The PC-Centric Blog...

• 23Nov 08

  The failure of Microsoft to "get it"...

  Well like a lot of you, I got the new Xbox Live Experience update and boy am I impressed.  Sure the title of the blog may throw off my enthusiasm but let's just agree the new XLE is definitely an improvement over the old dashboard.

  Now to stay on topic, I ask the question "what product does microsoft make, that's diametrically opposite to the Xbox"?  Well Microsoft office would immediately come to mind for most.   One uses the microsoft MDI format for programming and the other imposes on the DirectX engine only.  The only commonality is the the Operating system is the same.

  But what about the average consumer.  If they're using the MDI presentaion during the day, do they really want to go home to the same thing at night?  Well I personally don't but simply I have no choice.  The fact is the MDI format has become no more than a peice of paper representing your running application, in fact you may even be weary of getting a paper cut.

  The average consumer is using media driven applications at home, and microsoft should realize what they did with XLE should apply to ALL their home users.  And yes I do realize vista was a failed attempt at this, but they added directx to mdi not the other way around like it is with XLE...

  • Posted Nov 23, 2008 1:51 pm GMT
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• 7Oct 08

  The gloves finally come off!

  Wow I just read an article on CNN suggesting Obama "retain his dignity" by not starting his negative campaigning. Apparently it's ok for someone to call a presidential candidate a domestic terrorist, but it's not ok to fight back by showing the Keating Five documentary.

  The dignity is retained as far as I'm concerned since this wonderful documentary doesn't mention "vote for obama", or "I approve this message". Infact it tries to remain an independant as possible, and leaves it up to the public decide McCain's involvement which is hard to deny. I believe it was released because one of those independant voters is bound to ask about the Keating Five during the Town Hall debate this evening. Without this documentary the question would just go over the voters heads, just like current economic issues.

  As far as the market goes, I'm sure we'll have another selloff again today followed by some buys and gains in sectors that are safe from the capital crunch. It's important for everyone to understand that the bailout does allow for this and this is not an unexpected outcome.

  The beauty of it all is that it will punish the Investment banking industry by virtually destroying it, to the point where they can't be bailed out. The fact is most of the money will probably end up in the hands of the FDIC and the REAL banks out there when to accounts start to be transfered out of these Investment banks.

  It's unlikely given the tone of the congressional hearings that any of these companies will be bailed out, because their failures aren't market related but directly related to poor management. Unfortunately as one of the government witnesses testified that this is common among all the troubled companies, and that the four remaining hearings will just be redundant. For those of you that might have accounts in these banks don't worry most of you will be covered under the new FDIC provisions. The rest of you are just as guilty because you invested in securities that aren't guarenteed, and hence you were also leveraging!

  • Posted Oct 7, 2008 6:00 am GMT
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• 1Oct 08

  Bailout Part 2.

  It seems that the american people have taken main street to wall street and effectively stopped this bailout process. How is the vote going to turn out when you have the biggest gains and losses in the span of two days. I think people need to understand theres a fundamental difference between something being done, and the current bill being offered.

  The reality is most americans do not have accounts at these large investment houses, let alone a stock or bond portfolio. In other words they really couldn't be at all concerned if that sector failed. It is a sector run by High-Rollers who ultimately have an adverse effect on the capital markets. No one is saying we should stop them in the bill. They are saying we're going to make sure they have limits this time around. Well you know who has limits? The FDIC and every other banking institution tied to it. It's already in place and all you have to do is put the money there and all is done.

  Afterall if it's true as they claim, these are truly do to do with bad mortgages then what makes sense for 99% of americans should make sense for the other 1% considering we are dealing with real assets that should be inline with government assessed values. There is no reason to assume value has been lost anywhere. If it is wasn't there in the first place and it was mere speculation on future value. The tax payer shouldn't be double billed by losing money in their house value as well as they're neighbor who got suckered into a bad loan.

  I know it's not the FDIC's job to fix this, but those are the only brains I trust to do the job properly and fairly.

  • Posted Oct 1, 2008 3:39 am GMT
  • Category: Opinion
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