Microsoft, the retail dwarf

Microsoft plans to counter Apple by building 75 retail stores in 2-3 years
[Via AppleInsider]

Microsoft plans to massively expand its retail presence in the U.S. in the next 2 to 3 years, with an aggressive goal of 75 new stores to take on Apple’s own retail operations.

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One fifth of the all retail growth the last quarter came from one company – Apple. That is a giant.

The now have 324 stores with  almost 50 planned to be built. There are over $4000 annual revenue per square foot of retail space. This is the average of over 300 stores. For comparison, Tiffany’s makes only about $2500 per square foot.

In two years, Microsoft has built about 11 retail stores. They are not profitable.

They have an aggressive goal of 75 in the next 2-3 years. That does not seem to be any sort of growth to match the current Apple pace.

How will they ever match Apple’s retail muscle? People go to the Apple Store to try hands on the physical objects that they walk out of the store with, something that can not really find very easily anywhere else.

MS sells software that can be found almost anywhere and can be downloaded from almost anywhere.

Will anyone notice? Do people line up outside an MS store, ever?

Something else MS imitates from Apple but does not really understand. I mean, they showed a mac running Windows as a slam against Apple rather than the advantage it really is to be able to run ANY sort of software from just one type of hardware.

Apple, the retail giant

Apple accounted for one-fifth of all US retail sales growth in Q1 2011
[Via AppleInsider]

Apple led U.S. retail growth in the first quarter of calendar 2011, accounting for a whopping 20 percent of all sales growth by publicly traded American retailers during the three-month period.

[More]

Our economy would be even worse off if Apple did not exist. One fifth of ALL the retail growth coming from one company!

Now throw in overseas revenues and you have a mega company.

Acidification of the oceans should be a much larger concern

by USFWS Pacific

Ocean acidification: How much is too much? [Via Hot Topic]

 

Over at Skeptical Science we (Doug Mackie, Christina McGraw, and Keith Hunter) have started a long series (18 parts) about ocean acidification (Introduction , 1, 2). We all deride blog science. Blog science is what happens when people try to get a complex message across in 800 words or less. Real science takes time to explain. There is too much et voila in writing about climate change in general and ocean acidification in particular. Denialists have not touched ocean acidification because they don’t understand it. The chemistry is very subtle and even posts on normally reliable blogs like Skeptical Science have made errors.[More]

 

Much of the carbon dioxide we have added to the atmosphere has entered the oceans. Just as dissolving carbon dioxide to soft drinks lowers their pH, making them more acidic than without the carbon dioxide, so does the pH of the oceans become lower. But, many of the biological processes used by ocean animals to create their structural elements – the shells that act like bones – have pretty definite pH requirements. As the oceans become more acidic, it becomes harder to produce the calcareous shells needed to survive. At some point, it becomes impossible to produce appropriate structures and the animals die. This has been seen in fossil sediments and seen in the lab. It has also been examined in the wild, in the waters surrounding natural carbon dioxide seeps that lower local pH levels tremendously. Low pH levels than normal result in decimation of the ecosystem. Instead of rich coral reefs, there was only slime and sea grass. We may very well get to see the real time result in the general oceans if we keep releasing increasing amounts of carbon dioxide.

Why you should make sure your wireless network is secure

WiFi-hacking neighbor from hell gets 18 years in prison
[Via Ars Technica]

A Minnesota hacker prosecutors described as a “depraved criminal” was handed an 18-year prison term Tuesday for unleashing a vendetta of cyberterror that turned his neighbor’s lives into a living nightmare.

Barry Ardolf, 46, repeatedly hacked into his next-door neighbors’ WiFi network in 2009, and used it to try and frame them for child pornography, sexual harassment, various kinds of professional misconduct and to send threatening e-mail to politicians, including Vice President Joe Biden.

[More]

Never have an open wireless network. Even WEP security is not enough, as seen by this article. WPA or better should now be the standard, Also think about filtering computer MAC addresses to prevent unknown computers from accessing the network.