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Closed Formats Are Bad For Libraries, Stop OOXML Now

Microsoft just won’t quit. Now they’re trying to make OOXML an ISO standard. Please help stop this. Here’s how I explained it in Open Source Software for Libraries: The state of Massachusetts in 2005 announced new IT standards that required its 80,000 employees and 173 agencies to adopt open file formats. The decision didn’t specify […] » about 300 words

Microsoft Vs. Bloggers In Accusations of MSN Spaces Censorship

I’ve been citing pieces of branding consultant james Torio‘s master’s thesis for some time now. But because the thesis is long, and I want to cite a few small pieces, and those pieces aren’t directly URL addressable, I’m quoting them here. Clickable URLs are added, but everything else should be exactly as Torio wrote it. […] » about 1000 words

Will Google Eat Itself?

Once upon a time Microsoft was the gorilla to beat. Once upon a time we thought Google could do it.

Perhaps not any more. Amazon has dropped Google’s search results from their A9 search aggregator in favor of Microsoft’s Live search, and while Yahoo!’s on again, off again partnership talks with Microsoft appear dead after Y!’s announcement Thursday of a partnership with eBay, Microsoft still hasn’t given up on the notion.

The Yahoo! news may dull my argument, but look how quickly the board changed, how easily these companies switched allegiances or considered partnering with Microsoft, a company known for swallowing its partners.

Google may or may not truly depend on the goodwill of its customers, but the moment its image turns from all-knowing and happy to big and evil could rearrange the chess board.

Gates Harshes Poor, Tells Them To Buy Windows

| What's sadder than people in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Burundi&ll=-3.373056,29.918886&spn=11.190832,27.663574&t=h">Burundi</a> earning an average of <a href="http://www.finfacts.com/biz10/globalworldincomepercapita.htm">only $90 a year</a>? It might be <a href="http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/10432/" title="Bill G Just Wants To Be Cool">Bill Gates</a>' criticism of MIT's efforts to bring affordable, networked computers to the poorest countries of the world in hopes of improving education (and communication and healthcare and more). The challenge is enormous: the technology needs to be durable, require low-power (and be easily rechargeable), as easy to use as an egg timer, have networking in a land without infrastructure, and be cheap, cheap, cheap. Yet somehow, the MIT folks have <a href="http://maisonbisson.com/blog/post/10996/" title="$100 Laptop Details « MaisonBisson.com">figured it out</a>, and the project -- known to most of us as the <a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050929-5362.html">$100 laptop project</a> -- seems to be on its way to success. It's the sort of thing that you'd figure <a href="http://www.fdncenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=115100029">a philanthropic guy</a> like Bill Gates would be on top of. But alas, he seems not to understand. <a href="http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/gates-has-harsh-words-for-100-computer-project-161011.php" title="Gates Has Harsh Words for $100 Computer Project - Gizmodo">Gizmodo</a>, <a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060316-6394.html" title="Gates loves the poor (but Windows more?)">ArsTechnica</a>, <a href="http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4486" title="TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home » Open your wallet, Bill, and atone for those clueless remarks against the $100 MIT laptop project">TeleRead</a>, and others are all reporting the world's richest man went critical over the MIT project. » about 500 words

When You Need To Talk To Customer Support

It’s good to know Hard to Find 800 Numbers.com is there when you need it. Here are the top five:

<td width="85">
  HTF#
</td>

<td width="86">
  Who
</td>

<td width="136">
  Notes
</td>

<td>
  800-201-7575<br /> <br /> 877-251-0696<br /> <br /> 866-348-2492<br /> 206-266-2992
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> <br /> Seller support<br /> <br /> Rebate status Local or int’l
</td>

<td>
  24/7<br /> <br /> "<br /> " ( Press 0 to bypass menu) <br /> "
</td>

<td>
  888-749-3229<br /> 800-322-9266
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> "
</td>

<td>
  6:30a-5:30p<br /> M-F (Pacific)
</td>

<td>
  888-215-5506<br /> 888-221-1161
</td>

<td>
  Cust. service<br /> "
</td>

<td>
  6a-12midnight (Central) <br /> 7 days/wk
</td>

<td>
  408-349-3300<br /> 408-349-5151
</td>

<td>
  Corporate hq <br /> Billing cust. svc.
</td>

<td>
  8a-5p M-F (Pacific) <br /> "
</td>

<td>
  800-426-9400</p> 
  
  <p>
    800-936-5700</td> 
    
    <td>
      Sales<br /> Tech support:<br /> Personal support:
    </td>
    
    <td>
      6a-6p M-F (Pacific)<br /> Option 2 <br /> 5a-9p M-F<br /> 6a-3p Sat/Sun
    </td></tr> </table> 
    
    <p>
      
    </p>

DRM = Customer Lock-In

Donna Wentworth is now saying what I’ve been saying for over a year now. Digital Rights Management (DRM) isn’t about preventing copyright violations by ne’er-do-wells, it’s about eliminating legal me2me fair use and locking in customers. In Your PC == A Toaster, Wentworth quotes Don Marti saying: Isn’t it time to drop the polite fiction […] » about 300 words

 
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