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No, I haven't been on rotating strike. I have been quite busy and more often than I'd like technologically inhibited. Postings have been minimal. And I'll be going silent for a week or so during a well-earned vacation. So, in sum: uninspired, over-worked, pre-occupied, computer problems -- not necessarily in that order.
Happy holidays.
TRDG
Besides the White House and a few other typically inaccessible locations where cellular phone use is not merely banned but blocked, Canadian airlines may be the only place where you can go to avoid being called or, worse, listen to some self-indulgent fool chatter away banally at a high decibel level -- interrupting your peace and quiet. The G&M story is here: Canada refuses to scrap in-flight cellphone ban and the snip is:
OTTAWA and TORONTO -- Canadian authorities say they will continue to prohibit cellphone calls during flights on this country's carriers, despite moves by the United States to reconsider such a ban.I guess that's one reason to choose Air Canada.
Information Week is carrying a story about Sun and Microsoft working hard on getting single sign-on to work between their systems: Sun And Microsoft Aim For Single Sign-On. I'm sure everyone is working hard on it, just look at the quote:
"I wouldn't be involved at this level, [Microsoft chairman Bill] Gates wouldn't be involved at this level, for things that we thought were just standards efforts," Papadopoulos said last week. Executives from Microsoft and Sun have met 15 times since July, Microsoft director Andrew Layman says. Papadopoulos and Gates have been meeting, as have Sun CEO Scott McNealy and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.Got the right cast, but things have gone astray before. Solve this one though, and digitial identity takes a big leap forward in the enterprise space.
The New York Times is reporting that IBM has its PC business up for sale with a Chinese purchaser sniffing around. Story comes from ComputerWeekly: IBM puts PC business up for sale
At the very end of the article is a throw-away about how the buyer could ultimately build a PC with the IBM name on it. That would make abundant sense: what would the world of computing be without IBM to kick around?
Pew released a study that indicates musicians and music writers don't feel that the Internet has hurt them: File-sharing not hurting us, artists say in the Toronto Star. The lead graf:
WASHINGTON -- Most musicians and artists say the Internet has helped them make more money from their work despite online file-trading services that allow users to copy songs and other files for free, according to a study released yesterday.So there. The times they are a-changin'.
Many, many years ago I would read through books with titles like "Build a Better Vocabulary in 9 Days." They would all provide $5-words that could be dropped into conversation to make one feel better. Or, they would provide explanation of typically misused words: interred v. interned. In the wake of the "word of the year" articles that came out last week, I like this revocabulary better.
Verizon is following the herd and selling off its little piece of heaven here in Canada. What's the point of holding it, I suppose, when you can't get a really substantial (i.e., controlling) position anyway. Tough break for Telus that took 4% of the wind out of its sales yesterday. The TorStar story (Verizon looking for a U.S. focus) had this bit of context:
Texas-based SBC recently sold two big blocks of BCE Inc., parent of Bell Canada, this year to raise more than $500 million while AT&T Wireless sold its 34 per cent stake in Rogers Wireless to majority owner Rogers Communications Inc. for nearly $1.8 billion.
Strong dollar. Weaker economic forecasts. It's not a lot different than a discussion I listened to a while ago that kind of went like: everyone's optimistic about the economy, so why are we all so scared? Upshot: the economy at a macro level is doing great. Good growth prospects and all that other economic good stuff like productivity gains, etc., etc. Trouble is that "productivity gain" often means reduced income and labour force downsizing.
Why are we so scared when we're so optimistic? The optimism is at a macro level for companies and economies. The fear is from watching real people's economic situation deteriorate or disappear with a work-force reduction. Yin and yang. Here's a Globe & Mail snip whencefrom this notionette comes (Strong dollar has economists rethinking prospects for growth):
BMO economists said in a commentary yesterday that they have trimmed their growth projections for next year to 3.2 per cent from the 3.5 per cent they were calling for just six weeks ago -- even as the Bank of Canada's forecast was growing gloomier -- because of the soaring dollar. They also have trimmed their forecast for 2006 by a whisker, to 3.4 per cent from 3.5 per cent.