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The Right Legacy.

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Give props where props are due.

Mr. President, props to you for the immigration reform speech yesterday.

Long after his 2nd term ends, President Bush will be remembered, and applauded for his courage and vision in finally tackling this problem.

The ostriches would like to send the people home.

To where?

Do they seriously think that Mexico, assuming 50% of all illegals are from there, can absorb 6 milliom people? Even over a period of several months or years?

Or have they looked at the financial costs, both direct and indirect, of sending them back? Using $5000 as a baseline, you have a $60 billion invoice for the relocation costs directly.

$60 direct costs.

When the repatriation is complete, let us now look at the indirect costs.

What do we do about the jobs that the illegals did that American citizens do not want to do?

Oh, I remember: mobilize everyone on welfare and send them to the farms.

Puh-leeese!!!

This solution is a big win for businesses.

Windows Live Messenger 8 (beta)

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Now public, WLM8 beta really changes things.

Shared Folders, Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live ID, offline messages, Windows Live Mobile - utilizing SMS for transport of messages to cellphones, VoiceMail, free PC to-PC-VOIP, and $0.02 (2 cents) per minute international or PC-to-landline calls, MSN messenger phones from Uniden, etc., and a host of others.

  • Shared Folders: this feature allows you to create, as the name implies, a folder shared between two or more contacts, letting contacts share both files, and nested folders. A particularly brilliant aspect of Shared Folders is the ability to add contents to it offline, with the items getting synchronized whenever the target contact comes back online. This direct sync absolute negates the need for an FTP directory for most casual uses.
  • Windows Live Contacts. IM contact contact management outside the IM client. How cool is that? Just going to MSN Spaces and having the entire browser page to perform contact management is virtually a God-send.
  • Windows Live ID. This is Passport(tm) all grown up. Addressing privacy concerns, and using WS*, Windows Live ID makes the management of my several MSN & hotmail accounts a snap. Upon signon, you get access to all. Nice, nice.
  • Offline messages. About time! You are now able to send messages to your contacts at any time, whether they are online or not. When they come online, the messages are they forwarded to them. So you don't lose your thought, or rant.
  • Windows Live Mobile - utilizing SMS for transport of messages to cellphones. I love this added functionality of WLMsg 8. It keeps my contacts tethered to me at all times; remember the old saw about life in the former CCCP? "In Russia, you don't have to find a party to go to, the Party would always find you." I can always send information to a contact I cannot find online, when I have their cellphone number. Please note that this functionality is limited to cellphones that have SMS capabilities; then again, which modern cellphone does not?
  • VoiceMail. Aaah, voicemail. What else can I say.
  • Free PC to-PC-VOIP, and $0.02 (2 cents) per minute international or PC-to-landline calls: In partnership with Verizon, Windows Live MSG8 lets you add voice to your IM communications. The free PC-to-PC functionality extends globally.
  • MSN messenger phones from Uniden, etc., and a host of others. These phones decouple you from the PC. Think of it as a roaming IM.
Furthermore, add-in capabilities for WLM8 was announced yesterday. I cannot wait to see what the horde of developers out there come up with. Remember that all the Express Editions of Visual Studio programs are now free!

More on this later.
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Origami

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Thanks to Aaron Coldiron of Microsoft, I have some pictures of a sweet UMPC Origami device. Yes, I have decided not to call it 'Humpiq',

This special edition copy is from TabletKiosk.

Don't you just love the case?

Try not to drool on your keyboard!

Actually, drool!!!
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Vista Beta II Lab

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Dateline: Redmond, Washington.

Courtesy of The Hive.

Introduction of Nick White, manager of The Hive - by Nick White.

Prior to now, Nick ran the developer program for Embedded Devices for Microsoft and now works the consumer-facing Microsoft Windows Featured Communities and The Hive.

By virture of our site, SmallBizVista.com, being both a technology influencer, and a sponsor of The Hive, I am in attendance at this lab, the second in the series and the second I have attended.
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Windows Vista Beta II Lab

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Off to Redmond.

It is the time for the Microsoft Windows Vista Beta II Lab, to be held on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington.

Yours truly was invited (again) and will be reporting (for SmallBizVista.com) and blogging from there on topics that are not under NDA.

Watch this space.

See ya!
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Schumacher Wins Grand Prix of Europe

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Well, the best driver in the world has done it again.

Unlike last year where he was hobbled by a slow chassis and fu*ked up tires, Michael Schumacher won last Sunday's FIA Formula 1 Grand prix of Europe, run at the Nürburgring.
Hopefully, this signifies a turn-around for Schumi and Ferrari.

SGI files for Chapter 11

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Sad, sad day!

There was a time, when you wanted the very best in visualization computing, you called SGI, then known as Silicon Graphics, Inc. Deskside supercomputing? SGI!

They had the finest, sexiest systems around, with cool names like Iris, Indigo, etc.

However, management were Myopians. And missed the boat.

They've floundered since.

What a shame!
Copyright © 2006, John Obeto II for SmallBizVista.com®

Now I have DSL!

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Yippie.

I now have my DSL connected, albeit at a slow speed.

I must give props to Jason, of the at&t support team for getting me through my most effortless and lowest stress DSL setup routine.

When I asked, as I have on other occassions, to manually set up the DSL modem, his words were, "OK". Just totally cool. An very nice to boot.

Coupled with Margaret the other day, I must confess that at&t is starting to convince me that they mean it when you either call customer service or tech support.

Thanks, Jason.

Barry Scheck & Peter Neufeld

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Why don't these guys have a Nobel Prize?

Why?

As founders of the Innocence Project at the Benjamin N Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have been directly involved in getting the wrongful convictions of 179 inmates reversed.

Trip this: a majority of those were on death row!

Death Row!!!

Sickens me to think that there might have been innocents wrongfully executed by the actions of bad cops, DAs, etc. A total shame as these bad apples are probably only a fractional percentage of good, honest police officers and district attorneys.

Still, 179 is a lot, especially since the crimes are extremely violent, with the wrongful convictions allowing the real perps to go free. To commit more crimes.

Therefore, my prize for Humanity goes to Barry C. Scheck & Peter J. Neufeld.

God bless you guys.