A consensus is developing on Vista and it isn't good. Granted, it can't be easy to write a new operating system for the installed business and home base that Microsoft has. But with the daily frustrations of using Microsoft software I was hoping that Vista would be a bold step into the future of security and ease of use. Not so. Don Reisinger, writing at CNet is not a fan and he thinks things look very bad news for Microsoft.

The road ahead looks dangerous for Vista and Microsoft must realize that. With Mac OS X hot on its tail, Vista is simply not capable of competing at an OS level with some of the best software around. If Microsoft continues down this path, it will be Vista that will bring the software giant to its knees--not Bill Gates' departure.

Ouch.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:48 PM | Permalink

Hillary Clinton refused to disavow MoveOn ad tactics last Sunday, but still, she generally doesn't seem to agree with much of what the hard left has to say. A smart approach? David Brooks writes:

The fact is, many Democratic politicians privately detest the netroots’ self-righteousness and bullying. They also know their party has a historic opportunity to pick up disaffected Republicans and moderates, so long as they don’t blow it by drifting into cuckoo land. They also know that a Democratic president is going to face challenges from Iran and elsewhere that are going to require hard-line, hawkish responses.

I think he's right about Clinton but he'll be even more right if she gets the nomination.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:56 AM | Permalink

John Hinderaker from Powerline writes about Romney's inability to connect with Republicans nationwide.

It seems to me that one of the sub-plots of this complicated Republican primary season has been Romney's failure to catch on with the party's rank and file. His numbers in national polls have really gone nowhere; his current RCP average is only 9.1%, not much over half that of John McCain, whose campaign's struggles have been another of the season's stories. While I'm sure our friend Hugh Hewitt would say that everything is going according to plan and Romney has the nomination just about wrapped up, Romney can't be happy with the fact that his efforts so far have failed to make much of an impression on Republicans nationwide.

The reason, he thinks, is that Mitt seems too slick on TV; people are just not connecting with his highly calculated image. Maybe I'm wrong about the value of slickness.

Posted by jjdaley at 4:58 PM | Permalink

The terrorists on 24 would most likely get their nuclear weapons from Russia where oversight and control are lax. This amazing Washington Post story gives us another source to worry about.

Posted by jjdaley at 10:21 AM | Permalink

Marcel Marceau is dead.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:27 AM | Permalink

Lifehacker offers a quick way to check if your (Windows) computer is opening unseen internet connections.

Posted by jjdaley at 11:12 AM | Permalink

Speaking of conceptual art, what's up with this photo illustrating this Globe review of a Stevie Wonder show? Maybe it was designed to make us think about the insignificance of humans relative to technology in the production of music. Or, more likely, it was just a technical glitch in the web software.

Either way, send it off to the Tate.

(By the way, Joan Anderman writes that Wonder is still in rare form.)

Posted by jjdaley at 9:54 AM | Permalink

A few years ago I was wandering through the Tate Modern and I found myself in a room filled with nothing but planks, paint buckets, rollers, tarps and ladders. I assumed it was being prepared for an exhibition until I noticed a small sign indicating that this was an exhibition. If the artist intended to create a realistic illusion, he was successful.

I was reminded of this by the big art-related event in the news yesterday, the MIT student at Logan with her circuit-board and battery with matching play-doh wearable installation (UH has all the links).

Even an artistic joke can backfire.

I must be getting old, but I just don't get it. I'll take a Richard Serra slab of steel any day over an artistic practical joke.

On another art note, the court ruled that after years of fighting with the artist, Mass MoCA can display the unfinished work Training Ground for Democracy which involved the building of a small neighborhood and moving it piece by piece into the museum. The judge liked it but I wonder if he realized that he might be part of it. The extended joke here is that some have claimed that the legal actions and artists' demands were orchestrated by the artist -as part of the work.

As I say, I just don't get it.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:48 AM | Permalink

Textbook pricing is a scam; that much is understood by everybody who has ever sat in a classroom. Good for these two guys for giving students a little choice. Bad for the Coop.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Oh, and one more.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:08 AM | Permalink

The CSM wrote last week about many cities failing wifi plans. USA Today does the same today. So what's happening with Boston's plans? Not much apparently. The Wireless Task Force website's latest update is a link to a Herald story from last January.

Brookline, on the other hand, is getting it done.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:02 AM | Permalink

In a front page story today, The Globe covers a new Mitt Romney ad. The commercial in question is up on the Mitt TV website. Take a look, but forget the content for now. The production values are high-end. The colors and music evocative. The performance first rate; he reminds me of an actor in a Cialis ad.

Although I'm not a Romney fan, I know great television when I see it. Glossy performances like this are why people shouldn't discount Romney's chances.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:56 AM | Permalink

Howie Carr is stuck at WRKO unitl 2012 under his present contract, a contract that was upheld in court yesterday. Now things will get interesting. Brian Mahoney has the latest.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:49 AM | Permalink

I drove past the new WGBH sign yesterday while driving on the Turnpike. Pretty cool. And looking at the brand new building and fancy electronic mural, I now know why I had to listen to all that begging for funding. The image itself was nice, but a little distracting. It could be worse, like the ones common in Singapore and other cities that shine all day and night.

At the WGBH site you can vote for an image to be displayed or suggest one for the future. But be careful, they're trying to get you're email. For fundraising, no doubt.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:54 AM | Permalink

Jay Fitzgerald looks at where the Governor got his facts and figures in the lead-up to the casino decision. Interesting.

Meanwhile, some in the city are worrying that a resort casino on the outskirts would be a black hole for the hospitality industry downtown.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:46 AM | Permalink

It's The Lawyers vs Howie Carr's radio career. My money is on The Lawyers.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:38 AM | Permalink

It took some time, but the Globe editorial folks have weighed in on the Israeli raid into Syria, as the Herald did earlier in the week. Of course the two disagree.

But this raises a question. How do these guys decide what to editorialize about? Bloggers have to be mostly local and fairly topical or what's the point? Editorials are the closest thing to an official blog that a newspaper has. But if it takes a week to figure out what you think about something, by then, nobody cares.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:24 AM | Permalink

What's worse, waiting in traffic or waiting on the T? According to a new study it's worse for drivers, at least when it comes to mobility. Funny though, I don't see lots of people abandoning their cars and flocking to public transportation. Instead, they're just getting on the road earlier.

The Greenbush line is (finally) ready to open. An hour trip, it doesn't do much to improve on the time it takes to drive to Boston from the South Shore. And it won't be cheap. Taking the train does solve the hassles of parking in the city, but it introduces the hassle and expense of parking at the station.

Still, I'd love for it to be a success. Even if the T doesn't make it easy to love being a customer, there are environmental benefits to using it.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:18 AM | Permalink

There's only thing worse than no links in a news article and that's meaningless internal links. This is an interesting enough story in the WaPost about the Wikipedia page wars for presidential candidates. But don't follow the links to what would seem like the obvious places. You'll be frustrated.

(Here they are, in order, as they appear in the article: John McCain, Fred Thompson, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, Barak Obama.)

Posted by jjdaley at 7:32 AM | Permalink

No, seriously.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:06 AM | Permalink

Don't buy and load Microsoft Office on that laptop going away to school. Wait for the student to get there and it's only $60 bucks.

Posted by jjdaley at 2:57 PM | Permalink

According to Globe sources, the Governor will announce approval of casino gambling at three locations in the state, the southeast, west and Boston's northern environs. The latter sounds like Suffolk Downs, which will be good for the city. The western location could be the Turnpike/495 location that Sheldon Adelson wants and the southeast spot - well that might be the Wampanoag's casino or it might not be. They still have to get the highest bid in.

It sounds like a reasonable approach but it will all come down to Speaker DiMasi. Stay tuned.

Some estimates put the revenue that just one of the casinos could provide to the state at $200 million a year. Times three, that would amount to $12 billion over twenty years -not even close to what they want to collect over the same period in road and gas taxes.

And the people driving to the casinos will be unlucky enough to be paying twice.

Posted by jjdaley at 2:40 PM | Permalink

The Times of London is reporting that the Israeli strike into Syria earlier in the week was against nuclear material shipped from North Korea. Syria, which is characterized as a member of the “junior axis of evil” isn't commenting.

The Herald editorial board approves.

Posted by jjdaley at 2:14 PM | Permalink

For Steven Pinker fans out there, he has a new book, The Stuff of Thought. It just came from Amazon but it'll have to wait. I'm working through a book by Shakespearean scholar Stanley Wells that outlines the London environment, fellow authors, actors and companies, etc. during the time that Shakespeare did his writing. (The best Bard book that I've read, in which Wells features prominently, was The Shakespeare Wars by Ron Rosenbaum.) Then, I have cued-up a book on the evolutionary development of language by Christine Kenneally that should be a good prelude to the Pinker book.

Just finished Gut Feelings by Gerd Gigerenzer. Better than Blink, it looks at the underlying structure of unconscious thought, how it evolved and how it directs our actions. One surprise: he details the importance of ignorance in intelligence.

Posted by jjdaley at 10:13 AM | Permalink

Was that Whitey? I haven't had any involvement in the investigations, knowing only what I read in the papers, but it sure looks like a match to me.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:46 AM | Permalink

The Globe offers an editorial opinion on the Conley matter. Also, read the BMG post on the topic.

Meanwhile, Adam raises an interesting question: Do we really need an independent MBTA police force?

(For full disclosure, check About.)

Posted by jjdaley at 9:40 AM | Permalink

Chewing gum is against the law in Singapore. But, perhaps, not for long.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:33 AM | Permalink

I continue to be a huge fan of Google Earth and an upcoming satellite launch should make it even better. DigitalGlobe, which provides the images, is putting up a new, high resolution camera that provides more detail and snaps images faster.

Hopefully, soon, we'll be able to get better views of the crosswalk at Abby Road, the Great Wall and current views of the big dig.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:29 AM | Permalink

College dorms outfitted with high tech gadgets, custom furniture and TV sitcom-quality panoramic views of the city and the Charles River?

Again, so much for preparing young people for the real world.

Posted by jjdaley at 2:33 PM | Permalink

Buchholz!

It was a good night to be there.

UPDATE: Michael Femia at Bostonist (with tongue in cheek):

Clay Buchholz is a slacker. It took him until his SECOND Major League start to have a piece of memorabilia suitable for the Hall of Fame.

Femia's concise account is pretty good -certainly better than Shaughnessy's in my opinion.

Also, Adam wraps up blog reaction.

Posted by jjdaley at 11:35 PM | Permalink

Back in the sixties and seventies, gender-neutral bathrooms were not uncommon at colleges and universities. It was, you know, the sixties; we were trying new things. We would throw off the shackles of bathroom sexism and gender-neutrality would spread throughout society.

Not only did that not happen but in time most schools went back to gender-specific bathrooms. There seems to be a social consensus that that's the way things should be. When was the last time you saw gender-neutral restrooms at a public facility or a business or, well, anywhere?

But it's deja vu all over again on college campuses. So much for preparing young people for the real world.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:55 AM | Permalink

30,000 movies on your iPod? It's coming, but probably not next week.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:53 AM | Permalink

There's one last chance to wear white before Labor Day. My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:50 AM | Permalink

He's had photos taken with Robin Williams, Thomas Friedman, Murry Gell-Mann, Bill Clinton, Maria Shriver, Dave Barry, Tom Brokaw, Malcolm Gladwell, Amy Tan, Muhammed Ali, Jane Ensler, Jane Goodall and the Dalai Lama. And that's just for starters.

His name is Tan Chade-Meng and his business card title reads: Jolly Good Fellow (which nobody can deny). Here's the story.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:18 AM | Permalink