Still Falling Down - Media

Apropos of Nothing, my $0.02 on Detroit

webmaster@stillfallingdown.com (Writer) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:29:23 -0500

The "big 3" automakers are no longer the real US auto production base. Honda, Nissan, Toyota (and their "hidden" brands) make cars for the US market here, and their sales are a significant part of domestic auto production.

The big 3 probably make more US-sold cars in Mexico and Canada then the Japanese make in the US.

And yes, I know that "make" doesn't mean anything when parts and intermediate assemblies criss-cross the world several times before final assembly.

The UAW is terrified of the manufacturers seeking bankruptcy protection because it's the closest the mfrs will ever get to rewriting work rules, pay scales and no-show job requirements. And all of those factors have one underlying concept: dues collection (and that cash doesn't go to retiree health benefits, either).

If Ford, Chrysler, GM "go away", then their brands, intellectual property (think of the hundreds of thousands of patents they hold), usable production capacity, and employable, productive people (minus their union contracts) will be snapped up at auction by the hedge funds that still have cash (yup there are a few, and I bet you could raise 4 billion in about 20 minutes to go shopping at a Detroit fire sale) or other capital-flush enterprises. Christ, if someone can invest $37million in a blog (Huffington Post), there must be capital for an automaker.

Isn't a hedge fund or Japanese manufacturer-led bailout at $0.25 on the dollar better than a runaway train government bailout at $5 on the dollar (how much actually has to be collected from us for each dollar paid out in a bailout)? Which will result in more "real" production of US autos and a better workforce and supply chain?

Yes, hedge funds are corrupt and leaky, just like a Federal agency, but they are much more efficient at it, and they didn't point a gun at anyone's head to get the money.

Finally, cars made by Detroit suck. Bottom line, they fall apart, they burn gas like there's a royalty arrangement involved, they lack features, and they're just not as much fun to drive. If a non-Detroit car sucks, it's likely that the suck factors will be addressed in the near future, OR, it's OK, because you still got value for money.

Which products should the market encourage?
Bzzt. Sorry. Too late. The market spoke long ago.

Thanks for listening. When I try to talk to my cats about this, they just get up and walk away.

Come on! Let's hear how utterly, completely, and thoroughly wrong I am! Speak up!

New Hardware Requirements For the Next Version of Windows?

webmaster@stillfallingdown.com (Writer) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:25:24 -0400

Microsoft and Cray have announced a new supercomputer that runs Windows.

I think this is a pretty good indicator of the minimum hardware requirements for the next version of Windows.

Traveler's Insurance Gets Security Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

webmaster@stillfallingdown.com (Writer) — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 08:58:07 -0400

Thanks to Joel Spolsky for the scan of the Traveler's Insurance ad in Inc. magazine:

Forget the geek stereotype stuff. Like the rest of humanity, you can find techies who fit stereotypes and techies who don't.

What matters here is that Traveler's is promulgating the idea that external threats are where organizations should direct the bulk of their security efforts (and, of course, increased insurance spending).

WRONG!!

The threats come from the inside, people! Not the outside. Laptops gone missing (for some reason loaded with sensitive or confidential data), disgruntled employees, gossips, the complete and utter inability to secure media transformations (paper to disk to screen and back to paper again...), MS Outlook, security policies which focus on making legitimate tasks hard by forcing employees to jump through hoop after hoop of red tape, MS SQL Server, being unable to flexibly apply policies instead of using broad brushes to make everyone's like more difficult, and on, and on...

Whew! I feel better now. You can put away the needle with the tranquilizer. OK, yes, there are external threats, but they are much more readily identifiable, and easier to secure against.

There's also a slight matter of exactly what and how the insurer is actually underwriting. Read the contract really carefully, and you will find that unless you've been documenting every last sub-atomic particle of how you secure your premises, your systems, your operations, and your data, and that those efforts conform to some bizarre idea of security developed by an insurance industry task force, you ain't gonna see dollar one from that policy.

I am gonna get me a pair of red socks, though.

Who is Linkie-Winkie and why should I care?

webmaster@stillfallingdown.com (Writer) — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:47:29 -0400

Have you heard of linkie winkie?

No?, well neither have I.

Everybody's talking about it. See if your site has been linkie-winkie'd.

Nope, I'm not telling. You have to figure this linkie winkie thing out for yourself.

Oh, for a play on Broadway

webmaster@stillfallingdown.com (Writer) — Fri, 26 May 2006 17:50:21 -0400

I saw Tarzan on
Broadway the other night. Not the ape-man, but the
pallid Disney
pablum.
If anyone suggests going to see this particular entertainment, kill them. The 8 to 25 years in jail (assuming no one in the jury has seen it) will be infinitely preferable to the 2 hours of abject misery in the theatre.

The New Yorkers leaving the theatre all had looks of stunned disbelief on their faces. The out-of-towners, of course, loved it and gave it a standing ovation. Well, not
all
out-of-towners loved it.

Best line leaving the theatre: "I liked the movie better". They were referring, obviously, to the cartoon.

I think I remember seeing a play on Broadway once. It was an uplifting experience. No music. Just some very talented actors making the audience think and feel. Back
downtown to off-off-Broadway, I guess.

Get a grip!

webmaster@stillfallingdown.com (Writer) — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 15:26:42 -0400

A television program in Iceland learns the dangers of live programming.

I have no idea what's being said, but I think that the couple may be describing the difficulties of intimacy. The interviewer seems to find the man's voice hilarious.

He'll be doing the weather at the Arctic Circle real soon now.

Update:
Well, looks like I got taken in along with a few others. The real story appears to be that this is a sketch from some time ago on a Belgian TV show called "In De Gloria". The people being interviewed are victims of medical mistakes. The language appears to be vlaams (?), a dialect of Dutch.

Look here and here for more info.

This has gotten a lot of play at big-boys.

Since I'm sure I've added even more misinformation to this, please feel free to correct me.