hilarious, I really hope you're not majoring in economy:)
The money that has been spent on microsoft products has already been spent. Microsoft is now in the luxurious position of having a portion of it, Bill Gates & other shareholders have some of it (dividends).
The money will flow back in to the market one day (maybe), but for now it is already spent. Any FUTURE money that consumers can still spend on microsoft or competing products is still up for grabs, and it will not affect the economy one little bit if that money is spent on microsoft products or products by different manufacturers.
For instance, I just bought a Varicad license, simply because their product runs on Linux and I needed a 3d cad system. It's affordable and it allows me my choice of os, a windows version is also available.
If someone chooses open office instead of MS Office XXXX then that also does not affect the economy in a negative way.
So, I'll take your wager. Nothing will crash, nobody will be effected other than microsoft shareholders and employees. The tech that is already out there will continue way past its projected service life anyway, witness the number of win 2k, 98 and even older boxes.
I wouldn't replace them with anything, I think there are more than enough alternatives out there.
MS's behaviour during the standardization process of the document format has left me firmly in the camp of people that want to see microsoft gone.
The fact that they were bailed out of their conviction seems to have given them the impression that they can do anything they please and that they can buy everybody. It should not be that way. No other software company (that I'm aware of) is currently playing this crooked.
Thanks Bill for all you've done, now donate some of those billions (bill & billions;) ) to open source to remedy some of the damage.
I realize without microsoft the PC would never be where it is today but I can't help but wonder where we'd be instead. Possibly some place much better.
note how tricky that is written, it reads like a sales brochure for a micro turbine.
So, that makes it one mega-watt year ?
Hare brained ocean power schemes have been a nice drain on investors pockets for quite a while now.
- too hard to service - too expensive to deploy - big impact on ocean eco systems - does not interact well with fishing nets - no long term study done yet
The only really good ocean borne power generation scheme to date is wind farms off shore. Still the servicing bit above applies, and it's also a fair bit more expensive to deploy a windmill off shore than it is on shore. And there's the little detail of the corrosive environment which translates into more expensive parts (stainless steel).
Depends on your definition of 'legal'. It used to be 'That which does not harm society is legal', lately it has come to mean 'that which special interest groups are unable to buy laws against'.
no, I didn't mean it quite that way, what I meant was that every action will cause people to try to 'rebalance' the situation, but like a pendulum that you try to push back to the starting position it will always overshoot the center and end up in a new extreme. Depending on the size of the push the correction may cause things to get worse.
I'm with you on life surviving though, now let's hope H. Sapiens is amongst the survivors...
what makes you think that being out in buttfuck does not equal being in civilization ? Civilization does not equal 'living in a city'.
I've lived in many different places, some rural and some not, the thing I noticed is that it doesn't really matter whether you're in a rural area or not, the big deciding factor for a carrier to install broadband is COMPETITION.
As soon as they start losing their dial up customers to some yokel with a wifi hookup they make sure broadband becomes available pronto.
nothing like the people that are against everything.
Doesn't matter how good a proposal is, there will always be downsides, and there will always be people that will use these downsides to block anything and everything just to show they have power.
If the 1800's would have been like that the world would look a whole lot different today.
There would be no railroads, probably no roads/cars and aircraft/airports and certainly no space travel.
Progress requires sacrifice, the tough bit is that lots of stuff got sacrificed to profits, not to progress and we're not facing the backlash of that.
The pendulum once disturbed never quite regains its balance.
there is another problem with using aluminum, and it is not at all related to corrosion:
Aluminum is very soft. The effect of that is if you put it in some kind of clamping system that over time the contact becomes less solid, increasing the resistance.
is by far the most serious in the above list. Ok, so flat panel manufacturers and researchers would have to pay top dollar, no biggie. But copper is going to get more and more crucial as the combined crunch of oil shortage and increased electrical demands are going to combine.
Slashdot Mirror
hilarious, I really hope you're not majoring in economy :)
The money that has been spent on microsoft products has already been spent. Microsoft is now in the luxurious position of having a portion of it, Bill Gates & other shareholders have some of it (dividends).
The money will flow back in to the market one day (maybe), but for now it is already spent. Any FUTURE money that consumers can still spend on microsoft or competing products is still up for grabs, and it will not affect the economy one little bit if that money is spent on microsoft products or products by different manufacturers.
For instance, I just bought a Varicad license, simply because their product runs on Linux and I needed a 3d cad system. It's affordable and it allows me my choice of os, a windows version is also available.
If someone chooses open office instead of MS Office XXXX then that also does not affect the economy in a negative way.
So, I'll take your wager. Nothing will crash, nobody will be effected other than microsoft shareholders and employees. The tech that is already out there will continue way past its projected service life anyway, witness the number of win 2k, 98 and even older boxes.
I wouldn't replace them with anything, I think there are more than enough alternatives out there.
MS's behaviour during the standardization process of the document format has left me firmly in the camp of people that want to see microsoft gone.
The fact that they were bailed out of their conviction seems to have given them the impression that they can do anything they please and that they can buy everybody. It should not be that way. No other software company (that I'm aware of) is currently playing this crooked.
Would be for microsoft to simply go away.
Thanks Bill for all you've done, now donate some of those billions (bill & billions ;) ) to open source to remedy some of the damage.
I realize without microsoft the PC would never be where it is today but I can't help but wonder where we'd be instead. Possibly some place much better.
I'd use the chess board to effect a knockout.
As Ron White puts it, "I'm a glandular player".
note how tricky that is written, it reads like a sales brochure for a micro turbine.
So, that makes it one mega-watt year ?
Hare brained ocean power schemes have been a nice drain on investors pockets for quite a while now.
- too hard to service
- too expensive to deploy
- big impact on ocean eco systems
- does not interact well with fishing nets
- no long term study done yet
The only really good ocean borne power generation scheme to date is wind farms off shore. Still the servicing bit above applies, and it's also a fair bit more expensive to deploy a windmill off shore than it is on shore. And there's the little detail of the corrosive environment which translates into more expensive parts (stainless steel).
Inquiries, Lost & Found department, how may we be of assistance ?
OS discussions ? Third door on your left.
You're welcome...
Your neighbour here, every time you start singing *I* get depressed.
the reasons why Shakira is held up as a model for anything are on her front, a bit below the shoulders...
so, you are saying it's not a religion but simply a large family ?
that's the first one of all of the above that really makes sense, but I also like the airport code idea if you're geographically spread out.
Depends on your definition of 'legal'. It used to be 'That which does not harm society is legal', lately it has come to mean 'that which special interest groups are unable to buy laws against'.
All of Fokkers WW I era fighter aircraft were made of steel tubing ... (chrome-molybdenum steel to be precise).
maybe there should be an 'anonymous moron' option ?
no, I didn't mean it quite that way, what I meant was that every action will cause people to try to 'rebalance' the situation, but like a pendulum that you try to push back to the starting position it will always overshoot the center and end up in a new extreme. Depending on the size of the push the correction may cause things to get worse.
I'm with you on life surviving though, now let's hope H. Sapiens is amongst the survivors...
hehe, ok, I should have seen that one coming !
scary though, that 'Boo'. A friend of mine adds a 'hiss' for emphasISS ;)
what makes you think that being out in buttfuck does not equal being in civilization ? Civilization does not equal 'living in a city'.
I've lived in many different places, some rural and some not, the thing I noticed is that it doesn't really matter whether you're in a rural area or not, the big deciding factor for a carrier to install broadband is COMPETITION.
As soon as they start losing their dial up customers to some yokel with a wifi hookup they make sure broadband becomes available pronto.
nothing like the people that are against everything.
Doesn't matter how good a proposal is, there will always be downsides, and there will always be people that will use these downsides to block anything and everything just to show they have power.
If the 1800's would have been like that the world would look a whole lot different today.
There would be no railroads, probably no roads/cars and aircraft/airports and certainly no space travel.
Progress requires sacrifice, the tough bit is that lots of stuff got sacrificed to profits, not to progress and we're not facing the backlash of that.
The pendulum once disturbed never quite regains its balance.
notice the 'without' ...
that's one step worse than asking those ./ers without wives/girlfriends to reveal themselves...
I'm guessing there will be no takers on this one.
there is another problem with using aluminum, and it is not at all related to corrosion:
Aluminum is very soft. The effect of that is if you put it in some kind of clamping system that over time the contact becomes less solid, increasing the resistance.
This can lead to fires:
http://www.heimer.com/information/aluminum_wiring.html
and that is the main reason you won't see it in domestic use any more.
In HV transmission lines it is used very extensively.
is by far the most serious in the above list. Ok, so flat panel manufacturers and researchers would have to pay top dollar, no biggie. But copper is going to get more and more crucial as the combined crunch of oil shortage and increased electrical demands are going to combine.
whoever modded this troll should age another 20 years.
real vintage would be the KIM-I I guess :)
you should move :)
but mechanics aren't, and I think the people that repair computers are closer to mechanics than engineers.
When safety is involved it's a good requirement to ask for a license.
Also it's fairly standard practice to require a license before you can get malpractice insurance.