Jinn of Quality and Risk

President Bush is reportedly set to announce plans next week to send Americans to Mars and back to the moon — and to establish a long-term human presence on the moon. If true, nicely timed with the NASA landing of rovers on Mars, and great to bring back a vision of manned space travel. It's probably motivated in part by China's recently disclosed ambitious plans with regard to both destinations. Great! 

Apple would most likely be in practically every desktop computer if they had chosen to license their Mac technology in the 1980s. Now, by licensing to HP the iPod technology and allowing them to use the iTunes music store, Apple is ensuring the lasting dominance of another succesful, revolutionary product of theirs, something that brings the sweet blessings of modern technology to everyone. Clearly Steve Jobs has learnt from (arguably) a past mistake that allowed Microsoft to take over most of the personal computer market. [found via /.]

A cynic might note that HP still knows about good engineering, even though it's someone else's.