Before the storm; Gates' smartest move

Story: Gates:-Curtain-call-for-crystal-ball

Windows is a disaster waiting to happen.

With each iteration it bloats and bloats and comes closer to forcing MS to admit they really don't know how it works - witness the corrections to corrections that come out almost daily or their inability to hit any target date for SPs (SP3 for XP and SP1 for Vista are each years late).

But the more ominous problem is this: some huge portion of America's businesses, utilities, gov't agencies and other organizations that affect the public health, safety and welfare are dependent on Windows.

One good uber-virus and there goes our civilization: businesses can't schedule trucking (no more food), utilities lose much control over aspects of water and power distribution (no heat, no lights ... no computers to fix each other ...), investors can't talk to the stock market; industry crashes.

When you consider all that is riding on Windows - it's a lot more than your email files - MS should be held to a higher level of accountability than a game producer.

Unlike game software, Windows really could bring down the country.

If I were Gates, I sure as hell would take the money and run - as far as I could legally distance myself from the greatest time-waster known to mankind: MS Windoze.

I am blessed ...

I am blessed ...
In my life I have known maybe

7 Friends
3 Guides
4 Loves
3 Familiars
4 Healers

Of these, five have gone ahead
two became tenuous, slipped from view
one is unavailable but not lost
one is on my desk as I write ...

Of the rest, we touch, bump, exchange what only we can, chat about the rest ... to paraphrase S. Pierre:
the quality of relationship is not strained

the world wobbles, time weaves tomorrow from today's flotsam & jetsam
and the constant is


How do I know they will bridge death?
Have they not already bridged life?

Greetings or notice or statement or ... make offer

Warmest Greetings

Sometimes the time slips by, so I want to get my warmest greetings out early.

To My Democratic Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes.

By accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for himself (alt: herself) or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

To My Republican Friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

What I'll do for a Freebie ...

Mark Joyner asked me to post this - in exchange for a course in - can you believe! - blogging.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

Election Definitions

During this political season, it is wise to remember these distinctions:


'Stupid' is a gift from God; one need do nothing save exhibit their natural self to earn the appellation.

'Ignorant' is a measure of self-development. To remain ignorant, one must vigorously resist new information for fear of contamination.

Politician - from the stem 'poly' meaning 'many' and the suffix 'tick' meaning 'blood sucker'.


Readers are invited to add their own definitions and respond.