Microsoft's Next Big Idea

I couldn’t help from rofling at this one. One Mem Drive is the former global HQ of Sapient Corporation, where I worked for seven years. The space is almost certainly the 7th and 8th floor, which were among the four floors they occupied in the oh-so-70s salmon granite and teal glass tower.

From today’s Snotlob Globe:

Microsoft seeks next big idea in Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE - Microsoft Corp. is reinventing itself, and it’s looking to One Memorial Drive for a dose of innovation.

[…]

That will be the home of Microsoft’s Boston Concept Development Center, a first-of-its-kind research unit that’s assembling dozens of engineers and designers and sniffing out technologies with the aim of incubating new Internet businesses within the company.

[…]

“Microsoft doesn’t have time to waste. You’ve got a very skeptical public right now that’s looking to Google or Apple for technology leadership, not Microsoft. This is sort of an effort to return to Microsoft at its roots, when it was young and edgy.” That goal is reflected in the space the team will move into this summer at One Memorial Drive, an office tower looming over the Charles River outside Kendall Square. Construction workers are renovating two floors, connected by a bleacher-style staircase and open work area.

[…]

Sturtevant’s team will be part of a larger, already existing Microsoft office at One Memorial Drive, next door to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that serves as the company’s Boston-area development hub. The office will also house the company’s first Microsoft Research lab in the United State outside Redmond and development offices for its SoftGrid virtualization software. Overall, the company is leasing more than 180,000 square feet on five floors in the 17-story building.

Link to full article

Quick! Close the barn door!

It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I’m not succinct by nature. But I’m afraid life is now moving faster than I can type, and I’ve been falling behind. I’ve gotta start posting stuff without taking so much time to think about it.

Case in point: two political developments from two weeks ago:

First, the Supreme Court surprisingly upheld the right of habeas corpus in the Boumediene case, invalidating Yorgi Bush’s holding prisoners at Guantanamo for the past six years without charging them with any crime. With so little of it evident these days, it’s worth celebrating every iota of sanity that comes out of our government.

And in other news, Congress finally found one guy with the balls to file impeachment articles against Uncle Yorgi. For what?

• For failure to act on advance intelligence on plans for the 9/11 attack
• For falsely attributing the 9/11 attacks on Iraq
• For lying about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction
• For violating the United Nations charter by going to war with Iraq
• For annexation of Iraqi oilfields
• For allowing US oil interests to control US military policies
• For providing criminal immunity to US oil contractors in Iraq
• For lying about revealing CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity
• For spying on Americans without a warrant
• For illegally imprisoning US and foreign nationals, including children
• For authorizing and encouraging torture as an official US policy
• For exporting prisoners abroad to facilitate the US torture policy
• For refusing to enforce US law and gross abuse of Presidential signing statements
• For failing to comply with subpoenas and obstruction of justice
• For gross mismanagement of the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort

The bill enumerates no less than 35 impeachable offenses. Some of them are kind of petty, but if even two thirds are dismissable, that means the President—who swore to uphold the Constitution—has violated that oath a dozen times… that we know of.

So why would DK stick his neck out and commit political suicide? Well, if nothing else, the guy’s got two things: principles, and the fortitude to stand up for them.

Not one other Congressman or -woman was willing to stand up to Bush’s unprecedented crimes against the Constitution and the spirit of America that the founding fathers instilled in this nation.

The other 434 Senators and Representatives have sacrificed their oathes of office in the interest of political expediency, letting George Bush get away with whatever he wants. By stepping up and calling out Bush’s many heinous crimes, and being willing to take the heat for it, the Honorable Mr. Kucinich deserves a lot of respect.