Ex-Microsophist My guess is that Microsoft can't REALLY take critisism, at least REAL critisism, from its employees. Empty jabs of the Scoble variety followed by heapings of praise, THAT they can deal with.

CPSC Staff Powered Scooter Study Shows Just 4 in 10 Victims Wore Helmets I call upon the US govermint to just get it over with and require everyone to wear a helmet ALL the time. Maybe they should just be attached at birth. Oh, and knee and elbow pads too. Member of congress are obviously exempted. They must wear Mickey Mouse ears instead.

Should I Be Spanked?: "I won't even broach the issue of whether anyone would suggest a male columnist be 'spanked' for daring to rage against the Microsoft marketing machine. That's the subject for another column. Or 20. Or 50."... "Our takeaway from all of this? Microsoft and its fan boys/girls should stop confusing the message with the messenger. Instead of spanking the folks who are setting the record straight about Longhorn, why not cast blame on those who confused the messaging in the first place?" Sexist? Homophobes? Keep up the good work MS. Time for Balmer to issue some more "clarifying" memos.

'Think Again' camp opens for wounded Apple iLemmings | The Register: "Any doubt anyone ever had about Jobs' business acumen - and the genius of his oracle, Walt Mossberg - must fade after last week's announcement of the PPCicide. No other chief executive would have the raw guts to sell out such a loyal customer base. And for what? A hundred million or so in Intel co-marketing dollars? Because that's surely all that stopped AMD from winning the gig."

Prices of Tech Items Seem to Keep Falling -- With a Few Exceptions: "Another example, of course, is software. Microsoft, for one, seems to be in no particular hurry to cut the price of Windows. Ten years ago, an upgrade version of Windows 95, then fresh from the labs in Redmond, Wash., was being sold in most stores for $89.95. If you shop online for Windows XP Home, the third-generation successor to Windows 95, you'll find it in the same ballpark." He claims you can get a basic PC for $300 now. I know this is true, but such things aren't COMMON. The middlemen keep coming up with ways to bump that price back up over $1K. There is something to be said for the comparison with audio equipment, which I have made before. But do you see names like Dell and HP on audio equipment? Ah there you go, you will know when PC prices are approaching commodity levels when the only brands you see at the store are Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, get the picture? Of course if some of the American companies would stop pretending they actually make the things we could get to these prices sooner. You also have to get rid of that Microsoft tax of course.

Apple's New Benchmarks Don't miss this.

WSJ.com - The Laptop Trail As mentioned previously, the sooner we cut out the middlemen the better. Don't feel sorry for anyone at Dell or HP, they were laid off long ago. Do you REALLY care what logo is on your laptop? Wouldn't you rather select the best from the companies that actually MAKE the machine rather than the best marketing machine? I would. I wonder what would happen if we were forced to re-invent our own laptop manufacturing capability... imagine some huge Soviet looking thing being the result. Sad huh?

Add-on PlayStation 3 HDD will run Linux - News at GameSpot Now if someone would just repackage this as a laptop I can replace my obsolete (6-month old) Powerbook.

PBS | I, Cringely . June 9, 2005 - Going for Broke: "Apple and Intel are merging." It really wouldn't surprise me at this point.

Microsoft has Mono! Oh wait. Monad. Something. Well don't tell Bill. He hates command line interfaces no matter what disease they are named after. Point and click, point and click, weeeee!

MoveOn protest targets wrong congressman: "'It's unfortunate that they made an error,' said Bill Rittenberg, a protest organizer. Democrat Bob Alexander, who ran against Michigan?s Rogers in 2004, also participated in the event. 'It's unfortunate that we had this inaccuracy,' Alexander said. 'We didn't attempt to mislead anyone.'" Well DUH!

The Osborne Effect spooks Apple | The Register: "However Apple's share price has sagged on the news, because the company still faces a painful migration. Apple has vowed to support PPC Macs for a long time, but that isn't the issue. Put simply, who in their right minds would buy a Power-based Mac now, or in the next eighteen months? Unlike commodity PCs, Macs retain their resale value better, and Apple owners keep their machines longer, which makes for a more enduring investment. Casting back five years, to the summer of 2000, we see Apple was selling machines which still run Mac OS X very capably today. The dual 500Mhz PowerMacs and the 450Mhz G4 Cube all need stuffing with RAM, but thanks to the performance improvements in OS X Panther and Tiger, these five year old machines do the job. Who, buying a PPC Mac this year, will be able to say the same of their machine in 2010?" Ah, good to know not everyone writing about this is singing the party line.

Epic has first 'PlayStation 3 hardware': "Some top notch game developers such as Epic gamers have already received their first Playstation 3 hardware. This occurred about two and a half months ago. Sony is definitely after the content as it needs as many cool games as possible" I don't know that this should come as such a surprise. Back a few years ago when competition between the current game consoles was still hot (both Xbox and Playstation are a bit long in the tooth these days) Sony was floating articles about their next design. They gave out enough information that you could practically have built one then, except that nobody had fabricated the chips yet. I really don't know who "invented" the cell concept, but it was being described by Sony long ago. Why didn't they come out with it sooner? The article I read was very clear on this: They didn't have to. They were already beating the XBox, making a profit at it while MS was losing money. But they knew where they were going and were prepared to come out with something as soon as MS did. Will they lose some momentum being 6 months behind Microsoft? Maybe. On the other hand, if MS is still selling Xboxes at a loss, why not let them lose money faster for a while. MS predicts the XBox division will turn profitable next year. Making it up in volume I guess. It will be fun to watch. I have no interest in a game machine, except maybe turning one of the PS3s into a Linux machine (I have to wait and see how loud the fan is first).

[yellowdog-announce] Concerning YDL and Apple's switch to Intel CPUs: 2005 06/06: "I apologize for the delay in responding to the news concerning Apple's switch to Intel. I am in Barcelona, Spain for the IBM power.org conference, and was just settling into my hotel when I received calls from my associates back home. I have required a few hours to review email and websites before offering this brief communication." A man who knows where his priorities are, and should be.

O'Reilly Radar > Word on the Street at WWDC: "Carbon (probably C) apps require more work, because the language is closer to the bare bones of the machine. I think the average developer has shrugged and said, 'oh well, I'll worry about it when I actually have an Intel box in my hands.'" Yeah, that's the impression I get. Apple users only worry about things after they hit them upside the head. Anticipate gnashing of teeth in about a year (maybe less).

Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student: "Based on what Smith recalls teaching that year, Kerry scored a 71 and 79 in two of Smith's courses. When Smith was told those scores, he responded: ''Uh, oh. I thought he was good student. Those aren't very good grades.' To put the grades in perspective, Smith said that he had a well-earned reputation for being tough, and noted that such grades would probably be about 10 points higher in a similar class today because of the impact of what he called ''grade inflation.'" Selective memory of a liberal perhaps? Meanwhile, the mugshot they used of Kerry for the article somehow reminds me of John Candy's character laughing nervously after being caught in a lie...

Longhorn Outruns XP, Threatens Tiger - Yahoo! News: "Security is one area where Longhorn is more sophisticated than Tiger. For instance, Internet Explorer will run in a 'containment area' that will attempt to keep worms and spyware out of Windows." Crapping in your own swimming pool is sophisticated?

MSN flaw put Hotmail accounts at risk | CNET News.com: "The Hotmail and MSN flap comes within a week after Microsoft acknowledged that its South Korean MSN Web site had been hacked. Attackers placed malicious software on the news section of MSN Korea in an attempt to steal passwords for 'Lineage,' a popular online game in Asia." Yeah. Didn't they blame that Korean hackage as sloppy procedures by the hired help? Hmmmm.

Ballmer Beats Drum for IT Workers: "This new world of work includes improving customer satisfaction, improving personal productivity, finding the right information and engaging in the business process, Ballmer said." New World of Work? Get out he party hats.

Linux in Government: Major Breakthrough in Linux Technology | Linux Journal: "In the era of information overload, perhaps some people think of new technology as another thing with which they have to cope. They immediately put it off until tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes, so they put it to the side. The same phenomenon occurs within the media. Many writers do not understand their beats. Instead, they regurgitate press releases, opinions of people in their networks and the insights of others." Or blog them so that other blogger can blog their blogs. But still there is hope that the best technology, and maybe by extension that which is most unincumbered will eventually prevail.