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Obama Looking To Symantec CEO For Commerce
patentpundit writes "Word has started to circulate that President Barack Obama may be close to appointing John W. Thompson, the outgoing chief executive of network security firm Symantec Corp., to be the next Secretary of Commerce. According to the LA Times, over the last several days Thompson has spoken on the telephone and met with key senators, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a member of the commerce committee that would hold confirmation hearings for any appointed Secretary of Commerce, is 'extremely supportive and hopeful he'll be the nominee.' The appointment of Thompson to head the Department of Commerce would be an exceptionally interesting choice given that only days ago President Obama asked Scott McNealy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, to lead his open source charge and conduct a study and report back regarding the feasibility of the US government forgoing proprietary software and moving toward open source software solutions."
Is his track record so far.
What can we now expect?
If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
The first thing he'll do is Root the country- for our own protection. We won't be able to do anything once he's in. He'll screw everything up, and won't leave when we ask him to. We'll need to find a special force of people to go in and remove him manually.
Worst of all, he won't even fix any problems while he's there, and we'll end up calling his competitors to fix the problem later.
Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
CEO's are just part of the same thought elite recycling old ideas. Even ones that run technical companies. Stuff like this is only news when real reformers like RMS get cabinet appointments.
JWT did an excelent job turning Symantec into a profitable corporation and expanding their protfolio!! This has my vote!!
Hopefully John W. Thompson will not use the Symantec tech support model for Commerce. I base some of this negativity on support for what was Veritas. Symantec has dropped the ball on that.
...revamping the legislation under the "Yes, we CAN-SPAM" slogan
Thompson had a career at the IBM Corporation and serves as a director on the corporate boards of UPS and Seagate Technology.
This game will waste your life. Don't clicky!
Obama's administration, feature creep, and bloat. Just like Symantic.
THL phish sticks
I don't know about John W. Thompson, but my gut response to this was, "Could he look for someone who runs a company that doesn't suck?" Thompson might not be responsible, but *someone* has been running Symantec into the ground for several years now-- at least as far as product quality is concerned.
As far as technology goes, I'd be much more pleased if I felt like the administration were looking for people with pro-freedom and pro-consumer tendencies.
Well if this guy gets in, according to Obamas decree this guy will not be allowed to tap them for projects for the gov't. I am sure this will not extend into existing contracts but this could prevent Symmantec from providing any contracts to the white house for 2 years.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
I suppose he knows the "tech industry" or what have you better than other possible choices. I just have this feeling that having the former CEO of a proprietary software company in charge of looking into the feasibility of going open source might not be as good an idea.
I mean, the guy is capable but is he willing? Several nations are going nuts with open source now since it puts them in control of their own systems and even fits their philosophical ideas (power to the people, etc) better than going Windows. So we know its possible and seems to be working out okay where it has been done. Why do I have a feeling whomever we do get for Secretary of Commerce is going to say we should stick with Windows for the OS, Symantec for the AV, and MS Office for our primary apps?
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I couldn't help but notice that he picked the CEO of a company that makes the worst, most bloated, least valuable proprietary products I've ever used. Say what you will about the bloat in Microsoft products, but at least the bloat is there because they are trying their damnedest to create a robust platform and maintain compatibility. I've never seen a single benefit to the bloat that Symantec products have, and have often found myself wondering how you would even notice malware and viruses on a system that has their antivirus products on it.
I realize you want experience when you appoint people, but if they still have 'ties' there is a great chance of conflict of interest in moves like this.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Anyone else curious when they're going to start adding "360" to the end of every departmental name or Project?
DHS is dead. Long live DHS360!
If you thought NSA was watching you, just wait until the NSA360 upgrade comes out.
Can't wait for change360.gov website.
Let's just hope in four years the 360 moniker doesn't ring too true. Turn 360 degrees, and you're pretty much back where you started from.
What has this guy done except lead a company that makes a crappy product that only succeeds because of their volume license deals with computer manufacturers and Microsoft's own ineptness and inability to produce a secure product?
Symantec produces software that slows down your computer, makes your other software stop working, and makes itself difficult to uninstall. Pretty much the same as a virus.
or else!
open source initiatives through sun ceo, ex yahoo exec for admn. post, symantec exec for ceo .... totally investing in the upcoming tech age.
u.s. is going to shake up and lead again after all. just at the time we thought it was going down the drain. amazing.
Read radical news here
As if the Democrats don't get enough flack about creating overly large, bureaucratic initiatives, he hires the guy in charge of Norton products! Does that mean the next Republican President will hire the guy from ESET?
what did ANY senior post appointee in the administrations of the last 30 years do to get to their post ? APART from being regulars of smoke filled rooms ?
please wake up. this person, is of our age and times. he doesnt belong to an age in which life was decided in smoke filled rooms on leather armchairs.
its not what he has done. its that he is of OUR generations, the tech affiliated generations, and he is of our rising internet/tech culture. thats what's important.
it would be utterly stupid, STUPID to assign a person to such posts, just because they have pulled some ceo stunts in some monolithic dinosaur companies. considering the fact that we are well into the tech age and the only thing we havent started automating&integrating being the way we shit in our wcs, and the fact that how badly the 'executive' understanding of the past 'hey its high finance & executive times !' era screwed up our global economy, doing as such would be even more stupid.
Read radical news here
The Navy-Marine Corp. Intranet (NMCI) project has been seen as a huge, overpriced failure. It's also due for re-bidding in 2010, I believe, because EDS decided it wasn't a profitable contract.
I wonder if a general push towards OSS in the federal government will even lead to an eviction of the unholy Exchange servers that are part of the current NMCI.
For a second there, I read "Jack Thompson"
It certainly wasn't Obama, but SOMEONE in the administration that asked McNealy to write a paper on open source in government. That is not the same as leading a "charge."
Interestingly, Symantec reports earnings today. Gotta believe at least one of the analysts will ask about the reports (and be given a long winded "no comment."
Should I be buying stock in Symantec now? Is this going to be like Haliburton with tons of money being thrown at it via government?
Obama or the guy he is appointing?
I just want to know the obvious creeps are getting a free pass from the Republicans and the press. The problem with a "Cult of Personality" President is that the usual concerns don't question or challenge him. That is the real danger and a good number of his appointments demonstrate that clearly.
All in all we end up with the realization that after the election the dream world ceases to exist.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Now there was a geek's geek.
If I could sell bleach as a mouthwash, I'd want me on my staff too.
:wq
So does this mean when we call his office we'll get a call center in India, with reps who will read a script over and over in response to our questions? Of course the script won't quite answer the question, and when we get frustrated, we don't get to uninstall him since he's a non elected official. Can't wait.
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Most of the comments here are quite negative towards Mr. Thompson. He is actually a very impressive person. I suggest people who have decided to base their judgment of him on the company he ran watch the episode of CEO Exchange with him in it. http://www.pbs.org/wttw/ceoexchange/episodes/ceo_jthompson.html
You all could be thankful that it isn't someone who believes the Internet is a set of tubes, which you cannot dump large objects on, as you could the bed of a flatbed truck.
Going forward, taxes will now be referred to as a Yearly Government Subscription Fee.
The people who ruined the Norton Utilities?
Why in the world would he want a corporate exec from a corporation that does even know how to improve its own products?
I think what we have learned here is that McNealy can't write a convincing letter.
Oh I remember... Symantec and Sun are both on the list of "Tech Giants that Might Not Survive 2009." http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=910
I wish the new president would bring successful executives into government, not losers.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
at symantic?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Well, that survey was hardly conclusive, but I suppose it might be a symptom of the old, "only losers go into government" theory.
I've never seen it explicitly stated anywhere that I can remember, but I've heard people complain on countless occasions that the best and brightest simply don't go into government. If you're making millions and millions of dollars running a successful company, are you going to quit to make a salary that's chicken feed (relatively) working for the government?
I don't know how true that really is, though. It seems like there are some people who are very interested in public service, and are willing to sacrifice a little income.
Is that a reference to the way Symantec products tend to gobble up system resources? Or is mister Thompson in some sort of legal trouble? I don't get it.
Fantastic idea. I can't imagine someone better at creating an artificial need and demand for products than the ex-CEO of Symantec.
"Oh Noes! The current products suck! You might all die!
But fortunately, do I have the solution for you. In low low payments of $800B/Qtr, all of your problems will be solved..."
--
$tar -xvf
I just want to say that as someone who had worked on an NMCI team at the washington navy yard, you could not be more right. I never saw an enviroment anywhere else where the techs that were supposed to be running the network and FIXING it when it was down or broken (always) could huddle in their little room across from the server room and sit back and laugh and chill for hours on end until someone came to check up on them. Then it was a quick hush, and everyone getting up from their seats and walking across the hall to the server room to look busy. And without consequence! And this went on for the year that I worked there, probably has gone on for years, and I have no doubt will continue until the contract is rebid. Worse for me, I can't even put that year of work experience on my resume without techs looking at each other and laughing knowingly when they see that I worked on the NMCI network, and then showing me the door. DON'T GET SUCKERED INTO AN NMCI CONTRACT POSITION! it could be the end of your IT career.
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Sen. Judd Gregg has bee a good government official for a long time. And itâ(TM)s reportedly that Obama is looking at Republican Senator Judd Gregg to head the Department of Commerce. The fiscal conservative has confirmed that he is being looked at to be Commerce Secretary, but doesn't have too much else to say about it. Obama has hit the ground running, and he's getting in his picks for top posts. He is committed to bipartisanship, like an online payday loan is committed to convenience.