Heads should roll

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Ken Partridge

I mentioned this before, but AT&T blows 4 billion dollars on the failed T-Mobile merger.

At the time of the announce that AT&T was not pursuing the merger, AT&T said the the 4 billion dollars was going to be a write off and not affect the company.

Do you know how many cell phones users it takes to make up for a 4 billion dollar mistake. Do you know how many AT&T U-Verse customers it takes to make up for a 4 billion dollar mistake.

Whatever bureaucratic committee made this attempt and poor judgment to offer the 4 billion dollar break up fee should be immediately fired from the company. Do you know how many 4G cell phone towers could be installed for 4 billion dollars ?

sigh, you get my point

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The worlds longest running experiment

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Ken Partridge

Since 1927 the Pitch Drop Experiment about the viscosity of pitch has been been running at the University of Queensland. Now it has a web cam to monitor its progress. Eight drops of water have come out of it since 1927.

Talk about watching the grass grow.

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The Commodore 64 @ 30

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Ken Partridge

I didn’t realize that the Commodore 64 was 30 years old this year. I started with the VIC 20 but traded up to the CBM 64.

Built by the old school business man Jack Tramiel who almost bought Apple when it was in its infancy, since Apple was using the Commodore 6502 low cost microprocessor in the Apple I/II.

One winter it was especially snowy, I got a Commodore 64, disk drive and monitor with my snow shoveling money. I will never forgot the back breaking work I did to get those. I still have all those in my garage along with an SX64 bought on eBay along the way. I started with computers on the older Commodore PETs. I almost failed my high school computer course because I ignored the Raytheon mini computer in the computer lab and spent all my time with the CBM Pet microcomputers, it still seemed like the right thing to do.

I still have a soft spot for Commodore. If you want a good book about Commodore get it on Amazon here.

Jeez, that really showed my age.

Sigh

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Google: The Whole History

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Ken Partridge


Created By Online PhD

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Battle by Proxy

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Ken Partridge

Who doesn’t love it when giants battle each other. It makes a great story.

This new Motorola lawsuit against Apple reminds be of the Korean War. You had the United States against North Korea, but it was really a proxy battle against China. There were Chinese troops and weapons in North Korea just an official war was not declared against China.

In this new Motorola lawsuit, its really Google (and Android ) against Apple. As told in the Steve Jobs autobiography, Apple doesn’t want to settle, it wants to destroy Android (we will see how long that lasts with the MBA business minded Tim Cook in charge).

On a completely different subject, just the name Penny-farthing makes you smile.

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Three guys walk into a bar

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Ken Partridge

What do Dave Cutler, Don Box and Hoi Vo have going on at the XBOX division at Microsoft ?

If you are working on Microsoft things and you don’t know at least 2 of the 3 names then put down your mouse and go start working at Burger King.

Dave Cutler is the genius behind Digital’s VMS, Windows NT and the fact that we all use AMD x86 based Pentiums instead of Intel’s crappy Itanium based processors (if you haven’t read the book Show Stopper! then get it right now). Don Box is originally behind the COM modules and eventually SOAP. Hoi Vo is the least known, but a virtualization expert.

Why would these guys all move to the entertainment based XBOX division ?

Maybe the snacks are better.

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Bait and switch, Verizon style

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Ken Partridge

I hate Verizon, I always have. The problem is they are no better than the other crappy mobile carriers.

During the Christmas break I added two iPhones to our account, in the store they told me I could get a 300 meg data plan, but in the store I needed to sign up for the 2 gigabyte plan and call later to get the plan changed. There was a $10 price difference per a phone.

Well today I am calling to get the plans changed and they told me that the 300 meg data plan we just a promotion which ended a week ago.

No one ever mentioned this was a temporary plan change and I think their excuse of not being able to do it in the store was a pure load a crap.

Verizon should be ashamed of their practices.

I hate Verizon Wireless.

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RIM must be joking

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Ken Partridge

I saw today that the crazy scheme at RIM to have two CEOs has finally fallen. They admit they probably need to focus more on consumer type of projects. Who do they pick to replace these two out of touch co-CEOs ? A former leader of Siemens. Can you name one consumer product from Siemens ? Yah, neither can I.

The more I think about these large companies and the more that is blamed on the CEO, I have to look at the poor selection and choices. I keep coming up with the same answers, A poor and week minded Board of Directors.

A perfect current poster child for this type of debacle is Yahoo, an older version is the John Sculley days at Apple. The Board of Directors in most cases is like the Major League Baseball owners appointing a new commissioner. They will only appoint a commissioner who has their best interests in mind, not the companies. The only exception that I can think of is when Steve Jobs came back and he told them the only way he is coming back is if the entire board resigns. Which they did and Apple took off.

No wonder RIM stock still fell on the announcement of the new CEO, its more of the same from a weak and poorly executed board.

Sigh

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A brief rant to Hollywood

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Ken Partridge

First it’s not Internet people, it’s the American People. In 1998 the government of the United States gave Hollywood the DCMA act, making it illegal to circumvent ripping a DVD, sorry I mean circumventing DRM whether copyright is proven or not. As we all know, I can still get any illegal copy of any DVD I want, in any store in Rowland Heights, but my wife can’t play her purchased Zone 6 DVDs from China on her Macintosh because it only allowed her to switch to different Zones five times before it locked down. This year they wanted a blank check to take down any website without due process if the lords on the mountain sees fit that the common people could view. If SOPA passed what would prevent a takedown notice for INFORMATION about Cinavia being issued by the MPAA. Everyone knows downloading movies off bit-torrent is bad. We have seen the propagandist numbers Ex-Senator Dodd has tried to push out. I think what the American people are trying to say is, hey we have had enough. You need to find another strong arm tactic besides financing the U.S. government to push through legislation that just would not work. I think we could do without the 3D version of Titanic and maybe with the money they spent on that, have all the studios get together with an easy way to get any movie you want that won break the bank. It’s the mad as Hell and we aren’t going to take it any more moment.

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Bye Bye Miss American Pie

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Ken Partridge

The internet for me is basically down today. All the SOPA/PIPA protest from the internet companies have curbed their internet presence.

My beef isn’t that people are trying to get illegal Movies from the internet, its wrong to do this. My beef is that I want information on Cinavia. This is the copy protection scheme used on Blu-ray disks. I just want to know about it, but if SOPA/PIPA pass I wont be able to look that up. it could be deemed as leading to copyright theft.

Make no doubt, some form of SOPA/PIPA will pass. The MPAA/RIAA has spent too much money in Washington, so there is no doubt in my mind this will pass. Just how ridged will it be is the question.

I was reading this article in the S.F. Chronicle about how the head of the MPAA (who was a senator by the way) calls the internet protect an abuse of Power. Change Internet and MPAA and it fits exactly.

I want someone who is not a lawyer or politician to come out and say something nice about these bill, you cant, they are all the same types of people.

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry.

Oops, sorry Chevy just sent me a take down notice, I have to take that reference out before my site gets taken off the internet without due process.

I have to keep asking myself, how is China worse than the United States ?

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