The woman who is running the SAR for the Nevada Civil Air Patrol husband called me tonight after my message. Seems that they've now located several planes during the SAR for Steve Fossett...including one from a crash back in 1964!
There have been times when I've been in Nevada and there is a whole lotta nothing for thousands of square miles. Pretty easy to lose a small plane.
I'm going to get a t-shirt made that says "Yep...I'm a noob" on it.
In hindsight, I should've waded through every single comment before going off half-cocked. Someone emailed me a short time ago with an MTurk guy's email and he just reached out to me. It gave me an opportunity to let him know that the directions on the MTurk page were confusing at best and consequently this is NOT a coordinated and orchestrated effort.
With all due respect to other/.'ers, this forum is NOT the place to publish coordinates or try to orchestrate an effort. Especially when it comes to a "free" MTurk effort like this one. What would be super-helpful would be to have a place to check hits to see if others had found it already AND to have a central place to contact someone so they don't have some loose cannon (ahh...that would be me) going off and calling SAR people in CA and NV.
This process of coordinated effort is awesome...getting people like me to invest free hours in performing work like this to help. I'm not sure I'll do it again since now I feel like some doorknob...but who knows.
I'm reluctant to do this, but I've sort of gone all out tonight to alert people searching for Fossett because of a white plane I found. I know people will say, "Well give us the coordinates so we can verify" but I'm not going to do that until the Mono County Sheriff and whomever else has a chance to go out there in the morning when it's light and see what it is.
I've been noticing all the podcasting cognoscenti in Silicon Valley are simultaneously doing their podcast and shooting video of it. What do they know or suspect that we don't?
Former TechTV ScreenSavers host Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, John C. "I get no spam" Dvorak and others are doing TWIT and just announced video is next.
Former ScreenSavers hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose at Diggnation are shooting video while they podcast and Kevin Rose is doing SYSTM
Robert X. Cringley's NerdTV debuts. Now you may be wondering, "So what?". It's IPTV...that's what. There aren't a lot of great examples out there yet, but most of the smart podcasters -- who are mini-celebrities or have something people would like to see -- are simultaneously podcasting and shooting video (many in high definition just in case). Read an article about a new report here.
Silicon Valley podcaster John Furrier from Podtech is embarking on video to augment his podcasting.
Wired magazine has a great article discussing blogging + video = vlogging. While everyone's attention is on podcasting, vlogging is the next hot trend that has almost taken off. This Apple announcement oughta help.
It's so hard to believe in anything anymore. If it weren't for my lucky
astrology mood watch, I wouldn't believe in anything. Steve Martin, Comedian
A buddy of mine went hiking in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park in Colorado and had to pack *everything* out...even human waste.
Being without a job and money to buy the right stuff from his local backpacking outlet, he took along a half dozen FedEx mylar envelopes for taking his obligatory daily dump. They worked great, didn't leak and could be resealed, and easily packed out.
Wonder how FedEx would like to be associated with THAT!?! Furniture seems pretty benign.
Phew. The *great* thing about a video iPod is that I'll no longer have to be in the bathroom trying to watch pr0n and balancing a huge laptop with one hand!
Does Congress or Bush honestly believe that any terrorist, criminal of any kind doing serious shit or -- gasp -- someone using bittorrent to download lots of movies...are really going to do so from home or somewhere they could be tracked?
Hmmm...how tough is it to find an open hotspot either at the friendly neighborhood coffee shop or some bonehead down the street with the SSID of "linksys" and no security enabled.
This is all about the feds being in a position to do wholesale tracking of people like you and I.
Why would Steve Jobs want to drive free content via iTunes? I consumed tons 'o tunes when I first got my iPod and starting last October have downloaded free content like mad -- so much so that I don't have enough listen-able hours in a day for all the stuff on my little white hard drive device.
Here's the kicker and what Apple will have to wrestle with: my own 45 minute commute to work each way is often filled with IT Conversationsand other 'podcasts' every day and I hardly listen to my own music library anymore.
SUGGESTION TO APPLE: if Apple were to play it smart, they'd provider "podcaster guidelines" and how-to's that would do what they'd done with the UI (set the bar for quality and usability) as well as providing a way for podcasters to monetize their offerings. It could and would explode the users of Garageband and the Mac platform -- since most of the really great audio tools are there.
WILD CONJECTURE: Oh yeah...if all the rumors are true about the next step for Apple is with a video-centric platform, it would position them nicely for all the vloggers to use iMovie, Final Cut, etc., for creating great video content.
Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold obviously saw the intellectual property light: patent it no matter what and you'll own the toll-booth. Stallman's perspective is probably too little, too late and Gates' head has probably been here for years.
How is he doing this? As it says in the article, "To generate patentable ideas, Intellectual Ventures hired a dozen top scientists as part-time consultants to participate in several all-day gabfests each month, which the company calls "invention sessions." Lawyers transcribe the discussions, which can range from biotech to nanotech to solid-state physics, and follow up on the most promising ideas with patent applications."
He's obviously the most visible person involved in this activity. Pretty soon (if not already) *any* idea you have had better be fully patent-researched before you embark on a new adventure.
IMHO, this activity by people like Myhrvold (and the bleak state of the US Patent Office) is what is going to seriously hamper open source innovation and people taking risks to start up companies.
I've been seeing the inventor and his "Taxi 2000" (now SkyWeb) display at the Minnesota State Fair for years. I always wondered why this system wasn't adopted due to its obvious place as a transportation analogue to the internet (i.e., a packet switching-like transportation system).
Instead, the State of Minnesota built a single "circuit" transportation corridor in the form of light rail and to date has invested $715Mfor only 12 miles of track! (...and this corridor is one of the least congested and traveled corridors making such a huge, inefficient investment all the more curious).
If this Personal Rapid Transit website cost estimates are to be believed, then that same $715M in cost would have resulted in 47.6 miles of track (using their high estimate of $15M per mile) which would've provided significantly more transportation relief in Minneapolis/St. Paul than a singular corridor deployment of a light rail system.
Kind of reminds me of stories my Dad told me about when the City of Minneapolis & St. Paul allegedly dumped streetcars in favor of buses see Conspiracy on this page. Even as a young man he was puzzled by the fact that the "circuits" of the streetcars were already built so the perceived efficiency of the "packet switching" buses seemed like a waste. The reasons for tossing out streetcars had nothing to do with logic but rather economics for the motor companies.
When we go to the State Fair and see this SkyWeb display year-after-year, my 79 year old Dad is just as puzzled as he was back then when he thinks about why we're not investing in this obvious efficient transportation system vs. throwing away huge sums on light rail focused on singular corridors.
Don't read what Ballmer wrote since (IMHO) the focus is NOT on lower TCO...instead read in to what Ballmer meant. This is a public salvo thrown out that clearly signals their intention: they're coming after Linux and open source hard.
Read in to what Ballmer meant when he said, "Given the growing concern among customers about intellectual property indemnification, what's the best way to minimize risk?"
Read this and then think about it.
Wonder how boring the 6-9 month travel would be? Though new rocket technology could make it less so and more achievable.
But we'd have to take this guy so he can visit the Mars Starbucks...
Wait a minute...with all the buzz about cables companies and DSL providers capping bandwidth and having open-ended ability to kick your butt off for basically any bandwidth using infraction (see 2.C in the terms) you don't think for a moment, do you, that these cable companies wouldn't kill this initiative? And that the RBOC's wouldn't eliminate this as an opportunity by limiting the use of their DSL lines?
One would think that -- with hundreds of channels -- that *one* devoted to technology would thrive and survive.
I'd beg to differ, though, on the "lowest common denominator" part of your post. I found that over the last couple of years that they tried valiantly to up their viewer base by becoming a bit more formulaic and mainstream in their content.
Still...it was the ONLY place I could go and watch stuff that was actually useful, things I could learn from (or have an "aha!" about something I knew about but hadn't seen) and get a really good feel for some of the trends in gaming, modding, etc.
What really tripped-my-trigger was a discussion a while back about presence awareness (IM, GPS and triangulation) and constant discussions around security, privacy and other issues that are EXTREMELY important as technology becomes more ubiquitous and clueless newbies try things out (like WiFi cafes with no VPN and passwords flying through the air being sniffed by those with a clue).
So....Apple is hammered on for years barely hanging on. Jobs comes back, stabilizes the company, gets it moving again, delivers a great *nix OS and a sh&tload of great apps (iPhoto, iDVD, iTunes, Final Cut, iMovie) plus the most lusted after digital audio player coupled with an online music store that hits the sweet spot, is getting great buzz and people love it.
Finally....Apple has a competitive advantage in *something* and you get after him for being arrogant!?!
I am so relieved that the FBI is ensuring the security of Microsoft code (oxymoron alert: Microsoft and security) in order to ensure that our Homeland is Secure. (Oh wait...I get it now...the Dept of Homeland Security did this deal with Microsoft in order to experience massive security problems themselves so they could protect us. I am even more relieved than before).
I worked for NewTek during the Toaster heyday. Tim & Paul tried to negotiate with Irving Gould (of Commodore fame) in his Bahamaian Commodore headquarters (can you say 'evade taxes'?) in an attempt to get him to license the Amiga chip-sets.
With 'em we could've made a Mac & PC Video Toaster!
But alas, old Irving knew that his shell game of moving Amiga's around the world would cease (currency trading is very profitable if done right) and the Toaster was the only thing that was keeping the Amiga going.
Being at the Christmas parties with "Lurch", Wil Wheaton, James Doohan (Scotty), Kiki and the other "Cool Friends of NewTek" made me even more aware of my un-coolness. But the buzz was really there and it really, really felt like the early Apple days (I rep'ed them too in 1980).
Imagine had Commodore done it....what might've been.
I can only imagine the looks you get in your Crown Vic from the babes. Beemer? Why bother. 300Z? Not much room for dead people.
Several years ago I bought a Town & Country minivan (the limousine of minivans they say) for the space and to have a quasi-luxury, yet ample kid mover. The kicker? Even my *wife* thought I looked like a loser.
Test driving a Toyota Prius last weekend, I pulled in to a station to grab a refreshing beverage. Two early 20's young ladies were pumping gas in their Prius, smiled and engaged *me* in conversation about whether I was going to buy it; the environment; the mileage and more. Like that ever happens normally!
'Course, if a guy is cruising the trailer parks in Sun City with that Crown Vic...you're all set.
I live in a suburb of Minneapolis and office in my home. After dealing FOR YEARS WITH THE INCOMPETENTS AT USWEST (now Qwest) -- and most recently with Sprint for long distance -- when Vonage hit the scene I leapt at the opportunity to get rid of Qwest.
Is Vonage my primary line? Nope. The vagaries of cable internet and crappy cell phone coverage in my area keep me locked to copper in the ground for my primary home line. But it has been rock-solid and easy to deal with...unlike the behemoth Qwest with their monopolistic practices and sh^tty customer service.
I've thought for some time that Vonage needed to market their service as a WEB SERVICE AND A SECONDARY LINE and back off of the 911 service. Why? For the exact reason that has arisen: the regulators would position them as telephone service...not a web service.
IMHO, the RBOC's absolutely resisted deploying DSL of any kind...since they were protecting their telephone monopoly. Why make broadband easy to get? It would only make it simpler for competitors to offer VoIP.
Even though it's one sentence in the NYTimes article, the audacity of this man to even *think* that he could charge for updates is stunning. Especially since there are so many gaping holes in his product.
That said, MSFT security seems to be good enough for the United States Government...and they would probably cough up maintenance monies (especially if Billy places back-doors, DRM, etc. in Longhorn) to support the 140,000 desktops the big brains at the Department of Homeland Security bought to keep our nation safe: ( Microsoft chosen as exclusive Homeland Security contractor . My favorite part of this "Government Executive" article was, "Microsoft's selection for such a wide range of software products would seem to indicate that officials have found those brands are used and favored by the majority of security agencies."
My God...how many technically clueless people are there in our nation's security agencies?
My wife has a small publishing/consulting company that has taken us 16 years -- and a lot of investment and pain -- to build. She works her butt off gathering the content which she then publishes as print products and CD-ROM "ebooks".
She is devastated when she hears from someone that they've copied one of her color newsletters; made a "backup" of the CD-ROM ebook and someone else "happens to be reading it so I thought I'd call with a question"; and otherwise copies illegally (no...we don't have the funds to pursue them). She had an opportunity to publish a digital product in Asia and another in Latin America but these markets are notorious for buying *one* and suddenly hundreds or thousands appear (I could digress with a personal story when I was at a software company and saw this first-hand...but it's too long).
PDF is the best standard right now. Platform support for everything out there virtually; security; but there is no meaningful method of DRM that would protect a small businessperson AND make it relatively easy to move ebooks from device-to-device (I know that I would hate to have to remember codes from dozens of publishers; be locked in to one machine for viewing; or other cumbersome methods).
However, no protection = no incentive. I don't care if you're an recording artist seeing your music ripped off or someone like my wife struggling to grow a business. Why should my bride travel to Europe and domestically gathering content; pay correspondents and photographers; and publish a product in ebook format that is super-simple to copy and distribute?
This is why I'm struggling so hard with the whole discussion about ebooks; copyright; DRM and fair use. So some how, some way, we've got to come up with a solution that offers some sort of universal ebook format that content producers can agree on and users can live with.
Hmmm.....DOJ *does not* break up MSFT. They plan to build-in DRM and other measures in to the next iteration of the OS -- which makes *me* a bit paranoid due to their monopoly on desktop computing -- but I guess I'm not alone.
Since there are so many advantages to trusted computing(yes...the sarcasm is intended) that governments outside the U.S. (vs. the U.S. Government itself) are obviously extremely distrustful of any moves by MSFT and MSFT is extremely concerned about Linux since it so obviously provides an alternative that is growing increasingly viable.
So aligning with SCO makes perfect sense for MSFT...what a perfect way to spew FUD! When my buddies and I sit around talking about MSFT, the DOJ and the scary possibilities of such things as media consolidation, DRM, shrinkage of ISP's (which, BTW, makes government surveillance *much* easier)...this MSFT/SCO connection is just one more glaring example of the fact that our pals in Redmond asked us a long time ago to bend over...and are trying really hard to hand us that jar of Vaseline they're holding to make total insertion all that much easier.
Is it just me...or are MSFT's moves to kill Linux laughingly obvious to you too? Are you gonna grab *your* ankles and lube up?
Just like when prohibition tried to stop people from drinking in the 1920's and people went back to consuming alcohol and prohibition was repealed, the same thing is occurring with the recording industry. They know that the inevitability of song swapping will continue, people will "consume" music illegally and *real* broadband isn't even here yet! When it is (or the current broadband options continue to become more ubiquitous) they're entire industry will be toast.
Even Best Buy has seen the light and is trying to sell of Musicland/Sam Goody...an organization they purchased just two years earlier in February of 2001. Certainly due to plummeting sales of CD's and the cost of mall locations.
Steve Jobs clearly setup a win-win-win (record companies -> Apple -> Consumer). While not perfect nor set to please everyone, it's generous while protecting everyone's interest.
The only place that I'd beg-to-differ with you is on the reasons behind buying Connectix. It makes A LOT more sense that they purchased them due to Windows Server 2003 and the ability to sell complete, stable, turn-key environments (Linux; NT, etc.) that would run seamlessly on WS2003. Virtualization is growing stronger (albeit slowly) and this makes more sense than a Mac play.
BTW, I'm a Mac OS X lover and run VPC with WinXP daily. It's slow but quite usable on a dual 1.42ghz PowerMac with 1.5gb of RAM.
Slashdot Mirror
The woman who is running the SAR for the Nevada Civil Air Patrol husband called me tonight after my message. Seems that they've now located several planes during the SAR for Steve Fossett...including one from a crash back in 1964!
There have been times when I've been in Nevada and there is a whole lotta nothing for thousands of square miles. Pretty easy to lose a small plane.
I'm going to get a t-shirt made that says "Yep...I'm a noob" on it.
In hindsight, I should've waded through every single comment before going off half-cocked. Someone emailed me a short time ago with an MTurk guy's email and he just reached out to me. It gave me an opportunity to let him know that the directions on the MTurk page were confusing at best and consequently this is NOT a coordinated and orchestrated effort.
With all due respect to other /.'ers, this forum is NOT the place to publish coordinates or try to orchestrate an effort. Especially when it comes to a "free" MTurk effort like this one. What would be super-helpful would be to have a place to check hits to see if others had found it already AND to have a central place to contact someone so they don't have some loose cannon (ahh...that would be me) going off and calling SAR people in CA and NV.
This process of coordinated effort is awesome...getting people like me to invest free hours in performing work like this to help. I'm not sure I'll do it again since now I feel like some doorknob...but who knows.
Done. lat=38.4841361111, lon=-119.406058333
I'm reluctant to do this, but I've sort of gone all out tonight to alert people searching for Fossett because of a white plane I found. I know people will say, "Well give us the coordinates so we can verify" but I'm not going to do that until the Mono County Sheriff and whomever else has a chance to go out there in the morning when it's light and see what it is.
I did a post about it leaving out the coordinates but you can see the screengrab I did from Google Earth: http://www.iconnectdots.com/ctd/2007/09/is-this-st eve-f.html/
If anyone knows how to contact the Mechanical Turk folks at Amazon, email me please.
I've been noticing all the podcasting cognoscenti in Silicon Valley are simultaneously doing their podcast and shooting video of it. What do they know or suspect that we don't?
- Former TechTV ScreenSavers host Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, John C. "I get no spam" Dvorak and others are doing TWIT and just announced video is next.
- Former ScreenSavers hosts Alex Albrecht and Kevin Rose at Diggnation are shooting video while they podcast and Kevin Rose is doing SYSTM
- Robert X. Cringley's NerdTV debuts. Now you may be wondering, "So what?". It's IPTV...that's what. There aren't a lot of great examples out there yet, but most of the smart podcasters -- who are mini-celebrities or have something people would like to see -- are simultaneously podcasting and shooting video (many in high definition just in case). Read an article about a new report here.
- Silicon Valley podcaster John Furrier from Podtech is embarking on video to augment his podcasting.
Wired magazine has a great article discussing blogging + video = vlogging. While everyone's attention is on podcasting, vlogging is the next hot trend that has almost taken off. This Apple announcement oughta help.It's so hard to believe in anything anymore. If it weren't for my lucky astrology mood watch, I wouldn't believe in anything.
Steve Martin, Comedian
A buddy of mine went hiking in Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park in Colorado and had to pack *everything* out...even human waste. Being without a job and money to buy the right stuff from his local backpacking outlet, he took along a half dozen FedEx mylar envelopes for taking his obligatory daily dump. They worked great, didn't leak and could be resealed, and easily packed out. Wonder how FedEx would like to be associated with THAT!?! Furniture seems pretty benign.
Phew. The *great* thing about a video iPod is that I'll no longer have to be in the bathroom trying to watch pr0n and balancing a huge laptop with one hand!
Does Congress or Bush honestly believe that any terrorist, criminal of any kind doing serious shit or -- gasp -- someone using bittorrent to download lots of movies...are really going to do so from home or somewhere they could be tracked?
Hmmm...how tough is it to find an open hotspot either at the friendly neighborhood coffee shop or some bonehead down the street with the SSID of "linksys" and no security enabled. This is all about the feds being in a position to do wholesale tracking of people like you and I.
Why would Steve Jobs want to drive free content via iTunes? I consumed tons 'o tunes when I first got my iPod and starting last October have downloaded free content like mad -- so much so that I don't have enough listen-able hours in a day for all the stuff on my little white hard drive device.
Here's the kicker and what Apple will have to wrestle with: my own 45 minute commute to work each way is often filled with IT Conversationsand other 'podcasts' every day and I hardly listen to my own music library anymore.
SUGGESTION TO APPLE: if Apple were to play it smart, they'd provider "podcaster guidelines" and how-to's that would do what they'd done with the UI (set the bar for quality and usability) as well as providing a way for podcasters to monetize their offerings. It could and would explode the users of Garageband and the Mac platform -- since most of the really great audio tools are there.
WILD CONJECTURE: Oh yeah...if all the rumors are true about the next step for Apple is with a video-centric platform, it would position them nicely for all the vloggers to use iMovie, Final Cut, etc., for creating great video content.
Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold obviously saw the intellectual property light: patent it no matter what and you'll own the toll-booth. Stallman's perspective is probably too little, too late and Gates' head has probably been here for years.
Myhrvold started a company five years ago (Intellectual Ventures) that is focused on a strategy to "create or buy new ideas, accumulate patents--exclusive rights to use the inventions--and rent those ideas to companies that need them to do the gritty work of producing real products.">
How is he doing this? As it says in the article, "To generate patentable ideas, Intellectual Ventures hired a dozen top scientists as part-time consultants to participate in several all-day gabfests each month, which the company calls "invention sessions." Lawyers transcribe the discussions, which can range from biotech to nanotech to solid-state physics, and follow up on the most promising ideas with patent applications." He's obviously the most visible person involved in this activity. Pretty soon (if not already) *any* idea you have had better be fully patent-researched before you embark on a new adventure.
IMHO, this activity by people like Myhrvold (and the bleak state of the US Patent Office) is what is going to seriously hamper open source innovation and people taking risks to start up companies.
I've been seeing the inventor and his "Taxi 2000" (now SkyWeb) display at the Minnesota State Fair for years. I always wondered why this system wasn't adopted due to its obvious place as a transportation analogue to the internet (i.e., a packet switching-like transportation system).
Instead, the State of Minnesota built a single "circuit" transportation corridor in the form of light rail and to date has invested $715M for only 12 miles of track! (...and this corridor is one of the least congested and traveled corridors making such a huge, inefficient investment all the more curious).
If this Personal Rapid Transit website cost estimates are to be believed, then that same $715M in cost would have resulted in 47.6 miles of track (using their high estimate of $15M per mile) which would've provided significantly more transportation relief in Minneapolis/St. Paul than a singular corridor deployment of a light rail system.
Kind of reminds me of stories my Dad told me about when the City of Minneapolis & St. Paul allegedly dumped streetcars in favor of buses see Conspiracy on this page. Even as a young man he was puzzled by the fact that the "circuits" of the streetcars were already built so the perceived efficiency of the "packet switching" buses seemed like a waste. The reasons for tossing out streetcars had nothing to do with logic but rather economics for the motor companies.
When we go to the State Fair and see this SkyWeb display year-after-year, my 79 year old Dad is just as puzzled as he was back then when he thinks about why we're not investing in this obvious efficient transportation system vs. throwing away huge sums on light rail focused on singular corridors.
Don't read what Ballmer wrote since (IMHO) the focus is NOT on lower TCO...instead read in to what Ballmer meant. This is a public salvo thrown out that clearly signals their intention: they're coming after Linux and open source hard.
Read in to what Ballmer meant when he said, "Given the growing concern among customers about intellectual property indemnification, what's the best way to minimize risk?" Read this and then think about it.
Wonder how boring the 6-9 month travel would be? Though new rocket technology could make it less so and more achievable. But we'd have to take this guy so he can visit the Mars Starbucks...
Wait a minute...with all the buzz about cables companies and DSL providers capping bandwidth and having open-ended ability to kick your butt off for basically any bandwidth using infraction (see 2.C in the terms) you don't think for a moment, do you, that these cable companies wouldn't kill this initiative? And that the RBOC's wouldn't eliminate this as an opportunity by limiting the use of their DSL lines?
Sigh....
One would think that -- with hundreds of channels -- that *one* devoted to technology would thrive and survive.
I'd beg to differ, though, on the "lowest common denominator" part of your post. I found that over the last couple of years that they tried valiantly to up their viewer base by becoming a bit more formulaic and mainstream in their content.
Still...it was the ONLY place I could go and watch stuff that was actually useful, things I could learn from (or have an "aha!" about something I knew about but hadn't seen) and get a really good feel for some of the trends in gaming, modding, etc.
What really tripped-my-trigger was a discussion a while back about presence awareness (IM, GPS and triangulation) and constant discussions around security, privacy and other issues that are EXTREMELY important as technology becomes more ubiquitous and clueless newbies try things out (like WiFi cafes with no VPN and passwords flying through the air being sniffed by those with a clue).
So....Apple is hammered on for years barely hanging on. Jobs comes back, stabilizes the company, gets it moving again, delivers a great *nix OS and a sh&tload of great apps (iPhoto, iDVD, iTunes, Final Cut, iMovie) plus the most lusted after digital audio player coupled with an online music store that hits the sweet spot, is getting great buzz and people love it.
Finally....Apple has a competitive advantage in *something* and you get after him for being arrogant!?!
Oh pleez...
I am so relieved that the FBI is ensuring the security of Microsoft code (oxymoron alert: Microsoft and security) in order to ensure that our Homeland is Secure. (Oh wait...I get it now...the Dept of Homeland Security did this deal with Microsoft in order to experience massive security problems themselves so they could protect us. I am even more relieved than before).
I worked for NewTek during the Toaster heyday. Tim & Paul tried to negotiate with Irving Gould (of Commodore fame) in his Bahamaian Commodore headquarters (can you say 'evade taxes'?) in an attempt to get him to license the Amiga chip-sets.
With 'em we could've made a Mac & PC Video Toaster!
But alas, old Irving knew that his shell game of moving Amiga's around the world would cease (currency trading is very profitable if done right) and the Toaster was the only thing that was keeping the Amiga going.
Being at the Christmas parties with "Lurch", Wil Wheaton, James Doohan (Scotty), Kiki and the other "Cool Friends of NewTek" made me even more aware of my un-coolness. But the buzz was really there and it really, really felt like the early Apple days (I rep'ed them too in 1980).
Imagine had Commodore done it....what might've been.
I can only imagine the looks you get in your Crown Vic from the babes. Beemer? Why bother. 300Z? Not much room for dead people.
Several years ago I bought a Town & Country minivan (the limousine of minivans they say) for the space and to have a quasi-luxury, yet ample kid mover. The kicker? Even my *wife* thought I looked like a loser.
Test driving a Toyota Prius last weekend, I pulled in to a station to grab a refreshing beverage. Two early 20's young ladies were pumping gas in their Prius, smiled and engaged *me* in conversation about whether I was going to buy it; the environment; the mileage and more. Like that ever happens normally!
'Course, if a guy is cruising the trailer parks in Sun City with that Crown Vic...you're all set.
I live in a suburb of Minneapolis and office in my home. After dealing FOR YEARS WITH THE INCOMPETENTS AT USWEST (now Qwest) -- and most recently with Sprint for long distance -- when Vonage hit the scene I leapt at the opportunity to get rid of Qwest. Is Vonage my primary line? Nope. The vagaries of cable internet and crappy cell phone coverage in my area keep me locked to copper in the ground for my primary home line. But it has been rock-solid and easy to deal with...unlike the behemoth Qwest with their monopolistic practices and sh^tty customer service. I've thought for some time that Vonage needed to market their service as a WEB SERVICE AND A SECONDARY LINE and back off of the 911 service. Why? For the exact reason that has arisen: the regulators would position them as telephone service...not a web service. IMHO, the RBOC's absolutely resisted deploying DSL of any kind...since they were protecting their telephone monopoly. Why make broadband easy to get? It would only make it simpler for competitors to offer VoIP.
Even though it's one sentence in the NYTimes article, the audacity of this man to even *think* that he could charge for updates is stunning. Especially since there are so many gaping holes in his product.
That said, MSFT security seems to be good enough for the United States Government...and they would probably cough up maintenance monies (especially if Billy places back-doors, DRM, etc. in Longhorn) to support the 140,000 desktops the big brains at the Department of Homeland Security bought to keep our nation safe: ( Microsoft chosen as exclusive Homeland Security contractor . My favorite part of this "Government Executive" article was, "Microsoft's selection for such a wide range of software products would seem to indicate that officials have found those brands are used and favored by the majority of security agencies."
My God...how many technically clueless people are there in our nation's security agencies?
My wife has a small publishing/consulting company that has taken us 16 years -- and a lot of investment and pain -- to build. She works her butt off gathering the content which she then publishes as print products and CD-ROM "ebooks".
She is devastated when she hears from someone that they've copied one of her color newsletters; made a "backup" of the CD-ROM ebook and someone else "happens to be reading it so I thought I'd call with a question"; and otherwise copies illegally (no...we don't have the funds to pursue them). She had an opportunity to publish a digital product in Asia and another in Latin America but these markets are notorious for buying *one* and suddenly hundreds or thousands appear (I could digress with a personal story when I was at a software company and saw this first-hand...but it's too long).
PDF is the best standard right now. Platform support for everything out there virtually; security; but there is no meaningful method of DRM that would protect a small businessperson AND make it relatively easy to move ebooks from device-to-device (I know that I would hate to have to remember codes from dozens of publishers; be locked in to one machine for viewing; or other cumbersome methods).
However, no protection = no incentive. I don't care if you're an recording artist seeing your music ripped off or someone like my wife struggling to grow a business. Why should my bride travel to Europe and domestically gathering content; pay correspondents and photographers; and publish a product in ebook format that is super-simple to copy and distribute?
This is why I'm struggling so hard with the whole discussion about ebooks; copyright; DRM and fair use. So some how, some way, we've got to come up with a solution that offers some sort of universal ebook format that content producers can agree on and users can live with.
My $.02....
Hmmm.....DOJ *does not* break up MSFT. They plan to build-in DRM and other measures in to the next iteration of the OS -- which makes *me* a bit paranoid due to their monopoly on desktop computing -- but I guess I'm not alone.
Since there are so many advantages to trusted computing (yes...the sarcasm is intended) that governments outside the U.S. (vs. the U.S. Government itself) are obviously extremely distrustful of any moves by MSFT and MSFT is extremely concerned about Linux since it so obviously provides an alternative that is growing increasingly viable.
So aligning with SCO makes perfect sense for MSFT...what a perfect way to spew FUD! When my buddies and I sit around talking about MSFT, the DOJ and the scary possibilities of such things as media consolidation, DRM, shrinkage of ISP's (which, BTW, makes government surveillance *much* easier)...this MSFT/SCO connection is just one more glaring example of the fact that our pals in Redmond asked us a long time ago to bend over...and are trying really hard to hand us that jar of Vaseline they're holding to make total insertion all that much easier.
Is it just me...or are MSFT's moves to kill Linux laughingly obvious to you too? Are you gonna grab *your* ankles and lube up?
Just like when prohibition tried to stop people from drinking in the 1920's and people went back to consuming alcohol and prohibition was repealed, the same thing is occurring with the recording industry. They know that the inevitability of song swapping will continue, people will "consume" music illegally and *real* broadband isn't even here yet! When it is (or the current broadband options continue to become more ubiquitous) they're entire industry will be toast.
Even Best Buy has seen the light and is trying to sell of Musicland/Sam Goody...an organization they purchased just two years earlier in February of 2001. Certainly due to plummeting sales of CD's and the cost of mall locations.
Steve Jobs clearly setup a win-win-win (record companies -> Apple -> Consumer). While not perfect nor set to please everyone, it's generous while protecting everyone's interest.
Nice logic.
The only place that I'd beg-to-differ with you is on the reasons behind buying Connectix. It makes A LOT more sense that they purchased them due to Windows Server 2003 and the ability to sell complete, stable, turn-key environments (Linux; NT, etc.) that would run seamlessly on WS2003. Virtualization is growing stronger (albeit slowly) and this makes more sense than a Mac play.
BTW, I'm a Mac OS X lover and run VPC with WinXP daily. It's slow but quite usable on a dual 1.42ghz PowerMac with 1.5gb of RAM.