Sometimes the lunchtime news review just aligns with a theme:
- From the “Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before” Department: Yet again, a large computing company is being accused of stifiling the competition. No, not Microsoft. IBM. That’s right, IBM is accused of using problematic (yes, that’s the word) tactics in order to continue to dominate the mainframe market. The compusaurs out there will recall this is nothing new: IBM did this before with bundling of software and hardware, and all sorts of other tactics. But nowadays, you mention computing beheamoths, and everyone thinks M$.
- From the “What’s In a Name?” Department: In a situation that would make R. J. Reynolds amused, it seems the AIG name no longer holds the cachet it one had. In fact, the few profitable AIG subsidiaries are now trying to distance themselves from the name (for example, AIG Direct has gone back to 21st Century). Will this work? Well, we are talking American consumers here.
- From the “Just Go To the Movies” Department: Do you have an obscure movie you like that hasn’t made it to DVD yet? Don’t fret. Warner Bros (which may also have the MGM catalog) is opening up its archives and making a number of lower-popularity titles available “on demand”, meaning they don’t generate the DVD until you buy it. For more info, visit the Warner Archive. Alas, there is no “Sterile Cuckoo” (actually, that’s already on DVD) or “Crazy World of Julius Vrooder”, or even “Another Nice Mess”, but there is “I was a Communist for the FBI”
Some other news links of interest, but not falling within the theme:
