Friday, February 16, 2007

Has Microsoft Finally Seen The Writing on The Wall?

Today, Microsoft stock got slammed after Steve Balmer said that original forecasts for Vista sales were outside reality. The article in the Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003574610_microsoft16.html) says that he doesnt think consumers are going to buy many PC's. But of course, for those of us who have been watching the long time Apple versus Microsoft battle, we already know that Microsoft has been playing catch up ever since Apple came out with OS X 10.4 And the Mac Intel machines.

I guess only time will tell is this is Microsoft's last hurrah or if this is just a temporary glitch in the software and PC markets.

URL's

Article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003574610_microsoft16.html
Apple: http://www.apple.com
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com

Passenger Bill Of Rights

Once again, this topic has poked its head above the horizon. For too long now, passengers have had absolutely no rights once they are on an airliner. This has led to abuses in 1997 where passengers sat on the tarmac at minneapolis-st.paul for more than 12 hours and now once again at JFK and at Austin for more than eight hours.

Is this the way we wish to be treated as air travelers? I know from my own experiences, that once an airline staff says something, their word is taken over any one else as gospel whether they are in the wrong or not. And in situations where passengers are stuck in an airplane going nowhere, being told nothing, having no food, overflowing toilets, no medical care and in general, staff who are about as uncaring about the situation as anything, it is time to have change.

Here is a link to a much further reaction to this type of thing:
http://blogs.chron.com/lorensteffy/2007/02/passenger_bill.html

American Airlines has said that this type of thing is "an Overreaction" according to a report on CNN. But is it? If someone had died in this situation, I wonder what they would be saying then. And Jet Blue who was at the center of the controversy in these cases, have said that they want to "Serve their customers in their own way". Northwest, who was at the center of the 1997 controversy basically said the same thing and nothing was done. Now we have the situation happening again.

When is the government going to wake up and do something about the lousy way passengers are being treated? I say the time is now and if you care about this, call you legislator or senator and let them know to vote for the bill that is being introduced in both the House and the Senate.