Sprint-Nextel just announced they are posting a $29.5 billion loss.

“Sprint Nextel has struggled since the purchase, plagued by technical problems, unfocused marketing and a difficulty in merging the two companies’ work forces into a cohesive whole.” – NY Times Article

They’ve also been hemorging customers and are trying compete with price against AT&T and Verizon on unlimited  calling plans.  Not a great plan for success.

I don’t there’s enough NASCAR fans to keep them afloat in the long run.

Although, I’m not  an animal rights activist, I do believe there are certain expectations humans must  have when interacting with animals.  Just because we are at the top of the food chain (I won’t claim the most intelligence species), does not give us the right to do anything we want to them. 

Once such example happened my freshman year at college, where the guys next door decided to feed a gerbil to a piranha.  Needless to say, the fish didn’t nibble at the animal.  Then the guy decided to set it on fire with a match and an aerosol can.  Fortunately, someone stepped in to put a stop to the madness and “humanely” as possible euthanize the gerbil.  

 This was an event I had largely forgotten about since its been nineteen years, but a recent arcticle in the New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/sports/othersports/13fight.html?pagewanted=all - brought the event back to mind.  Its incomprehensible to me how cruel humans can be to animals for our own enjoyment.   Fortunately, Michal Vick got what was coming to him.  Although cockfighting is not illegal in the Dominican Republic, I do hope these baseball players who make an extremely good living here in the US are punished for their support of this cruel and barbaric activity.

So what are the ethics of continuing to film houseguests while two medical emergencies are process?

 Probably a more signifcant personal question: Why was I watching Big Brother?

We all hate this syndrome.  Quickly do something, but then have to wait on others to get their act in gear and do the next task.

In a recent situation at work, I had a similar situation occur to me.  We have some applications running on an extremely old Windows Server (the machine went into production use at my company in the summer of 1999).  We are in the process of moving the applications to a new virtual machine.  My role in all of this is to help guide it along and write the documentation/tasks for the SA to follow.  Of course, after I was told that the SA didn’t have any availability this past week to assist, I put the migration plan on the back burner.  “Murphy” had some other plans as I got this email from the SA on Saturday.

Subject: server x went down again 

I had to come in this time though it was hardware 3200 controller went belly up, pulled a “MacGyver” and took one from another server downstairs.

Lesson: Do all of the documentation and let the SA do the work whenever he or she can.

Microsoft has begun to release their open protocols on the Microsoft Developers Network(msdn) at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc203350.aspx. 

You really have to know what you are doing with this information.  It isn’t being spoon fed.

One of the realizations I (and thousands of others) came to early in my career was the interplay among people, process, and tools.  Thinking about this within the context of producing enterprise applications for a large organization, I realize that there’s another piece of the puzzle I’m missing -> delivery.  The first three items are largely about how we build something, delivery is about how we get it to the users.    The concept includes technical concepts like availability management, but also more human-based items within change management.  What communications to people receive?  How are they trained to use the site?  What drives them to use the site?

Apple dropping the price by $30 will put significant pressure on othe mp3 vendors.  They are already playing catch-up and this will reduce their thin margins dramatically. 

 Yes, the Shuffle doesn’t have a display, but if you want a personal radio station with your top 300 songs randomly played, this is a great little device.

This also demonstrates how memory prices continue to drop.

The price of oil closed above $100 for this first time today, but is this really news?  It has hit a psychological barrier (and I’ve noticed similar barriers in the past to my company’s stock price much to my chagrin.), but it is still beneath an inflation adjusted high of $103.35 set back in April 1980.

The price of oil isn’t going to drop anytime soon.  World demand will continue to increase.  The dollar’s value will continue to fall as long as the United States continues to run extreme deficits in its budget. 

What’s going to fix this?  A leader who will stand up to the oil industry and push to develop alternative fuel strategies for this country and the world.  Sadly, the U.S. doesn’t have that leader in George W. Bush; nor do I feel we have that leader in any of current candidates.