...Microsoft will only gain market share by strongarm marketeering and strategy...
True, however, history shows that these are areas where Microsoft is second to none. It's obviously worked so far. If there's anything we should have learned from the past few years of American financial/technological history, it's that What's right or what works better means nothing in the face of what people think is right and works better. Public mindshare tends to lead to market share...this is how Windows won dominance in the first place.
Perhaps Microsoft will be able to convince the world that Linux is 'inferior'....but it would take some serious FUD in the face of Linux' proven superiority in several areas, specifically that of servers (file,internet).
What's funny to me is, people who grew up on PC first-person shooters (Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, etc.) agree resoundingly that the mouse+keyboard combination is the only way to play an FPS. However...
...people that grew up playing console games say that a controller is the only way to play an FPS (GoldenEye, Timesplitters, Perfect Dark).
Case in point: I just recently got a friend of mine into playing PC FPS (Unreal Tournament, Soldier of Fortune). He loves it, and he's (annoyingly) good at it...his only complaint is having to reach all the way over to hell-and-be-gone just to switch weapons, or jump, or crouch. I'd never thought of it that way, because I'd ALWAYS played it that way (anyone remember when Duke Nukem 3D (IIRC) brought 'jump' and 'crouch' to FPS?).
The point is, simply, that it's personal preference. A skilled console player I'm sure would be excellent comp for a skilled PC player. I'll see you guys on the Net.
P.S.-->The only game (other than flight sims) where I've seen keyboard skill REALLY make a difference is Starcraft. It's SCARY watching a skilled keyboardist play....sheesh.
Personally, I already promised myself before WindowsME came out that I'm sticking with Win98SE. It does everything I need it to (meaning run PhotoShop,Premiere,Office, and games) and very little that I DON'T need it to. microsoft is rapidly running out of reasons to force the public to upgrade (which I believe is the purpose behind this.NET nonsense), and I for one am not buying into their bullshit.
The LAST thing I need is for my OS to contact Microsoft without me knowing about it. If it can contact this 'clearinghouse' to validate a serial number (in hardware), who's to say what else it's checking up on? It'd be simple from a programmer's perspective to add logic that double-checks the serials for all your M$ software, to make sure that the person who bought the OS is the same person who bought, say, Office. *sigh* Enough is enough. Bye bye, Micro$oft: It'll only be a matter of time before there's a Windows emulator of sufficient stability that we won't need you anymore. Better yet, the other big software houses (Macromedia, Adobe, etc.) will start developing for Linux.
I don't deny that white does not neccesarily equate privilige. I'm simply stating that Joe White Boy in freshman engineering is definitelymore likely to be priviliged.
Case in point: When I was taking a high-level operating systems course, the prof randomly assigned us to groups. My group conferred primarily over e-mail, giving each other code examples, arguing about 'better ways' of doing things, etc. I ALWAYS seemed to have the correct answer, so it got to the point where everyone in the group generally agreed with me when I suggested something.
After the midterm, my group got together at the UGLi to go over documentation for an upcoming project. We were supposed to meet in a specific area of the library. My group was there when I got there, and when I got there, they looked up at me, and went right back to what they were doing, like SURELY I wasn't the guy they were waiting on. I introduced myself, and you should have SEEN the look of surprise on their faces.
That's the kind of racism I'm talking about. The automatic assumption that black == less competent.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Re:And the 90% asians at my school still "minority
on
Racism At Microsoft?
·
· Score: 1
I don't even have words.
If anyone is profiting from racism, it is 51% of that 38% that you mentioned, namely, white women. White women have always been the LARGEST beneficiaries from minority-based scholarships and have always had the LEAST need.
How DARE you depict minorities as sitting back and collecting state/federal money. Any minority that receives DOLLAR ONE from any minority scholarship had to be admitted first, which makes them JUST as qualified (if not more so) than you.
And this is coming from someone who's scholarships were ALL academic, and who busted their ass to pay for school, while my non-minority classmates drank themselves into comas all weekend and blew their trust fund money on ski trips and new cars. Spare me. Financial need is financial need.
...I got nice and angry at some of the comments posted on this article. It's funny to me that people I consider my peers (meaning geeks) always tend to assume there is no racism in our field, because they honestly think that they're too smart to be racist.
First, let me be frank: I don't agree with suing for $5billion. Nor do I agree with using the small percentage of MSFT minority workers as leverage. What I DO agree with is the basis behind their argument, which is the EXACT same attitude being reinforced on this board.
Everywhere I've worked (UNIX Systems Admin/Engineering) I've been seen as a remarkably compentent, skilled worker....until I meet the customer face-to-face. Then, suddenly, my decisions are questioned more, people go over my head to ask about things that are my responsibility. Even back to college (University of Michigan), I was faced every day with fellow students who were SO SURE that they were smarter than me, and professors who didn't think that I deserved to be here, assuming that I was only here because of Affirmative Action (I've got that in the workplace as well).
It seems the general consensus among white, male tech workers is that they belong in the industry. If they are up for a promotion against an equally skilled minority, of COURSE they should get the promotion, because they're automatically more skilled. Because the majority of tech managers are ALSO white, this attitude is perpetuated.
Let's set the record straight: My racial group does not choose to be less educated...we simply don't always have access to the same resources growing up as whites. That can't possibly be understood by someone who's never attended public school in a major city (I'm from Detroit). I took freshman EECS with 3 hundred white guys that had been taking C classes since the 9th grade, and the only exposure I'd had to any form of high-level programming was self-taught. Poor K-12 education == Poor SAT/ACT != quality higher education. This uneven playing field is the reason for the small numbers of us in the tech industry.
I'm sick of typing at this point, and I've got Apache modules to code. To sum up, stop with the "Blacks are always complaining...why don't they just get jobs...they have as much access to higher education as we do" crap. Find a black man on your job site, and ask him where he's from, and what high school he attended. I guarantee he's either got parents as priviliged as most of yours, or he worked his ASS off to get to where he is now.
Perhaps I'm the only one that actually went to the site, but it appears that bootup messages are piped to the splash screen. I'd double-check the code before I installed it, though.
Personally, I'll definitely be giving this a try...anything to make my box more custom, sleek, and sexy is cred by me. I've single-handedly drawn most of my friends to Linux by extolling it's many virtues, and this is just another "Wow, cool!" factor.
Bottom line: It's Open Source Software. The beauty of that is, you have a choice. Install it or don't, but don't shit all over the people who think this is a cool thing.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker (who gets paid to 'fiddle with logging and other bullshit')
...but the lack of details and general 'feel' of the article kinda makes me feel like this is an elaborate 'sting'. Have kiddies write/call in saying "I know how to crack a government site!". Bingo, instant crackdown on would-be crackerz.
I'd say stay away from this one...at least in the US, admitting to goverment officials that you're knowledgeable (and capable) of "compromising the security of federal property" isn't the best idea.
Now THAT'S the ad campaign AMD needs to get "mindshare". It would beat Intel's Blue Men, and DEFINITELY the guys in the shiny clean suits with the pseudo-rock playing in the background.
The 'Intel Inside' melodic bong-bong-bong-bong! is kinda catchy, though.
You have to give them some credit...they were caught red-handed, sure. But they could have just as easily told Everybuddy and the Slashdot community-at-large to go fuck our collective selves.
Let's just look at this as a 'close call', then sit down and figure out how to deal with this in the future. If the GPL isn't legally enforceable, there really isn't any point to it.
Basically....worse still if you happen to live in Michigan (like I do) and you cross state lines every day to work in Toledo. Hmmm...I wonder if it would be 'trafficking' if I ssh to my box at home from a laptop in the car.
*sigh* I just hope that Bush hires some well informed advisors....we all know he's not the brightest, so let's hope he at least asks someone what the Internet is before he signs this guy.
Among these offenses are making false statements on student-loan applications or passport applications. 18 U.S.C. sec. 2516(1).
Great. So I can get my house wire-tapped, computer(s) seized, and e-mail (and all other 'electronic' communication) read because someone suspects that I made a false statement on a student loan application? This does not bode well...
Is it me, or have/. trolls lost their creativity. Trolling used to be an art form...I'd halfway through reading a comment before I realized it was a troll. The best trolls weren't obvious.
The latest formula seems to be:
1) Read heading
2) Consider popular/. opinion
3) Say something obviously incendiary, that will get plenty of replies.
4) Hilarity ensues.
*sigh* Ah, well. Just remember kiddies...don't feed the trolls.
Anyone notice that while there are detailed entries on Microsoft, Paul Allen, and Bill Gates, there's only limited information on Sun Microsystems (pretty much just describing them as the big, bad corporation that groundlessly sued M$ over embracing and extending Java) and NOTHING on Linus Torvalds OR Linux?
Another myth from Microsoft's page whacked. (Free Operating System Does Not Mean Low Total Cost of Ownership) Sheesh. Does anyone have a "Microsoft Myths" page?
Very true...theoretically all you need is an IP-capable device.
Personally, I've always wondered why someone doesn't just hack a net-capable cellphone to use voice-over-IP. No per-minute-charges, no long-distance charges, and it's global. I'd pay a late rate for that.
Of course, then cell phone providers would lose tremendous amounts of money, so this'll probably never happen.....unless.....hmmmm....
I have to disagree on two counts. First, there simply isn't a computer in every home in the states, much less one that can handle voice-over-IP.
Secondly, I'd rather not have the FCC regulating (and dicking about with) my IP voice calls. Can you imagine having to pay tolls on long-distance IP calls? Come now.
Slashdot Mirror
Hear hear!
"But is ASP stronger?"
"No! No. Quicker. Easier. More seductive."
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Jeez, man! Get kicked around the playground a bit much as a child?
Loosen up, hit the mall, watch some pr0n, enjoy our corrupt Capitalistic western society. Less stressful that way.
Oh, and stop calling me trying to sell me "Proletariat Trolls Monthly" subscriptions.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Yes.
Works, though.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
...Microsoft will only gain market share by strongarm marketeering and strategy...
True, however, history shows that these are areas where Microsoft is second to none. It's obviously worked so far. If there's anything we should have learned from the past few years of American financial/technological history, it's that What's right or what works better means nothing in the face of what people think is right and works better. Public mindshare tends to lead to market share...this is how Windows won dominance in the first place.
Perhaps Microsoft will be able to convince the world that Linux is 'inferior'....but it would take some serious FUD in the face of Linux' proven superiority in several areas, specifically that of servers (file,internet).
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
On topic first post, AND it's hilarious. :-)
:-)
Speaking personally, I've already made the hop to OpenNap servers....I choose not to pay a middle man for a direct peer-to-peer connection anyway.
BMG-Napster, Inc. Last of the 1999-2000 dot-coms to fall? Maybe they'll be in next year's E-Trade Superbowl commercial.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
What's funny to me is, people who grew up on PC first-person shooters (Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, etc.) agree resoundingly that the mouse+keyboard combination is the only way to play an FPS. However...
...people that grew up playing console games say that a controller is the only way to play an FPS (GoldenEye, Timesplitters, Perfect Dark).
Case in point: I just recently got a friend of mine into playing PC FPS (Unreal Tournament, Soldier of Fortune). He loves it, and he's (annoyingly) good at it...his only complaint is having to reach all the way over to hell-and-be-gone just to switch weapons, or jump, or crouch. I'd never thought of it that way, because I'd ALWAYS played it that way (anyone remember when Duke Nukem 3D (IIRC) brought 'jump' and 'crouch' to FPS?).
The point is, simply, that it's personal preference. A skilled console player I'm sure would be excellent comp for a skilled PC player. I'll see you guys on the Net.
P.S.-->The only game (other than flight sims) where I've seen keyboard skill REALLY make a difference is Starcraft. It's SCARY watching a skilled keyboardist play....sheesh.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Personally, I already promised myself before WindowsME came out that I'm sticking with Win98SE. It does everything I need it to (meaning run PhotoShop,Premiere,Office, and games) and very little that I DON'T need it to. microsoft is rapidly running out of reasons to force the public to upgrade (which I believe is the purpose behind this .NET nonsense), and I for one am not buying into their bullshit.
The LAST thing I need is for my OS to contact Microsoft without me knowing about it. If it can contact this 'clearinghouse' to validate a serial number (in hardware), who's to say what else it's checking up on? It'd be simple from a programmer's perspective to add logic that double-checks the serials for all your M$ software, to make sure that the person who bought the OS is the same person who bought, say, Office. *sigh* Enough is enough. Bye bye, Micro$oft: It'll only be a matter of time before there's a Windows emulator of sufficient stability that we won't need you anymore. Better yet, the other big software houses (Macromedia, Adobe, etc.) will start developing for Linux.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
I don't deny that white does not neccesarily equate privilige. I'm simply stating that Joe White Boy in freshman engineering is definitelymore likely to be priviliged.
Case in point: When I was taking a high-level operating systems course, the prof randomly assigned us to groups. My group conferred primarily over e-mail, giving each other code examples, arguing about 'better ways' of doing things, etc. I ALWAYS seemed to have the correct answer, so it got to the point where everyone in the group generally agreed with me when I suggested something.
After the midterm, my group got together at the UGLi to go over documentation for an upcoming project. We were supposed to meet in a specific area of the library. My group was there when I got there, and when I got there, they looked up at me, and went right back to what they were doing, like SURELY I wasn't the guy they were waiting on. I introduced myself, and you should have SEEN the look of surprise on their faces.
That's the kind of racism I'm talking about. The automatic assumption that black == less competent.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
I don't even have words.
If anyone is profiting from racism, it is 51% of that 38% that you mentioned, namely, white women. White women have always been the LARGEST beneficiaries from minority-based scholarships and have always had the LEAST need.
How DARE you depict minorities as sitting back and collecting state/federal money. Any minority that receives DOLLAR ONE from any minority scholarship had to be admitted first, which makes them JUST as qualified (if not more so) than you.
And this is coming from someone who's scholarships were ALL academic, and who busted their ass to pay for school, while my non-minority classmates drank themselves into comas all weekend and blew their trust fund money on ski trips and new cars. Spare me. Financial need is financial need.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
...I got nice and angry at some of the comments posted on this article. It's funny to me that people I consider my peers (meaning geeks) always tend to assume there is no racism in our field, because they honestly think that they're too smart to be racist.
First, let me be frank: I don't agree with suing for $5billion. Nor do I agree with using the small percentage of MSFT minority workers as leverage. What I DO agree with is the basis behind their argument, which is the EXACT same attitude being reinforced on this board.
Everywhere I've worked (UNIX Systems Admin/Engineering) I've been seen as a remarkably compentent, skilled worker....until I meet the customer face-to-face. Then, suddenly, my decisions are questioned more, people go over my head to ask about things that are my responsibility. Even back to college (University of Michigan), I was faced every day with fellow students who were SO SURE that they were smarter than me, and professors who didn't think that I deserved to be here, assuming that I was only here because of Affirmative Action (I've got that in the workplace as well).
It seems the general consensus among white, male tech workers is that they belong in the industry. If they are up for a promotion against an equally skilled minority, of COURSE they should get the promotion, because they're automatically more skilled. Because the majority of tech managers are ALSO white, this attitude is perpetuated.
Let's set the record straight: My racial group does not choose to be less educated...we simply don't always have access to the same resources growing up as whites. That can't possibly be understood by someone who's never attended public school in a major city (I'm from Detroit). I took freshman EECS with 3 hundred white guys that had been taking C classes since the 9th grade, and the only exposure I'd had to any form of high-level programming was self-taught. Poor K-12 education == Poor SAT/ACT != quality higher education. This uneven playing field is the reason for the small numbers of us in the tech industry.
I'm sick of typing at this point, and I've got Apache modules to code. To sum up, stop with the "Blacks are always complaining...why don't they just get jobs...they have as much access to higher education as we do" crap. Find a black man on your job site, and ask him where he's from, and what high school he attended. I guarantee he's either got parents as priviliged as most of yours, or he worked his ASS off to get to where he is now.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Perhaps I'm the only one that actually went to the site, but it appears that bootup messages are piped to the splash screen. I'd double-check the code before I installed it, though.
Personally, I'll definitely be giving this a try...anything to make my box more custom, sleek, and sexy is cred by me. I've single-handedly drawn most of my friends to Linux by extolling it's many virtues, and this is just another "Wow, cool!" factor.
Bottom line: It's Open Source Software. The beauty of that is, you have a choice. Install it or don't, but don't shit all over the people who think this is a cool thing.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker (who gets paid to 'fiddle with logging and other bullshit')
...but the lack of details and general 'feel' of the article kinda makes me feel like this is an elaborate 'sting'. Have kiddies write/call in saying "I know how to crack a government site!". Bingo, instant crackdown on would-be crackerz.
I'd say stay away from this one...at least in the US, admitting to goverment officials that you're knowledgeable (and capable) of "compromising the security of federal property" isn't the best idea.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
*laugh*
Now THAT'S the ad campaign AMD needs to get "mindshare". It would beat Intel's Blue Men, and DEFINITELY the guys in the shiny clean suits with the pseudo-rock playing in the background.
The 'Intel Inside' melodic bong-bong-bong-bong! is kinda catchy, though.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
You have to give them some credit...they were caught red-handed, sure. But they could have just as easily told Everybuddy and the Slashdot community-at-large to go fuck our collective selves.
Let's just look at this as a 'close call', then sit down and figure out how to deal with this in the future. If the GPL isn't legally enforceable, there really isn't any point to it.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Basically....worse still if you happen to live in Michigan (like I do) and you cross state lines every day to work in Toledo. Hmmm...I wonder if it would be 'trafficking' if I ssh to my box at home from a laptop in the car.
*sigh* I just hope that Bush hires some well informed advisors....we all know he's not the brightest, so let's hope he at least asks someone what the Internet is before he signs this guy.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Among these offenses are making false statements on student-loan applications or passport applications. 18 U.S.C. sec. 2516(1).
Great. So I can get my house wire-tapped, computer(s) seized, and e-mail (and all other 'electronic' communication) read because someone suspects that I made a false statement on a student loan application? This does not bode well...
What can we do to get this thing killed?
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
The Philips eXpanium seems to do the same thing as this guy, for $100 more. Anyone know of any other differences?
Is it me, or have /. trolls lost their creativity. Trolling used to be an art form...I'd halfway through reading a comment before I realized it was a troll. The best trolls weren't obvious.
/. opinion
The latest formula seems to be:
1) Read heading
2) Consider popular
3) Say something obviously incendiary, that will get plenty of replies.
4) Hilarity ensues.
*sigh* Ah, well. Just remember kiddies...don't feed the trolls.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Anyone notice that while there are detailed entries on Microsoft, Paul Allen, and Bill Gates, there's only limited information on Sun Microsystems (pretty much just describing them as the big, bad corporation that groundlessly sued M$ over embracing and extending Java) and NOTHING on Linus Torvalds OR Linux?
"Just one word. Why?"
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
Another myth from Microsoft's page whacked. (Free Operating System Does Not Mean Low Total Cost of Ownership) Sheesh. Does anyone have a "Microsoft Myths" page?
...in terms of Linux gaining mindshare (sorry for the buzzword...just came out of a meeting with sales. Yick).
Hmmm...guess Micro$oft is gonna have to update that "Linux Needs Real World Proof Points Rather than Anecdotal Stories" part of it's Linux Myths page.
:)
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
A good firewall with IP Masquerading and IP banning oughta clear that right up. Beats Caller ID, in my opinion.
Very true...theoretically all you need is an IP-capable device.
Personally, I've always wondered why someone doesn't just hack a net-capable cellphone to use voice-over-IP. No per-minute-charges, no long-distance charges, and it's global. I'd pay a late rate for that.
Of course, then cell phone providers would lose tremendous amounts of money, so this'll probably never happen.....unless.....hmmmm....
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker
I have to disagree on two counts. First, there simply isn't a computer in every home in the states, much less one that can handle voice-over-IP.
Secondly, I'd rather not have the FCC regulating (and dicking about with) my IP voice calls. Can you imagine having to pay tolls on long-distance IP calls? Come now.
--Just Another Pimp A$$ Perl Hacker