sanity in the news 20 july, 2002
by johnmichael patrick monty monteithI took a holiday this summer from writing on Sanitypages to enjoy time with my family and my new daughter, Irislyn. However, I will give you a quick summary of some of the items I have been ignoring.
Many of you probably received a copy or many of this letter today from Bill and Company. I guess Bill really wanted me to read it since he sent me four of them. Essentially it just says that Microsoft is absolutely dedicated to this “Trustworthy Computing” initiative, and that the good Little Elves in Redmond will make hacker-free software from now on. And, if a hacker does get through, they will send the Redmond Guerillas after those bad, bad people. Well, I am not certain if that last part was in there, but you get the point.
Is it coincidence that this email was sent out within days of the deadline for Software Assurance? Rumor has it that most businesses are not buying into the Software Assurance model, and this could be Microsoft’s last attempt to get businesses to sign up for this ‘software as a service’ model before the last day of July.
The result of the letter? The anti-Microsoft crowd is even more concerned about the Little Elves than they were before the letter. The pro-Microsoft crowd (can one person be a crowd?) could care less. Personally, I give kudos to Bill and Company. At least they are trying. Albeit, fifteen years late, but better late than never.
Of course, Bill can talk all day long about ‘Trustworthy Computing’, but actions speak much louder. (What is ‘Trustworthy Computing’, anyway? No one should trust ANY software company. But, clearly I digress.)
Recently there was a security update fixing a number of known security holes in the Windows Media Player. If you have Windows Media Player on your computer, I have two pieces of advice:
1. Switch to MusicMatch.
2. If you still want Windows Media Player, do the patches on WindowsUpdate.com .. And then switch to MusicMatch.When installing this security patch you will note a couple of strange things. First is that a new EULA (software license agreement) pops up that you must agree to before getting your patch. In it you agree to give Microsoft full control of your computer, your automobile, your home, and your first-born. Well, I might have lied about the last three, but it does elude to giving the Redmond Elves admin rights to your loathed Windows machine.
Yes, there has been a lot of complaining about this in the media. Well, at least the part of the media that is not on the Borg Payroll. Let’s be realistic: They already had control of your computer and every piece of software long before you signed that silly agreement. You are running WINDOWS, after all. All it did was make the whole thing official.
The EULA did not bother me. What did was, after installing the patch, it placed icons to Windows Media Player all over my computer. All I wanted was for Microsoft to fix their stupid bugs, not to be able to advertise their bug-ridden product on my desktop. But, they are Microsoft .. They can do whatever they like. (“I love Windows Media Player. It is better than Cats. I’ll use it again and again.”)
Reality Distortion Field Sighted In New York:Yes, Steve Jobs did his big keynote at MacWorld, and there were few surprises. Highlights: A new 20 gigabyte iPod MP3 player that is now Windows compatible, a 17” iMac, the Jaguar skin version of OS X, and the dot-Mac initiative (replacing iTools.) Steve made it sound like each of these was some amazing break-through, but only former Evangalistas believe it.
In fact, the biggest news was the fine print on each of the announcements:
1. The Windows based iPod will work only with MusicMatch, and is five weeks away from shipping. Personally, anything that will raise awareness for Windows users to install MusicMatch instead of Windows Media Player is good news. But why the shipping delay? It took them the better part of a year to make the announcement, and they still need five weeks?
2. The new 17” iMac horizontal display. Brilliant. Someone in Cupertino needs to take a few less crack-pipe breaks. A horizontal flat screen is nice for watching movies, if you ignore the fact that 30 frames per second is too quick for LCD displays to look anywhere near as good as a CRT. However, it is a ludicrous orientation for doing publishing or graphics work. Note to Steve: Most of us would have paid an extra hundred smackers to have the screen on a swivel for switching the orientation.
3. The once-free iTools is now a Benjamin Franklin a year dot-Mac. Apple did a “me too” to Microsoft’s dot-Net, and decided to make their faithful have to pay the medium-sized bucks for something they had been promised would be free.
4. The new version of OS X includes items (such as VPN and browsing Windows networks) that should have been available in the operating system from day one. However, Apple feels that these ‘revolutionary’ additions warrant an additional hundred and fifty smackers (after taxes and shipping.) Apparently the term ‘upgrade pricing’ was removed from the Cupertino vocabulary.Of course, Apple had bad press before MacWorld even began. Previously, press passes to MacWorld were sent to numerous Mac-only web sites. This year those that supposedly published ‘rumors’ were not invited. Obviously, this did not include major publications that publish Apple rumors regularly, but only small-time folks that could not make too much of a stink. A silly move on Apple’s part.
Still, there is a silver lining. The new advertising campaign about switching to the Mac is excellent. It reminds me of a group of ads that Commodore used for the Amiga. Much like Apple’s, it had normal every-day users (plus some celebs like BB King) tell how much they adore their Amiga, and how much PC’s and Macs suck. Unfortunately, the ads did little to turn the tide, and Commodore filed Chapter 11 four years after the campaign. Hopefully Apple will have better luck.
If you have not followed AOL lately, it looks as though their merger with Time-Warner has been about as popular as when Warner Communications was merged with Atari Corporation. Atari was such a money loser that eventually Warner paid to have it taken away. This same fate may fall on AOL since it is killing the company far more than Atari ever did. Not that this is a surprise, of course. In the short term, look for continued changes to AOL’s roll at the media giant. Whether Time-Warner will be able to find a Tramiel-like character to take the company away remains to be seen.
As NASDAQ continues to spiral down, the casualties continue to mount. The Dot Com darlings are dieing off one by one until only Amazon and Ebay remain. It is unfortunate since the remaining companies generally have a good enough business model that allowed them to live until now, but even the good ones will have a tough time making it through the coming months. To find the list of soon-to-be-dead, you need merely run a stock listing on NASDAQ for all companies with a share price below a buck. Bad news for the tech economy: This is a very long list.
Years after we had visions of Bluetooth running through our head, you would be hard-pressed to find anything using this wireless communication standard. This was the standard that was supposed to allow PDA’s, laptops, and cell phones to communicate. Remember how it was going to replace virtually every wired USB cable? Perhaps you recall how every cell phone on Earth was going to ship with Bluetooth within months. That was a couple of years ago. Today, most cell phones use a far more popular wireless sync tool: infrared. The over-hyped and under-used protocol has seen little use due to the still extremely high cost of the chipset behind it.
Maybe the dream of Bluetooth everything will be realized. However, do keep in mind that WiFi chipsets (802.11b) run as cheap as Bluetooth ones. WiFi has a much greater range, and might even keep pace with Bluetooth on implementation cost. So, why use Bluetooth? Bluetooth has lower power needs, and, in theory, the chipset is cheaper. Funny thing about theory and reality.
Ultimately, most USB powered devices, like printers, will use 802.11b since most of the devices in the house are already running WiFi. For cellular phones and PDA’s, where power consumption is key, Bluetooth may still have a chance. Someday. But, not any day soon.
