Both Microsoft *and* Intel Screwed You on Vista

It wasn't only MS that benefited from the "Vista Capable" logo program by encouraging sales of obsolete PC hardware, it was also Intel. MS' decision to water-down the minimum acceptable graphics solely benefited Intel among the PC hardware vendors. I won't belabor the obvious about how decisions that favor one supplier come at your expense in some way. This seems like a cartel if you ask me. The US government needs to do something about it.

It also appears nVidia and AMD(ATI) were royally screwed by what appears to be collusive behavior on the part of Intel and MS. Don't believe it?

Read this: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/library/vistaone3046.pdf

• On 30 Jan 2006 Will Poole (MS VP) reports that Renee James (Intel VP) asked MS to delay releasing the upgrade advisor until June. Why does Intel want to delay until June? Is it legal for Intel to make such a request? It smells so much like collusion and cartel behavior (all quite illegal in the US).

• On 31 Jan 2006 Mike Ybarra (MS) comments on the unhappiness at HP because HP made graphics roadmap choices on the basis of an MS commit that MS would not give in to Intel pressure. I wonder what decisions (if any) were changed and favored Intel as an end-result?

• Also on 31 Jan 2006 Poole reports Intel leaked the change in advance of any joint communications, violating some agreement that he and Renee made. “Joint communications??? An agreement on same???” wtf? I wonder where one company begins and the other ends. An agreement for some sort of joint communication here looks awfully fishy. What was the point of Intel “leaking” this very sensitive information about another company’s product? And who did Intel “leak” this to?

• On 1 Feb 2006 Ybarra laments how MS is caving to Intel and how HP got burned. Not a word about the graphics “partners” they screwed or AMD. The poor saps.

• Amusingly on 18 Feb 2007 Jon Shirley makes a candid comment to Steve Ballmer, Ballmer dings Shirley (read between the lines), and Shirley responds with a complete sucking-up to the boss email. Lol. Dilbert.

Global Warming or Not?

Do you believe Al Gore? Or anyone else who says the sky is falling? I don't. I don't think they really know diddly-squat about what is going to happen in the future. Or course I don't believe those say there is no such thing as global warming either. They are as equally ignorant about the future. But then what do I believe?

I believe in what I was taught in the Boy Scouts so long ago. Something about leaving the campground in better condition than you found it in.

My question to my fellow citizens is this: how are you treating your campground? When you move on to camp somewhere else, will the campground be better for your having been there? We should do everything we can to make the campground better. And pointing our fingers at the messy campers next door (i.e. the Chinese or Indians) is no excuse for doing nothing. There are ways to hold them accountable in our economy and encourage good behavior towards the campgrounds.

Iraq and the True Conservative

I view myself as a Conservative in the true sense of conserving what is good in our society and our world. What's going on today isn't conserving anything, it's just destroying many things. Take Iraq for example.

What are we going to get for spending the lives of our fellow citizens? More security? That only happens if we succeed nearly 100%. The odds don't seem so good. I am not much in favor of out-and-out withdrawal, but putting more meat into the meat-grinder seems to be the worse course. The "small victories" we see today are the result of the various insurgents groups going to ground, and as soon as our boys move to another neighborhood, all the badness will be back. We can't afford to put enough troops into Iraq long enough to make these groups forget how much they hate each other. Look at Saddam. He crushed just about everyone for 20+ years and they still hate each other.

Various folks say, " look - Saddam who was a bad guy had peace for 20+ years, so we good guys can do better than that." They are wrong. Saddam was willing to be unconscionably brutal to create his peace. We are handicapped by our own morality for the most part, and consequently cannot terrorize everyone, or even play favorites with one group, such as the Kurds or Shiites. It would take us more troops than Saddam ever had and for a longer period.

Iraq is just a waste of our fellow citizens lives, because we will never be willing to expend what it takes to win. And what do we do in the meanwhile? Start tearing apart and polarizing our society much as we did forty years ago (unfortunately the Vietnam analogy seems more and more apropos).

We need to conserve our society and be judicious spending our soldiers lives. Iraq was and is a mistake. It's time to move on and withdraw because there is no alternative.

Why "Cursus honorum"

Blogging is a way for every citizen to make his/her voice heard, and thus blogging is a step in the "Cursus honorum" for every American citizen. Is the progression fixed as it was for Romans? Not really, but I can think of steps that every good American citizen should take:

• Any citizen who can write and has access to a computer can publish a blog. There is no excuse for not writing one - most public libraries have user-acessable computers.
• Citizens of voting age should be registered, so that they are available to participate in the third branch of our government (as jurors dispensing justice to our fellow citizens.
• Citizens should vote. If there is anything we can learn from the last seven years (2000-2006 inclusive), it is that every vote does count.
• Citizens should regularly write their elected representatives, even if they come from a politcal persuasion you don't agree with. Remember that most folks in elected offices are politicians first, members of a party second. They want your votes and will listen to the will of the people for the most part.
• Make your views publicly known, by letters to the editor of your local newspaper and blogging. I favor blogging, because editors will only publish a small fraction of submissions, and by nature letters to the editor are censored (another Roman term), if not for content, at least in the process of selection.
  
• Citizens should volunteer for some form of public service. It can be anywhere, from military service to a local church group. Paying your taxes is not sufficient for being a good citizen.
  

Every good citizen can do more than the minimum. The Cursus honorum I suggest here is the road to a better tomorrow for us all. If I am missing a step, please suggest it to me.