Posted by dj as Commentary at 11:59 PM PST []
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December 31st, 2009
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Dec. 31, 2009 New Years Eve
To all of you a happier new year!
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 4:53 PM PST []
December 30th, 2009
Zero Decade: Health Care
Ten years ago many people had trouble getting affordable health care. Many of my friends died because they were denied access to health care by insurance companies. It is hard to fight disease and an insurance company at the same time. They were killed by greed. Anyone who had a hand in denying someone access to health care has a lot to answer for. Text from DJCline.com
I stick by my friends, until the end and then some. When someone dies, insurance companies clean out their files, count their money and go home. Not me. I’m the one who stacks the stones, scatters the ashes, reads the will and carries out my friends’ last wishes. Many of them asked that I work toward universal access to health care so no one would ever go through what they did. It was a daunting inheritance. Text from DJCline.com
I found and promoted candidates who would work for reform. I found and worked with others to vote for them. Insurance company lobbyists did everything they could, including sending angry armed men to break up town meetings. They failed. Text from DJCline.com
Congress is now putting the finishing touches on a health care reform bill. It is a start. When the president signs it into law, he will be essentially commuting the death sentences of at least 30 million suffering people. I only wish my friends had lived to see that day. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 2:04 PM PST []
December 29th, 2009
Zero Decade: Social Networking
People who know me know I know a lot of people. I used to collect business cards and index them. I could build a pretty intricate picture of a community rather quickly and work with it. That was the way dad did it, granddad did it, and it worked pretty well for me (thanks to Ironman’s Robert Downey). Text from DJCline.com
At some point I kept long lists on personal computers. I was always wary of contact list software because it was hard to move data out of them to new applications or platforms. The results are word processing files that are now at least two decades old migrated from floppy disks to CD-ROMS, DVDs and flash drives. It’s fun to see the kinds of contact information evolve from names and mailing addresses to fax numbers to e-mail and cell phone numbers to Twitter accounts. Every once in awhile I’ll print a hard copy in case everything collapses and I need to send a letter by way of Kevin Costner in “The Postman.” I can’t imagine what I would say, but I’m sure it would be funny. Text from DJCline.com
The recent social networking technology seemed superfluous to me. I interact with people on a personal level and it all seemed so contrived. It looked to me like people weren’t paying attention to print, radio and TV ads anymore but communicating directly with one another on the Internet. Businesses wanted to inject themselves in the conversation again and start selling them things they don’t need. Even worse they wanted to know everything about people to waste even more of their time. Text from DJCline.com
Businesses came up with sillier names like social media and social graph that didn’t help sell me on it. They said it brought friends and families closer together but with a price. Imagine writing a letter to your grandmother and pasting a coupon for adult diapers in the middle of it. Now mail a copy to the diaper company. That is the business model for social networking and I’m sure your grandmother will be thrilled. I also thought it was the height of bad parenting to put family pictures on the net. These new businesses will tell you young people don’t care about privacy, but I think there are infants today who will resent their bear rug pictures on the internet when they are running for mayor. Text from DJCline.com
I did reluctantly participate in professional online networks. Even so, I don’t need to know everything about someone. In cloud computing there is the concept of buying information by the drink. I have discovered that much of the data online about people is inaccurate or irrelevant. I want to know if I can do business with someone, I do not need to know about their life outside of work. Friendships inevitably form but usually after establishing the trust of a business transaction. This seems to the exact opposite of social networking where you are supposed to befriend people first. BTW: The word is “befriend”, to me “friend” is still a noun. Text from DJCline.com
So as I proceed into social networking please remember that I see you as a human being and not a piece of software. I will treat you as if we were standing face to face and not on Facebook. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 4:50 PM PST []
December 28th, 2009
Zero Decade: Diversity
Zero Decade: Diversity
Ten years ago I lived in one of the most diverse places on the planet. I still do. This is what the future looks like and it terrifies some people. They want to fight the future or even hide from it.
I knew someone from some conservative area of Connecticut who moved to Silicon Valley during the dotcom boom. They simply could not get used to the diversity. People were just too different for them. They moved out of California to an all white community and enrolled their children in a private religious school. They will be poorly prepared for the realities of the world when they grow up. You can’t hide from the future, it will find you. Text from DJCline.com
Diversity pays dividends. Here is an example. Text from DJCline.com
There has been a trend over the past decade to make it harder for students from other countries to come here and study. It was not always this way. Back in the 1950s, America invited students to study in its universities. One student was from Syria who became the father of Steve Jobs. Another was from Kenya and became the father of Barack Obama. You may not like them but can you imagine America or the world without these two people? Can you imagine this country without all the wonderful people who risked everything to come here?Text from DJCline.com
Our country wins when we are open and generous and allow the free movement of people and ideas. Deny opportunity to others and you deny it to yourself. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 4:16 PM PST []
December 27th, 2009
Dec. 27, 2009 Blumbers
The good news is that this horrible decade is almost over. Considering all that has happened over the past ten years I can safely say I’m ten years older than I ever thought I’d ever be. With a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck I’ll be here ten years from now. Text from DJCline.com
This year I continued to expand my reach and range. I continue to support the Future Salon, Long Now Foundation, SDForum, Society for Technical Communication, and the Silicon Valley Engineering Council. I have also expanded coverage to organizations like AmBar, ASAP, Astia, CICC, CIDM, CITRIS, CSPA, NASSCOM, San Jose BioCenter, SME, SVCWireless, VSVN and others. There is always something going on somewhere so don’t be surprised if I show up out of the blue to cover it. Text from DJCline.com
In many ways this was the year of the Grand Poobah, where I was recognized for my work with honors like Media Fellow, Associate Fellow, Board Director, etc. With the fancy titles comes the responsibility of encouraging and recognizing the work of others building these communities. Text from DJCline.com
No matter what happens, the future isn’t going away. I aim to be part of it. I hope you will be too.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Blumbers, Commentary at 4:56 PM PST []
December 26th, 2009
Zero Decade: Paper
Zero Decade: Paper
Twenty years ago I was one of the first private individuals to own a laser printer. In the early days of desktop publishing there was a steady stream of people through my home needing hard copy. I bought a box of copier paper every week. It was quite a profitable business until prices came down and everyone else could buy one. There was talk of a paperless office, but since the dominant form of communication was paper I did not see how that would happen, until the rise of e-mail. The more people had it, the less paper they used. Five years ago I bought my last laser printer and my last box of paper. Text from DJCline.com
I still accumulated printers. Every time I bought a camera or a scanner they threw in an inkjet printer. The problem was that most people viewed images online. The obvious sign that things had changed was the sale of digital displays shaped like picture frames. When people wanted hard copy, it was for largely ceremonial purposes and they went to Kinkos. Text from DJCline.com
The problem with electronic documents is that they require electricity to read them. I don’t think burning coal to save trees is a long term solution. Other problems are digital rights management and proprietary formats that require specific devices to see the content. If the power goes out, having the Library of Congress on your e-reader will not help future generations. Text from DJCline.com
There is nothing like reading original historical documents to get an idea of what times were like. Hiding documents like the Dead Sea Scrolls can give new insights into current conflicts. Clay tablets will tell you people cheated on their taxes. Stone carvings will tell you about eclipses. Illuminated manuscripts will tell you about plagues. Printed atlases will tell you about how people literally saw the world. Text from DJCline.com
The Long Now Foundation is working on the problem by etching very tiny text on metal disks and storing them underground in the desert. If our descendants have really good eyesight and can read, they will be in great shape, but these are rather impersonal documents. I’m interested the personal accounts. Text from DJCline.com
History comes alive when it is told by individuals. Historians are spying for the future. Herodotus, Pliny, Chaucer, Boswell and hundreds of other are great resources for historians. They wrote so well that their work was translated from language to language and media to media. Aristotle returned to European academia after being translated from Greek to Arabic to Latin and from scrolls to books. If you want your work to be read in the future, distribute it multiple media and different languages. You may not only get the last word, it may be the only word on a subject. Text from DJCline.com
They say history is written by the winners. It is certainly studied by them.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 3:29 PM PST []
December 25th, 2009
Dec. 25, 2009 Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays!
From Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, when Jacob Marley’s ghost visits Ebenezer Scrooge: Text from DJCline.com
“It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!” Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 2:35 PM PST []
December 24th, 2009
Zero Decade: Environment
Ten years ago I was stuck in a blizzard on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Last year I wore a t-shirt. Over a lifetime I’ve seen glaciers disappear not just at the poles but in temperate and equatorial mountains. Animals I used to see in Mexico are now in California and Colorado. There are palm trees growing in downtown San Francisco. I guess I’m going to have to believe my own eyes. I’ve tried to tread lightly on the earth but the problem is that there are several billion other people walking around too. Text from DJCline.com
There are those who see seven billion people on the planet as some sort of miracle. It is not. It is a disaster waiting to happen, and I don’t think it is going to wait much longer. Most of the world lives in poverty and suffering and there can be no positive spin on that. Text from DJCline.com
There was a big environmental summit in Copenhagen this month. No industry or country is willing to sacrifice growth unless it gives them some advantage. Therefore we must work toward incentives for everyone to to do what is in everyone’s interest. Text from DJCline.com
Is it in your children’s interest to have a huge house in the suburbs and drive an SUV to twenty miles to work? If so, teach your children how to grow subsistence agriculture in the backyard and how to make bows and arrows. They may wind up living closer to nature than you want. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 4:32 PM PST []
December 23rd, 2009
Zero Decade: Energy
Ten years ago I was driving the most fuel efficient car I could find. I still have it. Since then I’ve test driven hybrids, biodiesel, electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The moment a practical model comes out I will buy one.Text from DJCline.com
Straight electric cars makes the most sense because most houses have electricity. Put solar panels on the roof to charge it. Which leads to the whole idea of self-sufficiency. If a wind storm knocks out utility power to your house, having solar cells means less disruption. Text from DJCline.com
Elsewhere at home I have replaced all the old incandescent bulbs in the house with compact fluorescents. I will soon replace them with even more efficient LEDs. I have a smart meter that gives me feedback on my usage. One low tech old school solution for saving energy is to use a clothesline. Text from DJCline.com
I use a hand-cranked radio and would love the equivalent for cameras, cell phones and computers. I use laptops so I’ve stopped using separate uninterrupted power supplies and CRTs. Just unplugging things can dramatically reduce your electric bills. Power strips now sit on top of tables instead of underneath them. Text from DJCline.com
The nature of my work still requires travel but I try to telecommute as much as possible. I try to take public transportation whenever I can. I cover a lot of clean energy events and encourage investment in new technologies. Text from DJCline.com
I expect bigger breakthroughs as energy demand increases and existing supplies become more expensive. Expect to pay more for energy. Text from DJCline.com
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 4:26 PM PST []
December 22nd, 2009
Avatar
Avatar is a technical triumph. I recommend taking two aspirins ahead of time to deal with the headache you will get from the noise and something for the motion sickness if you see it in an IMAX theater.
The story is not new. Good artists borrow. Great artists steal. James Cameron steals from everybody including himself. Twenty years ago he made “Aliens” with Sigourney Weaver working with evil corporate executives and gung-ho marines trying to survive on a dangerous planet. (BTW: Who still smokes after the year 2100? 2000? 1964?) As an employee of this evil company Weaver is supposed to befriend and then betray the indigenous people. She realizes too late that the natives know more about this world than she does.
Other things are moved around a little bit this time but not much. There are still big spaceships and heavy machinery but the aliens are more human or at least humanoid. A disabled marine falls in love with the extraterresterial equivalent of Pocahantas. There were moments when I thought she was going to start singing “Colors Of The Wind” or hear music from “Dances With Wolves.” Fortunately we are spared any references to “Titanic”.
These natives out-native Native Americans. They can be directly physically connected to other creatures and their environment in a form of wildlife WiFi (or blue people Bluetooth). At this point I was reminded of “Ferngully” and feared Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy would show up as some animal sidekick. Fortunately the film moved on to the established Hollywood formula of fighting and blowing things up real good.
The ending is unlikely. Conflicts with natives go on for generations. Conquistadors want their stuff and like Cameron’s Terminator, they will be back. Get ready for Avatar 2.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
December 21st, 2009
Dec. 17, 2009 SDF Courtney Ann Behm
On December 17, 2009 in Palo Alto at SAP the SDForum Engineering Leadership SIG hosted Courtney Ann Behm’s presentation “How to Manage Change Before Change Manages You.” She talked about the rapid, relentless and stressful change in our personal and professional lives and strategies to deal with it.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
December 20th, 2009
Dec. 20, 2009 Blumbers
Mossberg’s Mistaken Identity
I was at one of those swanky San Francisco events and a young woman in a splendid evening gown walked up to me. She squinted and said she was thrilled to meet me and loved my presentation about blogs at an event two years ago. I did not recognize her, but I meet thousands of people a year. I did not remember the event, I go to hundreds and speak at dozens. I asked her which one.
She said All Things D.
She thought I was Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal.
The problem is that I was wearing a sign around my neck that said DJ CLINE in big letters. This woman was obviously not wearing her glasses for the sake of vanity.
Even though she could not really see me, I can see how she made the mistake, I was standing next to Kara Swisher at the time. Walt and I resemble each other the same way hybrid cars do, except he is much more distinguished.
Dear Walt, you have some lovely fans out there, they just can’t see you very well.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Blumbers, Commentary, Humor at 4:55 PM PST []
December 19th, 2009
Dec. 17, 2009 SVCWireless iPhone Android
On December 17, 2009 in Santa Clara at Access Growth, SVCWireless held the second class in its iPhone Android Development training series. Instructors from Samsung, AppCelerator and Rhomobile talked to engineers and programmers about developing for the Apple iPhone and Google Android. Because of demand, more classes are planned for 2010.
Special thanks to Adam Blum, David Cao, Tianbo Li, Ann Xin, Yuan Tian and Chris Zelenka.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
December 18th, 2009
Dec. 17, 2009 STC Schmooze
On December 17, 2008 at the India Gate restaurant in Sunnyvale, STC Silicon Valley chapter held its Winter Schmooze. Remember to renew your membership!
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
December 17th, 2009
Zero Decade: GPS
This is part of a series about the first decade of the twenty-first century, also known as the Zero Decade or zerodec. Text from DJCline.com.
Ten years ago, I used printed maps and atlases to find my way around.The biggest advance were maps broken up into laminated plastic sections so they would hold up longer.
I started using CD-ROM maps but they constantly needed updating. MapQuest and then GoogleMaps made it easy to find and print a route and location. I loved seeing aerial views and then street views of any place I might visit ahead of time.
Global Positioning Systems (GPS) were soon available with better displays and digital voices that would tell you where to turn. One problem I had was that they did not hold up well in a hot car. Another was their crazy route selections. I kept my old maps in the glove compartment.
GPS is improving but suffers the same fate as photography. It is becoming just another a feature on cell phones, one I avoid. While it might be nice to know where I am and where the nearest gas station is, I’m not sure everyone else needs to know. Until they work out the details, I’ll keep my old maps in the glove compartment. Text from DJCline.com.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 2:21 PM PST []
December 16th, 2009
Zero Decade: Photography
This is part of a series about the first decade of the twenty-first century, also known as the Zero Decade or zerodec. Text from DJCline.com.
Photography
Ten years ago I was still using film. I tend toward small simple cameras and my workhorse was an old school Minolta 101. You could get parts and service for it anywhere in the world. It acted a little wonky in below zero temperatures but it did the job.
For social occasions I used the last generation of small automatics by Canon or Olympus. What people don’t remember was the time and equipment it took to process film. Setting up even a small black and white darkroom was an ordeal and color processing required a machine the size of a car. It took an hour to process a roll of 36 pictures. If you wanted the picture online you had to scan it in and it looked like it had been shoved through cheesecloth.
The need for speed drove me to digital. I had been using digital cameras since the 1980s, but was not impressed with their resolution. The Sony Mavica had a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels or roughly half a megapixel. The images were used for websites with tight deadlines. I’d take the pictures, take out the floppy disk, put it in my laptop and use my dial-up connection to upload the picture. It still took forever.
That was considered state of the art until the Canon PowerShot series. In ten years I’ve gone from one megapixel to twelve. People argue about the resolution but I can read a nametag from across a room or pick individual trees off a mountainside. I still upload with a laptop and a wireless connection. It still takes forever but the images are glorious.
The future? Cameras are moving from a separate dedicated device to just a feature on a cell phone. Like early digital cameras, the images are poor quality but it is faster to upload and distribute images. This turns everybody into a reporter. I still cannot get over the picture earlier this year from a demonstration in Iran. A man pointed a gun at woman. She pointed a phone at him and uploaded the picture. That is power of technology. That is something you could not do ten years ago.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 4:57 PM PST []
December 15th, 2009
AT&T iPhone Problem Nailed
On Saturday December 12, 2009 Daniel Lyons (AKA Fake Steve Jobs) nailed the problems Apple’s headaches with AT&T over the iPhone. I must warn you that he uses strong language but he said what has been on the minds of many people about this problem and the larger issues around it. I’ve had trouble clicking on the site at this link: Text from DJCline.com.
http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/12/a-not-so-brief-chat-with-randall-stephenson-of-att.html
If you can’t go to it, the text is below. If they give out a Pulitzer Prize for this, it is time to hand it to Lyons.
A not-so-brief chat with Randall Stephenson of AT&T
By Daniel Lyons (the Fake Steve Jobs)
So we set up a call with Randall this morning to discuss some of the profoundly stupid things his guy Ralph de la Vega said recently about creating incentives that would encourage people to stop using AT&T’s data network so much. Point of the talk was, when you’re lucky enough to create a smash hit product — when the stars align, and the hardware is great and the ecosystem is great and the apps are great and the whole experience is great, and everything you do just makes everything else better, and you’re totally on a roll and can do no wrong — when that happens, you do not go out and try to fuck it all up by discouraging people who love your product. What you do, instead, is you fix your fucking shitty ass network you fucking shit-eating-grin-wearing hillbilly ass clown!
First off, before we even start the call, we’ve got problems, because shithead won’t get on the phone unless I’m on the line first. Like, Ja’Red comes in and says we’re ready to go, and I go, You mean Randall is on the line, and Ja’Red says, No, his assistant is on the line and once you get on then they’re going to get Randall — so I reach down, hit the button then hit it again so the call gets terminated. I tell Ja’Red to explain to these motherfuckers that Steve Jobs does not get on the line first, ever. Ja’Red does this, but Randall’s assistant insists Randall always gets on last, and especially so in this case since AT&T is about three times the size of Apple, so this time I pick up the phone and tell the assistant that he should inform Randall that when he’s ready to get his pointy head out of his ass and call me, I’ll be here waiting for his call.
So fine. We wait a bit, and he calls. He doesn’t say anything about the standoff, but I can tell he’s pissed, which is fine by me. He launches into a mumbling spiel about how Ralph de la Vega didn’t really say what all the papers are saying he said, and he was misquoted, and it was taken out of context, but I’m like, Bitch, please, guys at our level don’t get taken out of context, we write the shit out in advance and we know exactly what we’re saying when we say it and every goddamn word has been vetted and gone over by a team of flacks. So please don’t sit there like a zoo monkey throwing your own feces at me through the bars of your cage, bokay?
Then I go, Look, Randall, you’re how old — about 50? He says he’s 49. I go, Okay, so you were born in 1960, so maybe you don’t remember Meet the Beatles. Or do you? Do you remember that album? Did they have record players out there in Arkansas?
He goes, I’m from Oklahoma, and I’m like, Yeah, same thing, so anyway did you know that album? Were you aware of it? Came out in the beginning of 1964. The one with the four guys in black and white, half their faces white, half in shadow? Just four faces against a black backdrop? He says he’s familiar with the album but he thought we were getting on the phone to talk about incentivizing heavy users in order to optimize the network resources blah blah and I’m like, Dude, if you ever use the word incentivize around me again I swear I will get in my Gulfstream and fly to wherever you are and I will smash you in the face with a rock.
He sighs and says, Okay. I’m like, I’m sorry, what did you say? He says, Okay. I go, I’m sorry, but I can’t hear you. What did you say? He goes, YES! and I go, That’s better. But back to the Beatles. Now, the thing about that album was, on the day it hit the U.S. the whole world changed. Like, before that day, the world was one way, music was one way, culture was one way — and then after that day the world was never the same ever again, and as soon as you heard that album you knew that, and even if you were only nine years old, which I was, you just knew. You knew. Sales were crazy. I mean nuts. The thing was a huge smash hit. By April, twelve weeks after that album came out, the Beatles had the top five spots on the Billboard chart.
Now there was a lot of demand for that record — so much that the plant that printed the records could not keep up. Now here’s the lesson. Do you think the guys who were running Capitol Records said, Gee whiz, the kids are buying up this record at such a crazy pace that our printing plant can’t keep up — we’d better find a way to slow things down. Maybe we can create an incentive that would discourage people from buying the record. Do you think they said that? No, they did not. What they did was, they went out and found another printing plant. And another one and another one, until they could make as many records as people wanted.
Randall is like, Okay, I get your point. I’m like, You know what, I don’t think you do, because if you did, we wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation, would we? I mean if you did understand how to do things, your guys wouldn’t be standing up at Wall Street conferences and complaining about how much traffic you’re getting. Instead, you would be running around like a fucking maniac trying to build out your fucking network and make it the best network in the world — and the only reason you would ever need to talk to me would be to thank me for creating a phone that’s so amazing that it draws people to your shit network in the first place.
Randall, baby. we’ve got a hit on our hands. We’ve got the smartphone equivalent of Meet the Beatles. It’s not like that album was the first rock album ever. It’s not like nobody ever made a band with some guitars and drums before. But it was radical. It was new. They took old forms and made them new. Same with us. We didn’t invent the smartphone or the PDA or the music player or the Web browser. We just made them better. We made them new. We changed the fucking world, Randall.
And when I say that “we” have a hit on our hands, I’m really giving you way too much credit, because let’s be honest, the success of iPhone has nothing to do with you. In fact, iPhone is a smash hit in spite of your network, not because of it. That’s how good we are here at Apple — we’re so good that even you and your team of Bell System frigtards can’t stop us. You know what it’s like being your business partner? It’s like trying to swim the English Channel with a boat anchor tied to my legs. And yes, in case you’re not following me, in that analogy, you, my friend, are the fucking boat anchor.
So let’s talk traffic. We’ve got people who love this goddamn phone so much that they’re living on it. Yes, that’s crushing your network. Yes, 3% of your users are taking up 40% of your bandwidth. You see this as a bad thing. It’s not. It’s a good thing. It’s a blessing. It’s an indication that people love what we’re doing, which means you now have a reason to go out and double or triple or quadruple your damn network capacity. Jesus! I can’t believe I’m explaining this to you. You’re in the business of selling bandwidth. That pipe is what you sell. Right now what the market is telling you is that you can sell even more! Lots more! Good Lord. The world is changing, and you’re right in the sweet spot.
While I’m ranting, let me ask you something, Randall. At the risk of sounding like Glenn Beck Jr. — what the fuck has gone wrong with our country? Used to be, we were innovators. We were leaders. We were builders. We were engineers. We were the best and brightest. We were the kind of guys who, if they were running the biggest mobile network in the U.S., would say it’s not enough to be the biggest, we also want to be the best, and once they got to be the best, they’d say, How can we get even better? What can we do to be the best in the whole fucking world? What can we do that would blow people’s fucking minds? They wouldn’t have sat around wondering about ways to fuck over people who loved their product. But then something happened. Guys like you took over the phone company and all you cared about was milking profit and paying off assholes in Congress to fuck over anyone who came along with a better idea, because even though it might be great for consumers it would mean you and your lazy pals would have to get off your asses and start working again in order to keep up.
And not just you. Look at Big Three automakers. Same deal. Lazy, fat, slow, stupid, from the top to the bottom — everyone focused on just getting what they can in the short run and who cares what kind of piece of shit product we’re putting out. Then somehow along the way the evil motherfuckers on Wall Street got involved and became everyone’s enabler, devoting all their energy and brainpower to breaking things up and parceling them out and selling them off in pieces and then putting them back together again, and it was all about taking all this great shit that our predecessors had built and “unlocking value” which really meant finding ways to leech out whatever bit of money they could get in the short run and let the future be damned. It was all just one big swindle, and the only kind of engineering that matters anymore is financial engineering.
And now here we are. Right here in your own backyard, an American company creates a brilliant phone, and that company hands it to you, and gives you an exclusive deal to carry it — and all you guys can do is complain about how much people want to use it. You, Randall Stephenson, and your lazy stupid company — you are the problem. You are what’s wrong with this country.
I stopped, then. There was nothing on the line. Silence. I said, Randall? He goes, Yeah, I’m here. I said, Does any of that make sense? He says, Yeah, but we’re still not going to do it. See, when you run the numbers what you find is that we’re actually better off running a shitty network than making the investment to build a good one. It’s just numbers, Steve. You can’t charge enough to get a return on the investment.
Now there was silence again. This time I was the one not talking. There was this weird lump in my throat, this tightness in my chest. I had this vision of the future — a ruined empire, run by number crunchers, squalid and stupid and puffed up with phony patriotism, settling for a long slow decline.
“Okay,” I said. “Nice talking to you.” Then I hung up.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
Posted by dj as Commentary at 4:06 PM PST []
December 14th, 2009
Dec. 14, 2009 STC Todd Hawley Wordpress Reviews
The November 2009 Journal of the Society for Technical Communication features a review of Wordpress books by STC Silicon Valley Web Manager Todd Hawley. He does a great job of finding resources for anyone working with Wordpress blogging on a daily basis. If you are not an STC member, knowing someone with the expertise of Todd Hawley is what makes joining worthwhile. Text from DJCline.com.
BTW: I have renewed my membership in STC. I encourage helping organizations that help others.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved.
December 13th, 2009
Dec. 13, 2009 Blumbers
Zero Decade: Newspapers
This is part of a series about the first decade of the twenty-first century, also known as the Zero Decade or zerodec. Text from DJCline.com.
When was the last time you bought a newspaper? There has been quite a bit of sturm and drang about newspapers going out of business because of the internet. They should remember that papers were in trouble when radios first came out and then television.
Frankly there are user interface issues with papers. The display is not backlit. You can’t do a keyword search. Copying and pasting requires actual scissors. Storage and retrieval can be a fire hazard. There is the environmental irony of killing trees to write about deforestation. Covering the paper with toxic chemicals, loading it on trucks and tossing it on your lawn is not an eco-friendly or even efficient way to distribute information.
People act like every Picayune Daily News is the New York Times paper of record for a town. Maybe they are right. I can pick up a paper and tell who the major advertisers are. That will tell me I will never see a story about crooked real estate developers or car salesmen in between ads for houses or cars. There are inevitable conflicts between content and advertising. Newspaper barons used to say that if it didn’t sell it wasn’t news.
The best stories are always covered about your town from another town because there is less conflict of interest. The concern is that there were will be fewer papers available to be that second opinion in a democracy. They don’t realize that the internet allows millions of second opinions. The power of the press no longer belongs to someone who can afford a printing press. It belongs to anyone with a phone.
I’m running into lots of good journalists looking for jobs. Just because newspapers go away does not mean the news does too. If they can find a story they can find work.
Copyright 2009 DJ Cline All rights reserved
Posted by dj as Blumbers, Commentary at 4:54 PM PST []