I live in Austin Texas. Yesterday in Austin, in the most surreal event to happen so far this decade, a software engineer called Joe Stack (good name that, for a software engineer) flew his his Piper Cherokee PA-28 airplane, loaded with 50 gallons of fuel, into the IRS offices in Austin.

Joe Stack simply snapped. It was an irrational gesture born of a hatred for the IRS, with whom he’d clearly had an adversarial relationship for years. Joe snapped. He put a suicide note on the Internet. He drove his wife and child out of the house. He set the house on fire and then he got in his airplane and crashed it into the Austin IRS building.

Events like this happen in good times, but they seem more common in harsh economic times. OK It’s tough out there.

Political Art

This was no more of a political act that me putting the cat out at night. It happens every now and then. In America as elsewhere, sometimes people snap. The normal outcome is that they get a gun and shoot a few people, before they get taken down.

more >>

It was Saturday morning. I plugged my iphone into my Mac to charge it up. And I left it to charge. After the battery was shown as fully charged, I was politely informed by iTunes that there was another version of the iPhone OS (and firmware I suspect).  Should I load it?

Apple frequently informs me of upgrades and I always take them. Nothing ever seems to go wrong. It’s been that way since I switched to the Mac in 2004. Saturday was the exception.

How My iPhone Became a Brick

The software began to download. I waited. It started loading on the iPhone. Just before it completed it gave me a message.

“Unable to restore iPhone. Error 14 Unknown error”

My iPhone was now a brick. I wasn’t concerned immediately. I just figured it was a random irregularity. I hadn’t jail-broken the iPhone or anything, so it had to be a simple problem. So I tried again.

more >>

I had a long discussion yesterday about Google’s phone that kicked the ball up and down the street. It concluded in an agreement that the Google phone is a mistake. Here’s the rationale:

• The Nexus One is really not that good, compared to the Droid, for example, never mind comparing it with the iPhone. That’s bad news for brand reasons.
• Google is not a device company, yet and it shouldn’t become one. It’s a tough road. Look at the problems Microsoft has been having with Zune, for example.
• Does Google even have it to become a device company quickly or even slowly. Does it really have the ability, not just to build a phone, but to keep a phone competitive.

more >>