Friday, July 4, 2003

MS plans largest company lay-off When Eric Poore began working as a customer service representative for Microsoft's technical call-routing center in 1997, he was told his advancement opportunities were endless... ...Four years after Poore lost his first position to outsourcing, he is about to lose his six-year career because Microsoft is in the process of a massive relocation of Customer Central call center jobs to India and Canada. Employees estimate that Microsoft is planning to eliminate at least 800 jobs in the next fiscal year at the company's Las Colinas facility outside of Dallas, Texas and shift the work offshore...more [WashTech] First it was the H1B Visa, now it's just easier to simply send the job to them. Off shore migration of work in the midst of a recession, and the highest unemployment in many years, is simply disgusting. Companies should be financially punished when they send work out of the country. Sadly though they get rewarded. Does anyone else see what's wrong with this?..mj 4:31:09 PM

Friday, June 27, 2003

Paul Boutin is an idiot... Read this article on Slate. The best garbage has the stentch of sweet perfume, and this one reeks of it. People using Linux may be doing it because they hate MicroSloth, but they are doing it more often as not over price. This is the same mentality that makes people pick Microsoft over Apple. People use Apple for design, style, performance, reliability, and USABILITY!! The word usability has never been whispered by anyone involved with Linux, except when explaining how to compile a new interface. It is the number one reason why Apple still lives against MS, because MS just can't get it right. Even when they steal a usability elelment, they manage to screw it up. Why will Linux be any better given it's dispersed nature? Answer me that one Paul Boutin! Oh, and one other point, you're a cheap geek, why would you ever use a Mac anyway?...mj 4:17:43 PM

Monday, June 23, 2003

Martin...take that! Apple rolled out the new G5 machines, and the speed is the toast of the town, so stuff it Martin!..mj 11:57:01 PM

Sunday, June 15, 2003

Maine school gives students own laptops The end of the school year is near and children are playing baseball outside. But the students in Shawn Favreau's classroom are focused on their laptop computers. For their final social studies project, they're using the computers to create multimedia presentations on ancient Greece. Some of the Freeport Middle School students find it hard to imagine going back to using just pencils and paper. We still do the same things. We just do it differently. The teachers are winging it. They're looking for ways to make it more interesting," said student Kaitlyn Beaule. "I think it's a lot more fun."...more [CNN] The key here is that these are Apple iBooks. This program shows how technology can be such a great aid in bringing back interest into school. Some will say that this could have been done cheaper with Windows machines...WRONG! The cost of software and the cost of maintenance would have backrupted the program. Only Macs could be given out in these numbers and have so few problems. Score a big one for Apple...mj 8:32:55 PM

Thursday, June 5, 2003

Anniversary of the Apple II It was 26 years ago today that the Apple II was released for US $1,298. "Standard configuration included 4K of memory, two game paddles, and a demo cassette with programs. Home televisions [were] usually used for monitors." [Apple2history.org] I still remember going over to "Mythos Manor" to vist the gang; being led upstairs, and shown this cool new thing called a personal computer...mj 1:55:19 PM

Saturday, May 31, 2003

More on AOL/M$ Deal If you want some more good stuff on the deal check out Tristan's site (cool name too)...mj 12:36:44 PM

Thursday, May 29, 2003

Microsoft to pay AOL $750M Tech titans settle Netscape lawsuit, set seven-year licensing pact for AOL to use Internet Explorer. Microsoft will pay $750 million to AOL Time Warner to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed by AOL on behalf of its subsidiary Netscape last year, the companies said Thursday. The two companies also set a seven-year licensing agreement that allows AOL Time Warner to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer browsing technology in its flagship Internet service provider service without having to pay royalties. AOL Time Warner is the parent of CNN/Money...more [CNN/Money] It's cool what 46 billion dollars of monopoly money can buy you. Once again Microsoft gets to buy their way out, and secure their monopoly. This agreement pretty much means the death of Netscape. What becomes of the Mozilla project remains to be seen. This is a brilliant move by both companies. AOL Time Warner gets a huge infusion of cash to deal with debt issues, and secure a royalty free use of Explorer for seven years. Microsoft get rid of the biggest of the antitrust cases it faced. They get to pay it off with cash reserves earned from their monopoly, and ensure both AOLs use of Explorer, and the final death of Netscape. If I was in the Netscape division right now, I would be spiffing up my resume...mj 3:27:16 PM

Sunday, May 25, 2003

$500 per unwanted spam The California State Senate this week approved a bill that would make it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail advertising and allows people to sue so-called spammers for $500 per unwanted message. f the bill, which now goes to the California Assembly, becomes law, it would be one of the strictest anti-spam measures in the country. Gov. Gray Davis has taken no position on the measure. Federal regulators and lawmakers are trying to find ways to keep computers from being inundated with spam e-mails, which tout everything from sex aids to home loans and are estimated to account for between a third and a half of e-mail traffic...more [CNN] This is long overdue. It's too bad things had to get this bad to convince people that something needed to be done. I think this doesn't even go far enough. Jail time for repeat offenders should have been included, but that will end up in Federal laws. Over 80% of the email I get each day is spam. The vast majority of it I delete before reading, but it still annoys, and it's getting worse...mj 11:21:53 AM

Monday, May 19, 2003

Computer failure on Saturday - I am slowly rebuilding it. No fun at all...mj 8:20:48 PM

Thursday, May 1, 2003

Experts warn spam could ruin e-mail Spam must be stopped, according to lawmakers and Internet experts, but few agreed how to curb the unwanted junk e-mail they say threatens to overwhelm the Internet's most popular application. On the first day of the Federal Trade Commission's "spam summit," participants on Wednesday could not even agree on what type of online marketing was unacceptable enough to earn the pejorative tag. Marketers said that deceptive messages with misleading subject lines like "Re: your account" were to blame, squeezing out more reputable operators who only send messages to consumers who want to hear from them. Internet providers and consumer advocates said it was the sheer number of messages, not their content, that posed the biggest threat. "The deception does not mitigate the problem of bulk," said Laura Atkins, president of the SpamCon foundation, an anti-spam group...more [CNN] The egg that killed the Goose is what Spam is. The problem is simple. The solution is also simple. Spam is any email that I did not request, or sign up to receive. It is email that comes from list sold to second parties, or 'partners.' Solutions: All email that is commercial must have a single point of origin. That point of origin must be specified. Anyone wanting to send commercial email must first send an email requesting validation. There must be a national opt-out list. All Commercial email must have a relevant subject, with "ADV:" at the start of the subject. Hotmail, Yahoo, and similar services must gain some validation of ID before granting an account. Violations should be severe. Any source domain could be blocked, and any violations of the Opt-Out list must be in the range of $5000 per email. Adult email sent to a child's account must have even more severe punishment in the range of $20,000 per email, per violation. Use of misleading subjects, or hiding the source of the email should result in a fine of $2000 per email, per violation. Repeat offenders must be banned from the use of Internet access for a period of 1-5 years. Violation of that ban could result in a permanent ban. Foreign countries must be held accountable. If a Country is a repeat offender then their service may be blocked. The only way to deal with this plague is to declare total war on it. Another less attractive solution is to simply ban all commercial email, unless a specific confirmation is gained. That confirmation would be required by each source. Violation would be severe and painful. This is war, and in war you have to have clear specific goals. In this case getting rid of all the wasted bandwidth is as good a goal as any. In the past 4 weeks I have received at least 5 emails a day for 'Gain-Pro.' They always have a false subject. They all have bogus sources. There should be a way for me to punish these jerks. Nothing less then the extermination of Spam will be an acceptable result, screw the legitimate marketers...mj 1:09:31 PM

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