Apple vs. Windows, Wikipedia and "cage match"

When you write, sometimes a word or phrase comes to mind and even though you have a strong sense of the meaning of the word or phrase, looking it up in a reference book helps inform the usage. Lately, I've found myself turning to Wikipedia as that reference book more often than anything else -- print or otherwise. Tonight, the phrase "cage match" popped into my head for reasons I will describe below.

I was reading the letters about a recent Salon story about the Mac ("Hallelujah, the Mac is back") and one reader wrote this nugget:

I'd sooner lower my [editor's note: body parts redacted for family IT publication] into a vat of boiling acid than even use a Windows computer again -- let alone own one.

My first thought on reading this harsh stance -- drawing on a childhood of watching (fake) fight-to-the-almost-death pro wrestling every Saturday night with my dad at a time when now-forgotten 'rasslers like Bugsy McGraw were getting bludgeoned on a weekly basis -- was "Apple vs. Windows cage match"!

That's when I thought, "how would one describe a cage match?" Of course, I went straight to Wikipedia, and while a search for "cage match" didn't turn up an exact match for my search, I got something even better when I ran the suggested Google search: a lovingly-annotated page of professional wrestling match types. A steel cage match was defined as such (among *84* other types of matches):

Possibly one of the most famous stipulation matches, this match takes place inside a steel cage, usually about fifteen feet high with an open top. There are two types of cage matches. The traditional cage match, known as a shark cage match, is won by being the first wrestler to escape the cage and have both feet touch the floor. The other variation is basically a one fall match inside a cage. Sometimes a cage match incorporates both escape and pinfalls or submission, permitting either to end the match. There are no disqualifications.

My original intention to use the cage match metaphor to point to the base entertainment offered by the claustrophobic fight-to-the-death quality of the Mac vs. Windows argument had led me down a path that was more interesting (to me at least) than the metaphor I was originally chasing. The Wikipedia is vibrant in areas of knowledge that one might least expect, going beyond even the decidely intriguing scholarship of the heavy metal umlaut.

The Mac vs. Windows story and the letters in Salon inspired me to think about a very narrow tussle in the world of computing, but after reading through the descriptions of professional wrestling match types at Wikipedia to try to put that tussle into a more personal context, I feel like (for better or worse), I have a better understanding of the kind of base human impulses that lead to angry letters about computing platforms, vicious posts to Usenet, and snarky missives to mailing lists. Perhaps the Apple vs. Windows discussion (and the computing industry in general) is just a higher-stakes version of the Elimination Chamber Match? As the various flame wars in computing flare up on a fairly predictable schedule, I know now that I have nearly 100 wrestling metaphors at my disposal just because I thought of one in passing tonight.

Joel on hiring

If you've ever had to hire software developers, Joel Spolsky offers a thoroughly believable explanation of why it's so hard to find them. I had never quite thought of the problem that way.

Deadline fast approaching for InfoWorld CTO 25 nominations

InfoWorld hands out a few nice awards every year, but none is cooler in my mind than the InfoWorld CTO 25, an elite list of 25 IT executives who have demonstrated particularly strong leadership within their companies and the IT community at large. Last year's list is here.

The deadline is February 7, so hurry over to this form and nominate your CTO. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the interesting things my fellow CTOs have done over the past year.

For more information on the awards, you can contact Eric Knorr.

Storage seminar: meet me in the Bay Area, Anaheim, Chicago, Dallas, Boston, DC

I'm going to be hosting a free SAN Educational Series (sponsored by QLogic) in February and March and am looking forward to meeting CTOs, bloggers, and InfoWorld readers while out on the road. We actually bought some QLogic SAN gear here at InfoWorld well before QLogic approached us about doing this event series, so I'm pleased to be working with a vendor whose technology we are already using.

The schedule and details are here (register today!), but I'll list the dates again here anyway (with some notes -- if you read this blog and want to have dinner on one of the nights I'm available, let me know):

• Tuesday, February 8: Anaheim, CA (Marriott Anaheim)
• Thursday, Feburary 10: Burlingame, CA (Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport)
• Tuesday, February 22: Chicago, IL (Westin O'Hare) free for dinner Tuesday night
• Thursday, February 24: Dallas, TX (Renaissance Dallas) free for dinner Wednesday night before the event
• Tuesday, March 1: Boston, MA (Marriott Boston Burlington)free for dinner Monday night before the event
• Thursday, March 3: Falls Church, VA (Marriott Fairview Park) free for dinner Wednesday and Thursday nights

(this post brought to you by the Johnny Cash tune "I've Been Everywhere" and the Roger Miller classic "King of the Road")

The Comair computer problem explained

(via Phil Windley) I had been wondering what the source of the problem was with the Comair computer foul-up that caused so many problems over the holidays, and the story is here.

Tom Carter, a computer consultant with Clover Link Systems of Los Angeles, said the application has a hard limit of 32,000 changes in a single month.

"This probably seemed like plenty to the designers, but when the storms hit last week, they caused many, many crew reassignments, and the value of 32,000 was exceeded," he said.

We had an extremely similar problem with our CMS several months ago that caused a similar crash (the bug was ultimately identified and corrected), so I'm not at all surprised at the source of the problem. Makes me glad I'm not flying planes over here.

Pimp my IT ride

What does the MTV show Pimp My Ride have to do with IT? I explain in my latest InfoWorld column.