Saturday, September 22, 2007

The Experience B.S.


When Albert Einstein showed up on the scene, the prevailing mood among physicists was that everything that needs to be known has already been known. All that remained doing was to fill out the details. And then Einstein turned the world upside down. Imagination is more important than knowledge, Einstein has famously said.

Barack Obama is no physicist, but this anecdote sheds light on a current idiotic debate whose narrative was authored by none other than Bill Clinton himself in a fundraising letter months back he wrote where he said to donors that they want someone who will take over the job on day one. Implication: Obama is not ready for prime time.

Obama was ready for prime time back in 2004. Compare Obama's convention speech in 2004 to Bill Clinton's same convention speech in 1988 for another Massachusetts dude, Dukakis. When Bill Clinton said, and to conclude, to his long, boring speech, the crowd burst into applause. As in finally we can expect this guy to be pushed off stage. Who got him there in the first place?

That little comparison shows Barack is destined for greatness.

Barack's Primary Opponents

At this stage in 1991, Fernando Ferrer was the only politician in America who had endorsed Bill Clinton. Nobody seemed to know him, outside or inside of politics. But those who knew him well liked him. Well, Barack has a quarter million of them. People who have bothered to learn about him, and give him big bucks.

Hillary Clinton feels like she already knows everything she needs to know. That is why she has so few foreign policy advisors. She is stuck in the past. She will take America back to the previous century, or keep it there like W did. She is like the physics community when Einstein showed up. She already knows. There is nothing else to learn.

No Strength

Strength is to stand up against public opinion. When was the last time Hillary did that?

No Experience

Watching Michael Jordan does not make you Michael Jordan. She never held public office before 2000.

Strength

When Barack opposed the war in 2002, many people thought this guy does not want to become US Senator.

Experience

Noone on national stage has his life experiences. He has the white experience, he has the black experience. He has the Third World experience. He has the academic experience. He has the community experience. He has the local, state and national experience. Hillary never held any state level office.

Barack's ability to lead comes from bringing people together which comes from his life experiences.

Judgment

That trumps strength and experience. I am sure W felt pretty strong attacking Iraq.

Imagination

This is Barack's number one thing. He inspires. He makes people want to imagine a new century.

In The News

Hillary Clinton holds a convincing lead among Democratic ... Kansas City Star Up 2-to-1 in many national polls, Clinton leads convincingly in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina. In first-in-the-nation Iowa, still viewed as a three-way contest between Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, the New York senator led by five points in the two latest polls, supplanting Edwards, who led last winter and spring. ....... Nine months ago, things looked strikingly different. Back then, Obama was hot property, smiling confidently on magazine covers, raising money like a seasoned pro and nearly matching Clinton in early-voter surveys. ....... “People have fond memories of Bill Clinton.” ..... “The people who have followed Hillary for 15 years since she became first lady realize she has accumulated a wealth of experience, depth and breadth,” Stewart said. “That’s the biggest thing.” ... Obama is charismatic, he said. But he remains “the new kid on the block” amid world turmoil. ...... “Our campaign’s been clear from the beginning that because we’re running against a quasi-incumbent, we don’t expect Senator Obama to ever pass Senator Clinton in the national polls before Iowa,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt. ....... front-runner often viewed as cool and aloof and battle-scarred by a litany of intense Washington struggles ...... A recent Gallup Poll found Clinton to be the “most liked” candidate among Democrats. Her “warmth” rating was 82 percent to Obama’s 72 percent ...... “People love the music,” Goldford said, “but they keep wondering where the lyrics are.” ..... “I love Hillary Clinton,” Biden said at the forum. “I’ve been getting beat up because I’m always saying nice things about her. They think I want to be her secretary of state.” ..... But he asked: “What’s changed to make you think Hillary’s going to be able to pull together 15 percent of Republicans (to win the general election)?” ..... The hope for Obama and the rest of the pack lies in recent history. In 2004, Howard Dean led the Democratic primary field until just days before Iowa’s caucuses. . .... four in 10 Iowa caucus voters in 2004 made their choices in the last week.
Does Clinton Have It Wrapped Up? U.S. News & World Report Clinton almost always stays on course and talks about what she wants, without being drawn into arguments that are to her disadvantage.
Obama Seeks to Make History as First African American President Voice of America Obama's convention speech gave him a national profile that set the stage for his presidential announcement early in 2007. ...... University of Virginia expert Larry Sabato says, "He is able to connect to individuals as well as the tenor of the crowd as a whole. The energy that comes with his youthful enthusiasm is a big plus. This really is a John F. Kennedy-like situation from 1960. That gives him a real chance." ..... "He has the charm of newness, in which everybody can read into it what they think he believes because it is what they believe. She, we know where she is coming from. It is just an absolutely fascinating duo." .... Barack Obama's multi-cultural background and his ability to connect with voters make him unique in presidential campaign history. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire in January will have the first say as to whether Obama's fresh approach can counter concerns about his lack of experience.

Google in Talks With Group Over High-Speed Pacific Cable Wall Street Journal a group looking to lay a high-speed trans-Pacific undersea cable ...... the growth of Google's infrastructure requirements as it continues an ambitious international expansion and increasingly offers data-intensive services such as online video and email, and online word processing for businesses...... use of the Internet and international phone service has grown quickly in Asia, making capacity tighter and often technologically outdated ..... surging volumes of Internet and phone transmissions. ...... discussions remained fluid.
IBM tackles Microsoft on all fronts ZDNet UK This week the company re-launched Lotus Symphony, which was a serious competitor to Microsoft Office, dating back to before IBM's purchase of Lotus. This time around, Symphony is based on the open-source OpenOffice software — and IBM has joined the OpenOffice movement with a promise to contribute software. ....... unified communications
Oracle's Acquisitiveness Pays Off, Big Time Forbes Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison's $23 billion shopping spree prompted critics to say he would turn his database company into a hideous, expensive Frankenstein iof a corporation. It seems, however, Ellison will get the last laugh. ........ profit surged 25.4% in the first quarter--the sharpest increase in seven years ..... That one cent may seem like a slim margin, but it was enough to strengthen investor confidence in Ellison's business model. Three years ago, billionaire Ellison started to gobble up boutique software outfits. In the process, he acquired about 30 companies and put more than $23 billion on the line. It was a controversial move, but it seems to be paying off. ..... Momentum is building ...... Oracle shares are up almost 30% for the year to date. ..... the strength of the company's business model and pipeline. ....... "The database business remains a steady force and the applications busienss continues to improve ...... Oracle's acquisitive nature continues in 2007. It has already acquired eight other companies this year. In May, it agreed to buy Agile Software for $495 million.
Sun AJAX technology readied InfoWorld AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)
Fox strikes deal for free shows on iTunes CNET News.com It's a strange time to be in the television business, as new strategies for reaching fickle television viewers are being trotted out. ..... The Fox shows are commercial-free
Intel's WiMax Joint Venture In Japan Will Target Global Markets InformationWeek The venture is targeting the 2.5-GHz frequency.
Serving Broadband to the Home with Mobile WiMAX TMCnet the difficulty and cost of building out and maintaining wireline broadband in underserved areas ...... The lower costs and better spectral efficiency of Mobile WiMAX, coming at a time when broadband is seen as a major contributor to economic growth, makes it more viable to expand home and personal access to a larger section of the population, even in the less developed areas in India, Pakistan, South-East Asia, Latin America and parts of Africa. ...... Mobile WiMAX can address the shortcomings of all the previous wireless BTTH technologies. .... reduces cost per Mbps and is more viable in sparsely populated areas ...... Mobile WiMAX is standards-based, so the equipment will benefit from volume economics and market competition.
Intel announces plans to launch 3rd generation USB technology Hindu that will enable faster transfer of content from printers, digital cameras and other peripheral devices to personal computers. ..... customer demands for storing and moving larger amounts of digital content ..... The USB 3.0 technology would be at least 10 times faster than the speed of today's connection. It is being developed by Intel and a number of other leading players such as world's largest software maker Microsoft, biggest PC maker Hewlett Packard and NEC Corporation among others. ...... as digital media become ubiquitous and file sizes increase up to and beyond 25 gigabytes
Cisco Systems Hosts Educational Webcast: Update to Carrier ... CNNMoney.com
Hewlett-Packard to Link Executive Pay to Performance (Update1)
Bloomberg Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd may have been overpaid when he got about $20 million in total compensation last year ..... the best corporate governance procedures
Is Michael Dell The Devil? CRN "He is an aggressive, capitalististic entrepreneur. .... Technology As A Service (TAAS) offering ..... Software As A Service (SAAS) offerings ..... 50-acre data centers all over the world. ..... "They are locating them right next to major power plants," he said. "What an aggressive company." ...... moving higher up the services food chain. .... "The more intimate you are with the client's business, the more meaningful you are to the client" ...... "The novelty has worn off IT. Companies want to focus on their core competency. Ten years ago if we went into a law firm with three guys names on it one of them was a part time IT guy when he should have been billing clients. Today they want to bill at $300 an hour and they want their information technology to work." ..... "I think the guys in the Chevys hate the guys driving the Porsches"
Apple's iPhone Is Launched In France, Via Vietnam InformationWeek
Toshiba lifts Thai production
Bangkok Post
Acer Definitely Won't Go Direct
PC Magazine Gateway's online business accounts for just 10 percent of its sales ...... "HP tried to kill the Compaq brand as quickly as possible…and discovered it's not so easy." "In our case, we'll keep the brands
Acer adopts multi-brand approach Inquirer pursue a multi-brand strategy in different worldwide locations ....... the PC becomes more of a commodity product ..... the Taiwan-based company ..... the direct model was dead and unlikely to be revived
Intel tick-tocks along nicely Malaysia Star the company will deliver the industry’s first 45nm (nanometre) processor on Nov 12. ..... High-k metal gate transistor technology .... “Our tick-tock strategy of alternating next generation silicon technology and a new microprocessor architecture — year after year — is accelerating the pace of innovation in the industry,” said Otellini. ..... each “tick” represents the silicon compaction rate and each “tock” represents the design of a new microarchitecture.
Hey kids! Pizza party at Google! Bizjournals.com the Google organic garden
Zimbra users vexed by Yahoo deal Computerworld He predicts Yahoo will disassemble the suite and plug its pieces into Yahoo Mail. "I believe [Zimbra's suite] will be killed off as a separate product ....... "I can't see how Zimbra fits into the way Yahoo makes money." ..... Zimbra will become more financially secure and able to access Yahoo resources ..... the best-case scenario would be for Yahoo to interfere as little as possible with the Zimbra team and technology while providing a strong backup. ...... Zimbra's team will help refine and improve portions of Yahoo Mail, on a case-by-case basis. Currently, the only component slated for a Zimbra revamping is Yahoo Calendar ...... Zimbra, founded in 2003, has an installed base of about 9 million mailboxes in over 100,000 organizations, although it deals directly with about 1,300 customers and channel partners .... Customers include Comcast Corp. and New York University. ..... Its core strength is e-mail, and it has commonly been considered an alternative to Exchange, but the suite also includes a word processor and a spreadsheet application. These let users create, share and collaboratively edit documents. ..... With e-mail, calendar, contacts list and office applications, it also competes against PC-based suites such as Microsoft Office and Web-hosted suites such as Google Inc.'s Google Apps. ...... big draw of the Zimbra suite is precisely its open platform, which lets external developers create application mashups called "zimlets." ...... a 100-employee startup ..... "Zimbra is our baby," he said. "The reason we made this deal is to grow Zimbra." ..... providing reliable performance at a massive scale for services such as Yahoo Mail.
Microsoft Delivers Xbox 360 Progress Report PC World
Microsoft Targets Europe After Failing to Woo Gamers in Japan Bloomberg Japan's $5.9 billion gaming market. ...... Microsoft's console is outsold by about eight to one by Nintendo's Wii and three to one by Sony's PlayStation 3
Yahoo's New Social Network Puts You (and Your Friends) in Charge Wired News no blogging component, no photo-management tool, and no e-mail or contact management. ..... Yahoo says Mash will eventually become a layer on top of its various web services -- tying them together with a social glue.
Why restraining Microsoft no longer matters CNET News.com Historians famously scorn generals who prepare to fight the previous wars. ..... the ruling would do just the opposite, "chilling innovation and discouraging competition." ..... We haven't had this big a trans-Atlantic snit over the same data pointssince inspectors went hunting for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. ...... The blunt truth is that John Ashcroft's crew had no clue about the technology shifts that were going to undercut Microsoft's momentum. .... when the Microsoft lawsuit got underway, the Google guys were just working stiffs with bad haircuts and Linux/open source was widely dismissed by experts supposedly in the know. ..... Google, which long ago surpassed Microsoft in the sizzle category, keeps adding to its store of free applications ...... Yahoo is spending $350 million to buy a Web-based e-mail and collaboration package comparable with Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. ..... under-the-radar Internet startups Microsoft's never heard of? Those are the bogeymen who inhabit Microsoft's nightmares, the ones unsheathing the killer app nobody anticipated.
Intel's in Hot Water in Europe BusinessWeek a widening gap in how the U.S. and Europe view the legality of hardball business tactics by dominant companies ..... the EC has charged Intel with illegal use of sales tactics such as rebates and incentives to maintain or increase its market share in microprocessors. ....... argues that the programs have led to lower chip prices for consumers. ....... "They want to foster gentlemanly competition, a premise that is foreign to American antitrust thinking." ...... AMD has been pressing the European Commission for years to take antitrust action against its larger rival. ...... Intel responds that consumers have benefited from rebates through lower prices. ... No question, the EU's powerful win against Microsoft has raised its stature among global antitrust cops. The moves against Intel in Korea and Japan also add momentum. But the EU hasn't been given a prosecutorial carte blanche: It still has to prove every case on the facts. Intel will put up a tough fight, so this story is far from over.
EC may put antitrust focus on Google ZDNet UK The EU is already investigating whether Google's planned $3.1bn (£1.5bn) acquisition of online ad company DoubleClick would give it undue control over online advertising. ....... Google is facing a Senate hearing next week in the US, where its DoubleClick purchase is being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Microsoft is pushing for action against Google. ...... "If Google becomes a central storage vault for data such as users' location and identity, as some fear, European regulators may one day try to compel the firm to give rivals open access to this information, rather as they have now forced Microsoft to release its communication protocols."
Oracle Struts Its Software Motley Fool impressive enough to take the market's focus off subprime and residential housing woes for the time being. Few firms have the clout to set the tone for the overall stock market, and this technology bellwether may just be getting warmed up as it outgrows the competition. ....... An acquisition spree over the past several years is definitely paying off for Oracle. The buyouts have had the obvious benefits of taking out archrivals such as Peoplesoft, Seibel Systems, Hyperion Solutions, and an array of niche competitors, but they have also allowed Oracle to set its sights on the largest players in software licensing and related services -- namely, SAP AG (NYSE: SAP), IBM (NYSE: IBM), and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). ...... mercurial company helmsman Larry Ellison did boast of plans to pass IBM in terms of market share later this year. .... Oracle continues to have reason to gloat, and the best may be yet to come.
Oracle earnings solid; takes on SAP, IBM ZDNet Oracle said it was taking share from SAP, which will likely beg to differ. ..... We like our growth strategy of expanding into high-end industry specific vertical software as opposed to SAP’s growth strategy of moving down market to sell software to small companies. ..... Ellison took on IBM and noted that Oracle wants the middleware market share crown. ...... “If we continue to grow our middleware software business at the same rate we grew it this quarter, Oracle will challenge IBM for the number one position in middleware by the end of this year.” .... Oracle had 77,652 employees at the end of the quarter.
Oracle Sees 65 Percent Growth in App Licenses eWeek





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