Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

March 22

Well the bodies are coming in faster than they can be stacked as cordwood in the triage zones in a Vietnam medivac zone, and the ammo responsible for all this carnage are a direct result of all the firings coming out of Apple Computer. Now the scenario is so bad that they can't even make up thier own shit to throw on the nearest wall to make it stick. No Steve is becomming puppet boy for Sun Microsystems by the inclusion of his own brand of digital Javabased wierdness incorperated into an otherwise robust and stable Quicktime. Well - bang - goes that idea. Java to date still can't even be counted on anything except to be considered an expensive method that can sink a thin-client let alone a browser to be even considered floatable as far as the industry is concerned. You remember all the hype about Java two years ago and it's quest to become the retro-wave fashion OS that would liberate desktops from the world of Microsoft. Well it's two years later and this pileof Guano still can't manage to do anything but crash, remain unstable and is such a mangy dog of the industry that even Netscape is throwing it out of the house into the rain with the latest unbundling from it's offerings in NetScape 5.0. Talk about a revolution of one. Javascript can't even be considered a product of Java in name only since NetScape pretty much foisted the protocol onto the marketplace by itself, much in the same way that Microsoft has been hyping active X plugins into the coding community. It hasn't been going along too well because Active X has more in common with Java and it's ilk than a script extension to conventional HTML code. The real motive behind this Sun based strong-arming of dung code into Quicktime probably has more in common with Apple needing massive infusions of cash the same way NeXT basically ran Cannon's venture capital right into the ground. Now that Microsoft has weened Apple of it's tit's, it's up to Steve to partner itself with another pair of boobs, and that looks to be Sun and their ilk. Which is a pitty because aside from forcing slow-bulky crash-prone code down the throats of an unwitting browser base of websurfers, this could turn more into a PR disaster rather than a PR coup that their tear sheets are praying for in order to create more psychobabble to push their overvauled shares up on the stock market. In the short - term this might actually work. But like Rhapsody, I really don't see anything but disaster in the long term.

March 23
More Java bashing. The biggest problem I have with this brave new world of Java is that it's being used as a tower of babble device to save the ailing plug-in market. You know the drill, go to nifty website - and cross your fingers that they've not embraced yet another goddamn standard that they are using to foist slow-to-load gee-whizzy smoke and mirrors in a vain attempt to actually justify the moronic ideas coming out of their R&D group. Of course one of the prime example of one of these has to be Shockwave from Macromedia. Sure it's neat. Sure it's nifty. But GOD is it slow, and GOD can it crash the beejezus out of your browser client. This isn't nearly as much of a pain in the ass for Windows users because that isolated browser just says "bye bye" and you have to relaunch in a few second to get where you were just at - if you dare. Pitty the poor Mac user who finds his Apple client grinding to a halt and sinking hours of possibly unsaved work just because he wanted to check out some shockwave streaming tits from his fave porno site in the middle of a late-night project that now is rapidly falling behind deadline. The biggest problems with these plug ins is that they take away from the universal appeal of a decent browser metaphor and suddenly left-turn it into a custom application. A custom application that requires endless updates to fix the bugs that result from every large scale code-one-of-those. The upshot is that every damn site that relies on a plug in or a viewer finds users crashing everytime they didn't notice that they were to stop and upgrade something that was supposed to merely enhance the browser rather than perverting into it's own custom app deployment exercise. Hell, even QuarkImmedia (again these are mine observations alone blah blah blah buy Quark's crap) has gone through so many permutations on different platforms that I'm not even sure what the hell my employer is thinking anymore. It doesn't matter anyway because with the sole exception of Flash and RealAudio, and perhaps Quicktime - there's hasn't been a fast stable one of those in the Web's limited history. The fact that Apple would bother to continue to press their luck by marrying Quicktime for Java into the same buggy environment that Netscape itself is thowing away almost reeks of a backdoor aproach for Sun to grip onto a failed approach with the tennacity of a pit-bull that just won't let go - rationality aside. In this manner I hold Apple responsible for taking a solid and workable approach to the Web to date, and muddling all for a few development dollars to supplant the massive amounts of employees that have already left rat style from the final death throes of a company now falling apart. Just another tel-tale sign that we're heading for Commodore style deja-vu. Bigtime.

March 24

Well it's Seybold all over again with some interresting developments in the form of a multi billion dollar lawsuit that has emerged from the origonal inventors of all that wonderful ColorSynch tech that was being grandstanded for hours at the last Graphic warm and fuzzy fest. Oh they were all there Adobe talking about how they would start throwing licensing dollars into Apple's new darling of the color-pre-press world. Only problem, they didn't invent the core of the damn thing. Imatech did. They have instigated a patent lawsuit on no less than three breaches for esosteric low-level code violations that are all over the Apple Colorsynch map. And the MacJihad were crowing over referenced (all four lines of it) Alpha based test-bench code from Quicktime that was thrown away long before Microsoft actually released product to the public? I don't recall Bill Gates being as brazen as Steve Jobs crowing about stolen innovation in the history of the computer industry! I mean holy-shit! This guy was crowing all over the place that this indicated a new innovative turn-around for Apple as innovator while all the time stealing ideas left and right as well as re-directing licensing code from the true maker! Now that's fucking brilliant! 1.1 billion dollars are at stake and here's a heads up about the general dynamics of lawsuits. They're either inspired because your flaggerent screw-job is putting the other guy out of business - as in the case of at least one vendor of Mac Clones that has a handfull of contracts and a lot of bankrupcy paperwork to contend with - OR - it can be because you're ripped off something that you are now claiming owernership to and are violating licensing agreements that are another company's bread and butter and need to recoop what you've lost - OR - you've just grandstanded your theft to such an extreeme that you've bascially just pissed the other guy off really bad. There's a fourth method to such legal madness, which falls under "preditory legal practices" where you hire a team of lawyers to year after year drum up settlments to create a profit situation. This last example was cited in the Nintendo vs MCA/Universal lawsuit of 1982, and was overturned and a countersuit emerged - blah blah blah. The Apple/Imatech bru-ha-ha has more than a few of the four and none of the fourth in this case. The thing that makes it more than a mere blip on the news radar is although Microsoft has gotten into plenty of scraps - as has IBM and anyone else big enough to draw corporate attention to themselves, most of these involve copyright issues which can drag on and on and on. Patent disputes are another matter. These suckers work so well, with so many previous court precidence that I'd say Apple is up shit creek. That's why Apple, Adobe and many others try to lock things down with patents in the first place. It's a good clean kill if you go after someone for violating them. Well with Apple breaching so many of them, it's sad to say that they've better get the briefcases out with out of court settlement funds, or they risk taking a 1.1 billion dollar bath in less than a time than it takes to file the records from the patent offices. This is very serious. Going back to video-game lore, it's this same attack that Nintendo leveled at Tengen games at the turn of the decade that essentially put Tengen out of business. If this sucker actually goes according to Imatech's plans I don't doubt this could be the last iceberg that Apple could otherwise stand to breach before it's lifeboat time. The last time such a scenario presented itself, they had to buy out Power Computing because they knew a massive stink was heading their way. Well I don't know if Imatech's investors want to kill their golden goose, but it's certainly an option at this point. I'm just enjoying the "in your face" exercise this provides that Apple's innovations are pretty much mud both due to a lack of remaining talent in their ranks, and blattent thefts like the above. Well, if you thought Microsoft was bad for apporpriating companies left and right, at least it was above the table and legal. Nothing like scum sucking Apple which blindly rips people off instigating high-dollar legal exercises. Chew on that crow for a bit MacJihadders out there, did you want some bitter pills of irony to chase it down for your fallen god? Don't answer me with your mouth full please, you're spitting bile all over the table.

March 25

Bobbing for Apple's. That's pretty much the only conclusion that I can come up with as to why in the hell is greedhead Steve Jobs is taking so long to come up for air with a decent acceptance of Apple's CEO position. I mean jeezus, this guy is practically already a billionare thanks to some neat side deals with Disney that has vaulted Pixar stock back up to respectible levels combined with at least half of the 400 million dollar NeXT buyout (Canon, and Ross Perot got the other half if most of my memory serves), so what the hell does he need to get on board full-time? I mean does he REALLY need a package that makes Gill Amelio's raiding of the pantry look like a janitor's compensation? Here's the kicker, even though he's been offered up to 5% of the entire company's stock value - after unloading his plus 15% back in the 80's to start NeXT, when he could have sustained the exercise solo if he'd waited a month to unload it later, he now wants a big chunk of the company just so he can unload it again before it plummits and looses it value - like he's done time and time again just within the past year. I mean can you say blattent con-job or what? I mean sure, he's got the MacJihad going start-struck mode and has directly attributed to Apple's current stock climb, but before you go GaGa over the above, consider this - Apple's, innability to get Jobs on board isn't because they're not offering enough stock - it's because Steve doesn't want his paycheck tied into Apple value on the stock market. Now is this a guy who has faith in his companies performance as it's tied into reality? I don't think so, and neither does he - obviously - since he's probably well aware that Apple has a good chance of augering into the ground on his watch and doesn't want his comisseration tied into the inevitable - all before he goes back to nice and cozy Pixar. So before the MacJihad talks about former Mac users going Wintel and "loosing their faith" they should take a look over the shoulder of the man who wants a ton of numbers that aren't tied into the future of the company that he's supposed to be the CEO of.

March 26

Getting back to lawsuits past and present, there's several that have vexed Apple in the past, and probably a few more in the future as Apple continues it's slide. In the past it was the act of creation that got Apple into hot watter. The use of "Mac" as a reference to it's product line earned McDonalds a cool million. Mac "Classic" got Coca-Cola another million, and even the use of Apple competed with Apple Records of Beatles fame which is still raking in the nostalga bucks today in fact this got them in hot water halfway into the 80s when their computer violated an otherwise forgotten clause between the two Apple's as it related to not getting into music tech which Apple Records has several patents on. It cost a few million to weasel out of that mess, but these are all somewhat frivolous because they were the slings and arrows of a company that was doing something right and was making some overt mistakes along the way. Hell, I even forgot about the maker of speaker systems on the east coast called Macintosh that got a few million as well. But unlike then, when Apple was making money hand over fist, these lawsuits are flying in the face of a company on the downside of the equation - and most of the lawsuits are tied into mistakes that are being made as they slowly go out of business. The irony in all this is usually, when a company is going down in flames, they are often the INSTIGATOR of such nonsence in a slimy approach to making money where selling products can't otherwise pay the bills. They tried this with Microsoft on more than one occasion - but realizing that if they pissed off the golden tit for too long, they would be weaned into oblivion much in the same way the lack of Microsoft support for NeXT and the Amiga relegated those computers to the dustbin the moment they were born. No, these new lawsuits are all tied into a string of broken promisses that were made when they were playing grab-ass trying to stave off the spiraling nose-dive for the last few years. By cutting short the licensing, by touting tech appropriated into "new" product announcements, they broke new ground in treading on other people's turfs. Acutally I don't think we're at the end of this legal fest, as Apple will probably finally blow some major agreements with IBM and Motorla and may even short-change some of the licenses that are present within their own operating system and those CODECs that they've bought the rights to include in the latest Quicktime. Don't laugh, NeXT promissed some dough to Quark and within a year played the pauper and nixed the payments, and thus the deal that was already supposed to be concrete. The upshot? Quark stopped work on porting XPress for NeXT and studdenly NeXT's future in publishing had nothing more than a tombstone to show for it. If they fall short on funds and default on payments to all parties involved that otherwise give their platform their strength in the face of a non-existant R&D group in the face of flagging sales, the legal end of the rope could turn into a hangman's noose in no time. For evidence on how lawsuits and legal hasstles can otherwise kill a company with good sales under it's belt you don't have to look any further than Delorian of John Deloian fame. This was a company that was moving 60 units a month in cars with backorders out the door. Problem is the British government called in several loans early, and unleashed a flood of lawsuits in a hurry that lead up to John getting into a simulated scum-DEA opeartion that effectively put him out of business. Of course the whole mess was so contrived, that all 10 plus charges were thrown out without any merit, but it was the mere fact that John had to get backed into such a corner to make such a boneheaded deal in the first place is what sealed the lid on casket. With any more deals that can put Apple further into legal liability, I don't doubt that we'll see history repeat itself in heartbeat. Certainly I'll be watching this explosive blast from the past all along the way.

March 27

Oh man, just when you thought the pissing contest on who invented who, who knocked off who, and who raided the R&D labs of all of the above to come up with similar solutions was over, the goddamn argument is up and running in the BBBS section yet again. Before I bore you with another lesson of history which some of you won't believe nor give a rats ass coming from a biased source, I have an example of how stupid this whole exercise is in the first place, and a list of good sources that might otherwise clue you into how muddled the whole mess really is. First let's look at television - who invented it? Can't think of it? Neither can the history books which mentions no less than 3 people who worked in no less than 3 countires all at the same time on essentially the same idea. It didn't matter anyway because eventually another company RCA just took the best approach - modified it a bit, and marketed the hell out of it and got it into the most homes at the best price - sound familiar? How about Thomas Edison? Without drumming up a herculanian research effort to prove mintue', theres a few obvious examples that come to mind. The light bulb for one. That research predated his experiments for about 2 decades until he stumbled on the right alloy that worked the best. Didn't matter than he wasn't first, he's now a legand for that one. In fact that only true damn thing he's most famous for in actually inventing is the phonograph. The rest he appropriated into the ground and ran to the US pantent office before anyone could otherwise market them without some serious lawsuits from his legal team. The light bulb is a fave example because it's power source was intended to be DC because he was pouring a ton of research into various dry and wet cells to power the damn things. Meinwhile General Electric was pouring millions (billions by today's standards) creating electrical power stations to power the whole network of lights that would illuminate cities coast to coast. This drove Edison nuts to the point he invented the electric chair and zapped a few dogs and horses in an effort to discredit AC power as a dangerous power source. Of course if you think DC is any safer, just touch your tongue to the leads on a car battery and have your next of kin get back in touch to me about the results. No it was all power policitics, to coin a phrase, and the people who won were the people who could take an idea and technology and make it affordable and get it out into the most hands ala Henry Ford. Well, between XEROX, VisiWindows, GEM, GEOS, X Windows, the Alto, the Star and many other GUI's, everyone was going GUI nuts when the horsepower and design of the various boxes could otherwise handle a decade of research at Xerox. Stock swaps, soundbites from Triumph of the Nerds, and many books later - what you have is a mess. So fuck this Microsoft knocked off Apple crap. Everyone knocked off everyone else since even Xerox may have tipped it's hand to how Apple stole thier shit with a failed lawsuit that preceeded Apple failed lawsuit against Microsoft. So give the me-first shit a rest people - it only matters who got the GUI into the most hands, if it works decently, and is affordable. The argument for me is, if Apple's was so damn a great one of those, how come they can't get anything in marketshare numbers that are slipping as we speak? Can anyone say who cares? 95% of the planet doesn't seem to have a problem saying otherwise. For the rest of the story read Steve Jobs and the NeXT big thing, Apple, The Little Kingdom, Steve Jobs the Journey is the reward, Hackers, Bill Gates Overdrive, Xerox Fumbling the future, and there's a great book about GO that shouldn't be forgotten - however I just did anyway. If you read just a couple of these tomes, you may just get a clue how silly the me-first shit is, and why I don't give a fig outside of market-penetration. The Star couldn't do it. VisiCorp couldn't hang on long enough to do it. Commodore couldn't get GEOS out in force, GEM failed with Digital Research, So the only one's left are X windows, Linux, BeOS, Windows 95, NT, Mac OS, OpenStep Rhapsody (eventually - maybe - one of these days), Irix, Solaris, and I'm sure I'm leaving out a couple. The point is, like Alsop mentioned during the Senate subcomittie - the democratic process is alive and well, and Ralph Nader? Shut the fuck up. People have choice, and the standard is out there that has been chosen. For the MacJihad, keep trying - but like the makers of GEM I don't think it's going to survive until Apple does something to catch it's aging GUI up with what people want to use, can afford to use, and have chosen to use. The game isn't over - but give the historical mythology a rest until you either have marketshare to show that anyone cares, or until you read the books about how muddled this pissing contest really is. I'm just going to relax and continue to watch one company with the most pompous user base continue to eat crow, while the rest of the planet considers you more and more foolish along the way. Chew on that one for a while - I've got the alka-selzer at the ready when you're done.

March 28

One more MacJihad observation. I've been noting in the BBBS section, the new slur - "Church of Microsoft, or Church of Wintelogy" or some such nonsense. The slur isn't all that surprising because you only have to reach in to the mindset of a 3rd grader to find an opposite to my references to the MacJihad to knee-jerk a counter-rerference. The difference is, I have a bonifide reason for referring to overzelous Macusers who run around proudly branding themselves Evagelistas and MacMarines - thus - it's not a hard trick to refer to them in less glowing terms, or a word that fit the role of parody. The irony, is the fact that Wintel users aren't under any auspcies of worship to Bill Gates, any more than the people who watch home videos show any reverence to the head of JVC. This is interresting because what you have is a niche audience that is participating in at least two disturbing functions. One, I suspect - more than just a little - that they've now fallen prey to Mel Gibson depicted conspiracy theorists, to explain to themselves how people could be so "mis-informed" and be staying away from the Macintosh in droves. Obviously it can't be normal market forces, marketshare, software share, prices, competiting technology, or even proxy with other users that they have to do business with. No! It must be Bill Gates and some kind of religion. This is quite amusing on one hand, but it's really just pathetic. The second thing that springs to mind, is projection. Taking one's own value judgements, perspective and general behavior, and pushing those onto others. Sociologists often note that there's a part of life where children become aware - that what other people are thinking - might not the same thing that they're thinking. For instance, there's one well documented (and fun) sociological experiment you can try with a kid, usually under the age of 4 (it varies from sex to sex, so that age can wander a bit). You basically introduce a third "person" into the test, and often get the dialogue that follows:

tester - (holding a box of crayons filled with birthday candles, with a stuffed toy that is blindfolded) "what is in this box?"

kid - "crayons!"

(tester proceedes to open the box and show the kid the birthday candles - and only afterwards - the blindfold is removed from the stuffed toy)

tester - "What do you think "snoopy" thought was in the box when it was closed?"

kid - "candles!"

The upshot of the experiment is, that until a certain age, every kid thinks that what he observes and knows, is what everyone else around them thinks and knows. This is internal projection. Now sometimes, under rare circumstances, people can't detach themselves - IE: grow up - and figure out why people "don't get" what they already know as the "truth". It's painfully obvious, that those who would run around accusing people who don't otherwise give a shit about computers, would suddenly be labled a member of some cult just because they happen to use the same computers that most others use, ironically contradicting the whole meaning of the word "cult" in the first place. Severe blown logic circuts? Or just infantile behavoir? Virtually no one using Wintel computers, use them because they're part of some cult, or religion, or niche, that is actively acting out to "win over" a mass portion of the uneducated around them to their "cause". This is projection, combined with dellusional behavoir, all crammed into an ironic circumstance involving (a) Mac users now being a niche userbase and (b) a vast portion of that user base is acting like they are part of a cult/Jihad and even go out of their way to label themselves as "missionaries", "marines" or "Jedi's". I'm sorry to inform this sad crowd, that the vast number of people that you project your fantasies onto, not only don't know what the hell you're talking about - but in fact - are wont to think you're a loonier person than they previously suspected. The bottem line - everytime I see a reference to the "Cult of Bill" I just sit back, smile, and have a sip of bourbon or merlot and watch the biggest, most flaggerent example of bizzare sociological conduct, and occasionally become confused on whether I should be laughing, or just feeling some form of pitty. I suspect it's pathos since my pitty is probably just a form of voyeristic enjoyment, observing idiotic displays of perverse logic - and it's all on my site to boot. And you don't think I'm having fun with all this? It's a goddam hoot!