Liberal magazine
The New Republic
was so anxious for a scoop that it
let a U.S. soldier write anonymously about abuses in Iraq and
never
bothered to check his facts
. Turns out Pvt. Scott Beauchamp was spinning
more yarn than a Liz Claiborne sweater factory. The lies were uncovered by
The
New Republic
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Posted by Doug Barney on August 13, 20070 comments
Microsoft is crowing about Vista sales, and for any other vendor,
60
million sold
would be truly huge. But this is Microsoft we're talking about,
and it's held to a higher standard.
With an installed base of Windows rounding about a billion, 60 mil is a drop
in the PC bucket. And the 60 million figure itself is taking some heat, with
critics pointing out that not all of these licenses are actually in use.
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 30, 20070 comments
A
few weeks ago
, Doug wrote about the fall of citizen journalism sites, whose
effectiveness he compared to that of Eugene Tackleberry (of
Police Academy
fame). Bruce wonders how many readers missed the reference:
"You're going to school NOW, mister!" I'll bet more than 50
percent of your readers didn't even know who Eugene Tackleberry was until
they looked it up. Question: Do you have a paper copy of the orginal Police
Academy training quiz they handed out at movie theatres? I believe I have
an original of it at home.
This brings up a good point: movie history. A lot of the "great
movies" in the past 30 to 40 years are very unknown to the 20- to 30-year-old
crowd. We gave our foreign co-worker here a list of the top 100 comedies of
all time and she had a non-stop laugh riot. But many of our under-30 staff
don't relate to famous quotes like the one above. Which makes it all the funnier
when they don't get the jokes!
It is also my gut opinion that this line of movies made a star out of
Steve Guttenberg who happens to be one of my most favorite actors.
-Bruce
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 30, 20070 comments
After a
speech
last week by Ray Ozzie
, I'm suddenly less confused about Microsoft Live.
At a financial analysts meeting, Ozzie told the bean counters and Gordon Geckos
in attendance that Live is an entire platform consisting of four levels:
- Global Foundation Services, which is the hardware (read: massive Microsoft
data centers) that supports Web services
- Cloud Infrastructure Services, which provides load balancing and deployment
- Live Platform Services, which includes identity management and other application
services
- And last, but not least, are the apps themselves. Here you can collaborate,
word process, surf and, of course, read all those advertisements that make
this all possible.
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 30, 20070 comments
I recently wrote an editorial
arguing
that print is not dead
(and filed my copy pretty much the day my old employer,
InfoWorld
, killed its paper edition).
Since then, Network Computing (of which I was editor in chief for a
spell) shut down, as did Optimize and, before that, the old Network
Magazine.
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 30, 20070 comments
One reader shares his thoughts on the U.S. tech sector's $102 billion trade
deficit:
I see the problem as twofold. One, the American lifestyle to which we
have become accustomed has mutated into a self-centered gimme-gimme kind of
mindset, where all things should be cheap and disposable.
The other is that other countries are actually CULTURES; the U.S. has
no culture. So we stand alone, basically doing economic battle with people
who are held together by their belief in what they are, often bound by an
almost World War II-like desire to excel as a race. People in this country
seem to hold Japanese and German (and probably all foreign) products in higher
regard than our own. Why? Because they believe that those countries have pride
in their work and that they are unified in their efforts to supply a superior
product. Why do they believe that? Because they have jobs which reveal a total
lack in ethics by their co-workers, and they see the low quality of work.
Why is there a low quality of work? Because everything is cheap and disposable,
you don't have to work hard, and you're not a team or a culture struggling
for survival.
Myself, I know the value of the American worker, and I strive to buy
not only U.S.-made, but also U.S.-owned. I willingly pay more, something most
Americans refuse to do. I remember when all my server stuff was made in the
U.S., and only small chips came from foreign markets. Now, companies like
Intel are investing more in off-shore manufacturing, and you have to wonder
when the technology will leave with the manufacturing. People have to be willing
to sacrifice and keep those U.S. companies here, even if it means paying more
for less.
-Mel
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20070 comments
I wouldn't mind having the
bad
quarter Google just posted
. The search engine king reported earnings of
nearly a billion dollars on sales of nearly $4 billion -- a neat little 25 percent
margin. Meanwhile, revenue was up almost 60 percent compared to the previous
year's quarter.
So Wall Street geniuses drove the stock price up, right? Not on your life.
The Street was looking for more and slapped Google upside the head by driving
the share price down 8 percent in one day.
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20070 comments
Marc Andreessen has never been seen as a real heavyweight executive. Many felt
he lucked into the whole browser thing and went along for the ride at Netscape.
I sometimes veered into that category, as well.
Marc, I take it all back. You're smart, inventive and a heckuva businessman.
The proof is in the results.
After Netscape, Marc (using his first name saves me from spelling his last
one) started Loudcloud. He sold a chunk of that to EDS and turned the rest into
Opsware, which he just unloaded
on HP for $1.6 billion -- despite the fact that Opsware has been losing
money. Now, that's a businessman!
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20070 comments
I've been a defender of Microsoft Research and the billions that the company
spends exploring the computing envelope. Other journalists haven't been as kind,
taking the division to task for not turning its research into leading-edge products
we all can use.
The more I hear about Microsoft Research demos that are all show and no product,
the more I start to agree. While there's a place for pure research, other companies
-- such as startups -- research, develop, then ship!
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20070 comments
Wondering what the
next
release of Windows
for the desktop will look like? So am I, and so -- I
imagine -- are the developers themselves.
But here's what we do know: It already has a code-name, "Windows 7"
(Windows 95 was 4, 98 was 5 and XP was 6), it's expected to ship in 2010, and
it will run in 32 or 64 bits. Microsoft is also kicking around the idea of selling
it on a subscription basis.
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 23, 20070 comments
The rise of blogs was supposed to fundamentally reshape the world of journalism. No longer would you need a degree from j-school (of course, I have the rare honor of a degree in Marxian economics, which is now useful only in North Korea and Cambridge, Mass.!).
No, news was to be driven by those closest to it: real, actual citizens.
Unfortunately, these citizen journalism sites were about as effective as Eugene Tackleberry on patrol.
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Posted by Doug Barney on July 16, 20070 comments