Jaywalking with the Times

This article in the NYT about Google's new OS is stunning in it's ignorance. Look at this one paragraph as an example:

The software, called the Google Chrome Operating System, is initially intended for use in the tiny, low-cost portable computers known as netbooks, which have been selling quickly even as demand for other PCs has plummeted. Google said it believed the software would also be able to power full-size PCs.

Newsflash "technology reporters"...the OS doesn't power the PC, the PC powers the OS. They go on to talk about how Vista was "designed for more powerful machines". Um...no. It was designed to run on machines that did not exist, with the arrogant assumption that we would all just run out and buy new computers and put 4GB of RAM in them because Vista needed it.

Then the economy collapsed, netbooks happened, and low and behold Windows 7 is coming soon and it doesn't need all of that hardware to run.

The whole article reminds me of the old timers that used to wander in to Home Depot asking which tool had more horsepower. They'd buy a $19 drill that drew 3.5 amps over a superior model that only drew 3 amps all day long.

"Amps is like horsepower right?"

"Yeah sure. The plastic wall anchors are over on aisle 10."

Bubble Machine

Looks like this article (link broken) by Matt Taibbi on Goldman Sachs is starting to generate a little bit of a kerfuffle around the wonkier corners of the Internet.

John Cole over at Balloon-Juice has some reaction as well.

Edit - this link works but it's only a summary