An assortment of links

1. It's a coincidence, I'm sure, but I find it interesting that two magazines - Maclean's and Rolling Stone - have done articles wondering just how bad George W. Bush is as a president in a historical context.

I've been wondering it a bit myself recently. Like most Canadians I don't like Bush and think he's been a terrible president for the United State. (As a side note, in case you were wondering exactly how much longer you have to put up with Bush, Peter David's Freedom Clock just counted down to less than 1,000 days. Whoopee). However, I guess my history degree makes me a little aware of how people will view someone once they're out of office for a few decades. With the Conservatives back in power, the rehabilitation of Brian Mulroney's character is beginning. Good luck with that. Yes, the GST, Free Trade and other things might have panned out. I still hate the smug bastard.

But I don't know about Bush. Domestically he's been a disaster, with deficits that should terrify all of us. Maybe his policy in the Middle East will pan out. However, the number of people who agree that it will are pretty rare.

Still, they're fairly intelligent articles and will at least have you nodding your head in agreement a lot if you hate Bush.

2. From what I've read of John Dvorak's columns regarding Apple, I thought he was talking out of his ass most times. But this column regarding Microsoft Explorer was interesting. First of all, an appalling number of you visit my blog using Explorer. If you can't use a Mac, at the very least switch to Firefox.

But Dvorak's argument is that Explorer has been a disaster. It has made no money for Microsoft and has, in fact, cost them millions. Not to mention all the time Microsoft has to spend fixing it rather than developing Vista or other OS. His solution? Microsoft should drop Explorer, give some money to develop Firefox and wash their hands of web browsers. Interesting idea. Won't happen, but interesting.

3, Wired magazine asks the question of when are Marvel and DC comics going to make their back catalog available either online or through DVDs. I actually haven't downloaded issues via bittorrent, although I've certainly seen the files. Part of it is the size of the files and the download limit per month I have up here and part of it is the small screen on my iBook.

But would I buy issues in a format ala iTunes? If they were at a reasonable price (no more than 99 cents), maybe. Would I buy a collection of "The Complete Batman" on DVD for a couple of hundred dollars? Quite probably. But I still like having the issues in my hands and I like looking at them on my bookshelf. But my days of buying issues because I think the issue is going to go up in value (called "being a Merc") are pretty much behind me. I just want to read the stories and admire the art.

By the way, the first paragraph in that story? That was totally me.

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