Too Big To Fail

A NY Times article on the credit crisis...

Over the last two decades, few industries have lobbied more ferociously or effectively than banks to get the government out of its business and to obtain freer rein for “financial innovation.”

But as losses from bad mortgages and mortgage-backed securities climb past $200 billion, talk among banking executives for an epic government rescue plan is suddenly coming into fashion...

Surprisingly, the normally free-market Bush administration has expressed interest.

Bush? Free-market? Right.

Here's the surprise: "free-market" is a euphemism. Rarely has it meant what you think it means. And that is intentional. This has nothing to do with whether or not a "free-market" would work. Nobody with any current leverage wants a free-market. Why should they? Just look at this very deal being worked out, right in the open. This isn't even a back-room deal.

It reminds me of the Bush tax cuts, more than anything else.

Nomenclature

From ...

Yahoo! recently launched what we believe is the worlds largest Apache Hadoop production application. The Yahoo! Search Webmap is a Hadoop application that runs on a more than 10,000 core Linux cluster and produces data that is now used in every Yahoo! Web search query.

Hadoop.net?

Seriously, what organization, other than Microsoft itself, would afford the equivalent running all Microsoft software?

The Difference Between Theory and Practice

Can we face the reality that "core" states have sponsored, continue to sponsor, and likely will always sponsor state terrorism?

There is very little moral high ground on this planet. What little there is can be occupied by a small number of individuals, and precious few organizations of any size.

Linux AIR

Finally some news on AIR for Linux. Adobe is looking for "pre-beta" evaluators. Didn't that used to be called "alpha"?

I can't wait for the beta!