Bob the Impaler

vlad1Microsoft announced this week its first-ever layoffs, which brought out the naysayers and predictors of doom, but not me.  I see cutting these 5000 jobs as good, with my only caution being that it really should be 20,000 at least. Fifty thousand would be better.

I am not, nor have I ever been, a big fan of Microsoft.  Lots of smart people at Microsoft do great work and lots of other people at Microsoft do not do great work.  It would be nice if most of the 5000 being let go were the latter variety, but who really knows?

This is a complex subject so I am going to take it one piece at a time.  First […]

By |January 22nd, 2009|Uncategorized|139 Comments
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Don’t Worry about Apple

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I knew things were bad when Steve Jobs didn’t make even a token video appearance at Macworld.  He would have done it, I’m sure, had he been well enough.  Maybe someone at Apple, weeks before, thought of suggesting such a video, but of course to do so then would have been committing career suicide even if in retrospect it would have been a good idea.  So now Steve is off on his six month (or longer) medical leave, readjusting those hormones, and the press is abuzz with what the heck Apple will do without Steve.

Apple will be fine.

Steve Jobs is an amazing chief executive, clearly the best of his era, but that […]

By |January 16th, 2009|Uncategorized|87 Comments
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How to End the Recession

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This is normally a column about technology and technology business but I can’t help noticing that the global economy is in the toilet and not much rational thought is going into fixing the problem.  I don’t mean to insult the bozos currently pretending to run our economy or the new group of bozos about to take their places when the Obama Administration starts up this month, but my Mom could do a heck of a lot better job than either group and she’s 84 years old. 

COME ON!  At least do a better job than Mom!

So let’s solve the problem right here and now, get it fixed and out of the way […]

By |January 10th, 2009|Uncategorized|188 Comments
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The Coming DTV Nightmare

angrymobfunrun

The future of American broadcast television is coming February 17th when U.S. stations are supposed to shut down forever their analog transmitters. After then, all broadcast TV in the United States will be digital.

Too bad we aren’t ready.

We’ve had more than a decade to prepare for this moment. I did the first-ever PBS HD broadcast back in 1998 and explained then what was going to happen next month. The date was already set. But some people just don’t listen and I think the confusion we’ll see next month among parts of the TV audience will be huge.

Most of us actually have nothing to worry about because those who have satellite […]

By |January 8th, 2009|Uncategorized|131 Comments
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Cringely suffers from gray cell imbalance

skinnyjobs

What an irony if the “relatively simple and straightforward” treatment for Steve Jobs’ hormone imbalance revealed this week is for the lifelong vegetarian to eat meat. I have no way of knowing that’s his treatment, of course – the idea just sprang into my head.

But given the press and stock market reaction to details of Jobs’ health problems, I’d say he’ll make a cameo appearance at Macworld a few hours from now even if he has to send his good twin to do so.

I further predict that Apple will make a substantial product announcement or two. This won’t be the minimalist Macworld that people had feared. If Jobs won’t be doing […]

By |January 5th, 2009|Uncategorized|75 Comments
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