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Sunday, April 21, 2002 |
"This is why we - an ardent Republican and an ardent Democrat - are announcing...
a new bipartisan coalition, Common Good (www.ourcommongood.com), to advocate a basic overhaul of our legal system."
This is quoted from an Op-Ed piece titled We're Reaping What We Sue in the April 17, 2002 Wall Street Journal. The editorial was jointly written by George McGovern and Alan K. Simpson - both former senators. I'm always a little leery of any of these organizations which are formed some years after politicians retire from public office. However, no cause could need as much attention as the overhaul they speak of. Whether criminal or civil, Federal or state or local, the legal system in this country which finds lawyers lining up to help people sue anyone at anytime for anything without regard to merit. Here's another quote:
"Many disputes in social settings involve value judgments, not 'proof.' All that's needed to bring a lawsuit is a theory. in hindsight, it is often easy to think of something different that could have been done. Resourceful lawyers soon learned they coud bring lawsuits for almost anything, and in almost any amount. The idea of 'rights' was turned upside down, from being a shield against abuse to being a sword for personal gain."
3:04:52 PM 
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With the same zeal...
that journalists and analysts are using to bury the telecom industry, these same writers will one day return to write about the shortages that exist for dependable, fast bandwidth that is available everywhere.
Broadband is a term that has been overused to refer to the move from 56K modems to cable or DSL. Realities will begin to set in late this year or early next year. Those realities will expose 1.5Mbps as being insufficient bandwidth for much of what we will want to do with PC's, PDA's, etc.
It may be fair to lob shots at the teleco's. It may also be fair to talk about a glut of fiber. However, all bandwidth isn't created equal! Fiber is only one piece of a very large puzzle that must be tightly fit together to create truly fast and dependable next generation networks that are capable of delivering broadband bandwidth. Only a few players are positioned to capitalize on the coming shortage of this type of bandwidth.
Telecom May Have Bargains, After All. It seems a good time to survey the slag heap that is the telecom stock sector. Surely, some jewels lie buried there, cast off in recent months by dispirited investors. By Gretchen Morgenson. [New York Times: Business]
NTT of Japan Plans to Cut 17,000 Jobs. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone said that it would restore its profitability over the next three years, in part by cutting 17,000 jobs. By Ken Belson. [New York Times: Business]
WorldCom Cuts 2002 Guidance. WorldCom lowered its full year 2002 earnings and revenue guidance for the second time, citing lower demand from business customers amid an industrywide slump. By Reuters.
For more on the bandwidth dilemma take a look at this post from John Robb.
2:32:26 PM
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Leadership
I haven't seen this, but I'd like to. There are few lessons in leadership that are more profound than those seen when a nation's leader is facing the possible extinction of his country.
Churchill, the Hero and the Husband. A new HBO film seeks to explain how Winston Churchill pulled himself up from political oblivion to become a towering figure — and a model for today. By Sarah Lyall. [New York Times: Arts]
2:20:05 PM
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If words have meaning...
...and I'm confident they do in the world dominated by technology-oriented Radio bloggers, then I've got a whole set of terminology to nail down. It goes something like this:
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Outliner or outline (an application/feature that exists within the Radio application and the outlines are the "data" created by using the outliner)
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Google outline browser (don't yet have a clue about this one!)
2/15/98: Meet an Outliner. "I had to experience the usefulness of an outliner before I could envision using one, to advantage, myself." [Scripting News]
Then, there's the whole concept of K-LOGS. I believe John Robb coined this term. Today, there is more about the concept at his web site.
All of this, for me at least, has to do with learning enough about Radio and its advocates to be able to see which gadgets are merely gadgets, which tricks are for programmers and developers and which features are truly features with function and benefit for end users and groups of end users.
So far, I'm as impressed with the prospects of using Radio as a content management system for updating a set of Radio categories as I am with Radio's utility as a personal journalism/publishing platform. Outlines, Google Boxes and a whole lot of other stuff isn't likely to turn executives, professionals and other non-developers into consistent Radio users. This isn't bad - it just is!
Now, if you suggest that the objective at some level is to turn Userland into a household name, make Radio a "killer app" and provide everyman with a personal publishing system, then you might want to reconsider the time-sink associated with some of the gadgets. Otherwise, Radio will go right along impressing a certain subset of developers, a subset of technology professionals and selected (patient) individuals from many other walks of life.
2:15:57 PM
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© Copyright 2002 Steve Pilgrim.
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