Slashdot Mirror
What If There Was a Microsoft Appreciation Day?
theodp writes "In 2005, Microsoft came under fire after withdrawing support for an anti-gay-discrimination bill. 'I don't want the company to be in the position of appearing to dismiss the deeply-held beliefs of any employee, by picking sides on social policy issues,' explained CEO Steve Ballmer. That was then. Microsoft — like Google and Amazon — has since very publicly declared its support for gay-marriage legislation, which means it — unlike Chick-fil-A — needn't worry about the 'deeply-held beliefs of any employee' causing it to be blocked from doing business by the mayors of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. I guess we'll never know what Microsoft versions of 'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day' or 'National Same-Sex Kiss Day' would have looked like."
Other than just trying to rile up commentators? Clickbait much?
I'm not even sure what this post is about or why it is something that matters.
I imagine there will be a troll fest coming in 3... 2...
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
I love satire.
In space no-one can hear your vuvuzela.
Just because, that is how many people would appreciate it.
This is a non-story, which isn't "News for Nerds" or "Stuff that matters".
Soulskill: This article is bad and you should feel bad.
how much $$$ did /. receive to remove it?
"I'm sorry.. wait, what was the purpose of this article?"
To get the ball rollin' on the violent political upheaval (the clock is ticking--we only have 8 years), and to point out they're doing it wrong--those Chick-fil-A events should have been on the same day.
If we could look at this with the same objectivity through which we see Father's Day and Mother's Day, perhaps we could have two; one for each gender. I'm pretty sure I'd celebrate one of them by staying home though.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
Appreciate Microsoft? No way, no matter who or what they support or don't support.
I tolerate the stuff they produce, but I don't like it.
What If There Was an End to All These Silly Interrogatory Posts at Slashdot?
If there was a Microsoft Appreciation day, Bill Gates and Steve Balmer would get a free meal ticket to the cafe at work.
...that most IT companies have led the way on gay rights.
OK, Microsoft was a little slower than a few off the blocks, but in general I think that IT corporations should be proud of their lead in this issue, and MS should be applauded for being among them.
Still won't stop me loading up Linux instead though...
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
... because they don't know what the software market was like before them.
A good CAD setup including workstation and licenses could be $100K. A mainframe to handle your accounting could be $6000 per month.
Personal computing - IBM, Microsoft, and Apple - demolished the old model which was low volume, buggy software at high prices. I have no illusions about their intentions, they've made more money than any emperor. But I do appreciate what they created.
I'm not entirely sure what the point of this story is, but afaict, Microsoft, like most large firms, has always taken the most boring possible position on any political issue that doesn't directly affect their bottom line. Their two driving factors are: 1) appeal to likely employees, who are generally urban, young, and moderate social liberals; while 2) not pissing everyone else off too much. Both their 2005 and 2012 actions are consistent with that.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I applaud them for NOT choosing sides. I wish ALL companies would do the same. Politics should be done by people, not by companies.
Unfortunately they and many other companies still buy influence by using lobbyists.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
What if Slashdot just stuck to posting actual news stories instead of speculatory flamebait?
Only if it coincided with Opposite Day.
I don't consider it real progress that some companies come out in support of gay marriage, while others are against it. I go to Pride, but I wish we didn't have it. Real progress will be when it ceases to matter whether or not you're gay; When it's as natural as not being gay.
It's like black history month. I don't support that either. People call me racist for it, but I don't. There is no black history month; Black history is American history. It's human history. And their accomplishments should be celebrated the same way as every other historical accomplishment is. We don't need a "special olympics" history for people based on the color of their skin, we need to delete those divisions from our history books, mentioning only that there was a period of time (known as the Stupid Ages) when it was relevant, and then we grew up and put a stop to it. Ta-da, the end.
It'll be progress with companies like Chic-Fil A say they don't support gay marriage or homosexuality, and gets no press coverage at all. Like, wait, what? Why the fuck does anyone care what a fast food restaurant owner thinks about a perfectly natural state of being? That'd be like Ford Motor Co., coming out and saying they're against red heads marrying. It would go on the back pages, in the "News of the Weird" section.
That's where shit like this belongs, and until that's where it ends up and people pay it no more attention than as a source of fringe humor and entertainment when companies make announcements like this, we're still in the Stupid Ages of our future history books.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
... because they don't know how he stopped Hitler from winning World War II.
You must be new here.
Dilbert RSS feed
It's a joke... right?
I ate and or bought chick-fil-a for others every single day this week and will continue.
Now before anyone goes hating on me know this.
1. I donate large sums of money to GLBT causes every year and have nothing against gay marriage.
2. I am not religious.
3. I believe in evolution not creationism.
4. I am a hard core right wing Republican.
All that being said, I am extremely pro private business and that value far outweighs anyones little pissing match with the management of chick-fil-a.
Got Code?
I though that was clear by now...
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Seriously.
Why is it that there's this need to "celebrate" the idea that some people are intrinsically worth less than others?
If you're born on that side of an arbitrary line, you're a great guy, if you're born on the other side, you're a piece of scum who deserves to die a painful death.
If you happen to have a different skin pigment than the other people, you're filth and less evolved.
If you believe that this myth is reality you're an idiot, but believing that myth makes you a saint.
If you're this gender and not that one, then you shouldn't do this or that.
Etc. etc. etc. It's all idiocy and lunacy.
Yes, for some reason, there seems to be this constant push to celebrate intolerance.
I think we should just kill all the intolerant people and enjoy a much saner world.
For one to truly be against intolerance, they would have to be tolerant of those who are intolerant. To NOT tolerate those who are intolerant - IS intolerance.
Chic-Fil-A is a private company serving the interests of a private owner. Microsoft soft is a publicly held company which primarily exists to serve the interests of their shareholders.
The same sex marriage debate is divisive and there are strong beliefs on both sides. Does a public company exist to sell a product and provide a profit to its shareholders, or help enact social change even if it means the cost of business? Even if it hurts shareholders?
It simply does not make sense to take sides on a on a highly divisive social issue.
In Chic-Fil-A's case, Rahm Emmanuel shot his mouth off saying "Their values are not our values" and supported his alderman's postion to stop Chic--Fil-A from building a restaurant based on Chic Fil A's president stance on opposing same sex marriage. Which subsequently led to the anti-boycott and Chic-Fil-A's single biggest sales day in the history of the company Aug 1
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I will support any MS appreciation day that includes AoE II in its celebrations.
you must be new here
Such a day would be a holiday.
Holiday is derived from 'Holy Day'.
A 'Holy Day' has the assumption of a divine being.
A diving being couldn't make GNU/Hurd into a usable operating system.
RMS has developing GNU/Hurd since 1984.
1984 is symbolic of Big Brother and a panopticon society.
RMS is an atheist, also an advocate of privacy and freedom.
Clearly a single day to venerate a corporation runs counter to Slashdot's core beliefs.
Is that scuba? Is that hard hat? Is someone in the tank?
I don't see the problem here.
If people were indeed massively pirating commercial software, Bill is right.
Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
...and nobody came?
During the Cold War, MAD stood for Mutually Assured Destruction.
We could all wear bright blue t-shirts.
The old CEO, Mr. Gates, is a much better man then I once thought of him. Microsoft's operating system did get better... in fact it was finally worth its price! It is a shame though... the decided to do a power grab with a BIOS mod. It becomes laughable when they tried to push Windows 8 on us with so much bad news. They might have had a chance with Windows 7.
I find humor in the fact that game companies are now looking hard at Linux. As Microsoft shovels two healthy spades of dirt upon their own grave I know there is a good chance the next motherboard I buy might cost me a couple hundred dollars and wont run Windows, but in truth I really don't care. Linux has long made a better workstation, and there are games on the way! Sony will produce a better console for playing games, and maybe I should bother gaming on my workstation. The only two games I play anymore are EQ2 and Diablo 3, so I'm halfway there already.
I thank Microsoft for being pragmatic about such hot button issues that only fools invest so much passion in. Don't get me wrong my gay friends. I hate tyranny as much as you do, but "marriage" is a silly stupid word that can never eclipse true love. Those who cling to the word "marriage" like it was some God given right to a man and woman are often found forsaking their vows as they bed others. It is a worthless word unless there is love, commitment and truth behind it. There is no love, commitment to their fellow man or so much as a stick of truth behind denying that all people should have the same rights.
So, in a time where you can seem to do nothing right, thank you Microsoft... thank you for being just a hair less daft.
People bash Microsoft because Microsoft used its monopoly to force Windows down the throats of people who did not want it.
People bash Microsoft because it dumped MSIE into the market until Netscape died, then let MSIE stagnate for an eternity. Also, because MSIE had awful standars compliance and, because it was dominant, alternative browser makers had to emulate its infinite bugs, which took many years to achieve.
People bash Microsoft because of the Halloween Documents.
And, what would happen without Microsoft? Likely, open source would be far more prevalent than it is today.
Now, I agree that Apple has become worse than Microsoft. This suggests that if a company gets too big, it will probably become Microsoft-style harmful. And if Microsoft shrinks, and can become good.
But saying that Microsoft was a benefactor? Oh please.
Ballmer Pinatas? If so, count me in.
You have a relatively low UID, perhaps you remember and long for Slashdot before the politics section was installed temporarily and never got removed.
I too remember of a better time in slashdot history. I guess we are getting old and useless or something.
You have a point there. I mean, why would any company need any extra appreciation. Buying and using their products should be enough. Because of this reason, being a fan of some company in Facebook is usually a bit retarded too, I think.
MAD, I say.
If there were a Microsoft Appreciation Day, I'm sure it would have quite a few corporate sponsors. All of the anti-virus, anti-malware, third-party firewall vendors would be happy to sponsor it along with all of the other companies who's business model depends on patching up holes and vulnerabilities in various versions of Windows. After all, if it weren't for Microsoft, they wouldn't be in business.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
They bring back the Trackball explorer line and not a moment before.
I wouldn't call a 6-digit UID "relatively low". Mine is in the same ballpark, and I don't remember Slashdot ever being without a lot of political flamebait. Heck, didn't it date back before 9/11? Looking at comments in that story, and I don't see any UIDs above 500k.
Microsoft has been bending customers over for decades, why wouldn't they support gay marriage?
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
Nothing.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
Things are different in this post-Columbine environment.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
We need a way MS people could identify each other
That's pretty easy, you just look for a Windows Phone. Those new candy colored Lumias make it especially easy to spot.
The "politics" section of slashdot was added supposedly for a temporary measure around the 2000 or 2004 elections because people were trying to inject politics about the elections into normal discussion.
The temporary turned into permanent and the quality of articles and the discussion went down hill since then. That was my point, it was about the politics section. Before that was around, stories like this never would have made it out of someone's journal entry.
And I would say a 6 digit UID is pretty low considering the hardrive crash of circa 2000 and a some people like me had to find new logins (mostly due to inactivity and switching ISP's too often to recover the password to the old log on before and after the crash). But I know there are at least 1,900,000 UIDs or more, almost double the 800,000 some odd number the op received. I got my new UID sometime in the middle of 2001 or 2002, considering that Slashdot was created in 1997 and this is 2012, I would say it's relatively low.
6-digit is low? I'm still bitching about the fact that I asked Taco years ago to change my name because too many people associated me with someone else (having used that ID on BBS's in the '80s) and he just up and created a new account for me instead giving me a 5-digit account.
Actually, I would have done the exact same thing...and do on my own board...but it still pissed me off anyways!
But 6-digit is no where near low. Hell...5 digit isn't even low...
I say a UID of almost 2.5 million. pwngeek (2485940) to be exact. While you are right, a 5 digit UID is lower then an 6 digit, the 2,485,940 UID is 2.5 times higher then the op's 970136 id. Or if my math doesn't fail me, there has been at least as many users plus half the amount of users who signed up before him that have signed up after him.
Maybe it's a sign that we are getting old. I did just buy a girl a rocking chair and roller skates the other day for her 49th birthday. Told her the skates was so she could push the chair around easily.
... to get someone to appreciate Steve Ballmer, and his flying chair
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
... because they don't know what the software market was like before them.
Yes we do, because we were using UNIX in those days. And before then, cheap systems like Atari and Amiga,
And then while Microsoft grew we were using things like UNIX or Linux or OS2.
And we watched as Microsoft used share in the market and FUD the likes of which the world had never seen to curb stomp competitors.
I don't hold much ill will against Microsoft these days, indeed I even support them in some efforts - but none of us should EVER be deluded that the computer industry as a whole did not lose a decade of real advancement to the ravening beast that WAS Microsoft.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If there WERE a Microsoft appreciation day, we would no longer have to use the subjunctive mood when referring to it, since we would no longer be describing a wishful or fanciful situation contrary to fact. Asking "What if there WAS a Microsoft appreciation day?" questions whether such a day occurred at some point in the past -- this is not what the poster meant to ask.
you mean there are /. readers who havent heard of adblock+?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
It would require something like a Vogon Poetry Appreciation Chair...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
You know, the church that just denied an interracial marriage. Since you seem to engage in asshattery for the sake of asshattery, this would be right up your alley....
The time for civil rights and equality is always "now". The time for putting them off to appease the tender sensibilities of bigoted fucksticks is "never".
Just curious- was it MS directly, or their hired thugs the BSA? Note that Apple is also a member of the BSA.
Also- did you consider any of the free, Linux-based alternatives?
If you are actually gay, you know perfectly well that we're several generations away from that point. So shouting down any group (jews, blacks, gays) wanting to take pride in it's existence after recent or ongoing persecution makes less sense than finding Chewie on Endor.
Sure it's wonderful when they happen to choose the side that you are on. But what about when they don't? No, it's not the place of some corporate CEO to decide the fate of your sexuality or how your tax dollars are spent. Let them focus on making great products. The moment they take their eye off that prize the products and consumers will suffer.
Corporations do whatever the management want, if there are shareholders, they can do plenty before enough shareholders push their weight around. Corporations can take sides on any issue they want in almost any way they want and do it with a HUGE voice. If they do not mind a minor decrease in earnings they can ignore boycotts, especially if they sell common goods everybody buys they are basically untouchable. Private companies can do just about anything. If any break laws they are not subject to punishments like a human--- that is, if they even are convicted of something in the 1st place... which is far less likely as well.
Legal marriage should never have been called marriage because too many stupid people can't tell the differences between legal definitions and traditional/religious ones.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
Of all the words written about the controversy and boycott, on each side, this single essay says it the best and most clearly IMHO.
Written by a gay Christian, it's respectful, yet passionate; personal, yet relatable and approachable.
Don't be put off by the cheeky headline, the actual text of the article is serious and very well written. A "must read" if you haven't seen it make the rounds on Twitter or Facebook already:
http://www.owldolatrous.com/?p=288
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
What hard drive crash?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Well, I guess I'm imagining it.
I could have swore that some time around 2000 a hard drive went out and they found the backups only contained parts of the database. This would be about the time they moved the servers to California. They recovered the articles but not the comments and a lot of users had to do a password reset
But I can't seem to find one article about it. I thought there was a mention to it in the fact page on slashdot even but I can't find it now either.
I wouldn't call a 6-digit UID "relatively low". Mine is in the same ballpark, and I don't remember Slashdot ever being without a lot of political flamebait. Heck, didn't it date back before 9/11? Looking at comments in that story, and I don't see any UIDs above 500k.
I would guess that it dates before 9/11, possibly with the hiring of John Katz. Things really started going off the deep end in 1999 and the Columbine High School massacre.
The Microsoft anti-trust trial certainly brought out a lot of trollish people, but at least it fell under the "news for nerds, stuff that matters" moniker.
(I have a low 6-digit uid but lurked without an account for a couple years before registering)
This is false and you know it.
If Microsoft simply provided proprietary products, we could simply ignore them.
The problem is that they manipulate the market in unethical ways.
I ain't sayin' it didn't happen, I just don't happen to remember it.
Of course if it happened around May of 2000 I might easily never have seen it.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
See my other reply first.
Of course if it had happened January 1st, 2000, we'd never have heard the end of it.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.