[From China Requires Censoring Software on New PCs - NYTimes.com]
Sigh. I guess the sad part is that I assumed they did this already.
@oprah notwithstanding, Twitter is beyond wonderful. Problem is, it kills things like blogging for some of us. I find that once I can distill a thought to 140 characters, I have very little patience to elaborate further.
I also Tweet for my dog @spammydog because he has no thumbs, and for the neglected Martian rover @MarsSojourner because he’s stuck next to a rock. Fascinating subcultures there, the animal tweeters (none are as awesome as @sockington) and the space science tweeters. Dig around, there’s some good stuff and interesting folks to meet.
It’s true. It was a good program, I use it a lot. But check out the actual decision making! It’s low visibility, it’s done better by many other products that integrate just as well. By diverting those resources into something that is already high visibility and high value, they can solidify one of their other offerings as best-in-class. This is not brain surgery.
If Google was a higher ed unit, it would go differently. The numbers would show up and say “Higher Ed Google, you’re ok, but the writing’s on the wall. Hunker down. It’s gonna get ugly.”
Higher Ed Google would look at its holdings–Search, Maps, GMail, Apps/Sites, Picasa, Blogger, Youtube. Oh, and Notebook. Then Higher Ed Google would look at its staffing and budget–let’s say they have enough people to properly staff six projects.
Higher Ed Google would attrition out two main positions, bringing it down to four people. Higher Ed Google would then outsource the other three projects to temps with a different cultural context. To justify it, Higher Ed Google would say “but we’ve always had Notebook, and look there’s people depending on it.” They’ disregard figures that show how many orders of magnitude more people use the other main services, and how much duplication Notebook shares with other, better services. They’d ignore how much the quality suffers when you can’t permanently staff an ongoing project. But they’d never cut. Never ever never.
Then they’d get weird. Higher Ed Google would call up all the offshore temps in Bangalore and promise them that they are part of the ongoing team, but never give them full positions. Higher Ed Google would leak info to the users that Higher Ed Google is in trouble and they they should voice their concern to the Board of Directors.
What’s yer point, Tarr? Yeah, whatev. It’s a forced analogy. Point is, anyone in a decision making position is dealing with this right now in a business. The businesses that survive are the ones that can make the unpopular calls. What will determine if higher ed is just another bubble that pops in a horrible horrible way or if it continues the structure that has survived since the Middle Ages is if we make the tough calls. Make them in a principled, intellectual way, but goddamn it, make them.
Wait a minute. Bill Kristol writes one of the more thoughtful, gracious analyses he’s ever allowed to spout forth from his head, and now he’s quitting the NYT?
12.23Rudolph Trauma
We accidentally traumatized Caspar today by letting him watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Not the Bumble, not the lack of Jesus, not the Death and Resurrection of Yukon Cornelius…
When it was over, my boy lost his shit and was sobbing because everyone had been so mean to Rudolph. Then it came to me… I always ALWAYS cried at Charlie Brown cartoons because everyone was such a dick to CB himself.
And now the fact that I’ve passed this stupid but somehow endearing trait on to my little buddy is also choking me up… *BAWWW*
12.05Fucking Merlin Mann
So fried, a million other things to do. I know! Another blog post. Durr hurr hurr.
OK, so the Windows side. A couple things first. I hate anyone who writes ‘Micro$oft’. And they can make some really great software when they put their minds to it. I think Vista is quite good and doesn’t deserve nearly the volume of derision it’s received.
My view is that you sort of have to be a cross-platform kinda guy to be in the higher-ed/media making biz. If it was just about me doing my own thing, I could get by as either a Mac fanboy or a Windows apologist. Or even an open-source junkie. And I’ve been all three! However, I teach a LOT of students in a given year. Hundreds. Most of them are already invested in one platform or another, and it’s not realistic for me to say “well, just go get a new setup.” My theories on ubiquitous computing and standard platforms are fodder for another post.
The New Xbox Experience is snappy and quick. Still sort of a train wreck interface. The funny thing is, I actually believed for a moment that I’d be able to load a disc game onto the hard drive and play it. Without the disc. Sigh.
11.19It’s Called Overhead
Right after taking three separate private jets to fly to Washington (rather than, say flying on a bankrupt airline), I received a little email from GM VP Troy Clarke. And here I thought GM had my email address so they could remind me when to take my detestable Saturn in for service. Apparently, they’ve been reading my blog and were seeking my advice. Tee-roy, you can’t afford my consulting fee, bee-yotch!