DISCLAIMER:

As always, and with any rule (except this one), there are exceptions. Thank you.

♥ Creig

My 59-year-old dad only uses the F-word to describe two things: mosquitos and Republicans.

I could end this essay right there.

My dad was telling me how back in Clinton’s era, the Republicans said the Democrats were using the filibuster as, in their words, “the nuclear option.” Now, in Obama’s era, the Republicans have used the filibuster more times than anyone used it in the entire decade of the 1960s. And it seems they’re calling reconciliation the nuclear option. All of this lead me to the conclusion that the Republicans think they can do anything they want, and they’re The Good Guys, but if anybody else uses a tactic they use, they’re The Bad Guys. They lack graciousness.

But it got me thinking. Bill Clinton was elected President 1993, nearly seventeen years ago, and served until 2001, about nine years ago. Using Bill Clinton’s presidency (the last time a Democrat was in office) as a kind of place to start, I ask the following question: what have the republicans done in the last nine years, since Clinton left office, that was good? What actual good have they done in the last seventeen years, for that matter?

My Internet research has come up with nothing. I honestly think the best thing the Republicans have done in the last decade is make Palin be McCain’s running mate in 2008, thus taking away what credibility McCain had, and eliminating the possibility of another Republican presidency.

The two things I hear most from Republicans are: (1) America is the greatest nation on earth, and (2) family values, God bless America, etc. The trouble with both of these is that they’re a lie. At least, they are when coming from the typical Republican.

America may well be the greatest nation on earth, but we have to consider what it is that makes us the greatest nation on earth. I think it’s twofold. First, it’s the American Dream. The possibility that anybody can make it big with a good idea and hard work. Second, it’s our programs: public schools, inexpensive education, even welfare. ¹

A major problem I see is that the Republicans say how great the U.S. is, yet they want to dismantle all the programs that make us good. Free, unregulated capitalism (something Republicans love) led us to the financial crisis we’re all suffering. Now that we’re here and the budget is hosed, it’s arguably public education that gets hit the hardest. ² My daughter’s school, a school in the greatest nation on earth, is begging parents for donations of paper as a direct result of free, unregulated capitalism.

Oh, and then there’s health care. Free, or drastically cheaper health care for everybody? No way, say Republicans. I still haven’t figured out what’s wrong with that idea. I challenge anybody to explain why every American shouldn’t have access to free, high-quality health care.

Next, family values, and God.

Jesus, in today’s Christianity, has the title Prince of Peace. Yet according to CNN, “the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists.”

Not to mention the Christian Republican pursuit of outlawing abortion (has an atheist ever murdered an abortion doctor, by the way?), not caring how many coathangers will be murdered along the way. Or how about The War On Drugs? Gay marriage?

You know, for all their wanting to be left alone to pursue unregulated capitalism, Republicans sure seem to need to control others, and usually by saying no.

So Republicans consistently say one thing and do another, they consistently try to tear down the things that make America great, they consistently limit freedoms, and have demonstraited a preference for war over health.

Somebody please explain why you keep voting for them.

They are a high-dollar, small sized item, and easy to loose. I figure if your contact info is on there, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of getting it back, and everybody’s got a Sharpie floating around.

Speaking of really cool Google news.

From the Google Blog:

Once installed to a company’s domain, these third-party applications work like native Google applications. With administrator approval, they may interact with calendar, email, document and/or contact data to increase productivity.

I bet Microsoft isn’t too happy about this.

William M. Welchand Donna Leinwand for USA Today:

A Gallup Poll last October found 44% favor making marijuana legal, an eight-point jump since the question was asked in 2005. An ABC News-Washington Post poll in January found 81% favor making marijuana legal for medical use.

Later in the article, quoting former federal prosecutor and county judge James Gray: “Taxing and regulating marijuana will make it less available to children than it is today.”

A major problem facing PC manufacturers right now is that all the computers are the same. They all run Windows. The hardware is all pretty much the same, with only minor variations. There’s really no compelling reason to get a Sony over HP or HP over Dell. Other than price, that is. John Gruber wrote that, “the PC industry is engaged in a race for the bottom…” and I couldn’t agree more.

But HP in particular is in a unique position. They’re engaged in the race to the bottom, and as far as I can tell, they’ve got nothing interesting in the computer department. They are almost totally irrelevant. When your computer is being sold for under $500 at Cost Co, I’m not sure you’re doing things right.

Reminds me of Apple, actually. In the 90’s, they weren’t being sold anywhere, and were largely irrelevant. Then Steve Jobs came back, they bet everything on OS X, and are now rocking hard.

Windows is killing innovation and killing the PC marketplace. The only innovation happening with PC computers is based on making them cheaper.

Well, not the only innovation. Dell has been selling computers ¹ preloaded with Linux for a while, now, but it seems to be sort of a hobby, by and for hobbiests. They’re not doing anything special, there’s nothing about their computers or their Ubuntu treatment that would make anybody I know switch from Windows.

Which is where HP comes in. Their computer strategy is clearly not working. Their iPAQ isn’t even a joke. Their cameras are just another camera. Yet they’ve been around for a million years. The Apple I was designed and built by Steve Wozniak while he worked for HP. Outside the computer department, they still make some great products: calculators, printers, dvd burners, and blank media for instance. Despite ho-hum computers, they’re still selling some quality merchandise.

Now, what if HP dropped Windows entirely, spent some real money, and bet the farm on Linux? I think they could succeed where Dell hasn’t and create a whole new class of computer and customer. Or if not a new class, they could revitalize the Windows PC class.

But first, they need to spend some money on hardware development. They have one computer that looks like a direct, if poorly executed copy of a MacBook Pro. They should concentrate on this design. Take a page out of Apple’s book and simplify the product line, and make them beautiful.

Back to Linux: Despite Dell offering computers with it preloaded, Ubuntu has not caught on in the mainstream because it’s a pain in the neck. It’s sort of impossible to simply install it on a computer and expect it to work the way you might when you put Windows onto the same computer. So I envision HP pulling an Apple. Apple put OS 9 to rest and bet the farm on OS X. HP is the only company I can think of that can afford to (ahem) close the door on Windows and make Linux be the future. Well, maybe Sony, but they’re far too entrenched and big to make any kind of sweeping change like this.

Anyway, HP can do all this by putting the might of their computer division into making every modern and semi-modern printer with an HP logo on it work with Linux, making all their hardware work with Linux. They can’t do it halfway, and they should consider, even if they choose not to, making drivers so older models can be moved over to Ubuntu. Maybe not, though.

So they make Ubuntu easy to use. Every HP computer should work with all the hardware right out of the box. Webcam, WiFi, all HP printers, scanners, USB DVD burners, everything. And the computers should look lovely right out of the box, too. They should be able to DVDs and web-based video.

Which is actually a major problem. How do you get a 20 year old junior college student to buy an HP Ubuntu computer without world-class software? You can’t. So we look around, and we see that both major non-IE browsers work on Linux: FireFox and Google Chrome. Google’s Picassa is something of an answer to iPhoto, and that’s available for Linux, too. And Open Office is free. So we’ve covered the major things people want computers for in the first place: Internetting, playing with digital photos, and Office stuff.

Lastly, there’s iPods. HP can get around this by being the first company to make a world-class awesome Android phone. They can also do a non-phone Android device, iPod Touch style. They can also put time and money into an iPod-friendly iTunes-like piece of software for Linux. ² After all, why does Apple spend so much time and money on things like GarageBand and iPhoto? To sell Macs, that’s why. There is precedent for this kind of software: Missing Sync for Android, for instance, allows one to use iTunes on her computer, but put songs onto her Android.

And the Amazon MP3 service is also available for Linux.

Look, the list goes on. What needs to happen is someone with power and clout has to come along and put it all together into a bitchin’ little package, and sell them like crazy. I’ve even got a marketing angle: “Live in a post-Windows world.”

The point is not for HP to be Apple, though I suggest borrowing a few parts of their business plan. The point is to get out of the race to the bottom. The only way to differentiate themselves from the other PC manufacturers is to make a different product. But even that’s not enough. The different product has to be great. I think HP is the only company on earth who could do this; they have the money, clout, and other businesses to allow this shift to be a loss leader for a while. If they did it right and well and with commitment, they could see absolute greatness.

This is an opt-in experiment for HTML5 support on YouTube. If you are using a supported browser, you can choose to use the HTML5 player instead of the Flash player for most videos.

Frank Heinz, reporting for NBC in 2009:

Gonzales whips butter until light and fluffy, sweetens it, wraps it in dough and then, you guessed it, drops that bad boy into bubbling grease.

Filthy.

Syed Zafar:

I once took my wife to a Pakistani musical show in Houston. We arrived on time but the program started several hours late. My wife, who grew up in the mainstream U.S. culture, was frustrated by the delay. On the other hand, many Pakistanis did not arrive for the show until one to two hours after the announced time.

A fascinating look at how time is interpreted by different cultures.

We’re looking to sell my daughter’s pink Nintendo DS Lite and buy her an iPod Touch. The advantages are numerous: no games to loose; games are less expensive and can go on her iPod and both her parent’s iPhones; it’ll play movies; and when she’s ready for it, it’ll go online. However, in doing my research, I found out that the 8gb, $199 version is, like the $99 iPhone, the previous, less powerful model.

Chris Foresman for Ars Technica:

Ultimately, when shoppers go out to buy an iPod touch, many won’t really know the difference in capabilities, and may just be drawn to the $199 price tag. But given the huge boost in performance and capacity, the 32GB model represents a much better value.

That does change things. The cheapest current model is $100 more than the 8GB model.

Capacity is a distant secondary concern. However, I have no intention of buying a brand-new, already-old iPod Touch that’ll be not one, but two generations old when Apple next updates the product line. Especially since this is supposed to be replacing a video game system, and will be used for power-hungry video games.

Disappointing.