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.

Wait on Vista or it will cost you?

Finally last week, Vista was released to the world. Bill Gates was promising big things out of his new baby. He was right. One thing that you will get is a big bill according to an article on the PC World website. Not surprising from the news reports mentioning that you would need a new machine to run the OS. As far as I am concerned, the Mac Book Pro has my vote for my next machine.

What the Heck is Mental Anguish

I just read an article (http://www.heraldnewsdaily.com/ViewArticle.aspx?id=59342&source=2) about Astronaut Lisa Nowak, saying that she suffered from "Mental Anguish." What the heck is "Mental Anguish". Does that mean that she was wasnt crazy when she drove 900 miles across the US in a diaper just to "talk" to the other woman? Or does that mean that she was suffering mentally from some tragedy?

As far as I know, the only tragedy in her life is the ones she created. She separated from her husband of 19 years to chase a guy who was already dating someone. She supposedly broke up a marriage other than her own. And she sprayed mace in a womans face after driving 900 miles. "Mental Anguish?" I would say she was downright nuts!

If she cracked, then someone should have seen this coming. Where is NASA folks when someone cracks? They sure jump to the forefront when the glory is to be had. But not many voices are heard when something like this happens. Come on NASA...Speak up. We cant hear you.

By saying she suffers from "Mental Anguish", it sound to me like the same old bureaucratic problem of trying to shove things under the carpet that NASA has always done.

Video "Every OS Sucks!" Pulls No Punches

For those of you who gripe and moan about Windows, well, this video will make you groan about a lot of things. It should make the older generation who lived in the time of 8 bit machines smile a bit though.

Check out the video at:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2514730680283477734

Mac World Expo 2007: Where's The Beef

In all of the announcements that Steve Jobs put forth in his Keynote this year, it seems that the only thing that came out were the things that were almost like the secret that everyone knew about.

For those diehard Apple Computer, Inc. fans, the name change to Apple, Inc. is sure to create almost as much of a clammor of voices as the lack of any new computers. Is Apple really dropping all of their computers as well or is this just purely a name change.

There were none of the expected quad core machines nor any updates to its long line of laptops. Also the lack of any mention of Leopard is sure to put some pundits off their game.

While the two items that Steve Jobs introduced were nice, it would have helped if he actually had those in hand to begin selling today. This Mac World Expo will likely go down in history as the one that Apple introduced nothing. At least nothing tangible. Just all Vaporware. Much in the methodology of another big company everyone loves to hate, Microsoft.

Email Account Hijacked? Dont expect help from Yahoo.

I was reading through a few things today and ran across this tale of email account hijacking.

Unfortunately this article about email hijacking hits home here. In my case, nothing in the account was changed. Unfortunately, I am the careful user who normally doesnt use real info when setting up the account (i.e. BDAY, address, etc). Doesnt help too much when trying to get back in or the password reset. Of course, the hacker probably changed all that anyways.

But I had to write off an account about 2 years ago that I had since Yahoo first opened email to the public. Yahoo unfortunately wont do anything about it to this day. And the only thing you get to track down help is a bunch of menus that really are no help at all.

That should be the real story here is the fact that the big corporations who run these systems are more and more hiding behind automatic html systems with no listed phone numbers and no publicized address. And unless you are aware of security commision filings, you wont have a clue of where those corporations are.

Hopefully Yahoo and others like them will eventually get real people who can help other real people.

Apple tells 9 year old to read the legal page

A 9 year old who wrote to Apple Computer, Inc. as part of a school project, got a response from the legal dept. at Apple, telling her that they dont accept "suggestions".

Her mother, who was absolutely horrified, immediately called the local CBS affiliate and certainly got the attention of Apple then.

You can listen to the video here of the news report.
http://cbs5.com/investigates/local_story_103023852.html

I guess it just goes to say, there are days where everyone screws up. (Or as I would say, "What the heck were they thinking?!!")

The Eclipse or how not to see one

Once again, a major event is taking place and once again, I am relagated to the list of those folks who read about the event, even wanted to see it but who for one reason or another couldnt get the picture except on TV.

Unfortunately, I guess I have to move to Hawaii or some place like that where crear or mostly clear skies is the norm. The cloudiness and the haziness of the weather here in Tokyo once again has prevented seeing anything, even if we could see it here.

I guess the next event for me to miss is the leonoid storm and while that is one of the brightest meteor showers of the year, its brightness doesnt do anything to penetrate the general cloudiness of this place.

Many times, we travel half way around the world for these events of our solar system, but when we get to the place we are going, either it is perfect beyond words or it is miserable and a wasted trip.

I guess it pays to check the weather forecast for these events and I think I will do that next time a meteor shower or eclipse takes place prior to jumping off the deep end.

Tourist. A bad word in space?

Once again, a non-astronaut is making the trip to the space station. The word tourist seems to have been applied to these non-astronauts but even that is a bit misleading. Astronaut has always been associated with anyone who has reached 62 miles up. And the wings associated with space flight awarded to those folks.

But this is not a teacher in space type program or a fantasy Pan Am flight from the movie 2001. It is instead the program which the russians have been touting for 20 million USD per trip over the past few years. Not bad if you are a multi-millionaire with nothing but time and money on your side.

There have been two before him but Gregory Olsen is not letting that stop his enthusiasm. According to Olsen, "Someday everyone will be going into space just like they are flying in planes today."

He will be spending approximately 10 days in the zero gravity of the space station and coming home with the current crew on board the station. These change over flights always only take a total of 2 astronauts and the Russians have been using the selling of the third seat to inject their space program with much needed cash.

While this is a good way to get into space, it would be easier if companies like Scaled Composites suddenly started making a ship which would go all the way into orbit rather than just into sub-orbital flight. Then you would see people lining up for flights, especially if it was as safe as flying in a plane.

Google in Space!

Once again, Google has struck a deal which will keep it at the forefront of the data collection business. According to a report in the Miami Herald (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/technology/12768218.htm), Google has signed a deal with NASA to “work together” although the details on this deal are few.

Like Google, NASA is also known for having collected large amounts of data but the percentage of the data which is available and accessible by the public is relatively low. Google on the other hand has made large amounts of data available in a relatively short time.

Having just reviewed Google’s latest release, Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/), it is completely impressed upon my brain that no company in the world can keep up with them and now even NASA seems to validate that fact.

Of course, the fact that corporate America has taken a lead in space is obviously not lost in the deal. Now that NASA is on board, perhaps this is not just a passing fancy, but the start of something glorious for the

Where is Yahoo!

Over the past several year, it has become a major trend among the biggest of the corporations with presence on the Internet to automate their systems for customer service.

Much like those dreaded phone systems that say for “for option one, pres one, for option two, press two”, the automated online help system is a pain and it is almost useless when a case for real help is needed.

two years ago, my Yahoo! Account was hijacked. After multiple tries of getting help to recover it, the only thing I have gotten from Yahoo! Is the great runaround and automated canned responses which did not address the issue at all. Of course, if you try to call them using the telephone, you get even less help. And just try and find their corporate offices. Here in Tokyo, they are particularly anti-customer service and as such don’t even let the general public into their corporate offices.

What ever happened to the customer service of yester-year? I am afraid that as we get further and further into the real of online systems with the ease of not having to actually support products that we sell, the trend will be that the corporations will be saying, “you have a problem? Tough!”.

Of course, this might just be a figment of my imagination, but two years going and I still don’t have access to my account and someone else does.

To the Moon....AGAIN!!!

Well, the country is back at it. Or is it? With the Chinese set to launch a two man crew in October, the US is once again looking to send a man to the moon. Of course the 2018 date set by NASA is not exactly tomorrow. It also isn’t the same as the “within this decade” challenge set forth by John F. Kennedy in 1961.

But once again we are looking towards the heavens. And of course, the politicing has already started including the possibility that the next President of the United States will just outright kill the whole program and possibly even close NASA all together.

The current NASA director, Michael Griffin, is also telling the media (USA TODAY Report) that the shuttle and the space station programs were a “mistake”. I wonder if this is because we don’t have a base on the moon as everyone who grew up with Apollo thought we would by this time, or if it is just to cater to those penny pinchers in Washington D.C..

Of course with a price tag of 104 Billion USD for sending a man to the moon, the current 16.5 Billion USD budget isn’t going to go very far. It goes to figure that with the pace of private corporate development in the space arena in the past few years that a commercial operation will make it to the moon and Mars before NASA gets there. Or maybe at the rate the Chinese are going, perhaps it will be them getting there first.

Thus far, the Shuttle has cost billions, as has the Space station. But why is this? It seems that everyone has forgotten how much Apollo cost. Especially when it comes to lives lost. They complain that we have lost 14 men and women in the numerous Shuttle missions, yet they forget that the 8 Apollo Missions cost us a total of 7 men, 4 of them in training and flight accidents.

Yes, there is a cost. It is both monetarily as well as in human terms. Yet those who went before, all went because they knew the inherent risks and because they believed they were doing something good for their families, their country and most of all, mankind as a whole. This is a spirit which has been lost on much of today’s youth who complain if they get a blister on their finger playing their video games. It seems that the attitude of those in the management of the space program isn’t too far behind that level of apathy.

Where is that wild-eyed fighter jockey of yesteryear who had the attitude that they could do anything. Much of the country followed them in this attitude and it put men on the moon in 9 years. All of this without having even put a man in space when the Kennedy challenge went forth.

The technology of the day also progressed at a frightening pace because the country put the sciences first and foremost, teaching those who came after much of what they had learned and encouraging them to think and progress. This is another aspect of life which has been lost on this generation and yet we do not even seem to be concerned that many of the technologies which the country always led the world in developing are now being developed in other countries

Now we are talking 12-13 years and possibly 15 years before even attempting a moon-shot and we are accepting this as status quo and normal. And with the dreams of the generation who lived through the space race and the cold war dying as quickly as they are, it will be a miracle if we even reach the moon by 2050.

Finished Novel

Well, I finally finished Nanowrimo (www.nanowrimo.org) this year. I dont know how I did it but I guess I will now have to edit my book (Toward Oblivion [www.wazoom.com/pcnovels]). Meanwhile, I have another idea for my book for next year or possibly even next month. Thank goodness for the computer.