Category: US

Quote for the Day

~ rbonini

From the moment a soldier enlists, we inculcate loyalty, duty, honor, integrity, and selfless service. And yet when we get to the senior-officer level we forget those values. I know that my peers in the Army will be mad at me for speaking out, but the fact is that we violated the laws of land warfare in Abu Ghraib. We violated the tenets of the Geneva Convention. We violated our own principles and we violated the core of our military values. The stress of combat is not an excuse, and I believe, even today, that those civilian and military leaders responsible should be held accountable,”

– General Antonio Taguba, tasked by the military to investigate Abu Ghraib without looking up the chain of command and subsequently fired anyway.

Datacentre v. Earthquake

~ rbonini

(via Johnathan Schwartz’s Blog)

Sun Engineers decided to put Project Blackbox on a shaketable ( that’s shaketable as in “simulate an earthquake”).

See for yourself what happened (notice how Greg P’s laptop is running Windows???):

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HNGM-rje7U]

According to Schwartz, there’s another project in the works.

Sneak peek here. Select Chapter 3. According to Schwartz, its behind the big, black drape. I’m still waiting for the video to load – WiFi problems.

After this test I can see geologists the world over adding this to their wishlists.

Breathing freely

~ rbonini

This TUAW post starts by saying:

Here at TUAW, we welcome all those yearning to breathe free of Windows

Which made me laugh since it reminds me of the inscription at the foot of the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

The post, although short point to a ComputerWorld article by Scott Finnie entitled: “Why Microsoft Should Fear Apple”. Its a pretty good look at the Microsoft/Apple status quo. The articles main point is that Microsoft has to act instead of just copying Apple’s innovations.

There was a time when people jokingly described Apple as Microsoft’s advanced software lab. Anyone who follows operating systems — please, be objective if your knee-jerk reaction is to disagree — has to realize that Microsoft has imitated literally hundreds of features and behaviors of Apple’s OS X. Yes, there are some advantages that originated with Microsoft (such as file icon thumbnail previews). But OS X is clearly leading the desktop OS parade. Everyone is copying Apple — and with good reason.

He puts all of this down to one main reason:

The Mac is a closed hardware/software system. The OS isn’t forced to contend with a vast variety of hardware, and the hardware is carefully vetted so that it works perfectly with the software. Apple controls the horizontal; it controls the vertical. The hardware and software are a matched set.

I agree completely with that. Microsoft has too many hardware combinations to worry about instead of concentrating on Software. Microsoft are starting to change this.

First, their much rumored Surface platform will have  Microsoft hardware and software.

Second, the Xbox and the 360 are proof of what Redmond could do once freed from hardware compatibility constraints.

Third, in terms of a new consumer-level product on the scale of an OS/hardware combo, Microsoft is working with industry partners to bring Windows Home Server to market in specially built machines.

Ok, number 3 isn’t really  something you can compare to Apple, but its close. And if memory serves, Microsoft tried to do something similar with the UMPC thing – which turned out to be a disaster of epic proportions.

So, yes, Microsoft is innovating. The question is, is it fast enough? 

Quote of the Day

~ rbonini

I can’t belive I’m quoting Scott Adams, but here it is:

Okay, so my plan is this. America becomes the disaster recovery center of the world. To some extent, we already are. We generally offer help when needed, and we have lots of assets for that sort of thing. But we haven’t taken it to the next level and “Switzerlandized” the concept. We need to be more known as the country that finds people under rubble, as opposed to our current plan of being known as the people who put people there in the first place.

Go on. Read the whole plan.

Interesting Comparison

~ rbonini

Frank at pseudorandom has this to say:

Since Bush took office, the Canadian dollar is up 39.76 percent. When you consider that Canada has a comparable (though much smaller) economy, a comparable standard of living, a border that’s essentially open to most trade, and a higher level of government services, this becomes an amazing statistic. It’s what happens when one government runs budget surpluses year after year, while its neighbor, after briefly running a budget surplus under one president, begins running unprecedented budget deficits under his successor.

Never thought of it that way.

Millions

~ rbonini

Ever wondered how much Microsoft makes an hour (via)?

Microsoft today announced quarterly revenue of $14.4 billion and net income of $4.93 billion. In other words, Microsoft’s daily net income is about $55 million. That’s $55 million in pure profit every 24 hours. Do some quick math and you’ll learn it takes Microsoft only about…

  • 10 hours or so (yes, hours!) to exceed Red Hat’s quarterly net income of $20.5 million.
  • four days to exceed Research In Motion’s quarterly net income of $187.9 million.
  • four days to exceed Starbucks’ quarterly net income of $205 million.
  • one week to exceed Nike’s quarterly net income of $350.8 million.
  • two weeks to exceed McDonalds’ quarterly net income of $762 million.
  • two weeks to exceed Apple’s quarterly net income of $770 million.
  • 18 days to exceed Google’s quarterly net income of $1 billion.
  • 23 days to exceed Coca-Cola’s quarterly net income of $1.26 billion.
  • five weeks to exceed IBM’s quarterly net income of $1.85 billion.
  • 10 weeks to exceed Wal-Mart’s quarterly net income of $3.9 billion.

Can’t they at least make Vista cheaper?