Logic2Go

Yarrrrr!

It’s da talk like a pirate day, ye scurvy sea-dogs.

And lik ‘ow I celibrited ’tis years ago, i’ll do so agin’ by re-running my “PirateTalk” program on QBasic!

[Ask for copies now, source code included]

Anyone in the market to lend me 5-6 billion dollars?

“What the hell would I want to do with that much cash?” , you ask?

Well, according to this nicely drawn-up legend on NYTimes’ website, I could pick me up a Lehman Bros here, a  Washington Mutual there and even grab a decent majority chunk of Bear Stearns.

Where the hell do I misplace those Billions when i need them most?!
Oh, yeah, I remember now, invested them in AIG last year!

Ouch!

You tech people don’t go laughing away, not until you hear me tell you about the 24,600 people HP is laying off of EDS.

So I’m reading Wired’s article on Greenpeace’s Guide to Green Electronics and something’s a little off …

Aside from XBoxes and Zunes (not a lot of that) and Natural Keyboards, what hardware does Microsoft really make?

I mean, Intel and AMD aren’t even on the list???

But it’s good to know that Nokia’s efforts in India are what helped their ranking!

(Original Greenpeace.org link)

No, this isn’t a post about a new type of extension or tool called Glass embedded within Visual Basic.

It is, literally, about a piece of glass that was embedded in my chin for a few years, and just came out today!

Some history:

A few years ago, I was sitting in the back seat of a car that met with an accident. Unluckily, I was the only one hurt. Luckily, it wasn’t serious. No broken bones, etc.However, the window glass did crack and small (less than 1mm) pieces of glass hit my face. (Like Zao, in 007’s Die Another Day, but not that cool)

The medics on site took out as many as they could with tweezers, and the doctor took out the rest later at the hospital. However, he did warn me that some of them may have been embedded under the epidermal layer and would come out in time.

So, this all happened in 2002. And now, in 2008, i’ve had this itch in my chin for the last couple of days, and just now, a few minutes ago, this bitty glass piece comes out!

(Thats the glass piece compared to a 1 rupee coin)

I have a problem with Google fanboys speaking of how Google Reader is much faster on Google’s own browser, Chrome.

These are mostly the same people who complained that Microsoft Office works better with Microsoft Windows (vs. Mac)

BTW, I’m a Firefox user!
But I will give Chrome a fair chance on my desktop too, so there.

— — —

While on the topic, there seems to be a standard approach used by Google to attack Microsoft’s properties. Office, Windows Mobile, IE, Servers

Start with a bare-bones application with the minimal and most popular features.
If it’s a browser, just make it browse and search.
If it’s an office productivity suite, give it the basic text editing and spreadsheeting functions, no macros, no serious-user type of features.
If it’s a server, just make it a search server appliance.

Then, once you have a foot in the door (or a Google App in the customers computer), add features.

This strategy works because Microsoft is too dumb to work like Adobe.
Adobe has tons of mature, feature-laden products, but they still always have a bare-bones, light-weight version of the same.
There is Adobe Photoshop, so they go ahead and launch Photoshop Elements (and even a web-based Photoshop)
There is Adobe Acrobat. But there is definitely the ever popular Adobe Reader.
With Microsoft, the closest they have come to doing this is by releasing Visual Studio Express. Too little, too late.

Listen up M$, unless you learn to keep customers within your product umbrella, they will defect. So go ahead, re-launch Microsoft Works (snicker, snicker) as MS Office Lite. Just rebundle Live Mail (formerly Outlook Express?), Windows Writer (as a lite-weight Word), simplistic Excel (without any of the heavy duty macro support, etc) and Access (again, light-weight).

And the Office Ribbon should be your weapon of choice.
It’s a great feature, but the only way anyone can try it is by purchasing the full version of Office or by being a student and getting it through their university.

— —

Would this work? Is there any evidence that it does work?

A Marwari or Gujarati businessman will teach, train and help a member of his family/extended-family/friend in his business (textiles, jewellery, plastics, whatever) and get them to open a shop very close to his own.
Often, people question this: After all, isn’t he just creating more competition, and that too with someone he has himself trained?

The reason behind this, as they all agree, is very simple.

The end-customer will buy the product. He is in the market to spend money.
If not from my shop, then from someone else’s shop.

I might as well have that business go to a cousin or friend of mine than to someone who doesn’t know me or care for me.

— —

Microsoft should rather have people defect to a free version of MS Office rather than Google Docs or Zoho or others. Atleast, this way, when that consumer has matured and wants a full-featured product, his first choice will be another Microsoft product.

Pretty close to my sentiments regarding the downhill education of the Professional IT people.

I expect that “professional” IT people are professional. I expect that they have a desire to learn, a technical competence to achieve the tasks they set out to do, and a constant need to push the envelope of what’s achievable and always move forwards. I expect everyone to have a goal to leave something in a better/faster/more efficient way then they found it. Yet it seems that the last few years have shown people in IT are by and large the complete and polar opposite.

Taken from OverClockers.com.au via HeyInternet.com via Eugen on Silk.

It’s almost like the real IT education (peering over the shoulders of seniors) has been abandoned in favour of simple For dummies books and Learn *nix in a month type crash-courses.

I’m sure Renny Koshy and Kevin Walsh are two Professional IT people of the kind I will never meet again!

(Now wait and see then both come and bash me in the comments just for naming them here!)

Seriously, I am!
- Says the yellow thingy!

(BTW, when do they expect us to use it? If the A/C turns off due to a power failure?)

I’ve not really been blogging in the traditional sense … you know, like the kind of articles I would really write in a journal/log. I feel my blog’s become more of a scrapbook (not even a good one at that).

Add to that, there have been atleast 3 tries at revival!
So much for 3rd time lucky!

It’s not that I don’t have as much to say or write about.
It’s not even that I can blame a hectic work life.
It definitely isn’t anything to do with a personal equivalent of a writers block.

(BTW, I just blogged more in those last 3 paragraphs that in the last 3 months)

Simply put, I just think not having a computer in my room may be the problem.
Seriously. I don’t blog during work hours (own company so I feel bad about blogging  during work hours; that kind of thinking). And I get home so late that it’s not worth packing the laptop for the drive back and then re-packing it in the morning.

Well, I now have Surabhi’s most excellent T40 (revived, new used motherboard et al) to fall back on, while at home. So I’ll see how that goes.

BTW, Surabhi and I both agree … with Vista and Office 2007, Microsoft shows it’s true colours … They give their customers what the customers want, not just what the A-list bloggers demand. I could never go back to an office suite that does not use the ribbon!

And Surabhi calls these tiny chocolates “kanjoos logon ke chocolates”

But seriously, why 42?

We’ll all be better off with random character captcha’s!

Being a good friend is about knowing what that person likes.
Being a best friend is about knowing what that person dislikes.