Sorry, but I have to correct you that Microsoft was not convicted of being a monopoly. The court determined that they were a monopoly and convicted them of abusing their monopoly power. It's an important distinction because having a monopoly is not a crime and therefore not something you can be convicted of.
Including WMP is the very least of the things that Microsoft should be punished for. This is more like bringing down Al Capone for tax evasion. It's not the worst crime MS has committed, but it's the one that they can make stick right now.
This would be akin to you noticing your neighbor left the keys in his car and you decided to take it for a ride before telling him about it.
Not even close really. It's more like you telling him that his car door locks aren't working properly and can be easily opened with 2 paperclips and some chewing gum, and him not believing you. So you open the door to his car and then show him that you were able to do it. Then he calls the cops and has you tossed in jail for breaking in to his car. Note that they didn't actually steal anything, so the comparison to joyriding in the guy's car is not accurate. If we wanted to get even more accurate with this, let's say that it was a car dealer instead of your neighbor. Then say that it's an entire model-year that displays the problem.
The problem with MMORPGs is that none of them seem to have figured out a good way to balance things and still provide entertainment for all. They all end up being leveling treadmills. If they were to try to create one that wasn't, it would probably be too much like the real world and a relative handfull of people would get very powerful very quickly and dominate the rest. I would really like to see one that was well thought-out from the beginning so that you can have fun playing at all levels, without living in too much fear of pkers (meaning there would have to be good ways to avoid them or defend against them) and without spending hours upon hours repetitively killing monsters or delivering packages from point a to point b.
Nah, I've just been here long enough to tire of mindless MS bashing. There's plenty of good reasons to bash them, so its only laziness or ignorance that create these silly posts that bash MS for things they do right. Guess I should remember to login before posting next time:)
Ok, I think I'm actually in agreement with you here. I don't think that telling Microsoft what they can or can't or have to include with the OS is going to help the situation. The only real remedies in this case are to make sure that Microsoft is not allowed to strongarm OEMs by using predatory pricing tactics to prevent competitors from being able to distribute through those OEMs. Next, they should force Microsoft to make complete documentation of all APIs and file formats available publicly and in a timely manner. This should be enforced by independent auditors. Finally I think that they should slap MS with a large fine and that money should go to benefit the public by funding open source development to help bring new options to consumers and to investigate open source alternatives for government use. Governments should always prefer open source software when possible. Both for financial savings and for the fact that consumers are not forced to buy proprietary software to exchange information with government agencies.
MSNBC often comes down pretty hard on MS. I think they overcompensate sometimes to keep from giving the appearance of bias. I remember being surprised by their stories a few times during the last trial.
The courts have decided that it's called price-fixing too, more than once. Unfortunately it doesn't matter because the penalties for price-fixing aren't severe enough to be a deterrent. The customer always gets screwed, and there isn't anything we can do about it under the law.
it's easy to choose who to vote for in any election where a bush is running: the other person.
That kind of thinking is why things are so screwed up now. Everyone seems to think there are only 2 choices in an election, which happens to be exactly the way the 2 major parties want you to think. People need to wake up and start looking at other candidates. Even if they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, vote for the person whose views are aligned with your own. One of the biggest problems with our election system is the stupid plurality vote model which encourages a 2-party system. If we could get that changed to something sane, then I think elections would go a lot differently. Unfortunately that's exactly why our government would fight tooth-and-nail against such a change.
That's one of the more repulsive decisions I've heard about in a while. They are basically saying that the law can be copyrighted and sold because to do otherwise would be too expensive for the government. First of all, the government could contract out such work on standards codes, making them works for hire that the state would own the copyright to. It's fine to pay someone for their expertise in crafting a law. It is definitely not fine to require people to pay for access to the text of the law. Seems like that would make ignorance of the law a valid defense.
Oh yeah, like the US doesn't ever do anything to favor a particular leader or candidate in other countries. But of course someone having a.sig line supporting a US candidate is just too damn intrusive!
How Roger Ebert can call it the most violent movie he's ever seen, mere months after the blood-soaked release of "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" tells me that either his memory is not very good, or else the emotional impact of the crucifiction made the violence in The Passion harder for him to watch.
It's probably because there is a perceived difference between realistic violence and over-the-top fantasy/action violence. The most violent film I can remember seeing lately is also coincidentally a Mel Gibson film. I'm referring to We Were Soldiers. That film was pretty gruesome in its depictions of the battles. It seemed quite realistic though, and I believe did a good job of conveying the horror of war. I sure wouldn't take kids to see it though.
I said they make "some effective OSes" I didn't say that all of their OSes were effective. Sorry if english isn't your first language, but I thought it was pretty clear.
Actually, Microsoft does make some effective OSes. They may not be superior to Linux (it's arguable as both have strengths and weaknesses), but they are still effective.
Well, the simple fact that they are now admitting what they were denying before is naturally going to lead people to disbelieve them. With dishonesty comes distrust. So now, people wonder why they denied it in the first place if there was nothing to hide. While there may be explanations for these things, people won't be inclined to believe anything that is said by any of the parties involved here, which is due to the previous actions of those parties. So, they brought it on themselves.
It wouldn't matter who made the call or when, as long as the money came from Microsoft. If it came directly from BillG himself, then it still wouldn't matter would it? He's the head cheese of Microsoft, and his money comes from Microsoft too, doesn't it?
Yeah.. I'm guessing that this stuff won't be used for homes anytime soon. It's kind of the worst of both worlds. Who wants to hang curtains over a concrete wall? Hell, who wants to have concrete walls in their home anyway?
Sure, I played Halo on XBox (a friend of mine bought one), and the controls were as good as I can expect for a console. That still makes them clumsy at best compared to the PC though.
I used to really look forward to Bungie's games, but Halo on the PC did NOT impress, at all. All that time and they couldn't even get it to run even halfway decent?! Aside from a few interesting portions, the game was pretty boring too. What I wouldn't give for another game like Half-Life. Now there was a game that wowed me. With developers going the Bungie and Ion Storm route, the future of PC gaming looks bleak.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, but I have to correct you that Microsoft was not convicted of being a monopoly. The court determined that they were a monopoly and convicted them of abusing their monopoly power. It's an important distinction because having a monopoly is not a crime and therefore not something you can be convicted of.
Let us get the important stuff done first. Then we'll move on to brains and spleens and other lesser organs.
No, in that case somebody stole a legitimate copy. He didn't "distribute" anything, and therefore committed no crime.
Including WMP is the very least of the things that Microsoft should be punished for. This is more like bringing down Al Capone for tax evasion. It's not the worst crime MS has committed, but it's the one that they can make stick right now.
This would be akin to you noticing your neighbor left the keys in his car and you decided to take it for a ride before telling him about it.
Not even close really. It's more like you telling him that his car door locks aren't working properly and can be easily opened with 2 paperclips and some chewing gum, and him not believing you. So you open the door to his car and then show him that you were able to do it. Then he calls the cops and has you tossed in jail for breaking in to his car. Note that they didn't actually steal anything, so the comparison to joyriding in the guy's car is not accurate. If we wanted to get even more accurate with this, let's say that it was a car dealer instead of your neighbor. Then say that it's an entire model-year that displays the problem.
The problem with MMORPGs is that none of them seem to have figured out a good way to balance things and still provide entertainment for all. They all end up being leveling treadmills. If they were to try to create one that wasn't, it would probably be too much like the real world and a relative handfull of people would get very powerful very quickly and dominate the rest. I would really like to see one that was well thought-out from the beginning so that you can have fun playing at all levels, without living in too much fear of pkers (meaning there would have to be good ways to avoid them or defend against them) and without spending hours upon hours repetitively killing monsters or delivering packages from point a to point b.
Nah, I've just been here long enough to tire of mindless MS bashing. There's plenty of good reasons to bash them, so its only laziness or ignorance that create these silly posts that bash MS for things they do right. Guess I should remember to login before posting next time :)
Ok, I think I'm actually in agreement with you here. I don't think that telling Microsoft what they can or can't or have to include with the OS is going to help the situation. The only real remedies in this case are to make sure that Microsoft is not allowed to strongarm OEMs by using predatory pricing tactics to prevent competitors from being able to distribute through those OEMs. Next, they should force Microsoft to make complete documentation of all APIs and file formats available publicly and in a timely manner. This should be enforced by independent auditors. Finally I think that they should slap MS with a large fine and that money should go to benefit the public by funding open source development to help bring new options to consumers and to investigate open source alternatives for government use. Governments should always prefer open source software when possible. Both for financial savings and for the fact that consumers are not forced to buy proprietary software to exchange information with government agencies.
MSNBC often comes down pretty hard on MS. I think they overcompensate sometimes to keep from giving the appearance of bias. I remember being surprised by their stories a few times during the last trial.
I think it is fair to call that "price fixing".
The courts have decided that it's called price-fixing too, more than once. Unfortunately it doesn't matter because the penalties for price-fixing aren't severe enough to be a deterrent. The customer always gets screwed, and there isn't anything we can do about it under the law.
it's easy to choose who to vote for in any election where a bush is running: the other person.
That kind of thinking is why things are so screwed up now. Everyone seems to think there are only 2 choices in an election, which happens to be exactly the way the 2 major parties want you to think. People need to wake up and start looking at other candidates. Even if they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, vote for the person whose views are aligned with your own. One of the biggest problems with our election system is the stupid plurality vote model which encourages a 2-party system. If we could get that changed to something sane, then I think elections would go a lot differently. Unfortunately that's exactly why our government would fight tooth-and-nail against such a change.
That's one of the more repulsive decisions I've heard about in a while. They are basically saying that the law can be copyrighted and sold because to do otherwise would be too expensive for the government. First of all, the government could contract out such work on standards codes, making them works for hire that the state would own the copyright to. It's fine to pay someone for their expertise in crafting a law. It is definitely not fine to require people to pay for access to the text of the law. Seems like that would make ignorance of the law a valid defense.
Oh yeah, like the US doesn't ever do anything to favor a particular leader or candidate in other countries. But of course someone having a .sig line supporting a US candidate is just too damn intrusive!
How Roger Ebert can call it the most violent movie he's ever seen, mere months after the blood-soaked release of "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" tells me that either his memory is not very good, or else the emotional impact of the crucifiction made the violence in The Passion harder for him to watch.
It's probably because there is a perceived difference between realistic violence and over-the-top fantasy/action violence. The most violent film I can remember seeing lately is also coincidentally a Mel Gibson film. I'm referring to We Were Soldiers. That film was pretty gruesome in its depictions of the battles. It seemed quite realistic though, and I believe did a good job of conveying the horror of war. I sure wouldn't take kids to see it though.
The point was that you're obviously doing something very wrong if you're getting such drastically different results than the rest of us.
I said they make "some effective OSes" I didn't say that all of their OSes were effective. Sorry if english isn't your first language, but I thought it was pretty clear.
Actually, Microsoft does make some effective OSes. They may not be superior to Linux (it's arguable as both have strengths and weaknesses), but they are still effective.
Well, the simple fact that they are now admitting what they were denying before is naturally going to lead people to disbelieve them. With dishonesty comes distrust. So now, people wonder why they denied it in the first place if there was nothing to hide. While there may be explanations for these things, people won't be inclined to believe anything that is said by any of the parties involved here, which is due to the previous actions of those parties. So, they brought it on themselves.
It wouldn't matter who made the call or when, as long as the money came from Microsoft. If it came directly from BillG himself, then it still wouldn't matter would it? He's the head cheese of Microsoft, and his money comes from Microsoft too, doesn't it?
Yeah.. I'm guessing that this stuff won't be used for homes anytime soon. It's kind of the worst of both worlds. Who wants to hang curtains over a concrete wall? Hell, who wants to have concrete walls in their home anyway?
Or will be able to buy it rather, once they start selling anyway.
rtfa... you can only buy it in pre-fab blocks right now.
Sure, I played Halo on XBox (a friend of mine bought one), and the controls were as good as I can expect for a console. That still makes them clumsy at best compared to the PC though.
I used to really look forward to Bungie's games, but Halo on the PC did NOT impress, at all. All that time and they couldn't even get it to run even halfway decent?! Aside from a few interesting portions, the game was pretty boring too. What I wouldn't give for another game like Half-Life. Now there was a game that wowed me. With developers going the Bungie and Ion Storm route, the future of PC gaming looks bleak.
I feel the same way about XBox ports to the PC. :(