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| Sunday, January 20, 2002 |
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Where there's smoke, there's smoke 
| | Both stories are played as strategic chess moves by giants fighing over desktops. The Washtech piece is filled with absolutely speculative BS: |
| | With such a move, AOL Time Warner could potentially make significant inroads into Microsoft's bread-and-butter business. An even graver challenge to Microsoft would be for AOL Time Warner to develop a rival operating system that works exclusively with the media giant's own Internet service provider, its Web browser or proprietary content. |
| | Right. That's like saying we could attract billions of people to Mars if AOL would buy it and supply it with enough oxygen. |
| | This whole thing reads bogus to me, right from the opening paragraph: |
| | AOL Time Warner Inc. is in talks to buy Red Hat Inc., a prominent distributor of a computer operating system, an acquisition that would position the media giant to challenge arch rival Microsoft Corp., according to sources familiar with the matter.. |
| | Linux on the desktop is a worthy goal, but neither AOL nor Red Hat have anything with the leverage to force Linux adoption, including the trillions of CDs AOL sends out in the mail. I suppose AOL could give away AOL Web appliances the way it now gives away CDs, but there is no evidence anybody wants those things. A cheap Linux-based AOL appliance made by Gateway significantly failed to sell last year. |
| | Linux does threaten Microsoft in some segments of the server business, but AOL has no particular interest in that business. That's why, when AOL acquired Netscape, it scraped off Netscape's server business on Sun. |
| | Now, as Windows CE, Microsoft's embedded operating system, starts showing up on more appliances, AOL may need better licensing deals than it's seeing right now. That may make Red Hat attractive as some kind of threat. |
| | Meanwhile AOL doesn't need Red Hat to put embedded Linux in appliances of its own. Linux is free for the taking, and easily embedded in all kinds of stuff. |
| | Anyway, I don't buy it. And my bet is that Microsoft won't buy it either. |
Fruit fetish
I was overheard to have said...
| | Glenn quotes me talking to Adam Engst at Macworld. I don't remember saying what Glenn said I said, but it sounds like me, mostly because it includes the word fuck. What can I say, besides one more fuck. I'm from fucking New Jersey. |
| | So I looked up "fuck" and myself on Google and found a pile of links, naturally. Some good stuff in there, including "...which is why it's all fuck and no fetus" from this post here. Shoulda showed that one to Paul before he went on the radio the other day to do battle against the latest insanities of the record industry. |
Grab your torch
| | The latest EGR makes Zarathustra sound like Martha Stewart. Strong, strong shit. I don't know what RageBoy is on, but it'll set fire to everything that gets close: |
| | I am Jaguar and this broken knowledge is my pyramid. Jungle encroaching on these ancient ruined cities, warmth of your living blood my breath. Whatever will be I remember. Whatever has been I forget. Look in my eyes. Look deeper. See the world on fire. |
| | This isn't Whitman for recovering marketers. It's deeper than that. It's your other you. Read it at your risk's risk. |
C'est magnifique
| | I've still got the warm fuzzies half an hour after leaving Amélie, which is simply one of the best movies I have ever seen. I'm sitting here struggling to think of a movie I've enjoyed more. I may eventually; but right now I can't. It's a sweet, deep, lovely, complex, original, inventive, perfectly crafted piece of work. |
| | Going into the movie I was bummed to be missing the Raiders Game. After hearing what happened, I wasn't. |
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