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Linus Torvald Is NOT Joining Microsoft

Linus Torvald suggest some market positioning for Microsoft Windows

Some may have inadvertently mistaken what I think is an April Fool's day article at F.O.S.S. for the real thing.

Linus Torvald, the creator of LINUX and a prominent proponent for common standards and open source software, is NOT joining Microsoft to work on anything.

Microsoft represents the kind of clumsy monopoly that is inimical to everything Torvald believes in and stands for.

When I first read that article at a reputable financial site I spit out my coffee and almost fell out of my chair.  As a former boy programmer who left the 360 gulag to work on the Unix operating system I was stricken.  What the heck is going on in the world? Has everyone gone crazy?

I did not realize that the article was a few days old, and it was printed on April Fools. Well they got me.   This is how bad things have gotten. And I did forget that the next windows is not going to be Windows 9, but Windows Blue.

Torvald joining Microsoft would be like Chris Hedges becoming a salesman for Goldman Sachs, or Noam Chomsky enlisting to pilot drone strikes on domestic peace marches. Or even Pope Francis I resigning his pontificate to join Dancing With the Stars and HRM Queen Elizabeth abdicating the throne to become the new house driver, aka The Stig, for the BBC's Top Gear. Although I must admit it would be thrilling to see her daintily execute her famous hand wave through the window of a Ferrari as she cleared the last sharp turn into the finish.

Not everyone has become a complete whore to their principles, although it may often seem that way if you read and watch the financial media and the observations of very famous establishment economists that fraud is freedom and privation is prosperity.

Here is a recent example of what Torvald thinks about Microsoft, that may have helped inspire the goof from FOSS.    I need a dose of reality.  Time to go out and work in the garden.

(Caution: the following article contains harsh language)

Linus Torvald: I Will Not Change Linux to Deep Throat Microsoft
This is not a d**k-sucking contest," says Linux's benevolent overlord.
by Jon Brodkin
Feb 26 2013

The Linux kernel development process may welcome all those who love open source software and have the right coding chops, but one man remains the ultimate authority on what does and doesn't go into Linux—and he isn't afraid to let everyone know it.

The rants of Linux creator Linus Torvalds often become public through the Linux Kernel Mailing List archive. That's the open source way, and it gives us a glimpse into the thinking of the people behind one of the world's most widely used technologies.

The latest example comes from an argument between Torvalds and other Linux developers over whether the Linux kernel should include code that makes it easier to boot Linux on Windows PCs. This goes back to Microsoft requiring that PCs designed to run Windows 8 use UEFI firmware with the Secure Boot feature enabled.

This has complicated the process of booting Linux on PCs that shipped with Windows 8, but it hasn't prevented people from doing so. There are workarounds, but some people are looking for a solution in the Linux kernel itself...

Read the rest here.

The Fruits of 'Free Markets' and Inequality: Female Mortality Rates In the US

"There is a frightening graph in a recent article in Health Affairs by David Kindig and Erika Cheng. Kindig and Cheng looked at trends in male and female mortality rates from 1992–96 to 2002–06 in 3,140 US counties.

What they found was that female mortality rates increased in 42.8% of counties (male mortality rates increased in only 3.4%). The counties are mapped below: red means that female mortality worsened.

You can see a strong regional pattern: just about every county showed had worsened female mortality in several southern states, while no county showed such decline in New England. There are many questions about what explains this pattern. For example, did healthier women migrate out of the south from 1992 to 2006?

Nevertheless, the map depicts a shocking pattern of female hardship, primarily in the southeast and midwest."

Read the rest from Bill Gardner posting at The Incidental Economist here.

And although they are certainly not the same as overall female mortality rates, here are the latest CIA World Factbook figures on maternal mortality rates (MMR) per hundred thousand. Obviously the lower the number the better.

Hey, don't complain, thank God we're not like Chad or Somalia right?   And how come all those socialist single payer countries are nearer the bottom, and they do it so much more cheaply?

Perhaps some neo-liberal hack can explain the economic principles of freedom involved to the child of a dead mother.

I know what comrade Stalin's or Herr Hitler's answer would have been about deaths and large numbers with regard to the needs of the state. Funny how the extremes tend to converge

SP 500 June Futures Daily Chart - A Closer Look at Support and Resistance Levels

"This is what has been written: ‘M’ne! M’ne! T’kel ufarsin.’

And this is its meaning:

Numbered — God has numbered your reign and will end it.
Weighed — you are weighed on the scales, and found wanting.
Divided — your power will be divided and given to others.

Daniel 5:25-28

A well-tempered stock market rally/bubble.

The various support and resistance levels are apparent as well as the macro trend.

Take a look at the second chart below. If this is not a 'market operation' to inflate stock prices I don't know anything. 

At least you should have no trouble finding where we are on this road map, and when the wheels start falling off.  This is like a thrown rope.

A stock bubble financed by the Fed is a great way to transfer more wealth to the financiers. 

The US is a tale of two economies.  

Moyers:  Poverty in America Today.

Let's see how things go next week.

Very well-tempered, indeed.