Intel CEO Agrees that Obama Policies Stink

If you haven’t believed me, take it from Intel CEO Paul Otelini.  Or Carly Fiorina.  Or Of course, Otelini’s credibility is a little low right now after he blew $7.7B on the purchase of McAfee at a huge premium.  But we’ll ignore that for now.

He’s right about America’s business-unfriendly policies and that Obama is making them worse.  This is important stuff – once the jobs are gone, it’s really hard to get them back. 

Regarding current economic policy, Otellini said, “I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs.  And I think they’re flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working.”

Feeling Unsafe About http://

On the WebSockets mailing list, there is a heated discussion going on about whether or not WebSockets should be deployed over TLS (aka “https”) or not.  The common misconceptions about TLS arise, of course.  But it has become increasingly clear that most people view protocol security completely backwards, because of HTTP.  (Thanks to Jim Roskind for crystallizing this)

Today, we view the web as two protocols:unlocked

  • HTTP:  The protocol of the web
  • HTTPS: The secure version of HTTP.  Cool!

But we should think of it like this:

  • HTTPS: The protocol of the web
  • HTTP: The insecure version of HTTPS.  Yikes!

We shouldn’t feel safe when we use https.  We should feel unsafe when we use http.

Our vantage point is backwards because we started with the notion that security is an “add on”.  In today’s hostile networking environment, nothing could be further from the truth.  Security is not a feature, but a requirement.  Offering an “insecure” version for those that want to play risky should be the optional feature.  This just becomes more true when you think of the fact that new protocols will be in use 10 years from now…

Local Unions, National Ambitions

nounions This week, shopping addicts Obama and Pelosi, spent another $26B on stimulus.  They’d have you believe this is about saving jobs for teachers and firefighters.  But that is such a mischaracterization.

To understand the problem, you first need to fully understand how local unions have bankrupted the states.  This has hit California particularly hard over the past 30 years, but the same drama is playing out in states across the country.  For the full details, go read this article to understand how Jerry Brown enabled public service workers in California to unionize, and how ever since then, California has fallen from grace.

At this point, the Unions have tapped out the states.  In the past, they’ve always been able to squeeze a little more money out of California.  But California has been bled dry.

Recognizing that they’ve exhausted local money, the massive, cash-rich unions are turning to their only available savior:  the federal government.  Unfortunately, Obama and Pelosi are too clueless to know what is happening.

It’s sad to hear this – but it is true.  We pay our public workers too much.  The only solution is to cut pay or to cut workers.  Federal bailouts will not cure the disease.  We need to eliminate unions from our public jobs and start anew.

I liked the old blog.pmarca.com

boring2 Marc’s blog is dead.  Since he won’t allow comments there, I’m commenting here…

As far back as I can see, all Marc’s posts are just advertisements for Ben’s blog.  Ben’s a smart guy, who I respect a lot, for a whole bunch of reasons.  And he probably writes better than Marc does by a mile.  But his blog is so droll!  I can never get through the first paragraph or so without falling asleep!  It’s a compilation of self-help articles for entrepreneurs.  Blech!

Marc – write!  Don’t get our hopes up with this boring Management-101 crap from Ben!  Hmm… wonder what he’ll say about my crappy blog…