Archive for October, 2008

Oh my gosh, how rude. What are the Chinese people supposed to do? Doesn’t Microsoft realize the impact they will be making on the Chinese economy? How could they even think of making the Chinese people do the right thing and use legitimate software?

A top Chinese copyright official chided Microsoft for launching an “anti-piracy” tool that causes screens of computers using counterfeit software to turn black and said the company’s prices were too high.

The U.S. software giant launched its “Windows Genuine Advantage” program last week, prompting lawsuit threats and howls of indignation in China, where the vast majority of computer users are believed to be using counterfeit software, unwittingly or not.

This is just cruel. So many people won’t be able to log onto the internet and launch denial of service attacks. What are those people supposed to do? It’s not like they can just go out and start a new career in North Carolina health insurance or something respectable like that.

Next thing you know, we’ll be sending them bailout checks to help them through this “crisis”.

Investors knew that Apple was going to offer the iPhones at cost. Investors knew the plan. Why are they upset now?

Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone is giving its sole U.S. carrier AT&T Inc (T.N) a big boost in subscribers and buffering the impact of slower landline sales, but the success is coming at a cost that many AT&T investors do not like.

Because AT&T offers subsidies to make the iPhone more affordable in exchange for a commitment to monthly payments, strong sales lift its revenue but hurt profit margins. That weighed on the company’s third-quarter results and drove its shares down 4 percent by midday on Wednesday.

Everyone involved with the AT&T deal knew that they were not going to recoup the money they were subsidizing for a few years. I don’t understand why they are unhappy about that now, except the fact that the economy has tanked and they want to make as much off their money as they can before things get real bad.

What else is it?

I was totally shocked when I read this article.

Yahoo Inc.’s leaders still have jobs despite investor misgivings about their decision making, but at least 1,500 workers will be shown the door after the slumping Internet company’s profits tumbled yet again in the third quarter.

The 10 percent reduction in Yahoo’s payroll of 15,000 employees served as another stark reminder of the challenges facing a management team led by Jerry Yang as the deteriorating economy casts even more doubts about the Sunnyvale-based company’s turnaround plans.

Yahoo had a turnaround plan? Really? When were they going to start the turnaround? Color me shocked. I bet those people wont get gift baskets either.

I just got used to Firefox 3.0 and now Mozilla is teasing me with another shiny new toy.

Mozilla’s Firefox 3.1 beta 1, now available for public download, is loaded with new features that once again put the Firefox developer community on the cutting edge of browser development.

Code-named Shiretoko, the first test version of Mozilla’s free upgrade to Firefox 3 is being touted as a public-preview release ostensibly intended for the developer community. However, everyday Web surfers will also find much to like about the improvements over Firefox 3 in Web compatibility, performance and speed.

It sounds like they are making some pretty serious changes behind the scenes. Go read all about it.

Many months ago, the IM feature of Twitter disappeared. Apparently it was killing the Twitter servers. For months people were told, “it’s coming back, we’re working on it”.

Apparently not.

Anxiously awaiting the return of Twitter IM? Don’t hold your breath; the micro-blogging site has no plans to restore instant messaging to the site any time soon.

“We want to bring IM back. We intend to bring IM back. But we’ve officially moved it from our ‘things that are broken’ list to ‘things that we want to build’ list,” Twitter co-founder Evan Williams wrote in a Friday blog post. “Based on our analysis, the cost-to-benefit for IM for the most users is not as high as some other things–so it will be a while before we tackle it.”

That’s too bad. A lot of people relied on that part of the service and they were strung along into thinking it was coming back soon. Now that it’s on the “we want to build” list, it’s likely we, as Twitter users, will never see it again. It’s like the wine of the month club. If you missed the wine last month, chances are you will never get that one again.

I want to build a boat, but it’s not like I have time to put the wood together.

I read in interesting article today titled, “Apple cures the common cold and other stuff”

Seth Weintraub of 9to5Mac, a blogger with good sources within the Macintosh community, is reporting that Apple has invented a new manufacturing process for MacBooks.

“It is totally revolutionary, a game changer. One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade. The MacBook manufacturing process up to this point has been outsourced to Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturers like Foxconn. Now Apple is in charge. The company has spent the last few years building an entirely new manufacturing process that uses lasers and jets of water to carve the MacBooks out of a brick of aluminum. (Yes, this sounded a bit crazy to us as well. But our source is adamant so bear with us. He says Apple has built a manufacturing process that would make Henry Ford proud.)”

I found it interesting because people seem obsessed with every move that Apple makes, and for good reason. Apple has always made a dependable product, and reading this article just confirms that they are always trying to do more. Pretty soon they’ll be making a new improved electric blanket.

This is the first I have heard of this, and being a former T-Mobile customer it makes me wonder… Why? Shouldn’t I have been informed of this breach before reading about at at Yahoo! News?

Europe’s leading telecommunications company, Deutsche Telekom, admitted Saturday that it has lost confidential data belonging to 17 million T-mobile clients.

The theft, in 2006, which is now subject to a judicial inquiry, involved telephone numbers, dates of birth, addresses and email addresses, subsidiary T-Mobile said in a statement.

Spokesman Frank Domagala said that bank details were not attached, and that “according to our information, even though these details have been put up for sale on the black market, there has not been a buyer.”

It’s not like they knew nothing about me, or I was buying landscape supplies or Moen faucets from them. They had all my personal information, and I think I had a right to know they lost it a long time ago.

Note: It was brought to my attention that the information which was lost by Deutsche Telekom does not include any U.S. customer data, as T-Mobile USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of DT, but maintains separate customer data. That’s good news, if you live in the U.S.