Politics (and Media) As Usual

The dot-com media have descended on Philadelphia in big ways, according to various news outlets. Hungry to make their mark, online media roam GOP convention, is the headline on a story by Mary Anne Ostrom of the Mercury News. At the Convention, a Dot-Com Manifesto, says the headline writer for the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz.

My impression, from afar, can be found in my Wednesday column in the Mercury News. Aim 7 million cameras at a vacuous event, and it’s still vacuous.

UPDATE: Becky Bond writes from NewsForChange, a progressive Web site covering the Philadelphia convention. She points, in particular, to two stories:

Protester says what?. ”Republican Men Like Bush”
”Republican Women Like Men”
–A pair of buttons adoring the chest of a delegate who initiated a conversation about the importance of strong family values. 08.01.00

Steal This Photo. Just download and upload. All we ask is that add a credit below the photograph that reads: copyleft 2000 newsforchange.com.

A Windows Price Increase?

Remember, during the Microsoft trial, when Microsoft kept protesting that Windows was such a great deal because the price hadn’t risen? That was always a bogus claim, given that the marginal cost of making each new copy of Windows is almost zero to Microsoft — and it is precisely zero when the product is pre-loaded on a manufacturer’s computer for resale to a consumer or company.

Apart from a short-term promotional price of about $60, Microsoft’s “street price” for Windows ME will be $109, or about $20 more than the street price for Windows 95. Only a monopolist could get away with charging that much for what amounts to a collection of bug fixes and minor enhancements.

Help Me Whack the PC Clock Gremlins

Some piece of software in my computer has taken to resetting the internal clock. I leave the machine on during the night, and every morning, the computer’s clock is an hour behind the actual time.

Does anyone out there have any ideas what might be causing this? Let me know. I’ll keep investigating, and will report back here what I learn.