Microsoft Bedeviled by Chatbot with a Plaid Dress On

Today, during lunch at Muze, my iPhone started to vibrate. I checked out the number calling me – it was Morton, who regular readers of this Web log will remember as an inveterate, peripatetic minion of Big Software. We go back a long way, and he’s a friend, of sorts. Tom: Holy smokes, Morton, where… Continue reading Microsoft Bedeviled by Chatbot with a Plaid Dress On

Office of Personnel Management Can’t Manage to Keep a Secret

Weeknights at the Round Robin Bar tend to be quiet, uncrowded and convivial – unless it’s a Friday, when things become a bit more, shall we say, kinetic. Last night should have been one of the former, naturally, but it definitely wasn’t. When I walked in, there were Horn and Hardart, going at it hammer… Continue reading Office of Personnel Management Can’t Manage to Keep a Secret

Bankers Bested by Better Bandits

Monday was Presidents Day, which is a federal holiday, thus sparing America, for twenty-four hours, at least, from the incompetence, ignorance and idiocy of the United States Civil Service. But as usual, federal holidays bring no respite for Gretchen or myself, since I have plenty of other clients to deal with; it’s simply a matter… Continue reading Bankers Bested by Better Bandits

Microsoft Vows to Change Culture, Leopards Vow to Change Spots

This afternoon, as regular readers of this Web log can readily imagine, my dear brother Rob Roy invited himself and his son Jason over to my home in Great Falls, Virginia, to watch the World Cup Championship on the oversize HDTV in the furnished basement. And to avail themselves of my extensive collection of world-class… Continue reading Microsoft Vows to Change Culture, Leopards Vow to Change Spots

The Internet Gets Pwned by NSA

Syria had everyone who is anyone in Washington – and their assistants – which includes me and Gretchen, of course, inside working today.  That’s a real shame because the weather was absolutely gorgeous outdoors and all I could do was look through the picture window at it as the sun shined down through a seventy-five… Continue reading The Internet Gets Pwned by NSA