And Still I Persist

My stalwart co-blogger, Bruce Henderson, has been waving his arms here on ASIP for roughly two years now about the coming financial crisis, with a particular focus on the subprime fiasco.

Well, here’s a link to a funny, scathing, profane, yet quite accurate presentation (using stick figures) on how we got into the subprime mess in the first place. Those of you who have read Henderson’s posting will recognize that he’s laid out most of these issue before. All of it brings up the question: what the hell were they (the various mortgage brokers and financial institutions) thinking?

Hat tip to Jonah Goldberg at NRO. ..bruce w..

Angelina Jolie, who has been doing humanitarian work in Iraq, wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times that says: the surge is helping the UN’s humanitarian efforts and that she’d like the troops to stay:

During my trip I also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has announced the creation of a new committee to oversee issues related to internally displaced people, and a pledge of $40 million to support the effort.

My visit left me even more deeply convinced that we not only have a moral obligation to help displaced Iraqi families, but also a serious, long-term, national security interest in ending this crisis.

Today’s humanitarian crisis in Iraq — and the potential consequences for our national security — are great. Can the United States afford to gamble that 4 million or more poor and displaced people, in the heart of Middle East, won’t explode in violent desperation, sending the whole region into further disorder?

What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made. In fact, we should step up our financial and material assistance. UNHCR has appealed for $261 million this year to provide for refugees and internally displaced persons. That is not a small amount of money — but it is less than the U.S. spends each day to fight the war in Iraq. I would like to call on each of the presidential candidates and congressional leaders to announce a comprehensive refugee plan with a specific timeline and budget as part of their Iraq strategy.

As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: U.N. staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs. And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq. They have lost many friends and want to be a part of the humanitarian progress they now feel is possible.

It seems to me that now is the moment to address the humanitarian side of this situation. Without the right support, we could miss an opportunity to do some of the good we always stated we intended to do.

Good for her.  ..bruce w..

In case you’re not aware, Microsoft is being sued for allegedly setting misleading levels of hardware compatibility for “Vista Capable” computers. In other words, the suit claims that Microsoft knowingly set low levels of Vista-compatibility for hardware, even though many of the computer models so designated would not be able to run anything above Vista Home Basic.

Well, with lawsuits, you have discovery (where each side has to produce, under court order, relevant documents and other information), and the discovery in this lawsuit is proving to be quite interesting. Todd Bishop, at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, has been running a blog about Microsoft. He’s been covering the lawsuit, and he’s now published the text of various internal Microsoft e-mails regarding Vista — and they aren’t pretty. For example, here’s an e-mail from Stephen Sinofsky to Steve Ballmer:

People who rely on using all the features of their hardware (like Jon’s Nikon scanner) will not see availability for some time, if ever, depending on the mfg. The built-in drivers never have all the features but do work. For example, I could print with [my] Brother printer and use it as a stand-alone fax. But network setup, scanning, print to fax must come from Brother.

The Vista Ready logo program required drivers available on 1/30. I think we had had reasonable coverage, but quality was uneven as I experienced.

Intel has the biggest challenge. Their “945″ chipset which is the baseline Vista set “barely” works right now and is very broadly used. The “915″ chipset which is not Aero capable is in a huge number of laptops and was tagged as “Vista Capable” but not Vista Premium. I don’t know if this was a good call. But these function but will never be great. Even a 945 set has new builds of drivers coming out constantly but hopes are on the next chipset rather than this one.

And this from the (since-departed) head of Windows Development, Jim Allchin (referring to adjustments as to what should be designated “Vista Capable”):

We really botched this. I was not involved in the decision process and I will support it because I trust you thinking through the logic.

BUT, you guys have to do a better job with our customers than what was shown here.

This was especially true because you guys put me out on a limb making a commitment. This is not ok.

Read the whole thing, particularly some of the embedded links (such as the PDF of an extensive internal e-mail exchange). Hat tip to Preston Gralla at Computerworld. ..bruce w..

…and still one of the best:

Hat tip to the Llama Butchers. ..bruce..

Here’s the news report:

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

“We will be pretending to count votes and we will be running totals through out the night.” ..bruce w..