Indeed. "Waste" is a polite, or innocent, synonym for corruption rotten to the core.

Zune, Nokia, now the death of Barnes & Noble. It's a shame. We liked the Nook.

Before this week's layoffs, Forbes did an analysis http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2012/01/02/why-best-buy-is-going-out-of-business-gradually/ back in January on why Best Buy was in a slow, horrible death spiral. This panic over demanding a driver's license is just part of the apocalyptic horror. And it's a demonstration of the short-sighted, reactive, anti-consumer leadership that painted them into this corner. Clearly, they've decided morons are their target demographics because who else will now buy more than one big ticket item at Best Buy more than once every 90 days? Guess it takes one to know one.

I'd have known a lot less about computers -- since the built-in decompiler came in handy when "compatibility" with C64 programs meant you had to recode because they moved the video addresses, among other things. I guess sometimes the best master is the one who throws you down a well and makes you find your own way out.

Indeed. I don't hear the statement saying that every employee is a uniquely valued snowflake. One can read a bit of the opposite in the tone, really, if the idea presented turns out to be stupidly thought out, but it expresses an open and non-punitive philosophy on the part of the company to keep an open ear to ideas that seems very reasoned.

It's true and it's weird. If you let a kid experience an hour at 300 baud on a Commodore he'd go crazy, but I'm sometimes surprised at how blase I am. Like the speed bump of a new computer that you're already used to the next day, it's all just been little bumps: maybe around 2400 bps when the text speed was getting pleasant, USENET, Mosaic, streaming audio, then video, then Skype, etc.

I quickly spent most of my time on GEnie. I think their leadership can be really proud of themselves. Like the article alludes to, it was clear that GE itself didn't really give a crap. It was just a way to pay for their computers in the off-hours. Despite what it must have been like working within that environment, somehow the GEnie team managed to create a really nice and competitive system. Didn't make it to '99 but I hung on to their text service longer than I should have into the Mosaic and early Netscape era.

Delphi had their "internet portal." My first taste of the "wider world," in text of course, in '94.

But then QWorst/Centurylink has dropped my connection four times in the last nine hours. Not that unusual days after a storm. If I didn't have _so_ many reasons I don't want Comcast.....

Maybe. But an awful lot of news sites I visit seem to feel obligated to leap at the latest release like a snake on a rat before I'm aware of an update.

That said, on the the "stupid me" category, a year+ ago I happened to have both Gnash and Flash installed and I _thought_ Firefox was using Flash. Was wondering why videos weren't working so well -- but the interesting thing was that more than half _were_ working well enough. Might be promising.
   

I think the horrible speakers are an important factor in Minneapolis as well.

Except that people don't eat and excrete microchips and we have perpetual growth of the population. Perhaps innovative creations can improve the standard of living of a _stable_ and _sustainable_ population.

Obama never wants to prosecute anything past (oh, say: war crimes, torture, murder) because it's, like, so "yesterday." Let's just get all hopey and come together for a brighter future instead of being gloomy old negative gusses. I"m sure Mr. Happy President wants us all to sing "Kumbaya" and see happy faces all around, OK? OK?