i've been more active on the WoW Blizzard forums and sometimes WoWHead lately. why? i pay $15/month for my subscription. it's not like they aren't making fixes to the game so why not complain? although i'd love to make my own epic game, i don't have a few million dollars lying around to quit my day job and build my dream game. until then, i'm gonna bitch.

i remember back when the only few "safe" internet companies left were Yahoo, Amazon and Ebay. Not much of the old (first?) guard are remaining. In the case of Yahoo, I think they ended up whoring themselves out way too much to their shareholders. Yang never really seemed to care about the company once he made his $$$ and who knows what the heck happened to Filo. This company is a prime example of having too many cooks in the kitchen. I think one major issue they've had forever is just never moving past the whole "portal" identity thing. Rather than focusing on a specific thing and doing it well, they tried to enter too many markets, buying up any company that might show their investors potential growth. And as for management, just wrong move after wrong move in bringing in MBA types or people with big profiles. But who cares about those people when it seemed that they just wanted their own little golden parachute piece of the pie. This company really needed (needs?) a starving tech visionary to lead it. (Hey, I'm starving!)

i think the cloud is great for business computing where reliability is key. but i heavily dislike the cloud for personal computing. personal to me means private and means that there's a chance i might not be connected to utilize the software i need. fortunately, i moved away from Windows ages ago, minus some gaming. Apple/Mac does a reasonable job for the games that I prefer so the only thing left in using Windows for me is just testing IE. i can't see any good coming out of this decision by Microsoft.

i think it's time Google finally updates their page describing whom they are. i think they should be perceived an engineering firm rather than just a search engine appliance (or more specifically "the thing that organizes all information"). most likely, people are in agreement implicitly about that, but it feels that they need to explicitly come out and say that are focused on engineering problems. that little bit of perception probably will go a longer way for them.

there's two things that could occur: 1) evil paranoid plot in snagging pirates; 2) providing a safe haven for former pirates by promising back to the various MAFIAAs their cut through this service in exchange for not going after users participating in this service. if 1) doesn't occur, then 2) basically is a way to enforce perpetual servitude to Apple by making you dependent upon their services while satisfying greedy lawyers/media executives. Of course, Apple might just end up becoming the huge middle man, kinda like the Ticketmaster for selling music, books and movies. don't forget that in Pirates of Silicon Valley Bill and Steve kept repeating, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Just remember that one.

that's the way i see it. you do have winners and losers though. but then again, i guess that's all that matters these days, no?

i've worked in companies where the cloud would've been a far better solution than the in-house one. the problem in those companies were the politics and lack of competence by that department. the fact that cloud providers have managed to solve some common problems for a scalable price makes it far more attractive than dealing with difficult and unpredictable personalities (let's be honest; sysadmins are sysadmins because of a certain personality trait). it's just one less variable to deal with in the end. this is not to say that the cloud is for everyone. i think the cloud doesn't work where you have a specific problem that cannot be scaled to the cloud's needs. or if you have a great IT department that you can trust.

That's not a good name to have associated with the rest. So much for Google not being evil. Maybe they should change their slogan to "Don't be unprofitable."

if people wanted a more general education, why not just go for several bachelors? and if people wanted a so-called practical education, why not just go to a technical school or enter into a credential program? the whole point of a PhD seems to be that you specialize. yes, if you're a biologist, you will know a particular cell VERY well and not much else. however, i fail to see why someone who has the motivation to learn other disciplines can't just pick up a book or read other online resources (there's plenty out there). i've had a lot of professors at my university who managed to cross disciplines.

now the whole bachelors system, on the other hand, is where i would revise the curriculum. i think that universities should have students take two disciplines up rather than the whole GE's, which, imo, does little overall than simply give undecided people a possible direction. i would have universities enforce a rule having people take up a technical degree and a liberal arts/humanities degree. why? the technical degree would provide some potential real world experience before the student leaves and the liberal arts/humanities degree will (hopefully) teach people to be ethical (and maybe get some of these people who can't write an email worth crap to learn how to communicate). or in general just balance a student out better.

buy up the movie, tv and other publication industries too. either that or just buy up the law firms that represent those industries, create some impossible to earn license for people to practice law in that area then fire everyone from those industries.

great saying by the Goblins in WoW. but truthfully, i'd have no issue taking a pay cut. that just means, less wear and tear on my car, less gas, maybe even cutting down on my insurance, less chance of getting a ticket and less headaches. probably the only issue for me is just losing some of the immediacy to my coworkers that i enjoy at times. not all the time, but it's good having people around you sometimes like when you're encountering a particularly difficult problem or just want someone to chat with. sometimes IMS isn't a great substitute for a physical sit down.

this is what i think. Google doesn't need the MPAA. the MPAA needs Google though. i've felt that considering the amount of content/money that Google possesses they could either simply just throw a kill switch against the studios or start buying them up one by one. hell, i blogged a while back that Google should simply create a larger VC type of fund for independent film makers and do more to help promote those people (and other independent artists for that matter).

i think the biggest mistake Microsoft had made was integrating IE into Windows with ActiveX controls, etc. maybe that allowed them to get a huge share of the market for a while, but the long term effects it had i don't think were worth the effort. too much insecurity and lack of trust. i hope that Chrome doesn't make similar mistakes.

i agree. the first two are classics. everything else stunk. i never cared for Fincher's version. i refuse to watch Resurrection, despite owning it (I have the 4-pack). and AVP didn't look that great to me either. besides, if you really want to watch so-called sequels, just tune to the SyFy channel. it seems as though all they do is regurgitate 80's SyFy plots with D rated actors and bad CGI.

i thought that would be bigger news.