To:       Doc Searls - dsearls@cyber.law.harvard.edu

Cc:       Dave Winer - dave.winer@gmail.com

Cc:       Jeff Jarvis - jeff@buzzmachine.com

Cc:       Glenn Greenwald - GGreenwald@salon.com

From:  Doug Skoglund - skoglund@pdmsb.com

Date:   Tuesday, Jun 14, 2011 

Subject: My Way XX - Pundit Under Protest...

This is  the twentieth attempt (in this series) to make some kind of contact with you guys, and you, Doc, have been the only one to respond -- You wrote:

Have any of these other guys responded to you yet? Just asking.
Doc

And I responded:

Nope -- not yet, but thanks for asking.
Doug

Well, it's better than nothing -- right?? 

I am using David Brooks title, "Pundits Under Protest" to attempt to male my point -- again -- We need to learn how to talk to each other. David writes:

I'll be writing a lot about the presidential election over the next 16 months, but at the outset I would just like to remark that I'm opining on this whole campaign under protest. I'm registering a protest because for someone of my Hamiltonian/National Greatness perspective, the two parties contesting this election are unusually pathetic. Their programs are unusually unimaginative. Their policies are unusually incommensurate to the problem at hand.

This election is about how to avert national decline. All other issues flow from that anxiety.

The election is happening during a downturn in the economic cycle, but the core issue is the accumulation of deeper structural problems that this recession has exposed -- unsustainable levels of debt, an inability to generate middle-class incomes, a dysfunctional political system, the steady growth of special-interest sinecures and the gradual loss of national vitality.

The number of business start-ups per capita has been falling steadily for the past three decades. Workers' share of national income has been declining since 1983. Male wages have been stagnant for about 40 years. The American working class -- those without a college degree -- is being decimated, economically and socially. In 1960, for example, 83 percent of those in the working class were married. Now only 48 percent are.

Voters are certainly aware of the scope of the challenges before them. Their pessimism and anxiety does not just reflect the ebb and flow of the business cycle, but is deeper and more pervasive. Trust in institutions is at historic lows. Large majorities think the country is on the wrong track, and have for years. Large pluralities believe their children will have fewer opportunities than they do.

Voters are in the market for new movements and new combinations, yet the two parties have grown more rigid. 

And, for Mr. Brooks, it's all talk and no action. I just happen to believe that the way to turn things around is to educate the voters through intense participatory discourse -- a subject that Mr. Brooks has completely avoided. 

On a slightly different bent, John C. Dvorak (you remember him??) in his post entitled, "Will Windows 8 Kill Microsoft?" writes:

Reports by PCMag's Lance Ulanoff and others indicate that Windows 8 may take a hard left turn down a cliff with a complete UI redesign that will dumb down the interface but make it more practical for tablets and phones. 

From what I've heard, this new approach, which mimics the iPhone and Android OS GUI as well as the Phone 7 GUI, will essentially kill desktop computing once and for all -- at least, for Microsoft.

The description was an eye-roller and then a shocker, as the demo of this turkey turned up with a pop-up on-screen keyboard, which is the way the keyboard crops up with a phone or tablet. I'm not sure what Microsoft is thinking, but a typical desktop computer actually has a real keyboard. You know, Microsoft even makes such a device. I'm using one now.

I've been waiting for quite some time to see Microsoft do something incredibly stupid that would open the door so Linux could waltz in and take over the desktop. Right now, there is a mistaken belief that Linux will never be a desktop OS. I disagree. With a few lucky breaks and a misstep by Microsoft, Linux could instantly be on every desktop. From what I hear about Windows 8, this moment may be at hand.

And, how about you, Doc -- what are you doing to open the communication channel between Linux and the millions of DeskTop developers like myself -- Linux doesn't need a few lucky breaks -- they need to get off their ass and start communicating with developers that want to be paid for their work -- it's just that simple!!!!!!!

Time is running out!!!!!

2011 Archive List

2010 Archive List