For what it is worth, when a doctor commits thievery by submitting false claims to the government, the government pays them anyway. Because if we didn't, they wouldn't work for us, and that would eliminate our reason for being....

Private insurance needs to worry about remaining in business if they give all their cash away to thieves.

True reform is only possible if we vastly increase the number of doctors. Then the thieves could be left out in the cold, while new just-graduated-from-school doctors compete for the business.

60 Minutes did a story on this system a few months ago. As best I recollect:

1) The initial plan was vague. If you don't have an actual plan, then you won't ever have to call call the project done. This is good for Boeing, bad for the people paying the bills.

2) They finally decided that the plan would be that computers and cameras should surveil the area between towers, and, alert the people running the dispatch center of suspicious activity. "Suspicious activity" = people in the area. No person would be walking in these areas unless they were trying to cross the border illegally.

3) Boeing designed and delivered the initial system. THEN sat down the dispatch people at the consoles. Who promptly said it sucked and was worthless. You heard that right: Boeing did NOT bother to bring in the users who would use the system during the design phase. Also, it was here that the 'discovery' was made that the optics and cameras were WAY more expensive than Boeing originally said (because a web-cam is one thing, and camera that can resolve a clear picture at two miles is another). Of course, better optics means (a lot) more data (which the networks couldn't handle), larger storage requirements for the DVR, etc.

4) Re-work time.

5) Finally the trial tests. Oops. The heat seeking portion doesn't work in the heat of a desert. The radar kept triggering on wind-blown bushes and the occasional Rocket J. Squirrel. The radar didn't work for people sized targets in the rain. If you are a group of bad guys and see that that the camera is swiveling toward you, freeze for a bit (drop to your hands and knees and pretend to be the authorized Bullwinkle J. Moose). The camera will move on. The electronics equipment couldn't handle the heat. The electronics equipment couldn't handle the dust. The dust clogged gear was on the wrong end of very tall / difficult to climb towers.

6) In-truck computers. The Border Patrol was supposed to chase down people being guided by laptops hooked back to base. Except it is essentially impossible to drive around in the (extremely bumpy) desert AND work a computer at the same time.

Did I mention that a single World-War One style trench subverts the whole thing?

Nine towers and 28 miles in, the problems seem insurmountable. Boeing keeps saying they could deliver a system that works though. Just throw gobs more billion at it.... It's a 2,000 mile border.

Welcome to California, and please note that the numbers on the speed limit sign are a recommended minimum. Have a nice day!

Yeah - depends on your valuation of 'good'. "Better to make stronger products Good" - yes, Microsoft needs the competition. "Easier to rake in the money Good" - Microsoft would prefer to have less competition.

Although it would be good for consumers if the DOJ applied pressure to Microsoft, I don't see it happening in any administration in the next eight years.

You are correct - I meant the word systematic. Thanks.

The thing with Microsoft went further though. Specific coding by Microsoft to crash or hinder Novell software. Somewhere there is a list of five coding changes Microsoft did to make various Novell products crash or appear to fail.

I agree. It is all gain for Microsoft when Novell burns.

No more competition in the user directory space: Active Directory for the ultimate win. (Local data center) Email is down to Exchange versus Domino. MS SMS no longer has to compete with ZENworks. (Note that Novell has ZENworks for Linux now, too). The Google Wave server that Novell is working on will go down in the flames too.

Most of the migrations will be from SuSE to Red Hat - but some will be from SuSE to Windows. And all those Red Hat users will have to authenticate to Active Directory. It won't be any surprise when the Windows clients get right in to Windows servers, but the Red Hat boxen have inexplicable delays, random timeouts, and "what we have here... is a failure to... authenticate".

It's all win for Microsoft when their potential (hold-out) customers lose an alternative.

Novell was under systemic attack by Microsoft for decades. It worked, too.

When Novell is gone, Microsoft's only real competitors left in the corporate data center will be Red Hat and Solaris. Those people currently running SuSE will migrate to Red Hat, making them a bigger target for MS. Solaris is still there, but seems to be floundering a bit under Oracle. So one is a rising star, and the other, not. (I say that, but I don't know. OpenSolaris may be way more popular than I think).

Luckily for Red Hat, Microsoft is more worried about Google and the cloud at the moment. But that can easily change, if Microsoft has a few extra-lean quarters. Particularly if it is found that some large portions of the cloud run Red Hat.

The other lucky thing for Red Hat is that the hard-charging leader of Microsoft is gone, and the resultant internal squabbling keeps the MS VPs distracted. But that too can easily change, if Microsoft has a few extra-lean quarters. Taking it to extremes... if Bill Gates gets bored with the charity thing and comes back to 'rescue' Microsoft, I'd take short-sell positions on Red Hat.

This was a really big part of it. The other aspect that people seem to ignore was the back-and-forth sales calls on big customers by both Novell and Microsoft.

Novell: "We've got this great OS now, and it is inexpensive, and if you later want to part ways, there's Red Hat and other companies who you can turn to for support. It's the new thing, and Microsoft is 'Legacy'. You want the newest and the best, don't you?"

Customer: "Well Microsoft does kind of suck, and is expensive."

Microsoft: "So Novell is telling you to become the next AutoZone, hmmm? They got sued for running an OS with patent problems you know."

Customer: "Dang. We're already a big company that attracts frivolous lawsuits. Novell - we are not interested."

The Novell sales reps goes back to their bosses. They hatch a plan. Microsoft takes the bait.

Novell: "Remember how Microsoft was warning you about Linux? Well, they sell Linux now. Ours! You interested?"

What is Microsoft going to counter with? "Uh, we'll take your money, but we might sue you later." What would that do to their future sales (of all types)?

You are 100% correct that Novell did think about Red Hat as a competitor, and that drove a big part of the decision. It was a huge mistake to turn on Red Hat. When you try to feed your teammates to the alligator, all you are really doing is trying to be eaten last. With your teammates, you could have slain the alligator.

But they did choose to say "We and Microsoft are buddies now, and you won't have any trouble running Windows VMs under SLES, or SLES VMs under Hyper-V. Neener neener neener Red Hat." It may have gotten them a few sales, but the taunting of a beloved teammate sure pissed a lot of people off. Not to mention becoming best buds with the alligator.

Yeah. I like Novell, and I'll be sad to see them go. Heck, a lot of my skill set is in their tech. But three years from now, it will be as worthwhile as being "Studebaker certified". I suppose today that should be "Hummer certified"; but you get the idea.

If you don't call it Novell SuSE, but instead call it Citrix Xen, then it is still OK. Red Hat and MS Windows run fine under Xen. SuSE too.

If you are comfortable with the low-level stuff, 64 bit is good and adds a lot of value. But if you are more of an end-user, who wants to auto-install things and have everything Just Work, then staying with the lowest common denominator is the best course. I'm the latter, and even in 2010, it still frustrates me that some 64 bit things are still broken. I'm sure that within two years it will all be sorted out.

Not so great news: I recently turned 49 and hate it. Turning 40 wasn't so bad. But as I get closer to 50, it is obvious that it is all downhill from here.

It wasn't the easiest install on Linux, but once it got going, it's been solid. I like that it has clients for Windows, Linux, _and_ Mac. http://www.ifolder.com/ifolder

So for the On Every Street tour, I saw them in concert. You know that wonderful guitar solo at the end of Sultans of Swing? Well, after you've played it enough times, you can get fancy with it (as if it weren't already great). Essentially, Mark Knopfler played two notes around each single note in (well instead of) the common version of that riff. Just awesome.

And then leave the movie / conference / restaurant / dinner party for some place outside where your conversation isn't going to bother everyone else.

The caller chose to interrupt whatever it was you are doing. For that, they get "Hang on" and silence until you can relocate to a place where their interruption isn't so annoying to the rest of us.

I'm not sure why this isn't rule #1.