Posts by Gerard Allwein

Greenpeace pushes Ballmer to intervene on climate

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I think if we could encourage Ballmer to reduce his methane production, it would really save the planet.

Excess of cola floors Oz ostrich farmer

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I think in terms of jubs, that would be approximately two...if we're judging by Bunny Gamazon, the Big Texan.

US parkies in 'burrow-buster' marmot detonation campaign

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On this side of the pond, we'd call them ground hogs or woodchucks. They can be naughty little critters and very industrious.

Apple Mac Mini (Early 2009)

just for the record

On Apple's site, you can configure the higher model to 4 GB internal.

Microsoft woos open sourcers with Visual Studio 2010

Sure

Just as soon as Microsoft opens Visual Studio. No open, no dice.

Gerry

Microsoft signs Telstra mobile services deal

We're Sorry

To the Aussies, we're terribly sorry about this, please accept our condolences.

What have we learned about managing outsourcing?

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Outsourcing will be a good idea when management decides they themselves should be outsourced "to improve the shareholder value" or whatever other buzzphrase of the week is hot among Business School Product.

Gerry

ISO rejects Office Open XML appeal (redux)

why there was the need for the standard

The need for a standard was so that documents written now can be read far into the future. The author of the article simple hasn't yet has his governmental records of his life written in some arcane format that doesn't need accessing until he retires. And when the government goes to get them, he won't exist. That's the problem. That's why having a standard is important. Well, to lose the author's records would probably be a blessing since he doesn't appear to need them anymore.

Gerry

Windfall taxing big oil: how to make the gas crisis worse

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The key to Obama making those silly promises is to follow the money (big suprise). Suppose the man gets elected and manages to pass his windfall profits tax and gets to spend the money on giving away $1000 to every family (no doubt not any "rich" families), then he gets a down payment on the next election by (1) claiming to do something for "American families" (all hail the American family, family values, apple pie, etc.), (2) solving the energy crisis (a politician doesn't have to actually fix anything before claiming s/he's fixed it), (3) smacking those big bad oil companies that are constantly spraying cute birdies and fishies with oil, (4) skimming off any excess (after the $1000 giveaway) to piss off on socially conscious, enviro-friendly, cause de jour of the whiny political class.

Gerry

Hackintosh maker gets legal greeting from Apple

Apple vs Crapshoot

It is amazing how many people wish Apple to relinquish a tried and proven business plan for the crapshoot of selling their OS so that a few jokers can run it on their generic PCs. Let's list some of the reasons why this is a bad idea:

1. Generic PCs are buggy and Apple would have to spend enormous resources to cover all these wonderful architectures.

2. Microsoft have the PC makers in their back pocket so Apple won't be allowed to strike any deals with them.

3. Most people do not want to run OS X, just a few jokers who have Jobs-Envy.

4. Microsoft survives by being a software company that sell much more malware than just a crappy OS, it has taken them years, but somehow Apple is supposed to drop its pants and sell only an OS and people, who have barely the wit to find the Start button, are going to buy OS X and flush the rest of their software apps down the toilet. Brilliant!

Gerry