.:: a few thoughts on the subject by rob wright ::.

Watch what you say when you’re talking to a true geek. Nice work Jeff Bonwick.

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py2exe- convert python scripts into standalone windows programs

Sweet!

(first saw this on andrew grummet’s weblog)

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Okay, so it’s not exactly the signature Chicago font, but isn’t the combo box in this banner add from Mac OS 9? I love it when the marketing guys mix the new and the old…like all those magazine adds that include the OS 9 browser…cutting edge.

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Linux News: Commentary: Macs Are More Expensive, Right?
At the low end, therefore, the PC desktops are marginally less expensive than the Macs — if you can do without their connectivity and multimedia capabilities — and considerably more expensive if you can’t. At the very high end, however, all of the design focus is on multimedia processing and the PCs simply aren’t competitive from either hardware or cost perspectives.

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I really like Jonathan Schwartz’s blog. I know that it’s a marketing tool, but it’s nice to think you know what he’s thinking…plus blogging is in vogue. I also think that Sun is a very forward thinking company.

Now utility computing is nothing new, but I was surprised when I listened to a September, 2003 talk by Jim Gray on IT Conversations. He and his team at Microsoft produced a paper, Distributed Computing Economics, on the cost of a distributed computing model. Here’s a clip. One of his conclusions is

Put the computation near the data . The recurrent theme of this analysis is that “On Demand” computing is only economical for very cpu-intensive (100,000 instructions per byte or a cpu-day -per gigabyte of network traffic) applications….

…If telecom prices drop faster than Moore’s law, the analysis fails. If telecom prices drop slower than Moore’s law, the analysis becomes stronger. Most of the argument in this paper pivots on the relatively high price of telecommunications. Over the last 40 years telecom prices have fallen much more slowly than any other information technology. If this situation changed, it could completely alter
the arguments here. But there is no obvious sign of that occurring.

So based on his recent N1 annoucement, is Jonathan Schwartz listening to Jim Gray? It seems that render farms would meet the instruction limits that Gray sets, but Wall Street? Has bandwidth dropped such that it is affordable for Wall Street to purchase CPU time by the hour? Should be interesting.

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Fast Company - “Management thinker Douglas Smith says that our churches, schools, and neighborhoods no longer define our values. Instead, corporations do.”

I read this article just a few days before I had to take my companies “Messages and Core Values” class. (My guess is the whole thing is post-Enron reactionism.) It bothers me that my coworkers will hear definitions of respect, trust, and integrity outside of God’s word. It makes me wonder if we are moving out of post-modernism into a “corporate world and life view” that means something other than the stereotypical capitalist greed.

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More on Google’s development strategy by the NY Post and slashdot. I like speculation, but the fact is, Google just likes to hire smart people.

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From a GeorgeWBush.com email:

Starting today, you can request your ballot by mail, and soon you can cast an early ballot at early vote locations in your area. If you’re going to be busy on November 2nd, I encourage you to take this opportunity and vote early. There’s even a special page on our campaign website to make the process easier.

www.GeorgeWBush.com/VoteEarly

Using this link, you can get your Absentee/By Mail ballot request or find a list of early voting locations near you. By casting your vote early, you can avoid lines at the polls on Election Day and still be sure your voice is heard in this important election.

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The Washington Post has a good article on Bob Shrum and his attempt to win with a demoncratic presidential candidate…he’s 0 for 7. Keep up the good work Bob.

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I’ve been disgusted with the Verizon phone selection for a long time now. In particular I wanted a phone with bluetooth. So, I decided to make the switch to Cingular. I chose Cingular because they are a large GSM carrier…and I like the orange cingular guy. I chose the Sony Ericson T637 phone and purchased it at amazon.com, which had a great rebate so that in the end the phone was free. (Note: even if you pay $99 for this phone, it’s hard to beat.) The T637 was really cool. I liked the size and feel. The camera could have been better. The bluetooth option was really nice. I flipped when I used BluePhoneMenu on my mac with the phone. Also seemless syncing of contacts and calendar with iSync.

The move to Cingular was a big step. I have been a Verizon customer for +2 years and everyone I knew used Verizon so I was going to loose all those mobile-to-mobile in-network minutes. Also, the Verizon coverage is great. This year I’ve been in NY, LA, San Francisco, all through NC, ATL, SW AL and and NW FL and haven’t had any problems. But I had to have bluetooth.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go well. With the new phone, I could walk 10 ft into my office and completely loose all reception…nothing…not 0.1 bar. Which meant that the phone is completely usesless in my office and at my desk. So I had no choice but to return to Verizon…withouth bluetooth.

Okay, so I know that Verizon carries the Motorola V710, but it doesn’t have all the standard bluetooth features. There has been a lot said about Verizon crippling bluetooth in the V710; and I’m a voice in that choir. But I have to say that from a pure financial perspective, why would Verizon enable such a feature. It is pretty clear that a big part of their audience is business users, most of which don’t care about bluetooth. So to continue to maximize the revenue in their portion of the value chain (ala The Innovators Solution), Verizon is probably doing the right thing. They have no incentive to use an open interface…regardless it sucks.

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