Author: mike

IE7 Install still takes 45mins + reboot

mike 3 Comments Technology

snail I had to get a fresh OS install last month.  I finally bothered to upgrade IE6 to IE7.  I thought it would be a 5 minute process.

Instead, my machine was locked up for over 45 minutes.  It started out simple enough, and the actual work portion of the installation only took a few seconds.   Then I had to reboot (why?).  When the machine came back up it was stuck “applying personal settings” for about 30 minutes.  After it reached the login screen, I entered my credentials, and then again it resumed “applying personal settings” for another 10 minutes before I could use the machine again.

I don’t understand how Firefox, Opera, and Chrome can all create installers that take less than 1 minute, and Microsoft can’t.  It’s just broken.

Note:  The IE8 beta requires 2 reboots.

Short Sighted E-commerce Taxes

mike 0 Comment Editorial

taxes Amazon lost one battle in New York this week and may be required to collect taxes on goods sold in that state despite the fact that Amazon is not physically present in New York.

We all know where this is going, right?  As soon as a country outside the US is willing to host companies at significantly lower-than-US tax rates (eh –Dubai!), US companies will move out of the country.  At that point, not only will we not collect state taxes for goods sold, we won’t collect federal taxes either.  In the retail space, where shipping is significant, Amazon probably can’t afford to take up shop in Dubai.  But if Mexico significantly changed it’s tax code, Amazon in Mexico might work better for everyone.

We need to learn that we can’t legislate everything.  Gambling has already moved off shore because of overly restrictive US gaming laws.  On-line gambling is still booming, of course, but the US just doesn’t get to partake in the profits.

Outside of retailing, US taxes effect other companies as well.  Halliburton Corp relocated to Dubai last year.  Dubai currently has no corporate business taxes, the US has 35%.  If I were running Exxon (the single largest US revenue source) I’d be considering a Dubai move.  Could you move your headquarters to save more than $10B per year?

The great thing about the internet and the commoditization of international communications is that companies can chose to move like never before.  Current US federal and state policy to tax everything will cause the smart businesses to move.

Doerr, Obama, Genius

mike 0 Comment Technology

doerr Back in 2007, Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr changed focus from largely software tech companies to “Green Tech”.  Being “green” was hip then just like it is now.  But, with gasoline prices topping $140/barrel last year and with ever increasing awareness of global warming, being green is cooler than ever.

But who would have guessed that the economy would help turn John Doerr into a genius once again?  With the economy in a huge recession, the government is opening up its coffers.  To mitigate negative sentiments about spending gobs of money, Obama has made it clear that he’s going to not just spend money on infrastructure, but specifically he’s going to spend money on green infrastructure!   Of course this makes total sense.  Everyone loves being green and the economy needs a boost from the government. 

I was skeptical when Doerr and company announced their Greentech fund.  But now I am impressed.  This industry is about to get an unprecedented boost as Obama pours billions of dollars into the industries that Doerr started created two years ago.  What foresight!

One thing to remember, however, is that Obama’s public declaration that he wants to invest in Green tech is not a coincidence.  Doerr has Obama’s ear and is actively marketing Green technologies to the Obama administration.  He recommended Bill Joy as a candidate for an Obama CTO (coincidentally, Joy is a partner at KPCB).   And of course he recommends that Obama invest in clean energy sources.   I bet that every one of Doerr’s companies is writing to the Obama administration in hopes of landing a few extra government dollars.  (Not that there is anything wrong with that)

Auto Bailout Predictions

mike 2 Comments Editorial

cash Over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about how the UAW was killing Detroit and how the government would ultimately bail them out.  The topic I addressed was UAW retirement money, not the big-three’s solvency, so it was a little different. But what is interesting to me is that back in Oct 2007, there were only 3 comments to my blog on the subject, one of which was my own!  However, since the bailout news struck this year, there have been 9 comments to this blog post.  Commentators so far have all agreed with the post; despite my dramatic writing style.  Since there is such interest in the subject, I did a little research on how that post relates to the latest bailout package for Detroit.

It turns out that my predictions were correct, but not for the right reasons.  The retirement trust fund (called a VEBA – Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association) started its establishment early this year.  By August, it was unclear if GM would have the financial capital to fund its portion of the fund.  And by December, of course, the VEBA is part of the reason GM is seeking handouts from Washington.  My prediction of a bailout was right, although the cause was wrong.  I blamed the UAW for mismanagement of funds, whereas it turned out that GM just didn’t have the cash to even get started.  I still stand by my claim that the UAW will mismanage the money.  I’m not the only one who didn’t understand how the UAW would agree to take on a $51B liability with only $30B in funding from GM.  Unless you’re anxious to skim off the top, it doesn’t make sense.

Serious Security Flaw in IE

mike 0 Comment Technology

From Yahoo Tech:

The major press outlets are abuzz this morning with news of a major new security flaw that affects all versions of Internet Explorer from IE5 to the latest beta of IE8….

Virtually all security experts (as well as myself) are counseling users to switch to any other web browser — none of the others are affected, including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera — at least for the time being, though Microsoft has stubbornly said it "cannot recommend people switch due to this one flaw." Microsoft adds that it is working on a fix but has offered no ETA on when that might happen. Meanwhile it offers some suggestions for a temporary patch, including setting your Internet security zone settings to "high" and offering some complicated workarounds. (Some reports state, however, that the fixes do not actually work.)

Google Chrome Released

mike 4 Comments Chrome, Technology

google Google Chrome shipped today!  If you didn’t try Chrome because it was in beta, you can now download a finished and supported product.

Some people associate Google with never-ending betas.  GMail, for instance, is still in beta.  Remaining in beta was never the intention for Chrome; we always had a simple goal to take Chrome out of beta as soon as it we had data to prove that it contains enough features, stability, and performance that real users would be happy with it as a primary browser.  We hope we’re at that point.

Our goal is to move quickly with new features and fixes for Chrome.  More needs to be done and more is coming.  If you’ve got comments or suggestions, be sure to let us know.

PS:  I do not speak officially for my employer.

Vista Without Dual Core

mike 0 Comment Technology

slow2 I’ve been a pretty big fan of Vista so far at home.  This week I installed Vista on a machine at work.  While the machine is a slightly older one, its no slouch – its a 2.66GHz Hyperthreaded P4 with 3GB of RAM.  But the machine is as slow as a dog running Vista.  I had no trouble with XP on this system, but Vista is janky; it frequently lags and stalls doing basic operations.

All in all, it makes me think the class action lawsuit against Microsoft may have some merit.  It certainly makes me think Microsoft’s claim of minimum Vista requirements is a joke.

If upgrading to Vista, make sure you’ve got a dual core system.  I’d bet that the vast majority of developers at Microsoft run exclusively on dual core (or better) machines.  [We developers at Google probably do too, but at least I’m still using this one :-)]