Category: Technology

Commentary and analysis about new technology and business developments.

Make ’em Pay

I’m convinced that only a structural remedy can successfully address Microsoft’s unrepentant behavior and resolve the guilty verdict in the Microsoft antitrust trial. Dave Winer wondered if bloggers could come up with ideas. I have one: make them pay a shareholder dividend. A biiiiiig dividend.

I’m convinced there’s no lie Microsoft won’t tell, no line they won’t cross, to be able to continue to behave exactly as they want. Using the war against terrorism is the latest absurdity.

Given this and Bill Gates’s threat to pull Windows from the marketplace if forced to make any court-ordered changes to his software, it’s clear the only successful remedy in the Microsoft antitrust trial will be structural.

Dave Winer recently wondered if the blogging community could help solve the sticky issues of finding an appropriate remedy. So I have an idea.

One of Microsoft’s mightiest weapons is the huge pile of cash they sit on, more than $40 billion. Among many other things, it lets them buy their way into new markets, taking huge losses for years to drive out competitors. Taking most of that money away would at least slow them down.

But taking $40 billion away from them isn’t something that would be “fair” (though why the rules of fair play should apply to Microsoft is beyond me). There is a way around this.

Make them pay a shareholder dividend. A biiiiiig dividend.

It’s common practice for companies with profits or ready cash the size of Microsoft’s to pay dividends; indeed, Microsoft’s cash hoard is twice the size of GM’s, a company with 7 times the revenue. (In other words, they should need lots less, but have much more.) It’s even arguable that holding that cash is a tax dodge.

So, for a lot of reasons, a court-mandated dividend that shrank the pile of cash to something reasonable — say, $4 billion — would be a structural change that could both positively affect Microsoft’s behavior, and be a nice bonus for shareholders.

This idea isn’t a complete solution, but it’s a possible component. Take it or ignore it, whatever.

Where to Put Java Extensions on Mac OS X

A couple weekends ago I spent hours and hours trying to get a JDBC driver to be recognized on my Mac OS X system. I fiddled with the CLASSPATH for days and no matter what I did, I kept getting ClassNotFoundExceptions when I tried to load the driver.

A couple weekends ago I spent hours and hours trying to get a JDBC driver to be recognized on my Mac OS X system. I fiddled with the CLASSPATH for, literally, days, and never got it to work. No matter what I did, I kept getting ClassNotFoundExceptions when I tried to load the driver, and other errors that indicated my driver could not be found.

Then, after browsing the MacJavaDev mailing list archives for hours and trying every likely looking tip, I finally hit the one post with the information I needed.

So, hopefully this will help you. To install a new Java library on a Mac OS X system, put the JAR file into /Library/Java/Extensions (if everyone on your system needs it) or ~/Library/Java/Extensions (if it will only be used by you).

So, to be crystal clear, the path to the MM.MySQL JDBC driver on my system is:

~/Library/Extensions/Java/mm.mysql-2.0.13-bin.jar

With the driver installed in this location, I don’t need to do anything to my CLASSPATH to be able to load and use the driver.

Hope this helps!

No Consumer Harm?

A CNet article covers customer resistance to Microsoft licensing changes that result in substantial price increases, which drives home how consumers really are harmed by Microsoft’s illegal exercise of their monopoly power.

A CNet article covers customer resistance to Microsoft licensing changes that result in substantial price increases:

“One year ago this week, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft announced a radical change in the way that businesses buy its software: Rather than simply being able to upgrade their software when they wanted to — and when their budgets allowed — companies would need to commit to buying operating-system and application upgrades ahead of time through an annual fee. […]

The cash bonanza for Microsoft due to the licensing change is sizeable. For instance, Microsoft pulled in an extra $1 billion during the first three quarters of its 2002 fiscal year for Office, just one of several products affected by the change. The change, according to Gartner, raised licensing fees paid by customers between 33 percent and 107 percent.”

No consumer harm due to monopoly power being illustrated here. Customers are better off paying more, they like it…

No Conduct Remedy Can Work

Watching the conduct of Microsoft throughout their antitrust trial, especially the testimony of Bill Gates last week, it’s finally become crystal clear that no conduct remedy, whether a gift from the DoJ, or a challenge advanced by the dissenting states, will affect Microsoft’s behavior.

Watching the conduct of Microsoft throughout their antitrust trial, especially the testimony of Bill Gates last week, it’s finally become crystal clear that no conduct remedy, whether a gift from the DoJ, or a challenge advanced by the dissenting states, will affect Microsoft’s behavior. They are entirely unrepentant.

If Microsoft is forced to do anything they don’t want to do, they will break their own software, and say they were told to do it. With $40 billion in the bank, they can afford a few months of broken Windows.

The remedy must be structural, and it must be severe. Nothing else will have any effect.

X vs. XP

I’ve been using Mac OS X for about six months now, and really love it. Mac OS X is built on top of Unix technology. My computer has crashed exactly once in that time. Once.

I’ve been using Mac OS X for about six months now, and really love it. Mac OS X is built on top of Unix technology. My computer has crashed exactly once in that time. Once.

Stewart Alsop questions the effectiveness of Microsoft’s ability to “innovate,” comparing Windows XP (which just shipped a few months ago) with Unix (which was developed in the ’70s):

XP really isn’t all that new or stable. XP is based on what used to be called Windows NT, which Microsoft developed over many years as a competitive response to Unix. Yet XP requires you to do things Unix doesn’t require, like restart your machine when you install a new application… This reflects the design of the core of the operating system, called the kernel. The kernel in XP is not fully protected against what application programs might do; the kernel in Unix is.

As he points out at the end of the article, when you have $40 billion in cash in the bank, you don’t have to do squat.

I like Mac OS X.

Above the Law

“Now [Bill Gates is] working every angle to evade any penalty. Microsoft will settle only for license to continue the kinds of practices that have served so well in the past. Justice, like honor, is not in this company’s vocabulary.”

Dan Gillmor has it right in explaining Microsoft’s strategy in putting Bill Gates on the witness stand:

At least Gates has finally done what seemed impossible. He admitted his company is a lawbreaker. Now, of course, he’s working every angle to evade any penalty. Microsoft will settle only for license to continue the kinds of practices that have served so well in the past. Justice, like honor, is not in this company’s vocabulary.

Bill may not think he’s above the law, but he sure thinks he can either fool or buy the law.

Developers aren’t fooled, though.


More Evidence

More evidence that something really interesting is about to explode out of the convergence of SOAP, OPML, Web Services, blogging, instant outlining, etc.

More evidence that something really interesting is about to explode out of the convergence of SOAP, OPML, Web Services, blogging, instant outlining, etc.

Upgrades Are Dangerous

At work yesterday our IT department installed a bunch of updates on my computer. I always worry about installing updates for no reason, but they wanted to do it, so I let them. Maybe I shouldn’t have…

At work yesterday our IT department installed a bunch of updates on my computer. I always worry about installing updates for no reason, but they wanted to do it, so I let them.

So far nothing seems amiss. But after reading this guy’s upgrade story, I’m a little worried.

Microsoft “Justice”: The Best That Money Can Buy

A Fortune article, How Microsoft Conquered Washington, describes in detail the sophisticated — and expensive — lobbying that Microsoft does with our elected officials:

A Fortune article, How Microsoft Conquered Washington, describes in detail the sophisticated — and expensive — lobbying that Microsoft does with our elected officials:

It is getting to government officials early and stopping them from asking the questions that could eventually cause it harm. Microsoft execs say privately that they believe they could have prevented the antitrust suit had they co-opted the policy debate sooner. So their goal now is, in essence, to win silence on issues that matter to the company… And on issues from privacy to piracy, Microsoft may well be succeeding.

No wonder they’re getting the kid glove treatment from the DoJ, now that Bush is in the White House.

Better Use of Taxpayers Money

Instead of drilling for oil in Alaska, why don’t we spend a little money researching ways to use less oil, like ultra fuel-efficient cars? Doh, that’s right, because the country is run by the Big Oil team.

Instead of drilling for oil in Alaska, why don’t we spend a little money researching ways to use less oil, like this ultra fuel-efficient car?

Doh, that’s right, because the country is run by the Big Oil team.