05 Jun 2004
Broken Windows

is the title of this fine post on Daring Fireball. The closer says it all:

Arguing that it’s technically possible that the Mac could suffer just as many security exploits as Windows is like arguing that a good neighborhood could suddenly find itself strewn with garbage and plagued by vandalism and serious crime. Possible, yes, but not likely. The security disparity between the Mac and Windows isn’t so much about technical possibilities as it is about what people will tolerate.

And Mac users don’t tolerate shit.

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Heavy Debt and Drought Drive India's Farmers to Desperation

According to the outsourcers and governments, free trade has been so good to India, but it seems as though this is just another myth of globalization.

Thousands of farmers have committed suicide in India, an indicator of the dire straits of the agricultural economy.

(link) [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Offshoring obsessions miss the point

Gee, I wonder why this particular fellow would be defending outsourcing ...???

Marc Hebert is executive vice president of Sierra Atlantic, an offshore outsourcer of software development, maintenance and support.
But what really appalled me about this was an assertion by Mr. Herbert that:
... newly funded software start-ups are required by venture capitalists to do their product development offshore ...

Amazing, appalling and awful. One of these days, perhaps we'll wake up, but I'm starting to have my doubts. In the meantime, I suppose I'd better practice the new American mantra for the 21st century: "You want fries with that?"

With all due respect to the people whose livelihood is being affected by software offshoring, I frankly think all this obsessive focus on the subject misses the real point.

(link) [CNET News.com]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Ronnie Reagan, RIP

It was the bitterest of ironies that the Great Communicator should've suffered from Alzheimer's in his later years. In his prime, no one could equal his ability to reach out to the public. Even when one disagreed with his message, one was forced to reckon the messenger among the great men of the world.

Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles, with his wife and children at his bedside. His son, Michael said: "I pray that as America reflects on the passing of my dad, they will remember a man of integrity, conviction and good humor that changed America and the world for the better."

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link