Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Windows 7 to be Released Oct. 22

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Microsoft announced Tuesday that the next version of it flagship operating system, Windows 7, will be released on Oct. 22 of this year. Microsoft had been projecting a 2010 release and many (myself included) doubted the Redmond, WA-based company would be able to deliver. Windows 6 (Vista) was released many years later than originally projected and lacked many promised features, and Microsoft has a long history of missing its projected release dates for Windows and other projects. It appears that Microsoft may have changed its ways, and is in-fact revising its release projection for Windows 7 earlier than the original estimates.

All-in-all, Windows 7 is shaping up to be a great product . . . good features and a quick release cycle. A strong, successful Microsoft (competing fairly in the market) drives competition from the other operating system makers, and thus benefits all of us—even those of us who are pretty exclusively using Microsoft’s competitors these days.

We’ll see how it turns out.

GM to File for Bankruptcy; Gov’t To Take Majority Ownership

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Media reports indicate that General Motors (GM) will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy at 8am tomorrow (Monday) and, as part of the filing, the government will take control of 60 percent of the company with another ‘investment’ of 30 billion dollars. Chapter 11 is the best course for GM, though most of us had the sense to say this six months ago before the government ‘invested’ billions upon billions of dollars to prolong and delay the inevitable for GM and Chrysler (which went into Chapter 11 a month ago). We will never see these billions upon billions of our dollars again.

Of course the Barack Obama (D) administration has somehow managed to top the unconstitutional ‘investments’ in GM (which started under the George W. Bush (R) administration) with an unconstitutional purchase of 60 percent of the company. Indeed, the government of the United States will soon be the owner of a mediocre, failing car company. I have asked President Obama through an email to explain to me exactly which clause in the U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government to be in the auto manufacture business, but I sincerely doubt I’ll get an answer from our ‘Constitutional scholar’ president. He knows as well as I do that no such authorization exists, and these investments and purchases of private businesses run completely against the founding principles of our republic.

Read more . . .

A ‘Hybrid’ and Some Ducks

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hybridducksI took two photos yesterday on the way home from work.

First, while stopped with a bunch of other cars at a red light, I noticed that the older Ford F-350 pickup in front of me was clearly driven/owned by someone with a sense of humor. They added (quite professionally) a ‘Hybrid’ label like that you see on Honda Civic Hybrids, Toyota Priuses, and Ford Escape Hybrids. I’m reasonably certain that the 1990s-era F-350 isn’t actually a hybrid, since the first hybrid to market was the Honda Insight in 2000.

Second, I got home around the time that the drizzle of rain had stopped and when I got of my car I noticed . . . ducks! For some reason four ducks were huddled together on the little parking island and looking somewhat forlorn. They seemed like they didn’t want to have their picture taken, but they actually let me get pretty close for this shot.

I am traveling this weekend, so don’t be surprised if this is the last you hear of me for a couple of days!

N. Korea Declares End to 1953 Armistice

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North Korea declared today that it will no longer abide by the 1953 armistice agreement that effectively ended the Korean War, and threatened a military response to South Korea’s alliance with the United States. The two nations occupying the Korean peninsula, totalitarian North Korea and democratic South Korea, have been formally at war since 1950, though active fighting has largely been stopped since the United Nations-brokered 1953 armistice agreement. The Korean War was one of the first tests of the United Nations, and remains one of only a few times the body has—in accordance with its charter—used active military intervention in an effort to end a conflict.

This development would be extraordinarily troubling in any time, but is even more so now since the international community has stood by and allowed North Korea to become a nuclear power. North Korea certainly has the technology to stage a nuclear attack on South Korea, and could likely strike Japan, the Philippines, and possibly even Alaska, Hawaii, or the U.S. west coast. If they cannot stage such a strike today, they are absolutely developing the technology to be able to do so in the future. The United Nations cannot stand by inactive any longer, nor can the sovereign nations threatened by Kim Jong Il and his totalitarian government.

Read more . . .

Obama Appoints Sotomayor to Supreme Court

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President Barack Obama (D) has made his first Supreme Court appointment, nominating Sonia Sotomayor to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Justice David Souter at the end of the current court session. Sotomayor, if confirmed by the Senate, would be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sotomayor currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which has jurisdiction over New York, Vermont, and Connecticut. She was originally appointed as a U.S. District Court judge in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush (R) before being appointed to the 2nd Circuit court by President Bill Clinton (D) in 1998. She is of Puerto Rican descent and grew up in a housing project in the Bronx, New York.

It is expected that Sotomayor will be confirmed by the Senate, where the Democratic Party currently holds a strong majority. She is expected to take her seat before the beginning of the next Supreme Court session in October.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.