This is court authorized. It is no different from a company asking a court to require an employee to hand over private documents or allowing them to enter the house if they suspect the employee is guilty of stealing from the company. There is nothing surprising about this nor original. I fail to see why it was even posted on SlashDot other than being computer related.
This is routinely done by corporations too. A good example would be Corel getting court orders to require Microsoft turn over documents in their recent case. Corel thought they were unjustly harmed so they required Microsoft to turn it over.
We may have personal opinions that this is an invasion of privacy (personally I feel it is not). Fact is people are so enamored by the "privacy" of the Internet and computers they fail to realize that they have far less privacy in their regular "non-electronic" lives than they do on the computer. If you want to fight for your right to privacy you should start "offline" before moving "online".
I have a contact who works @ MS who works on the media player team on the Unix test team. He has heard nothing about a Linux player. In fact he was told explicitly that MS does not support Linux for media player and has no plans to.
Nope. If that were the case you wouldn't use your common sense and you would do the same old things over and over again (with a few minor modifications like prettier graphics) and you'd just claim it was innovation.
I hope Michael's comment about Mars Pathfinder was sarcasm. One of the largest problems is that engineers often forget to use their common sense in cases when it COULD be used to solve a problem. Allowing yourself to listen to your common sense and evaluating even the wackiest solutions will often lead to INNOVATION. Being able to do the above is one of the biggest steps you can take to thinking of creative and new solutions to a problem.
I personally am of the opinion that the solution to landing Mars Pathfinder was a brilliant one.
What's so new about this in reality? Companies have always fought FUD about their products with FUD about their competitors products. Is this really that much of a shock? Look at all those little surveys/studies that the automakers have commissioned. Most of them don't matter much in the overall performance you are going to get out of the car but yet they throw them out there over and over again.
I don't think anyone at Microsoft will be suprised at having FUD thrown at them. Just like other people are not surprised at Microsoft throwing it at them ALL THE TIME. Remember Sun maintains (or did I dunno if they stopped) a whole website soley dedicated to attacking NT for EVERY role. This isn't something new for MS. They've had more FUD thrown at them in the last 3 months regarding how the company was going to be broken up than most companies get in a year. It's just a different kind of FUD. (FUD comes in all shapes and sizes)
It can be REALLY fun to watch though. Particullarly when someone REALLY screws up.
I won't disagree that Windows NT is a very advanced operating system.
However regarding quality of products. The increasing "quality" of Microsoft's OSs spurs other companies to improve their products. Windows 95 was better than Windows 3.1 and Windows NT was better than 95. My opinion is that each version of Office is better overall, although more annoying features are constantly being added to mostly offset that.
In order to beat the MS lock on the market a company must make their products FAR FAR better than any Microsoft product. The end result of this is that we get better software. Of course someone has to take the huge risk of competing against Microsoft and lots of people don't. To bad.
Why is it that according to many of the higher rated posts ANY change Microsoft makes that is not directly related to software development must be related to the DOJ? Anyone with a brain understands that companies do this type of thing all the time!!! Just because Bill decided he wanted to get away from heavy management (which for all intents and purposes it sounds like) does that have to be because of the DOJ?
The DOJ is *NOT* going to break up Microsoft. They can huff and puff all they want but if they try to they will be into 10 years of court battles. (They know that and so does anyone with half a brain.) And with every AOL/Warner deal that goes down MS can point the finger and say "look at that." It won't be hard for them to find a judge that will agree. So get over it. It's not going to happen. Microsoft is here to stay, it's power may fall or climb but it's not going to go anywhere as much as some would like it to go *poof*.
If Bill wants to have more time to spend with the product groups hell I say go for it. If he wants to spend time writing code more power to him. (Although I don't know what he has the skills to write nowadays). He should do what he enjoys and wants to do. He has that right just like the rest of us.
Europeans efforts to restrict some software....
on
China Banning Win2k
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· Score: 1
If I recall correctly some members of the European Union are trying to get software declared a "service" rather than a good because there are no restrictions on the tariffs that can be imposed on a service. They are doing this so they can impose high tariffs on US software so they can try to foster the software industry in Europe which is still far inferior to that in the United States in many areas.
Of course this doesn't apply to just Windows, rather all software. It would be important to note that these tariffs would probably impact copies of Linux sold in boxes.
The Wired article said that the code was originally written by an employee. I wonder if this person was fired and then was pissed or if the code was simply leaked by accident.
It also said the code was made in September. That means that MS has known about it for at least 3 or 4 months. Not fixing it by now is unacceptable. MS should have simply released a fix and then announced the bug and the fact that a fix were available at the same time.
I like the technology but hate the implementation.
I don't someone (other then my girlfriend)limiting my driving speed, for example I spend quite a bit of time driving around rural areas of Washington state. There's no traffic and no people and the roads are essentially straight. I should be able to go 70 instead of 50 and save myself an hour.
One good thing this could do would be to have the car remind you that you are speeding. For example the car could tell from the GPS that you just got off the free way. Since you'll be velocitized and feel like you are going slower than you actually are it would be nice to have the car audibly remind you a few minutes after you exited to check your speed to make sure it's reasonable. (Of course cities won't like this cause it'll cut into their ticket revenue)
Modifications could also allow the cops to remind those dense people and idiots in their SUVs to slow down when it snows without pulling them over. They could broadcast a special message instead.
When will these people realize that the software is only as secure as the knowledge of the person who set it up permits it to be. Sure I can setup one hell of a secure NT or Linux installation. But what about my the partner in my dad's firm who is defacto sys-admin for the firm? He isn't going to understand alot about configuring Linux. He will be able to understand the totally point and click/wizard environment of Windows NT. I would be willing to bet that with the time he has available a NT server he sets up will be more secure than a Linux one. (if he had one to setup.) (Note I am not talking about the default setup, I'm talking about him taking some time to customize it to his needs.) Wizards as obnoxious as they are can be quite useful to establish a base setup which you can then customize, or leave alone if you don't understand it.
Studies like this have always meant and will continue to mean very little IMO. Just like the NT C2 certification means very little this means very little to Linux. We shouldn't get our heads inflated over stuff like this and go around pretending like we are all high and mighty because we use Linux and are "secure".
According the BBC this is not the first time this has happened. The difference is this is first time this was done with an embryo. The previous attempt used invitro fertilization.
Because for all the posturing that we are making saying that FOF is the first step in the end of MS there are NO signs that the industry/country is even beginning to take that step.
Related to the FOF you should ask the following questions:
- Did MSs stock price fall?
No, the small $5 fluctuation over the last week is fairly normal IMO. This could be as much due to continuing and the probably perpetual 2K delays as well as Y2K concerns as much as the FOF.
- Did investors question the companies practices?
For the most part no. No one changed their recommendations on the stock either.
- Is breakup likely?
Les and less so. Over the last two weeks a LOT of people said MS was going to be broken up with little thought being given as to HOW to do it or if it was the BEST solution. (See Ellison and McNealy @ Comdex.) This is growing more and more unlikely now from what I have been reading. Mainly due to problems in HOW to do it. And the source code being auctioned or made public? Forget it. There is too much 3rd party licensed code in Windows, figuring it all out and who gets what and and how much $$$ would be a nightmare. I honestly think that will be the least likely thing. I'd look for other remedies such as flat Windows pricing to all OEMs, a hefty fee, spin off of smaller parts of the company and such. (i.e. MSN)
And not related to the FOF more to Linux:
Are major corporations changing their purchasing practices or considering doing so?
For the most part no.
- Do the people who cut the checks/make the decisions to buy the software (MBA type people) dislike MS and do they know what Linux is?
- As a IS major @ a business school I can say no. Business people LOVE MS, I can't count the number of people I hear at school saying they want to go work for them. Although we may not respect Bill as a technical individual business people respect him immensely as a manager. As for Linux most business people don't understand what Linux is. They want to know what company makes it. I can't recall the number of times I was asked: "I heard about this really hot IPO called RedHat. I heard they MAKE an OS called Linux. What can you tell me about it?". Try to explain open source and their head explodes. Business people don't get it and neither do upper level managers, until they do Linux is going to have problems getting into many markets.
We shouldn't rely on the FOF to begin the fall of / break up of MS. To do so would be foolish. I for one will go under the assumption that NOTHING is going to change. Thats safer.
Who really cares how Gore does this? Control-Alt-Delete gets the same thing done as alt-control-delete. You should do it whatever way is easiest. I actually paid attention and noticed that I type alt-control-delete on my ergonomic keyboard but control-alt-delete on my regular one. So as long as it gets the job done do we really care? This is almost as bad as a Linux pronunciation war...
As a software test engineer it amazes me that the STE teams at MS let stuff like this by. And I must admit going to work for a company to fix such a glaring defficiency in testing is actually kind of appealing. It would definatly be a challenge!
Of course you have to *want* to fix it and I doubt MS is ready to do that.
Makes you really want NASA to get a more reasonable and cost effective replacement for the shuttle built. (Venturestar?) The shuttle is so friggen' expensive ANY delays jeapordize almost any mission from getting done period unless it is a national security issue. Quite sad really...
Yep. I'm sinking $10 - $15 grand into a new server soon. I could run on Linux or NT I have my choice, no strings attached it's my call.
However NT will be faster for what I want to do and since students will be administrating the system it will be far easier for them. I pretty much passed Linux over without a second thought to be honest. $700 for NT was far less than what the additional cost to get the same performance out of the system running Linux would be. Add on the time I would spend finding (or buying) the necessary tools and then training the students to use them (since they don't know Linux) and Linux gets REALLY pricey in this case. However the way I like to look at it is that I am also in a very unique situation.
Yes this is redudantlargely but I think crt has a VERY valid point.
> And it's in Seattle, too. Wouldn't it be cute if anyone flaming Microsoft was prohibited from posting to usenet on trumped-up grounds of _slander_?
What's the point of that statement other than vieled insult at anyone living in Seattle? Do you think that EVERYONE in Seattle is pro-Microsoft? I can tell you nothing could be further from the truth. We may not all like MS however we do accept that the economic impact from MS on the region has been good. Eliminating MS in Seattle would be like ripping a couple of the automakers out of Detriot. See if people like that.
It may not necessarily be their choice to continue to go forward with this. You are forgetting that this deal could have been in the works for several months. It is entirely possible that the deal was made weeks ago and there is already a contract (if necsesary). Of course that would mean that MS cannot back out of the deal.
Also I doubt the DOJ has much interest in what MS does in the Tiawanese market right now.
MSNBC's offices are on the Redmond Campus. Think about it: If MS holds a press conference all these guys have to do is walk across the street and they can get started on the story. Of course they are going to be first a lot of the time.
Considering that one of the reasons communism failed was because of it's monolithic bureaucracy which led to incredible ineffeciencies I don't think this is a good "endorsement". I can see it now: "Linux: The OS for commies!
Afterall communism is in a sense the ultimate monopoly, the government controls all, sets all prices and determines what does and doesn't get done. Sound familiar?
I am not usually one to complain about this type of thing but will the whining ever stop? And I mean not just from the pro-MS camp but also from the anti-one. The pro-MS people need to face up to the fact that was already known which is that MS did some pretty nasty stuff. They need to grow up and deal with it. "Innovate" my butt. Specific groups at MS do really cool innovative stuff but the company as a whole doesn't and it squashes whatever those groups may do. On the same hand the anti-MS people need to face up to two other things 1) The bulk of the population could care less. They like (or love) MS products are going to keep using them, this ruling means nothing to them. 2) Microsoft isn't going away anytime soon. The "victory" on Friday may actually be a defeat. As analysis of the findings continue many pundits are begining to believe that they may have gone to far, MS may have SERIOUS and valid reasons for an appeal to any ruling. The previous appeals court threw out Jackson's last ruling almost outright. I think everyone needs to chill out, ignore this for a few weeks and go about thier business. After things have settled out they should come back and look at it...
I found this interesting: "It depends on whether someone nails them for damages. A $10 rebate for each customer who has bought Windows would run into billions."
This raises a question. what if this happens? What if it is more than that. Lets say MS has to drop the price on all its software. Can you imagine being able to buy Windows 2000 Consumer for $25? (Not that many of us would.) Do you know what that would do to companies like RedHat? It would force them to drop their prices, make their revenue fall and set of a spiral effect. It may also push Windows users through the roof in terms of numbers. This is a catch-22 you don't win if the prices are high and you may not necessarily win if they are low either. Frickin' Increasing Returns theory...
Well all I can say is the part giving them the ability to quarintine contactees is VERY logical. After all you don't want to wipe out the population because of some nasty alien virus. Yeah I know it sounds like something from a bad sci-fi movie but it is something to be taken seriously. Especially if you consider the fact that a virus from earth survived 3 years on the moon and was brought back home by the Apollo astronauts.
This highly important aspect seems to have been ignored by the author, hoax or not.
Slashdot Mirror
This is court authorized. It is no different from a company asking a court to require an employee to hand over private documents or allowing them to enter the house if they suspect the employee is guilty of stealing from the company. There is nothing surprising about this nor original. I fail to see why it was even posted on SlashDot other than being computer related.
This is routinely done by corporations too. A good example would be Corel getting court orders to require Microsoft turn over documents in their recent case. Corel thought they were unjustly harmed so they required Microsoft to turn it over.
We may have personal opinions that this is an invasion of privacy (personally I feel it is not). Fact is people are so enamored by the "privacy" of the Internet and computers they fail to realize that they have far less privacy in their regular "non-electronic" lives than they do on the computer. If you want to fight for your right to privacy you should start "offline" before moving "online".
I have a contact who works @ MS who works on the media player team on the Unix test team. He has heard nothing about a Linux player. In fact he was told explicitly that MS does not support Linux for media player and has no plans to.
Nope. If that were the case you wouldn't use your common sense and you would do the same old things over and over again (with a few minor modifications like prettier graphics) and you'd just claim it was innovation.
I hope Michael's comment about Mars Pathfinder was sarcasm. One of the largest problems is that engineers often forget to use their common sense in cases when it COULD be used to solve a problem. Allowing yourself to listen to your common sense and evaluating even the wackiest solutions will often lead to INNOVATION. Being able to do the above is one of the biggest steps you can take to thinking of creative and new solutions to a problem.
I personally am of the opinion that the solution to landing Mars Pathfinder was a brilliant one.
What's so new about this in reality? Companies have always fought FUD about their products with FUD about their competitors products. Is this really that much of a shock? Look at all those little surveys/studies that the automakers have commissioned. Most of them don't matter much in the overall performance you are going to get out of the car but yet they throw them out there over and over again.
:-)
I don't think anyone at Microsoft will be suprised at having FUD thrown at them. Just like other people are not surprised at Microsoft throwing it at them ALL THE TIME. Remember Sun maintains (or did I dunno if they stopped) a whole website soley dedicated to attacking NT for EVERY role. This isn't something new for MS. They've had more FUD thrown at them in the last 3 months regarding how the company was going to be broken up than most companies get in a year. It's just a different kind of FUD. (FUD comes in all shapes and sizes)
It can be REALLY fun to watch though. Particullarly when someone REALLY screws up.
I love marketers sometimes.
I won't disagree that Windows NT is a very advanced operating system.
However regarding quality of products. The increasing "quality" of Microsoft's OSs spurs other companies to improve their products. Windows 95 was better than Windows 3.1 and Windows NT was better than 95. My opinion is that each version of Office is better overall, although more annoying features are constantly being added to mostly offset that.
In order to beat the MS lock on the market a company must make their products FAR FAR better than any Microsoft product. The end result of this is that we get better software. Of course someone has to take the huge risk of competing against Microsoft and lots of people don't. To bad.
Why is it that according to many of the higher rated posts ANY change Microsoft makes that is not directly related to software development must be related to the DOJ? Anyone with a brain understands that companies do this type of thing all the time!!! Just because Bill decided he wanted to get away from heavy management (which for all intents and purposes it sounds like) does that have to be because of the DOJ?
The DOJ is *NOT* going to break up Microsoft. They can huff and puff all they want but if they try to they will be into 10 years of court battles. (They know that and so does anyone with half a brain.) And with every AOL/Warner deal that goes down MS can point the finger and say "look at that." It won't be hard for them to find a judge that will agree. So get over it. It's not going to happen. Microsoft is here to stay, it's power may fall or climb but it's not going to go anywhere as much as some would like it to go *poof*.
If Bill wants to have more time to spend with the product groups hell I say go for it. If he wants to spend time writing code more power to him. (Although I don't know what he has the skills to write nowadays). He should do what he enjoys and wants to do. He has that right just like the rest of us.
If I recall correctly some members of the European Union are trying to get software declared a "service" rather than a good because there are no restrictions on the tariffs that can be imposed on a service. They are doing this so they can impose high tariffs on US software so they can try to foster the software industry in Europe which is still far inferior to that in the United States in many areas.
Of course this doesn't apply to just Windows, rather all software. It would be important to note that these tariffs would probably impact copies of Linux sold in boxes.
The Wired article said that the code was originally written by an employee. I wonder if this person was fired and then was pissed or if the code was simply leaked by accident.
It also said the code was made in September. That means that MS has known about it for at least 3 or 4 months. Not fixing it by now is unacceptable. MS should have simply released a fix and then announced the bug and the fact that a fix were available at the same time.
*sigh*
I like the technology but hate the implementation.
:-)
I don't someone (other then my girlfriend)limiting my driving speed, for example I spend quite a bit of time driving around rural areas of Washington state. There's no traffic and no people and the roads are essentially straight. I should be able to go 70 instead of 50 and save myself an hour.
One good thing this could do would be to have the car remind you that you are speeding. For example the car could tell from the GPS that you just got off the free way. Since you'll be velocitized and feel like you are going slower than you actually are it would be nice to have the car audibly remind you a few minutes after you exited to check your speed to make sure it's reasonable. (Of course cities won't like this cause it'll cut into their ticket revenue)
Modifications could also allow the cops to remind those dense people and idiots in their SUVs to slow down when it snows without pulling them over. They could broadcast a special message instead.
Of course you should be able to turn it off.
When will these people realize that the software is only as secure as the knowledge of the person who set it up permits it to be. Sure I can setup one hell of a secure NT or Linux installation. But what about my the partner in my dad's firm who is defacto sys-admin for the firm? He isn't going to understand alot about configuring Linux. He will be able to understand the totally point and click/wizard environment of Windows NT. I would be willing to bet that with the time he has available a NT server he sets up will be more secure than a Linux one. (if he had one to setup.) (Note I am not talking about the default setup, I'm talking about him taking some time to customize it to his needs.) Wizards as obnoxious as they are can be quite useful to establish a base setup which you can then customize, or leave alone if you don't understand it.
Studies like this have always meant and will continue to mean very little IMO. Just like the NT C2 certification means very little this means very little to Linux. We shouldn't get our heads inflated over stuff like this and go around pretending like we are all high and mighty because we use Linux and are "secure".
According the BBC this is not the first time this has happened. The difference is this is first time this was done with an embryo. The previous attempt used invitro fertilization.
d _564000/564517.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsi
Microsoft is clearly in trouble?
I can't really agree with that.
Why?
Because for all the posturing that we are making saying that FOF is the first step in the end of MS there are NO signs that the industry/country is even beginning to take that step.
Related to the FOF you should ask the following questions:
- Did MSs stock price fall?
No, the small $5 fluctuation over the last week is fairly normal IMO. This could be as much due to continuing and the probably perpetual 2K delays as well as Y2K concerns as much as the FOF.
- Did investors question the companies practices?
For the most part no. No one changed their recommendations on the stock either.
- Is breakup likely?
Les and less so. Over the last two weeks a LOT of people said MS was going to be broken up with little thought being given as to HOW to do it or if it was the BEST solution. (See Ellison and McNealy @ Comdex.) This is growing more and more unlikely now from what I have been reading. Mainly due to problems in HOW to do it. And the source code being auctioned or made public? Forget it. There is too much 3rd party licensed code in Windows, figuring it all out and who gets what and and how much $$$ would be a nightmare. I honestly think that will be the least likely thing. I'd look for other remedies such as flat Windows pricing to all OEMs, a hefty fee, spin off of smaller parts of the company and such. (i.e. MSN)
And not related to the FOF more to Linux:
Are major corporations changing their purchasing practices or considering doing so?
For the most part no.
- Do the people who cut the checks/make the decisions to buy the software (MBA type people) dislike MS and do they know what Linux is?
- As a IS major @ a business school I can say no. Business people LOVE MS, I can't count the number of people I hear at school saying they want to go work for them. Although we may not respect Bill as a technical individual business people respect him immensely as a manager. As for Linux most business people don't understand what Linux is. They want to know what company makes it. I can't recall the number of times I was asked: "I heard about this really hot IPO called RedHat. I heard they MAKE an OS called Linux. What can you tell me about it?". Try to explain open source and their head explodes. Business people don't get it and neither do upper level managers, until they do Linux is going to have problems getting into many markets.
We shouldn't rely on the FOF to begin the fall of / break up of MS. To do so would be foolish. I for one will go under the assumption that NOTHING is going to change. Thats safer.
Who really cares how Gore does this? Control-Alt-Delete gets the same thing done as alt-control-delete. You should do it whatever way is easiest. I actually paid attention and noticed that I type alt-control-delete on my ergonomic keyboard but control-alt-delete on my regular one. So as long as it gets the job done do we really care? This is almost as bad as a Linux pronunciation war...
As a software test engineer it amazes me that the STE teams at MS let stuff like this by. And I must admit going to work for a company to fix such a glaring defficiency in testing is actually kind of appealing. It would definatly be a challenge!
Of course you have to *want* to fix it and I doubt MS is ready to do that.
Makes you really want NASA to get a more reasonable and cost effective replacement for the shuttle built. (Venturestar?) The shuttle is so friggen' expensive ANY delays jeapordize almost any mission from getting done period unless it is a national security issue. Quite sad really...
Yep. I'm sinking $10 - $15 grand into a new server soon. I could run on Linux or NT I have my choice, no strings attached it's my call.
However NT will be faster for what I want to do and since students will be administrating the system it will be far easier for them. I pretty much passed Linux over without a second thought to be honest. $700 for NT was far less than what the additional cost to get the same performance out of the system running Linux would be. Add on the time I would spend finding (or buying) the necessary tools and then training the students to use them (since they don't know Linux) and Linux gets REALLY pricey in this case. However the way I like to look at it is that I am also in a very unique situation.
Yes this is redudantlargely but I think crt has a VERY valid point.
> And it's in Seattle, too. Wouldn't it be cute if anyone flaming Microsoft was prohibited from posting to usenet on trumped-up grounds of _slander_?
What's the point of that statement other than vieled insult at anyone living in Seattle? Do you think that EVERYONE in Seattle is pro-Microsoft? I can tell you nothing could be further from the truth. We may not all like MS however we do accept that the economic impact from MS on the region has been good. Eliminating MS in Seattle would be like ripping a couple of the automakers out of Detriot. See if people like that.
AirBus: The Other Choice.
It may not necessarily be their choice to continue to go forward with this. You are forgetting that this deal could have been in the works for several months. It is entirely possible that the deal was made weeks ago and there is already a contract (if necsesary). Of course that would mean that MS cannot back out of the deal.
Also I doubt the DOJ has much interest in what MS does in the Tiawanese market right now.
Microsoft already has an online store and has for sometime. Its at http://shop.microsoft.com/
MSNBC's offices are on the Redmond Campus. Think about it: If MS holds a press conference all these guys have to do is walk across the street and they can get started on the story. Of course they are going to be first a lot of the time.
KS
Considering that one of the reasons communism failed was because of it's monolithic bureaucracy which led to incredible ineffeciencies I don't think this is a good "endorsement". I can see it now: "Linux: The OS for commies!
Afterall communism is in a sense the ultimate monopoly, the government controls all, sets all prices and determines what does and doesn't get done. Sound familiar?
I am not usually one to complain about this type of thing but will the whining ever stop? And I mean not just from the pro-MS camp but also from the anti-one. The pro-MS people need to face up to the fact that was already known which is that MS did some pretty nasty stuff. They need to grow up and deal with it. "Innovate" my butt. Specific groups at MS do really cool innovative stuff but the company as a whole doesn't and it squashes whatever those groups may do. On the same hand the anti-MS people need to face up to two other things 1) The bulk of the population could care less. They like (or love) MS products are going to keep using them, this ruling means nothing to them. 2) Microsoft isn't going away anytime soon. The "victory" on Friday may actually be a defeat. As analysis of the findings continue many pundits are begining to believe that they may have gone to far, MS may have SERIOUS and valid reasons for an appeal to any ruling. The previous appeals court threw out Jackson's last ruling almost outright. I think everyone needs to chill out, ignore this for a few weeks and go about thier business. After things have settled out they should come back and look at it...
I found this interesting: "It depends on whether someone nails them for damages. A $10 rebate for each customer who has bought Windows would run into billions."
This raises a question. what if this happens? What if it is more than that. Lets say MS has to drop the price on all its software. Can you imagine being able to buy Windows 2000 Consumer for $25? (Not that many of us would.) Do you know what that would do to companies like RedHat? It would force them to drop their prices, make their revenue fall and set of a spiral effect. It may also push Windows users through the roof in terms of numbers. This is a catch-22 you don't win if the prices are high and you may not necessarily win if they are low either. Frickin' Increasing Returns theory...
Well all I can say is the part giving them the ability to quarintine contactees is VERY logical. After all you don't want to wipe out the population because of some nasty alien virus. Yeah I know it sounds like something from a bad sci-fi movie but it is something to be taken seriously. Especially if you consider the fact that a virus from earth survived 3 years on the moon and was brought back home by the Apollo astronauts.
This highly important aspect seems to have been ignored by the author, hoax or not.