Smalltalk with James Robertson

Hey look - Mr. "I collected a huge payoff for my great success at driving Sun into the ground" Schwartz has a new blog. Looks like he's trying to explain himself. What I'd like to know is this: does he still think that "give it all away for free, and then somehow make it up in volume" is a good business plan?

If so, he's got a great future with the underpants gnomes.

Sometimes an act of stupidity wanders all the way over to just plain idiotic - a woman's father dies, so she's in the process of cleaning various estate things up, and gets to disconnecting the phone service. She goes so far as to send a copy of the death certificate to Verizon, and gets this reaction:

It seems Lacy did not have her father's PIN (personal identification number) to access the account. So the representative refused to help her.

...

"Well, there's nothing else I can do for you," the representative said before laughing and hanging up the phone.

This is what you get when you've elevated process above everything else. Fear of making a mistake leads to acts of mindless stupidity instead.

Technorati Tags: stupidity, PR

So not only is Viacom yanking "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" from Hulu, it's also threatening to sue anyone who posts clips:

"Yes, we intend to do so," PR rep Tony Fox told THR. "My feeling is if (websites) are making money on our copyrighted content, then that is a problem."

Right.... because a couple of minutes of either show is likely to discourage viewing. By that logic, they should stop running ads, since they're only likely to discourage viewing, too. Morons.

Technorati Tags: law, copyright

Here's a proposed regulation of nearly boundless stupidity - start treating portable batteries (for phones, laptops, etc) as hazardous materials for the purposes of air travel:

For instance, the battery inside an already-padded box for a new notebook PC might need to be packaged in an additional fiberboard box along with extra shipping documents, he said. I

t could also mean untold numbers of workers overseas and in the U.S. will have to get "fully-regulated hazmat" training to simply handle a box with an iPod or HP laptop inside, Kerchner said.

That would be just about the stupidest outcome I can imagine. Just how stupid are the people who dream this stuff up, anyway?

Technorati Tags: security

The stupidity is getting harder to keep up with:

A San Diego school vice-principal saw an 11-year-old's home science project (a motion detector made out of an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics), decided it was a bomb, wet himself, put the school on lockdown, had the bomb-squad come out to destroy X-ray the student's invention and search his parents' home, and then magnanimously decided not to discipline the kid (though he did recommend that the child and his parents get counselling to help them overcome their anti-social science behavior).

I have a better idea: fire the idiot vice principal, congratulate the student for trying to build a cool science project, and send the entire staff at that school back to grade school. Or let them and the students swap places.

Seriously, what the heck is wrong with the staff there? Based on the reporting, it looks like the vice principal is listed here. After someone fetches him clean underwear, can they also hand him a remedial education course?

Technorati Tags: education

I love this kind of thing:

A group of Santa Fe residents recently attempted to get all public Wi-Fi hotspots in the city banned by arguing that the APs irritated their supposed "electromagnetic allergies."

How he's managed to survive with all the TV and radio signals in the air is anybody's guess. One can only hope that these idiots don't find a judge stupid enough to play ball with them...