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Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
It's been a month since my last entry! The infamous "Corporate Val" consumed me. I also bought a new car that distracted me sufficiently to consume any remaining free time. Now that things have settled down, here's a catch up entry.
Politics
This topic is inevitable these days. The conventions and debates are over and elections are just a few weeks away. At this point, I don't see much happening to change people's minds. You either believe preemptive war is necessary to keep us safe, tax cuts are necessary to stimulate the economy, and forfeiting civil rights is necesary to catch "evil doers" - or you don't. Here's a quick passionate version of the "you don't" perspective, and here's an open letter that sums it up very well. Despite dismal approval ratings the most honest attempt at an accurate predective poll I've seen still predicts Bush the winner. I agree with Mackenab's bold prediction - GWB is in big trouble.
The polls reflect a lot of bad faith. The dichotomy between approval polls and voting polls gives it away - people don't think Bush is doing a good job but feel compelled to support him. Economists call this the sunk costs fallacy, psychologists call it self-deception. The very fact that Bush is the president creates the self-deception - voters don't want to believe they elected a crusading ingoramous and contributed to the mess we're in. The motivation for self-deception dries up on election day because on that day it becomes conceivable to the self-deceptors that Bush isn't the president. And Kerry will win big as a result. John Scalzi even has a handy poll to help you determine if you're a self-deceiver.
Technology
Yoper Linux
I tried Yoper out on an old laptop and it made the machine useful once again. It fills an intersting niche in the Linux world - a highly optimized, fast, and slim distro without all the hassle of selecting and compiling packages.
Crippled Windows
Microsoft is now selling XP Started Edition in Russia and other countries with populations less capable of paying. For a long time MS maintained a one world, one price policy but with the threat of linux in these emerging markets they been forced to reconsider. To keep full price customers from complaining, they crippled the cut rate version - no home networking and you can only run three programs at once. It might sell in some situations, but for the most part I think consumers in the selected countries when faced with crippled windows at a low price, pirated full windows at a low low price, or linux at a low low low price will choose either the pirated copy of windows or linux (depending on how credible they perceive the threat of getting busted for the pirated windows).
Google me up!
Two great new services from Google, SMS and Desktop. I've tried them both and just like the original Google web search I can't imagine how I lived without them.
Mega Hit or Mega Niche?
Great article about the future of entertainment (hint, it doesn't involve suing customers!).
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