Another Microsoft Blow

It's been a bad year for Microsoft.  It's actually been a bad few years.  The giant has become hated by many, and has had to compete against loyal Appleites and Linuxbies.  Open source is a mighty lure and cloud computing delivers a death blow to their monopoly.  Developers are the backbone that produces the miracles, and developers are flocking to the competition.  Some previous employees are also heading up projects, like the one below:

LAS VEGAS--VMware Chief Executive Officer Paul Maritz is racing to turn VMware's products into a platform for Web applications and services. To succeed, Maritz, who once served as the third-highest ranking executive at Microsoft, is pulling pages from his former employer's playbook to fight the battle.

Though deep in the weeds of technical infrastructure, VMware's lead in virtualization puts it in a position to create a new platform for cloud computing. Its software sits between a computer's hardware and its operating system. VMware wants to take advantage of that layer of technology it's providing to build a new foundation for computer programming.

But just as Windows couldn't have thrived on its own, neither will VMware's platform. So Maritz added a developer piece to VMware's business two years ago, paying $420 million to acquire SpringSource, which makes enterprise and Web application development tools. And he moved to bolster the company's developer evangelism business, hiring his one-time Microsoft lieutenant Tod Nielsen, as chief operating officer in 2009. Nielsen, who ran developer relations for Microsoft in the late 1990s, now has the task of recruiting developers to build applications for VMware's platform.

The idea is to give developers tools they can use to build Web-based applications without having to deal with the mundane plumbing. And it launched Cloud Foundry as an open-source effort in order to appeal to developers.

To build up that muscle, Nielsen brought in another old Microsoft hand, Mark Lucovsky, who the Microsoft brass once thought so highly of that they named him one of the company's 16 Distinguished Engineers. He also gained some notoriety later, declaring in a sworn legal document that Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer threw a chair and cursed then-Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt when Lucovsky said he was leaving the company for a job at Google.

Microsoft is bleeding out. They are trying to remain competitive, but their bloat and arrogance may have made them wait too long. Many times, they gouged the consumer and thumbed their noses at the competition. They made mighty enemies, and in their time of need the support looks mighty thin.

That's why Microsoft has been playing hardball with VMware. Microsoft bundles its virtual machine inside its server software, a move that's helped cut into VMware's market lead. And it's spending money on marketing to lure customers away, launching a clever ad campaign this week that mocks VMware's pricing, featuring a 1970s era sales executive from VMlimited, complete with Fu Manchu mustache, selling virtualization technology from the back of his tricked out van.

Even now they don't get it. In the end, it isn't all about the buck, it's about the freedom. Microsoft is throwing their weight for one final huzzah, but in the end freedom and choice is going to win. For how long, it's hard to say, but growth and evolution demanded the longstanding monopoly fall. They will always be around, but in a much smaller capacity. Good riddance, says this particular geek.

85 Witnesses Surely Can't Be Wrong

CNN's version starts with a dad who gets into an argument with his girlfriend, and ends up smacking his son and throwing him off a moving tour boat in a busy area.  The child was a mediocre swimmer and was in danger from the water, the boat traffic and his own father.  The father jumped in after his son, but of course he wouldn't have to do that if he hadn't thrown him into danger in the first place.

(CNN) -- A father accused of smacking his crying 7-year-old and throwing the child off a moving boat says he did nothing wrong.

Briles told CNN affiliate KTLA "we were having fun, it was a harbor cruise!" He said he did not hit his son and he "did nothing except jump in the water with my kid."

"But luckily, three boats saw the kid and converged on him, and plucked him from the water," Amormino said.

"The father did jump in (after his son), but the crowd on the boat became angry when he was hitting the kid and became more angry when he threw him overboard," Amormino said. There were 85 people on the tour boat.

The article didn't have any comments from specific witnesses, but I can't imagine they would be quiet after this, so my assumption is that there was a turd floating in the ocean today, and a poor little boy suffered and was saved.

We're Not In Kansas Anymore, Folks, Part 3

As expected, a federal judge has struck down the Kansas law barring all funding for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Marten ruled that the funding should be provided to Planned Parenthood on a quarterly basis, not the monthly allocation sought by the state.

Planned Parenthood had threatened to close its Hays, Kan., clinic on Friday unless it learned by then that its federal family planning funds would start flowing again.

Earlier this year, the Kansas Legislature stripped Planned Parenthood of about $330,000 in the 2011-12 budget and redirected that money primarily to public health departments.

Planned Parenthood sued, and on Aug. 1, Marten temporarily blocked Kansas from enforcing the new budget provision. However, the state had not released the money.

Planned Parenthood also said that without the funding, its Wichita clinic would discontinue a federal sliding fee schedule, which discounts services for patients based on their income.

The state had asked the judge whether it would suffice to pay Planned Parenthood monthly while the case is on appeal. Planned Parenthood wanted to be paid quarterly.

Judge Marten apparently disagrees with Kansas, and good for him.  Perhaps if Kansas Republicans hadn't flat out said the goal was to put Planned Parenthood out of business, they might not have run afoul of the judicial.

A River Runs Through, Well, Pretty Much Everything At This Point

Major flooding continues to cause serious problems in New England this week as thousands remain isolated and cut off due to roads and bridges being washed out from Irene.

Emergency provisions had to be airlifted on Tuesday to dozens of communities stranded by floodwaters as torrential weekend rains dumped by the massive storm system washed away roads and sent rivers cascading over their banks.

Although the much-hyped direct-hit on New York failed to translate into major damage or casualties in America's most populous city, heavy rain in places like the Catskill Mountains proved a ticking disaster time-bomb.

Three days after the storm's passage, marooned families were still waiting anxiously for the national guard and firefighters to bring food and water to towns swamped by the floodwaters.

In other places, rescuers have been ferrying thousands of people -- including the elderly, children and babies -- to safety in rubber motorboats.

The main highway to Wilmington, Vermont was clogged with mud and Irene had turned other roads into deathtrap chasms after dumping two months worth of rain (8.3 inches, 21 centimeters) in less than a day.

"The problem is inaccessibility," emergency operations supervisor Dave Miller told AFP as teams struggled to pull trucks out of the sludge and remove fallen trees that had perilously dragged down power lines.

The drastic situation was mirrored in parts of New Jersey and upstate New York, where schools and community centers turned into makeshift Red Cross emergency shelters were nearing full capacity.

Irene has caused billions of dollars of damage and it's going to take a long time before things get back to normal in New England and the Catskills.  But remember, if it was up to Republicans like Ron Paul and Eric Cantor, states, counties, and communities would be on their own when disasters like this hit.  Survival of the richest and all, folks.  When it comes to American exceptionalism, it's Republicans who say "No we can't!"

Being The Bigger Man

President Obama has decided "Hey, if your clown car debate next Wednesday means that much to Orange Julius, I'll move my speech to next Thursday."

"The President is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, September 8th and challenge our nation's leaders to start focusing 100% of their attention on doing whatever they can to help the American people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.

The larger point still stands:

Boehner's rejection of Obama letter asking for a joint session of Congress next Wednesday marked the first time in history that a House Speaker publicly turned down the President's request. A senior Democratic aide had called Boehner's rejection of Obama's request "childish."

To recap, until President Obama came along, no President had ever been publicly turned down tor a request to speak to a joint session of Congress.  Indeed, GOP Sen. Jim DeMint was all set to block the Senate resolution to allow President Obama to speak next Wednesday.  No President has ever been threatened with such action.  No President has ever been shown such contempt and disrespect by the opposition party in Congress.  Never before now in America's history.

But Republicans insist they are mainstream in view, justified through precedent, and completely within normal operating boundaries.  And if you believe that, you're overlooking the other major first that President Obama represents, too.  You'd better believe that has everything to do with his treatment at the hands of the Republican party.

However, the President just takes the disrespect and soldiers on.  This nonsense is now occurring on a near-weekly basis, and yet he continues to govern the country as the President of all Americans. ..even the ones who view him with contempt and hatred born of ignorance and prejudice.  How he continues to handle such outright vitriol is a testament to his true character.

Not only that, but politically he looks like the adult, and the Republicans look like the petty, ignorant fools that they are.  Here's hoping Americans tune in next week just to spite the GOP.

StupidiNews!

• Hurricane Katia is spinning in the Atlantic, and forecasters say yet another storm could hit the US Gulf Coast with up to a foot of rain this weekend.
• A new poll shows support for same-sex marriage is up to 46%, up 10% from this time last year in the same poll.
• A newly revealed WikiLeaks cable references US troops executing ten civilians, including women and children, and then calling in an airstrike to cover evidence in Ishaqi, Iraq in 2006.
• AT&T plans to fight the Department of Justice lawsuit blocking the telco giant's merger with T-Mobile, but admits to planning concessions to address the government's concerns.
• Scientists have published a paper on using magnetic fields to increase the temperature needed to gain superconductive status, although room-temperature superconductors are still just a dream.

Last Call

Your call cannot be completed as dialed, AT&T.  Please try again.

The decision by US authorities to challenge AT&T's $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile is a bitter blow for the US telecoms giant, but it could benefit consumers, analysts said.

As it filed a lawsuit to block the takeover on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said the takeover bid -- which would give AT&T a daunting 39-percent share of the US wireless market -- was anti-competitive.

Shares of AT&T plunged 4.6 percent on Wall Street after the DoJ's move was announced, even as the company vowed to contest it in court.

"There are really no good options for AT&T at this point," said Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, a digital-rights advocacy group in Washington.

I'd have to agree.  It's either a lengthy court battle that could take years, or abandon the deal altogether.  Either way, Sprint and Verizon have to be licking their chops knowing that they can continue to expand at AT&T's expense.

Here's the question:  can anybody buy T-Mobile and not exceed that 39% market share mark and still remain competitive?

Eye Of The Hurri-Cantor

Me, last week on Eric Cantor's trial balloon to hold Hurricane Irene relief money hostage to federal spending cuts:

Boy, if I lived in Cantor's district, I'd be thrilled to know that if Irene went through my hometown and wrecked power, traffic, water and city streets, that Eric Cantor's office was more interested in scoring political talking points than helping people in need.  And if I were one of Cantor's Virginia delegation colleagues, I'd be ringing up his office and saying "Look, pal, my constituents are going to need this money.  Don't be pulling this nonsense."

And lo and behold, now Cantor has quite the revolt on his hands from Virginia Republicans, including Gov. Bob McDonnell:

Virginia GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell, breaking with Cantor, on Tuesday suggested that deficit-spending concerns should not be a factor as Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) respond to the hurricane.

“My concern is that we help people in need,” McDonnell said during his monthly radio show. “For the FEMA money that’s going to flow, it’s up to them on how they get it. I don’t think it’s the time to get into that [deficit] debate.”

Yeah, and here's the kicker:

But Cantor hasn’t always believed that disaster aid should be contingent on budget cuts. In fact, in 2004, he requested federal aid following Tropical Storm Gaston, saying that “the magnitude of the damage suffered by the Richmond area is beyond what the Commonwealth can handle,” without a word about offsetting cuts being necessary.

So when Cantor's district needed disaster relief, he was all for it.  You know, when Bush was President.  When a Republican is President, deficits don't matter, you see.

Giving The People A Choice

It's no coincidence that today the White House announced that President Obama will be addressing a joint session of Congress the same night as a scheduled GOP candidate presidential debate on September 7, a week from today.  In fact, White House press secretary Jay Carney said that if the Republicans had a problem with it, they should reschedule.  Hey, it's good being the President.

"There were a lot of considerations," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today. "And, obviously, one debate of many that's on one channel of many was not enough reason not to have the speech at the time that we decided to have it."

Politico and NBC News are sponsoring the debate, one of three among the GOP presidential candidates scheduled for September. The organizers have not yet announced what they intend to do about the President's request for airtime during their debate.

Carney suggested the organizers could move it.

"The network could make a decision to alter of timing of the debate by an hour if it so decided," Carney said. "There is no perfect time."

"There has not been a time in my short period of time of this job where I called the networks and said, 'How about now for, does this time work for the president to speak?'" Carney added. "There is always, 'well, it works for two of us but not the other three.'"

It'll be interesting to see what kind of pushback the White House gets on this.  It'll be even more interesting to see what the Republicans have to say, and if the Village goes along with it.   But we'll see what happens.

Oh, and I like this new White House going after the GOP.  Like I said, this was absolutely not a coincidence.  Meanwhile, Orange Julius says the President needs to move his address to preempt next Thursday's NFL season opener, because the Republicans you know, hate the President enough to publicly disrespect him like this.  When's the last time a Speaker of the House told the President "hey, just reschedule, we're too busy trying to ruin you to deal with you speaking to us."

Nice guy.

Steven Seagal Stars In Lawsuit - Maximum Overkill

Seagal, along with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, has been served with an official notice of claim from Jesus Sanchez Llovera -- who contends Seagal and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department performed an "unfounded" raid on his home because they believed Jesus was operating an illegal cockfighting farm. Jesus denies the allegation -- insisting he only raises the roosters "for show."

Jesus claims Seagal arrived to his home on March 9 with a TANK -- and rammed into a gate on his property. Seagal was backed up by an MCSO Tactical Operations Unit -- armed in full riot gear -- which stormed the house. The entire incident was captured by a camera crew taping for Seagal's reality show, "Steven Seagal Lawman."

Jesus claims his 11-month old puppy was shot and killed during the raid -- and his home sustained "substantial damage." He also claims the cops killed more than 100 roosters that belonged to him.

The notice of claim is the first step towards a lawsuit -- and Jesus' lawyer tells us his client is demanding $100,000 for the damage and he wants Seagal to issue a "formal written apology" to his children "for the death of their 11-month old puppy, a beloved family pet.

Technically, these allegations have not been proven.  Let us hope this guy is blowing it out of proportion and angling for a settlement.  Because if somebody comes on my property and threatens my pet, I would shoot them with a smile (if you don't believe me, ask Zandar, who has witnessed my love for my pets and my shotgun).  Destroying property, killing an innocent animal and terrorizing citizens for reality TV is way beyond the line.  And how does killing the roosters actually help them?  Can anyone explain that?

I hope more comes out about this, in the meantime I can't help but feel a little sickened.  I know I am way softer about animals than most, but life is life and suffering is suffering, whether it is ours or another's.  Taking life should never be easy, and certainly never done for something as ridiculous as ratings on a show for a has-been trying to stay tough.  Making a statement about cockfighting should not come at the death of the roosters and an innocent animal that was just home with his family.

Taking Plug And Play To Exciting New Levels

We can't help but project our humanity onto devices.  Our phones were a failure when they just made calls.  Computers were lame when all you could do was data entry and peck out letters.  Even television was ho-hum when it was programmed by someone else.  When the Internet revolution came and porn flooded the web, it became obvious that adding a sexual side to devices cemented them with the population.  Now we have webcam shows, sexting and on-demand adult programming that has added spice to technology.

That means the following article shouldn't be much of a surprise, but boy was it (at least to me!).

There is now a USB vibrator (yes, you read that right).  It comes with 8 or 16 GB of storage, like anyone cares. It now "discreetly" gives users a way to keep their fun... ahem... portable.  I thought it was a joke at first, but CNET assures me it is not.  Adult or not, I had to get an initial giggle attack out of the way, then I began to write this.

Christmas gift? I think not.  Gift for the geek who has everything (except a boyfriend)?  I suppose so.  At any rate, this was one of the most amusing tech articles I've written in a while.  Enjoy!

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter Part 77

So, turns out Bank of America had plenty of notification that AIG was going to sue them.  Like seven months worth of warning.  And no, they didn't tell shareholders.

Top Bank of America Corp lawyers knew as early as January that American International Group Inc was prepared to sue the bank for more than $10 billion, seven months before the lawsuit was filed, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Bank of America shares fell more than 20 percent on August 8, the day the lawsuit was filed, adding to worries about the stability of the largest U.S. bank. It wasn't until Warren Buffett stepped up with a $5 billion investment that those fears were eased, though hardly eliminated.

The bank made no mention of the lawsuit threat in a quarterly regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission just four days earlier. Nor did management discuss it on conference calls about quarterly results and other pending legal claims.

The SEC's rules for litigation disclosure are murky, and some lawyers said Bank of America may have been justified in not revealing AIG's lawsuit before it was filed. The bank's litigation disclosures are in line with those of many rivals.

But other lawyers said banks have an obligation to disclose legal threats that could have major consequences.

"Publicly owned companies are supposed to disclose material threatened litigation under generally accepted accounting principles," said Richard Rowe, a former director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance, who was commenting generally and not specifically about Bank of America.

The odds of this little tidbit becoming an even larger headache for Bank of America this week is pretty high, especially since shareholders are already suing the bank to block the settlement deal with New York State.  Something tells me this injunction will be carried out in all due haste.

The wolves are circling the tree, and Bank of America is running out of branches to hold on to.  Because it gets even worse for the company.

The attorney general of Nevada is accusing Bank of America of repeatedly violating a broad loan modification agreement it struck with state officials in October 2008 and is seeking to rip up the deal so that the state can sue the bank over allegations of deceptive lending, marketing and loan servicing practices.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in United States District Court in Reno, Catherine Cortez Masto, the Nevada attorney general, asked a judge for permission to end Nevada’s participation in the settlement agreement. This would allow her to sue the bank over what the complaint says were dubious practices uncovered by her office in an investigation that began in 2009.

In her filing, Ms. Masto contends that Bank of America raised interest rates on troubled borrowers when modifying their loans even though the bank had promised in the settlement to lower them. The bank also failed to provide loan modifications to qualified homeowners as required under the deal, improperly proceeded with foreclosures even as borrowers’ modification requests were pending and failed to meet the settlement’s 60-day requirement on granting new loan terms, instead allowing months and in some cases more than a year to go by with no resolution, the filing says. 

And if this is granted, I just don't see how the bank survives.  The Nevada complaint accuses Bank of America ,among other things, of actually punishing their loan modification staff if they spent more than ten minutes trying to help a single customer.  Their job was to get them off the phone in such a way that they wouldn't call back and would basically give up on getting a loan modification.  These guys are pretty much toast.

And B of A is the largest bank in the country.  You do the math as to what that will do to the markets when the hammer drops on them.

I fear we'll find out pretty soon.

Still Furious, Not Particularly Fast However

Republicans looking for their Pentagon Papers to use on President Obama have managed to claim another administration scalp as ATF chief Ken Melson got a "lateral" promotion.

US authorities Tuesday named a new chief for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) after a scandal in which the agency lost track of weapons that ended up in the hands of drug cartels in Mexico.

B. Todd Jones, a federal prosecutor in Minnesota, was appointed acting director of ATF, while the current acting director Kenneth Melson was named a senior adviser to the agency on forensic science.

So what's this "Fast And Furious" mess all about, anyway?

The shakeup comes weeks after a congressional report showed an estimated 2,000 weapons smuggled into Mexico as part of a US sting operation -- and then lost -- have been linked to numerous killings, including that of an American federal agent.

The report found that ATF lost track of the weapons after allowing them to be smuggled into Mexico under an operation called "Fast and Furious," which drew harsh criticism in Congress after the revelations.

At least 122 of the weapons were used in crimes in Mexico, according to the report.

Two of the weapons were found at the scene of the killing of Brian Terry, a border patrol agent who was shot and killed in Arizona December 14 while trying to apprehend armed men preying on illegal immigrants.

The ATF program, which angered Mexico when it came to light, allowed hundreds of weapons to be smuggled into Mexico between 2009 and 2010 as part of a plan to capture major arms traffickers.

Good idea, terrible execution.  You tag weapons for a sting and then they get smuggled into Mexico, you lose them, they end up being used to kill a Border Patrol agent.  That's reaching a Bush-era incompetence level right there and frankly I'm not sad to see Melson get shuffled off to Buffalo.  Even worse, we kinda didn't tell the Mexican government, and those weapons ended up being used in dozens of criminal acts.

Yeah, somebody's head had to roll here, no question.

Still A War Or Three Going On, Folks

Remember Afghanistan, people?  You know, that whole war for nearly a decade thing?  Just hit a new monthly record for US troop deaths in August.

Sixty-six American troops have died this month, topping July 2010 when 65 troops died, according to a CNN tally.

Almost half the August troop deaths took place on August 6 when insurgents shot down their helicopter in the eastern central province of Wardak. The Taliban claimed militants downed the helicopter with a rocket-propelled grenade.


Thirty U.S. service members - including 17 Navy SEALs - were killed in that attack, the single largest loss of life for U.S. troops since the Afghan war began in late 2001.

In contrast, 36 U.S. service members were killed in all of July. Prior to the August attack, the most U.S. troops killed in a single month this year was 47 in June.

A "surge" of 33,000 additional troops in 2009 - in response to increased insurgent attacks - led to an uptick in U.S. deaths over previous years, with 499 killed in 2010. Prior to the surge, the most U.S. troops killed in a single year was 155 in 2008, according to CNN figures.

More troops in the combat theater equals more casualties.  Whocoodanode?  You know what I'd like to see observed on September 11th this year as we approach ten years since 9/11?  Bringing our friggin troops home.  All of them.

StupidiNews!

• Gen. David Petraeus will officially take over as CIA Director on September 6th.
• Ruling that requiring a sonogram for women seeking an abortion in Texas was an undue burden on doctors, a federal judge has partially blocked the state's new abortion law.
• Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is under fire from both sides of the aisle for deportation statistics for the last two years.
• President Obama may be considering tax incentives and infrastructure projects to create 900,000 new jobs, but Republicans are expected to block any measures.
• HP is expected to make one more production run of its doomed TouchPad at the fire sale price of $99, capping the end of failed device after less than two months on the market.