Misc. Ramblings

Monday Sports Update: The University of Hawai'i Rainbow Warrior Football team won their game this weekend against San Jose State 62 to 41. The score looks more lopsided than it was. Going into the third quarter it was something like 34 to 7. Obviously, a lot of scoring took place in the last quarter. On both sides. The next game, against Fresno State could determine who is the WAC champion. Stay tuned.

Not doing as well is the Hawaii America's Cup Team Abracadabra2000. In the second round, they are 9th out of 11 teams with a 4 and 8 record overall. Prada is still number 1 with a perfect 12 and zero record.

So the Judge has spoken. And while I can hear the Libertarians out there (you know who you are, all ten of you) saying; "Woe is me, woe is me. The government has gotten it wrong again." I would respectfully disagree. The Judge got it exactly right.

The problem, as I see, it is that once a company gets into a monopoly position it's too late to do anything constructive. It's hard to see how the breakup of the telephone, oil, or transportation companies helped consumers. Service is lower while costs are higher. Benefit analysis would call that a losing position.

One can only hope that there will be a last ditch effort to settle (not a high probability) out of court. If that fails, then it comes down to what "remedy" the court comes up with. I'm not going to try to predict what that would be, but whatever it is, it will probably result in higher prices (sigh).

As background, monopolies are a natural progression for companies because it maximizes profits. That is, if you control the supply, you can charge whatever you want. Hence, we should not get all evangelical about it when it happens. It happened in this case, and it will happen in others (e.g. cable companies). The question is, what role, if anything, does government have in these situations?

As a Democrat, I would say the role is to maximize competition where it makes sense. Obviously, there are some advantages to an environment dominated by one company. There tends to be stability since everyone knows what standard to write programs to. Conversely, a dynamic environment in which things are constantly changing tends to create outcomes that are creative and more in tune with what people want.

So, where is that line between stability and change as it relates to Microsoft? Well, as I said above, it probably too late to do something constructive that will foster true competition while as the same time not destroy a company that has created some programs that are good enough for the rest of us. So I would say, separate IE5.0 from Windows. Separate Windows from DOS. And we would be close to where we were before Win95 came out.

The question is, is that better than where we are now? That, you'll have to decide.

This email is dated Thursday, but I didn't get it until today (really, I'm not kidding. Maybe not enough postage or something).

Dan:

I've enjoyed reading your "Misc. Ramblings" for some time and enjoy your style but had not chosen to send you any comments until now. I very much enjoyed reading your thoughts on what a Christian is and find myself agreeing with you. I thought it was a well written description with appropriate bible verses. I'm sorry Brian was put off by the quotes from the Bible but how can you describe what Christians are without quoting from the Bible? I found your site through Brian's and enjoy reading his site but don't agree with his opinion here. Of course that is what makes this interesting, the free exchange of ideas which you don't have to agree with.

It does make for some variety.

Keep up the good work, I'll keep checking in. May God bless you richly.

Jim Crider
www.docjim.com

My response back was:

Thanks Jim. All words of encouragement are gratefully accepted. All others are sent to the appropriate garbage can (grin). But seriously, I'm just doing the best that I can and I am sorry if I offend anyone. But I do have certain beliefs, and I will not hide those beliefs. That does not mean I will hit people over the head and try to convert everyone. On the other hand, I'm not going to hide who I am either.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Aloha

I think that pretty much says it all so I will probably not bring this subject up again. At least in the near future anyway.

I wrote my thoughts above on the Microsoft findings of fact before going over to Byte to read Dr. Pournelle's and Byte Editor Paul Schindler's comments on the decision. After which, I re-read my thoughts and decided to leave them as is. I would note that both commentators seem to begrudgingly admit that, yes Virginia, Microsoft is a monopoly. I guess their concern is how the Judge came to that conclusion and what that means in the future. In that, I share their concern.

Have a good Monday!