But it wasn't Microsoft that "brought desktop computing to the home user", it was market forces, helped out by IBM. IBM launched their "PC" using off-the-shelf components (including the new Intel 8088 processor) glued together with a proprietary BIOS, enabling them to sell it much more cheaply than their existing products. Compaq and other companies reverse-engineered this proprietary BIOS, allowing them to sell "IBM-compatible PC"s at an even lower price. The fierce competition, combined with the falling costs of processors, RAM and discs, meant that the price of real computing power came tumbling down to a point where it was within the reach of many businesses and individuals.
Because MS's DOS came with IBM's PC, and MS had reserved the right to sell its OS to other manufacturers, MS were the leading OS supplier for this new platform, but they weren't the only ones (e.g. Digital Research and IBM also had their own OSes). MS's triumph was in their sharp business instincts and practices which allowed them to take over this new market before it had matured, and to continue to dominate it until the present day.
If Bill Gates hadn't got that contract with IBM, the personal computer OS industry today would probably look like the console OS industry and the phone OS industry (or indeed any healthy industry), with a few large companies competing feverishly with each other to the benefit of the customer.
I really think that Bill Gates is the biggest beneficiary of the computer revolution, not its biggest benefactor. If anyone can be credited with putting a desktop in every home, it's the IBM executive who authorised the IBM PC project to take such a cut-price route in the first place. I wonder if he got any respect in IBM, or if they reviled him as the man who turned their business upside-down?
I'd just like to point out, that that's not UNIVERSAL it's AN AGREED CONVENTION. Even the culture that created it doesn't understand it. From Wikipedia: "Experts have felt that the trefoil symbol had little intuitive value and was less likely to be recognized by those not educated in its significance. According to the IAEA, in a survey conducted at an international school, many children mistook the trefoil for a non-threatening propeller." So it's being supplemented by this.
As well as Scratch, there's a lot of other interesting educational stuff built on top on Squeak, eg eToys, Plopp, Dr Geo II etc. The fact that it's on the OLPC XO is driving a lot of development work for new activities as well.
There's an article at news.squeak.org that mentions an interesting series of posts by one of the developers of Dr Geo II who is building up an introduction to Squeak features for educators.
David Brin deals with a lot of the issues you raise in great depth in his essay The Great Silence (link to scanned pdf here: http://www.brin-l.com/downloads/silence.pdf ). The list of references are a gold-mine for anyone wishing to learn more about this topic.
Maybe europe should invent it's[sic] own OS and show us what we are missing. How about Symbian? It has 67% of its market and was shipped on over 20 million devices in Q4 2007.
3. Death of the registered person means death of the copyright (you can't encourage dead people to make new works no matter how hard you try)
So if I work hard building - let's say - boats, and one day I drop dead of a heart attack, my children inherit the boats and can sell them. But if I work hard designing boats, my kids starve? Hey, welcome to the real world! Most people who "work hard building boats" have no interest in the capital; when they die the children get sweet FA from their life's work. That is, unless the parent had taken their responsibilities as a parent seriously, and saved their income or got life insurance. It's not society's responsibility to ensure that your children are well-provided-for by your income, it's yours.
I think I find this such an objectionable argument because it uses a shallow "think of the children" justification to make a special case which primarily benefits corporate copyright holders.
Second, exactly where will you be that power is inaccessible? Coffee shop? Plane? Train? Boat? Car? Airport? This is the 2000's and power is accessible in almost all of these places. How about Heathrow's brand new Terminal 5?
"In a brand new terminal built in the 21st century, BAA has managed to build departure waiting areas with not a single passenger-accessible power outlet. Rows and rows of hard plastic benches with armrests which prevent you from lying down--kind of makes you feel like you're in a Greyhound bus terminal and not a single power outlet".
I'm sure they'll be scrabbling to fix that ridiculous oversight though.
I'm always pleased to hear about an activist (doesn't matter what kind) publicly admit they were wrong after learning more about the subject. Firstly because they took the initiative to actually research something instead of taking as gospel anything those around them say. Secondly because they're big enough to admit they were wrong. I just wish more activists would do the same. This seems quite a strange wish, and an odd characterisation of activists.
Activists are people who are concerned that the established opinion on a topic is incorrect, and try to change that opinion. In doing so, they've already shown that they don't take everything they hear as gospel. The fact that they're concerned about the topic generally means that they know more about that topic than the general public.
If you want to see improvements in the quality of debate on contentious issues, you should really wish that activists (and indeed everyone) should always apply critical thinking to the evidence they review *before* basing their opinions and actions on it, rather than after they've muddied the waters!
Having said that, in this particular case, I'm not sure whether anyone should be pleased about this individual's apparent change of heart, as the answers she gives in the interview read like standard "Nuclear Power Is Fun Fun Fun!!!" PR responses, rather than the results of a critical re-evaluation of the arguments on both sides. Her linked article in the Huffington Post also reads like a PR piece. I wonder what her background really is?
Yes this exists in Japan. QR Codes are an "open" patent, the company that owns the patent has published the details so that anyone can implement it and doesn't enforce its patent except for the name.
Why is a patent-encumbered solution preferred to the public-domain, ISO-standard Data Matrix format? Isn't this marketing triumphing over common sense?
They're using "Office" to refer to "Microsoft Office": what they're offering is an Office plugin that allows you to store and share your doucments online.
It's slightly misleading to say that,
Copyright is about the right to copy something. There is a natural right to copy things; copyright is about imposing restrictions on that right.
See also this cached page which also has an interesting discussion of the effect in other languages; it works in French and Spanish, but not in Finnish or Hebrew. Interestingly, I could recognise the language of most of the scrambled samples, and even read much of the French and Spanish without difficulty, and I'm by no means fluent in either.
Slashdot Mirror
But it wasn't Microsoft that "brought desktop computing to the home user", it was market forces, helped out by IBM. IBM launched their "PC" using off-the-shelf components (including the new Intel 8088 processor) glued together with a proprietary BIOS, enabling them to sell it much more cheaply than their existing products. Compaq and other companies reverse-engineered this proprietary BIOS, allowing them to sell "IBM-compatible PC"s at an even lower price. The fierce competition, combined with the falling costs of processors, RAM and discs, meant that the price of real computing power came tumbling down to a point where it was within the reach of many businesses and individuals.
Because MS's DOS came with IBM's PC, and MS had reserved the right to sell its OS to other manufacturers, MS were the leading OS supplier for this new platform, but they weren't the only ones (e.g. Digital Research and IBM also had their own OSes). MS's triumph was in their sharp business instincts and practices which allowed them to take over this new market before it had matured, and to continue to dominate it until the present day.
If Bill Gates hadn't got that contract with IBM, the personal computer OS industry today would probably look like the console OS industry and the phone OS industry (or indeed any healthy industry), with a few large companies competing feverishly with each other to the benefit of the customer.
I really think that Bill Gates is the biggest beneficiary of the computer revolution, not its biggest benefactor. If anyone can be credited with putting a desktop in every home, it's the IBM executive who authorised the IBM PC project to take such a cut-price route in the first place. I wonder if he got any respect in IBM, or if they reviled him as the man who turned their business upside-down?
Here's the Guardian's take on the New York Times' reporting of the Wall Street Journal's story.
Damn, I wish I had mod points today; this is so nicely written.
When I read your first sentence, I thought I was reading this post again.
You might enjoy reading this paper on the EDL system.
Basically, the only thing the stupid algorithm knows about Go is the simple rules and how to score the board.
Surely knowing "how to score the board" is the clever part?
Mr. Beck might be interested to know there is ALREADY a universal warning sign denoting radioactivity
I'd just like to point out, that that's not UNIVERSAL it's AN AGREED CONVENTION. Even the culture that created it doesn't understand it. From Wikipedia: "Experts have felt that the trefoil symbol had little intuitive value and was less likely to be recognized by those not educated in its significance. According to the IAEA, in a survey conducted at an international school, many children mistook the trefoil for a non-threatening propeller." So it's being supplemented by this.
Thanks for this post. I've not seen this argument before, and it puts this discussion into an interesting context.
Cheers,
Mike
I think it's fairly common in the XP community, e.g. at Portland Pattern Repository's Wiki, so it's got a certain pedigree :-)
It's called ravioli code
As well as Scratch, there's a lot of other interesting educational stuff built on top on Squeak, eg eToys, Plopp, Dr Geo II etc. The fact that it's on the OLPC XO is driving a lot of development work for new activities as well.
There's an article at news.squeak.org that mentions an interesting series of posts by one of the developers of Dr Geo II who is building up an introduction to Squeak features for educators.
David Brin deals with a lot of the issues you raise in great depth in his essay The Great Silence (link to scanned pdf here: http://www.brin-l.com/downloads/silence.pdf ). The list of references are a gold-mine for anyone wishing to learn more about this topic.
Wow, that's a stunning image. Thanks for the link and the explanation.
http://www.canalys.com/pr/2008/r2008021.htm
but known as the "Dorkubator"
I think I find this such an objectionable argument because it uses a shallow "think of the children" justification to make a special case which primarily benefits corporate copyright holders.
"In a brand new terminal built in the 21st century, BAA has managed to build departure waiting areas with not a single passenger-accessible power outlet. Rows and rows of hard plastic benches with armrests which prevent you from lying down--kind of makes you feel like you're in a Greyhound bus terminal and not a single power outlet".
I'm sure they'll be scrabbling to fix that ridiculous oversight though.
Firstly because they took the initiative to actually research something instead of taking as gospel anything those around them say.
Secondly because they're big enough to admit they were wrong. I just wish more activists would do the same. This seems quite a strange wish, and an odd characterisation of activists.
Activists are people who are concerned that the established opinion on a topic is incorrect, and try to change that opinion. In doing so, they've already shown that they don't take everything they hear as gospel. The fact that they're concerned about the topic generally means that they know more about that topic than the general public.
If you want to see improvements in the quality of debate on contentious issues, you should really wish that activists (and indeed everyone) should always apply critical thinking to the evidence they review *before* basing their opinions and actions on it, rather than after they've muddied the waters!
Having said that, in this particular case, I'm not sure whether anyone should be pleased about this individual's apparent change of heart, as the answers she gives in the interview read like standard "Nuclear Power Is Fun Fun Fun!!!" PR responses, rather than the results of a critical re-evaluation of the arguments on both sides. Her linked article in the Huffington Post also reads like a PR piece. I wonder what her background really is?
Yes this exists in Japan. QR Codes are an "open" patent, the company that owns the patent has published the details so that anyone can implement it and doesn't enforce its patent except for the name.
Why is a patent-encumbered solution preferred to the public-domain, ISO-standard Data Matrix format? Isn't this marketing triumphing over common sense?They're using "Office" to refer to "Microsoft Office": what they're offering is an Office plugin that allows you to store and share your doucments online.
See also these:
a summary of Graham Rawlinson's findings, as published in Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, IEEE in January this year, and of course Wikipedia's page on Typoglycaemia.
This finding was originally reported by Graham Rawlinson while doing his PhD at Nottingham University in 1976!
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg16221887.600
See also this cached page which also has an interesting discussion of the effect in other languages; it works in French and Spanish, but not in Finnish or Hebrew. Interestingly, I could recognise the language of most of the scrambled samples, and even read much of the French and Spanish without difficulty, and I'm by no means fluent in either.
This is such a wonderful idea; please let us know how it turns out!