A Brief History of the Foreign Policy of Modern US Presidents

This morning I stumbled into an amazing blog post. If you're an enthusiastic student of history, like I am, take the 5 minutes to read about the ending of the cold war, and the roles of Carter, Reagan, and Clinton.

Carter, while arguably the greatest man of the the three, was likely the worst president. Clinton presided over a booming domestic economy, but was entirely absent in foreign policy (perhaps causing his popularity) . Reagan, while ridiculed by most Europeans as a hawkish warmonger, actually played a major role in ending the cold war and liberating eastern Europe with minimal casualties to the West.

I've just finished reading Charlie Wilson's War and this too is an integral component of this story and is a highly recommended read.

Current history is fascinating. Are we transitioning from Cold War to American hegemony to a "Post-Edwardian" US role in the world all in the space of a few decades?

Got Integrity?

OK, so we're probably all fed up with politics these days, and of course we all know that the US process is just getting started.

As I think about who I'll vote for, I realize that my own most important criteria in an elected official is my perception of a candidate's integrity.

I recognize that "political integrity" is an oxymoron, so don't jump on me for being naive and idealistic.

I have to say that one candidate is by far and away at the bottom of the charts of integrity, well below even all of the other demagogic candidates. That candidate is Hillary Clinton. It is my view that few people, with the possible exception of Donald Trump, have less integrity than Hillary Clinton.

For starters, check this out:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/obama-v-clinton.html

Oh, there's more, much more...perhaps this topic will come up again in the future?

Wisdom of the Day #2

Success is driven by vision and conviction and not by following directions.
- Furqan Nazeeri, in summarizing what he learned about a characteristic of successful CEO's.

Wisdom of the Day #1

An oldie but a goodie:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

- Adam Smith

Things To Learn From a Dog

• Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride (teenagers excepted).
• Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.
• When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
• When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.
• Let others know when they've invaded your territory.
• Take naps and stretch before rising.
• Run, romp and play daily.
• Eat with gusto and enthusiasm.
• Be loyal.
• Never pretend to be something you're not.
• If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
• When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
• Thrive on attention and let people touch you.
• Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
• On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
• When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.
• No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into the guilt thing and pout ... run right back and make friends.
• Bond with your pack.
• Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

- Author unknown; from The Colorado Daily 1/9/2008

Microsoft…hanging by an email client?

Microsoft is, and has been for a decade, the owner of the world’s most valuable monopoly. They have a market cap of $375B, resulting from FY2007 revenues in excess of $51B (with approximately $15B of that coming from windows, and $16B of that from Office), all at a gross margin exceeding 80%. Given these tremendous resources, it is surprising, to say the least, that Microsoft’s software quality is bordering on intolerable. In my circle of high-tech friends and colleagues, there is general exasperation arising from the user experience of Microsoft’s latest software:

• Vista, while prettier than XP, is not any more usable or productive. Yet is a resource hog (some analysis shows that it only runs 1/3 as fast as XP), it still has bugs, and, annoyingly, it seems to be endlessly patching/upgrading itself.
  
• Office 2007, like Vista, seems to have no substantial improvements from Office 2003. (The Groove product is, I think, the sole exception – more on that in a future post). The most noticeable “improvement” to the new version, the so called Office “ribbon”, is not very popular, as many find it more difficult to use than its predecessor. Outlook too remains nearly unchanged from the 2003 version.
• Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer, is a dinosaur that constantly fails in its struggle to keep up to date. Every sophisticated user I know has abandoned Internet Explorer in favor of Firefox. Firefox is an arguably better user experience; it has an architecture allowing for the easier development of superior plug-ins, and accordingly has a larger library of superior plug-ins. Firefox is, amazingly, an open-source product. How can an open source solution outperform a product with massively greater resources behind it? How can Firefox be noticeably more stable than IE, when IE is developed in an environment with full access to proprietary information about the underlying operating system? Yet it’s so, and widely known to be so.
  

The upshot from the recent Microsoft user experience is that longtime Microsoft users are actively seeking ways to dump Microsoft because of the perception that there are other, better solutions to their software needs. In the decades-old Apple/Microsoft rivalry, it seems that, now, for the first time, even long-time Microsoft devotees are trying to find ways to defect.

Here’s the thing that’s even more amazing than Microsoft’s bumbling execution: perhaps the single biggest thing (beyond the many switching costs that do exist) that seems to be preventing abandonment of Microsoft in the business world is the functionality provided by the combination of Outlook and Microsoft Exchange. Exchange is the de facto collaboration platform in the business world. By market share, it has no close competition. And, there is no non-windows client that works as well with Exchange as Outlook. So, if you want Exchange – and every business does – then you want to run Outlook as well, and then you’re forced onto the Windows platform, which in turn means you’ll buy Office.

Think on it: $30B of annual revenue from Windows and Office software, at an 80% margin, is dependent on the fact that there is no good non-windows email client for Exchange.

Any guesses on how long this will last?

How badly must Apple want Microsoft to port an Outlook to their platform, and how badly does Microsoft want to delay this? Why doesn’t some enterprising entrepreneur develop an adequate email/Exchange client? Why doesn’t Apple develop their own email/Exchange client?

PS – Please help me make even more money off of Microsoft’s poor execution by driving up the price of long-term MSFT puts, which I’ve already bought.