Your laser printer may betray you according to this article. Apparently unique codes are embedded on pages from laser printers allowing the source of a document to be discerned at a later time. This concept has legitimate security uses such as perhaps fighting terrorism or reducing counterfeiting. Is this technology also being used to track the thoughts of the people using these printers?

I have been complaining about how terrible Verizon Wireless phones are for a long time. And they really do stink. GSM phones are far superior. Of course I am referring to the selection and features of GSM phones not the quality of the GSM network.

There are a number of very upset government officials around the world. Google Earth is providing sensitive information about government buildings and even presidential facilities. As Google sees it the information is readily available already. They are just organizing things a bit better. The way leaders of a number of nations see it, the UN needs to step in and set up guidelines to curb this sort of thing.

It is tough to argue that if information is freely available already how harm will come from Google organizing that information. But still these government officials do have reason to worry as in some cases they are at war with other countries or just fighting terrorism in general. More.

My Mini-Microsoft blog entry has become a mini-mini-Microsoft blog. Thanks in part to a long-time employee of the company who recently posted a lengthy comment about the woes he sees in the corporation. He/She blames much of the company’s troubles on Bill Gates. Take a look at this excerpt:

Who is to blame for this debacle?  First BillG himself, for pushing the Windows group to take on huge, extremely difficult technical projects that destabilize all the core parts of the OS, and hold shipping hostage.  Even worse, in some cases these efforts seem to be little more than ‘pet’ ideas of Bill’s, with little clear customer value, at least to my understanding.  Second, the very top handful of execs in the Windows group are to blame, for placating Bill and not applying the most basic good judgment on engineering and project management.  From my perspective, it was clear to nearly every engineer in every product group at MS that Longhorn was badly screwed up, for far too long.  But no one at the top would admit it or come to grips with it for far too long.  For top product execs as MS, there is a long history of a culture that Bill is right, do what he says, always stay in his good graces no matter what.  If you do that, you will likely make a huge fortune.  If you don’t, your career at MS is over.  I understand the pressure on execs to behave that way and always say ‘Yes’ to Bill.  But that’s not the leadership we need.  We are not helping anyone with this game, neither customers nor ourselves. 


First of all I must say that Microsoft – from my perspective has slowed its innovations greatly.

Imagine how much cheaper computer prices would be if there wasn’t rampant price fixing in the DRAM memory markets! Excerpt:

Samsung Electronics Co. and its U.S. subsidiary Samsung Semiconductor Inc. have agreed to plead guilty and pay a $300 million fine for participating in an "international conspiracy" to fix prices on dynamic RAM (DRAM), the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Samsung's fine is the second-largest criminal antitrust fine in U.S. history and the largest criminal fine since 1999, the DOJ said.

Resolving the investigation was "paramount" to Samsung, said Chris Goodhart, the company's director of marketing communications.