Category Archives: Technology and Society

Technology and Society

Dude!

You’re getting Linux on Dell:

“The second-order implications are even more interesting, because I think there’s no way that Michael Dell didn’t see this coming,” Raymond wrote. “His company has been quietly selling Linux machines to business customers for several years — which means he’s got more than enough real-world market data to see where the trends are going. Mr. Dell had to have a pretty strong suspicion that Linux preinstalls were going to show up as a top user demand before the fact — and yet, he let IdeaStorm happen anyway. This tells me he isn’t nearly as nervous about angering Microsoft as he used to be. Something in the balance of power between the world’s largest PC vendor and the crew in Redmond has shifted, and not in Redmond’s favor. You can bet money on that.”

Running Linux on Dell laptops could have another lure, Raymond wrote. “I think one significant problem Dell and Microsoft are facing is just that Vista is too resource-hungry and bloated to run well on sub-$500 machines, which are the highest-volume market segment now. Dell may be arranging itself some maneuvering room to preinstall an [operating system] that won’t make its low-end hardware look like crap.”

Technology and Society

I Did Not Know That

Minneapolis had a weatherball (perhaps still does? Not clear). I remember the one in Flint, growing up, but I didn’t realize that it had been syndicated (perhaps from somewhere else?). It was built the year after I was born, so it’s almost as old as me (sigh…).

[google, google…]

Ah, here we go:

There are or were other weather balls, constructed by banks such as the ones built by Michigan National Bank in Grand Rapids MI, Texas National Bank in Houston TX and Northwestern Bank in Minneapolis MN. Grand Rapids TV station WZZM channel 13 bought the dismantled Michigan National Bank weather ball, restored it and moved it to its studio location at the I-96 and US-131 interchange. KCAU-TV in Sioux City IA also has a weather ball.