Reflections on Yesterday Today

What beautiful friends I have. They love me and they don't have to. Friends are chosen, never made. I felt so wonderful yesterday. I was here. I am here. Aware or not, I take everything and everyone with me. All of this all.

Yesterday comes to me in flashes and sound. And in emotions. In tactile brushes. I am aware. I am curious.

I see his expressive eyes. I see him want to taste the world. And he does. I see him moving. I see him fuss. I feel him explore. I am a child again.

I see her. She is graceful. I see her smile. I see her think. I feel her direction. She knows. She commands. She is care.

I see them, I see twins. One compass. And many children. I laugh. I grin. I jest. I laugh until I can barely speak. I can not this time. I will wait. Words will find me.

I hope. They may too.

I hold them. All of them. I will remember. They will too.

Eddie

Some days, I wish I didn't have a memory like mine. But then, I wouldn't have known the great times, either. He was always so ill. Just bones. Lanky. And quite nervous. But our conversations were priceless. And he gave great advice.

Eddie wanted so much to get out and move away from there. I promised him I'd visit. He did get out. But I can't visit him where he is just yet. Time knows I will.

I love him. He loves me, too. He's a sweet big brother.

Illness is a horrible creature.

He kept inviting me to his room. Something always kept me from going, but I wanted to. I like to imagine what it looks like. There are many colors inside. And no wall scrapes. And no one he doesn't want coming in. There's lots of music playing, too. His favorite trance rhythms.

I wish I was less intimidated that night. Because of him, I know to keep in touch by staying on the line and getting back on it. Smart man. Very clever. And thank you, Elva. I love you always for what you did. Eddie thanks you for it too.

Thank you, Grace. You are a good mom. Eddie loves you even when grumpy. He knew you deserved such a beautiful name. I miss you.

I forgive you, Eddie. I know you have forgiven me as well. I long for your hellos, so I hear them often.

I'm glad to still know you.

Isn't it wonderful now that when we communicate, we don't have to wait 15 phone rings? (smiles fully)

Sooner than later, big brother Eddie. (heart)

Windows XP: Dead or Just Resting?

It seems XP -- like Bill Gates -- is still alive and kicking.

Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld.com

Jul 4, 2008 12:46 pm

It turns out the reports of XP's death may be slightly exaggerated.

Sure, the obits have been posted and the requiems are being sung. The fat lady has already packed up her girdle and gone home with a bucket of KFC. Yet it seems XP -- like Bill Gates -- is still alive and kicking, at least in some form.

One day after XP's "demise", Dell SMB manager Jenni Doane posts a blog entry that details how you can still get XP by exploiting some of the loopholes left open by Microsoft. (Essentially, you can buy a Vista license but ask Dell to downgrade the system to XP, which they will continue to support. The catch? You have to buy it through Dell's Small Business sales operation, and you can only get XP Pro.)

You know the PC biz has gotten weird when offering a 7-year-old OS becomes a marketing advantage. But the reason why is obvious. Vista is such a dog it qualifies for the Iditarod. Even Intel won't let it in the door, lest it chew on the furniture and soil the carpets.

In a BuzzDash poll posted by my erstwhile colleague Jeff Bertolucci, 72 percent of respondents wanted Microsoft to "revive" XP, which is presumably encased in a glass coffin not dissimilar to Stalin's in the Kremlin. And of course, more than 210,000 InfoWorlders signed the Save XP petition, hoping Microsoft would grant clemency at the 11th hour. Instead, companies like Dell must come to the rescue. How humiliating is that?

My feeling about the sudden surge in nostalgia for XP is that it's really more a) a reaction to the Big Headache (or at best, the Big Nothing) of Vista, and b) revisionist history. When Windows XP came out, it was panned for being slow and incompatible, just as Vista has been (in InfoWorld, no less). It was also woefully, almost laughably insecure. Imagine shipping an OS with the firewall turned off by default. Yet that was XP in 2001.

It wasn't until Aug. 6, 2004, that XP began to grow up. That was the day Microsoft finally released Service Pack 2 for XP, which closed a bunch of gaping security holes in the OS (including turning the firewall on by default). From that point on, XP was a viable OS, though it was still far from airtight. It also signaled that Microsoft finally "got it" when it comes to Net security. We've seen a real turnaround in how it responds to and handles security breaches and patches ever since (from horrible to adequate, at least). And now, of course, Vista has (some) security built in.

But if this whole XP/Vista struggle means anything, I think it proves that Microsoft's approach to operating systems is fundamentally wrong. We don't need a brand-new-from-the-ground-up OS every three (four, five, six) years. We need incremental releases on a regular schedule, with fewer whizzy interface "improvements" and more bug fixes and performance boosts. In other words, more like a Linux distro. But I'll be selling snow cones in Hell -- or maybe Ballmer will be -- before we'll see that coming from Redmond.

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