Monopolies

Monopolies scare me... be it in the insurance or banking industry, telephones and especially computers... Several times this past week, we've lost access to Google. Who cares? We do - because we have websites with Google ads on them, and they won't load when Google is down. The first time it happened, the problem righted itself within 24 hours... I can live with that. However, when it happened a few days ago for 48 hours, we began calling our internet service provider to see if they were getting similar complaints.... They suggested to check the DNS numbers... We reverted to the old numbers and voilà - problem solved. How did these numbers get changed you might ask? Brian had switched to an open server source, BUT it was actually in part Microsoft. They do automatic updates on our system and they don't like other browsers... they don't like other email programs... they don't like anything Linux or open source. The update reverted most of my personal settings - so much so that I couldn't access my Blogger account. So this has been several days without an update.

It's also a slice of the proprietary pie - like when Sony did Betamax to everyone else's VCR... now it's happening in DVD formats... I'm not tech savvy enough to spit out the all format rivalries, but I know for the consumer this kind of one-upmanship, king-of-the-hill bravado makes people leery of investing in technology. I'm all for competition - but I ask the companies pick a format and let the fair market jousting happen after that is done.

So much for this rant... now I'll go onto MySpace and rant there... next entry should be a continuation of the issues around soul retrieval and preparation. Can you tell I've just come back from 4 hours of dental work?