currently powers the TouchWall demo, is horribly flawed, and largely unpopular with users. Meanwhile, I believe Apple is plotting a market takeover with a next-generation UI touch-screen computer — basically a giant iPhone that replaces the Mac line — that could see the light of day within two years.

Apple has to build the hardware, but Microsoft doesn’t. I don’t understand why Microsoft spends so much time, effort and money building hardware systems like Surface and TouchWall while its operating system business is in such dangerous disarray.

 

Mike Elgan at ComputerWorld summed it up with the title ‘Bill Gates shows CEOs how to waste research money’, and pretty much hit the nail squarely. The thing is, this was shown as something new, when, as anyone above the level of cretin should know, it is a variation on the ‘Surface’ theme.

Perhaps touch is the next big thing, but it will take software that works correctly to run - there’s the rub.

Video presentation here

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Tags: microsoft, bill gates, touchwall, demonstration, vista

It looks as though all the workers at CNET can rest easy, as the purchase of the conglomerate by CBS means an infusion of cash, and probably no layoffs, as there is not much, if any, duplication of purpose.

The buyout is costing CBS 1.8 billion dollars, a drop in the bucket for the Tiffany Network.

One thing I’d like to see - John Dvorak reporting what’s going on in tech each week, at least one time, on the CBS Evening News! ” …and now back to you, Katie!”

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Tags: cbs, cnet, tiffany network, john dvorak

Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor that, upon close scrutiny, makes one think of the major character Gordon Gekko in ‘Wall Street’, shows what is wrong with America, and rampant capitalism fueled only by greed.

Yes, I know how that sounds. No, I am no lover of communism, or even socialism, but unlike Gordon Gekko, I don’t happen to believe that ‘capitalism just works’. Anytime humans are a part of something, there is chance for disaster. That is what is beginning to happen here.

Why this corporate raider has decided to insinuate himself into the business of Yahoo is beyond me, but then that is part of the problem. It should be beyond him, too. People who are involved in things only for the money should probably get out.

from Betanews

In the opening move of a game he plays better than anyone alive, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has named a powerhouse team of investors and executives who would be ready and willing to lead Yahoo into a big future with Microsoft.

The dissident proxy slate of Yahoo directors proposed this morning by Icahn Capital chief Carl Icahn is comprised of frequent Icahn allies associates, along with extremely accomplished executives and investors. Icahn unveiled his team this morning in an open letter to Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock.

“It is clear to me that the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft,” Icahn’s letter to Bostock begins. “It is quite obvious that Microsoft’s bid of $33 per share is a superior alternative to Yahoo’s prospects on a standalone basis. I am perplexed by the board’s actions. It is irresponsible to hide behind management’s more than overly optimistic financial forecasts. It is unconscionable that you have not allowed your shareholders to choose to accept an offer that represented a 72% premium over Yahoo’s closing price of $19.18 on the day before the initial Microsoft offer. I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company and more importantly would be a force strong enough to compete with Google on the Internet.”

That last sentence again points out what is wrong with this mentality. The perpetrators of this type of capitalism see evil everywhere except where they should…in their own actions. The purpose of any company is to do more than rape the public for the benefit of the stockholders.

The problems that Yahoo has experienced show precisely why it is hard for some companies to go public, because when that happens, the vultures and idiots (perhaps one and the same) start circling.

Backing Icahn up in his plan to reshape the online landscape are some powerhouse names, including Nextel founder John Chapple (reportedly one of Microsoft’s choices for its own would-be proxy slate), legendary mutual fund manager Brian Posner, New Line Cinema Co-chairman and Co-CEO Robert Shaye, former Universal Studios chief Frank Biondi — one of Hollywood’s most respected former executives — and another billionaire investor-slash-household name, Dallas Mavericks and HDNet owner Mark Cuban.

Also on that list is Icahn himself, of course. It wasn’t stated who would necessarily be elected chairman of that board, though it’s a fair bet that Icahn would be the leading candidate.

Icahn’s goals obviously include big short-term gains. He wants to replace Yahoo’s existing board that was opposed to a Microsoft buyout at all costs, with a team more copacetic to the notion. But the fact that Icahn’s team represents not just Wall Street investors but seasoned managers in their own right points to the possibility of an unspoken long-term goal: a big hand in the oversight of a much bigger company.

In just the last few weeks, Icahn has become a major Yahoo investor and plans to become bigger one, according to his own letter. He purchased 59 million more shares and share-equivalents of Yahoo stock, and has signaled with the US Federal Trade Commission his intention to purchase more shares worth $2.5 billion. Outside estimates are that Icahn already owns 2.5% of Yahoo, and this purchase may bring his stake up to 4% — not huge, but certainly enough to give him a platform when he addresses shareholders on July 3.

Since a Microsoft merger is the stated, outright goal of this nomination, its success would make his Icahn Capital venture a principal investor in a newly combined Microsoft Corp. Certainly some of his proposed alternative Yahoo board — including, most likely, Chapple — would be open to the notion of being seated on Microsoft’s board in a post-merger scenario.

According to a filing last February with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Icahn Capital did not have a major stake in Microsoft, and did not hold one in Yahoo either at that time. Curiously, though, he does continue to own about a third of a billion in combined stocks in Time Warner, the parent company of AOL — which is one of the companies Yahoo was seen associating with, in order to fuel speculation about “strategic alternatives” that could thwart a Microsoft buyout.

Forcing a merger with Microsoft is merely a way for Icahn and his gang to insinuate themselves into Microsoft, so perhaps Darth Ballmer should get upset at this point. We, as viewers on the sidelines, should be at least a bit anxious, as this, for those that believe, could take Microsoft even further toward the dark side. A Microsoft - Yahoo merger by these people would yield a company that cares even less about quality of product, and only about shareholder value. It could be the start of the long, ugly collapse of Microsoft, after a few more iterations of crappy software, released on a shareholder timetable, with no care for the quality of the product.

and

“While it is my understanding that you do not intend to enter into any transaction that would impede a Microsoft-Yahoo merger,” Carl Icahn wrote Roy Bostock this morning, with his usual sense of perfect word choice. “I am concerned that in several recent press releases you stated that you intend to pursue certain ’strategic alternatives.’ I therefore hope and trust that if there is any question that these ’strategic alternatives’ might in any way impede a future Microsoft merger you will at the very least allow shareholders to opine on them before embarking on such a transaction.”

The other “strategic alternative” involves a combination or partnership with Google. Icahn wants none of that — and incidentally, he is not a major Google shareholder.

Yahoo’s current board of directors includes the managing director of Softbank Capital and former Ziff-Davis publishing executive Eric Hippeau, Activision Chairman and CEO Robert Kotick, Northwest Airlines Chairman Emeritus Gary Wilson, and Arthur Kern, the chairman of American Media which publishes the National Enquirer. Yahoo did not have a public comment on Icahn’s move this morning.

This bozo is only concerned with merging Yahoo with Microsoft. It is not because he has any grasp of the situation in ‘cyberville’. It is not for the betterment of either of these companies. It is purely for the increase in his portfolio, and the rest of the world be damned.

Need I say more?

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Quote of the day:
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. - Lord Acton

Technorati Tags: Icahn,Yahoo,Microsoft,merger,corporate raider,‘Wall Street’,Gordon Gekko,capitalism

Tags: icahn, yahoo, microsoft, merger, corporate raider, ‘wall street’, gordon gekko, capitalism

Yesterday at 5 PM, the doors of all PCClub locations closed, forever. Apparently there was no advanced notice to anyone, as indications on the ‘net show many employees were left out in the cold, with only a few hours notice, and no severance pay.

PCClub  was the last of the non-Big Box stores here in California, and the only one that was primarily a reseller of PCs and parts. Sure, there is Fry’s, but they would just as soon sell you a television or washer and dryer. PCClub had become a fixture in a few states (how many I can’t quite remember, and the website is totally down, so that will be no help!), and seemed to be doing alright, if not tremendously well.

A little digging around shows a few stories of how some signs were there, but apparent only to those who shopped regularly. I suppose I should have been suspicious when an Apex case I bought was half price a couple of weeks ago. It is one time they had a fantastic sale on a great product - hmm, I should have been really susp