Tuesday May 24, 2005 Palm OS: Why it must survive
Everyone loves an underdog. In American sports, the underdog is the stuff of legends. In Hollywood, the underdog is reveared as a champion of noble causes. Even TV news is obsessed with a great underdog tale. Why then in the world of tech do we routinely beat down the underdog? Perhaps the truth lies in our wallets. As investors in tech, and as customers, we put our money behind tech leaders and tech trends. PalmSource is a perfect example of a company that today finds itself in the underdog position. Once a scrappy startup, Palm was purchased by USRobotics, sold off to 3Com, and then spun off into a PDA giant, Palm, Inc, only to be split apart into PalmSource, the Palm OS division, and PalmOne, a maker of Palm OS-based hardware. The old Palm created the PDA category, crossing the chasm, disruptively innovating, and moving the cheese of wanna-be competitors (excuse all my business puns). And then something awful happened. Big company mentality took over and they decided to milk the market with incremental innovation.Palm divided the market into the low-budget market, the underpowered but overprice market, and the rich white-collar guy market. And of course, they went after verticals, but those are small numbers. So here was Palm, owning 90% of the PDA market, and commanding huge cachet with tech hipsters. They had Wall Street and tech analysts predicting the PDA market was going to blow away the general computing market. PDAs were going to revolutionize every market, from Healthcare to Wireless. And instead of building themselves a nice monopoly, Palm launched itself down a path of "planned innovolescence". This is where you release products which are almost DOA when they reach the market, and innovate with baby-steps, keep pricing for desireable features at a premium, only adding minor improvements to the product line every six months. The ultimate goal is to create a cycle where the customers desire to upgrade every six months while managing the rate of innovation so you can keep margins high. This works fine if you have a monopoly and your product carries a premium brand label. But if your products suck and your competitors are breathing down your neck, this does not work.
For awhile, the strategy work brilliantly. Dot-com geeks and rich white-collar guys gobbled up the first Palm Pilot 1000s and 5000s, and then graduated on to devices with slightly more memory, like the Palm III. When the first color devices arrived, it was a love fest. And the promise of wireless on the Palm VII had tech geeks drooling, until they used one. Little by little, customers began demanding more from each new Palm release, and instead they got less and less. The nice maps that Palm had drawn up to divide and conquer began to get hacked apart by competition. Customers, confused by the strange product naming and slow innovation began to look elsewhere (read: Compaq iPaq). Planned innovolescence always works this way. (See the unofficial palm history for some good background).
Yesterday, Palm announced their CEO would be stepping down. This has to be good for the company. But it leaves die hard fans of Palm, and presumably developers, wondering what is next. It is sad to look at the state of the PDA market today. What was once a vivrant market appears to be an over-saturated, cold, and so 1990s. Just take a look on Ebay at the glut of Palm OS PDAs on the market. Palm OS-based PDA devices barely look different than they did 10 years ago. Palm has somewhere around 50% market share (don't quote me on this #). By all accounts, this is a declining figure. True, the Treo and LifeDrive have taken Palm devices into new markets, but this is necessesity for survival. What happened to the core business, PDAs? Don't get me wrong. I like the Treo. It is the best value for a smart phone and perhaps the most useful. And the LifeDrive, should it survive as a consumer product, is a great direction for a media convergence device. But what about the poor old PDA? We need a major update to the Palm OS, and I mean a modern update.
It is not simple enough to say that the Palm OS needs an update. Nor is a move to linux the answer. It needs a facelift, but the company must get back to its roots. Why does a PDA work better than a pad of paper and pencil? What are humans good at? What are they not good at? What does the average white-collar guy/gal need to take care of business every day? Why are laptops such a pain? What is the next pencil-and-paper killer app? Who is most afraid of using computers, and could this device bridge the gap? Is there a place for PDAs in the third world? What makes using a desktop OS so painful and challenging for so many people? What is an accpetable price point for K-12? For entry-level customers? For business execs? Who pays for these things? Is it the company? Or the individual? Why did Graffiti II piss off so many people? What makes the iPod sexy and a Dell DJ30 dorky? Is market share as important as profit margin (look at the Apple Mac)? Do the old UI paradigms still apply (files, folders, open, close, windows, desktops, etc...)? Does M$ really matter in the PDA space? Or does interoperability matter? I could go on, but I think if Palm can answer even a handful of these questions, they can reinvent themselves. This is serious soul searching, and it would require putting the breaks on projects in progress, shaking up some divisions, and getting the entire company focused on changing the way people use PDAs.
Why do I care about Palm? As a proponent of competition and innovation, we need the Palm OS to survive. Palm innovated where others failed, and kept to the KISS tenant. There is beauty in simplicity. A device that does one thing really well is much more useful than a device that does lots of things not really well (see Swiss Army Knife). Should Palm OS market share wither away to the "teens", we'll have some problems. M$ will pick up the slack, and they'll be able to pick up the slack not just in the PDA space, but in the wireless space in smart phones. Right now, M$ doesn't have any essential grip or stranglehold on the mobile-handheld space, other than its grip on the sales channel and peoples' minds. It is not like the desktop world where M$ controls the lionshare of the OS market, the investment in software, and the two major file formats that matter: .doc and .xls. In the mobile space, M$ doesn't have a choke point. When phones or PDAs get old, we toss them out. When desktops get old, we upgrade them, for years or even decades. Palm acts as a buffer between the M$ and ownership of the handheld space. I actually don't want to buy M$ products if I can help it. I don't need M$ office on my PDA, and don't want to pay the M$ tax any more than I have to. Besides, a M$ PDA will never itegrate with my Mac. And M$ products don't give me warm fuzzies. I like warm fuzzies. So do lots of people. This is why we love our Macs and our iPods. If we lose Palm, we'll lose the mobile space. I just don't think Symbian, while the clear leader in smart phones, can overcome fragmentation across different devices, geographies, carriers, and screen sizes, to deliver a cohesive user experience. Symbian exists to offer a powerful alternative to M$ and defray the costs of developing one off mobile OSes. Linux has issues trying to grow up in the embedded world because of the pesky GPL thing. Companies want to develop proprietary solutions upon modified Linux kernels without giving back, but legally can't because of GPL. Take SVEASoft as an example of a company that has treaded this line and gotten itself into trouble with the Open Source community. So Palm OS and Symbian fill a niche and create a nice big buffer between M$ and it's RISK-style aspirations for world domination.
Sun and Apple stand to lose the most if Palm OS falls. It will only be a matter of time before M$ would use leverage in the PDA space to start muscling its developer leverage and distribution might to capture ground from Symbian. Sun would suffer because we have an investment in mobile technologies like MIDP/CLDC and CDC, both of which are platform-agnostic (sort of). We own the wireless space right now, in terms of application development with the Java language. But we would lose this in a world where M$ controls the mobile handheld and wireless phone market. A hanset manufacturers nightmare would be to have customers demanding M$ on their phones. I can't envision a world where this would happen, but it is not out of the question. Years of consumer brainwashing in the desktop world has been effective for M$. Apple would lose because they have a window of opportunity to pretty much jump into any consumer market they want to right now. They've proven that an American company can deliver design excellence and quality, and be a major player with consumers. Don't believe me that Apple is relevant? Take a look at the top 20 consumer electronics products in Amazon. Right now it would not be very expensive for Apple to move back into the PDA market or into the mobile wireless space. In a M$ dominated world, it would be prohibitively expensive and not worth it.
If you follow the PDA market or are gadget geek, take a look at what's out there today. It's kind of bleak and boring. I recently bought a used Sony CLIE PEG-SL10 to see if I can integrate it into my life. I've tried two other times with Palm Zire PDAs, unsuccessfully, to find a way to do it. In both previous cases, I struggled with Graffiti II (I hate it), and clunky Palm OS apps that didn't sync well with my Mac. This time I will be using The Missing Sync. If I succeed, then I will consider upgrading from the old CLIE to something new. I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on the PDA space, on the new Palm devices, on cool Wince-based devices, or moves by Apple in this space.
NEWSFLASH:
( May 24 2005, 12:01:21 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [5]
Friday May 20, 2005 E3 Wrap Up: The consoles are coming
As this week comes to a close, so too does E3, the biggest, badest video game tradeshow on the planet. Gamers could not have asked for more juicy products to drop this week. For those who follow the "console wars", you know exactly what I am referring to. For those who weren't keeping an eye on E3 this week, we had 3 major new product announcements + a few surprises we did not expect. These were: The M$ XBOX 360, the Sony PS3, and the Nintendo Revolution. I won't bore you with the details of the consoles. They are all the equivalent of Italian supercars jacked up on nitrous. The industry blogger "press" have covered the details up and down. For those who need a refresher on the events and the console details, here are a few pointers:So what? Well, actually there are some serious $$$ in gaming. The video game industry is rapidly becoming as big and important as the Hollywood film industry. A "blockbuster" game can rake in millions. And because the stakes are so high, the budgets are even bigger. The industry claims both the kid market, the 20-30 something crowd, and supposedly a growing number of women, as their core audience. But that's not enough. The industry needs to grow, apparently. All the console manufacturers are claiming they've got the formula to grab the casual gamer, as opposed to the hardcore game nut geek who has been playing siince age 5 (uh, that's me ;). Whether this is a good thing or not is really an open question. I tend to be pessimistic about the tech industry's vision of our world. They'd like us to have a lot of antisocial behaviors: shop online, stay glued to our tv sets, use our cell phones for everything, and of course, play video games until our eyes fall out. And the gaming industry has a master plan to increase it's presence in our lives.
If you look at all of the major announcments, primarily the M$ and Sony console announcements, they are focusing on the media hub. This is the elusive category that attempts to define itself as the central point for all of your home media needs: a PVR, a game console, a DVD player, a CD player, a generic media player, and so on. I would draw a parallel to the PDA industry's effort to define the PDA as the jack-of-all trades for information management, lightweight computing, entertainment, and media player. See the Palm LifeDrive as an example of this convergence in the PDA space. Whether convergence is good or bad for consumers depends on who you ask. A game geek will tell you the Sony PS3 is a good deal because it provides you with everything you need in your home media center. Well it is true in a way. But this ignores the premium you'll be paying to Sony or M$ for an overpriced DVD player or PVR. These machines will excel at one thing: gaming. The rest will be an afterthought. They'll be awful for web surfing, crumby for managing your home media collection (try managing 1000 mp3 tracks through your XBOX 360), and won't have the friendly UI for managing complext PVR tasks. This is the swiss-army knife phenomenon, where you've got a tool that has a "blade" for everything, but really isn't good at any one thing. Consumers appreciate simple devices that are easy to use and excel at the things that matter. This is the formula that has made the Apple iPod so successful, and what helped Palm spark the PDA industry aflame.
The press is currently in a love affair with the Sony PS3 right now, the same way they used to be in love/obsessed with Linux (an obsession I to this day can not understand). Sony, while suffering a lot of hemmoraging in it's consumer electronics business, is in the #1 spot in the console market. There has been a lot of oooing and awwwing over the specs. But it will ultimately come down to the games, the fuel that keeps the console engines humming along to the bank. No doubt, Sony will have some smash hit, killer-must-have games that drive console sales. But Sony stands to lose a lot here. They are fighting the M$ giant, who will be releasing the XBOX 360 in time for the holidays. And Sony is, foolishly in my opinion, trying to capture the portable console market with it's PSP. The PSP war is a distraction from what it should be 100% focused on, demolishing the M$ XBOX. The PSP does nothing to strengthen it's position against M$, and is misguided in it's efforts to take a swipe at the iPod. The real battle is not against Apple or Nintendo. The looming battle is with M$. And Sony needs to dig in. I'll admit, the PSP is sweet, looks good, and plays games well. But at $299, it ain't where I am going to spend my money. Not when the games cost $50 each and the battery won't even get me through a trip to Europe. Sony, wake up! M$ is going to eat your lunch!
We all know M$. God bless M$. What would we do without Word/Excel/and Project in our lives ;) We'd have to use, -gasp- RTF file format, CSV, and good old fashioned project planning techniques. Well, M$ has established a beach head, and it's called Halo. For those not familiar with the Halo franchise, it is THE reason to own an XBOX. Some in the know have described Halo as crack. Well as long as it keeps kids off the street, call it whatever you want. With a single title, M$ has carved out 20% + marketshare (I'm guessing folks). Still, this is not chump change. Any time you have double digit market share, you are in a good spot. Sony will have a hard time convincing folks to drop $500 come 2006 when they've already splurged for an XBOX 360.
The most interesting one to blow off at E3 has been Nintendo. Remember Donkey Kong? Well Nintendo desearves some credit for creating a viable industry that Atari created and nearly destroyed. Nintendo has given us some happy, innocent, times with games like Buster Bros, Pokemon, Zelda, and Super Mario Bros. So why the trash talking about Nintendo. Well, to put it in a nutshell, Nintendo has really blown it for the past 10 years. The SNES was a bomb, and they left things wide open for Sony and Sega. And while Sega produced a great next gen platform with the Dreamcast, it was maybe too late for them already, as Sony's PS2 was on the way, and it rocked. Nintendo's follow up console, the Gamecube, has a toyish appearance that made little girls drool. It certainly did not look like a serious console for the hardcore gamer. So Nintendo has created a reputation as the kid's console, or the console for those who love the goofy, fun characters from Nintendo. You won't find a lot of GTA type violence on Nintendo's platforms. I think this is a strength, but the gaming press tends to see this as a weakness. This show went well for Nintendo. They are playing the good poker right now. They've pre-announced a system, laid out the general specs, and have had time to collect market intelligence, and can deliver a platform that is at least as solid as any of the two rivals. In addition, they've put a stake in the ground and are offering backward cocompatibilityith 20 years of Nintendo gaming. I'm not sure how they will accomplish this, or what it will cost, but this is something that NONE of the other players in the market can offer. So right on! I'm looking forward to this system. I suffer from 80's-90's nostalgia :) The most interesting part of their announcement is in their press release about the Revolution. See the section on "Freedom of Design". There is a subtle hint here. It looks as though Nintendo will move away from licensing games to play on their system and open it up to indie shops to write games for the Revolution. Wow. This is a revolutionary concept in itself. This may be the lynchpin that allows Nintendo to grow marketshare at the expense of Sony and M$. The others should take note.
No matter what the future holds, things have never been brighter for gamers. Bring on the games! Let me know what you thought of the show.
p.s. Checkout the Nintendo Gameboy Micro. Cool stuff! I think this will be a hit. Why spend $300 and $50 per game on a PSP when you can get a library of over 1000 games at 1/2 the price.
( May 20 2005, 02:33:27 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
Wednesday May 11, 2005 Keep thy throne sacred
I've been disturbed of late by an alarming trend in the bathroom. No, it's not the line at the mens' bathroom at baseball games (yes, this is disturbing, but not alarming, given the beer consumption). It is the lack of sanctity people have for The Throne.
There are few things in life worth protecting: your freedom, your wallet, your old baseball cards (if Mom hasn't tossed them yet), and the Sanctity of The Throne. Time spent on or around The Throne should be treated with reverence and respect. The Throne is a place for both contemplation and concentration. Some of us do our best thinking while visiting The Throne. Respect for self and respect for others is the order of the day while in the porcelain sanctuary. I think most of you follow my drift.
In case you've forgotten what I speak of, or if you are drawing a blank, here are some simple rules:
- No cell phones in the restroom. There is nothing that breaks one's concentration like a phone call, work related or personal. The cell phone simply has no place in the john. Check yourself!
- No idle conversation please. Let me do my thing. I'll let you do your thing. If we see each other, nod, or pretend we don't see each other, and then suddenly, pretend we can see each other again when we step outside the bathroom.
- And if you follow the previous rule, this one is simple. Halt conversation upon entering The Throne room. The conversation, if continued, will lack the continuity and attention required to make it through, well, you know. Just break it off, and meet outside again.
- Don't steal my magazine and read it in the bathroom. The corporate mail room is where all theft begins. If you don't pick up your subscription, someone will take it. Please, if you are going to steal my magazine to read in the bathroom, keep it. Or just go ahead and steal it, but read it outside The Throne room, and return it if you remember that you stole it.
That about does it. Please follow the rules. These should be posted clearly in all corporate restrooms. ( May 11 2005, 12:29:27 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
Saturday May 07, 2005 What would you do yesterday if you knew what you'll know tomorrow?
Huh? That's what I said when I heard a news report on NPR about the world's first, and reportedly, only Time Travel Convention. At first, I was amused. Shirley, they can't be serious? But oh, they are, and stop calling them Shirley. Seriously, some real science and thought went into this convention. Man has pondered time travel over the ages. Wikipedia has an entire page dedicated to Time Travel. I most certainly have pondered the ramifications of a mispoken word, a forgotten birthday, a foot-in-mouth moment, that caused me to want to travel backwards in time. But these guys throwing the convention actually want someone from the future, perhaps to yield a glimpse at what a mess we are going to make of the planet. While interesting, getting a glimpse of the future may not as useful as being able to go backwards, to fix that mistake over and over again until you get it right. Remember Bill Murray's career defining tour-de-force, Groundhog Day? I suppose there is some value in getting someone from the future to drop in on the convention, caht with folks, maybe snack on some retro delights like Doritos and Coca Cola, and then head back to the future. Would they even know the time traveller if he/she shows?What intrigues me the most is what our time traveller(s) from the future will do when they arrive at the convention. Are they nervous at all about attending something that probably resembles a Star Trek convention, something they only know about by reading about it in a future web search on Google? Will they announce their presence? Or will they head straight for the food? And will they be generous with cures for cancer, aids, world hunger, and stock tips?
These questions, while interesting, miss the point. The point is that someone from the future might not have our best interests in mind. Imagine some corporate schmuck who works for American Time Machine Co., sent as a company representative to file for patents in 2005 for designs for a time machine. A suit from ATM Co. comes to 2005 to file for patents, so they can start their corporate dominiation and American monopoly on time travel. Scary thought. Woudl we really want something as benenficial and potentially dangerous as time travel locked up in the hands of one ATM Co.? I say not. But who am I but a small fish in a small pond? ATM Co., if they arrive, will rule the world in the future. They could sell their mercenary services to any person or government. They could undo the past, change the future, assasinate, maim, or cheat, without retribution. I say they must be stopped. If you happen to see a representative from ATM Co. at today's convention, please bind him/her with duct tape and call 911.
Another possiblity would be that on of our favourite pharmaceutical industry reps, say from Merck, circa 2080AD, sends out one of their beautiful people, you know, those agressive 20-30 something , sales reps, with bags of medicine samples and chackas from the future, to come to today's convention to sell us the latest perscription drugs from 2080AD at a small discount, adjusted for today's prices of course. Do you think your health care would cover something sold by Merck from 2080AD? Would the perscription drugs be prohibitively expensive? Would they offer rediculous medicines, like a fix for short attention span or a way to slow down the perceived passage of time. No side effects, of course. Ah, the future is great isn't it? I can only image what our Merck rep from the future will bring in his/her black suitcase. Do you think in a future with time machines, Merck divide sales territories by time era, so they can pump up corporate profits by selling surplus drugs in the past? That would reek of corporate malfeasance, but perhaps the future has no need for ethics, as I am sure you'll agree, they get in the way of corporate profits.
Whatever the future, this evening holds at our Time Travel Convention at MIT, it will be a spectable to behold. I am seriously thinking of buying the movie rights. No jokin'. And then I can go with the time traveller who will arrive tonight, back to 1996, invest a few hundred thousand in Yahoo, Qualcomm, and Cisco, and then wait until 2005, when I buy the movie rights to this story, when I'll form my movie production company called Llamas Gate Entertainment, and I'll get Speilberg to make a movie out of it. Really, it's going to happen. Just wait for the future, you'll see ;)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
( May 07 2005, 11:27:35 AM PDT )
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Wednesday April 20, 2005 Pope springs eternal
Like many Catholics, I've watched with keen interest the happenings of the past 3 weeks. We've suffered a loss of indisputably, a great and controversial man, Pope John Paul II. It was fascinating to see how the media seized on both John Pual's passing, and the speculation of who would be next. I cannot remember a moment in my lifetime where three major news networks carried a four hour mass in prime time, the funeral mass for Pope John Paul II. I also cannot remember when the pundits speculated so fiercely about the future of the Catholic church.
The speculation of who would fill the fill John Paul's shoes ended yesterday. Pope Benedict XVI was pronounced to be our new Pope. One might think this would put an end to the punditry. But it has created even greater speculation. This is clearly a controversial choice for Pope. I must admit my disappointment at the choice. I had hoped for an African or Latin American Pope. Why? I suppose there are many reasons, the greatest reason being that the developing world is where the future of the Church lies. We get more priests from Africa and Latin America than from the US and Europe. We cannot have a functioning church without priests. Which leads me to my second concern: women in the priesthood. Why not, I ask? God never forbade women to enter the priesthood, nor has there been any clear indication in the new testament that this is unacceptable. Then why? We are hurting The Church by holding to old views and old ways of doing things. Women can provide a new pool of life for the Church by bringing them into the priesthood. This Pope has given every indication that our future lies in what we've seen with Pope John Paul. And finally, I believe the Church could have sent a powerful message that Catholicism is a religion of many colors had a pope been chosen from Latin America or Africa. The Church feels Western-centric, and its views on reproductive health are completely irresponsible. The Church must recognize the realities that exist in the developing world. The AIDS epidemic won't release its grip on Africa without responsible reproductive health. To turn a blind eye on the AIDS epidemic in favor of doctrine is a tragedy. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa had some very harsh comments on this subject.
I can only hope at this point, that the new Pope will surprise us with an open mind towards reform. I believe this country is ready, and we bear the financial burden of the Church. I hope and pray our voices will be heard. ( Apr 20 2005, 08:59:13 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [0]
Saturday November 06, 2004 The day after the day after: Hope
After a day of mourning, I'm over the sulking of the previous day. All I can say is that we don't need unity right now. Why would you seek unity with those who seek to divide? What we need is to create the America we want at the local level. The fact that there are red states, and folks may share different values or may have a different set of priorities, shouldn't matter a whole lot to me. I can't let myself feel threatened by this new reality, any more than folks in the red states should feel threatened by new realities that exist in places like San Francisco. We can each coexist without so much as bothering each other. I shouldn't feel any more threatened by a confederate flag hanging in the den of an old southern confederate than they should feel threatened by a rainbow flag waving in The Castro. But that is reality. Both realities exist in America. And that is what makes us great. We aren't killing each other over these differences, at least not as a daily occurence. These sharp contrasts in America are hard to cope with and we, red, white, and blue need to deal with them on moral grounds, using common decency, respect, and love of thy neighbor.
Today while rolling into work, I caught a great show on KQED Forum, dealing with what people in the Bay Area will be doing differently in light of our new political reality. A few of the callers into the show really struck me. One point that really made sense was that California is the 5th largest economy in the world. We lead the nation in terms of population, social, and environmental issues. If we want to affect change, the world (maybe not our country) will follow. So we have an incredible force for change at our disposal. Issues that matter to Californian's can be dealt with on a local or statewide level, and the implications will be broader reaching than the borders of our great state.
This gave me a lot of pause for reflection. There is hope in loss. The question on my mind in the next few days will be,"Where do we go from here?" ( Nov 06 2004, 12:08:20 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]
Wednesday November 03, 2004 Election Hangover 2004
Waking up this morning reminded me of the morning after a bad night of drinking. You feel terrible. You know something has happened, something that started out with good intentions and ended shamefully. I am in disbelief. Not so much that George Bush could win a reelection, but that the electorate in this country would elect him largely on the basis of character and the moral "brand" he represents. Never mind the economy, the state of Iraq, the "Where in the world is Osama Bin-Laden" game, the encroachment on civil liberties in the name of the war on terror, the weak stock market, record budget deficits, job losses overseas, and the potential to see government playing a bigger role in what we can and can't do. Never mind all that. The president's victory in the South is a clear sign that this election was won on the basis of moral "brand", not on job performance or what he can do for the average american to raise the standard of living. The results remind me of a High School Election. I'll have more on this when my thoughts solidify. ( Nov 03 2004, 11:55:29 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [4]Follow up - Election 2004: On the ground in Reno, NV
I'm no longer on the ground in Reno, but back home in CA. I got to hear the election unfold.
I can't say I am happy with the way things are going, but some place, somewhere, 50% of the country is cheering the direction of the election.
Earlier today we finished up work at the the Moveon checkout, and hit the streets. It's hard work getting the vote out, but very rewarding. We took a 80+ year old vet out to vote for the
first time. It's amazing how disengaged so many people have been up until this election in 2004. Overall, it was a great day for democracy, as record numbers of new voters voted
for the first time. This can only be good for America, as people realize that we must be
engaged politically to maintain our democracy.
While we didn't carry Washoe county in Reno, NV, we saw a lot of promise that the demographics of the county are changing. ( Nov 03 2004, 01:16:39 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [1]
Tuesday November 02, 2004 Election 2004: On the ground in Reno, NV
Last night we piled into the car to head to Reno to help on the ground for the Kerry-Edwards campaign on Election Day. Earlier yesterday morning, we cast our ballots early at our local registrar. The rest of the day way a mad rush to try to reach Reno before midnight. We crawled through bay area traffic, and arrived at 11pm, just in time to blow a bucket of quarters on the slots before getting to sleep at 2am.
I awoke at the crack of dawn to head down to the lower conference room of the Silver Legacy. Moveon.org had taken over gala C and made it their HQ. I was a little anxious about the whole thing. I had no information about what we'd be doing. I had some mixed feelings about Moveon. Some of their advertising is a little extreme, but I suppose these are extreme times. Anyway, I showed up, and found a room full of 20-30 people, mostly from the SF Bay Area. It made me proud. I even saw some Mission hipsters that hang around my hood in SF.
The energetic moveon organizers ran us through a quick 30 minute canvassing training session, and then we were off to get our assignments. The tactic of canvassing is new to me. Moveon does some on the ground recon ahead of the election and comes up with a list of people who say they will be voting for Kerry on election day. Our job is to go and hit these addresses on election day to check to see if folks have voted, and offer support to get them out to the polls. That was the plan. I received my assignment to precinct 103. While on my way through check-out, I stopped off to ask for a map to our precinct leader's house. The folks behind the moveon checkout desk told me that their network was down. So next thing I know, I am down behind the counter pulling out ethernet cables and sorting out the networking. Someone had the d-Link AC adaptor plugged into the Linksys, and believe it or not, the Linksys wasn't working. After that, I was downloading printer drivers on a junky windows XP machine, and then setting up the print server on the Mac. After a bit, the moveon organizer there asked me to grab my laptop and help out. So here I am at the checkout desk waiting for my orders.
The level of excitement in the room is very high. Periodically, folks give us an update about early exit polls. It's easy to want to get jump to conclusions, but it is still very early. I'll give an update as soon as I have something new to report. They are about to send us back out to precincts to do some canvassing. ( Nov 02 2004, 01:11:14 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]
Tuesday October 12, 2004 A Return to the kinder, gentler, "Green" days
This is not news. If you want news, check out http://www.foxnews.com.
Yesterday John Kerry was quoted as saying "We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance...it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life." The Bush camp has taken him to task on this.
In a way, I can see where George Bush has a point. He knows these people. I don't think he's ever had Osama to his ranch, but he does go out there every day and fight against them. Well, he doesn't fight them. Someone does: our enlisted 18-20 year-olds and reserve units. And they know, and Bush knows, that you can't negotiate with the Terrorists. And well, it's hard work. And if George says that we can't let up this fight, we shouldn't. And if he says we need to take the fight to them, we should line up behind him. It is a question of our safety. Our lives are threatened. Bush, God bless his soul, worries about our country. This makes me rest easy.
Is this your America, Mr. President? Or is this our America? I wonder sometimes. Mr. Bush, you don't have to worry alone. We all worry, thank you. The Terror Threat Level warning, while designed as a law enforcement aid, has been a valuable tool for your campaign. Fear and Greed are a strong motivator for humans. Always has been, and always will be. Fear has been a cornerstone of Bush's 2004 re-election bid. Like many, I am tired of being told to be afraid.
What is so disturbing about the Bush platform is that it offers no end-game for the war on terror. The President has said we can't win the war on terror. And I agree with him. The president has said we will fight the war as long as we need to. Um, okay. So does this mean that because we will never win the war, we will be at war forever? What will it take for us to reduce the terror threat level from "Yellow" (Elevated) to "Green" (Low). If you could lay this out for me, or at least indicate this is the direction you are heading, you would have my vote. But as it stands, you want us to stay at this heighten state of fear, because frankly, you have no other platform to run against your rival.
Kerry has stated that he wants to bring us back to normal. That is not such a bad thing as Bush wants you to believe. And with the right intelligence, the right alliances (we need Old Europe just as much as we need the cooperation of nations like Pakistan and Indonesia), I believe we can return to "normal" life. Reality bites. And we all found this out on 9/11. There is a world out there that we as a people have ignored while we let our policy makers run wild. No more. Kerry has the integrity and the experience to make us a stronger, smarter, and safer nation. Kerry understands the lies that can cause a nation to fight unjust wars. We did it in Viet Nam, in Central America, and we are doing it in Iraq. There is no room for cowboy-manship in the White House.
No matter which side you support, please register to vote before Oct. 14th, and please vote on election day! ( Oct 12 2004, 07:26:42 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]
Friday October 08, 2004 A Dungeon Master's Guide to Election 2004
Note: This is not news. Go to FOX for facts and news. This is all in jest. If you don't like jest, stop, and hit the back button.
It's that time again in our history where we roll the collective dice on our country's future. Yes, it is a presidential election year. It's democracy in action. During an election year, pundits and reporters try to get at the heart of what makes our leaders tick. The media looks at voting records, hair styles, service records, fund raising skills, and most importantly, a candidates ability to poll well. Forget the issues. The media is missing one important factor: Character. And I don't mean character, like in a moral sense. I'm talking about Character Stats. And yes, every presidential candidate is a character, and every character has Character Stats.
Now if you know something about baseball stats or if you know who won the Superbowl in, say 1982, then you need read no further. Ok, the rest of you can keep reading. For those who are still with me, let me explain about Character Stats. While most kids were playing sports and chasing the opposite sex, I, like many geeky kids, was playing Dungeons and Dragons. For those not familiar, this is the role-playing game that supposedly led kids to commit suicide. We who played the game don't like to talk about that old urban legend. The game was an important force during the formative teen years of many a geek.
Dungeons and Dragons, or D & D was played as follows. A Dungeon Master (or DM) was in charge of the game. He leads the "adventurers" (the geeky friends of the geek in charge), through an adventure (commonly known as a campaign). The DM's job was to create a stimulating quest fraught with a bunch of nasties to make it a challenge for the hapless adventurers. These games would take days, nights, and often weeks. And when you weren't playing the game, you were busy "rolling up" characters to use when you finally got to play the game again. I had hundreds of these characters. Most never saw any action. It was like a paper draft for imaginary adventurers.
The Character Stats were at the core of a character in D & D. Here's a breakdown of the stats:
These are all the major important, official, D & D stats. I like to throw in a few more:
Now that you've got the Character Stats straight in your mind, time to roll the six-sided dice for our candidates. We'll start with the simple one first.
George W. Bush
John Kerry
Dick Cheney
John Edwards
That's it folks. You've got everything you need to draw your conclusions in November. This was fun, and I think I'll do it again in 4 years. Next time, I'll use the complete AD&D; rules. ( Oct 08 2004, 12:14:35 AM PDT ) Permalink
Tuesday September 28, 2004 And the real winner this election season is....the hurricane?
With the presidential debates looming on the horizon, everyone
is scrambling to see who has the upper edge on the debate. Don't
count out Bush. We like it when he "miscommunicates" once in awhile.
It's endearing, like when a toddler misspells his or her name.
And that Kerry is no slouch at high school debate either. When he has the
conch, people listen. Still, neither of these guys will have the upper hand on
Thursday night. In this pollster's opinion, a wicked lady named Jeanne will
have the upper hand. " Jeanne who?" you ask.
Exactly my point. Jeanne who? We barely know her. She is a bit
of a dark horse in this election. Not quite an October surprise, but
still not a welcome development during this election season. She's
already done millions in damage, ended lives, and caused havoc
throughout the South Eastern US. Yes, she's a hurricane. And like
her predecessors, Ivan, Frances, and Charlie, she packs a punch.
She has an insatiable appetite for destruction. She's a hog. For
media attention, that is.
Sadly for the American people, we've been deprived of any real
in-depth election reporting (not commentary, and no, O'Reilly doesn't count
as reporting). I am talking about hardcore analysis people. I'm
talking about on-the-ground-embedded with the candidate, reporting.
Where is it? I'll tell you where it is. Ivan swallowed it up, as has
Jeanne, Gaston, and Hermine.
This past month, we've witnessed more minutes per hour dedicated
to the hurricane story than we have either Iraq or the Election 2004.
If you don't believe me, go turn on CNN right now. I told you. Flip
the channel over to Fox. If they don't have a story on the hurricane,
they've got the 24-hour satellite images rolling in the corner.
Don't get me wrong. I feel awful about the destruction and tragedy
left in the wake of the hurricanes. And no one wants to see anything
bad happen in Florida. When earthquakes happen here in CA we
go through the same kind of suffering, except we usually don't get
told in advance to leave our homes. I don't feel that the weather, no
matter how severe, warrants national attention, and could be best handled
by the local weather person.
I would attribute the major news medias' need to bombard us with
the weather story as part of their desire to give us what we want. And
I guess we do have a sick passion for extreme weather. Why, I think
there is a show on the Weather channel about extreme weather. They
replay the same home videos over and over, in slow motion, with reenactments,
and voice overs by the hapless victims. Now that's some real in-depth
reporting.
Folks, I think we should demand more from our news media. It would
be a national tragedy if the government were to get away with telling
us lies for the past year and the news media wasn't there to report it
because they were too busy chasing hurricanes and high profile trials
of rich people. That would be just awful......uh, hmmm. Just something to think about.
p.s. I think John Kerry owes these hurricanes a big debt of gratitude. Nothing, not even a band of brothers, could shake off those Swifties the way the hurricanes did. And George W. ought to write a thank you as well. Hurricane destruction provides the perfect backdrop for Florida campaigning. ( Sep 28 2004, 12:54:59 AM PDT ) Permalink
Saturday September 25, 2004 As the life of a Kordsmeier ends, George's war hits home...
Most of who experienced 9/11 had the fortune to have been far removed from Ground Zero. For those of us who sat glued to the images on CNN, or sat in our cars tuned to NPR long after
our morning commute ended, we should consider ourselves the lucky ones. But for hundreds of thousands of Americans, the terror was just getting started.
Image yourself as a career soldier, serving and defending our country's borders with honor, in the U.S. National Guard. Your charter is to protect the land and territory of the USA. You expect that your role will take you wherever you are needed in the USA. Never could you imagine that your service should take you to the Middle East, to support an occupation of a sovereign nation. Yet this is exactly the scenario that many members of the guard found themselves in when they were called up from reserve, or from active duty, to go serve in a foreign war. Our soldiers are brave, and serve honorably when asked to do so. But they still fear death the same as every soldier going as far back as there was ever an army. It is the soldier who must show the brave face to carry family through the sheer terror of seeing a loved one go off to war. Many families probably believed the wrecking crew in charge when they said we'd have this mess in Iraq cleaned up in 6-12 months. Some probably even believed that our soldiers would be welcomed with parades of roses. But no one can believe the mess that is Iraq today. And while we as tax payers are going to be paying for George's War, the families of those serving in Iraq are paying the highest price, the loss of their loved ones.
Some soldiers will pay with lost years. Fathers will miss a child being born, a first communion, first words, or a graduation. Mothers may miss the first day of school, a child's birthday party, or an anniversary. These are the lucky ones. And when they return from combat, they'll be faced with the tough task of returning to civilian life. Let's pray that we can support these veterans with the dignity and respect they deserve. For those who pay with their lives, they pay the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. We can only pray that their families can find a way to recover from the loss that no insurance policy, no veterans benefit, and no words can restore. For this sacrifice we all owe our soldiers a huge debt of gratitude.
9/11 was a televised experience for most of us. Of the 3000+ lives lost on 9/11, most of us did not know the victims personally. I was one of those who had directly, or indirectly, contact with three people who lost their lives on that day in September: the father of my Sadie Hawkin's date in High School, a co-worker, and the boss of my brother's friend. All three were passengers aboard planes that crashed on 9/11. And while I did not know any of these people personally, I can say that I was touched by the sorrow felt by those who knew them. For me, the loss of even just these three lives seemed one too many.
A week ago today I came across a list of names honoring the Fallen Heroes, and I noticed the name Kordsmeier somewhere in the middle of the list. I stopped and focused in on the list. It took a moment to register that this was a list of the war dead, with the current tally having just surpassed one thousand. It saddened me to see that one of my own had died serving in Iraq. I read further, and found the soldier to be Army CW4 Patrick W. Kordsmeier. I do not know the man. What I do know of him is that he is a Kordsmeier. There aren't a lot of us around in this country, and the few there are live in Arkansas. As a Kordsmeier, I know that he was a man of his word, a Catholic, and that he fulfilled his obligations when asked to do so. This is just how the Kordsmeier's are, no matter if they live in Little Rock or San Mateo.
I did a little digging around on the Internet and found out a little more about Patrick. Here's an excerpt from a page I found:
"49, of North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Kordsmeier died in Taji, Iraq, when mortar rounds hit his camp. He was assigned to the Army National Guard's 39th Support Battalion, 39th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Hazen, Arkansas. Died on April 24, 2004."
It turns out that Patrick was a career soldier of over 25 years, a member of the Arkansas Army National Guard. He probably never imagined the guard would lead him to Iraq someday. It's sad to lose Kordsmeier from the family, but I am happy to say that there have been nothing but kind words about him, from his family, from friends, and from strangers just offering sympathy to the family. When I think of Patrick's family putting him to rest, it brings me back to a memory of a trip to Arkansas when I was a young kid. We stopped off somewhere in Bentonville, Conway, or Morrilton, to stop at a little church cemetery. It was old, with tilted gravestones and weeds up to my waist. I was fascinated. Everywhere the gravestones read Kordsmeier. A few were soldiers who fought in WWII. They were all people to me, these Kordsmeier's of the little cemetery. Up until then, I'd only really known four or five Kordsmeier's. And I could tell from what I read on the old tombstones that these were good people.
And Patrick W. Kordsmeier was good people. God Bless you Patrick.
Folks, when voting this November, make this a referendum on the War in Iraq. If you don't think we need to be there long term as an occupying force, or if you don't like the lack of international support for this war, please vote appropriately. One life lost is one life too many for me. ( Sep 25 2004, 02:37:02 AM PDT ) Permalink Comments [4]
Wednesday September 15, 2004 An open letter to the American News Media: You will decide the election...
Dear Sir or Madam of the News Media:
Allow me to introduce myself. I am a concerned citizen, a left swinging Dem from CA, a software engineer, a father, a husband, a human being, a consumer, and a voter.
I am writing today to inform you that you have been selected by the American public to decide the election in November of 2004. Yes, I realize this may come as a shock to you, as we live in a democracy. Surely, we, the people decide who shall represent us as the face of America for the next four years, as President of the United States. Surely, the American citizen is sophisticated enough to cast a vote without being influenced by outside forces. Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you. But we were forced to leave the comfortable nest of ignorance behind on 9/11, 2001, right?
Alas, we the people have decided that the new electorate shall be lead the media entities of FOX, MSNBC, CNN, Knight-Ridder, the NY Times Company, Disney, et al. Why, that's you! Please, before you interrupt, let me explain myself. We need you to make the tough decisions for us, to do the "heavy lifting" so to speak, when it comes to analysing our world. Since 9/11, the world is too complex, and perhaps, a little too ugly for our comfort. You came right in after 9/11 and helped us make sense of the world, or at least, the televised version of it that we sip on through the straw/filter called cable. You hammered us with images of our worst fears, that our peaceful home could be threatened at any moment. You slammed us with images of hatred, of those who want to destroy everything that is America. You drowned us in the sorrow of those whose lives were destroyed on 9/11. But you didn't leave us down for long. You pulled us out with a firm grip. You showed us that it is not only OK to be American, but that the world needs us, and that it is OK to be strong. Strong is perhaps too weak a word. You showed us that it is OK to swagger, to flex our muscles, and even show a little excessive force if necessary. You showed us that it was OK for America to behave like the hero of a Clint Eastwood film.
And now that we've got this new found strength, this steadfast resolve, you have shown us the way forward. You have repeatedly kept us from dwelling on old hang ups, those mistakes of the past that dog us from time to time. No, now is not the time to question past decisions. Ours is to live in the moment. Ours is but to follow The Leader. To question The Leader is an act of extreme anti-patriotism, dangerous, and perhaps even helping the enemy. And you're okay with this new concept of Liberty, so as long as we stay glued to the moment. And in the moment, it is easy for us to fall back into the lull of security, that we need not fear terror any more than death, as both are inevitable. Shhh, sleep tight, America, The Leader will take care of you.
This election in November, I think you call it "Decision 2004" is really not a decision at all, but clever of you to make us feel that it is a decision. No, as you've already pointed out, The Leader has a post-convention lead of ten points or more (give or take four points), and the fourteen or so battleground states really aren't all up for grabs, as the undecided voters have already decided, and there really isn't much more to look at as far as the candidates are concerned...except for poll numbers. Never mind the mistakes of the past. Never mind that 9/11 happened while one administration slept. The Leader is a regular guy and it's ok to make mistakes. Why, if you're just a regular guy like The Leader, it's actually pretty cool to have a swagger, and talk like tongue-tied version of John Wayne, as that will make you a few percentage points more popular with the average American. Or so we're told.
So you see, citizens of the Media electorate, you've made this very easy for us. You don't need to tell us who to actually vote for in so many words. You just need to tell us who is winning at any given time. Don't question The Leader. That's unpatriotic (and it may cause minor symptoms of media blacklisting, downward mobility, mental anguish, and attacks by the White House). Don't ask The Leader where he was when his nation needed him during the Viet Nam era. Don't ask The Leader where in the world the WMD are hiding. Don't ask The Leader why we actually care about the poor, brutalized people of Iraq enough to want to go pave some roads, start garbage service, and build some power plants. Why, we've got our own slums that need fixing, and it seems to me we've had our own share of electrical problems, with Enron and all, and well, we need money to rebuild schools here so no child gets left behind. Sigh. I digress. Just don't make it difficult on The Leader. He had a rough first year in office with nothing to do, and then bam, boom, pow, he had to get off the ranch and do some work. So please, let him work in peace, in steadfast resolve, to never waver, never falter, and always swagger. This is what America needs, and this is what you've sold to us over the past year. And according to the tea leave readers--ehem, pollsters, what we're buying in November. So thank you for taking the intellectual aspects out of the decision, and please, let me return to my sippy cup and channel 56, where I can watch the nightmare unfold, realtime, all the way up to November 2004.
Yours Always.
David J. Kordsmeier
(friend of the Media)
p.s. I'll never forgive you if you make my news challenging and please, DON'T focus on issues that actually matter to me. Please, just keep the steady flow of news about this hurricane heading to demolish Florida. I am really worried that something might happen to the voting machines there, and I really need to see a live satellite picture every 20 minutes or so. ( Sep 15 2004, 11:18:34 PM PDT ) Permalink