3 March 1998: Rage Against the Machine(-Maker)

Tuesday, 3 March 1998:

Rage Against the Machine(-Maker)

Things are gettin' busy. I'm organizing a Cheapass Game day at my place for next Sunday, to play all these new games I've been snarfing up. Plus, we're trying to get organized for our fantasy baseball season; looks like the draft will be the first weekend of April, the weekend after Opening Day.

And yes, the Brewers games are being broadcast on the radio. They've lost all six games they've played so far, which just goes to show how little spring training counts, because even the 'Crew aren't that bad!

Last night I finished Doris Kearns Goodwin's Wait Till Next Year, which turns out to be better in the second half than the first. It still felt a little lightweight, but oh well. Next up is Stephen Dedmon's The Art of Arrow Cutting, which we're discussing in our SF book discussion group next week. Karen says it's entertaining, but really more fantasy than SF.

Speaking of which, Karen and I met for dinner last night, and we chatted partly about her social life (which is interesting lately), and my work life (which is going pretty well, although I'm feeling a little overcommitted and trying to keep other projects from pulling me away from my main tasks).

I've only been half-listening to "Mr. Gates Goes To Washington". My attitude is that Microsoft is a monopoly which needs to be broken up like the phone company. At minimum, the government should say, "You can produce the Windows operating system or application software, but not both." (Internet Explorer, of course, is an application, and as far as I can tell efforts to convince people that it's an integral part of Windows are no more than an attempt to find out how powerful the drugs smoked by the average American are.)

It's a little strange to actual be glad to have Orrin Hatch in the Senate, as he apparently is leading the charge against Microsoft. Even stranger is hearing Microsoft claim that the computer industry is fine as it is because of its rapid growth and advancement (overlooking the fact that Microsoft has spent much of the last 15 years trying to catch up to where companies that weren't riding the coattails of the IBM brand name were in 1986, technologically speaking).

The sad thing, though, is that you know if Steve Jobs were in charge of the world's PC monopoly, he'd behave in exactly the same way. I trust Wall Street investment sharks more than those two.

On the other hand, I did get in the mail today a cute little app called "The Bill Gates Pie Toss"...

Michael Rawdon (Contact)