Daily Archives: January 6, 2005

Bill Gates CES Meltdown

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It’s interesting to compare this simple legacy media press release framed as an article with a very different perspective [Lessig | Boing Boing] on Gates Las Vegas comments regarding our fair use rights (he essentially sides with the hollywood cartels). Slashdot discussion. Bottom line – don’t do Windows.
A bit more research (a few seconds on google) and we have Bill Gates in 1991:

“If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today”

Thanks to Jeff Keltner for that pointer.

Hackworth: It’s up to us

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David H. Hackworth:

so here’s my New Year?s resolution: to keep countering Pentagon lies with the truth until enough concerned citizens demand that Congress set up a congressional investigative arm to formally expose the liars and hold them accountable.
For almost six decades, I?ve borne witness to scuzzy machinations that had little or nothing to do with America?s national security. And because of them, I?ve watched my beloved country become enmeshed in far too many blood-splattered military misadventures only because they were good for Pentagon business. I?ve seen trillions of dollars allocated for gold-plated pork of value only to the monsters who manipulate the military-industrial-congressional complex and absolutely worthless to our gallant soldiers ? the kids who end up paying the ultimate price for the madness of war.?
Had a decent chunk of that dough been spent on the right stuff ? supporting our troops ? our warriors wouldn?t have fought in Korea in 1950 with World War I gear or be slugging it out in Iraq in scrounged ?hillbilly armor? and told to go to war with the Army we have and to suck it up.

Safer Car: Chevy Trailblazer SUV or Porsche Boxster

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Malcom Gladwell wrote this useful article on SUV’s early in 2004. He asks and explores an interesting question about the perceived safety advantages of SUV’s:

I found that I was wrestling with the car. The protests of the tires were jarring. I stopped, shaken. “It wasn’t going where you wanted it to go, was it?” Champion said. “Did you feel the weight pulling you sideways? That’s what the extra weight that S.U.V.s have tends to do. It pulls you in the wrong direction.” Behind us was a string of toppled cones. Getting the TrailBlazer to travel in a straight line, after that sudden diversion, hadn’t been easy. “I think you took out a few pedestrians,” Champion said with a faint smile.
Next up was the Boxster. The top was down. The sun was warm on my forehead. The car was low to the ground; I had the sense that if I dangled my arm out the window my knuckles would scrape on the tarmac. Standing still, the Boxster didn’t feel safe: I could have been sitting in a go-cart. But when I ran it through the handling course I felt that I was in perfect control. On the straightaway, I steadied the Boxster at forty-five m.p.h., and ran it through the obstacle course. I could have balanced a teacup on my knee.