Monday, October 21, 2002

Inflation threatens EverQuest economy. A loophole in online game EverQuest is in danger of undermining its economy. [BBC News | TECHNOLOGY] heh. How can you not giggle at this?
10:42:04 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

$40 billion, but nothing for the shareholders Dan Gillmor posts about Microsoft's latest financials, pointing out that the company is now sitting on a $40 billion cash hoard. What most companies do when they are making as much money as Microsoft does these days is distribute some of those profits to shareholders in the form of dividends. But like most technology companies, Microsoft has never much believed in dividends. (Technology companies typically see themselves as "growth" companies that need to reinvest all their profits in the business.) Gillmor says this is because Gates and other key Microsoft owners don't want to deal with the tax implications of dividends given the size of their holdings. Maybe -- I can't say I'm an expert on tax management for billionaires, never having had such worries. But I also think the Microsoft hoarding instinct is a weird function of the company's ingrained, perpetual paranoia. As numerous insider accounts and much testimony at the antritrust trial have shown, Microsoft's culture imbues employees with the sense that disaster is always around the corner -- if they make one misstep, the competition will eat their lunch. This paranoia is a sort of management tool, to be sure, but it's also an attitude that emanates directly from the company's leadership. Microsoft is hanging on to its $40 billion because, hey, who knows how much money it might need when the next big seismic shift in the technological landscape threatens to unseat its monopoly? Think of that $40 billion as one big Windows replacement fund. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment] I know I've been annoyed about Cisco's massive cash hoard (somewhere around $20 billion, I believe) - it's just sitting there while the Powers That Be are saying they can't give raises, they can't hire to fill needed low-level positions...but when I look at it in the same light that Scott brings up here, it makes sense - Cisco's not going to come up with the Next Big Thing in routing. We're too big and bloated to do that. But with that much cash in the bank, we can buy the Next Big Thing before it gets Big. I still want a raise, though. =)

10:06:40 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Mitch Kapor's open source PIM to use wxPython. Mitch Kapor's Open Source Applications Foundation has emerged into blogspace, where Mitch says he'll chronicle its progress. The first project: a powerful, easy-to-use personal information manager for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Mitch writes: ... [Jon's Radio] I take note of this only 'cos Mitch is one of my tech heroes - he made a lot of money from some good ideas and good implementations, and then gave a lot of his time and money towards the cause of freedom on the 'net, in the form of the EFF. If I ever manage to get rich (ha!), I hope I find as good a cause to support.

9:31:20 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Uhoh- I think my brain has completely melted. I'm watching wrestling again. And it's not like we're talking about Benoit, the Guerreros, Angle, Mysterio, or Edge - we're talking about Raw, with the crap. I feel very low and pathetic. =)
9:03:35 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

US sees peaceful N Korea disarmament. President George W Bush says he believes the communist state can be stripped of its nuclear weapons programme peacefully. [BBC News | WORLD] That better be true - because an attempt to strip 'em of their nukes through non-peaceful means is likely to lead to them, well, USING them. Reason #1 we're going to war with Iraq and NOT North Korea - North Korea can fight back.

8:49:34 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Futurist finds little 'deviance' in Harvard Square. Boston Globe Oct 20 2002 1:02PM ET [Moreover - Boston news] Interesting article - it's dead on with its description of Harvard Square. When I was a teenager, it was still pretty bizarre - the homogenization hadn't struck yet. Now it's just another urban shopping district, admittedly one with a few cool things hidden away in the corners. For me, the defining moment was when the always-strange-and-frightening-looking German pub/restaurant got replaced with a friggin' Abercrombie and Fitch or some such. You can't be weird and have an Abercrombie and Fitch - they're mutually exclusive.

8:46:41 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Bush Sees Little Hope That Hussein Will Disarm [New York Times: International News] ...of course, Bush also believes in the Tooth Fairy. Why do we have to treat this moron's word as something important?
8:40:36 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Wired News: Professor's Case: Unlock Crypto. At stake: the last remnants of a system that once prevented U.S. citizens from releasing software code that creates secure, electronic communications. Bernstein is trying to eradicate the last of the export laws that previously kept Americans from distributing any work related to cryptography. [Tomalak's Realm] We're actually having to jump through some hoops at work right now with this - outsourcing our code to India. The code contains some 128 bit encryption that leads us to going through some fun bureaucratic bullshit to get it done. I love my job sometimes, really I do.

8:38:33 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Wow - I've been A.W.O.L. for four days. Been busy - work, going out to Northampton, work again, and work one more time. Let's see what's sittin' in the aggregator...
8:31:41 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []