Letters to the Editor
phoris
Published Letters: 25 Editor's Choice: 6
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Find a mentor
[Read the article: My mother's dying words were, "You'll never be good enough"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Even after reading LW's long letter, it's feels like there is more to this.
It does sound like LW needs good, ongoing, impartial advice, and that won't come from competitive colleagues or the therapist.
It will come from a good mentor, however, and LW needs to put some effort into finding the best, most independent and able mentor he can.
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Great for Yahoo
[Read the article: Will they call it Microhoo? Yahosoft? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So Yahoo will collect $44 billion out of this, for a business that's struggling. Great for them, not so great for long suffering MS investors.
It's hard to see the sense for MS, buying a business which is failing overall, to boost its own efforts in exactly the same areas, which also have a history of failure. It won't deliver the market-crushing might that MS so craves, and it won't deliver any killer products.
Synergies? Wasn't that the discredited catch-cry of all those failed conglomerates in the '80s?
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Same old business model, new world
[Read the article: Will they call it Microhoo? Yahosoft? ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Microsoft's old methods just don't work any more.
Not one of their major successes was an original MS idea, but they had the ability to take someone else's good idea and really make it fly (well, commercially at least). That was their brilliance, and you can argue about the ethics, but it was wildly successful.
But now, unfortunately for them, those ideas are not freely available, and you can't pick up a struggling software house for a few thousand dollars. The strategy just doesn't work when you have to pay $44 billion dollars for the idea.
Gates and Ballmer are now dinosaurs, and MS will only escape eventual extinction by jettisoning their dead weight.
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The rocky path to enlightenment
[Read the article: Ask Pablo]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Low energy lighting is rapidly developing technology, so it pays to be astute in joining the rush. CFLs make a good choice for the interim, particularly for high-use areas. Warm white, or soft white produce a more pleasing light than cool white, but are less efficient.
LEDs are probably the best long term bet - efficiency is improving rapidly, and cost falling. It doesn't make much sense to pay high prices for LEDs now; equivalent globes will cost a fraction in a year or two, and choice of light fittings will be much wider.
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No mystery
[Read the article: Why Apple fans hate tech reporters]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's Steve Jobs' fault. When he returned to Apple in the late '90s, he put emotion back into Apple's offerings, first the multi-color iMacs, followed by a string of other passionate products. And the fact that they all "just worked" helped, but that was just a detail.
The overreaction of those who become Apple-lovers is no different to those who act from emotion in any other area - whether it's political affiliation, patriotism, your children, the love of your life, your favorite music. Objectivity doesn't factor - any criticism is personal. As the smartest politician or business person knows, that kind of passionate dedication beats objectivity every time.
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Pot, Kettle
[Read the article: The strange case of midnight renegade oleander gentrification camouflage]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How different is LW from Oleander Lady?
Neither can leave the old lady and her son alone; the only difference is that LW wants to interfere "politely", but Oleander Lady has no such graces.
Both of them should stop trying to interfere, and instead pay their neighbors the respect they deserve.
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Playthings
[Read the article: My wife left me because the dolphins at Sea World gave me an erection]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Lovely, from start to finish, Cary. The beautiful thing is that however you interpret this - whether the letter was a serious attempt to trip you up, or even a complete Cary-fabrication from start to finish - the joke is so perfect.
And that even goes as far as some of the letter writers who take such offense... they have become part of the play.
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Why the obsession with this one being fake?
[Read the article: I was masturbating in my office to kinky Internet porn when another mom walked in]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dolphin man was so obviously fake and fantastic, and Cary practically lit that up in neon lights.
But this one... why the rush to try and tag this one (an exceedingly vanilla personal "drama" in comparison) as a sham? Methinks that trying to discredit this one is saying much more about the labelers than the labelled.