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Michael Boyle's weblog

So not much

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writing today. I’ve been finishing a long net research thing at work, though I did come home to work on it. So I could play around on this new machine, mostly.

The observant will notice it’s not the most recent generation – it’s a couple months older – which is cool, cause it was a bargoon. But I got the stinking hockey puck mouse, not the new optical mouse. I lasted one day with the damn thing – and picked up a Logitech wheel mouse to replace it. I think it’s better than the Apple mouse – I’m used to two buttons and use contextual menus all the time when I have one (like at work).

I’m sure that’s more detail than anyone needs about my computer hardware situation… but it’s already got me thinking of things I’d avoided doing just cause it took so much longer before!

OK, before I get going

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to work this morning, I just came across the strangest thing on the Macwarehouse Canada site. A little deconstruction is in order.

  • Apple Canada’s current e-commerce regulations prohibit any Apple authorized reseller to sell Apple product on-line through the Internet. As a strategic partner of Apple Canada, we support that position and will continue to follow their strategy.
    This might as well read, “OK, Apple just fucked us, but we’re gonna suck up anyhow cause we’re getting rich off catalog sales.”
  • Micro Warehouse has decided that this restriction should not be a factor in collecting important information from our customers.
    “We still want to invade your privacy though kids, so we’re going to datamine you for all you’re worth, which frankly might not be much but hey, this is e-commerce, baby!”
  • We have developed the following program that supports Apple Canada’s e-commerce strategy and benefits the customer.
    “We have developed the following BS so we can nominally support their screwed-up policy while selling you, dear customer, down the river.”
  • A value add feature has been added to all Apple product on our website.
    “Look at how great we are at using pass buzzwords like ‘value add’! Boy are we ever smart! We can suck up to Apple AND trash their policies in one fell swoop!”

Boring news of the day (II)

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OK – this isn’t news today. But this whole Microsoft dot-NET thing – uh, a bit behind, aren’t they? I think it’s bs masquerading as a strategy. Let me repeat – I think it’s total bs – everything about it. It’s ONLY there so that if the Supremes do break them up, they can “legitimately” say, “well, see, we had this whole revolutionary strategy, but you bastards in gov’t won’t let us do it so it’s all your fault”. They’re simply trying to up the ante a little bit – or a lot – to make it harder for the Supreme court to uphold Judge Jackson’s decision.

That might sound cynical, but it’s not – it’s simply realistic. Two things. One, if MS wanted to make this work in “the MS way”, even a little bit, their actions would make the stuff that’s already been ruled illegal look like jaywalking. That’s why everyone else is having so much trouble in this space – it’s a very delicate thing to get a system like dot-NET working. Second – everyone else is already there. Netscape/AOL – been there for a year or more. Sun – been there for years, spent hundreds of millions already (can you say ‘Jini’?). Nokia/Motorola/Ericsson/etc – they’re there already, taking baby steps. Apple is there, in a way. WAP is there. Userland (and particularly Dave Winer) is there, and has been for ages. IPv6 – something like dot-NET is precisely what it’s about – only more ambitious, more open, and maybe even more realistic. Oh – don’t forget Loudcloud, Andreeson’s new-ish project – which definitely treads on similar ground.

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