Through closed standards, aggressive patent FUD, and proprietary Office file formats and SharePoint repository, Microsoft has effectively declared war on the very idea of “breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting”…unless you happen to be using 100 percent of Microsoft’s software to do the job.

Now, I’m not one to complain too much. Bitch a little? Sure. We all do. I believe its just in our nature. I know that my wife and I are both quite fortunate. We both have fairly well paying jobs that we’ve worked pretty hard to acquire. Her more than I, I should say. Sometimes I feel as if I’m just a tad on the lucky side. But at any rate, I’d like to quote an entire paragraph from this article. Its not that I feel I deserve more. But because I feel we all deserve more. And I think this paragraph illustrates quite nicely the absurdity that has become our corporate America.

The murderers aren’t the ones who should be profiled - they can’t be. Instead, workplaces need profiling. And when you do that, you realize that, for the overwhelming majority of American workers, everything has gotten significantly worse. In 1978 CEOs of major companies earned 35 times their average employee’s pay. By 1997 they earned 115 times their average employee’s pay, and by 2001 it was 531 times. During this period, middle- and lower-middle-class earnings remained flat. In 1997 the average white-collar worker earned just six cents more an hour, adjusted for inflation, than in 1973. This represents a big change from how wealth was distributed prior to the Reagan revolution: For every dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent between 1950 and 1970, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162. Between 1990 and 2002 that same top 0.01 percent earned an extra $18,000 for every dollar earned by the bottom 10 percent. America now has by far the worst wealth gap of any advanced economy. America’s middle and lower middle classes also have to work harder. Everything from lunch-break time to vacation time is down sharply since the early 1980’s, to the point at which Americans work far longer, with far less leisure time, than any other people in the first world. But unlike their counterparts in any other advanced economy, Americans don’t have guaranteed health care.

- paragraph quoted from “Killing in the Name of” by Mark Ames for the Playboy Forum May ‘07.

Now, I by no means can be considered even an armchair economist. But I do believe that the reason things have gotten this far out is directly related to the Republican Trickle Down make the rich richer and the rest will follow bullshit economics philosophy. I believe that if you entrust the already wealthy leaders of corporate America to “trickle down” that wealth to the middle and lower classes of the common people, you’ll be waiting a long time. There is a reason these people are in the positions they are in and have acquired the wealth that they have. They are driven and greedy people. And given a government that will allow them to do everything they can to squeeze more and more from the people that work under them. They’ll do it. They’ll downsize. They’ll outsource. They’ll cut lower and lower annual cost of living wage adjustments. And they’ll most certainly increase their annual bonuses because of all of the money that they saved the company.

The article makes mention of some specific CEOs that have set precedents on utilizing fear as the ultimate motivational tool. Fear for your job. Your way of life. Your mortgage. Your kids college tuition. And because of this fear, white collar workers work longer hours. Deal with the cubiclization of their office workspaces. Blue collar workers look at added responsibility. Fewer co-workers to share these responsibilities with. And we all do it for little more or even less pay than our predecessors. Do more with less. Do even more with less. Mantras we hear and live with every day. And like everything else that trickles down from corporate America, it all makes sense on one level. Of course you want to do more with less. Just as I want to squeeze the most out of my own personal dollars, CEOs and upper level management would want the same for their companies pocketbooks. And this is most certainly not something I disagree with. Its about balance. Its about the scales being tipped. Tipped to the point that occasionally, someone snaps. And as Mark points out in his article, these aren’t people that have a history of mental illness or even mild disturbances. These could be anyone of your coworkers that have just had it with the diminishing conditions and the degradation.

I could go on and talk of some specifics that I’ve seen regarding the company I work for. But, then I wouldn’t be much of a ‘Team Player’ would I? And if the wrong person were to see it, I could be realizing some of the fear I just spoke of. As I said, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate everything I have. Most of which is a direct result of the salary I get from the company I work for and occasionally bitch (or is it complain?) about. I just hope that things can be pulled a little more in check. A tad more balanced than they are now. Make the portions a little more fair. Not just for me. But for those a bit above me as well as all of those below. I guess its just a little degrading to know that someone thinks their 8+ hour day is worth 531 times what mine is. I cry bullshit! Its not even like they have a job where their life is in danger like a police officer, fireman or military personnel. These are people who put their lives on the line for the betterment of all of us on a daily basis. And they are paid what? Maybe a quarter of most of our elected public officials. Now, the CEO is supposed to be the manager of managers. The sole person responsible for the success or failure of any given company. And you can argue that a person responsible for a company of a given extremely large size should be paid so much more because he holds the jobs of tens of thousands in his hands. But, with a company of any significant size, (quite frankly, I’m somewhat making stuff up here, I really have no idea) I find it hard to believe that a single man is truly responsible. I’m sure there are a team of folks all working together to set managerial strategies and directions for the company. And furthermore, all of the fruits of their direction setting are bore on the backs of the much less paid and arguably harder working managers, technicians, sales people and clerks far below them.

And with this, I will step down off of my soapbox and for better or worse, post this to my blog. This has merely been a small insight into a string of thoughts provoked by an article I had just read. I have never studied economics. I’m just glad I can spell it. I do not have a business degree of any sort. I am merely a blue/white collar worker that ponders what the future holds for our country. Praise or flame as you see fit. Just please don’t fire me.

Balance. Balance and moderation. I believe these are the keys to all.

I will state that I feel Ubuntu is by far the most polished and usable Linux distro that I’ve installed and used for any amount of time. I agree that it is a very strong contender for the desktop market and average home user. But a windows killer? Nay. Just a very nice alternative.

Tags: Windows, Vista, Ubuntu, Linux

Using a new admin-focused scripting language, more than 130 standard command line tools, and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell allows IT Professionals to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation.

Sounds pretty neat, I think I’ll have to install it and play around. When I get some time that is.

Also, a big new update has been released for Wordpress. Tons of new features and design changes. I’ll have get this all updated as well and check it out.

Gizmodo dolby volume post.

Tags: Dolby, Gizmodo, Volume, Normalization

Secondly, I installed a new plug-in.  It is a subscribe-to-comments plug-in that allows you to, well, subscribe to comments.  This way if you leave a comment on a particular post, you wouldn’t have to keep checking back to see if someone had replied, you’ll be notified.  Try it out.  It could be fun.  And don’t go worrying about me selling your email address to spammers.  First off, I’m sure you get enough that a few more from me wouldn’t really make any difference.  And anyways, I personally know the three of you that actually read this blog and I’ve already sold your email addresses for two dollars a piece. 

Thanks, and have a great hour or two.

Tags: Site Update

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Well, thats what a handful of some of those really smart guys up at Harvard have accomplished. And by the way this article reads, it seems as though this is a very inexpensive and easy thing to manufacture. Which would lead me to believe that we could possibly see devices released in the near future. Wouldn’t that be something? Check out the entire article for all the details.

With this resolution, “you’d be able to pack more than three terabytes [about 3,000 gigabytes] worth of data onto something the size of a CD,” Crozier estimates. That’s enough to hold more than 300 feature-length movies. By comparison, a dual-layer HD-DVD or Blu-ray disc can hold 30 gigabytes or 50 gigabytes, respectively.

Tags: Storage, Tech, Blu-ray, HD-DVD, Technology

Other than that, the Holidays are finally over and it is now time to head back to work after having 10 full days off.  Which was great, but, it could always be better right?  I could have been laying on a beach that whole ten days back down on the Mayan Riviera.  Even still though, I am quite thankful to have had off the time I did.  Spent some time with family that I don't see often enough.  Squeezed in a small trip to NYC to see Dave Attell.  Spent too much money on too much chocolate at the Hershey's store on Times Square.  It was a all lot of fun though. 

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and a fun New Years celebration.  Good luck in the New Year!

Tags: Site Update, Happy Holidays

No, actually, that would be our good buddy Bryan.  Today was his last day of work here on the East coast.  In a couple of short weeks, he'll be parking his man eating ass behind a whole new desk on the left coast.  Lucky chump.  We had a wonderful lunch today giving him a jovial little send off roast.  Sharing silly little tales from the past, opening old and bitter wounds and partaking in all kinds of wonderfully un-politically correct fun.  Much of which revolved around the fact that he enjoys eating people.  Well.  Ok.  I guess that is not actually true.  But, it was a lot of fun pretending for a little while. 

So good luck Bryan!  Enjoy the sun, avoid the fires.  And don't go eating too many people.  At least, not right away.

Tags: Bryan, Man-Eater, Silliness, Farewell