Holy guacamole 

Michael Gartenberg at Microsoft?

Speechless.

CNN carrying Bush water 

I watched yesterday's Bush press conference. There's absolutely no doubt that he's selling war with Iran. And this morning, I saw CNN help him with the pitch.

According to CNN, our sometime enemy in Iraq, radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, may now be in Iran. He may not be there, but it's possible that he's there. Right now. That was the news, it was a headline, scoop-level story. We're not sure he's there, but he could be. That's news? Eh.

They also said, but didn't emphasize, that if he were in Iran this wouldn't be anything new, he's often in Iran.

He's also part of the coalition that forms the government of Iraq, the one that we're supporting, the one that we're funding, and arming. But this time, today, they didn't mention that he's our friend in Iraq, because today he's being portrayed as our enemy in Iraq. But given that he's part of the government of Iraq, him being in Iran is like Ted Kennedy being in Mexico. It's conceivable that al-Sadr has legitimate business in Iran. But it's hard for us to conceive of that, supposedly, because the picture that's being painted is that Iran is the country that's killing our soldiers. And we're supposed to conclude, of course, that al-Sadr, being in Iran (if he actually is) is more evidence of that. They don't say it, but we're left wondering why this is news. If he isn't there plotting the deaths of more Americans, exactly why is he in Iran? (Assuming he is.) Clearly he's up to no good.

In other words, they're just moving around words to make it sound like something new and dangerous is happening, when in fact nothing new is happening, and if it is dangerous, it is something that in the past, the same people have asked us to overlook the danger in.

One more thing -- in the Bush press conference, not only haven't the reporters asked Bush to explain who the enemy is, they also talk about the enemy themselves, although if pressed, I doubt if any of them could explain exactly who the enemy is. Maybe they should do a Frontline special explaining the complicity of the professional journalists in U.S. propoganda.

Summary: One day al-Sadr is the enemy and another day he is our ally.

What could "winning" in Iraq possibly mean?

Problem: We have no clue who we're fighting.

Great balls of fire 

Daring Fireball is a huge-flow site, when they point to me, lots of traffic, and not idle clickers either, they seem to read the pieces, their emails are thoughtful.

Today they point to a piece I wrote after CES, about how Microsoft used to be a great seducer, which fit well with their tail light chasing method of competing.

Today's Microsoft: Not so much.

Ponzi and Chris 

Last Friday I spent the day with Chris and Ponzi Pirillo at their new house in the Seattle area.

A day with the Pirillos means lots of talk about gadgets, for sure. Their house is filled with cool electronic toys.

I was raving about Fractional Horsepower HTTP Servers, and that got Chris started, and he showed me a Panasonic webcam that I had to get, so I did.

Quick impulse decision that it was, I didn't remember until later that the difference between my house and theirs is that theirs runs on Windows and mine runs on Macs. Of course I have the obligatory Windows machine (and Chris has a Mac Mini) so I was able to get the webcam configured and working (and it's very very cool) but what I really want is to be able to use it from my desktop and laptop. And for that, I have to be able to use it with a Mac, which I have not managed to do yet, even though it appears to be compatible, based on this member review on the Amazon site. And there's software that claims to work with it on the Mac, but I haven't gotten it to work yet.

It's a personal issue I'm sure, probably has something to do with the post-op haze that's enveloping my mind. Expect me to rave about it once I get the booger working properly with my Macs.