Month: June 2004

[From my Globe and Mail story today:] In his last year as the No. 2 man at the world's No. 1 computer maker, Kevin Rollins' pay packet was just under $40-million (U.S.).
Most of that came in the form of Dell Inc. stock options that Mr. Rollins cashed in during 2003. He exercised 1.17 million options for a realized value of $35.94-million.
Some say a pay packet of nearly $40-million is too much.
“On the face of it, I deem that to be excessive,” Thomas Caldwell, chairman of Caldwell Securities Ltd. of Toronto, said yesterday. “We're getting to the level that people have a sense of entitlement.”
But Mr. Rollins dismisses such suggestions.
“They've all vested a long time ago,” he said, referring to the options he exercised. “I'm just taking some off the table. I have a financial need, whether charitable or for donations. But the vast portion of my net worth is still tied up in Dell.” He still holds more than nine million Dell shares . . .
[…Read the full story…]

As a reporter, I feel duty bound to try use everyone's applications as much as possible but I've decided that when it comes to instant messaging, I'm going to favour one product over the other. The winner, if you will, is iChat from Apple. You'll be able to find me on iChat at jdavidakin@mac.com . AIM and ICQ users should be able to see me there as iChat is compatible with America Online's instant messaging protocols (I may be misinformed on this. If so — let me know. )
I'm going to try have iChat up and running just about any time I'm in front of a computer. I will also likely have Yahoo's Instant Messenger where my handle is davidakin2372. I'm pegging it as my number two IM client. Finally, if you're nuts to chat on it and don't have anything else installed, send me e-mail and Ill fire up MSN Messenger. Otherwise my presence on MSN Messenger — where I log in as dakin@ctv.ca — will be intermittent.
I make these choices not necessarily to recommend one client over the other but I find MSN Messenger drops the network connection too frequently to be useful. Moreover, if I'm using a portable, as I often am, I may lose a network connection as I move about. iChat automatically logs you back in. Yahoo and MSN do not.
There are some other interface and useability issues that make me prefer iChat to the others.
What I don't like about the whole kit and kaboodle is that these software vendors cannot agree on one standard to make their IM and chat networks compatible. Can't we all just get along so that it matters not what IM client I choose? Please?
One of the things I like about both iChat and Yahoo is the ability to set up custom status messages. You may be able to do that with MSN Messenger by editing your public profile but to edit your public profile, I have to fire up a Web browser and log in to MSN's Passport site. Personally, I've never found the whole Passport idea to be much use. Some may have but I'm not one of them. If I want to change profiles or any other preferences for my IM environment, I'd rather just do it within the application and not have to launch another application to do it.
So there you have it: Love to add you to my buddy list on iChat or Yahoo Messenger but you're going to have to be a real special buddy to get me to fire up MSN Messenger.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) says the annual loss in
productivity because of spam totals $10-billion a year in Europe and the
U.S. alone. The Government of Canada has put together a task force to study
the spam problem here and recommend some things government and industry can
do to reduce spam. Now, the ITU is organizing its own anti-spam summit to be
held July 7 to 9 in Geneva. The ITU has a
press release on this summit out today.

Humanity is on its way out. Post-humanity–technologically enhanced and perhaps even immortal–is coming.
The stuff of science fiction is creed to transhumanists, a diverse group of technological optimists who advocate the transformation of Homo sapiens into a new species, one “better than human.”
Transhumanists see our era of rapid technological advance as the transitional phase between our human past and post-human future. Cochlear implants, artificial joints, genetic engineering, mood-altering and memory-enhancing drugs–all are preludes to an era when people will routinely enhance their brains, improve their bodies and perhaps live forever . . .
[Chicago Tribune Published May 28, 2004

Military IT faces cuts again:
“The Defense Department must fight an uphill battle again this year to preserve information technology projects budgeted for next year.
House and Senate committees earlier this month cut the military's $27.4 billion funding request for fiscal 2005 by $389 million and $200 million respectively in their markups of the 2005 Defense Authorization Act.”