Restriction on Binding Middleware Products to Operating System Products. Microsoft shall not, in any Operating System Product distributed six or more months after the effective date of this Final Judgment, Bind any Middleware Product to a Windows Operating System...
This is the one that really gets me. This whole trial started over the "illegal" tying of IE into Windows, and according to this, they don't have to take it out. Since it's already in, it gets to stay in.
Where do you get this? The way I see it, that passage says the exact opposite of what you say it does.
If they ever get arround to implementing layers, it'll be a pretty nice browser.
Before you get your hopes up, I have to tell you: there are no plans for support of LAYER elements in Mozilla. If anybody wants to step up to the plate and add it themselves, nobody will complain, but the official Mozilla plans revolve around W3C standards for the DOM.
Most layer effects are possible through CSS, and the rest through DOM manipulations, so new pages are no problem. Recoding existing pages, however, will be a pain in the butt. (However the recoded pages should work on both IE and Mozilla-derived browsers. Yay!)
The real problem I see with this is hardcoded links. If you click on a link to somethingorother.com, will that go to a different site depending on what TLD you are under?
Making this work logically--that is, so that links to root-level domains go to the same country as the referring page unless a national TLD is provided--would require changes to software and to the rules for resolving URLs. The user agent would have to maintain the current TLD and append it to the domain part of the URL.
They have balls, I'll give them that. Balls but no brains. It takes some serious testicular fortitude to drop a dingleberry like this:
providing to the other any APIs, Technical Information, or Communications Interfaces, or technical information that is not simultaneously published, disclosed, or made readily available to ISVs, IHVs, and OEMs; provided that this provision shall not apply when (a) representatives of the Operating Systems Business and the Applications Business are engaged in technical discussions to ensure (1) that their products work well together or (2) that developers in one Business take into account input from developers in the other Business; (b) the two Businesses are working together cooperatively to develop new software technologies;
and expect anybody to let it slide. It defeats the entire purpose of the breakup, and the DOJ certainly understands that. Do they expect that the DOJ of all groups would get bored by the legalese and overlook it?
I think even if George Bush wins, it'd be far too late for him to get this dropped. The verdict has already been reached, the only issue now is the form of punishment.
Start at http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html and then work your way through all the other essays on the web written on this topic and then tell me there is no evidence.
Philosophy is a lot like religious faith--when it comes right down to it, you can't actually prove much of anything. There are no universally accepted axioms in philosophy, which you would need in order to prove anything.
Which is not to say that you can't prove a philosophy wrong, you just can't prove it right...the most you can do in that direction is prove it valid. I.e. the initial assumptions do not contradict each other, and argument follows logically from them.
It is unlikely that the free software movement and proprietary software vendors will ever agree on a philosophical level. They are operating from different initial assumptions, and their arguments are both technically valid. That's where the Open Source (pragmatist rather than idealist--although they aren't mutually exclusive) approach comes in, and why the Open Source movement has been more successful than the FSF.
Fortunately, the goals of the Open Source movement overlap with those of the the Free Software advocates, so their extent.
Check out this article. Looks like AOL really is writing a version for Linux. Rumor has it it'll be based on the Gecko (Mozilla layout component) rendering engine.
Anybody know anything interesting about FC? I remember once downloading a FC pic viewer and looking at a demo photo of a ski jumper in the air. What was really impressive was that I could keep zooming in until I could see the snot oozing out of his nostril! An interesting thing about FC is that it can GENERATE detail that isn't stored in the image file. However, there is no gaurentee that it will match the actual detail.
Fractal compression is very cool. It's sort of like a vector format, in a way...it has no inherent size. It can also achieve insane levels of compression. There was a small article on it several years ago in Scientific American, written (IIRC) by the inventor. The examples were very impressive.
Unfortunately, patents bite us on the butt once again. The format is patented by its creator, who runs an image software business (Iterated Systems). I'm not sure when or if the patent will revert to the public domain, either, since it's a British patent and I know nothing about how Britain handles IP law.
Forgive my ignorance, but I haven't downloaded a Mozilla build in ages: how's the PNG support?
You're forgiven:) Mozilla has full alpha channel support now, but the default is still sort of a kluge: instead of true color mixing, it uses random dithering to simulate transparency. This was done so that alpha would work on all platforms, including those that do not have native alpha compositiing, since Mozilla's architecture makes the necessary calculations difficult.
There is, however, a build option that compiles in support for native alpha compositing on some platforms--but I can't remember which platforms or which option.
I certainly hadn't heard of Dr.Dre before the Napster incident and while I'm not a music freak, I even watch MTV occasionally.
It's kind of hard to believe you've watched MTV for any significant amount of time without hearing of Dr. Dre. Of course, if you just started watching this year, it's conceivable...in the current music-industry climate, Britney Spears is considered a veteran performer.
As for Seagram - OK, I was wrong in deducing from the bland look of their pages and the stupidity of their president that they're not important. But tell me, why should I have heard of them? Is there anything about that company that should matter to someone not involved with the film industry?
They make Seagram's Gin, for one thing! Seriously, Seagram is a huge conglomerate that has way more influence than just in the entertainment industry. IIRC they own DuPont (you know, the people who make pens--and just about every industrial chemical known to man).
I got started writing programs in BASIC too, on my dad's ancient Osbourne running CP/M. But this was mostly just copying out of books (I had a good one filled with games in BASIC..still have it, too, I think). I actually started programming in Apple Logo II, for my old Apple IIc.
Logo, I think, is a better language for learning than BASIC. For one thing, the logic is much more like other languages, while BASIC is stuck with those godforsaken subroutines. It also has graphical capability, which I think is a must in a language for teaching children (text just looks too dull).
These measures do seem reasonable, and are absolutely not singlemindedly anti-closed-source. However, they have some problems:
Open APIs. Actually, this is precisely what breaking up the companies would accomplish. With the application and OS divisions split, hidden APIs would be a liability rather than a strategic advantage. The market maintains this openness, rather than having DoJ agents looking over everyone's shoulder.
Defensive-only patents. IANAL, but I really don't think a federal court of law has the power to prescribe this, nor could the DoJ enforce it.
Restricting hardware certifications. This is sort of tangential to the problem at hand, although it would remove one potential opportunity for leverage. Unfortunately, this suggestion contains too many provisions relating to how other companies should behave, so I don't think it's really viable.
Apple. I've thought for a long time that Apple should have split up. One company for OS, one for hardware, one (Claris) for apps. Nice & simple. And allow clones, to drive down prices--I was pissed when they killed the clones, even though I didn't own one.
Sun has too many viable, profitable competitors. I do, however, think that Java should be handed off to an independent standards body.
AOL/Time Warner/Netscape/What Am I Missing? isn't a monopoly...yet. It's just a conglomerate, albeit a huge, scary one. I'm happy that the Netscape browser is now under the control of an independent organization. And if they start abusing their media ties, expect someone to unleash a holy shitstorm.
IBM. Last time I checked, it wasn't illegal to be an ex-monopoly, even if the fall wasn'tcaused by government intervention. Antitrust law is only there in case the actions of the market are insufficient to prevent or punish abuse. In this case, the market got to IBM before the DoJ could. IBM has been a good corporate citizen recently, so lets give 'em a break. And has anyone else noticed that IBM's devcenter billboards mention Linux but not Windows, or any other MS product or technology?
The hardware division would probably get sold to another company pretty quickly. The Windows company would also put out the absolute basic tools, like Notepad, but nothing fancier than that. The Network & Media company would consist of MSN, NBC, Hotmail, etc. --- Zardoz has spoken!
Slashdot Mirror
So far, all it says is that he is still waiting for his book on Ham radio to arrive. There are no instructions yet.
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Zardoz has spoken!
No, they'll appeal right away. A lot of the provisions go into effect immediately, and the only way they can delay that is to appeal.
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Zardoz has spoken!
Summer on Slashdot
Lots of haiku recently
Griping in disguise
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Zardoz has spoken!
Where do you get this? The way I see it, that passage says the exact opposite of what you say it does.
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Zardoz has spoken!
Before you get your hopes up, I have to tell you: there are no plans for support of LAYER elements in Mozilla. If anybody wants to step up to the plate and add it themselves, nobody will complain, but the official Mozilla plans revolve around W3C standards for the DOM.
Most layer effects are possible through CSS, and the rest through DOM manipulations, so new pages are no problem. Recoding existing pages, however, will be a pain in the butt. (However the recoded pages should work on both IE and Mozilla-derived browsers. Yay!)
---
Zardoz has spoken!
Slashdot limericks!
"There once was a geek from Nantucket..."
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Zardoz has spoken!
The real problem I see with this is hardcoded links. If you click on a link to somethingorother.com, will that go to a different site depending on what TLD you are under?
Making this work logically--that is, so that links to root-level domains go to the same country as the referring page unless a national TLD is provided--would require changes to software and to the rules for resolving URLs. The user agent would have to maintain the current TLD and append it to the domain part of the URL.
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Zardoz has spoken!
"Screw you guys, I'm going home."
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Zardoz has spoken!
Yes, but Fuji TV is a Japanese corporation. Anybody know anything about Japanese IP law?
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Zardoz has spoken!
Funkadelic!
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Zardoz has spoken!
They have balls, I'll give them that. Balls but no brains. It takes some serious testicular fortitude to drop a dingleberry like this:
providing to the other any APIs, Technical Information, or Communications Interfaces, or technical information that is not simultaneously published, disclosed, or made readily available to ISVs, IHVs, and OEMs; provided that this provision shall not apply when (a) representatives of the Operating Systems Business and the Applications Business are engaged in technical discussions to ensure (1) that their products work well together or (2) that developers in one Business take into account input from developers in the other Business; (b) the two Businesses are working together cooperatively to develop new software technologies;and expect anybody to let it slide. It defeats the entire purpose of the breakup, and the DOJ certainly understands that. Do they expect that the DOJ of all groups would get bored by the legalese and overlook it?
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Zardoz has spoken!
I think even if George Bush wins, it'd be far too late for him to get this dropped. The verdict has already been reached, the only issue now is the form of punishment.
IA, of course, NAL
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Zardoz has spoken!
Mopetopallopicopa
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Zardoz has spoken!
Philosophy is a lot like religious faith--when it comes right down to it, you can't actually prove much of anything. There are no universally accepted axioms in philosophy, which you would need in order to prove anything.
Which is not to say that you can't prove a philosophy wrong, you just can't prove it right...the most you can do in that direction is prove it valid. I.e. the initial assumptions do not contradict each other, and argument follows logically from them.
It is unlikely that the free software movement and proprietary software vendors will ever agree on a philosophical level. They are operating from different initial assumptions, and their arguments are both technically valid. That's where the Open Source (pragmatist rather than idealist--although they aren't mutually exclusive) approach comes in, and why the Open Source movement has been more successful than the FSF.
Fortunately, the goals of the Open Source movement overlap with those of the the Free Software advocates, so their extent.
degee---
Zardoz has spoken!
Anyone else think a MU* client would be perfect on a cell phone? It's text-based, multiplayer, allows chat, the whole bit.
And I could go for telnet on a cell, too
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Zardoz has spoken!
Check out this article. Looks like AOL really is writing a version for Linux. Rumor has it it'll be based on the Gecko (Mozilla layout component) rendering engine.
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Zardoz has spoken!
How long do you think it'll be before someone writes a VoIP module for Mozilla? Now that would kick ass.
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Zardoz has spoken!
Fractal compression is very cool. It's sort of like a vector format, in a way...it has no inherent size. It can also achieve insane levels of compression. There was a small article on it several years ago in Scientific American, written (IIRC) by the inventor. The examples were very impressive.
Unfortunately, patents bite us on the butt once again. The format is patented by its creator, who runs an image software business (Iterated Systems). I'm not sure when or if the patent will revert to the public domain, either, since it's a British patent and I know nothing about how Britain handles IP law.
---
Zardoz has spoken!
You're forgiven :) Mozilla has full alpha channel support now, but the default is still sort of a kluge: instead of true color mixing, it uses random dithering to simulate transparency. This was done so that alpha would work on all platforms, including those that do not have native alpha compositiing, since Mozilla's architecture makes the necessary calculations difficult.
There is, however, a build option that compiles in support for native alpha compositing on some platforms--but I can't remember which platforms or which option.
There is more information available in the bug report in bugzilla.
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Zardoz has spoken!
It's kind of hard to believe you've watched MTV for any significant amount of time without hearing of Dr. Dre. Of course, if you just started watching this year, it's conceivable...in the current music-industry climate, Britney Spears is considered a veteran performer.
They make Seagram's Gin, for one thing! Seriously, Seagram is a huge conglomerate that has way more influence than just in the entertainment industry. IIRC they own DuPont (you know, the people who make pens--and just about every industrial chemical known to man).
---
Zardoz has spoken!
I got started writing programs in BASIC too, on my dad's ancient Osbourne running CP/M. But this was mostly just copying out of books (I had a good one filled with games in BASIC..still have it, too, I think). I actually started programming in Apple Logo II, for my old Apple IIc.
Logo, I think, is a better language for learning than BASIC. For one thing, the logic is much more like other languages, while BASIC is stuck with those godforsaken subroutines. It also has graphical capability, which I think is a must in a language for teaching children (text just looks too dull).
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Zardoz has spoken!
These measures do seem reasonable, and are absolutely not singlemindedly anti-closed-source. However, they have some problems:
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Zardoz has spoken!
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Zardoz has spoken!
I think this post sums up exactly why these stories keep showing up, and why they get so many posts. It feels like revenge!
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Zardoz has spoken!
My ideal breakup:
- Windows OS
- Applications (including MSIE)
- Network & Media
- Hardware
The hardware division would probably get sold to another company pretty quickly. The Windows company would also put out the absolute basic tools, like Notepad, but nothing fancier than that. The Network & Media company would consist of MSN, NBC, Hotmail, etc.---
Zardoz has spoken!