Shuttle wing lost sensors, maybe heat tiles Thousands protest against Ivory Coast accord AOL's Need: A New Vision Blair and Bush tell Saddam: Time is running out UK government gets access to Microsoft source code DNA May Give Tip As to When You Will Die At least 34 killed in Zimbabwe train crash Foes of Venezuela's Chavez ease strike, seek vote

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Now the Opinion... From Little Ol' Me

	Light Posting
	The beta reports have been coming in and today the software is torn apart, so I cannot post while I implement these changes. Might be finished with them by tomorrow. I wrote a while back that I was glad Bush was proposing the use of nuclear propellent for the Mars missions. That's probably off the table now - at least in the near future. Dove-tailing terrorism and this disaster, there's no way that would fly through Congress with the backing of the American people. Yesterday was big in a lot of ways. I read a report how some Iraqis were glad this happened - but given the sensationalism of journalistic pursuits, I trust that's not the mojority of opinion in Baghdad among the citizens of Iraq and that this was select opinion to make for attention-grabbing headlines. Let cooler heads prevail. So, have a great Sunday. I'll be back ASAP.

Opinion Paper: Posted Feb 2, 2003 11:24 AM by Brett Rogers

	The Obvious and Tragic
	I've been listening to the news coverage while working on the software this morning. For over 2 hours, analysts keep talking about the "what may be the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia." Did it land in Florida? No. Did something explode along the flight path of the shuttle? Yes. Do we have pictures of it? Yes. Then why in the world do reporters keep talking about "what may be?" In the first 15 minutes - even in the first hour - I get that. But nearly 3 hours later? My wife is from Florida. Her dad works at NASA and her family lived near the Cape. In January 1986, she was in high school and was practicing in a school play for Romeo and Juliet. When the Challenger exploded, she was knocked off the balcony into the arms of Romeo. She and the other students ran outside and watched diverging trails in the sky grow wider apart. This morning has hit her pretty hard. FoxNews website has pretty good coverage and bios of all of the astronauts. In my ears on ABC radio, I'm hearing eyewitness accounts of fallen debris in Nacogdoches, Texas. One fella spoke of some in a bank parking lot. Another was with his wife and daughter and had to comfort them. Heartbreaking stuff. Jeff Hancock, a 29-year-old dentist, said he found a chunk of debris in his office. "It came through the roof of my office. It's about a foot-long metal bracket," he said. Ed Rohner, Nacogdoches airport manager, said some type of tank ended up on a runway. "We have one large, several foot in diameter, some type of tank that was in the middle of a runway. We've got pieces of debris all along the entrance road to the airport," Rohner said. "I don't know what it is. It's a large, round metal tank, several feet in diameter." (from CNN's website) And the cause seems to be an accident on launch that obviously affected the descent. The first indication of a potential problem occurred minutes before 9 a.m. EST, when there was a loss of temperature sensors on the shuttle's left wing, said Ron Dittemore, the program manager. During Columbia's liftoff, a piece of insulating foam from the fuel tank was believed to have hit that wing. Dittemore said the loss of the sensors on the left wing was followed seconds later by several other problems, including a loss of tire pressure and indications of excessive structural heating. Hope that they determine this was an anomaly. I imagine that the families of those on the space station are plenty nervous.

Opinion Paper: Posted Feb 1, 2003 11:08 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	IM at a Loss
	For those who IM while at work, those days may be over. IM Traffic Control, which is scheduled for release in the third quarter, will give technical administrators access and control of users' messaging applications from leading consumer providers America Online, Yahoo, and Microsoft. The company said its product is one of the first to offer businesses the capability to rein in rogue use of consumer IM products in the workplace. Instant messaging in business has been growing by leaps and bounds in recent months, say analysts. In an unrelated article, America Online suffered a net loss (170,000) in its subscriber base, while MSN endured zero growth - each despite huge and expensive launches of version 8 of the respective products (for Microsoft, it was MSN and a $350M ad campaign). What does that say? They both market - heavily - that their product is "easy to use," but that's not selling. Despite the simplicity, either the functionality is wrong or the price is wrong. This says that the two giants, AOL and Microsoft, don't know what the customer wants, which means a great opportunity for those who are listening to the market. But hold the phone and consider this - in Afghanistan, we were getting less than desirable results until they minimized the troops to just 250 Special Forces guys with secure satellite phones: “In effect, they ‘Napsterized’ the battlefield by cutting out the middlemen (much of the military’s command and control) and working directly with the real players. … The data came in so fast that HQ revised operating procedures to allow intelligence analysts and attack planners to work directly together. Their favorite tool, incidentally, was instant messaging over a secure network.” - Ned Desmond/“Broadband’s New Killer App”/Business 2.0/ OCT2002 (from Tom Peters' Jan. 25 slideshow) Every tool - especially instant messaging - has a good and right usage. If IM Traffic Control can limit this to smart company/business use, it will fly right out the door. And consider this from the same slideshow: “Customers will try ‘low cost providers’ … because the Majors have not given them any clear reason not to.” Is that what's happening to AOL ($23.95 a month) and MSN ($21.95 a month)?

Opinion Paper: Posted Feb 1, 2003 8:37 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Dispute This!
	Damage control will begin in earnest soon. For all of the Democrats who played the "we can't trust our president" game (Bonior, Feinstein, Daschle, Pelosi, et al), it sounds like the "I'm glad that the president listened to us and tipped his hand" rhetoric will start. The Bush administration is preparing to release supersensitive electronic intercepts obtained by the National Security Agency that officials say prove that Iraq has repeatedly lied to United Nations inspectors, plotted among themselves about how to conceal weapons material and even appeared to boast afterward at their success in doing so, NEWSWEEK has learned. “They're saying things like, ‘Move that,’ ‘Don't be reporting that’ and ‘Ha! Can you believe they missed that’,” the official said. “It’s that kind of stuff.” “I'm all for [full disclosure of the transcripts],” said Rep. Jane Harman of California, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “It’s very important to have popular and multinational support for this effort.” I have to wonder if this was some of the information that the Australians shared with the French. The big question: will this cause Saddam to rethink his refusal to give in? Who knows, but I tend to believe that if he's going down, he'll try to take as many Americans as he can with him. Can you say "tactical nukes?" I'm sure that Bush can.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 9:32 PM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Physician, Heal Thyself
	From the Motley Fool: If Microsoft itself can't successfully patch its own servers, then how can it rightly expect everyone else to do so? Yes, the patch had been available since June, but because of the extensive testing sometimes needed for installation, the fix clearly wasn't applied as broadly as necessary. And when the company issues patch after patch after patch, it can get a bit complicated, even for the most competent network engineer. Some experts also argue Microsoft should focus its security efforts on putting out software with fewer flaws and holes to begin with, rather than issuing fixes and patches, and then acting indignant when something like this happens. What a novel idea. Software is a tough business. I know because we're beginning the beta stage (technology preview) of version 2 of our product and the bug reports are rolling in and I'm issuing patch after patch. I don't know how that can change. You forecast as many possibilities as you can, but complexity breeds too many scenarios to test. Patchwork will always be with the IT industry. "Acting indignant..." - arrogance has been bred into Microsoft since its inception because its founder is widely perceived that way. Corporate persona. One bad apple spoils the bunch. As a whole, I think the IT industry has been un-user-friendly. Few companies do it well, and I think that as an industry - when they do screw up - they're defensive. What Microsoft really needs to change is its attitude. It's not the center of the IT universe. It can't change open standards, like HTML, to its own liking, as it constantly tries to do. HTML is pretty set in stone - but not for Microsoft. Office XP now comes with the ability to save to "clean HTML" format - the format the rest of the world uses. How nice of them to offer that feature. I owe Microsoft a lot - I code and make my living with their products. But the 'tude has to go.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 5:15 PM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Showstopper
	When I read this I did a double-take. "Australia is committed to the United Nations process," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said after talks with his French counterpart, Dominique de Villepin. Australian Prime Minister John Howard has been very clear about his support for the US and pre-emptive strikes against terror. So is this an about-face? Downer suggested that it was still too early to say whether Australia would join a US-led military strike on Iraq without UN approval because the UN process had not yet been played out. "Ultimately, we all accept that Iraq has to be disarmed and we hope that the United Nations can do the job," he said. Interesting. But this came at the table of a meeting between France and Australia. [French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin] added, it was imperative that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein listen to the message delivered "loud and clear" by the international community: that "Iraq must accept active cooperation." I think this is the beginning of the French coming to their senses. They don't want to be left out of a winning coalition. It's my opinion that Australia engineered an agreement with France to advocate for the use of the UN here in exchange for the French supporting a US-led strike on Iraq at a UN Security Council vote.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 4:52 PM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	A Little North Korean Ambience
	These slogans are found plastered throughout North Korea: "Let's live according to our own way!" "Let's defend General Kim Jong Il's political philosophy with our lives!" At a school: "Let's become the proud sons and daughters of the Great General!" A Hollywood-like billboard on a roadside bank urges people to become "human rifles and bombs." "U.S. imperialist aggressors, our sworn enemy, let's kill them all!" Everybody walks. There is no heat. People hide form tourists.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 12:43 PM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Don't Get a Job - Make a Job
	What a great thing when colleges start focusing on how to create jobs through encouraging entrepreneurship. The job insecurity that has settled over the nation during the past few years has made the idea of self-employment more appealing to college students. And so a growing number of colleges and universities are offering courses and even degree programs in entrepreneurship to prepare young people for the challenges of working for themselves. "People realize that rather than get a job, I've got to make a job," said Erik Pages, policy director for the Washington, D.C.-based National Commission on Entrepreneurship. The University of Dayton - that's where I want to go. The University of Dayton began offering entrepreneurship as a major in 1999 and had 10 students. There are 83 students in the program this school year. Students in the program start their own companies as sophomores with $3,000 in seed money from the school. After a year, the businesses are liquidated, with any profits donated to charity. How cool - let them fail while in school to increase their chance of success once out of school. About one-third of the graduates go on to start their own business.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 8:22 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	When the Blind Lead...
	Nelson Mandela made the outrageous claim that perhaps George Bush ignores the consensus of the UN "because the secretary-general of the UN (Ghanaian Kofi Annan) is now a black man." Obviously Mr. Mandela needs glasses and his hearing aid turned up. Two of Bush's top advisors in the push toward Iraq are black and Mr. Bush just said in his speech that he wanted to give $10 billion to help Africa fight AIDS. Maybe he didn't really mean these words that he spoke in his own defense during his 1964 trial. Political division, based on color, is entirely artificial. Who's really looking at color here? Bush or Mandela?

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 8:09 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	The Net Effect is Lower Circulation
	More people now see the Internet as a more important place to get info than they do newspapers, according to a UCLA survey. 61 percent of Internet users find the Net "very" or "extremely" important as an information source, compared with 60 percent for books and 58 percent for newspapers. Which explains why more newspapers consider the move toward allowing online access by subscription. After pouring hundreds of millions into their online versions, and in the face of a debilitating advertising recession, Britain's newspaper proprietors are all urgently reviewing the cost, the revenues and even the purpose of their dot-com operations. "The Times was the first UK publisher to recognise the value of online content. The internet offers strong commercial opportunities and we intend to take advantage of them. Charging for content is not a new idea; newspapers have been doing it for 200 years." I have no problem with taking a profit - every responsible business should. But the Internet is "free." Will that work? Personally, I browse like water, moving quickly around sites that ask me for a new login or for money just to view the content. I can find the information elsewhere online - too much competition and too easy to find it. Taken to its extreme, if circulation and revenues continue to decline, who pays for the reporters? Which begs - who reports?

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 6:47 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Hypocrite
	William Gates, Sr. recently put out his book, "Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes." In so doing, he advocates for the estate tax, also known as the "death tax," saying that the rich have that obligation to the US. He was asked to sign a petition circulated by Responsible Wealth, an organization in Boston, that seeks to reform, but not kill, the estate tax. And so he did. The petition contains this language: Only the richest 2 percent of our nation's families currently pay any estate tax at all. Repealing the estate tax would enrich the heirs of America's millionaires and billionaires while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet. The billions of dollars in state and federal revenues lost will inevitably be made up either by increasing taxes on those less able to pay or by cutting Social Security, Medicare, environmental protection, and many other government programs so important to our nation's continued well-being. Another of the signatories is Ted Turner (he's no .11 on the list). Mr. Turner has been a resident of Georgia for a very long time. He met with his accountants recently. They pointed to his money and said, "You know that property you have in Florida? Yeah well, if you make that your legal residence, you'll save a lot of dough because Florida has no state income tax." Ted stammered. "But I love Georgia! I live here. I have a lot of connections here." The accountants replied, "Dude... the money that you'll save." So Ted went out and got his Florida driver's license. Ol' Ted's now a Floridian and he's avoiding Georgia taxes. But what about the "millions of dollars in state revenues lost" that "will inevitably be made up by increasing taxes on those less able to pay?"

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 31, 2003 6:12 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	The Look of War
	Did these guys practice this? These pictures were taken within the last 48 hours.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 30, 2003 6:23 PM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Follow the Money
	I'm sure that Forbes didn't mean to set this up, but why would Germany and France oppose a war in Iraq? I mean really - why would they? They're being isolated by "Rumsfeld's Europe." So why would they persist? French business confidence slipped this month, according to new data Thursday that chimed with a timid reading from Germany's business survey and more grim news from that country's battered retailers. "A pre-condition for recovery is that the geo-political risks clear up because otherwise, businesses will simply not invest," said AnnieMarie Grimaldi at Morgan Stanley in London. Could it be that the economies in France and Germany are simply so bad that their politicians will do anything/say anything to avoid a conflict that might make matters worse?

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 30, 2003 2:14 PM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Asay Cartoon

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 30, 2003 11:41 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Bush Has the "Vision Thing" Down Cold
	W's dad was often cited for lacking the "vision thing." Clinton levied that charged and the elder Bush acknowledged it. It's interesting that in the 2000 election, W turned that same phrase on the Democrats themselves. It’s strange to hear the son of George Bush accusing the Democrats of lack of vision - of course this was precisely the charge leveled at President Bush, who being a practical man of action mocked "the vision thing." And now a few years later, this president backs up this accusation with ample vision and pundits are taking notice. President Bush did not start his State of the Union speech with the topic on everyone's mind -- the possibility of war with Iraq -- but when he got there, he was convincing, and what he did prior to then was something surprising: He made truly substantive proposals, not just politically slick stuff of the sort Americans have grown accustomed to in such speeches, but proposals of historic consequence. I think the American public takes notice, too. 62 million viewers watched the speech. 75 percent said they approved of most of what Mr. Bush said. 81 percent said Mr. Bush "had the same priorities for the country" as they did. 66 percent said his proposed tax cuts would help the economy 77 percent approved military action in Iraq. 84 percent of those who watched the speech gauged their reactions as "very positive" or "somewhat positive." 71 percent said they felt the country was headed in the right direction after the speech. The Democrats, on the other hand, picked their respondent to the address - the governor from Washington who has a 30% approval rating in his state and is cited for lacking vision. About the time that this poll came out, "leading Democrats announced that [they'd] selected Locke to deliver the national party's response to President Bush's State of the Union address." Gee - why might that be? Bush addressed the nation to save the world from terrorist uprising. That's courage. Governor Locke addressed the nation to save himself from political drowning. That's selfishness.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 30, 2003 11:40 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Learn Entrepreneurship
	A Canadian business leader doesn't believe that an entrepreneur can be "made" by taking a college course - people either have a passion for independence and a tolerance for risk or they don't. But... Those who choose a conventional career can still learn a lot from understanding entrepreneurship, [which] helps business students do more than start their own businesses. It also teaches them to respond quickly and creatively to nearly any kind of challenge. A key element is exposure to real enterprises. For years, the Dobson Centre has brought in Montreal entrepreneurs as guest lecturers. Students learn about the real world of business from their "war stories." Employees have job definitions and limitations to what they're allowed to do and eventually they act within those parameters out of instinct and habit. Entrepreneurs don't - satisfying the customer is the only job description. Learning to think like a business owner makes people better employees.

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 30, 2003 11:04 AM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link

	Liberal Oregon Doesn't Want Higher Taxes
	By a margin of 55% to 45%, Oregonians rejected Measure 28. Rather than a tax hike, they'll deal with cuts in state government services. The cuts would include 129 state troopers, assistance for thousands of low-income seniors and the disabled, community mental health treatment and $95 million in school funding. Some of the cuts are due to take effect as early as Saturday, unless state legislators seek ways to prevent them. Residents have been suffering both a recession and the nation's highest unemployment rate. Do you think lawmakers hear the message that if the money isn't there, you just don't spend it?

Opinion Paper: Posted Jan 29, 2003 5:21 PM by Brett Rogers Send comment to me Link