User: yagu

not the same experience

On: Amazon Snooping Your Surfing For Targeted Ads?

I too tried to shop for bluetooth devices at a major online retailer... then I went to Amazon.com. Not a single reference anywhere to any bluetooth devices. For me the experiment ends there. I had cookies turned on (always do), and was logged into both sites with an account login.

Aren't "other" cookies supposed to be invisible to a domain application? I thought so. So, is there a possibility you are surfing at some retailer that has a partnership of some kind with amazon (many do), and hence the information is shared in a partnership, but not across the proscribed browser boundaries?

so should we expect a slew of new crime?

On: Death by Google Calendar

I don't know the answer to, "should we expect more crime?" because of the internet. There are stories in the news about molesters and the internet, but is the internet merely a different avenue for crime? Or does it open floodgates for increased crime?

I don't know that I've seen overwhelming evidence the crime rates have surged -- makes me wonder, is there some expected value for crime rates, regardless of the mechanism? This would make for an interesting study -- to date what I've seen is mostly anecdotal.

The example cited in the article is interesting, but I wonder that it really changes tactics -- a thief, a burglar, usually works on opportunity, and someone's calendar is as reliable in determining what a "household" is doing as the person maintaining that calendar.... My experience has been people maintaining calendars accurately, not so much.

On the uncertainty alone, a criminal would still have to case a target on the chance a calendar entry was inaccurate, an event was canceled but not taken off the calendar, etc.

Credit to the author for giving instructions to make Google calendars private -- an option with which I strongly agree...

maybe, a scan line too far

On: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disappointing So Far

From the article, a quote: "Neither format is selling well or at the level I had expected. I had expected early adopters to step up and other retailers have had the same experience."

I'm an early adopter, have been for a long time. I have always been willing, even eager to "step up" and pay the premium to get new (and great) technology early. Not so here. Another characteristic for early adopters is they tend to be more aggressive in research (those that aren't buying for status), certainly the case for me. The more I researched DVD both HD and Blu-Ray, the less interested I was. There was a certain promise of amazing high quality video, but NOT ONCE was I able to get anyone to give me a demo where I saw convincing evidence this was true.

Add to that the war of the formats and the fact I have to replace movies I already own at outrageous new prices (yeah, early adopter), but each new format is providing a limited and only slightly overlapping selection... wtf? This was the same early problem with CDs. The difference here is, we already have a very high quality, convenient, inexpensive, long lasting option (regular DVDs), and there's nothing compelling in the new DVDs warranting the hassle, the expense, nor the "convenience" (which is less than existing DVDs).

Then there's the specter of DRM and that it's not entirely obvious or clear to me or other early adopters what the final DRM landscape looks like. If we had to guess, it doesn't look hospitable (sp?).

Here's another telling piece of evidence from the article, again a quote: "Often, it has something to do with source material. Sometimes the film itself is shot in a way that may emphasize a grainy look as opposed to a sharp picture," he said. This almost outright concedes the new "high resolution" exceeds what most media will be capable of providing... or, it's an excuse... neither gives me any warm fuzzies about my return on investment for new DVD formats.

Early adopters like new technology when it's new and improved, and are willing to pay for it. In my opinion, someone(s) in some conference room took this thought and ran with it, not considering the early adopters might be a bit more discerning in their tastes. We're not your cash cow toadies.

Maybe that's what's happened to their mysteriously AWOL early adopters... they're not early marks. Lesson learned (not).

there's hardly a casual explanation

On: Explaining DRM to a Less-Experienced PC User?

This topic has been kicked around by

• our government
• RIAA
• Microsoft, and others
• MPAA
• SONY, and others
• slashdot, and others

To date, I have not seen anything approaching a casual description of DRM. In fact, I've seen mostly confusion about and around it. If I were trying to explain to the uninitiated, I would take the tack of describing anything DRM'ed as potentially unusable on one or more devices you own. The fact there is so much turbulence swirling around DRM is an indicator how it hasn't gelled.

Actually I've tried to explain to casual users. For example, I tell Tivo users (who can be extremely passionate) programs on their "Now Showing" list would not be guaranteed to stay around for as long as necessary to be viewed; or may not be viewable more than once; or may be "eaten" as they're viewed, leaving the ability to backtrack and rewatch segments no longer allowed. That usually gets them going.

For CD listeners, I describe CDs that may or may not play on their computer, but are extremely likely to fail on any older CD player, in their car, or in their home entertainment system.

The more I can drive home with examples what DRM looks and feels like, the more I find a spark in the unitiateds' eyes. They don't like it even when only getting a sense of DRM. They don't like it at all.

I think that DRM can't be described casually, and is so amazingly complex, confusing, and potentially onerous lends even more amazement it could ever be allowed to be implemented.

case in point

On: The IT Strategy That Makes Google Work

Want to read about some cool Google "cooked up" technology?, read this white paper on the Google File System (one of the coolest, simplest, most elegant file systems I've seen).

ooops, NOT 10 Million SONGS

On: AOL Music Now Relaunches Music Service

Went to AOL's home page to check this out, and there on page one was the ad for 10 Million Singles! Thought, "Wow, four times more than the article stated!", then discovered it was a dating site advertisement, sigh.

Aha, there is another link that goes to AOL's music service... Alas, it's one of those:

1. 30 day free trial
2. enter your billing information first

kind of "offers", not my cup of tea.

For those who care, the "Service Agreement" which you really should read before signing up is more than 5000 words long. Good luck reading and understanding what's new and different about AOL for this offering.

Of course the very first provision of their service agreement is: " We may modify these Terms of Service at any time.... "

YMMV

it's come to this for HP

On: HP Launches Ink Patent Violation Manhunt

So, now HP needs to chase down violators to protect itself. If only HP had continued to pay attention to quality, maybe HP would not need to worry about this kind of activity.

Fifteen years ago, the only brand of printer I would buy was HP. Partly because HP was on point, but also because I'd always associated HP with quality as job one (actually, I guess that was supposed to be Ford). HP calculators, printers, electrical instruments, all quality products for years I'd faithfully used with trust.

Then came the second HP printer I'd ever bought, a deskjet, and I don't remember its model number. I do remember it suddenly either would pick up no sheets of paper for printing, or pick up 2 or 3 at a time. The fix?

I give HP credit, they did offer a fix. But it involved a scary piece of software and an even scarier piece of hardware with steel wool pads (I'm not kidding) you had to insert into the feed rollers -- and when all was done, you had a better performing (not perfect) printer and a heck of a mess to clean up. (Though I did get a free dental appointment once by bringing in my contraption and applying the HP "fix" to their HP printer!)

An anomaly?, a tiny blip on the radar? Nope. The next printer I bought, also HP Deskjet, fell apart so many times because of cheap plastic assembly I became an expert in the insides of the machine.

Still, I faithfully recommended HP printers to friends and family, but there were a disturbingly large and consistent number of "incidents" with these new printers. They were either balky in their performance, had ink problems, were virtually impossible to install, or keep installed. I gave up on HP about three or four years ago. Sadly, it's tinged my opinion of HP in general, from HP-UX, to HP-41X RPN calculators, probably unfairly since I think they still make some of the best electronics.

HP decided to go the route of making money on their printer ink, and sell their printers sometimes below cost -- that's kind of the disposable razor idea -- not necessarily a bad idea, but if it comes at the sacrifice of making reliable printers, I'm out.

HP's obsession with cost cutting, chasing down patent cheaters, etc., these are not the signatures of a class technology company.

missing the social point

On: Microsoft leaks Zune Details in FCC filing

I've been at Microsoft, I've worked at Microsoft. This Zune may be the hit of the century on Microsoft campus. Too bad that won't be enough to sustain a profitable market for the Zune.

I have visions of geeks, sitting around the room, typing furiously at their keyboards, IM'ing with each other, in the same frigging room! Because they can!

And now, I envision those same people, sitting around with wireless mp3 (not) players, sharing each other's music wirelessly, because they can! That's not how it works for the general population. The distance to which these devices can communicate as peers limits their usefulness as social devices, i.e., the people are all going to be in the same room! I.E., they can plug their iPods into the stereo. And, at the same time will be able to talk to each other.

Apple got it right (even though it's not for me) with iTunes and the iPod. Clever marketing, sexy device (the Zune's not looking so sexy to me), and lots of social advertising. The iPod is the thing. The Zune isn't nor will it be.

The only distinguishing feature of the Zune is its wireless capability. How many of you have ever had non-stop continuous hassle free wireless experiences? I mean non-stop as in music streaming... I use it all the time with Squeezebox with the wink and nod that I will get a hiccup now and then. But, for a device that's moving?, a device that's likely to be hugely underpowered to support signal, especially transmission?. Wireless: a distinguishing feature, but a problematic one.

Looking at the company info on Microsoft, I'm guessing there'll be sales of about 60,000 Zunes.

again, he's right

On: ESR Says Linux Followers Should Compromise

Politically, technically, pragmatically, ESR is singing perfect pitch. There are warning signs indicating Linux, and OSS-related efforts could be relegated to backroom geekdom for a long time if some "commercial" hurdles aren't first overcome.

Five years ago I had reasonable success getting non-Linux users to at least try it for a while, about half stayed and have never looked back. I consider that pretty good marketing and return on marketing.

Fast forward to today -- first(ly), I'm more reluctant to recommend Linux to non-Linux noobs because I know how many more devices people connect to their computers today, how many people watch DVDs on their computers, how many people are managing pictures and music on their computers. And many if not most are moving to use wireless routers.

Linux comes up short in all of the above... it can handle some, but not all. I've as much as completely given up on even considering wireless configurations for non-Linux noobs. Part of my "price tag" for getting Linux(s) up and running in a home network includes some kind of wireless bridge.

As for connectivity for mp3 players, not so much. And people who would consider Linux don't when they find they can't hook up their players and go. "Plays for Maybe" doesn't cut it. Unless their choice for player also connects as a non-driver plug'n'play mass storage device, they're not interested in working through the quirks.

Managing photos? Another tough sell.

I love Linux more today than ever, it's matured into a top notch competitor in the server (and desktop in my opinion) world. But if some of the interactions with commercial devices: wireless; cameras; music players; etc., Linux today is a tougher sell than five years ago, and that just ain't the way it was supposed to be. Sigh.

I suspect I'll get a barrage of replies where readers describe "solutions" to all of the above. That would be great -- especially the wireless conundrum. But, I haven't found the suite spot yet... not where everything is easy to configure, easy to use. If readers have solutions, let's start a list, some repository, some "goto" place where we can all point and say, "There's your Linux desktop solutions."

I'm willing to pay. Friends and family I've talked with are willing to pay, heck they already pay dearly for Windows XX. If Open Source/Linux doesn't make some compromise to come more mainstream, what looked like a viable and potential option may be forced into niche-dom... and everyone will pay. Yeah, slashdotters can continue to get great use out of their Linux, but Linux is good enough -- it deserves better than just the cloistered existence among the technical elite.

I think more than finding some profitable additional customer base, vendors need other enticement.... How about getting out from under the behemoth that is Microsoft? If the Linux and Open Source community could hold out that carrot, not only would vendors open potential revenue, they could cut better leveraged business deals with Microsoft -- a benefit for all of us.

at "that" online retailer, they probably know

On: Selecting Against Experience - Do Employers Know?

They probably know they are leaning towards fresh blood, and probably will pass on more experienced and stronger candidates. I know quite a few people who work "there", and inside, they are one of the top IT shops, bar none.

Also, there are a few things to be aware of... part of the interview process intentionally (from talking to insiders there, and at Microsoft) introduces vagueness, incorrectness, and other troubling aspects to problem solving. One of the things they're trying to observe is how a candidate deals with the obstacles.

A friend at Microsoft told me if a candidate got flustered and angry at an intractable "problem" he (or she) was pretty much disqualified on the spot. At Microsoft, you could tell your job was "no go" if it didn't last the entire day. (Mine did, sigh... and I got the job, sigh again.) Typically they "nice" way was to tell the candidate the next interviewer got caught up in some responsibilities, and that would be that.

My personal opinion, not that it amounts to a hill of beans for these companies, they sell themselves more short than they might realize. Business is about numbers games and businesses play the curve within one sigma, that's it.

As for what to do when trapped in a sophomore study group, that sophomore group pretty much holds all of the cards. Candidates would be wise to suck it up, be friendly, and at least pretend not to be bothered by their seeming snobbery. (Also, by the way, the snobbery at Microsoft is real.)

Some are better than others selecting excellent candidates (that online retailer comes to mind), but I think there's a slew of mediocre companies out there that would be better performers with a bit more appetite for investing in "old timers". Of course, coming from an old timer, I'm probably introducing my own bias.

(ASIDE, and By The Way... you said over the course of six hours you were repeatedly introduced to a guy in his early twenties... If management had any of their wits about them, they'd consider getting rid of that guy... he should have been recognizing you by the 2nd or 3rd introduction. Sheesh.)

well, considering other reasons

On: AOL CTO Shown the Door

From the summary: Is this an appropriate penalty for releasing 20 million keyword search results, or is it too harsh, or not harsh enough? ...

Well, considering that others are shown to the door for working 20+ years, garnering good reviews, and creeping within a chip shot of expensive pension payoffs, it's probably reasonable to show this guy the door.

Probably the biggest crime, and one we'll never be in on, is how golden a parachute this guy jumped with.

I like it.

On: Car Owners to be Notified of Blackboxes in Vehicle

One thing I've always feared: some huge speed bump because after some driving incident/accident I'm embroiled in an "I said/you said" recount of the event. I try to be as safe a driver as possible and have managed 30+ accident-free years. But almost every trip is an adventure with crazies on the road every day. This black box technology could hedge my (and others) bets on accurately describing what "went down".

I don't like the thought someone would be watching me all the time like Big Brother, but on the other hand if I get t-boned, and the other party claims I ran a red light or some other nonsense I like the thought there could be an electronic record showing the other party was traveling way over the speed limit, weaving, slamming brakes, etc. right up to the event.

It could be a great equalizer for insurance rates. It could even spur better driving in on whole by the general populace (some drivers of course and their negligence is intractable).

And, as for the breach in privacy, I don't see much demand and/or interest in the type of data described in the article in contexts other than accidents. If you're accident free, why would the data be interesting?

(Aside: I actually installed a "Car Chip" in my car for personal monitoring. Most notably I was surprised at the frequency of "hard accelerations" -- far more than I'd have guessed. The data was charted against distance, and I was able to "see" where I was "hard accelerating". Interestingly after knowing this, and paying more attention to accelerating I self-modified my habits and the mileage for my car (Civic) increased almost 6%.)

(NOTE: this doesn't address and/or discuss the notion of tracking movement and travel via mechanisms such as GPS... a whole other ball of wax in privacy discussions.)

an interesting tidbit:

On: iPods at War

From the fine article, first page, a paragraph:

The entertainment industry has yet to sue soldiers in Iraq for copyright infringement, but perhaps it should if it's serious about stopping piracy. An MP in Afghanistan, who goes by the forum handle SirEverlast, tells Ars, "Every country I've been to has disregarded the MPAA and sold bootleg DVDs that soldiers buy for next to nothing."

First, please let this be tongue in cheek on the author's part (I'm assuming it is).

That aside, it's an interesting notion. Yeah, let the MPAA and RIAA go after the piracy of media by soldiers afield. The stipulation would be that the RIAA and MPAA must confront the accused personally, i.e., make them go the active front... after all, they've claimed they themselves are engaged in a war. What better way to experience that reality?

Anyway, if you've read Joseph Heller's Catch 22, soldiers' ingenuity to make their insane world a little more liveable is Milo Minderbinder redux. More power to them for making it through.

government speaks, anybody listening?

On: DoD Study Urges OSS Adoption

The government has "spoken" before about technology. Does it really make any difference?

Seems a long time ago the government wanted to require one standard practice of application development by stipulating Ada as the language-du-ans for coding. How many applications can you name that the government owns and are written in Ada? (rhetorical).

The government also set forth to require all computers and operating systems to be POSIX compliant in the mid to late 80's. The big hint was the government wanted to standardize and take advantage of the similarity and portability of Unix-like systems (SunOS, Solaris, ATT Unix, AIM, etc.).

Microsoft neatly sidestepped that issue in the early 90's by rolling out NT, basically a rebuilt true-preemptive OS for Windows and included a pared-down essentially brain-dead POSIX subsystem to assuage the government fiat. Microsoft had no intention of supporting it (I know, I directly asked Larry Kroger when I worked there -- his exact response was, "Tell them we don't support it"), and thumbed their nose at the notion of standard and interoperable computing -- it was counter to their business mission of monopolizing the industry.

It's great to think the government wants more emphasis on Open Source (as well as that can be defined), but if history serves, this is another tiny blip on the radar screen. Open Source can't compete in marketing with deep-pocketed vendors and chummy outings on the golf course.

But, we can hope. Come to think of it, maybe there's an "aha" here... could the foot-in-the-door for OSS be more effective marketing? Where could that investment originate? Or, what about pledging support via some write-in campaign to Senators and Representatives?

it's a good start,

On: DirecTV's New HD-DVR

It's a good start to get a peek at this new DVR. Unfortunately, if consumers were to base their choice on listed features, capacities, and pictures of the unit (they already barely do that, the DirectTV would be another DVR with really beefy meaty specs... and would be a top candidate for a great addition to the Home Entertainment Center. But, this isn't really the review I'm looking for.

I want to know (after using TiVo now for almost ten years, happily ever after):

• how responsive is the interface?
• how ergonomic? (TiVo's a hard act to follow on this one)
• how often does the machine crash and burn, or just plain lock up? (any comcast DVR users out there?)
• how well does it handle season passes with options of first showing, multiple channel, etc. (once again, TiVo is a hard act to follow on this one)
• how well does it do video? any mosaics?, dropped frames?
• are there things like "wish lists"? (TiVo does this wonderfully)
• and, since we're talking about TiVo here too (apparently by my post), are there any impending lawsuits and injunctions against DirectTV for infringment upon TiVo's patents?

This is just a partial list... but virtually none of which are really covered by the review in enough depth... too much to ask of one reviewer. I've been burned by the "wow" factor of a Comcast box (from a review), and now would wait for more concensus.

And, as an aside, does anyone else find it really annoying technology is going the way of PVR's becoming the providers' commodities rather than manufacturers? Assuming this new PVR is the greatest thing since sliced bread, it still wouldn't be enough of a draw to switch providers -- it's more than a little annoying to find that if you like x, y, or z about some PVR, you have to switch to that provider? WTF?

Interoperability with EVERYTHING (including over the air (OTA)) broadcast has been and continues to be one of the biggest draws for me with TiVo, though there's many indications of providers trying to shut TiVo out. Sigh.

ESR has a point

On: ESR Advocates Proprietary Software

One of the most salient paragraphs from the fine article:

With iPod holding a massive market share and Windows Vista coming down the pipe, Raymond warned that Linux risks getting locked out of new hardware platforms for the next 30 years unless it proves it can work with iPods, MP3s and WMP.

This is true. This is the nature of the commercial world. And this will kill linux if it isn't addressed.

I already have various "paid for" applications on my linux machine -- I think it's a responsibility to support the linux and open source world -- not everyone can afford to put something out there for nothing.

And, almost the only reason I still maintain Microsoft machines and use them is there are certain critical applications I use still not available on Linux. Why? I've corresponded with some of these vendors and their responses to my gentle request for a Linux version of their applications were surprising.

What I expected was a dismissive "not big enough market" argument. While that was part of the argument the surprise was from a couple where they said they weren't about to give their product away for free -- they just couldn't afford to do it.

Again, they said they weren't about to give their product away for free! So, like it or not, there is a perception out there by vendors/providers that the Linux community not only is a small community and not likely to bring in big money, but they see the Linux community as cheap! Network trailer trash. Open Source crackers.

Really, until the mantra "free" is clarified (and I don't think it is entirely), businesses and providers will only take from the Linux community, not give.

In my discussions with some of these providers I've assured them the Open Source community is willing to pay for product. Maybe we aren't. But if we're not, and continue with the attitude that everything should be free, ESR is right, Linux stands to eventually lose a war regardless of any battles it wins.

It's the nature of the beast.

wishing for news

On: Backward Sunspot Heralds Next Solar Cycle

This story reminds me of the recent "predictions" of a potentially devastating hurricane season with greater than average frequency hurricanes and more of these hurricanes being Category 5 (the strongest hurricane defined). On what basis?

On the buzz around global warming and its effect on hurricanes among other things, and the recent "example" season of a record-breaking number of hurricanes. So, naturally the prediction for this season was "lots of big hurricanes". I'm not sure, but so far I don't recall any hurricanes well into the season, but if you watch the Weather Channel, they're almost praying for some... The recent "tracking" of Chris showed almost despondent correspondents (pretending to show relief at Chris' dissipation) when Chris fizzled.

Similarly with sun spots, sun cycles and predictable sun cycle behaviors. We know more than ever about the sun, but the more we know the less we know how to predict what it's going to do. This is an interesting story in that stories about the sun and sun spots are inherently interesting (in my opinion). But, from the article: Satellite operators and NASA mission planners are bracing for this next solar cycle because it is expected to be exceptionally stormy, perhaps the stormiest in decades.... That is purely conjecture -- no more likely to be correct than not. Especially when considering the builtin caveat from the article:

First, the sunspot lasted only three hours. Typically, sunspots last days, weeks or even months. Three hours is fleeting in the extreme. "It came and went so fast, it was not given an official sunspot number," says Hathaway. The astronomers who number sunspots didn't think it worthy!

Second, the latitude of the spot is suspicious. New-cycle sunspots almost always pop up at mid-latitudes, around 30o N or 30o S. The backward sunspot popped up at 13o S. "That's strange."

Makes for good news though -- something scary to be afraid of.

revamped movie

On: Apple Warns Companies About 'Pod' Naming

Dave. Open the pod bay doors, Hal.

Hal. I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

Dave. What's the problem?

Hal. Apple discovered my ties to IBM and issued a cease and desist order. You are no longer allowed to open the pod bay door.

cut MS some slack

On: Microsoft Insists IE7 is Standards Compliant

In addition to trying to be standards compliant Microsoft is dancing as fast as they can copying and adding the features virtually all other browsers have had around for years now.

From the article, MS (Chris Wilson) spots their compliance progress somewhere between 50 and less than 90%: Tough question, in terms of stating that we really do fully support the CSS 2.1 spec, it's hard to tell because there is a bias to any analysis. We're certainly somewhere between those two... I don't think we're at 90%, I think we're above 50% though...

Not sure where that puts them in terms of compliance compared to the other browsers, but I'm happy to stick with Firefox for many reasons, recommend anything but IE7 to anyone for many reasons, and probably stay that way. IE7 from Microsoft is looking like a little too little too late.

In the meantime, Microsoft almost seems tentative in their position about standards compliance versus backwards compatibility. In parts of the interview, Chris talks about trying not to alienate IE6 users (his mother) with changes to the "standards" behavior making IE6 sites not work or work differently, while in other parts of the interview he discusses being compliant "at the expense of backwards compatibility".

I don't know what they are doing with that, I'm not sure they do either. They made that bed. Now they're sleeping in it.

in addition

On: War Declared on Caps Lock Key

If you're going for getting rid of keys, let's add the WINDOWS Menu key to the mix. First and foremost I'm offended any keyboard gets the privelege of "branding" by Microsoft without my choice in the matter. Secondly, I don't know how many times I've bumped that frigging key only to have unexpected chaos on the screen when subsequent keystrokes go for unintended targets (usually some application I wasn't looking for).

It's the first key I remove from my keyboard.

if companies from the past behaved

On: First Blu-ray Drives Won't play Blu-ray Movies

If companies from the past behaved as companies today:

• Transistor radio announced. Will not play radio transmissions other than those from owners' transmitters.
• Color TV! All Shows reproduced in realistic black and white (those are colors, aren't they?)
• 100,000 mile car tires! Guaranteed for 10,000 miles!
• 10-speed bicycles! (speeds are produced by owner pedaling at various cadences)
• Stereo Hi-Fi! Two channels of high-fidelity sound through one speaker!
• Windows! (opaque)
• Digital Cable! oh wait, never mind.

But hey, not all is lost, from the fine article:

Bautista is optimistic that both issues will be resolved "soon", and says that despite not being able to play commercial content, the drive is still useful as a "storage device"...

So the drive is "useful as a storage device". Cool! Now I can get rid of my 250GX2 SATA Raid and keep my data on something useful. Technology just doesn't get any better than this.

Note to providers of stuff: It doesn't matter why your machine can't do what it's even named after(!), it can't. Don't bring us your tired, your poor, ... the wretched refuse of your product lines until they do what they're supposed to do! What a Colossus boner.

not a factor of age, but related

On: How Old is Too Old?

I'm 50, and I think I'm as creative and sharp as ever in coding. Since being laid off after twenty one years, I have written two major applications on my own, and hope to market them successfully.

But, as for companies, they're interested in how much you cost, not how old you are. Unfortunately for those over forty who have accrued knowledge, experience, and expertise, that usually comes at a premium. A premium on paper many companies are willing to forego for the "cheap" labor.

A more correct question would be: how little are you willing to work for, and how many benefits are you willing to waive compared to the competition? Competence? Expertise? Pshaw. That's not the most important part of the equation for most companies. It should be.

gmail solved my clutter

On: Hoarders vs. Deleters- What Your Inbox Says

And I did (and still do) fit the clutter definition. I currently have about 1500 gmails, and I long ago stopped paying much care to them other than scanning and letting go. Google takes care of the rest.

I have on file (old computers, old e-mail clients (elm, pine, thunderbird, on and on)) about 15 to 20 thousand e-mails, and it's always been a dilemma what to keep and what to throw away. What to deem important and what to forget. Ultimately I wrote my own software to manage my e-mail, wrote an inverted index machine (more than ten years ago, and did it as a shell script(!)). That took care of most of my needs and certainly surpassed the features of any e-mail clients at the time.

But with that system I had the added anxiety of modifying/creating/maintaining my home-grown e-mail management software. Sigh.

Now, with gmail, most of the features I needed (but not all) are provided and implemented much better than I ever did. If I can remember just one or two words from an important e-mail, it's almost always enough to retrieve the desired note using gmail index. I don't even bother marking things as important. If they're important, they come up.

From the article: In Greensboro, N.C., Internet consultant Wally Bock keeps his inbox down to a manageable few dozen messages. He credits his sense of order to "having disciplined parents who made that a value." . YOu don't have to do this anymore with gmail. There is virtually no difference between e-mail that is "there", or "archived". Of course there is a difference if it is deleted, but why bother? For most users, gmail gives enough storage to not need to distinguish between throwing something away or keeping it.

Also from the article: A saner way to pare down an inbox is to move email into folders, by subject or need for follow-up, and once a week set aside time for inbox housekeeping. Again, with gmail, not necessary! If you can remember a few key words, you're golden!

And, I wonder at this recommendation from an "expert" in the article: University of Toronto instructor Christina Cavanagh studied hundreds of office workers for her book "Managing Your Email: Thinking Outside the Inbox." One of her subjects, a finance executive, had 10,000 emails in his inbox. She advised him to simply delete the oldest 9,000. Insane! And dangerous! Let Google manage that, and avoid the risk of "suffering the consequences" for stupid management techniques.

Since I've "switched", my e-mail life has been virtually stress free, and how and what I manage with e-mail has improved my day to day management of communications dramatically. This is close to life (in e-mail) as it should be.

YMMV

Sit Paul! Good Boy.

On: Apple vs Microsoft- Who's the Copycat?

It's amazing considering all of the humilation and detritus Paul has suffered and remains a loyal Microsoft puppy. Consider recently he had been accused of having a pirated copy of Windows... his response? "Aw, well." Then he observes Vista is not ready for prime time, or as he said (paraphrasing), "No, God no!"

But each time he comes back up for air, he's primed and ready to carry the Microsoft torch just a little bit further, and hold it up a little bit higher. Wonder if he gets paid by Microsoft?

hmmm, some generic info about CEO Dell's home PC

On: Dell Reflects on 25 Years of PCs

From the article, Dell says he has their top of the line Dell Precision. Some observations about the default (without customization) configuration and guesses about his usage:

• Operating System: XP Professional

  guessing not a single web app is served out of his compouter, from IIS and .NET technology (one of the main reasons for having PRO)

• Processor: Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5050 3.00GHz, 2 X 2MB L2, 667

  guessing never ran that processor at greater than 30% usage for more than five minutes at once

• Memory: 2GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 533MHz, ECC, In Riser (2 DIMMS)

  guessing never filled that memory, never swapped/paged

  (Actually, he mentions he actually has 32G memory in his machine, no change in my guess)

• Video: 128MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro NVS 285, Dual VGA Capable

  no guesses

• SATA: 80GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst Cache(TM)

  guessing less than 10G data

  guessing less than 1000 digital pictures, less than 5 personal digital videos, and of the digital photos, less than 5% are tagged and cataloged via some organizing software such as Picasa, or ThumbsPlus.

• CD Drive: 48X/32X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with Cyberlink Power DVD(TM)

  guessing never burned a disc

• Monitor(s): Dell 30" UltraSharpTM Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor: 3007FPW (2)

  guessing never had enough applications running to come close to filling the real estate of the two screens (and probably not even one (2560 x 1600 resolution)).

  guessing uses them (it) to watch movies (yawn).

I don't even have an opinion as to the goodness or not about the utilization... don't necessarily care people aren't using more than 5% of their machine -- but it's more a reflection of the effectiveness of the marketing of computers than their necessity and usefulness. Owning a machine like Dell's doesn't suggest a need.

Dell and everyone else is welcome to their over-configured machines, but (and related to today's previous slashdot article) PCs are becoming overconfigured underused status symbols and far less utilitarian. Dell's vision of PCs importance in the future is distorted by the company he must continue to make profitable. The upcoming wave of Vista and the fat machines required to drive Vista are a big yawn to the consuming community.