What all this means is that when it comes to building democracy in Iraq, the Europeans are uninterested, the Americans are hypocritical and the Arabs are ambivalent. Therefore, undertaking a successful democratization project there, in a way that will stimulate positive reform throughout the region, will require a real revolution in thinking all around — among Americans, Arabs and Europeans. If done right, the Middle East will never be the same. If done wrong, the world will never be the same. (Thomas L. Freidman, The Gridlock Gang, The New York Times)
Wednesday, February 26, 2003
FRIEDMAN SAYS: I decided to refrain from warblogging and/or peaceblogging in my journal, here. I can't help but repost a deliciously worded paragraph from Thomas L. Freidman, of the New York Times, though. To paraphrase another great American: Tom, I don't always agree with what you say, but I sure as hell love the way you say it.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
GROUPWARE, THE NEXT GENERATION: I'm surprised that IBM doesn't see the emerging threat to its flagship Lotus Notes product is the new generation of products that engender collaboration very easily from within existing products such as Outlook. I'm referring to products such as Groove and Kubi. Groove and Kubi take existing, prevalent applications such as Microsoft Outlook and the Notes client for granted and build their layer on top of those apps. In effect, the applications that have been commoditized, such as e-mail and office productivity apps are the new operating systems. IBM doesn't seem to understand this space and still pursues Notes as a profit center. This is strange because the one area that IBM gets this approach is with its WebSphere product line, which it practically gives away to make money on services bolted on top of the WebSphere stack. I wonder if this is continuing evidence that IBM doesn't really get client (personal) computing. Microsoft gets it (as usual) and coordinates tightly with Groove. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft eventually acquires Groove much the same way IBM swallowed up Lotus oh so many years ago.
Saturday, February 22, 2003
Friday, February 21, 2003
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Friday, February 07, 2003
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Monday, February 03, 2003
MORE ON THE SHUTTLE: Any day now we should be subjected to the rumor that the shuttle is still in space on a secret mission to preface the outbreak of a new middle east war. I am assuming the rumors will begin circulating in the Egyptian press and the Al-Jazeera (who is Al Jazeera anyway?) Of course the crack Israeli pilot on board has something to do with it.
THOUGHTS ON THE COLUMBIA: I have been an avid follower of the space shuttle programme ever since I was 9. I still vividly remember borrowing my sister's old black and white to watch the Columbia lift off at aroud 7AM for the very first time in 1981 with Crippen and Young on board. Young later went on to head NASA through some difficult times after the Challenger disaster. Back then, the external tanks were painted white, not the orange they are now. Columbia always had a special place in my heart as the first. I mourn the ship and passengers...
NASA officials claiming that if the insulation from the tanks hitting the heat shields on liftoff was responsible there would have been nothing they could have done about it sounds suspiciously like ass-covering to me. Frankly, I'd be surprised if that wasn't the cause. All indicators point to a heat buildup in the vicinity of where the heat shield was supposedly struck. It's not as if the Columbia would be suffering from any other stressful malady such as metal fatigue. Despite being the oldest in the fleet, Columbia had comparatively few cycles on its clock compared to, say, your average six month old 737. Columbia probably even had more reinforcements than any of the other orbiters due precisely to its being the first. If the heat shield incident does turn out to be the culprit, the area could have been inspected by the astronauts, the space station or any of a large number of ground or space based lenses. If the heat shield incident does turn out to be the culprit, someone should be held responsible for bad decision making.
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