Rui CarmoI definitely need a break. Here’s a few things that splattered on my cognitive windshield as I sped through my inbox:
- Yahoo published their UI Library (which is full of cool Ajaxy stuff that I will eventually look at).
- MacBook Pros are shipping, and with slightly upgraded CPU speeds. Nice. Expensive, but nice.
- Camino has reached 1.0 (and it’s Universal now)
- PalmSource has finally owned up to their Linux/GTK+ efforts and has made some noises regarding their renaming it the Access Linux Platform.
- Looks like running Mac OS X on vanilla PCs is nearly viable again, provided you have a nearly infinite amount of free time.
Too bad Apple just moved the goalposts to 10.4.5… Oh, and Backup 3.1 is available, too.
More Local Stuff
Following up on the Sonae bid, it looks like the competition regulator is leaning toward clearing the deal (which makes me wonder how promises about prices can be construed as a valid assurance of fair competition…)
Either way, I think there’s an angle nobody has picked up on yet, and that I can comment upon without any risk of going against my Disclaimer (since it’s pretty damn obvious once you think about it):
The number of people you need to design, run and troubleshoot a mobile network with national coverage is a finite one. Even if some companies might be able to pull this off with a relatively low head count, that usually entails a very high degree of technical proficiency on the part of those very same people (or extensive outsourcing, but even that has a limit) - and those skills aren’t something you can pick up as you go along.
No, these are very specialized (and internationally sought after) skills, often acquired over considerable expense and lengths of time (i.e., actual experience). And every real management book (at least those written by practitioners and not theorists) tells you that know-how and experience are definitely not something you’d like to gloss over - not on a telco, and not if you want to keep it.
And it stands to reason that merging two mobile networks will give rise to some tricky issues in that regard…
But hey, this is Portugal. Nobody ever understood how to foster, manage and take advantage of technical skills here (especially where it regards avoiding brain drain to other, more enlightened nations), and I don’t expect the powers that be to achieve enlightenment now…