THE TECH NIGHT OWL NEWSLETTER
***Issue #727***
November 4, 2013
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO DONATE TO THE NIGHT OWL
Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay a decent wage. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the radio show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap, if you can, to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch and utility bills. No contribution is too small (or too large
. It's easy to send a donation. We have a Donate link on our home page on the left sidebar, or on the radio show page below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) technightowl (dot) com. And if you've had a problem getting to our Donate screen, please try again. We recently fixed a serious PayPal access problem, and it should work properly now.
THIS WEEK'S TECH NIGHT OWL RADIO UPDATE
You just know that Microsoft earns most of its revenue from the sale of operating systems and productivity software. Sure, there is the Xbox, which has been somewhat profitable after years of huge losses, but that's an exception. As to the Surface tablet, after taking a $900 million write-down on unsold stock, Microsoft is again trying to find the silk purse in the sow's ear with the Surface 2. Predictably reviews have been tepid. Sure, it's faster, sleeker, and the kickstand now has two positions. But why offer a business-oriented computer as a potential stocking stuffer for the holidays?
As someone once said in a TV show, where's the logic in that?
Besides, the Surface 2 went on sale on October 22. Do you remember that date? Let me refresh your memory, since the media wasn't filled with stories about what Microsoft was up to. That's when Apple launched the iPad Air, the iPad mini with Retina display, new MacBook Pros, and, oh yes, a lot of free stuff.
Now on this week's episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, outspoken commentator John Martellaro, Senior Editor, Analysis & Reviews for The Mac Observer, covers Apple's growing investments in R&D, why Microsoft's strategy for the Surface tablet will flop this holiday season, the real reason Apple is giving away the OS and consumer apps, why Apple is ill-serving customers who have lots of data to back up, and the company's vision for the forthcoming Mac Pro overhaul.
From Josh Centers, Managing Editor for TidBITS, you'll get his fearless comments about Apple's latest financial statement, the Night Owl's decision to move from Gmail to Microsoft's Outlook.com, and the positives and possible negatives discovered in OS X Mavericks and iOS 7.
Now about that decision to switch to Outlook.com: For the most part, it's worked out all right, at least over the first few days. For better or worse, however, Microsoft seems more proactive (or paranoid) about setting security policies. So the first time I sent an email from my Outlook.com account via an iPhone 5s, I had to go to the Outlook site and verify the device. But that appears to be strictly an issue when you send a message from an email client the very first time. I haven't had problems using Webmail, at least not yet.
On this week's episode of our other radio show, The Paracast: It's one of the greatest "what ifs" of all time. What if John Kennedy had survived the ambush in Dallas, Texas? What then? That's the subject of a fascinating new novel, just out in time for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. It's called, "Surrounded by Enemies: What if Kennedy Survived Dallas?" and it's full of twists and surprises. The author is a friend of The Paracast, Bryce Zabel, who last dipped his toe into the alternate JFK timestream when he created NBC's Emmy winning "Dark Skies" TV series.
Sponsored Message: Don’t get ripped off when you need to liquidate your precious jewelry and silverware. Call Steve at Numis Gems at (480) 878-7678 and get the straight scoop!
Now Shipping! The Official Paracast T-Shirt! We're taking orders direct from our new Official Paracast Store, where you can place your order and pay with a major credit card or PayPal. The shirts come in white, 100% cotton, and feature The Paracast logo on the front. The rear emblem states: "Separating Signal From Noise." We've also added a huge selection of additional special custom-imprinted merchandise for fans of our show.
HealthCare.gov has been a total failure. Instead of fulfilling the promise of an easy one-stop shopping center for health insurance in the U.S., millions of visitors found it impossible to navigate, let alone being able to create a user account. In recent days, it has been reported that this train wreck cost some $600 million to build, although that appears to include funds that were authorized but not yet spent.
The U.S. government should have asked for a refund, but it's also clear that the people who put this thing together are in way over their heads. They are trying to accomplish something that is, at every level, extremely difficult. And with both political parties fighting over the very existence of the health care law, nicknamed Obamacare, it's easy to see why it has been hard to complete development in an efficient way.
Democrats will complain, for example, that Republican governors sabotaged the effort by, in large part, refusing to create their own state-run exchanges, and asking the Feds to do it. Some 36 states are managed by the government site, and what it's being asked to do is far more complicated than any normal commerce site, such as Amazon or even Apple's online shopping portal.
You see, Amazon may be a sprawling marketplace in its own right, but even third-party vendors are using a single infrastructure, all working together in a pretty seamless fashion. Even then, Amazon has an occasional outage. As for Apple, iCloud still has service interruptions, and don't forget the flawed rollout of MobileMe, a disaster where you had to wait for several days even to get your email. And, again, these sites are not being asked to do near what HealthCare.gov has to accomplish.
Consider that HealthCare.gov has to instantly communicate with several other government portals, such as Medicare, the IRS and the Social Security Administration, plus state-run insurance sites, including Medicaid. And that's before they attempt to talk to dozens of insurance companies to handle numerous health plans, rates, and sign-up information. Add to that the fact that many of these sites were developed in very different ways, and not with the latest and greatest technologies. Social Security, for example, has legacy data that takes you back to the era of punch cards. That these systems work at all is a miracle.
Now some would suggest that President Obama should have known it was broken, since he's supposed to be a tech-savvy chief executive. Well, perhaps. But the fact that he has used a BlackBerry and owns an iPad doesn't make him an online wiz. He's a lawyer, and, in his 50s, no doubt mastered many of his work skills before the Internet took over our daily lives.
I could be conspiratorial and suggest that he knew full well that the site would be a disaster, but allowed it to open anyway, making the excuse that nobody could have predicted it would receive so much traffic and fail in so many ways. A smooth rollout might not have garnered much publicity, but the daily condition ofHealthCare.gov is front and center on the 24/7 cable news channels. Some say that any publicity is good publicity, and if the site is improved as promised, it may even attract more customers, particularly younger people, which is required to make this sprawling program work.
Of course, the critics will hope that the site will continue to misbehave and that the entire law will collapse under its own weight.
Regardless, it is good to see that even Silicon Valley experts, from such companies as Google and Oracle, are being called in to set things right. As a start, maybe they could make it work properly in Safari for Mavericks, where you can't even bring up an account page correctly. I know my wife would love to have affordable health coverage, if she could ever complete the enrollment process and actually pick a plan that suits her needs.
Update: After the November 2-3 maintenance, which took the site down for at least 12 hours, content and functionality appears to be more compatible with Safari. Response time is also improving.
I suppose one might hope that this sad episode would convince the U.S. government to find better and more efficient ways to bring services online. As to the contractors who built this mess, I hope their workers haven't given up their day jobs. And if this is their day job, they need to find other lines of work. There are always openings for greeters at Walmart. But I don't mean to insult the hard-working people who are employed at those stores.
THE FINAL WORD
The Tech Night Owl Newsletter is a weekly information service of Making The Impossible, Inc.
Publisher/Editor: Gene Steinberg
Managing Editor: Grayson Steinberg
Marketing and Public Relations: Barbara Kaplan
Worldwide Licensing: Sharon Jarvis
Copyright 1999-2013 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
***Issue #727***
November 4, 2013
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO DONATE TO THE NIGHT OWL
Although ads help cover a small part of our expenses, the income they produce is never enough to pay a decent wage. Also, we do not receive any revenue from the ads placed on the radio show by our network or local stations. So we hope you're able to help fill the gap, if you can, to help us cover increasing server costs and other expenses -- or perhaps provide a little extra cash for lunch and utility bills. No contribution is too small (or too large
. It's easy to send a donation. We have a Donate link on our home page on the left sidebar, or on the radio show page below the logo and audio player. There's also a Donate link on our forums, at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. Or just send your PayPal donation direct to sales (at) technightowl (dot) com. And if you've had a problem getting to our Donate screen, please try again. We recently fixed a serious PayPal access problem, and it should work properly now.THIS WEEK'S TECH NIGHT OWL RADIO UPDATE
You just know that Microsoft earns most of its revenue from the sale of operating systems and productivity software. Sure, there is the Xbox, which has been somewhat profitable after years of huge losses, but that's an exception. As to the Surface tablet, after taking a $900 million write-down on unsold stock, Microsoft is again trying to find the silk purse in the sow's ear with the Surface 2. Predictably reviews have been tepid. Sure, it's faster, sleeker, and the kickstand now has two positions. But why offer a business-oriented computer as a potential stocking stuffer for the holidays?
As someone once said in a TV show, where's the logic in that?
Besides, the Surface 2 went on sale on October 22. Do you remember that date? Let me refresh your memory, since the media wasn't filled with stories about what Microsoft was up to. That's when Apple launched the iPad Air, the iPad mini with Retina display, new MacBook Pros, and, oh yes, a lot of free stuff.
Now on this week's episode of The Tech Night Owl LIVE, outspoken commentator John Martellaro, Senior Editor, Analysis & Reviews for The Mac Observer, covers Apple's growing investments in R&D, why Microsoft's strategy for the Surface tablet will flop this holiday season, the real reason Apple is giving away the OS and consumer apps, why Apple is ill-serving customers who have lots of data to back up, and the company's vision for the forthcoming Mac Pro overhaul.
From Josh Centers, Managing Editor for TidBITS, you'll get his fearless comments about Apple's latest financial statement, the Night Owl's decision to move from Gmail to Microsoft's Outlook.com, and the positives and possible negatives discovered in OS X Mavericks and iOS 7.
Now about that decision to switch to Outlook.com: For the most part, it's worked out all right, at least over the first few days. For better or worse, however, Microsoft seems more proactive (or paranoid) about setting security policies. So the first time I sent an email from my Outlook.com account via an iPhone 5s, I had to go to the Outlook site and verify the device. But that appears to be strictly an issue when you send a message from an email client the very first time. I haven't had problems using Webmail, at least not yet.
On this week's episode of our other radio show, The Paracast: It's one of the greatest "what ifs" of all time. What if John Kennedy had survived the ambush in Dallas, Texas? What then? That's the subject of a fascinating new novel, just out in time for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. It's called, "Surrounded by Enemies: What if Kennedy Survived Dallas?" and it's full of twists and surprises. The author is a friend of The Paracast, Bryce Zabel, who last dipped his toe into the alternate JFK timestream when he created NBC's Emmy winning "Dark Skies" TV series.
Sponsored Message: Don’t get ripped off when you need to liquidate your precious jewelry and silverware. Call Steve at Numis Gems at (480) 878-7678 and get the straight scoop!
Now Shipping! The Official Paracast T-Shirt! We're taking orders direct from our new Official Paracast Store, where you can place your order and pay with a major credit card or PayPal. The shirts come in white, 100% cotton, and feature The Paracast logo on the front. The rear emblem states: "Separating Signal From Noise." We've also added a huge selection of additional special custom-imprinted merchandise for fans of our show.
HealthCare.gov has been a total failure. Instead of fulfilling the promise of an easy one-stop shopping center for health insurance in the U.S., millions of visitors found it impossible to navigate, let alone being able to create a user account. In recent days, it has been reported that this train wreck cost some $600 million to build, although that appears to include funds that were authorized but not yet spent.
The U.S. government should have asked for a refund, but it's also clear that the people who put this thing together are in way over their heads. They are trying to accomplish something that is, at every level, extremely difficult. And with both political parties fighting over the very existence of the health care law, nicknamed Obamacare, it's easy to see why it has been hard to complete development in an efficient way.
Democrats will complain, for example, that Republican governors sabotaged the effort by, in large part, refusing to create their own state-run exchanges, and asking the Feds to do it. Some 36 states are managed by the government site, and what it's being asked to do is far more complicated than any normal commerce site, such as Amazon or even Apple's online shopping portal.
You see, Amazon may be a sprawling marketplace in its own right, but even third-party vendors are using a single infrastructure, all working together in a pretty seamless fashion. Even then, Amazon has an occasional outage. As for Apple, iCloud still has service interruptions, and don't forget the flawed rollout of MobileMe, a disaster where you had to wait for several days even to get your email. And, again, these sites are not being asked to do near what HealthCare.gov has to accomplish.
Consider that HealthCare.gov has to instantly communicate with several other government portals, such as Medicare, the IRS and the Social Security Administration, plus state-run insurance sites, including Medicaid. And that's before they attempt to talk to dozens of insurance companies to handle numerous health plans, rates, and sign-up information. Add to that the fact that many of these sites were developed in very different ways, and not with the latest and greatest technologies. Social Security, for example, has legacy data that takes you back to the era of punch cards. That these systems work at all is a miracle.
Now some would suggest that President Obama should have known it was broken, since he's supposed to be a tech-savvy chief executive. Well, perhaps. But the fact that he has used a BlackBerry and owns an iPad doesn't make him an online wiz. He's a lawyer, and, in his 50s, no doubt mastered many of his work skills before the Internet took over our daily lives.
I could be conspiratorial and suggest that he knew full well that the site would be a disaster, but allowed it to open anyway, making the excuse that nobody could have predicted it would receive so much traffic and fail in so many ways. A smooth rollout might not have garnered much publicity, but the daily condition ofHealthCare.gov is front and center on the 24/7 cable news channels. Some say that any publicity is good publicity, and if the site is improved as promised, it may even attract more customers, particularly younger people, which is required to make this sprawling program work.
Of course, the critics will hope that the site will continue to misbehave and that the entire law will collapse under its own weight.
Regardless, it is good to see that even Silicon Valley experts, from such companies as Google and Oracle, are being called in to set things right. As a start, maybe they could make it work properly in Safari for Mavericks, where you can't even bring up an account page correctly. I know my wife would love to have affordable health coverage, if she could ever complete the enrollment process and actually pick a plan that suits her needs.
Update: After the November 2-3 maintenance, which took the site down for at least 12 hours, content and functionality appears to be more compatible with Safari. Response time is also improving.
I suppose one might hope that this sad episode would convince the U.S. government to find better and more efficient ways to bring services online. As to the contractors who built this mess, I hope their workers haven't given up their day jobs. And if this is their day job, they need to find other lines of work. There are always openings for greeters at Walmart. But I don't mean to insult the hard-working people who are employed at those stores.
THE FINAL WORD
The Tech Night Owl Newsletter is a weekly information service of Making The Impossible, Inc.
Publisher/Editor: Gene Steinberg
Managing Editor: Grayson Steinberg
Marketing and Public Relations: Barbara Kaplan
Worldwide Licensing: Sharon Jarvis
Copyright 1999-2013 Making The Impossible, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
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