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Perspective: Microsoft's forgotten monopoly
By Hakon Wium Lie
....
Microsoft's fonts are used to display most Web pages on the planet. Even Linux and Mac users, who often have fled Windows to avoid dependence on Microsoft, read most of their content using Microsoft fonts.

According to this: http://news.com.com/2060-10802_3-0.html?tag=nefd.b l

Seems the mum is the one who is suing. So I'm not even certain that it wasn't consensual at that time.

Apparently it is common for underaged sex to be automatically considered "assault" or rape.

However that seems untruthful and unfair to me. It is irresponsible and unwise of course. Now maybe if they both went to the trouble to get married with their parents approval then that _might_ be fine (not always, given the many examples of stupid parents this scenario being one).

Otherwise they should just wait till they can legally tell their parents to mind their own business and get married without consent- by which point the parents should figure that if the two could wait that long the marriage has an above average chance (given the current dismal averages).

Whatever it is, seems the mother is not fit to be a parent at all.

The teen didn't sue MySpace.com. Her mother did. Here's a link to the CNet story: http://news.com.com/2060-10802_3-0.html?tag=nefd.b l

This month's EGM, though you'll see similar figures in many places, like this article on CNET (note that there are about 100m households in the USA).

One thing you have to remember is that HDTV growth has been extremely fast. You can see statistics and projecetions on page 17 of this presentation. Note that the chart on page 17 is from Feb 2005, so the 2006 and on numbers on it are projections. Still, they jive quite nicely with the more recent numbers reported in the CNET article above.

The "nobody has HDTV" meme is out of date. It was true in 2003, when HDTV was at 3%, and maybe in 2004, when it was at 6%, but it's growth since then has been extremely strong. As I said, this year, HDTV's will outsell SDTVs, and multiple sources project 25% percent penetration by the end of this year or early next year.

It's called the iLoo.

...And he wants to simplify things?

( http://techrepublic.com.com/5254-6257-0.html?forum ID=99&threadID=174663&messageID=1985360&id=1583166 )

Microsoft has a long history of donating to charity and then taking a large tax deduction for the full retail price of the product. Since the physical manufacturing costs are so low for software after the initial investment of developing it, free software for education is both a PR win for Microsoft as well as well as a great tax shelter. But more importantly the schools that accept their software will now be future customers. And, the kids that use them will grow up to be consumers. They have been doing this for some time. They even give themselves the full retail sales price deduction for the software which is not customary among corporate donators (or at least it was not in the past).

And don't forget about the anti-trust settlement which allowed them to print money in the form of free software on CDs. Now, that's a sweet deal any company would jump at. Apple's opposed the deal since it hurt them.

Trust needs to be earned, and Microsoft's action have shown that they are not worthy.

Are you sure this is a troll? From the CNET article:

But the conflict goes far deeper. The rules that govern the organizations touting the different technologies currently bar manufacturers from combining the two standards into a single drive, Weedfald said.

"The conundrum is that you've got two different camps. You've got licensing issues, you've got trademarks, you've got copyrights," Weedfald said. "You can't just be on the Blu-ray side and say, 'We will put HD DVD in there,' and the reverse is true."

Samsung may make a separate line of HD DVD players to complement the Blu-ray players it plans to release later this year, Weedfald said. This would allow Samsung to support both formats, although not in a single product. The company, however, does not have current plans to do so, he said.

Weedfald is senior vice president of marketing at Samsung North America, so I guess he'd know.

The law says that users can be held liable for patent infringement as well. I'm not sure if upgrade is to be understood as a paid upgrade in this context. This article suggests that the upgrade is an update that's free of charge but all users are required by the license terms of Office to upgrade "immediately". The article goes on to say that companies may have costs arising from verifying that the new version works everywhere (with potential additional costs if it fails to work since the upgrade is mandatory) and of course installing is going to cause delays in work. If we had a sane law that forbids EULAs the affected companies might be able to claim damages from MS for this (deliberate?) oversight.

On one side are middle-income and price-sensitive households, which tend to favor DSL service offered by phone companies. On the other are more affluent families, which gravitate toward higher-speed cable modem services.

According to a recent report published by Leichtman Research Group, about 21 percent of households earning an annual income of between $30,000 and $75,000 a year subscribe to DSL. About 18 percent of these households subscribe to cable. By contrast, 37 percent of all households with annual household incomes over $75,000 subscribe to cable broadband and 27 percent subscribe to DSL.

"Clearly price is much more important at this point in the game," said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group. "Middle-income families making the jump from dial-up to broadband are much more price-sensitive, and clearly the phone companies' messaging on low-priced DSL has gotten through loud and clear."

A year-and-a-half ago, pricing of DSL and cable modem service was roughly the same. But over the past year, the phone companies have launched an aggressive assault by dropping prices. At the end of 2005, the average price of DSL service was about $32 per month, roughly $9 less than cable, according to research firm IDC.

ATT has twice lowered the price of its DSL service and now offers its 1.5Mbps service for $12.99 for the first year. Since ATT's prices are promotional, after the first year, the price of the service jumps to the company's regular pricing model, which is $29.99 per month. Verizon created a new tier of service, which includes 768Kbps downloads, for $14.95 per month.

Price pressure
Regardless of household income, the promise of lower prices has also convinced some cable subscribers to switch to DSL. Dan Spencer, 38, of Norristown, Pa., had been a Comcast broadband subscriber for over three years. But after he realized his family was paying over $100 per month for high-speed Internet access and TV service, he decided to abandon Comcast for EchoStar's satellite TV and Verizon's DSL service.

"My wife usually pays our bills," he said. "But one day, when I saw how much we were paying Comcast for our cable TV and broadband, I was shocked. It was outrageous."

Spencer said he now pays about $75 per month for TV and Internet access, and he estimates he is saving roughly $45 per month over what he was paying for the Comcast service.

The low cost of DSL has kick-started DSL subscription rates, helping DSL providers increase their total customer base by 39 percent in 2005, according to Forrester Research. Verizon alone signed up 613,000 new high-speed Internet subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2005, a record for the company. It continued the strong growth in 2006, having signed up 541,000 new subscribers in the first quarter.

But the phone companies' success hasn't meant the demise of cable, which in total saw broadband subscriptions grow 21 percent in 2005. In fact, cable companies have also set new records in recent quarters for the number of subscribers they've acquired.

Comcast, the largest cable operator in the U.S., added 436,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of 2006, the larg

Ohh common, since when has "not allowed in the license" ever stopped a chineese company?

Net2phone patented the Internet cant find the /. any more.

Direct Tv and Comcast transmits there own digital formats. You can't store them on your hard drive and play them back until you go to analogue and recompress them.

The list goes on. PS. this is sarcasms.

Not anymore. See this link: Yahoo dumps Google search technology

You probably don't, if you are familiar with the DCMA and proposed expansions of it. He's the sponsor of the revisions.

I'm happy to see Google donating some of their money, and I'm not trying to diminish their efforts, but...

Brin & Page are worth $22.5 Billion
Gates is worth $51 Billion

Google.org has donated $33 Million
Gates is donating $1.5 Billion Annually

A patent on a music player navigation menu?!

A similar topic to the World or Warcraft policy on sex in games.
http://news.com.com/Online+game+warns+gay-lesbian+ guild+-+page+2/2100-1043_3-6033112-2.html?tag=st.n um

You can read more about the Transvestite, Gay, Lesbian and Bi guild on the official GnH forums. Be careful to not make them upset, as their own forum moderator (Deodatus (P.E.) states, "Here's the deal, from this point forward only discussion about this guild or whatever the guild leader deems as conversation for the guild." So the Gay guild leader is the one calling the shots over there for what is or is not allowed.

GnH official forum
http://community.godsandheroes.com/jive4/thread.js pa?threadID=1332&start=45&tstart=0

And Oracle was unbreakable! http://news.com.com/2061-10789_3-5808928.html

"Nope, per cd. Its been widely reported in the past. Someone who cranks out platinum after platinum might get more, but the average musician gets less."

Can you please indulge me with a citation? Mechanicals are 8.5 cents per song, per statute. There are provisions for negotiating down from that if the composer and lyricist are also the performer, but it's not much; on the order a 25% reduction. Additionally, I have personally spoken to owners of small record companies (we're talking ten-employee outfits here) who've told me that they pay their artists > $1 a CD. Maybe they were lying to me? At any rate, looking forward to your citation.

"You're incorrect. DVDs dwarf box office receipts these days. Many movies don't even hit the black before rentals and DVD sales. And ticket sales are declining recently, people more and more prefer to watch them at home."

Here's my citation for my "half" remark: As DVD sales slow, Hollywood seeks new cash cow. The article actually states "more than half," which implies 60% - 70%. If "dwarf" were accurate as a general rule, I think that's what the article would've stated.

Thanks for the elucidation on the true costs of running an online store. Sounds like you could blow the industry apart by launching your own online store, sell tracks at $0.25, and still make a profit. You just might be in the wrong business!

No one can compromise an OS that hasn't even been released yet.

Really?
http://news.com.com/First+potential+virus+risk+for +Windows+Vista+found/2100-7349_3-5819428.html

But then, Microsoft did the same claim about their Windows XP, touting it to be the most secure version of Windows, and even rolling such funny ads as this one, promoting XP:
http://www.dolphinwave.org/Media/Local/msbanner_12 .gif

And then there was MS Blast, probably the most devastating blast against Windows at those times...

Now they claim it to be not just the most secure Windows, but the most secure OS! Imagine the magniture of the next upcoming hit it will take...

MS has bigger clusters than that! Most botnets are Windows boxes! How about a 1.5 million node cluster!

http://news.com.com/Bot+herders+may+have+controlle d+1.5+million+PCs/2100-7350_3-5906896.html

Their environmental record is poor too. See http://news.com.com/Jobs+defends+Apples+record+on+ environment/2100-1041_3-5680152.html

They also explained that the Blu-Ray player was delayed to coincide with the release of their new line of Bravia flat-screen TVs.

Geez... Isn't the gloom and doom stuff getting old?

Repeat after me... It's only a game console... It's only an evolutionary step from DVD technology... It is not oxygen, we can wait and see what happens...

You're right, a company can be prosecuted for this.

Microsoft is not a company, go to any state building or federal building in the nation, and find out what they're running. You're talking about a corporation that has settled antitrust lawsuits with licenses and lockin.

If Sony doesn't get it's ass handed to them for rootkits, why would you think Microsoft would receive any punishment at all?

Is this sort of what you are looking for?

Apple's customers are like no others--a rich blend of the most sociologically elite with those seeking elegant, simple computing... Unlike users of Intel/Windows computers, a significant portion of Apple's users are active , exploratory , avant-garde and early adopters . The activities they enjoy are unique in the way that they more often incorporate rich media such as video and music as well as more active prosumer behavior than many more passive Windows [and Linux] users.

-- MetaFacts, Inc.

With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population [is] very attractive [ intellectually as well as physically .]

-- Nielsen/NetRatings (as quoted by C|NET)

And if they can't get to the humans directly with RFID, they'll get to 'em through the back way, by starting with all the domesticated animals (http://usda.gov/nais/). Either way, you will be numbered, you will be cataloged, you will be tracked, and you will show your papers. Ineffectiveness notwithstanding, and inevitable ID theft be damned, to say nothing of basic liberty. The Pentagon's been hacked, the VA's been hacked, the credit companies have been hacked, the CIA can't keep track of all their laptops, etc., "But this time, we'll get it right!"
Feh. You're welcome to your handbasket, if you like, but leave me out of it, thanks...

http://nonais.org/
http://libertyark.net/
http://newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter91.htm

This has probably been posted already, but it's good...
http://news.com.com/Do+we+need+a+national+ID+card/ 2010-1029_3-6075218.html

Want more? Pay attention to Rep. Ron Paul...
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst052906.ht m

Why can't government just leave me alone? Damn the databases, bring on those FreeStaters. I just hope it's not too late...

The House is really on a roll today. Not only did they reject net neutrality proposals, but they also approved a digital licensing bill which was discussed on Slashdot before, that has fair-use implications for consumers.

It looks like consumers just can't win in these battles these days.

Oh. My. Fucking. God!!!

Did you just post that idiotic attempt at slamming Sony with your real account???

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-250632.html

"One of the basic premises of the Xbox is to put the power in the hands of the artist," Blackley said, which is why Xbox developers "are achieving a level of visual detail you really get in 'Toy Story.'"

I can't believe in mid-2006 there are still stupid fanboys trying to attribute that stupid Microsoft claim of "Toy Story" graphics to Sony...

Based on this CNET article it looks like Frank Kardonski was talking about selling licensed copies of Linux (which I assume means a paid for support copy of SuSE, Red Hat, etc.). Basically, just a mis-communication. Yawn.

As initially envisioned, the laptops sported a hand crank on the side to generate power, but Negroponte has scrapped that idea because the twisting forces that would be bad for the machine. Instead, some form of power generation device, likely a pedal, will be attached to the AC power adapter, he said.

Where the hell is the PDF?

Actually, didn't something like that happen a while back?

They sent a letter to Penn State astronomy department. They have a Professor Usher, who happened to have an mp3 of him and fellow astronomers singing or something. "Usher" and "mp3" were enough to trigger a warning message, but it didn't go all the way to a lawsuit, and the RIAA eventually apologized.

http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-1001095.html

What they DON'T tell you is that they completely cut the existing copper pair to your house, insuring that you can never "downgrade" to a competitors DSL service if you hate them as an ISP or from ever changing your local phone carrier to any other CLEC.

CNET article on it
--
From Northern Virginia? Visit Fairfax Underground! (Just added: Fairfax County wiki, need submissions)

I have heard for a number of years about the idea that American (or other foreign, for that matter) companies will be able to open new markets and profits by selling their products (whether they be tangible goods or IP) or services in the People's Republic of China because they represent an "almost untapped market of new customers." But does this really hold true, especially for IT companies?

In the seventeen years I have worked in the IT industry (mostly at companies which sold software, but also for a hardware vendor) I have seen varying degrees of interest in selling products in China. For example, in the late 1980s through early 1990s, I worked at McAfee Associates, which even then had a fairly global presence due to marketing the product as shareware. We had never had any sales in China and, as a matter of fact, would regularly receive copies of our own anti-virus software from which our copyright and contact information had been removed and replaced with messages saying it was from the Ministry of Public Security and to contact them if a virus was found. Of course, changing the messages in the software also set off its own anti-tamper checks for signs of damage/infection by a computer virus, so we received plenty of copies of our own software where the warning message had been edited as well and were infected by computer viruses. Still, it is very hard to sell a product in a country whose government itself is hacking and pirating the same software you are trying to sell. When Bill Larson took over the company from John McAfee he expressed a strong desire to sell products in China, but when I left in the mid-1990s there was still no sales coming in from over there, other than the occasional ex-pat who registered a copy of the software.

Strangely enough, the only company I've worked for which has had some success in China is a telecommunications manufacturer, who makes equipment like VoIP PBXs, phones and so forth. They have had a few wins over there and even have a small sales office in Beijing. I was always surprised they never had problems like Cisco did with Huawei. But that's just one company and sales from other countries in the region (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc.) outstripped those. I haven't worked there since last year, but I doubt things have changed much.

So, where are the foreign IT companies which are making money in China? Cisco may have had some success there in the past, but Huawei and their "Cisco-like" products look like they are to overshadow them, and services like Alibaba, Baidu and QQ in China are already servicing the markets that Western ecommerce, search and community/messaging have had only limited success in reaching.

Well, since Qtrax was developed by LTDnetwork, which is a wholly own subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies Inc, which brought us the evil of Brilliant Digital Entertainment's b3d Projector, it would seem to me that the evil is just being repackaged in a different wrapper.

Personally, BDE left such a bad taste in my mouth from the sneaky way that they tried to do things that I won't give them a second chance to make a mess on my computer. Many people have made other valid comments regarding how this platform is crippled from day one - who wants proprietary formats and heavy DRM that forces you to view ads to play music? I don't pretend to have a better option, but this whole idea smells bad.

Your comment aroused my curiosity so I googled some info about the raid: http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html

"Only if you don't mind having no privacy and always need a working Internet connection to do any work."

Why do you think they are buying up all the dark fiber and support municipal wifi? Forget Web 2.0, think Google WAN, aka GWeb Beta.

Another take on this from CNET news.com.

Including this interesting quote:

Lenovo actually plans to support Linux on its ThinkPads starting in the third quarter, in partnership with Novell, Godin said. Customers of the recently introduced Lenovo 3000 units still won't have a preloaded option, however, because the small and midsize business customers that are the targets for those units have many different requirements, he said.

i just got a panasonic dmr-es40v off ebay for around $185 (including shipping) brand new. it was rated 7 out of 10 on zdnet and also pretty well on a slew of other customer rating guides i've read. the only drawback is the inability to create chapter stops. doesn't matter to me as i'll be using it primarily for converting vhs->dvd. if i want chapter stops, i'll use my computer. i've been researching them for a few months now and for the money, this one looks like a good buy.

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Panasonic_DMR_ES40V/4 505-6505_16-31570865.html?tag=pdtl

I said it was the most open.

Yes, it's crippled. It's basically Net Yaroze for PS3.

But it's more open than any other major platform.

You can stop at your Emotion Engine. That's Xbox fanboy dumbass bullshit. PS2 has Emotion Engine. You aren't happy with what it provided? Perhaps that's because you don't even understand what was promised!

Here's Seamus Blackey of Microsoft claiming Xbox will have Toy Story graphics. Graphics it didn't deliver.

http://netscape.com.com/Microsoft+got+game+Xbox+un veiled/2100-1040_3-250632.html

All this Emotion Engine hating is just misplaced Xbox fanboyism. Select something to hate, make up stuff to hate about it.

The boomerang controllers were not real. I have a friend who works at SCEA. He told me a long time ago. They never received a single operating boomerang controllers. Up until recently, they only had DualShock 2s, then they got the new DS3 you saw at E3.

Someone on the internet mocked up the boomerang days after Sony first showed it. He showed you couldn't even hold it and reach all the buttons.

It was just a mockup, it was never real.

Your list of proprietary stuff is hilarious.

AAC is proprietary to Dolby. You're thinking of ATRAC.
UMD was ultra retarded.
BluRay isn't a failure yet, nor is it any more or less proprietary than HD-DVD, or even DVD. You cannot make a DVD player without joining the DVDCCA. It's proprietary.
Memory Stick is no more or less proprietary than SD. The SD consortium are very controlling assholes. Note that MMC is a lot more open.

I agree Sony is doing very poorly lately, and are indeed moving at a glacial pace.

Final note, if you still think this slide reflects anything about what the hardware will leave to be desired, you truly do not understand the issue yet. This measurement is of an operation you never should do, and the slide underscores that. It simply will not be an issue.

Apple's customers are like no others--a rich blend of the most sociologically elite with those seeking elegant, simple computing... Unlike users of Intel/Windows computers, a significant portion of Apple's users are active , exploratory , avant-garde and early adopters . The activities they enjoy are unique in the way that they more often incorporate rich media such as video and music as well as more active prosumer behavior than many more passive Windows [and Linux] users.

-- MetaFacts, Inc.

With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population [is] very attractive [ intellectually as well as physically .]

-- Nielsen/NetRatings (as quoted by C|NET)

Right now!

The reality is that desktop linux, while not as polished as Mac OS X, will eventually overtake Mac OS X on sheer ubiquity of it in other areas, and the integration of Linux on desktop computers in the work environment, its cross portability with embedded devices, and its easy integration with Linux and other *nix powered back end servers. I'm not going to be one of oft-quoted but never fulfilled Apple doom-sayers, but Apple is statistically not of consequence anymore. They may very well keep carving themselves a niche, and able to capitalize on their image and their brand, but they're are no longer relevent.

Apple's customers are like no others--a rich blend of the most sociologically elite with those seeking elegant, simple computing... Unlike users of Intel/Windows computers, a significant portion of Apple's users are active , exploratory , avant-garde and early adopters . The activities they enjoy are unique in the way that they more often incorporate rich media such as video and music as well as more active prosumer behavior than many more passive Windows [and Linux] users.

-- MetaFacts, Inc.

With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population [is] very attractive [ intellectually as well as physically .]

-- Nielsen/NetRatings (as quoted by C|NET)

RIAA sues 216 more swappers

The settlements are usually around 5000-20,000 dollars.

FTA:

The slew of suits will put a serious price tag on those actions for the first time. Under copyright law, violators can be held liable for up to $150,000 per violation--a measure that could result in stunningly high damage figures for some of the defendants in this round of suits. According to the RIAA, most of the people sued Monday were sharing 1,000 songs or more on the file-swapping networks.

Few of the suits are likely to go to trial, however. In the RIAA's previous round of copyright suits, filed against four university students in April, each defendant quickly settled, agreeing to pay damages of between $12,000 and $17,000. Many of today's defendants are also likely to settle.

Lets not forget our friends at the MPAA.

The MPAA filed an unspecified number of lawsuits in courts across the U.S., seeking damages and injunctions against the P-to-P users. Under the U.S. Copyright Act, people can be liable for as much as $30,000 for each movie traded over the Internet, and as much as $150,000 per movie if the infringement is proven to be willful.

Apple's customers are like no others--a rich blend of the most sociologically elite with those seeking elegant, simple computing... Unlike users of Intel/Windows computers, a significant portion of Apple's users are active , exploratory , avant-garde and early adopters . The activities they enjoy are unique in the way that they more often incorporate rich media such as video and music as well as more active prosumer behavior than many more passive Windows [and Linux] users.

-- MetaFacts, Inc.

With above-average household income and education levels, the Mac population [is] very attractive [ intellectually as well as physically .]

-- Nielsen/NetRatings (as quoted by C|NET)

It has been deemed legal by their lawmakers and courts and since the laws and court decisions have not changed/been overturned to make them illegal, this is simply false.

screw these liars trying to pervert and poison the minds of impressionable youth! get it through your heads you greedy corps, it's not illegal in canada!, and the majority of the public doesn't consider it wrong where you've bought the laws making it illegal in other nations!

http://news.com.com/JetBlue+wins+air-to-ground+wir eless+license/2100-1039_3-6079558.html?tag=nefd.to p

"A spokesman from JetBlue said he was unable to comment on what the company plans to do with its 1MHz license. Some speculate it will offer more in-flight video entertainment and Internet services. JetBlue already offers DirecTV service on its flights."

The way the post is written makes it sound like JetBlue is giving free WiFi on their flights. Not only is it not stated it will be free, but it's not stated it will be WiFi, just that they won some wireless spect.