The arrogance of Microsoft

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Scobleizer

An excellent piece by Robert Scoble on why Microsoft and its CEO. Steve Ballmer still don't get social networking.
Don’t miss this quote. It’s demonstrates everything that is wrong with Microsoft’s approach:

“There can’t be any more deep technology in Facebook than what dozens of people could write in a couple of years. That’s for sure,” Ballmer said.

When I worked at Microsoft I heard this over and over and over again from various engineers and program managers who STILL haven’t competed effectively with WordPress, Flickr, Skype, YouTube, or any of the other things over the years I’ve heard this “we can build that in a few weeks” kind of arrogant attitude attached to.

But, remember eBay? Remember how dozens of competitors tried to get into the eBay space? (and still are?)

Why aren’t they succeeding? Because eBay is NOT about the technology. It’s about the community and unless you have something that’ll convince the buyers and sellers all to switch all at one moment you’ll never be able to take eBay’s market away. Translation: it’s too late and eBay has huge defensibility around its business because people won’t move away from it even if you demonstrate 5x better technology.

The 'War on Drugs'

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FP.Com - Think Again: Drugs
It’s always dangerous when rhetoric drives policy—and especially so when “war on drugs” rhetoric leads the public to accept collateral casualties that would never be permissible in civilian law enforcement, much less public health. Politicians still talk of eliminating drugs from the Earth as though their use is a plague on humanity. But drug control is not like disease control, for the simple reason that there’s no popular demand for smallpox or polio.

Cannabis and opium have been grown throughout much of the world for millennia. The same is true for coca in Latin America. Methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs can be produced anywhere. Demand for particular illicit drugs waxes and wanes, depending not just on availability but also fads, fashion, culture, and competition from alternative means of stimulation and distraction.

The relative harshness of drug laws and the intensity of enforcement matter surprisingly little, except in totalitarian states. After all, rates of illegal drug use in the United States are the same as, or higher than, Europe, despite America’s much more punitive policies.

He's right but oh, the money, the money...

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LEGITIMATE TANGENT: Putting the 'con' in consultancy
A common theme for bashing the unwashed is to talk of 'dependency culture.' With a completely straight face, the ruling class will use this term to condemn those whose motivation and effectivess has been neutralised by complete reliance on others to sort out their problems. The delicious irony that they could just as well be describing the relationship between every government department and the cancer of private consultancy eludes them.

Most government departments now rely almost entirely on private sector consultancy to do their planning, thinking and, occasionally, photocopying. And the cost, gentle reader to the public purse is utterly, crazily colossal. Our sector is being gangbanged by a collection of feral and cynical wolves. Oh, it started off innocently enough, just a mild flirtation with the big boys in the red braces. A few facilitations here and there. An away day or two by the grassy banks of a river. But soon, we were looking to them for everything. We were dazzled by the powerpoints and the action plans. We lost our sense of self-worth and independence. Now we are trapped at the wrong end of an abusive relationship and we've only ourselves to blame.
I absolutely agree but, on the other hand, the thought of my dear wife earning £800 a day consultancy fees on top of her pension when she retires for doing essentially what she does now for a lot less rather appeals to me (assuming I'm still in the land of the living when it happens). But yes, er, ahem, it's absolutely disgraceful (cough, splutter).

The Di and Dodi Show

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Diana and Dodi inquest to begin
Diana and Dodi inquest to begin Princess Diana The inquest will begin more than 10 years after Diana's death The inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al Fayed will open in full later at London's High Court. A jury will be sworn in for the hearing, which could last six months.
What a waste of time and money. Can't get an inquiry into Britain's biggest terrorist attack but for this stupid, irresponsible, airhead slapper and her 'boyfriend' we get the works. What a disgrace!


Great news!

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'Worrying' HIV ignorance in young
Nine in 10 young people rarely or never think about HIV when making decisions over their sex lives, a BBC poll shows. The findings from a survey of 1,500 people comes as the BBC and Terrence Higgins Trust launch a two-month UK campaign to raise awareness about HIV...Experts believe the 16 to 24 age group have a lax attitude as they missed out on the big HIV campaigns of the 1980s.
Ah yes, the ad campaigns which tried to show women as potentially HIV infected sirens ready to spread deadly disease to any unsuspecting young man with an erection, despite the fact that (excluding intravenous drug users and women from sub-Saharan Africa) the chances of getting infected from having vaginal sex was virtually nil.

How wonderful that sexually active young people aren't walking around worrying about getting HIV. It will never be like it was in my younger days, that golden sexual era between the widespread availability of The Pill and the onset of the AIDS epidemic, but at least its a slap in the face for the sex-with-fear mongers.

The truth is that in the UK HIV is still predominatly a disease affecting male homosexuals, IV drug users and people from Sub-Saharan Africa (or sexually active visitors to that region). Amongst young British heterosexuals 99.99% are completely free of HIV infection. These people could fuck each other stupid from now to kingdom come and there wouldn't be a single extra case of HIV. Young people are at greater risk of dying from alcoholic poisoning while out on the pull than from any sexually transmitted 'plague'.

But keep wearing those condoms (even though sex with a condom is like washing your feet with your socks on) not to save you from deadly disease but to save you from the deadly phrase which sent shivers down the spines of young men back in the sixties... 'I'm late'.