I always found that it wasn't easy to cheat. If I copy and pasted somebodies code, I had to go back through and change it all around so that I couldn't be caught cheating. This often proved to be more difficult than actually doing the project myself would have been.
The announcement says that it approaches 100:1, and I'm assuming that is the average compression. The larger the files get, I would guess the better compression they get. I doubt they would make any claims that they could get a 100 byte file down to one byte. And why would you want to? However if you have a 100 Gigs of data, and could reduce it to 1 gig, that would be something everyone could use.
I don't take this announcement at face value, but I do think that alot of people are dismissing it because it goes against the rules that are known. Every once in a while a technology come along that doesn't follow the existing rules. It starts with a whole new set of rules. These are the things that are revolutionary. These are the things that change the world. If we all accepted that compression could never get any better than it currently is, then it would never get better!
A quote from the site linked to in the submission.
A lunchbox is NOT a cheap, off-the-shelf, shrink-wrapped computer system. In fact, one can generally purchase a fully operational notebook computer for less than the cost of the bare lunchbox chassis.
So why do you think that we will be able to work the magic for you. Of course you can argue that they are just saying that so you shell out the big $$$ to them, but still. Its like reading on CNN that nobody knows where Bin Laden is, and then asking slashdot for his mailing address!
Hackers do not target MS products because of "percieved" vulerabilities... they target MS because their products are KNOWN and EXPECTED to have holes.No, hackers target MS products, because they are more widely used, and generally used by people whose biggest concern isn't security. It's like going into a neighborhood where nobody locks their doors. Not that their doors can't be locked, but they feel like they have no reason to do so!
I don't disagree with you. The courts can hand down a punishment, without MS and agreeing to anything. But that wouldn't be a settlement! A settlement is an agreement between the two parties.
Dreamcasts are cheap because they aren't making them anymore and they are trying to get rid of all the exess inventory. It has nothing to do with Sega's costs!
I understand everyones concerns with Microsoft and their Passport technology. But what would you have the government do to change it? I think this is more of a case where if you don't want to use it don't. And if a company you deal with requires its use, talk to them.
You can't have the government put a stop to a perfectly legal business practice by Microsoft just because you don't like it. I'm not sure government overcite would be a good thing either. I'm interested to know what you would want the government to do about it.
I think there is an argument that kids learning MS software could be a good thing. It might not make them into sysadmins, but a solid understanding of technology (be it built by MS or not) is a positive thing!
Well I think that if one were to start educating users on alternatives to Microsoft products it would have to be done at the must rudementary levels. Ironically enough that probably means the schools. If so many of the state governments are worried about MS's monopolistic powers, perhaps they should introduce initiatives that put alternatives in the classroom. This would mean more than just buying the hardware and software. Train teachers, train administrators, offer new classes. Maybe then you would be raising a whole new generation of coputer users that weren't hardwired to use Windows!
Well I think as soon as the supreme court stopped the recount in florida, the fate was sealed for this entire case. The Bush administration wanted nothing to do with it. The states pushed on, but without the overwelming support of the federal government it was an uphill battle. I guess everyone will just have to take what they get and live to fight another day.
The funny thing is I'm a Microsoft supporter and a Democrat. I hate myself!
I think a fairer comment in the story would have been presumably valued at Microsoft's current prices. I would even go onto assume that the schools are going to get the software at the cost that they normally do. (Read: With the educational discount). Really it is like they will be getting 900 million dollars worth of free software!
Even if you don't like Microsoft you have to see this as a good thing for schools.
At what point does this top being Microsofts fault and start being the fault of the millions of users? If people didn't buy the software or use the software, a monopoly would not exist!
OK, I understand the Microsoft is unpopular here on slashdot. I also understand that they settlement could have probably been alot worse. But lets look at the advantages of this.
The kids are going to win in the end. They are going to get better computers in the classroom that should ulitimately allow them to get better jobs and improve their quality of living. If their was going to be a settlement, I like the idea of this much more than dumping a lump sum of money to state governments and ending up with god knows what. At least all the money is directed toward a good cause.
This is tantamount to saying that a car salesman should never go below the sticker price. Sales people have to sell. If it means giving discounts, so be it. I wish the sales people at my company did a better job of selling! Bribery is not the right term for what this guy is doing or what he is advocating others to do!
It is true that seeing how a major sales operation works is very informative, but I think the fortune 1000 clients should be more interested in the Microsoft's official position on things, and not what some sales guy thinks.
If this memo had Bill Gates at the top of the page, then we would be having a different conversation!
To tell you the truth, the memo looks like one you would find in any major corporation. Microsoft and Linux are competitors, there is no doubt about that. I don't see why this is newsworthy.. But then again this is slashdot so I guess that doesn't much matter!
By the 4th year of college, I could care less if I ever had to take another CS course. As exciting as Theory of Computation may sound to some, it really was the most god awful thing I ever had to sit through. Luckily my senior year included an independent study and software engineering, which were at least a little bit more interesting than the pumping llema. (sp?).. School basically became good for one thing, and that was partying and having a good time. Which I think to some extent what college is all about.
Now that I'm in the industry, I love the fact that there are new challenges every day, and they pay me to solve them. It is 100x as exciting as any CS class ever was. But on the other hand I can't go out until 3am every night! I've had to mature some.
The moral of the story is to make the best of whatever situation you are in. There is no such thing as a Utopia. Nothing is perfect. Find the good parts of your current situation and run with them. Soon you'll be presented with a new situation, and you'll have to do it all over again!
So how do you differenciate between growing pains and an evil plot? If this was an MS site there would be 30 posts bashing the tactics of the worlds largest software maker. But because it isn't, it is just "growing pains." Oh well!
Slashdot Mirror
I always found that it wasn't easy to cheat. If I copy and pasted somebodies code, I had to go back through and change it all around so that I couldn't be caught cheating. This often proved to be more difficult than actually doing the project myself would have been.
The announcement says that it approaches 100:1, and I'm assuming that is the average compression. The larger the files get, I would guess the better compression they get. I doubt they would make any claims that they could get a 100 byte file down to one byte. And why would you want to? However if you have a 100 Gigs of data, and could reduce it to 1 gig, that would be something everyone could use.
I don't take this announcement at face value, but I do think that alot of people are dismissing it because it goes against the rules that are known. Every once in a while a technology come along that doesn't follow the existing rules. It starts with a whole new set of rules. These are the things that are revolutionary. These are the things that change the world. If we all accepted that compression could never get any better than it currently is, then it would never get better!
A quote from the site linked to in the submission.
A lunchbox is NOT a cheap, off-the-shelf, shrink-wrapped computer system. In fact, one can generally purchase a fully operational notebook computer for less than the cost of the bare lunchbox chassis.
So why do you think that we will be able to work the magic for you. Of course you can argue that they are just saying that so you shell out the big $$$ to them, but still. Its like reading on CNN that nobody knows where Bin Laden is, and then asking slashdot for his mailing address!
I am not acting weird!
Hackers do not target MS products because of "percieved" vulerabilities... they target MS because their products are KNOWN and EXPECTED to have holes.No, hackers target MS products, because they are more widely used, and generally used by people whose biggest concern isn't security. It's like going into a neighborhood where nobody locks their doors. Not that their doors can't be locked, but they feel like they have no reason to do so!
Microsoft can't be to blame for this... Would you blame Linus for someone running a Kernel from 4 years ago, that might have a security hole in it?
I don't disagree with you. The courts can hand down a punishment, without MS and agreeing to anything. But that wouldn't be a settlement! A settlement is an agreement between the two parties.
I don't think it could be considered a setllement if Microsoft had no say in it.
Dreamcasts are cheap because they aren't making them anymore and they are trying to get rid of all the exess inventory. It has nothing to do with Sega's costs!
I understand everyones concerns with Microsoft and their Passport technology. But what would you have the government do to change it? I think this is more of a case where if you don't want to use it don't. And if a company you deal with requires its use, talk to them.
You can't have the government put a stop to a perfectly legal business practice by Microsoft just because you don't like it. I'm not sure government overcite would be a good thing either. I'm interested to know what you would want the government to do about it.
At what point would you have said screw my convictions, I'm taking the money. 100k? a million? five million?
No, really!
I think there is an argument that kids learning MS software could be a good thing. It might not make them into sysadmins, but a solid understanding of technology (be it built by MS or not) is a positive thing!
Maybe I should blame it on something else then.. Hmmm.. CmdrTaco sounds like a good target!
Well I think that if one were to start educating users on alternatives to Microsoft products it would have to be done at the must rudementary levels. Ironically enough that probably means the schools. If so many of the state governments are worried about MS's monopolistic powers, perhaps they should introduce initiatives that put alternatives in the classroom. This would mean more than just buying the hardware and software. Train teachers, train administrators, offer new classes. Maybe then you would be raising a whole new generation of coputer users that weren't hardwired to use Windows!
Where is I can't see an alternative to water, I'm sure I could find many articles on this very website giving me an alternative to Windows!
Well I think as soon as the supreme court stopped the recount in florida, the fate was sealed for this entire case. The Bush administration wanted nothing to do with it. The states pushed on, but without the overwelming support of the federal government it was an uphill battle. I guess everyone will just have to take what they get and live to fight another day.
The funny thing is I'm a Microsoft supporter and a Democrat. I hate myself!
I think a fairer comment in the story would have been presumably valued at Microsoft's current prices. I would even go onto assume that the schools are going to get the software at the cost that they normally do. (Read: With the educational discount). Really it is like they will be getting 900 million dollars worth of free software!
Even if you don't like Microsoft you have to see this as a good thing for schools.
At what point does this top being Microsofts fault and start being the fault of the millions of users? If people didn't buy the software or use the software, a monopoly would not exist!
OK, I understand the Microsoft is unpopular here on slashdot. I also understand that they settlement could have probably been alot worse. But lets look at the advantages of this.
The kids are going to win in the end. They are going to get better computers in the classroom that should ulitimately allow them to get better jobs and improve their quality of living. If their was going to be a settlement, I like the idea of this much more than dumping a lump sum of money to state governments and ending up with god knows what. At least all the money is directed toward a good cause.
It wouldn't be that bad. The industry would just get away from numbers, and move to something like many software makers are doing today.
In place of a 2Ghz Pentium IV we will be seeing an Axium Gold.
It will take a little getting used to, but we'll get over it. Ford doesn't call their cars Model A's or Model T's anymore!
This is tantamount to saying that a car salesman should never go below the sticker price. Sales people have to sell. If it means giving discounts, so be it. I wish the sales people at my company did a better job of selling! Bribery is not the right term for what this guy is doing or what he is advocating others to do!
It is true that seeing how a major sales operation works is very informative, but I think the fortune 1000 clients should be more interested in the Microsoft's official position on things, and not what some sales guy thinks.
If this memo had Bill Gates at the top of the page, then we would be having a different conversation!
To tell you the truth, the memo looks like one you would find in any major corporation. Microsoft and Linux are competitors, there is no doubt about that. I don't see why this is newsworthy.. But then again this is slashdot so I guess that doesn't much matter!
No this is not a troll!
That is completely true.
By the 4th year of college, I could care less if I ever had to take another CS course. As exciting as Theory of Computation may sound to some, it really was the most god awful thing I ever had to sit through. Luckily my senior year included an independent study and software engineering, which were at least a little bit more interesting than the pumping llema. (sp?).. School basically became good for one thing, and that was partying and having a good time. Which I think to some extent what college is all about.
Now that I'm in the industry, I love the fact that there are new challenges every day, and they pay me to solve them. It is 100x as exciting as any CS class ever was. But on the other hand I can't go out until 3am every night! I've had to mature some.
The moral of the story is to make the best of whatever situation you are in. There is no such thing as a Utopia. Nothing is perfect. Find the good parts of your current situation and run with them. Soon you'll be presented with a new situation, and you'll have to do it all over again!
So how do you differenciate between growing pains and an evil plot? If this was an MS site there would be 30 posts bashing the tactics of the worlds largest software maker. But because it isn't, it is just "growing pains." Oh well!