June 26, 2008 by vortmax.

It’s one thing for some company to say there’s no compelling reason to switch to Windows Vista, but when that company is Intel…

“This isn’t a matter of dissing Microsoft, but Intel information technology staff just found no compelling case for adopting Vista,” the person said.

An Intel spokesman said the company was testing and deploying Vista in certain departments, but not across the company.

Ouch.

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June 20, 2008 by vortmax.

Finally, an explanation for why Windows Vista is such a train wreck:

“The reason we come up with new versions is not to fix bugs. It’s absolutely not. It’s the stupidest reason to buy a new version I ever heard. When we do a new version we put in lots of new things that people are asking for.  And so, in no sense, is stability a reason to move to a new version.  It’s never a reason. “

- Bill Gates, in an interview with German weekly magazine FOCUS (nr.43, October 23,1995, pages 206-212)

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June 19, 2008 by vortmax.

What is the “Enron Loophole?”  It was an amendment in the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 which allowed electronic futures trading to be deregulated. This allows speculators and traders to operate without oversight, or “in the dark” as the term goes.

Congress recently tried to close the loophole with an amendment to the recent Farm Appropriations bill, but President Bush vetoed it, and the senate failed to get the 60% needed to override a Republican filibuster. Thus, the loophole remains, and the speculators keep running up the price of oil without any reigns what so ever.

Countdown with Keith Olberman explains it better than I can, as well as how John McCain has “flip-flopped” on first his opposition of the loophole in 2002 (”We’re all tainted,” he said then) to his current apparent support to keep the loophole in place (he voted against the Farm Appropriations bill, and is proposing solutions other than closing said loophole):

The “Enron Loophole” must be closed.  There must be transparency in the online futures markets.  Say what you will about “gub’ment meddling with markets,” I’d rather have some regulation (mainly transparency) than what is currently happening with no regulation.

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June 13, 2008 by vortmax.

June 17th is the official release date for Firefox 3, and Mozilla is out to set a record for the most downloads in one day. Help set a world record by downloading Firefox and giving it a try.

While no browser is truly secure, Firefox is more stable and secure than Internet Explorer, and more compatible with websites than Safari/Webkit (at least in my experience).  I have used Firefox since it was first known as “Phoenix” years ago, and I plan to install Firefox 3 on all of my computers.

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June 12, 2008 by vortmax.

The U.S. Supreme Court dealt another blow to Bush’s attempt to usurp the Constitution by ruling that Guantanamo Bay detainees have the right to challenge their detention in civilian courts in the U.S.:

In its third rebuke of the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court’s liberal justices were in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”

Thank goodness some sanity still exists in this nation.

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