We have all seen the various ads where Apple uses vague concepts such as, “Macs are cooler” and “Macs are easier to use”, to push their wares. We have all seen the cheap shots they take at Bill Gates by having a geeky and technologically inept twit touting Windows, only to admit that Macs are cooler in the end.

Well now Microsoft decided to run some ads specifically targeting Apple, and unlike the former’s unsubstantiatable statements, Microsoft attacks Apple where it really hurts, on price.

Macs on average are about twice as expensive as Windows based machines, running on the exact same hardware, and now Microsoft is driving the point home. In the ad, Microsoft compares a $972 Dell laptop to a $1999 Mac with virtually the same hardware. Apparently Apple’s legal department called Microsoft to get them to stop running the ads, because they lowered the price of their PCs (oops I mean Macs) by $100, making the ad technically slightly inaccurate. The end result, however, is that Macs are still hundreds of dollars more expensive, and seeing as how Apple just tipped their hand, Microsoft has every intention to ratchet up the ads even more.

How does it feel to have the finger wagging in your face now Steve? Let’s do some LSD and talk about it.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/16/apple_asks_microsoft_to_pull_ads/

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, fast food giant McDonalds has lost an appeal court decision against a small business called McCurry on Wednesday. An appeals court overruled a decision that its trademark had been infringed by a local restaurant called McCurry. The restaurant has only one location, and does not sell anything resembling a burger, so no brand confusion could realistically occur, unless they start using the golden arches in their advertising.

The appelate court judge’s reasoning seems to be on the ball and is as follows.

“Where the learned judge, with respect, erred is to assume that McDonald’s had a monopoly in the use of the prefix ‘Mc’ on a signage or in the conduct of business,” Judge Gopal Sri Ram said, overturning a 2006 ruling in favor of McDonald’s.

I sure am glad that Pepsi has not copyrighted the upper case “P”, and that Coke has not copyrighted the upper case “C”. This is especially lucky for the Irish, as all Irish people whose family names start with Mc, would have had to start paying royalties to McDonalds.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE53S6G120090429

Frantic attempts to hammer out a deal with bondholders of $7B of Chrysler’s debt have not yielded any results. Though 70% of bondholders agreed to a debt-for-share or debt-for-cash swap, the last 30% are holdouts and are hoping they might get a better deal in court.

This may seem like a stupid and unrealistic move on their parts, because the poor horse that is Chrysler has been flogged way beyond death, but there is a method to the bondholders’ madness. They are currently being offered $2 billion in cash for the $7 billion in Chrysler debt that they hold.  The bondholders figure they have little to lose because they are insured with credit-default swaps, and would get more money from insurance on the debt, than they would get from agreeing to the restructuring terms.

The bankruptcy proceeding may be Chrysler’s last opportunity to start with a cleaner, if not a clean, slate. Further government assistance is only forthcoming if an agreement with all creditors can be arranged. Otherwise it would amount to a wealth transfer from American tax-payers to, mostly foreign, bond-holders.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE53S8F620090430

Yahoo is cutting 5% of it’s workforce, even though they posted earning in line with Wall Street expectations, and saw their share prices jump up by 5%. With all the cutting that has already been done, it’s curious why they need to cut staff if they are doing okay, which is as well as expected by analysts. Gotta make room for those CEO bonuses somehow I guess.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE53K5LO20090421

The Wall Street Journal reported a few days ago that Lockheed Martin may have allowed classified data pertaining to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to be stolen. This is a major technological, military project that is being funded by multiple countries who are friendly with the US, and who are expecting this plane to give their respective Air Forces air superiority.

The radar-evading aircraft is being developed with financing from the United States, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Israel, and Singapore. The country suspected of the espionage is China, but their officials, of course, deny the allegations. Any leaked details about this $300 Billion dollar project, could be catastrophic as it could negate the advantages the Western militarys expect it to give them.

Source at Lockheed deny the rumours, but the Wall Street Journal stands by it’s story and it’s sources.

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE53K0TG20090421

http://www.sun.com/third-party/global/oracle/index.jsp

The Treasury Department has turned down Chrysler Financial’s most recent request for more financial aid. The impasse was the caps on executive compensation that the government wants imposed, to insure the company stays solvent long enough to pay the tax payer back. The latest installment would have added another $750 million, to the $1.5 billion already lent to Chrysler Financial. This is in addition to the $4 Billion lent to the Chrysler parent company.

It seems executive bonuses come first, maybe the exec can lend consumers the money to buy their cars. They expect union members to give up between $30-$40 in pay and benefits, but don’t want to set a good example with their own compensation. Lego my ego….I mean bonus.

 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517216,00.html

How classless, tacky and desperate must your business be, if you use an actor’s image in a commercial, don’t compensate him, and then threaten to bring up and scrutinize every detail of his life when he is unhappy about being your freebie poster-boy?

Just how low class is American Apparel? This low class, “American Apparel lawyer Stuart Slotnick said the company plans to make Allen’s relationships to actress Mia Farrow and her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, whom Allen married, the focus of a trial scheduled to begin in federal court in Manhattan on May 18.”

How arrogant and pathetic can American Apparel really be you ask? This arrogant and pathetic, “Woody Allen expects $10 million for use of his image on billboards that were up and down in less than one week,” Slotnick said. “I think Woody Allen overestimates the value of his image.”

We all missed the memo where lawyers have been given the authority to decide what someone’s image is worth. What a piece of work this lawyer is. You use his image without permission, and then you bitch about how much he wants for it? He should have said 100million and then expected you to pay for it, and in my eyes it would be completely justified. This is why anyone older than 10, will asks what something costs before they use it. It is akin to going into an expensive restaurant, ordering a bunch of random stuff without looking at the menu or prices, and then bitching when your bill is too high. To top it off, I then threaten to sue you and stomp your family name into the ground when you say that I should have looked at the prices before gorging myself on what clearly does not belong to me.

Hey, Mr. Jerkoff lawyer, your negotiation window closed the second you used his picture. You can’t negotiate backwards.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,516176,00.html

Sun MicroSystems is the owner of Java, arguably, the most popular programming cross-platform language, especially on the Internet. It is unclear what IBM’s plans could be for that market.

One of the things that has helped Oracle become as big as they are is the fact that they sell systems that run on Sun’s Solaris. IBM, which has it’s own SQL server, is going to quickly end that partnership or at least make it less collaborative. This might complicate Oracle’s life a little bit.