Microsoft Calls Today Global Anti-Piracy Day

Minor correction... by ivan256 · 2008-10-21 02:42 · Score: 4, Funny

[almost everybody prefers] Windows XP over Vista and Office 2003 over 2007

Fixed that for you...

Re:Minor correction... by xoundmind · 2008-10-21 03:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

The jokes/reality just write themselves when it comes to M$:
Their newest product line is so sucky that no one wants to pirate it.
Now that's an innovative strategy!
Re:Minor correction... by SatanicPuppy · 2008-10-21 03:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

2007 isn't that bad. The effing "x" formats are a P.I.T.A but as per usual, the next Office version is a decent incremental upgrade, which will, in due course, be adopted by the business community at large.
If they followed the same sort of incremental, professional design philosophy with Windows, they wouldn't spend so much time having their user base frothing in hatred and rage.

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ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Re:Minor correction... by g253 · 2008-10-21 03:08 · Score: 5, Interesting

That's true. It feels strange to say this sort of things about Microsoft, especially on Slashdot, but Office 2007 is pretty decent software, and the ribbon is -dare I say it?- a clever and even innovative UI approach. (bye bye karma...)
Re:Minor correction... by JCSoRocks · 2008-10-21 03:12 · Score: 4, Informative

The ribbon appears to be the "next big thing" in Windows UI design. The Windows 7 screens I've seen have even included redesigned Paint and Notepad with the ribbon. This is a pretty big step considering the last time Notepad and Paint were updated was... ummm... yeah, I can't even remember. I'm not saying Paint / Notepad are going to magically make Windows good again, just that they're really pushing the ribbon.

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You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Re:Minor correction... by TheLinuxSRC · 2008-10-21 03:13 · Score: 5, Funny

(Unless you are utterly stupid) Office 2007 is much easyer and you can learn it in less than 5 minutes (I teached it myself).

Oh, the irony.
Re:Minor correction... by mcgrew · 2008-10-21 03:14 · Score: 3, Interesting

Once you get over the fact that a few things are in different places
That's one of my biggest gripes about Microsoft! Why in the hell do they DO that??? How stupid do they think we are?
Pretty stupid, I guess. They take the same damned program, move shit around, rename other shit, add fluff and eye candy and then expect us to buy the sam load of dingo kidneys all over again and...
Hell, I guess we ARE that stupid. I mean, I have XP on my box.
We have Offoce 2000 at work. Does Office 2007 do anything Office 2003 doesn't? Or even anything Office 2000 doesn't? What makes it worth the extra Five hundred dollars per license????
Could this be contributing to our global economic meltdown?

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Free Martian Whores!
Re:Minor correction... by CastrTroy · 2008-10-21 03:18 · Score: 5, Informative

My major problems with office 2007 are found within outlook 2007. Firstly they took the IE HTML engine out, and replaced it with the Word HTML rendering engine, which means the HTML support is now extremely crippled. Also, when you want to print an email, the only way to bring up the print dialog is with CTRL+P. Which is fine, once you figure it out, but completely annoying before you do. The only other way to print, is to find the ultra-tiny drop down arrow where the print button is hidden, but that only prints immediately to the default printer, and doesn't let you configure any other options.

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Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Re:Minor correction... by Trevin · 2008-10-21 03:19 · Score: 5, Interesting

and the ribbon is -dare I say it?- a clever and even innovative UI approachand the ribbon is -dare I say it?- a clever and even innovative UI approach.
Would this be a good place to mention that it took me at least ten minutes to figure out what they did with the File menu so that I could convert an OOXML document someone sent me into a different file format?
Re:Minor correction... by Txiasaeia · 2008-10-21 03:21 · Score: 5, Insightful

It took me a few minutes to get used to a mouse back in the 80s, too; now that I know how to use one, it's intuitive.

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Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Re:Minor correction... by Bryansix · 2008-10-21 03:22 · Score: 2, Insightful

The Ribbon is a disaster. They still have menus and dialog boxes but now they are just harder to get to. In fact some of them you just relegate to getting to on the right-click menu because you can't find them otherwise.
Re:Minor correction... by Cinnaman · 2008-10-21 03:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

The problem with the ribbon is that it assumes that menus and toolbars are not a quick and easy way of finding what you want.
Re:Minor correction... by plague3106 · 2008-10-21 03:25 · Score: 5, Insightful

Well, hopefully they are going to replace Paint with Paint.Net. That alone would be a huge step in the right direction.
Re:Minor correction... by xant · 2008-10-21 03:39 · Score: 3, Funny

What irony? This person is clearly a poster child for Office 2007 being easy to use.

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It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Re:Minor correction... by wastedlife · 2008-10-21 03:40 · Score: 2, Informative

Or you could click on that huge button on the top-left corner, which replaces the 'File' menu for the most part.
I have a lot of gripes about 2007 myself. But the Ribbon is actually usable after minimizing it and customizing the Quick toolbar to the things you use most often. Vertical screen real estate is a priority for me. With the ribbon minimized, it has a much smaller footprint than most other applications. My biggest gripe(other than than defaulting to the failed draft OOXML format) is that it does not follow OS conventions for theming and can look out of place if you use custom themes.

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Said, "It's just like dice but it's got more sides And it tells me who lives and who dies"
Re:Minor correction... by dotancohen · 2008-10-21 03:42 · Score: 3, Funny

It took me a few minutes to get used to a mouse back in the 80s, too; now that I know how to use one, it's intuitive.
On the internet, nobody know that you are a kitten.

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It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Re:Minor correction... by ericrost · 2008-10-21 03:53 · Score: 2, Informative

Office (or at least Word) 2003 has ONE invaluable feature that Office 2000 doesn't. It actually understands its file format well enough to open and recover a corrupted file instead of having a corrupted word file (which large ones ALMOST ALWAYS get) cause random crashes and unexplained formatting behavior.
Now granted, you can't really sell a product on the fact that it knows how shitty its file format is and can compensate if you specifically tell it to do so, but at least I can write a test plan that doesn't melt.

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My Babylon
Re:Minor correction... by theaveng · 2008-10-21 03:54 · Score: 3, Funny

I'm still using Office 97. I'm just a little bit behind in the times. (Or too cheap to lay-down $200 on a pointless upgrade.)
>>>Microsoft Calls Today Global Anti-Piracy Day
Ironically, even as I read this article, I am downloading Stargate Atlantis season 4. What I've seen so far (401-410) was crap, so I'm glad I tried it before wasting money on the stupid DVD. I guess I'm not really feeling the "spirit" of this day.

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FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
Re:Minor correction... by gtall · 2008-10-21 04:07 · Score: 3, Insightful

No, the housing crisis was largely the result of above the board legal activity, that was the problem. There plenty of blame to go around, let's assign it:
1) American People: those saints who decided it would be wonderful to flip houses, get second mortgages, get mortgages they couldn't afford, take the equity out their houses and piss it off.
2) The government: created Fannie Mae in the Depression as a response to the gutting of the housing markets. They created Freddie Mac in the 1970's. They also gave these two institutions a virtual monopoly in securitizing loans...which they proceeded to do in wild abandon starting in the 1980s.
3) The government again: they (in the guise of deregulation) thought the Depression era restrictions on Commercial and Investment Banks was soooo Depression, the U.S. needed a modern banking system.
4) The Banks: they found they could get in on the housing crisis by making bad loans, creating way over-leveraged "assets", making their books opaque so that than even banks don't now trust each other.
5) The insurance companies who though credit default swaps were just like house and life insurance. They were wrong...in a very leveraged way.
6) The Federal Reserve: kept the interest rates waaay too low for waaay too long.
7) Foreign countries and institutions that thought it would be better to get in on the feeding frenzy rather than keeping their powder dry.
The list goes on. The problem due to shady or illegal deals was minor. It was all there in black and white.
Re:Minor correction... by mcgrew · 2008-10-21 04:32 · Score: 2, Interesting

You've bought into the greedster's lies. I was a victim.
I was paying $525 a month for a tiny two bedroom basement (yeah... ironic for a nerd) apartment. I bought a small two bedroom house (it really is a modest house) with mortgage payments of under $400 per month. A net gain of over a hundred bucks a month.
They adjusted my adjustable rate mortgage so it's now over $800 per month, PLUS a bunch of bullshit fees they're tacking on. It's as if they're in the business not of financing homes, but foreclosing on them. My last payment including the bullshit fees was over a thousand dollars, nearly my whole paycheck.
I can barely make ends meet now. The grocery store, the gas station, the bars and liquor stores, the restaraunts, are all paying the price - I have to come up with the extra they're asking somewhere. Yet I'm not getting relief (and as a result, neither are the businesses that are being hurt by the lack of my business), the banks that are causing the pain are getting the government's welfare check!
Trying to pay off a credit card ironically (and stupidly on my part) made my credit score lower, as I wound up late on my car payment.
You're blaming the victim. The banks knew what they were doing, those of us unskilled in the ways of banking didn't.

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Free Martian Whores!
Re:Minor correction... by JasterBobaMereel · 2008-10-21 04:34 · Score: 4, Interesting

As in I work in IT and it took me 10 minutes to find the Save As option the first time I used the beribboned Office ...
I use OpenOffice because I can find things on the Menus ....

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Puteulanus fenestra mortis
Re:Minor correction... by Mr.+DOS · 2008-10-21 04:37 · Score: 2, Informative

Paint was last updated when they released Vista - they changed the default palette ;)
--- Mr. DOS
Re:Minor correction... by danomac · 2008-10-21 04:39 · Score: 2, Funny

Hah, if you think you're behind the times, I still use Office 4.3 on 40+ 3.5" floppies. :(
Re:Minor correction... by Anonymous Coward · 2008-10-21 04:39 · Score: 2, Funny

OK, I thought menu system in Word processor is complicated, now the next thing is to simplify Notepad and Paint?
Come on, you are really pulling users legs.
Re:Minor correction... by Blakey+Rat · 2008-10-21 05:17 · Score: 4, Insightful

The story behind the ribbon:
After each version of Office ships, Microsoft asks a selection of users which features they would like to see in the next version of Office. When they did this after Office 2000, a large percentage of the features users suggested were already-implemented. When they did this for Office 2003, even more already-implemented features were suggested. The conclusion was that Office isn't lacking features, but the UI is so arcane that nobody could find which features it had, or how to use them.
That's the problem the Ribbon is intended to solve. In actuality, it removed a few features from Office (dealing with custom macro toolbars, IIRC.) I think that it's definitely a move in the right direction. It might not be right for every application, but for programs like Word and Excel that:
1) Are used by myriads of untrained people
2) Have craploads of features
I think it's the right move. For something like Photoshop, point 1 doesn't apply, and for something like Notepad point 2 doesn't apply, so it's not right for every application.

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Comment of the year
Re:Minor correction... by cthulu_mt · 2008-10-21 05:19 · Score: 2

Its the Banker's fault you didn't read the terms of your loan? Its the Banker's fault you didn't hire a lawyer to help you understand the terms of the loan? Its the Banker's fault you're still spending money on luxuries like bars, liquor stores and restraunts? Its the Banker;s fault you didn't budget properly when paying off your debts?

You aren't a victim; you're a symptom of what's wrong with humanity.

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Virginia is for lovers. EVE is for griefers.
Re:Minor correction... by hairyfeet · 2008-10-21 05:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

Yes,but you seem to be missing the bigger picture. IMHO Office 07 is a perfect example of how MSFT has lost its way. MSFT was first and foremost a business software company. Ever since Ballmer has taken over they have lost their focus because Ballmer wants to be Steve Jobs so bad it hurts. Just let me give a couple of examples: Vista Business-Resource sucking hog and Aero 3d crap on a business OS? WTF? Office 07-great for home users who haven't used Office suites,but for the business users that have been using Office since the days of Office 95 it is simply confusing,and is there even a way to make it go back to the classic menu system? If there is I haven't found it.
They have seem to completely forgotten since Ballmer took over that businesses are their bread and butter. Businesses are the ones that buy volume and enterprise licenses. Businesses are the ones who pay support contracts. And what folks use at work is what they are going to want at home.IMHO there is a good reason why businesses are skipping Vista,and that is because it simply isn't a business OS. And I have noticed many are skipping Office 07 too,though not as many as Vista. So I hope that MSFT gets the message and makes a Windows 2009 Professional,because if they keep trying to force a home OS on businesses they are going to end up losing a lot of their customers to Apple and Linux. Of course firing Ballmer would be a good idea too,since he seems to want to work at Apple and not MSFT.

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ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Re:Minor correction... by khellendros1984 · 2008-10-21 05:49 · Score: 2, Insightful

I still maintain that Office 97 was the best Microsoft office ever. Tiny install (by today's standards), quick load, and the auto-correct crap isn't too hard to shut off. Although, I'll also state that OpenOffice is better, even with the longer loadtimes.

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It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Re:Minor correction... by russotto · 2008-10-21 06:06 · Score: 2, Insightful

They adjusted my adjustable rate mortgage so it's now over $800 per month, PLUS a bunch of bullshit fees they're tacking on. It's as if they're in the business not of financing homes, but foreclosing on them.
Then you should have read the contract back then. My mortgage company can't legally tack on a bunch of bullshit fees. And you should have realized that with interest rates at "historic lows" (as every newspaper business section proclaimed in the headlines), they were unlikely to go anywhere but up. Especially if you had a "teaser" rate.

You're blaming the victim. The banks knew what they were doing, those of us unskilled in the ways of banking didn't.
Did you not get a truth-in-lending disclosure? Did you not read the paperwork? The truth-in-lending disclosure is short and easy to understand, and sets out things like rates and fees. The rest of the paperwork is longer and more difficult, but it shouldn't be impossible for any geek type.
Unless they actually defrauded you, you're not a victim. Take some personal responsibility.
Re:Minor correction... by Your.Master · 2008-10-21 06:19 · Score: 2, Informative

Right-click the title bar and click properties. Or, if you want it to persist, create a shortcut to cmd.exe and edit its properties.
"QuickEdit Mode" matches copy semantics to selection, and paste semantics to right-click. Without that, right-click has a context menu with paste anyway.
I also like to expand the command history buffer and in layout, change the screen buffer size (and you can dick with the colours and fonts too to get rid of the appalling raster font). All of the stupid defaults are backward-compatibility crap to make it work with ancient DOS-only programs that assume things like 80-character screen width. Win7 seems to be promoting Powershell to a more primary place, which will sidestep some of this compat stuff and let them leave the old cmd.exe alone and compatible forever.
There's a command line for changing all of these but I can't be bothered memorizing it.
Re:Minor correction... by Rary · 2008-10-21 06:34 · Score: 2, Insightful

It's a different system. It doesn't work like the previous system. That means that, if you're familiar with the old system, you will have to learn the new system in order to use it -- just like you once had to learn the old system. This does not mean it's a bad system.

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"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
Re:Minor correction... by nabsltd · 2008-10-21 06:47 · Score: 2, Insightful

This does not mean it's a bad system.
No, the fact that it violates Microsoft's own UI standards is what makes it a bad system.
When every program puts "Save" and "Save As" on the "File" menu, there is no "learning" involved. You know where to find all the common tasks, because they are in the same place on every application.
The Office 2007 ribbon makes this sort of UI consistency impossible.
Re:Minor correction... by BruceCage · 2008-10-21 07:03 · Score: 2, Informative

Note that the MIT license is permissive, which wouldn't require Microsoft to actually share the source upon distribution (also note that Microsoft used to include a BSD licensed networking stack).
However while looking at the exceptions noted on that licensing page it looks like Paint.NET's license isn't compatible with Section 6 from the Open Source definition.

* Exception 3: Although the Paint.NET source code distribution includes the GPC source code, use of the GPC code in any other commercial application is not permitted without a GPC Commercial Use Licence from The University of Manchester. For more information, please refer to the GPC website at: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby/alan/software/
You'd have to replace the GPC library it includes.

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Perfect is the enemy of done.
Re:Minor correction... by syousef · 2008-10-21 08:24 · Score: 2, Funny

the ribbon is -dare I say it?- a clever and even innovative UI approach
Yep, I must admit I've never seen a better way to hide options behind obscure icons that are difficult to find because they're so poorly placed on the various bars. In fact I'd go as far as saying I don't think I could make a more confusing, childish, unintuitive and frustrating menuing system if i tried. Kudos to MS.

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These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Re:Minor correction... by darkpixel2k · 2008-10-21 15:31 · Score: 3, Funny

I've been putting Ubuntu on anyone's computer who asks me to "fix" it for quite some time now.
You must run into the occasional irate friend or family member, huh? "I wanted you to fix the margins on my word document you little shit--and here I come back an hour later and you've got this Ubuntu crap on my computer? How come I can't open my finances? Where's Microsoft Money? That's the last straw. I have no son!"

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There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)

If it weren't for piracy by BPPG · 2008-10-21 02:43 · Score: 4, Funny

If it weren't for piracy, there'd be a sizable amount of people that would never even try Vista.

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What's the value of information that you don't know?

Re:If it weren't for piracy by Goldberg's+Pants · 2008-10-21 02:50 · Score: 5, Funny

I find it funny that Microsoft feel they have to educate people about piracy. I'm already well aware of the many benefits thank you, Microsoft.
Re:If it weren't for piracy by Ngarrang · 2008-10-21 03:19 · Score: 5, Funny

I find it funny that Microsoft feel they have to educate people about piracy. I'm already well aware of the many benefits thank you, Microsoft.
Maybe this Microsoft's way of fighting global warming? By educating more pirates, we insure a healthy planet for our children's children.

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Bearded Dragon
Re:If it weren't for piracy by betterunixthanunix · 2008-10-21 03:26 · Score: 5, Informative

I'm not sure who modded you funny, or why, because you make a very good point. Actually, in the absence of piracy, Windows would have a substantially smaller market share, especially in emerging economies. Microsoft has actually admitted this in the past, and made a pathetic attempt at releasing a shareware version of Windows that could run 3 processes at a time in order to compete with the pirates. Microsoft has to tread very carefully when they try to combat piracy, because the fewer pirated copies of Windows and Office people use, the more copies of Linux/BSD and OpenOffice.org/Google Docs people will use. On the other hand, if Microsoft does not make sufficient efforts to protect its trademarks (and to some degree, copyrights), it could lose them, and that would spell trouble for them too.

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Palm trees and 8
Re:If it weren't for piracy by SCHecklerX · 2008-10-21 05:22 · Score: 3, Insightful

Actually, if it weren't for piracy, Microsoft would never have dominated the market in the first place. People buy at work what they have used at home. I can't justify paying $500+ for software I use only when re-writing a resume every few years or so.

Is it September 19th? by davidwr · 2008-10-21 02:43 · Score: 3, Funny

Arrgg!

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Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.

Re:Is it September 19th? by flosofl · 2008-10-21 04:09 · Score: 3, Funny

If it's anti-pirate day, wouldn't that mean today is really Stalk Like a Ninja :)

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"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"

RRRRrraaaaa by sxltrex · 2008-10-21 02:44 · Score: 4, Funny

Does that make it "Talk Like an Anti-Pirate Day?"

Re:RRRRrraaaaa by brouski · 2008-10-21 02:49 · Score: 3, Funny

!!!!rrrray

--
Proud member of the American Non Sequitur Society. We might not make much sense, but boy do we love pizza!
Re:RRRRrraaaaa by Anonymous Coward · 2008-10-21 02:52 · Score: 3, Funny

Actually it makes it 'Talk Like A Ninja Day' but /. can't participate since it still doesn't support unicode.
Re:RRRRrraaaaa by Aphoxema · 2008-10-21 02:59 · Score: 2, Funny

You should make an account, I was going to mod you up for that until I saw you were AC, but then, without an account, you won't be able to obsess over any replies you might get on your user page so you'll never see this reply anyways.

--
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Re:RRRRrraaaaa by basscomm · 2008-10-21 03:05 · Score: 5, Funny

If you knew who he was, he wouldn't be much of a ninja.

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http://crummysocks.com

For once I agree with MS by mcgrew · 2008-10-21 02:44 · Score: 4, Insightful

Pirates seize Indian vessel with 13 crew members off Somalia

An Indian cargo ship with 13 sailors on board heading towards Africa was hijacked by armed pirates off the northern coast of Somalia, even as suspense persisted over the fate of Indian crew members of the Hong Kong vessel MV Stolt Valor.
Somali pirates boarded the ship which was heading to Somalia and hijacked it south of Socotra island over the weekend, an official of the International Maritime Bureau said in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
The whereabouts of the ship and the fate of the crew members was not known as the maritime bureau received the distress report from a third party on Monday.
"We are still verifying the time and date of attack," the official said.
The hijack pushed the number of attacks by pirates this year in Somali coast to 74. A total of 30 ships have been hijacked and 10 remain in the hands of the pirates along with nearly 200 crew members.
A concerned Indian Government has dispatched a powerful stealth warship to the area as momentum has been growing for coordinated international response to the spate of hijacking being unleashed by Somali pirates using speed boats.

So I agree, piracy is a terrible problem. Our hearts go out to the families of the missing sailors.

However, I would think that Microsoft would be more concerned with copyright infringement that piracy. Are they planning an anti-copyright infringement day? September 19th might be appropriate.

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Free Martian Whores!

Re:For once I agree with MS by AKAImBatman · 2008-10-21 02:54 · Score: 3, Insightful

Damn you. You beat me to it!
To be serious for a moment, does anyone else feel that Microsoft's crusade on software piracy is simply insensitive in the recent wake of high seas piracy? A lot of good men and women are out there getting killed just so companies like Microsoft can deliver their product around the world. Rather than displaying their global conscience and supporting the cause of defeating real piracy, they're worried about a bunch of 12 year olds who harmlessly steal software for kicks! Meanwhile, the vast majority of consumers who use Windows have actually paid for Windows. Repeatedly.
But that's not good enough for Microsoft, is it? They want to squeeze blood from a stone. Get every last nickel out of those horrible people who miscounted their licenses by one, or the people who load Linux/BSD/Solaris/Plan9 on their machines. (Because, obviously, anyone using Linux is ACTUALLY pirating Windows!)
You know what? I can't bring myself to care, Microsoft. In fact, I hope your company BURNS for those practices.

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Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Re:For once I agree with MS by ajs · 2008-10-21 03:14 · Score: 3, Funny

I think you got it wrong. They're talking about the idea of privateering. They're opposed to hiring pirates as mercenaries to fight other countries by proxy. I, for one, am glad to see Microsoft take a stand on this serious issue! In fact, I'm going to go give out duplicated copies of Windows XP to all my friends to show my support!
Re:For once I agree with MS by gstoddart · 2008-10-21 03:31 · Score: 2, Interesting

So I agree, piracy is a terrible problem. Our hearts go out to the families of the missing sailors.
However, I would think that Microsoft would be more concerned with copyright infringement that piracy. Are they planning an anti-copyright infringement day?
So, as much as we like to bicker over this particular usage, there seems to be some contention that this is a historically valid use of the term, and way predates computers.
From the wiki article, it sounds as if it has been used this way in law for a couple of centuries.
Of course, someone will likely say the wiki article is wrong. I'd be curious to see any actual legal sources to see if this actually has been used like that for as long as it claims. If it has been widely used in this regard for that long, then we should stop bitching about it since it would, in fact, be a perfectly valid use of the word piracy.
Cheers

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Lost at C:>. Found at C.

and... by Dzimas · 2008-10-21 02:45 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm declaring today "Anti Microsoft Day." There. We're even.

Re:and... by houghi · 2008-10-21 03:03 · Score: 5, Funny

Anti-anti-piracy-day-day
That'll teach-em

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Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.

Well, I'm glad to see Microsoft... by AKAImBatman · 2008-10-21 02:45 · Score: 5, Interesting

...invest heavily in warships to help protect our shipping lanes. Nothing could be a better use of their money than helping stop the violence inherent in piracy on the high-seas. Already, many American warships are in stand-off confrontations with merchies taken over by pirates. I--

Sorry, what? This is about software? How Microsoft is concerned about companies who are missing one or two licenses out of 5,000 or 12 year old kids bragging that they got XP off of I13|<p1R4Cy.com? Pfff. In that case, screw 'em.

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Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade

Working so far (for me). by Piranhaa · 2008-10-21 02:45 · Score: 4, Funny

I pledge I will not pirate anything... today

Re:Working so far (for me). by Lobster+Quadrille · 2008-10-21 03:04 · Score: 5, Funny

I pledge to pirate 3 times as much, to make up for you slackers.

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"The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497

sweet by nomadic · 2008-10-21 02:46 · Score: 5, Funny

Know my favorite part of Anti-Piracy Days? The parades. I mean, the parties are nice, and seeing the kids put out the Anti-Piracy decorations, but the parades are what are really great.

Re:sweet by Yvan256 · 2008-10-21 03:03 · Score: 2, Funny

Yeah but today's parade are nothing compared to the old Anti-Piracy Day parades of the 1930s!
Re:sweet by deniable · 2008-10-21 03:05 · Score: 4, Funny

Hey, I hear the '30s are coming back into fashion. There's a buzz on Wall Street.

Anti-piracy works! by schwinn8 · 2008-10-21 02:46 · Score: 2, Funny

See, since pirates prefer these older programs, it means that the anti-piracy measures really ARE working, because the pirates don't like dealing with it! We told you so!

Fighting software piracy? Excellent idea! by 2muchcoffeeman · 2008-10-21 02:48 · Score: 5, Funny

Prevent Windows piracy: Use Linux instead!

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Prevent Windows piracy. Use Linux instead.

Re:Fighting software piracy? Excellent idea! by FudRucker · 2008-10-21 03:06 · Score: 2

I am using a pirated copy of Linux I downloaded free :D

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Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing

Comment removed by account_deleted · 2008-10-21 02:48 · Score: 3, Interesting

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Really Sad by Archangel+Michael · 2008-10-21 02:49 · Score: 3, Insightful

pirates prefer Windows XP over Vista and Office 2003 over 2007

Its really sad when even Pirates don't like your crap. That's like making a movie which even the pirates don't pirate.

Think about it, people who can get it for free, don't want it, even as it is free. This is not boding well for Microsoft.

--
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.

Re:Really Sad by howlingmadhowie · 2008-10-21 04:15 · Score: 2

i was thinking about this recently with regards to hollywood and the music industry coming down hard on youtube. now there's probably a lot of real copyright infringement going on on youtube, but what THEY don't want us to know is that the top video on youtube is by a stand-up comic who filmed himself and put it there. the whole world isn't so obsessed with depriving britney spears of money as they would have us believe. that's what they don't want us to realise.

Jumping on the Bandwagon by PinkyDead · 2008-10-21 02:49 · Score: 4, Funny

After the success of last month's "Talk Like A Pirate Day", this is just Microsoft just trying to cash in on the whole pirate thing.

Parents can't be expected to shell out for every single pirate related holiday. Enough is enough.

Anyway, don't Microsoft already have April 1st.

--
Genesis 1:32 And God typed :wq!

my own press release by viridari · 2008-10-21 02:49 · Score: 2, Insightful

I hereby declare today as Global Anti-Proprietary Software Day.

Corporations and computer users all over the world lose untold trillions of dollars dealing with the pain of using software that they cannot have full access to, or effectively move from one computer to another.

I pledge... by neowolf · 2008-10-21 02:51 · Score: 5, Funny

...that I will not pirate Vista. Ever.

FTFAFY by Hognoxious · 2008-10-21 02:55 · Score: 4, Funny

TFA

reader twitter was among several to contribute links to a related story

Should read:

several readers, all of whom were twitter, contributed links to a related story.

--
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."

Re:Can they do that? by cosmocain · 2008-10-21 02:55 · Score: 5, Funny

Why not? You can do that, too. Just stroll around and tell everybody you meet that today's...

- "Think of the children"-day,
- "Bad car analogy"-day,
- "Robotic overlord"-day,
- "Natalie Portman"-day,
- "In Soviet russia"-day,
- "Insensitive clod"-day,
- "Goatse"-day,
etc...

The fact that nobody'll listen to you will just make you feel like MS today. But if they don't care - why should you?

I hearby declare! by Todd+Fisher · 2008-10-21 02:56 · Score: 2, Funny

I call today "Tuesday"

--

--I'm not talking about dance lessons. I'm talking about putting a brick through the other guy's windshield.-

Arrrrrrrrr mateys! by Drakkenmensch · 2008-10-21 02:57 · Score: 2, Funny

Shouldn't "global anti-piracy day" be called "global ninja domination day" instead?

Damage to software innovation caused by Microsoft. by TractorBarry · 2008-10-21 02:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

> raise awareness of the damage to software innovation that Microsoft says is caused by piracy.

Which fades into insignificance when compared to the damage to software innovation caused by Microsoft !

--
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !

Open source games instead of Xbox? by tepples · 2008-10-21 02:58 · Score: 2, Insightful

And I'd like to remind everyone that the easiest way to combat piracy is by using open source software instead of Microsoft/Apple products whenever possible.

That would appear to include replacing, say, Xbox 360 games with open source games. Which Free video games do you recommend for me to play while kicking back on the couch? Is there an open-source first-person shooter that's as polished as, say, Gears of War or the Halo series? Or could you suggest an open-source alternative to Smash Bros. or Animal Crossing?

Re:Open source games instead of Xbox? by uglyduckling · 2008-10-21 03:03 · Score: 3, Insightful

"...whenever possible."

Bill Gate's Pirate Name by capnkr · 2008-10-21 03:01 · Score: 5, Funny

Putting "Bill Gates" in the name field here returns "Smugglin' Hubert Cutler" as the result, appropriately enough... :) Even better, though, "Steve Ballmer" becomes "Sea Monkey Baird"!

Sea Monkey! lol

Hey! Is that a flying chai.. OOF...

;)

--
"...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain

Even pirates don't want Vista by elfguy · 2008-10-21 03:03 · Score: 5, Insightful

You know you have problems when even pirates don't want your software!

Re:Even pirates don't want Vista by ivan256 · 2008-10-21 03:25 · Score: 5, Funny

You've got that wrong.
Clearly what's happening is that they made the DRM so good that it's reducing piracy. Right?
Re:Even pirates don't want Vista by Gewalt · 2008-10-21 05:07 · Score: 2, Funny

You owe me a new keyboard asshole! I just blasted coffee all over this one.

--
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999

Only one day? by Mr_Icon · 2008-10-21 03:04 · Score: 4, Funny

In contrast, the rest of the world celebrates the remaining 364 piracy days.

--
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.

Six continents? by rossdee · 2008-10-21 03:12 · Score: 2, Funny

Are they actively persuing pirates in Antarctica too? I thought the penguins ran linux
(and I am sure the government research stations at the south pole all have licensed copies of Windows and Office)

Re:Ironically by g253 · 2008-10-21 03:19 · Score: 2, Interesting

What's really ironic is that things like TinyXP, MicroXP, TinyVista... are basically just fine-tuned versions of their software, and they really shine compared to official versions. So when you install it for someone, that person thinks "eh, Windows isn't so bad after all"... and then Microsoft comes and tells them that this version is evil, dangerous, and will harm their computer.

There is proof that Windows can be a decent OS, but they can't use it :)

Microsoft calls Global Anti-Piracy Day by David+Gerard · 2008-10-21 04:08 · Score: 3, Funny

REDMOND, Indian Ocean, Monday - Microsoft has announced that today is "Global Anti-Piracy Day," with the aim to raise awareness of the damage to software innovation caused by robbery and murder on the high seas.

"Robbery, rape and brutal murder on the high seas is just like people copying that floppy," sobbed billionaire Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "You wouldn't steal a patented software process, why would you steal a cargo ship?"

Piracy off the coast of Somalia has made these the most dangerous waters for software development in the world. The pirates use hacked zombie PCs, sometimes impounding codebases and programming staff at the point of their Heckler & Koch MP3s and demanding warez before they are released.

A famous attack late last year against one luxury system was foiled when the crew scared the pirates off with the Righteous Mathematical Stentor, an ear-splitting acoustic device developed in Massachusetts as a "non-lethal" free software advocacy weapon.

Somali clan leaders have agreed to end over two decades of Unix wars in the country and have made attempts to address the piracy problem. But the tremendous lawlessness off the long eastern Somali coastline reflects the difficulty of controlling the flow of information on the Internet.

In one breakthrough, pirate chiefs have resolved that they will never pirate Windows Vista or Office 2007. "Not even with your dick."

--
http://rocknerd.co.uk

Re:The question many ask... And more will ask. by Technician · 2008-10-21 04:33 · Score: 2, Interesting

We have Offoce 2000 at work. Does Office 2007 do anything Office 2003 doesn't? Or even anything Office 2000 doesn't? What makes it worth the extra Five hundred dollars per license????

That is exactly why I switched from the Microsoft platform at home. I have my desktop, laptop, the wife the same, and had various foster kids circulate through. The product simply isn't priced for the home family. Old versions were simply installed on every machine in the house from the one purchased copy. New versions cost more and are less useful with the anti-piracy stuff, so even the first copy is no longer purchased. Maybe they make up for the loss of me buying a copy by those who do buy 2 or more copies who didn't before.

The alternatives are rapidly replacing the Microsoft OS and productivity system of choice. My dad bought a Mac as many have. Many others have installed Ubuntu with it's default office suite. It's legal, cuts piracy, and isn't good for Microsoft.

Microsoft is losing pirates. They are losing them to the alternatives and in doing so, are losing control of the platform.

--
The truth shall set you free!

Major pointless UI changes = BAD! No cookie! by zooblethorpe · 2008-10-21 04:38 · Score: 2, Insightful

even though most other people seem to like it.

I know you're just trying to troll the GP, but seriously -- who are these mythical "most other people"? The only folks I've run into that claim to like the MSO 2007 ribbon interface are posters here on Slashdot. My wife's previous school had MSO 2007 installed drive-by fashion unannounced and mid-year by their socially-clueless IT guy, and it caused no end of trouble. Suddenly teachers (and sometimes students) would take / email docs home and be unable to open them. Suddenly no one could find where anything was supposed to be, for some of them after *finally* having gotten used to the menus in MSO 2003 through much effort and frustration. Suddenly macros that helped glue the office's processes together stopped working.

Okay, granted, only the second issue above actually has to do with the ribbon UI, so to come back to that, the changeover was hell. Tens of hours per person, possibly more for some folks, that had been spent getting familiar with the old UI was completely undone by MS's ribbon infatuation. What a complete waste of time. And for what? MSO 2007 sure doesn't offer any new functionality. Heck, it breaks more than it innovates. The new UI was annoying as hell for me (still is when I have to use MSO 2007), and I'm a geek. And never mind the myriad frustrating assumptions MS made about who uses what most often when they designed the ribbon. Imagine how beyond-the-pale maddening it must be for users who are dyslexic (my wife, some of her colleagues, some of her students) and have trouble dealing with computers anyway.

Cheers,

--
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."

Re:Ironically by thepotoo · 2008-10-21 04:47 · Score: 2, Informative

You do know that you can use n-Lite to make your own, fully customized, completely legal, version of Windows, right?

Takes about a hour to set up, you can integrate all your drivers and everything, and then install it on any computer you want.

I use it on my gaming machines and it simply flies. Far more to my taste than Tiny XP, because it comes with all my registry tweaks by default.

--
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase

How about Tax Anti-Piracy Day? by ILikeRed · 2008-10-21 05:49 · Score: 3, Insightful

I think someone needs to put together a special day (today would be good) called the Global Tax Anti-Piracy Day!

Tax Piracy is when you have a company in one country, but then setup a sham company in another country so you can avoid paying your fair share of taxes. These Pirate companies plunder the benefits of the real country of origin, taking advantage of all the infrastructure benefits such as schools, roads, and police - but pay for very little or any of what they take by loopholes in their real country's tax system!

Just think of the billions of dollars lost by honest companies, and their lost innovation because of these Tax Pirate Companies. Think of the increased taxes that honest companies must pay. Think of the children who can't go to good schools because Pirate companies plundered the public coffers! This is a threat that must be stopped, and the pirate company's officers punished!

--
I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress -J Adams

Ribbon not the solution wanted by zooblethorpe · 2008-10-21 07:37 · Score: 3, Insightful

After each version of Office ships, Microsoft asks a selection of users which features they would like to see in the next version of Office.

As nabsltd noted above, menus are pretty standard for all other MS-based software -- except for this ribbon garbage in MSO 2007. Now, while I'm generally a fan of software companies listening to their users, the question MS asked and the answers they were given, funnily enough, had nothing to do with completely reworking the menu UI. So basically MS *wasn't* listening. Had they asked instead, "should we completely rework the menu UI?", I rather suspect that most existing users of pre-2007 MSO (i.e., the vast bulk of the potential market for MSO upgrades) would have replied with a resounding "hell, NO!" in consideration of all the time and energy *already* put into learning where the heck everything is. I mean, sheesh, with MSO 2007, they could have at least offered an easily-findable obvious option to toggle back into the older menu structure.

That's the problem the Ribbon is intended to solve.

But, sadly, it is not the problem the users faced directly, nor is it the solution they wanted. Which is why so many folks are not a fan of paying through the nose for an "upgrade" that offers no appreciable new functionality while simultaneously guaranteeing hours of frustration as users try to find things again. Whee.

Cheers,

--
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."

Re:Can they do that? by binkzz · 2008-10-21 08:46 · Score: 2, Informative

I must say that the sheer amount of American "special days" is ridiculous, and takes away any meaning they could ever have. A quick google on October:

# Adopt-a-Shelter-Animal Month
# Computer Learning Month
# Family History Month
# National Apple Month
# National Clock Month
# National Dessert Month
# National Pizza Month
# National Popcorn Popping Month (wtf!)
# National Roller Skating Month
# Polish American History Month (they need a whole month?)
# National Stamp Collecting Month (oh yeah)

The first week in October is Fire Prevention Week (don't bother with it any other week of the year), the second week is Teen Read Week.

Special Days:

01/10 * Homemade Cookies Day
01/10 * World Vegetarian Day
02/10 * Name Your Car Day (no way)
03/10 * Captain Kangaroo Day
04/10 * National Golf Day
04/10 * World Card Making Day (why define things as Global or World when it's only in America?)
05/10 * World Teacher Day
06/10 * Child Health Day
09/10 * Leif Ericson Day
09/10 * Moldy Cheese Day (this one I like)
12/10 * Farmer's Day
13/10 * Columbus Day
14/10 * Indigenous People's Day
15/10 * National Grouch Day
15/10 * National Poetry Day
16/10 * Boss's Day
16/10 * Dictionary Day
16/10 * World Food Day
17/10 * Black Poetry Day
18/10 * Alaska Day
18/10 * Sweetest Day
20/10 * Monster Mash Day
21/10 * ANTI PIRACY DAY WOO
22/10 * National Nut Day (AKA President Bush Day)
24/10 * National Bologna Day
24/10 * United Nations Day
25/10 * National Denim Day
26/10 * Mother-in-Law's Day
28/10 * Plush Animal Lover's Day

Is anyone seriously gonna wake up and think "OH! IT'S MOLDY CHEESE DAY!" or prepare weeks in advance for national denim day? Why do they exist? Is it mostly companies that make these up in the hope of upping their revenues? :(

--
'For we walk by faith, not by sight.' II Corinthians 5:7

Re:Damage to software innovation caused by Microso by ignavus · 2008-10-21 11:15 · Score: 2, Interesting

Do you think that they are subtly hinting that downloading free software ("piracy, open source - it's all the same") is "damaging to software innovation"?

They are using the same language of "piracy" as they have done for Open Source and (especially) the GPL: it limits their ability to "innovate" (embrace, extend and extinguish). This is possibly setting the scene to link the two in the minds of ill-informed people like legislators, managers and the general public (in no particular order).

"Piracy" and FOSS are both threats to Microsoft. One is illegal and the other perfectly legal and legitimate. But Microsoft would love to see them linked, and to have FOSS tarred with the brush of "illegal, illegitimate".

--
I am anarch of all I survey.

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