An Onymous

Microsoft Hides Poor Services Performance from Investors' Eyes

I see a lot of synergy between the organizations and the products that you say are "buried" in them. Personally, I'd say that Microsoft is looking to better monetize these products/properties, rather than mask the losses from the shareholders.

Google's Push into Solar Is Good News for Microsoft

There are several multinational conglomerates that operate in diverse and unrelated areas. I don't think a company that diversifies will necessarily fail - I think a lot of it depends on how the diversified business is managed and funded

Google: Why Gmail Failed

I assume that you were trying to say that Gmail is supposed to have a redundant architecture to prevent failure, rather than what you did:

"Isn’t Gmail supposed to have multiple points of failure? Well yes, Gmail has thousands and thousands of overlapping mail servers which can pic up the slack if any one fails because the data is replicated and spread all around. "

If what you've said is true, Gmail had multiple points of failure, and failed per design!

Where The NYT Beats The WSJ

Having moved to the west coast, it's been a long time since I subscribed to (or read) either of these. But while the NYT is indeed liberal, it is IMO not overtly so. Conversely, the WSJ does seem to be overtly conservative, and I think this thinking is fortunately not getting much backing from the general public, and hence their news or opinions aren't worth even stealing :-)

Sloppiness at Rosetta Stone

I don't know if other software vendors do this, but I was particularly taken aback when Rosetta Stone said that they didn't have a sales presence in India, and furthermore would not ship their software to India! I guess I am expected to travel to Thailand and buy pirated copies of their language software on the streets...

Eye on Unemployment: Should the U.S. Stop Immigration?

Throughout history, people have migrated to places of power & wealth, in order to benefit from these. This is the reality of human nature, and I'm a big proponent of accepting reality. Another way of looking at this is that nature seeks a balance - and imbalances will constantly change as the "have-nots" seek to partake in the benefits & assets of the "haves".

The greatest gift that the USA has given China, Japan, Thailand, etc. is to inflate the cost of labor to the point where people in those countries do the same work as the US resident for 1/10th the cost, resulting in manufacturing moving out of the USA. The greatest gift that the USA has given India, Russia, etc. is to prevent skilled people from entering the USA, thus resulting in engineering moving out of the USA.

The net result is that both the job and the trickle-down wealth from the (skilled or unskilled) worker move out of the USA. Capping the migration of workers in the modern world does not result in native workers getting the job - it results in the job moving to where the labor is. This is the nature of capitalism - a company will seek to make its profits where it can, and has no loyalty to borders. On the other hand, the value of Socialism should be clear to anyone who is of what happened to the USSR, China, and other Iron Block countries. Selfishness is fundamental to human nature, and no level of enforced idealism will make that go away.

Google Voice's Secret Weapon: Number Portability

A simple piece of software that runs through a list of numbers sequentially with a timeout on no-answer is a "seriously heavyweight product"? What a joke! Did you receive a seriously heavy payoff from Google to tout this?

Looking to Buy BRIC? The 'ABC's Are Better (Part I)

Apart from Taiwan, China claims ownership over a variety of countries - particularly Tibet - that is totally driven towards the betterment of the Han tribe. For all your hype about how enlightened, modern, well-governed and democratic the USA is, that country is (and its people are) as self-serving as (those of) any other. I agree with you that this selfishness is better administered - the machine works well, whether it is making war or divvying up the moolah.


On May 15 12:53 PM Joseph L. Shaefer wrote:

> On May 14 09:52 PM Gyoza Mimi wrote:
> Joseph, is Taiwan still not a country, but a self-ruling republic
> of China?
>
> An excellent question, and one often obfuscated by some for political
> reasons. The brevity of your question belies a very complex answer,
> so let me give an equally brief response (1), then, only for those
> interested, the history that has led to the current sorry state of
> affairs.(2)
>
> (1) Taiwan is a country. They have a multi-party democratic political
> system, a modern and well-trained military, free flow of goods and
> international travelers, and more forex reserves than any country
> except China, the “Eurozone,” and Russia. (As of 2008; if low oil
> prices continue, they will supplant Russia; if you take the EU countries
> separately, that would make Taiwan second only to China in the world.)
>
>
> (2) However. At the insistence of China, in collusion with the US,
> which wanted to drive a wedge between the then-Soviet Union and China
> by opening China to US diplomacy and trade, the UN officially stripped
> Taiwan of its UN membership in the early 1970s. Just because it doesn’t
> have a seat at the UN doesn’t make it less a country, however. If
> the US did not oppose it, the UN would strip Israel of membership,
> blaming them the next time an Arab child stubbed his toe playing
> football (soccer.)
>
> In an act of national cowardice (yes, I do have strong feelings on
> the abandonment of allies…) the US withdrew diplomatic recognition
> of Taiwan in 1979, saying we didn’t want to “raise tensions” with
> China.
>
> China claims Taiwan has always been part of China. Horsefeathers.
> Most scholars agree that Taiwan is not Chinese at all but was the
> home of people who spread their Austronesian languages throughout
> Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, and large parts
> of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. It was first colonized by
> the Dutch, not the Chinese, whose Qing dynasty emperor sniffed Taiwan
> was “a ball of mud beyond the pale of civilization." In fact, the
> authorities barred families from traveling to Taiwan! The Dutch East
> India administered the island and its predominantly aboriginal population.
> So much for it being “Chinese.”
>
> Taiwan then passed from Dutch to Chinese to Japanese rule. After
> Japan’s defeat, it first became part of China, but that was only
> for 4 years and it was the China of Chiang Kai-Shek, whose government
> fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Communists.
> Pretty slick claiming sovereignty over a place where your sworn enemy
> has gone to make his last stand against you.
>
> The first ever direct presidential election was held in 1996. Since
> then, Taiwan has become major international trading power and enjoyed
> prosperity and economic and social stability. It is considered one
> of the Four Asian Tigers and a world leader in information technology
> (South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong are the others.) Whatever
> the brand of the PC you are using to read these words, its innards
> were probably made in Taiwan.

On-Demand Software Up, Short-Term Issues Remain

A chart showing the stock price isn't sufficient - I'd venture to say that you could pick *any* segment today and postulate how that segment is on the way out because of stock price drops. What would have been meaningful is a chart showing how these companies are doing in revenue & profit

California Home Sales: 43% Year Over Year Increase!

Californians like to buy homes because it is the most livable state in the country - in terms of latitude & attitude!