Eva Glass! What would you have Carly do?

OK, yes you're right, there are a lot of unhappy bunnies at HP right now, and they are all probably e-mailing you like crazy with the latest set of injustices they are suffering, but for goodness' sake, put things into perspective. If you've been around this industry for a while you'll know as well as I do that HP was stuffed to the gills with mediocre or semi-performing people before the Compaq acquisition (no I am not an HP mole, but yes, I have watched the company for 20 years).

This good ol' boy approach was fine in the early days of high margin businesses and a booming IT industry, but look at HP's performance pre-merger: it was hardly stellar, it was at best solidly pedestrian.

So in the face of "the borg"-type execution from Dell, pedestrian just does not cut it. Yes it is cruel, and yes there is a nasty human cost. Nobody likes to fire anyone, it's horrible. But as an enterprise that is - "frankly" (to use la Fiorina's favourite expression) - struggling to survive, is it any wonder that the bar is being raised on performance?

Like I said at the beginning: put what is happening at HP into perspective. Life in the IT market is tough. It will get tougher. What would you have HP do?

regards
Jeremy Davies
Senior Partner, Context

Revenues and the RIAA

Hi Mike,

I just read yet another article about the RIAA, telling of how artists get such a small percentage of the revenue of a CD sale.

I got to thinking about open source software and possible solutions. (There may already be some I'm unaware of.)

Given that MOST musicians are poor, and MOST record companies have made LOTS of money,

And...

Most musicians write/play music because they love to do it, and Most people listen to music because they love to hear it....

Hopefully the time will arrive when, musicians will shun large record companies, record their music on their home PC, or in a low cost studio, and distribute that music through a network of music lovers who do it because they love music.

People could then download for free, or purchase low cost CD's of the music they like, just as they can with the software. An increasing number of people have found that an operating system that has its primary goal as excellence is superior to one that has its primary goal to be amassing a fortune.

Perhaps we need a Linus Torvalds of the music industry? (Well, not really Linus, but the cooperative model that has been used in the development of open source software.)

Hotmail, the Vole, IE and Netscape

I first must thank you for all the hard work your group puts into your site.

I am a daily visitor, and theinquirer has offered up some great tips, advice, and reviews.

All that said, I came across a phenomenon with hotmail that I thought your group might be interested in knowing about. So, I just picked your name from the list and decided to tell my little find.

To make a long story short, please run through the following steps and you will (hopefully) come across the same find.

1) Load up a hotmail account in IE and login

2) Open up a second IE and open up anything you wish, I used A non-Vole website for testing purposes.

3) Hit refresh on the window containing the hotmail account and immediately switch to the second browser window.

4) You will notice how the focus will immediately return to the hotmail window. Is this weird, or is this just me?

Well, after noticing it more than a couple times over the last few days I tested it with Netscape, figuring Vole included some "questionable" code to direct IE back to a loading hotmail page.

Please run through the same test, but using Netscape, and you will find how the focus will still return to the hotmail page. I even resized the windows to be the same exact size and the results were the same.

My question is, who made hotmail king? Also, does the same "problem" occur with all Microsoft pages when they have to compete for "window time" versus non-Vole websites?

Should the courts know about this? Am I the only person this annoys?

Can any of you over there help put some technical expertise and insight on to what is occurring?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jim B

We want a Czech INQUIRER

Dear Mr. Magee,

I am a regular reader of The Inquirer for more then one year. I really do like content of the web, especially the way the web is written. I appreciate the scope and range of updated information, as well as the peculiar humor, the pages are written with. The reason, why I am saying this is that similar kind of the web is not available on the “Czech internet”.

Generally, within the IT internet pages written in Czech language, there is no substitute for The Inquirer kind of web. Since, not all Czechs are quite familiar with English; I suggest developing Czech version of The Inquirer web.

The IT market in Czech Republic achieves two billion $ (there are 10 million inhabitants, plus 5 million of Slovaks - Slovak language is almost identical with Czech language). Therefore, my question is: Have you been thinking about creating other language version of The Inquirer web?

Well, thank you for the time you have spent with my e-mail. I would like to wish you keen-edged pen. Good luck!

Your devoted reader,

Petr Podaril, Prague, Czech Republic

Palm Case Case

Hi Mike,

I writing in response to the above mentioned article.

I had the same issue with the hard cover that come with my TT, and after much searching and prodding at various cases finally settled on the Aluminium Hard case. While I haven't seen the one in you review I have found the aluminium case not too bad. It has a 'thumb' slot cut in the back middle so you can grab it with thumb and point finger and pull up with one hand while gripping with the other.

It also has a cut out of the side so you can use the voice recorder (not that I use it that often) while the case is closed. The flap does take a little while to get use to (the only real dislike) in that while gripping the handheld in one hand it sort of gets in the way, but its only about 1/3 of the thickness of the handheld so its not too bad.

Unfortunately it can't fold back on itself like the equivalent m500 series one could, but then the TT is a bit fatter so it probably wouldn't be great. It also does have a couple of handy SD card slots. Overall I'm quiet pleased with the aluminium hard case and I feel it provides better protection that the original cover.

Regards

Peter