Vito Positano

Is the FCC's More Proactive Stance Cause for Cheer or Concern?

Microsoft, a huge company, runs its Windows OS on PC hardware nearly throughout the Federal Communication Commission, a regulatory agency that regulates communication to assure that competition does not stifle innovation and technological progress.

Republican president George W. Bush's FCC took a very long time to begin to investigate Microsoft's monopolistic practices. The FCC then waited a long time to reach any conclusions. In the interim, MS was found to be an abusive monopoly, one that stifled competition. Then it yawned, losing interest in the investigation. MS flourished and went on to resume being a predatory monopoly as if the FCC sanctioned it.

The Apple OS, on the other hand, is a much smaller company. Its OS is virtually unused by the FCC on any of its computers in general and it's likely not used by its investigators in particular.

Apple's operating system competes directly with the Microsoft OS. Democratic President Barak Obama's FCC has pounced seemingly much more quickly and more aggressively on Apple for possible anti-competitive practices.

Speculators Stabilize Oil Prices: Here's Proof

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Search Engine Wars: Bing Gets More 'Eye Time' than Google

Vincent,
Yes, it's indeed interesting. I do not root for the success of Bing because its progenitor is Microsoft, a proven predatory monopoly, which is different from non-predatory monopolies which are legal, Apple being an example of a legal, non-predatory monopoly.

My interpretation is that Bing's start page has too many distractions, reflecting the many-faceted services that MS offers, i.e., it's unfocused. Visitors are looking around, wondering what to do with al that stuff, hence spending more time on it. So no wonder that things are looking up for non-Bing search engines.

Search Engine Wars: Bing Gets More 'Eye Time' than Google

Ha ha ha. Eye time could or could not mean that the eye has to search more in the unfamiliar Bing start page because it's Baroque in design while the Google start page is narrowly focused; The visitor is clearly guided to the input field. But, really, as you say, the 12 participants is statistically zero in significance. Oh my.

Palm's Pre: Likely to Break

The promise of the Palm Pre launch seems to be as tardy as the long promised TypeStyler by Stryder, which reminds me of the play, Waiting for Godot (gɒdoʊ), a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters wait for someone named Godot. In the case of Palm, the two characters waiting are Palm CEO Dan Hesse and iPhone haters. In the case of TypeStyler, it's us graphic designers and those laughing at us for foolishly waiting.

IBM / Amazon Deal: Oracle Should Wait for Clouds to Clear, Microsoft Shouldn't

Hi Dana,
Can you write an article on this: " It's the MS-DOS license deal in reverse at a higher abstraction," including some historical background, how it impacted the PC/Mac industry, and explain what may be the "reverse" of it? I would appreciate reading such an exposition.

Telecom, Internet Players Backpedal on Progress

So-called "net neutrality" needs to be instituted at the citizen/user level (you seem to call it "the last mile), so that we citizens are not saddled with services that are inferior to those accessed by larger businesses, the privileged, or the well-to-do.

It's also true that the goal is to strenghten democracy, not the corporates, and that this is done by laws that make illegal to decrease the quantity and quality of info., and also mandate a greater increase in the amount and quality of information and opinion that is diverse. These will benefit me, and, if this is not the result of a net neutrality scheme, it's not implemented to benefit me. It's, therefore, a loss to me, compelling me to be less interested in national democracy leading me to promote a greater reliance on regional, insular, democratic solutions which the gov. -- if it is not hell bent on allowing methods of oppression -- should promote in order to counter the dominance of monoliths and opportunists who, by their very nature, do not necessarily have my interests in mind.

I order to increase a greater flow and quality of info. and opinion, we also need to decrease methods that domestic spy agencies use to gather data on us. To achieve this, I propose the opening up of the CIA, the DIA, the NRO, NASA, et al., to citizen scrutiny, and strengthening the Legislature at the expense of the Executive. Among other things, this means repudiating the recent anti-progressive laws such as the U. S. Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and even such innocuous sounding laws as Reagan's "compilation law" so that citizens can regain the freedom to think differently and regain the Writ, and regional newspapers and media outlets can be freer to discuss issues other than what the presidential executive and corporates want. Some of these unseemly laws and provisions can be reversed quickly simply because they were passed quickly.

Telecom, Internet Players Backpedal on Progress

So-called "net neutrality" needs to be instituted at the citizen/user level (you seem to call it "the last mile), so that we citizens are not saddled with services that are inferior to those accessed by larger businesses, the privileged, or the well-to-do.

It's also true that the goal is to strenghten democracy, not the corporates, and that this is done by laws that make illegal to decrease the quantity and quality of info., and also mandate a greater increase in the amount and quality of information and opinion that is diverse. These will benefit me, and, if this is not the result of a net neutrality scheme, it's not implemented to benefit me. It's, therefore, a loss to me, compelling me to be less interested in national democracy leading me to promote a greater reliance on regional, insular, democratic solutions which the gov. -- if it is not hell bent on allowing methods of oppression -- should promote in order to counter the dominance of monoliths and opportunists who, by their very nature, do not necessarily have my interests in mind.

I order to increase a greater flow and quality of info. and opinion, we also need to decrease methods that domestic spy agencies use to gather data on us. To achieve this, I propose the opening up of the CIA, the DIA, the NRO, NASA, et al., to citizen scrutiny, and strengthening the Legislature at the expense of the Executive. Among other things, this means repudiating the recent anti-progressive laws such as the U. S. Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and even such innocuous sounding laws as Reagan's "compilation law" so that citizens can regain the freedom to think differently and regain the Writ, and regional newspapers and media outlets can be freer to discuss issues other than what the presidential executive and corporates want. Some of these unseemly laws and provisions can be reversed quickly simply because they were passed quickly.

Now What for Apple Investors?

Jmmx,
Reagan and his ilk are snobbingly looking down at you and me, and abusing us with name calling, but this is what Rightwingers do, ad hominem and a logical fallacy because they refuse to address the issue that we raised. I expect no more from them. *S*

Regarding the economy, they refuse to face the fact that Bush ushered in Part 1 of his insane economy, then borrowed heavily to cover over the bad economic fundamentals while he enriched his oil friends and no bid contractors with the people's money and, as he leaves office, he resentfully tanks it a second time, but much worse. I have not read of a president that tanked the economy upon entering and exiting his terms. It's truly an astoundingly negative and destructive event for the normal citizen.

Now What for Apple Investors?

Zach Bass,
You or anyone please explain to me what is the form of the value/money that is lost in any such situation such as the tanking Bush economy.

Let's begin at the basic level. If I say that I lost a dollar when I dropped into the manhole, say by accident, the dollar remains there. It's lost in economic sense because no one can make any use of it any longer. It's out of circulation. It's truly lost. On the other hand, if a sewer worker finds it, he has made a huge profit on his labor; All she had to do is to pick it up and put it into her pocket. It's back in circulation. This I can understand.

Then if I loan you a dollar with the expectation of return, and you do not return the payment, then I lost a dollar. On the other hand, you gained a dollar. But the money was never lost, even though I lost it, because you gained it and because the money is still circulating in the economy. In other words, the economy, as a fiscal ecosystem, is still 100% intact because the dollar is not out of circulation. We absolutely know where the money is.

In the disastrous Bush economy, news says that this or that financial institution lost money. To whom/what is the money lost, and what is the nature of that money? Is it real like gold or is it only in potential such as money that would be gained from an investment, which I would not call the most real. I do not get this part at all, you know, where Lehman Bros, for example, lost money. Is this really true money or is it an expectation of money being accrued at some time in the future but not "real" money?

Now What for Apple Investors?

Brandon,
Apple is going to do fine because most purchasers of Apple products have confidence in its aesthetic, technological, and innovate goals.

All you Rightwing whiners and NeoCons blame Liberals for your own failures, but then credit yourself and your Rightwing associates for any meager successes in the economy. Now that the Bush economy is tanking so speedily, you are desperate to find some Liberal group to blame it on.

You are all about blame and victimhood while your liberal use of the free-enterprise system just means that you are so very willing to privatize any profits but then socialize any losses.
An egregious example is the nuke industry's view of the free market. It is now pushing for more nuke plants, not that any sane individual like me wants them. Yet it has no confidence that it can be profitable as a real, bona fide profint making operation. Proof is that it whined and wrung its hands to the Fed gov. that it has little confidence its own industry could achieve viability, so it asked -- and got -- federaly subsidised insurance to cover itself in the event of catastrophe over its own incompetence and that would cost over a certain amt. This is called the Price-Anderson Act.

This is but one example; This is your MO. Just face it.

Bush ushered in his bad economy and drained Clinton's surplus and he vindictivly went a big step backward by then raiding the SS Fund, and borrowing hugely to transfer wealth from the pocket of normal citizens into the vaults of the wealthy eletes with off shore accts.

iPhone 3G Speeds: More Cingular Mediocrity

iWantYourSou,
May S. Jobs bless you, and I give you permission to call the iPhone the Mother Earth phone.

iPhone 3G Speeds: More Cingular Mediocrity

Hi Macvangelist,
I am a Christian who is not offended by Joel West's or any Mac Evangelist calling the iPhone the Jesus Phone. I also like the humor of it all.

But you must admit that there are similarities between Jesus Christ and the Smartphone iPhone: Jesus is superior to the average person and the iPhone is superior to the average cell phone. Jesus saves when nothing else works, and so can the iPhone when other phones do not. While Christ as Jesus had not yet achieved his full potential until He became Christed, so the iPhone has not yet achieved full potential until it becomes connected to a better network. See?

And just as the wicked at first vilified and then crucified Christ, so the other cell phone companies vilified and are trying to destroy the iPhone. Jesus is the leader of Christendom just as the iPhone is the leader in Smartphonedom. Christ said something like, "Just as i have done, you will do better," so Jobs says something like, "just wait. The phone will become even better."

While I thank the Lord Jesus for everything He has done, and now I am free from sin, I also thank the iPhone for everything it has done, and now I am free from more dropped calls. *S*

Well, you can see that I made a good case for this Christian to call the iPhone the Jesus Phone.

After it achieves the promised improvements in capabilities and connectedness, I would even stop calling it a mere Jesus phone, and begin to call it the Christ phone, as in Christ the resurrected.

Therefore, to prematurely break one's relationship to the iPhone can be likened to prematurely break one's relationship to Jesus.