http://www.klio.org/marks/Warranted Genuine Snarksen-usweb@klio.orgCopyright 2003http://www.klio.org/marks/2006_08_archive.html#entry-193(As they say in places where they pronounce things funny. Texas, maybe.)... 2006-08-16T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2006_07_archive.html#entry-192So you may have heard about Microsoft’s “Zune” initiative, which is a whole suite of media stuff — a line of players, software, a store — designed to take on Apple’s iTunes/iPod complex. And you may remember that Microsoft already has technology des... 2006-07-27T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2006_06_archive.html#entry-191It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Well, here’s the deal: It turns out that I am most compelled to post when almost nobody is saying the sensible thing that I want to say. But these days, on most of the topics I pay attention to, it’s all sense, all th... 2006-06-29T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2006_02_archive.html#entry-190According to a story on Ars Technica, HBO wants to copy-protect its programming such that it couldn’t be DVRed. This is clearly and obviously problematic in the sense that it strips from the consumer rights that we’ve basically had forever; but more... 2006-02-10T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2006_01_archive.html#entry-189Matthew Yglesias points out a non-obvious truth about teacher salaries: That as Americans get more productive on average, labor in areas that don’t enjoy big productivity gains will get disproportionately more expensive. Specifically, you need to ei... 2006-01-09T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2006_01_archive.html#entry-188A few months back, I bought a subscription to the Yahoo Unlimited music subscription service. It was a bit flaky at first, but $5 a month (as it then was) for unlimited use of a huge selection of music is a hell of a deal, so I’ll put up with a bit ... 2006-01-05T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2006_01_archive.html#entry-187So you know how you’re sitting there, waiting for the future to arrive, and then one day you look around and BAM, it’s the future already? It happened to me when broadband suddenly went from being “available in limited markets for a lot of money” to... 2006-01-04T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2005_09_archive.html#entry-186Me, predicting the demise of PalmOS two years ago:... 2005-09-23T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2005_09_archive.html#entry-185I kinda thought I was kidding when I predicted a five-blade razor, but nope:... 2005-09-15T11:00:00-05:00http://www.klio.org/marks/2005_09_archive.html#entry-184Smart techies have, with disconcerting regularity, a deep-seated belief that the most difficult and complex subject in the world is tech (of whatever persuasion they’re interested in), and that since they’re smart enough to have mastered this tech st... 2005-09-05T11:00:00-05:00