Virtual, but permanent.
The story is dated, but timeless. The acts described in it are unforgettable, yet frequently forgotten. As of this writing, the crime remains unsolved, and the motive remains the subject of speculation. In as much, one is left with the impression that these unforgivable acts are somehow condoned or tolerated.
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Considering the number of innovative, pioneering corporations that have fallen by the way side or disappeared in the rapidly evolving technology sector–names like Digital Equipment Company, Netscape Communications, and Sun Microsystems–one comes face to face with the fundamental question regarding the means by which the marketplace values innovation; or, perhaps, how the marketplace often fails to value innovation.
Silicon Graphics was a multibillion dollar corporation at its peak. It revolutionized the rendering of graphics by computers. It pioneered the application of massive parallel processing in server farms to establish computer animation as a means of “shooting” motion picture. Yet, like DEC, it has been bought for a pittance. The mighty Goliath of graphical processing was gobbled up for a measly $20 million. Just as DEC was carved up piece by piece before being purchased outright by Compaq in 1998, SGI has met its final demise in Rackable Systems.
Will SGI meet a better fate than DEC? Many of DEC’s technologies are still alive in many other products, even though Compaq itself ceased to exist after failing to capitalize on any of DEC’s remarkable technological expertise.
So, does the marketplace reward innovation? Pioneering companies like Netscape, Sun, SGI, DEC and many others are all dead after succumbing primarily to the Wintel (Windows + Intel) monopoly and secondarily to the Linux and the free software revolution. Even Apple’s recent success has come on the heels of its total abandonment of proprietary hardware in favor of the Wintel monopoly. (I run Windows on my Mac via Parallels.) Although conformity to standards is crucial to delivering value to the consumer, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence that the standards arise or evolve from innovation. The companies that innovate seem to be getting slammed in the marketplace by the bullies with the marketshare and the advertising dollars.
What incentive is there, then, to innovate? If the ultimate outcome is either selling out to a (hopefully) high bidder as an alternative to getting absolutely clobbered by the same bidder, what incentive is there for the someone to start the next SGI or the next Netscape or the next Sun Microsystems? If the only hope for survival is to become huge as Google did in a matter of a few years, then we can be assured of a marketplace devoid of innovation for some time to come because no specter of such a colossus is visible anywhere on the horizon.
The only certainty is that the creative atmosphere that allowed so many giants like SGI, Apple, DEC, 3Com, Netscape, Commodore, and countless others to arise out of pure inspiration is gone. The evaporation of the environment that nurtured creativity and innovation has far reaching consequences for the economy, of course. Its short term manifestation is the death of Venture Capital.
Fusion tests set at new Livermore facility.
This will be awesome. Finally, big science returns to the US.
Whether this leads to fusion as source of energy or not, cool data is guaranteed.
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Senate GOP leader: Party must explain core values
Yes, Mr. McConnell is right. The GOP must explain its core values to everyone because after 12 years of exercising nearly absolute power in the United States government, not a soul among America’s nearly 300 million people can discern anything that may conform to the denotation or any connotation of the word “value” in the Republican Party’s platform, its legislative achievements or its military ambitions.
Considering the fact that Republican rule has resulted in a mangled global economy, unbridled corruption in corporate and government affairs, two failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and thousands of deaths, an apology might be more appropriate, for it is difficult to imagine any rational explanation for it all.
A fishing expedition for “values” is not likely to generate any love for the GOP. The GOP may never understand the limitations that sophistry and political correctness impose upon the wielding of power.
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BBC NEWS | Africa | Kenyan sues over sex ban ‘stress’
Perhaps if pro-life women were thus to protest abortion rights, the problem would go away.
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Wikipedia excommunicates Church of Scientology | Technically Incorrect – CNET News.
A propos of the previous post about the virtual incorruptibility of the Wikipedia content editorial system comes this golden nugget of a story about how Wikipedia has the balls that no information or news source has. When the “Church” of Scientology logged a few too many attempts to remove embarrassing truths about it, it was banned from editing altogether.
Now, if only the rest of the media were to show enough backbone and refrain from allowing commercial interests to define what “news” is.
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CIA, intel director locked in spy turf battle – Yahoo! News
Ah, yes, isn’t it nice to know that nearly six years after the 911 commission called for the major intelligence agencies to share relevant information more freely in order to facilitate the process of foiling terrorist attacks the major intelligence agencies have not changed one bit. All of which confirms that the creation of the Department of Homeland Security was nothing but a red herring designed to draw attention away from the incompetent politicians (nearly all Republican) who failed to stop the 9/11 terrorist attacks from happening.
The typical Republican attack on anyone who is not Republican is “tax and spend liberal”. It is quite clear that the only thing that distinguishes Republicans from anyone else is that Republicans like to tax the nation and squander the money on endeavors that fail. The war in Iraq has been an instance of highway robbery conducted by war profiteers without any net benefit to American prestige or American safety. The missile defense system has been branded as useless by the military brass itself. And, now, we learn that the establishment of an entirely new beaurocracy, the Department of Homeland Security, has had no effect on the most fundamental issue that caused the 9/11 tragedy: inadequate sharing of intelligence. In fact, if the article above is reliable, then the intelligence sharing agency created by Bush is hindering the sharing of information.
And these guys say that a national healthcare system would be a waste of money. Â What gall!
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BBC NEWS | Technology | Broadband World: Mapping the global picture
Extolling the virtues of a “pure and unadulterated capitalism” has always been in vogue in the United States, and it has never changed the fact the country is lagging in many critical measures of quality of life, chief among them life expectancy and infant mortality.
Now we can add broadband speed to the list, though broadband speed is hardly a measure of quality of life. It is a damn nice measure of excess, that one characteristic for which the USA is best known.
It’s nice to know to know that monopoly power is still worshipped in the United States for the excess power and wealth it concentrates in the hands of the few. Who cares that monopoly power never delivers better service at a lower price, innovation (Microsoft still doesn’t get the iPod), improvements in infrastructure, or a functioning marketplace?
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Canada’s governor general eats seal heart – Yahoo! News
Apparently bothered by the European Union’s ban on the import and sale of all seal products from Canada, Canada’s Governor General elected to gut a seal puppy, tear its heart out and swallow the heart as a form of protest.
Asked later if her actions were a message to the EU, she said: “Take from it what you will.”
In a related story, Rush Limbaugh tracked down a donkey, killed it, gutted it, and ate its heart.
He subsequently ate the animal whole, from hoof to pointy ears.
Asked later if his actions were a message to the Democratic party and his faithful followers in the Republican party, Limbaugh said “No. I just like to eat ass.”
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BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Cameron in ‘people power’ pledge
The unfettered redistribution of wealth in favor of the avaricious seems to have made bumbling fools of both American and British conservatives. Michael Steele routinely retracts any reasonable statement he might have made, and now David Cameron, the British conservative party leader, is pledging “people power” ahead of the British elections. The conservatives on the West side of the Atlantic are hell bent on defying any reasonable reform against horribly flawed and failed ideology, and those to the East of the Atlantic are proudly parroting 60s era hippie catch phrases.
Clearly, both “conservative” parties are content with inane media campaigns that they feel will buy them enough votes for power. Just as clearly, neither “conservative” is willing or able to provide a rational framework for governing and for solving national problems. Anglophone conservatives seem to have a preoccupation with political correctness rather than an obsession with ending a wealth redistribution scheme in which economically powerful entities leverage their full economic might to the detriment of the nation. Yet, somehow, they manage to convince themselves that an imaginary “liberalism” is the culprit.
Their reasons for believing that they should be taken seriously remain a mystery only to them.
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