Lazy Reading for 2012/07/08

I think there’s a chance we’re about to see Microsoft start to slip downhill, in a way that may only be apparent a year from now if it continues.  The company’s been a big moneymaker for years, but news items like the recent writedowns and my personal experience that they’re outsourcing license compliance checking makes me think that the rise of tablets and smartphones is cutting into their Windows/Office revenues like nothing ever has before.

It’s a guess, and it’s not likely that I’m right.  If I am, it’s a seismic shift.  Enough armchair theory!  Here’s the links:

Your unrelated comics link of the week: The Whole Story.  A comics collection, sort of  like the ‘humble indie bundles’ for games, where if you pay a bit more, you get even more comics.

Hardware reports given out

New company Gainframe is offering up OpenBSD dmesg/pcidump/usbdevs output for every system they build.  I was originally going to link to this in a Lazy Reading entry, but then I realized it’s also a new company specializing in BSD-compatible hardware.   Read the interview; I met Michael Dexter at the last NYCBSDCon and he is a decent guy.

We need more of this sort of specifically targeted work.   Sites that rely on crowd-sourced contribution are good, but it’s not necessarily comprehensive, and you need a very large crowd for it to work.

Lazy Reading for 2012/07/01

It’s summer, and I’m too warm.  I’m whiny but still making with the links:

Your unrelated link of the day: The Kleptones are great, and this collection of the music that influenced Paul Simon’s Graceland is a wonderful find.  A happier album I’ve never heard.  I feel nostalgic for the days when you had to actually search for music.