Recently in Soap Box Category

Ok, so the person in charge of regulating the communications and other SEC controlled antitrust capable industries says, or acts, like AOL and Microsoft can police each other to ensure that things don't get too out of control. This is not an exact quote from the article which appeared in the Wired article I am reading, which means it is several months old, if not pre 2002. I have just one question to ask.

What happens when, not if, AOL and Microsoft merge? Right now they hate each other, but what happens at the point in time that those two companies become one/ I mean the AOL Time Warner 'merger' shook out to AOL in charge when I am sure that it was originally supposed to be the other way around. Eventually, after the two of them buy up all the properties in areas of their interest there will be one merger target left, and that is the other side.

Eventually, I have no doubt, the only room for growth for the two companies will be to make the two companies one. The only question in my mind now is what exactly the time frame is. right now there is a lot of other companies for those two giants to swallow, seemingly a cable company for supper and a newspaper chain or two for dessert on AOL's side at least, and while their interests intersect very rarely for now, eventually AOL will step into the domain of Microsoft and vice versa, and you know what?

Then it will be only be a matter of time before they join. The only hope is strong competition and open source theology. Between those maybe the world has a chance to not become the fodder of the war between the two, and the guinea pigs of AOL Time Warner Disney Microsoft Inc. This, I think, is the reason we need more rules against mergers and acquisitions, and not less.

I seem to be stepping up on this thing an awful lot as of late. I guess I may just be getting more and more passionate. Yeah, this will be a long one, so settle in with a drink and maybe some popcorn.

Beginning early in my life, grade 1 or maybe earlier, I was picked on. This was not short lived. This happened for nearly my entire school career. I met all kinds of bullies. Ones who used words. Ones who used fists. I dealt with some who were guys, and even some who used the 'never hit a woman' chivalry to protect themselves when they picked on someone and even went as far as kicking a guy in the balls when they knew the person would not fight back. I had many names. I earned some.

I was suspended when I was 'caught' fighting, even though it was clear I was defending myself, and not only did my aggressors never get punished, but they were consoled when I 'beat them up'. I knew early on that fighting back, defending myself in any way would not stop them, as that just showed them nothing would happen to them, and it would get me in trouble. I was labelled a troublemaker for this.

I also learnt that doing nothing would get me nowhere as the more I ignored them, at the encouragement of those who would see me become something to show those bullies that I was not useless, worthless or pathetic, but instead ignoring the aggressors only made the next beating worse. Once I was attacked by a group of 20 or so kids in grade 6 while I was in grade 7, all because one of their classmates, who I found out a week later lived down the street from me, told the school I had attacked her.

I did not fight back simply because I could foresee the trouble it would cause me. I looked at this from the logic that the shame of allowing kids 2 years younger then myself assault me was not as bad as being investigated for criminal charges or scholastic expulsions. I tried desperately to get out of school alive. And sane. I dreamt many times over those 12 years of school that I would obtain weapons and show all of those who had beaten me, picked on me and treated me like the school punching bag.

Often the first targets in my dream were the administrators who treated me like the aggressor. This was my goal, to show those who had made my life hell. made my cry, made me walk for an hour to get home in the middle of the day without shoes in the middle of winter because the bullies has taken the ski's we were using in gym class that day.

April 20, 1999. Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. My first thoughts when I heard about that was, to be honest, finally. Finally those who attack, humiliate and abuse the lesser and more honorable 'loner' who will not fight back. finally the loners fought back. They fulfilled all my dreams when growing up. My next thought was of those losing their lives.

See, Christianity did not completely eliminate those dreams of murder and revenge, but it did show them there was another way to get my revenge. Excellence. Greatness. Infamy. I felt I could show them that I was better and tell them where to shove their bull shit and their superior attitudes. Instead of firing bullet's I could fire greatness and prestige. I could become something great.

To this day I still love to see one of those who looked down on me and remark how much they have changed, how they got fat and lazy, how they now work in low class pathetic jobs. I know I will become something great. I know I am destined for greatness. I know many of them will achieve no better then grease monkey or worse. I know I will one day see people like Pat Wallace, Chris Gaudette, and people from even further back in my history and I will happily tell them how great I have become, and I will know how little they are, how pathetic their lives have become.

I know last time I saw Pat he was a druggie, alcoholic who rapes and beats women for kicks. I know last I heard about Chris he has been divorced after his wife, Tracy, left him because he was an ass who spent more time drinking with Pat then he did at home with her or their kid(s).I am happy in my knowledge I am one hell of a better person then he is. I would never do have the shit they have done, and I am damned proud of this.

Skip forward once again, to the present. Rachel Sa of the Winnipeg Sun did an editorial on an Ontario brother and sister who are suing a variety of people, the school board, the aggressors and a number of others who played a part in their high school life being made a complete hell, including maintaining a web site for more then a year professing the belief that the brother was of homosexual tendencies, and claimed repeatedly that the brother was not only gay, but enjoyed the company of children.

I foresee that this will not be the last suit of this kind. This is the only solution to avoid another event like Columbine. Until school principals and school boards take claims of harassment seriously and act on them in the proper fashion it is not safe to go to school, neither for the aggressors nor for the attacked. We are in a time when any threat, any credible threat(no, not a 5 year old in kindergarten who points a finger like a gun) needs to be taken seriously be it from a bully or from a bullied. the bullied should not be treated like a criminal, and just because a dozen people tell the exact same story, that does not mean that they are all telling the truth.

A conspiracy of lies is just as easily upheld up be twelve people as the truth is by another twelve. As someone who has been there, done that and has the nightmares, something has to be done. If it weren't for my decision to win by excellence, I would consider suing all those who were responsible, from Neil Campbell to Lorette. Fortunately for them, I have no interest in suing them other then for the satisfaction it would give me and the fact that it might finally put to rest the frequent nightmares of my childhood.

Ok, I am watching Tech Live on TechTV, and they just showed a bit from when Michael Eisner of Disney and I think the CEO of Intel and I must say I wish I had paid more attention when the appearance happened. See, the problem I have is with Eisner's claim that law makers should forget Fair rights, forget what's right, can law makers force tech makers to institute digital rights management technology. when he was told no, by who I assume is the CEO of Intel, he said 'then we have a problem'.

Michael. We already had a problem. See, you people, you multi millionaires working for multi billion dollar companies who control all we see and all we hear already, think that you should have your current monopoly protected instead of trying to(Gasp!!!) innovate and compete.

I don't care that you think fair use is something to be forgotten, I think your wishes should be thrown out of any consideration as it is clear you care about nothing but your own pocket book. There was a time, I'm told, when those responsible for the proliferation of music, movies and other content were equally concerned with making sure that the user enjoyed the product, but you now use the bogus excuse of piracy to reason out any lack of sales or revenue.

Could it be the economic slowdown? Could it be the revolt over the sale of non standard CD's? Of course it is and you know it. What do we have to do? Send you and Congress a letter every time we don't buy a CD just so you know why you are losing so much money? Is that the only way we can make sure that you don't lie and con lawmakers into forced digital rights management?

I would like to note that I might have been a little harsh in my rant on the anti blogging trend in computing. I didn't mean to make it look like I was aiming squarely at the geeks list members, but actually at all those who condemn blogging without adequate research. People like that research not to be proven wrong, which is the only was to look at something properly, but they look and focus only on the junk. For instance, one list member looked at one post and ignored the rest, simply because that one post validated his views. It meant little to him that in one day of 20 posts there was only one that was of a personal nature. That is not right by any stretch of the imagination. Oh, an Mr. McGuire? I am not a weenie! A freak yes, but not a weenie!

Scoble reposts something he found on the web about Israel. Soem excellent points, but Iraq is in no way innocent, let us not forget that. I am no Israeli apologist by far, but let us give credit in all places it is due, shall we?

Ok, I have been given the go ahead to give info on this topic(don't ever say I don't respect privacy!), so here goes. I would first like to thank Christine, I hope on behalf of all her customers, for the constant updates and information. Most hosts wouldn't even tell a customer their site went down. I would never consider writing anything negative as you have done nothing wrong and I am pretty sure all your customers realize this was just a case of a bad choice. for that no one can fault you, we can only move on.

Now, for the updates. As of now the Blogomania site, along with all of their customer's sites, are down. they have said they hope to have everyone back up over the weekend. Though this is an unusual length of time, I think we would all be much happier if we were assured this type of problem would not happen again. Their host, VeoWeb, has apparently not informed them what the problem is, nor contacted them in anyway about the issue. They are giving the users a number of options, like staying with them when they move to a new host, staying with VeoWeb or leaving that setup all together and seeking a new host.

I personally recommend that any people who are with them stay with them during this as they have been more then a little informative which as I am sure Mike and other's will tell you is not a common thing. This is still a very personable host and they are the only host I know who welcomes the occasionally hassle filled blog community with open arms. Christine has done an excellent job of keeping us all up to date, and letting us know the latest. I thank her and I hope all of her customers do as well.

I would love to get feedback from the other customers of Blogomania, as I think I am one of the few who has other means of blogging and updating. Please make liberal use of my comments system, and I hope to contact Mike to see if he is willing to set up a forum category or topic for this. More info to come.

Well, Bob Thompson is speaking for all am ericans again. "The US should make it clear that we don't like Arabs, that we recognize Islam ic nations don't like the US, and that we don't care what Islam ic nations think of the US". I am not am erican, but I know many and not one of them hate all Arabs. that sounds a little too much lice racism to me, and I must say that I am shocked to hear it so blatantly expressed, even from Bob. To say you hate an entire race of humans, well, is going too far.

There are many, in case you didn't hear, that are against attacks on anyone, be they Israeli, Arab or am erican. These people do not hate am erica, only some of the most vocal. Look at it this way. The vocal majority of am ericans are all for the weakened privacy standards and have no problem with the FBI reading all of their emails in the nam e of homeland security. Now, one must ask based on Bob's theory, whether or not these people speak for every or even the majority of am ericans. I think not, just as I think that not all, not even most Arabs hate the US or Israel.

It looks like not only is Silicon Spin and John Dvorak gone form TechTV, but Kate Botello, co-host of Extended Play, is also departing as of April 1. Her final episode is running now through the weekend, as well as the fifth of April. Geez, so many things are changing. The two stations I watch on a very regular basis are CNN and TechTV and both are going through major post Easter changes. Is there some correlation? Anyone know? Thanks.

So, it is Good Friday. This means one thing to me. Nothing is open. Period. No mail delivery for 4 days, no stores open today, the mall's closing early if they open at all, and the gym, which I would have hit today, is open on a limited time frame, the same one they have on weekend's. So, basically, I have three days when I cannot go to the gym, and there are like no new episodes of my favorite weekend shows. Joy. Well, I am not sure what my posting will be like for the rest of the day, but I will try to toss a few good nugget's of info on here today. See ya soon.

Well, it looks like the fans of TechTV have lost yet another favorite. John Dvorak, popular host of Silicon Spin, once of the best of the channels shows, has been let go and the show cancelled. I was wondering what was up with all the repeats the last couple of weeks, and in a typical Dvorak letter to the fans, he says that he was surprised to be let go and would no longer have any affiliation with the channel.

I was surprised that the blogging personalities, Leo and Chris(Cat and Megan have all but killed their blogs) have not had at least something to say about this. I know John was a rough character, but he was perhaps the most well known of all the on air personalities in the tech community. Leo may be their most popular and beloved, but John's affiliation with Ziff Davis, the original owner of the network, he is best known of them all.

The show had a four year run, and will go off the air this Monday, April 1, leaving the assumption that the show will not be seen past Friday, unless the show has a final episode on the Monday. I got the impression from his letter that he has no job there and will not be filming any more shows there. Hopefully, for the fans, I am very wrong. It would be nice to see an all calls last show, though that may be a little tiresome for the viewers, who had to put up with the Tech Live all day show going off the air literally in front of their eyes.