The UK kids program, Bob The Builder (”Can we fix it?”, “Yes we can”) hasn’t acquired sufficient prominence in the US for Hillary Clinton to claim that Barack Obama’s repeated “Yes we can” oratory is plagiarism. But if anyone on her campaign reads this posting, then maybe she will. She’s getting desperate.
Her candidacy is failing - outflanked and out-thought by superior tacticians. This is particularly clear when you look at Obama’s use of the Internet. I mentioned some of the stats on this in the posting How is the Internet Affecting the US Election? but there’s a more detailed analysis in a Mercury News article, if you want more details. You might also like to check the Alexa ratings. You’ll see that Barack Obama’s web site gets between 2 and 3 times as much traffic as Hillary Clinton’s.
Someone will, hopefully, do a detailed analysis of this next year when the voting is over. The most interesting aspect of it is that Obama has raised more money than anyone else and has done so from about 1 million donors, each of who gave just a few dollars. He owes very little if anything to lobbyists or wealthy donors working on his behalf.
Pension Funds Sue Yahoo Over Its Bid Response
When Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo! hit the wire I had little doubt that it would be successful, because the news stories said that Yahoo! had no “poison pill” defense. And so it proves to be. Two pension funds that are investors in Yahoo! are now suing the company because it rejected the Microsoft offer.
Yahoo! employees might be sentimental about Yahoo!’s independence and some of them may have a deep antipathy to Microsoft, but shareholders are shareholders. With large companies like Yahoo! the institutions gobble up slices of the shares whenever they become available, without a sentimental idea in their heads. The motive is profit, and so it should be. That’s why Microsoft will probably win this. The support of the institutions is pretty much guaranteed. And if Microsoft’s grand plan for catching Google fails, the institutions wont care.
Apple: Patenting The Pinch
I’m an Apple fan. I have 3 Macs, if you count the laptop, several iPods and a blog named after the Mac. Nevertheless, I don’t feel good when I read about Apple applying for patents on its touch interface. The pinch “gesture” which shrinks (or enlarges) the image on screen is a great example of truly sensible use of touch. The problem is that Apple has advanced the touch interface so far that it would be crazy for it not to become a standard.
Clearly, from the business perspective it would be irresponsible of Apple not to apply for such patents. But how it uses such patents (should they be granted) is a different matter. Monopolistic behavior that stifles innovation is never good.
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