The Great Software Brownout

Some businesses and individuals are not upgrading to Vista. The Wall Street Journal said that 30% of businesses never plan to switch. But some software is upgrading and is not backwards compatible. Vongo an on-line movie service that shows movies from the Starz network now only works with Windows Media player 11. But to upgrade to the player you also have to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.0. While not part of the Vista operating system, IE 7.0 uses the same interface. So hold outs such as myself found that on Thanksgiving my Vongo service stopped working. Customer support suggested I upgrade to IE 7.0 and then downgrade after downloading Windows Media Player. Why would Microsoft require the upgrade for both if they did not require each other to operate? What most concerned me is that Vongo is not listing IE 7.0 on the list of requirements to use Vongo. But if it is a requirement of one of their requirements? Note: A brownout is when a location does not receive all of the electricity they request. But because they receive some electricity lights are dim and some appliances work while others do not. So in this case Vongo does not work and Netflix does.

Hot Potato

John Kerry received $1,000 in stolen campaign contributions July and took Hilary Clinton's lead and has donated that amount to charity. This involved a scandal by Norman Hsu who donated millions to political candidates that he stole in an investment scheme. This may be a good indication of what to expect from these two candidates in the future. They did not want to deal with the issue and gave the money away. They have no regard for the victims. Maybe they do not trust the police enough to turn the money over to the authorities.