Monday, March 24, 2003

The end of two great couples This last weekend I read in the paper about a man in his mid-80's. He died two weeks after burying his wife of almost 60 years. This couple had children. These surviving children described his death as a double blow. Following so close the death of their mother the children had lost their father. They said they should have expected the death of their father. The elder couple's lives had been a love story for each other. In a seemingly unrelated event: recently we learned that some dear friends of ours, a couple in their mid-40's, a couple who were young sweethearts, a couple who seemed to be so much in love so recently ago; are now getting divorced. They have been married around 25-years, they have kids and grand kids. Before learning of their impending divorce, it seemed to me they'd made it. It seemed to me they had done what I could not do. It seemed to me that they had done what none of the other people our age I know had been able to do. It seemed to me as though they had been able to survive being born and growing up in the last half of the 20th Century and been able to meet young and have a good old fashioned forever love (like the elder couple in the newspaper story.) Thanks to our friends, while being difficult, it seemed that such a thing was perhaps still possible. It seemed possible for young lovers to meet, marry and live happily ever after. It seemed to me carriages could still ride off into the sunset. Since learning of their split I have been mourning the loss, the death, of my fantasy. I guess believing this was possible was important to me. It meant I was not totally stupid for marrying young (a marriage that didn't make it.) It meant that my friends who did the same weren't mistaken either. Because of their seeming success all could be justified. If one person out of a million wins the lottery; perhaps the money for lottery tickets isn't totally wasted, perhaps we are not all stupid to buy tickets. Now I wonder if the lottery is too much of a long shot and if Cinderella died in the 70's. 4:52:13 PM    comment []

War, Windows and Linux As the war gets nastier and increasing accidents of war start to make the headlines I can't help but think of the pictures I have seen and the comments I have heard. Today's Mercury-News said, "world sympathy for American interests is at its lowest." I remember seeing pictures of how the foreign press is reporting the war. In more than one third world country, we are being portrayed the new Nazi's. In another they are putting machine gun toting soldiers in front of the local McDonalds. Anti-Americanism leads to possible violent attacks on the symbols of American economic strength (at worst) and at least, a possible "don't buy American" wave in many countries. McDonalds is seen as one symbol of American economic dominance (that is why the guards.) Microsoft may be seen as another. Another factor: Microsoft's more aggressive license enforcing mechanism. It is easy to understand why Microsoft wants to crimp down on pirated use of its OS. If I wrote some really cool piece of software I'd want to get paid for it too (unless I was Linus Torvolds) and likely wouldn't cotton to folks stealing it. But, especially in the worlds emerging markets, the price of a full license of Windows current wonder OS is a heck of a lot of money! If the customer doesn't buy Windows OS, because the customer simply can't pay for it (yet?), and the customer rips it off, at least the customer is still using Windows. There is longterm value in that for Microsoft. As users in these emerging markets (hopefully) prosper they eventually do become paying customers (again, hopefully.) Enter Linux. What does Linux have going for it for a customer from an emerging market customer perspective? It's legally free (at least initially), it's hardware friendly (it can run on a wider range of older computers) and it's not invented in America. For foreign country governments and businesses needing support, there are even non-American companies (like SuSE) that sell and support Linux. High prices of forced Microsoft purchasing and a wave of anti-American sentiment could make using Linux (yes, even on the desktop) a lot more attractive in the world's emerging markets. I wonder; once accustomed to Linux, and free software, will the world's emerging market buyers ever look back? In my opinion; if they don't, and if anti-Americanism swells, that could be bad for business, bad for Microsoft and yes, even bad for you, me and Apple. 9:09:02 AM    comment []