Slumber-powered

So does sleep beckon to you

In the middle of an afternoon,

Waving arms, wriggling fingers?

Almost jumping up and down to

Get your attention when Sleep

Realizes that so much action

Would simply drive you away.

What it wants is your REM cycles,

Energy from your dreams powered

By all that tossing and turning.

When you do wake up, still

Tired and the aches embedded

Deeper in your shoulders, chalk

It up to the demands of Sleep.

Conflicted Sun

I realize that Sun’s best path to profitability is selling as much hardware as possible, but the fact that they’d do a press release with Oracle exclaiming that Oracle’s application set a performance record still strikes me as odd since Sun has its own application server. And from what my contacts inside Sun tell me, the managers of that product put no pressure on the developers to deliver performance, or even quality. Just release new versions on some picked from thin air schedule, or close to it, and upper levels are happy. One is tempted to agree with Merrill Lynch’s Steve Milunivich that SUNW still has about 20% too many employees.

Later: Just to add to the amusement over management at Sun regarding their expertise with software: the brand name for the enterprise software line is changing. Again. SunONE was only unveiled last year but in a flash of brilliance TPTB have decided to throw out that investment, just like they threw out the iPlanet brand the year before. Not sure exactly how the renaming will play out but Java System Web Server is the new name of the web server, so one would think that Java System Application Server will follow soon.

Bushinations: See the pressure

One of my good friends and I disagree about the intentions and aspirations (that seems like a fair way to express it) of the Bush Administration and its allies. I see creeping fascism–and I use that word after careful consideration, something my friend challenged me on–almost everywhere I look. But sometimes The Powers That Be don’t even attempt to hide their actions and we get a good look, as can be seen in the decision by media conglomerate Viacom to move The Reagans from CBS to Showtime.

The government can’t revoke the license of Showtime, since a pay cable network doesn’t need one, nor can advertisers pull their money away (ditto). Executives claim that the two networks have different broadcast standards but that seems like a load of hooey to this observer–we’re not talking about nudity (yeccch! Ronnie and Nancy naked?!?!?!) or foul language but the alleged historical accuracy of a program that is not advertised as a documentary.

The dictionary.com definition of fascism includes this aspect: “suppression of the opposition through … censorship.” Where, one might ask, is the pressure coming from that’s causing this decision by Viacom? “The chairman of the Republican National Committee also told CBS President Leslie Moonves that historians should review the miniseries for historical accuracy, or that a disclaimer should be run declaring the program fiction.” So look closely, because we rarely get to see the mechanisms exposed so clearly.

This is funny

Scoble traces the MSFT wants to buy Google rumors back to a dinner he had a couple of weeks ago with Brin and Page at O’Reilly’s Foo Camp. I mean, of course a huge company like Microsoft would choose a guy who can barely keep his mouth shut (though in a good way) to approach such a visible company on M&A business. Of course they would use someone whose job is to get information out to do this. Of course the highly experience executives would have him do it in a meeting where there were 200 or so other people present. Talk about your ROFLs!

Vanity alert

I noticed several lines on either side of my eyes in the mirror after showering today. They go nice with the first grey hairs I’m getting. Fortunately I can barely see this with my poor eyesight.

Bushinations: Badges? We are the stinking badges!

Assuming Francisco Goldman isn’t stretching the truth beyond all connection with reality, and I doubt he is, we now have a completely criminal state just south of our border in Guatemala. Some smart and ruthless characters have taken over the army and government, pretty much killing and torturing anyone who stands in their way, giving drug traffickers and, potentially, terrorists a protected haven a short plane ride away from America. So where is President CheneyBush on this tragedy, where certainly American security is at stake?

Playing nice

Thomas Friedman wrote a column titled “The End of the West” the other day (interesting MeFi discussion) and I’m beginning to wonder if modern technology should have more of an impact on politics, specifically in terms of international alliances, then tradition or geography. France seems to match up better with China, on numerous levels, than it does with America, while we match better (current Administration twits aside) with countries like Poland, Taiwan and Argentina than France.