Archive for the ‘ Business ’ Category

How Android Really Works

I’m amazed it took me so long to figure this out – when the evidence was staring me right in the face – two Android 4.0 touch devices lying on my desk that I cannot make work – and never will be able to make work.

Android is not an operating system for mobile devices – as everyone assumes – it is a collection of software components that can be used by manufacturers – plus a few software components of their own – plus the right hardware – to make a mobile device. This is not easy, and it takes some first-rate engineering (which is not cheap) to produce a quality product.

It is up to the manufacturers to make something that will work. Often they don’t bother – they just buy some marginal hardware (from the first-rate manufacturers) – add a few Android software components so it almost works – and then sell it cheaply as an Android device.

The old adage “Let the buyer beware” no longer applies. These products are so complicated, and do so much, the average user is in no position to evaluate them. The expert user, who knows what is going on under the hood of these devices, will highlight the problems he is interested in. And overlook the rest.

In short, the high-tech world is breaking down – and like Humpty-Dumpty, cannot be put back together again.

2013
04/25
CATEGORY
Business
Morality
Software
Technology
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Shocking News – Congress is not Dead

NY Times  - Make Wall Street Choose: Go Small or Go Home

Senators Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, are members of the Senate Banking Committee.

In 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, the government stepped in and decided which Wall Street banks were so large and interconnected that they would receive extraordinary help from the government to enable them to survive. They were deemed, to use a now ubiquitous phrase, too big to fail. Meanwhile, smaller banks in communities across the country, including Cleveland and Covington, La., in the states we represent, were allowed to fail. They were, evidently, too small to save…

Our proposal also curtails the expansion of the government safety net for Wall Street by limiting taxpayer support to traditional banking operations. Under our legislation, financial institutions would be prohibited from transferring nonbank liabilities — like derivatives, repurchase agreements and securities lending — into federally supported banks that benefit from deposit insurance. This would ensure that the government safety net protects only the commercial bank, not the risky investment-banking arms of the megabanks. If the megabanks want to remain large and complex, that’s their choice — but Americans should not have to subsidize their risk-taking. If they fail, their executives and investors — not taxpayers — should pay the price.

We expect a full-throated effort by the megabanks to resist our proposal. The good news is that there is a real and growing bipartisan consensus around our approach. It has drawn support from key regulators like Thomas M. Hoenig, a conservative who is vice chairman of the F.D.I.C. and a former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and Daniel K. Tarullo, a progressive regulator and a member of the Fed’s board of governors. Our banking system — and the broad economy — will be the stronger for it.

And Congress will be stronger too.

2013
04/24
CATEGORY
Business
Economy
Political comment
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I Been Suckered Again

How could I be so stupid? I must have been stupid in every way possible – and some of them several times over.

I bought an off-brand Android tablet from Amazon (only $80) without bothering to read the reviews that Amazon provides – many of which were terrible. I was just so excited by the low price – my mind stopped working.

So far, mine seems to be working (many of them don’t even do that). But I cannot figure out how it works – or how to get it do anything useful.

I was startled by the tiny manual – the worst I have ever seen – and a desperate search for a manual online was unsuccessful. I couldn’t even figure out how to set the clock. After I got the Wi-Fi to work, it did reset the clock and time for me – but two hours fast. It assumes the language is Spanish – but there is no way I can change that either.

I am learning to hate Android in a hurry. Manufacturers love it because it is free – but Google does not make them use it in any uniform way – or even any sensible way. You can end up with a nice-looking piece of junk.

2013
04/23
CATEGORY
Business
Internet
Software
Technology
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Morality in Business

NY Times - Wall St. Redux: Arcane Names Hiding Big Risk

The banks that created risky amalgams of mortgages and loans during the boom — the kind that went so wrong during the bust — are busily reviving the same types of investments that many thought were gone for good. Once more, arcane-sounding financial products likecollateralized debt obligations are being minted on Wall Street.

In my first posting this morning People Like to Be Evil, I covered this same subject. I said:

Our global culture has become strongly biased against compassion because it is not good for business – which has become our predominate passion.

Perhaps you do not see the connection between business and morality – and insist the two are separate. Or even (in your heart of hearts) that morality is bad for business – and should not be considered in this connection. Or that morality should be restricted to religious contexts.

2013
04/19
CATEGORY
Business
Morality
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Managed Democracy

We take it for granted anymore that democracy must be managed by the better kind of people.

This is not a new idea at all – the Founding Fathers were careful to establish a republic – not a democracy – which was modeled, frankly on the British model. There were some ardent democrats among them – Thomas Jefferson, for example. But economic concerns predominated – Americans became more concerned with making money than with freedom.

As industrialization became more powerful, America quickly sorted itself into the haves and the have-nots. In Marxist terms – the Capitalists and the Workers. But even here – the managers – the company men who kept the wheels of progress lubricated – were not hard to find.

But eventually – with the advent of mass communications – something even more radical appeared – the masses and their managers. The people who watched their televisions – and the much smaller number that managed what they saw on them.

The model for all of this was the Organization – Business, or the Corporation – which was a blend of a hierarchical control structure (top-down control) and total conformity – control from the bottom up.

No one found this the least bit unusual – that was just the way things were. When in fact – it was highly unusual – and should have set off all kinds of alarm bells.

Why did this not happen? Evidently, because people had become overwhelmed by too many changes – caused by too many and too powerful technological changes.

These changes were noticed – how could anyone not notice them? But their effects on people were not noticed at all. Or only by a few – and these were ignored as alarmists. People were convinced that a new era had dawned – where everything was new (and better) including them.

When, in fact – they had been managed into oblivion.

2013
04/16
CATEGORY
Business
Economy
History
Morality
Philosophy
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Companies Do Not Give a Damn for You

And you should be clearly aware of this – that your world (which is controlled by Business) is not the least bit interested in you – as a person. And in fact only wants to use you.

A whole book could be written about this – but is not likely.

2013
04/14
CATEGORY
Aphorism
Business
Morality
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Success in Business Means Killing Everyone But Yourself

I, Cringely-Accidental Empires, Chapter 12

Sometimes this is labeled creative destruction – which makes it sound nicer. But as anyone who has been in the Silicon Valley rush for success knows – it is simply the drive to grab the most. Just as the Vandals plundered Rome – America is plundering its past also.

Surviving in this atmosphere is not easy – just as it was at the end of the Roman Empire. But at least those guys knew this – that their heads were likely to roll at any time. In our time, people have adopted another strategy – not being at all. Which means not knowing anything at all.

I hardly need tell you that this is not smart. But this doesn’t matter. If rampant plunder means the world is left a smoking ruin (a definite possibility) that’s just too bad for it!

But there is a problem – it is impossible to separate yourself from this smoking ruin. You still have body – whether you like it or not – and it is not fireproof.

“So.” you ask, “What’s the solution?” The answer is simple – there is no solution. There are only individual survival strategies. Cringely has his own, I have my own, and you have to make your own.

The usual solution I see is emotional and social collapse. Which I am not supposed to notice – and you will not notice either.

2013
03/20
CATEGORY
Business
Morality
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Everyone Wants to Know What Everyone Else Is Doing

CNN-The Internet is a surveillance state - Bruce Schneier

And this means everything. Not because anyone cares about you – or wants to understand you, personally. This is strictly impersonal. Everyone regards everyone else as a way of making money – one way or the other.

In today’s world, governments and corporations are working together to keep things that way. Governments are happy to use the data corporations collect — occasionally demanding that they collect more and save it longer — to spy on us. And corporations are happy to buy data from governments. Together the powerful spy on the powerless, and they’re not going to give up their positions of power, despite what the people want.

Note especially the sentence

Together the powerful spy on the powerless, and they’re not going to give up their positions of power, despite what the people want.

It’s all about power – and most people don’t have any.

All because of the Internet.

2013
03/18
CATEGORY
Business
Morality
Technology
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To Not Be is to Be Pure

Being pure has been considered a religious passion with enormous implications. We have idealized our Puritans, for example – and have never tried to understand them, or place them in their context. They were too wonderful for that.

But Religion (with a capital R) has been married to Business (also with a capital B) to become one Grand Passion. One of whose objectives is the attainment of Purity.

The question that must be answered, of course, is purity from what? And the answer is simple – from their filthy selves. The worst things in the world. I will not go into the theological implications here – except to note that Christianity is full of them.

You will immediately object that no such thing is going on – that I am only imagining things. And I will counter by saying that most of our behavior has become unconscious – shoved into the dark where it won’t be noticed, but can operate just the same. But we can easily infer what is going on there by observing our behavior – which is clear enough (or claro in Spanish).

And have become pure – by simply not being at all.

But here again, I will get blank stares from people – being, what is that? And I, in turn, am flabbergasted – they don’t know what being is?

But then I have to admit – they really don’t! They have abandoned their selves (their being) to become pure beings – removed from the filthy world.

That they have also become incompetent – unable to function in the real world – does not seem to bother them.

Because that world does not interest them.

2013
03/17
CATEGORY
Business
History
Religion
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Having Fun

This is now what people are mainly interested in – they want to be entertained – to be distracted from their problems, which appear to them to be insolvable.

I just read a review of Windows 8, and this was its main point. This latest version of Windows is made for people who want to have fun – not people who want to get some serious work done.

The upside of this is the Microsoft has incorporated better security features – to keep users from losing it entirely, since they don’t usually know what they are doing. The downside to this is that Microsoft, once again, is telling everyone “Our way, or the highway!” Which means, as many people have learned the hard way, that Microsoft is determined to screw the world over. I would use another word here – but you know what I mean.

Strangely enough, this does not bother most people – they seem to like being screwed over. And think it entirely appropriate. How else can you expect a business to behave?

It does not occur to them that accepting this as a dominant principle means the collapse of our world is going on right now. I even suspect they like that idea.

After all, the world has been bad to them – now it is their turn to get back.

2013
03/09
CATEGORY
Business
Philosophy
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