Information Week, PULLLEEEEEASE, less words

I just finished trudging through an article, “Google Revealed, an Inside Look at
how its ‘Out Loud’ Culture Translates Into Technical Advantage”. Yeah, the title
should have clued me in to the verbose but pointless nature of this 7 page
atrocity. Here’s what it says. Google uses a lot of different vendors’ stuff, including
Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and others, and a lot of open source including Linux. They
customize the bejeezus out of everything, hardware and software, for performance.
The like people and encourage them to stay interested by providing varied opportunities
and implementing a Matrix Management system conducive to lots of lateral movement
collaborative development. They have A LOT of REEEAAALLLLY smart people who want
to do good. They automate everything they can. And they keep secrets really well;
which is why there is only one semi-juicy piece of solid information. They don’t use
Apache, or very little, for their web server.

Geeze, learn when a story is a dud and stop wasting my time.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
Google
competitive+advantage
bad article

Microsoft, it’s time to give up your OS

I came across a quote in an Information Week article today:

“Microsoft’s Office products generated $11.7 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30 and nearly $8.3 billion in profit.”

That’s a 71% margin!

Microsoft, it’s time you give up your bloated, staggering, intrusive, OLD (even Windows XP and Vista) operating system and do what you’ve always done best, build Office. Make it equally useable on all platforms. Take your OS resources and put them into the collaboration side of Office (it’s the only way you stand a chance against Google). Your browser sucks, your OS sucks, and people hate you becuase of it. Drop those and maybe you’ll regain some hearts. It’s the right thing for you, it’s the right thing for us.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
Microsoft
Windows XP
Microsoft Office
google

I Have a New Site

I have created a new blog-site, Myspace Modifier. It has tutorials and resources for modifying your Myspace layout and changing your Myspace background image. It starts at the beginning and will work you up through advanced layouts.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
myspace
customize myspace

Pluto not a planet? BS

In yet another self important move the “astroscientists” have declared Pluto is no
longer a planet. From my understanding our solar system is defined by planets. We
found Pluto because the orbits didn’t match the calculations without it. So for the
system to work Pluto has to be part of it. Removing Pluto as a planet breaks our
solar system; unless of course these arrogant SOBs are going to redefine the solar
system as well. Which brings me to the real motivation behind this rant.

Why are the strongest minds wasting their time on such a trivial issue? And what
are we supposed to do with the documentaries, text books, and previously installed
knowledge that indicates Pluto is a planet and an itegral part of our solar system.

Besides, Pluto is just cool. It deserves to be a planet.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
pluto
planets
solar system
astronomy

DSL vs Cable, what am I missing?

I have been presenting my point of view about the diminishing
return of broadband speed everywhere. In particular I am sharing
that the cable companies have been “pulling the wool over your
eyes” in regards to their cable modem service. In comparing DSL
vs cable, cable only holds 1% to 6.5% advantage in terms of time
saved (relative to dial up service at 56Kbps).

I use graphs and tables and words

here – DSL vs Cable – Choose DSL Instead of Cable

here – Fast DSL Service or Cheap DSL Service?

here – Broadband Speed – More is Less (you can use this one yourself)

I’ve posted in forums, and blogs, and bulletin boards. Yet I get
NO response. I at least expected to be called a bone head by
the vociferous proponents of cable. But nothing? Am I not making
sense? Is it just not interesting? Does no one really care they are
being taken advantage of?

I’ll just keep trying.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
dsl vs cable
cable
dsl
cheap dsl service
broadband internet

Microsoft Invites Firefox, big whoooop

I read “breaking news” today in my Informationweek Daily
about Microsoft magnanimously offering the engineers of Firefox access
to their special development lab if the are “interested in making sure the
Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client run under Windows Vista”.

The only thing I learned from this article is Microsoft makes a crappy OS.
First, Firefox works on Windows now so it should continue to work on Vista.
It’s not like they did what Apple did with OS X and built it from scratch. It’s
still the same old, bloated, stretching, screeching, code base as before.

Second, if a developer needs to go to a special lab to ensure a product
works then the OS is either horrendously bad, or Microsoft is hiding something
from all the non-invited developers, which of course is in violation of the
anti-trust settlement.

To top it off they made a big deal out of the fact Firefox developers are the
first open source group invited to the lab. It reminds me of the cigarette
companies running smoking is bad for you commercials yet still selling
cigarettes. “Yeah we know it’s bad, but buy it anyway because we’re honest
about how bad it is”.

I just wish they would go away (the cigarette companies too).

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Watch my success at 1095 to Success, a 3 Year Adventure

Tags:
Windows Vista
Firefox
OS X
Open Source

WordPress – a Super Rant

I can not believe WordPress. I vote it as the most influential piece
of software ever. What more could you ask for, FREE, flexible,
powerful, extendible, and EXTREMELY SIMPLE. Really, only 10
tables to run an effective content management system. Over
the course of 3 weeks I have been able to install and modify 3
blog/sites, having never used it before:

Simpletidbits
1095 to Success, a 3 Year Adventure
Find It Now Publishing
FRC at SBCC, my site for work

And watch, by the end of this weekend I will have converted 2
of my other sites:

Neti Pot Info
DSL not Cable, exposing the cable lie

into blog format without changing the look. I will also create
at least one new blog/site by then. So let’s hear it for WordPress!

Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooray!
Hip, hip, hooooooray!

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
blogging
WordPress
content management system
CMS

American Idol – Underground – A Rant for My X

Hi All,

I just got an email from my X-girlfriend, from high school. She’s a cool
girl (well woman now) and I feel bad I’ve lost touch. Anyway, it seems
her band, Jan Losey, has risen to number 19 in the American Idol
Undreground rating system. It’s a really good song. Check it out at:

Jana Losey – Pop – Number 19

and, like the link says, look around number 19 in the Pop category.
Jana Losey is the artist and Bittersweet is the song. If you like it,
like I did, give it a vote. She’s been working at this a long time, she’s
talented, and deserves recognition.

Go get em Melanie.

A friend from 21 years ago or so.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
Jana Losey
Bittersweet
American Idol
underground
pop music

Simplx, called again, and FTC link

I can’t believe it. I cancelled my account with Simplx, filed a
successful dipute against them to get my money back, and
have been ranting about them in my other blogs. Yet they
just called me to set up my “training” session!

Dorks.

By the way, since Simplx is a “broker network” and not a
drop ship company, as any drop ship retailer would view it
anyway, I think this link to the FTC disclosure requirements
for business opportunities applies, but is not being implemented
by Simplx, aka Clubdripship aka Simplicity Group LLC.

To read my detailed experience with Simplx visit my site
1095-to-success.com and read Simplx – One of My Big Mistakes

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
Simplx
FTC
Simplicity Group LLC
Clubdropship
Disclosure Requirements

Mac OS – 8, Windows – 0

Well this is a happy rant. Today Charles Babcock, software
researcher and writer for Information Week, released the
the top 12 greatest pieces of software ever. The Macintosh
OS was listed as number 8; Microsoft Windows was excluded.
Here is snippet from his “How Windows Measures on the
Scale of Greatness” article explaining why he left Windows
off the list:

“But Windows owes its dominance to something
other than programming breakthroughs or technical innovations.
Other operating systems, including MS DOS, Unix, Digital
Equipment’s VMS and the Apple Macintosh, were the first to
introduce many new features. Microsoft popularized them to
a wider audience.”

No, Windows owes its dominance in large part to a series of
agreements Microsoft negotiated at the start of the PC revolution
with computer manufacturers.”

A sentiment I have been espousing for years. Thank you
Mr. Babcock, and thank you for the list of 12.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags:
windows
macintosh
mac
mac os
great software

Google, stale, and they hate you

They hate you because they give you stale and unreliable
information. I don’t know if it is there supposed effort to
block spam and keep information relevent, or if their technology
just isn’t as good as it used to be, but the results being returned
to you aren’t very useful, and in some cases are misleading.

This rant is brought to you by the search phrase “dsl vs cable”.
If you are following this blog you know I posted on the superior
cost effectiveness of dsl over cable. Well if you look to Google
you’d never know it. Eight out of the ten results are between
1 and 4 years old. All eight reference outdated top speed
offerings and, more important, outdated pricing which shows
DSL to be more expensive than Cable at lower speeds. For the
2 that are not stale, one is just an article on DSL popularity,
a study with no useful information on speed or pricing, and the
other is blog about using DSL on a Mac (which actually is a
glimmer of hope).

If you are considering Broadband access do yourself a favor
and read my article. The only reason not get DSL is it is not
available in your area.

Cheers,
J Andrew Morrison

Tags: Google DSL vs Cable DSL cable Broadband Cox scam stale Bad Information misleading