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More Details of MS/DOJ Deal
There are various news articles out at most major news sites, but they're all based on this press release from the Department of Justice. The actual terms of the settlement will probably become public shortly, so I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time trying to dissect this press release. Just read it for generalities. In sum: for this whole multi-year case, which you will recall started when Microsoft refused to obey its earlier behavior restrictions, we have more behavior restrictions, lasting only five years. And if MS doesn't obey those, they'll ... be in effect longer. Update: 11/02 15:07 GMT by M : Here are the promised terms of the settlement. Now you can dissect them. :) Update: 11/02 15:53 GMT by M : The states are refusing to sign on.
no posts - though this is gettign rettyold hat. THe gov't needs somethign more threatening to fines for corps. (remembering an old thread about applying the death penalty to corps. since they are legal entities)
-shpoffo
No, that could hurt. It's probably more equivalent to that so-called "Impeachment".
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
you get what you pay for.
The difference between Theory and Practice is greater in Practice than in Theory.
yeh... its a crime against hte united states to get a hummer...
come on...
Its a good thing to be president of the united states.
Its a good thing to get a hummer in your office by an young intern...
how does combining the two make it a bad thing?
... hi bingo
you really think that lying about a blow-job ranks up there with other "high-crimes and misdemeanors" like treason, eh?
...
the president has explicit immunity from most laws
... hi bingo
Have you noticed how often members of the press refer to Bush as "Mister Bush" and not "President Bush"? Happens all the time. And it cracks me up every time.
At least you don't find websites on MSN, Zone, Hotmail, etc that require a Microsoft Keyboard or Mouse.
Heh... "This site requires MS brain and eyeballs to view..."
Bush Lies Watch
Can we PLEASE get over the election fiasco.
Dear Al,
Yesterday, we found some more votes from the election. Congratulations, you won! When do you want to take over?
Sincerely,
Dubya
Bush Lies Watch
God damnit. What liberal moron is still pissed about the election to Offtopic mod my post?
Let me spell it out for you.
Clinton Impeachment = Taxpayers money wasted to learn the truth about blowjobs, with no punishment.
Microsoft Settlement = Taxpayers money wasted to disclose the truth about leveraging a monopoly, with no punishment.
I think there needs to be an age restriction for moderators.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Personally, I think that that affair was responsible for extending the economic expansion for several years. It happened just as the world was going down in economic flames. Asia is going down the toilet, Europe is slumping, but who the hell cares? The president is getting nookie in the Oval Office and the Republicans are going to try to nail his hide the wall because of it.
It had dramatic plot twists, juicy revelations, nasty rumors, villains galore. How about those press jackals for starters? I loved reading the insights of a friend of a roomate of one of her college chums into her character (she was a slob who didn't pick up her room, apparently). It was fun to abhor, on one hand, the reporters who dredged up these ripe tidbits, and on the other the nebbishes desperate for the notoriety that having a little inside "information" would give them. I loved the pop sociologists swarming out of the woodworks to tell us about the post-gen-X attitudes toward fellatio. You could feel superior while salaciously lapping up all the steaming fetid garbage the press could supply.
I loved the impeachment process with its air of arcane ceremony ceremony and the seething, cathartic enmity underneath. It was like watching a druidic exorcism ritual in which some person might be burned to death in a wicker basket (only no real people or animals would be hurt in the production -- just politicians).
Now the old show has folded up, and the new one isn't nearly as fun (despite a promising start with the FL fiasco -- Bush should have found a much more visible role in his administration for Ms. Harris). The new star isn't nearly as charismatic or compelling; you can't really love to love or love to hate him. He'd be OK in a supporting comic role (like Mr. Quayle of yore), but he is no Clinton, Reagan, Nixon or Kennedy. People are leaving the theater and looking around in the bright sunlight, and finding that things don't look so good. Reality has hit us like a hangover, and Mr. Bin-Laden hasn't contributed much to restoring our former joie de vivre.
Only a year has gone by, and already I am nostalgic for that smarmy, but oddly compelling charisma of Mr. Clinton. Alas, his alloted two terms are gone.
But there is one potential bright spot:
Jobs in 2004!
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
My point was that, in the US, most people's only interaction with the police is the act of receiving a ticket. Regardless of how nice the police are in such a case, this creates an antagonistic relationship between the citizens and the police. This is not good. Throw in the concept of speed traps (these are really idiotic, in my opinion), and you create a system where the police are *against* the public, and vice-versa.
In the UK, you almost never get pulled over by a police officer, at least for speeding. There are speed cameras everywhere. They are usually pretty well marked. You know they're coming in enough time to slow down (there are signs usually about 1 mile before the cameras). They aren't desinged to catch speeders in the act; instead, they're designed to prevent speeding in the first place. And they are pretty effective, too.
In the end, you end up with a photo of your license plate sent to your house (yes, I know--with moving violations in the States, you must be able to connect the driver with the car--that's not a problem here). This means that in such cases you aren't faced with a situation between law enforcement and citizens that often leads towards an antagonistic relationship between the two. This simply doesn't happen in the UK. If you have an antagonistic first-person relationship with the police, it's for other reasons (such as your race or religion... hehehe... just kidding).
This is the case in Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, or Houston. It is an inevitable outcome of a situation where citizens' primary contact with law enforcement is through the writing of speed tickets.
--Be human.
Thousands of people die everyday. No one says anything about these people. People are murdered every day, people are raped every day no one says anything about these people. I am willing to bet that one person dies every day in either Israel or Palastine yet I have seen any sympathy for these people. Maybe I am just a little cold hearted but when I die I don't want people wallowing in sorrow and making their already hard lives that much worse.
Spelled entirely in lower case, no longer a proper noun, utterly disassociated from the Beast of Redmond, the common name for the device that we all love so much will have become "microsoft"
In whatever form it will evolve into, physically, in the general vernacular it'll be called a "microsoft"
Sad..
t_t_b
I'm on PJ's "enemies" list! Are you?