More courtroom drama…

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… from the Microsoft-Google hearings.

Ballmer: Kai-Fu had a — a distinct commitment and responsibility on behalf of the company for being the senior executive here in Redmond, with responsibility for godfathering, shepherding all of our R&D activities in China. It’s a structure we also use for India. We have a senior executive with knowledge of India be the R&D godfather for India, encourage work to go there, shepherd, and — and mentor people in the area. Kai-Fu had that broad, important responsibility for China. … ”

Deposing lawyer: “This term, ‘godfather’ — is that an official title within the Microsoft organization?”

Ballmer explained that no, in fact, the correct title was “executive sponsor.”

To register for disaster relief…

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… first install Internet Explorer Version 6.

Truly, one couldn’t make this up. Anyone wishing to register online for disaster relief at the FEMA disaster aid website is first greeted with this message:

In order to use this site, you must have JavaScript Enabled and Internet Explorer version 6. Download it from Microsoft or call 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) to register.

No, I am not making it up. I’ve just been to the site — which is where I got the quote. No wonder the Yanks are in trouble.

Lee says Gates swore at him

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Shock, horror! From today’s New York Times…

SEATTLE, Sept. 6 (AP) – A former Microsoft executive whose defection to Google set off a legal battle testified on Tuesday that an expletive-filled tirade from the chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, was a low point before he decided to leave.

Gasoline prices

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If you’ve been to a gas station lately, you have no doubt been shocked by the prices: $1.67, $1.78, even $1.92. And that’s just for Hostess Twinkies. Gas prices are even worse.

Americans are ticked off about this, and with good reason: Our rights are being violated! The First Amendment clearly states: ‘In addition to freedom of speech, Americans shall always have low gasoline prices, so they can drive around in ‘sport utility’ vehicles the size of minor planets.”

And don’t let any so-called ”economists” try to tell you that foreigners pay more for gas than we do. Foreigners use metric gasoline, which is sold in foreign units called ”kilometers,” plus they are paying for it with foreign currencies such as the ”franc,” the ”lira” and the ”doubloon.” So in fact there is no mathematical way to tell WHAT they are paying.

But here in the U.S., we are definitely getting messed over, and the question is: What are we going to do about it? Step one, of course, is to file a class-action lawsuit against the cigarette companies. They have nothing to do with gasoline, but juries really hate them, so we’d probably win several hundred billion dollars.

Dave Barry, writing in 2000.

Katrina’s political significance

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Thoughtful essay by Godfrey Hodgson…

Whatever you think of the war in Iraq, the absence in the middle east of part of the Mississippi national guard was hardly the reason for the administration’s tardy and incompetent response. The explanation of that is simpler: it is to be found in the callous indifference among conservatives towards the poor.

While it is true that the class bias of the Bush administration’s domestic and budget policies has helped weaken the ability of both state and federal agencies to respond to an almost unprecedented domestic disaster, it was nevertheless an absence of sympathy, not a lack of means, which motivated the low priority given to poor, mostly black victims…

Katrina Information Map

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This an an astonishingly clever idea — a collaborative map of the disaster area enabling people to enter information about specific building or locations as they reach them. “If you have information about the status of an area that is not yet on the map”, says the blurb, “please contribute by following the instructions below so that others may get that much needed information.”

ICANN and the .xxx domain proposal

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This morning’s Observer column. Sample:

Online porn is a huge business which exists for one reason only: there is a vast market for its products. All the internet has done is to reveal the true extent of the demand by lowering the ‘shame threshold’ that must be crossed in order to access the stuff.

But instead of talking about this insatiable demand, and what it tells us about human nature, we focus instead on the technology. We never ask, for example, whether the lust for porn reveals something rotten in the heart of many human relationships, or if it tells us something about a desire to have pleasure without commitment.

The answers to such questions will probably make uncomfortable reading, which of course is why we avoid asking them. By going ahead with the .xxx domain, Icann could do something to stop this hypocritical rot. But I’m not holding my breath.

They Knew What to Expect

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From Wired News…

In comments on Thursday, President Bush said, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

But LSU engineer Joseph Suhayda and others have warned for years that defenses could fail. In 2002, the New Orleans Times Picayune published a five-part series on “The Big One,” examining what might happen if they did.

It predicted that 200,000 people or more would be unwilling or unable to heed evacuation orders and thousands would die, that people would be housed in the Superdome, that aid workers would find it difficult to gain access to the city as roads became impassable, as well as many other of the consequences that actually unfolded after Katrina hit this week.

Steve Ballmer unexpurgated

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Delicate souls, avert your gaze now. And do not under any circumstances read this report of what Microsoft CEO said about Google.

Those made of sterner stuff may read on…

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to “kill” internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive “like wolves,” according to documents filed in an increasingly bitter legal battle between the rivals.

The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google’s July hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research and development centre that Google plans to open in China. Lee started at Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft.

The tug-of-war over Lee – known for his work on computer recognition of language – has exposed the behind-the-scenes animosity that has been brewing between two of high-tech’s best-known companies.

Ballmer’s threat last November was recounted in a sworn declaration by a former Microsoft engineer, Mark Lucovsky, who said he met with Microsoft’s chief executive 10 months ago to discuss his decision to leave the company after six years. After learning Lucovsky was leaving to take a job at Google, Ballmer picked up his chair and hurled it across his office, according to the declaration.

Ballmer then pejoratively berated Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Lucovsky recalled.

“I’m going to f—ing bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again,” the declaration quotes Ballmer. “I’m going to f—ing kill Google.”

In a statement, Ballmer described Lucovsky’s recollection as a “gross exaggeration.

Mark’s decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterization of that meeting is not accurate.”

Editor’s Note: chair-throwing is a recognised and respected therapeutic procedure at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Wa. Please do not be alarmed, or conclude that the man in charge of the company that makes your software is deranged. On the other hand, if you do use his software, perhaps the time has come to make an appointment with a therapist.

Thanks to Chris Walker for the link.

The big disconnect on New Orleans

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If you want to see the chasm between the Federal government and what’s going on on the ground, just read this digest put together by CNN yesterday. Here’s a sample on conditions in the Convention Centre:

FEMA chief Brown: We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need. (See here for the lowdown on friend Brown.)

Mayor Nagin: The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people.

CNN Producer Kim Segal: It was chaos. There was nobody there, nobody in charge. And there was nobody giving even water. The children, you should see them, they’re all just in tears. There are sick people. We saw… people who are dying in front of you.

Evacuee Raymond Cooper: Sir, you’ve got about 3,000 people here in this — in the Convention Center right now. They’re hungry. Don’t have any food. We were told two-and-a-half days ago to make our way to the Superdome or the Convention Center by our mayor. And which when we got here, was no one to tell us what to do, no one to direct us, no authority figure.