What's wrong with that is that they used their ill-gotten gains (over-priced Windows, as seen in court) and market monopoly to push their own version of a supposedly open technology. That created lock-in and made is easy for them to push ActiveX and IIS to sell Windows servers, making it more difficult for the "better product" to compete on even remotely equal terms. To add insult to injury, they ignored IE for years after they won the first browser battle - simply because they had achieved their market dominance. Tell me again how that benefits the end user.
Are you going to get upset with Apple for giving away iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie? What about Safari?
Don't forget the free iPods.:-) Apple don't have a 90% market share. If they did and pulled the same move, I'd be upset with them. I was upset with IBM for their strong-arm tactics when they oned the market, too. It's not always about Microsoft, even if Bill and Ballmer like to go on about how we should feel sorry for them. It's about abusing their position in the market.
Even if MS had never bundled anything, I am quite convinced that Internet Explorer 4 (and later 5) would have gotten the majority market.
MSIE was free back then. Netscape Navigator wasn't, it cost (IIRC) around $25 or so. It wasn't just the bundling, it was the 800 lbs gorilla doing the funky billion dollar dance all over the puny competitor. Just another business day in Redmond.
In Sweden, all citizens eligible to vote are automatically registered to vote. It's a non-issue. We're all registered. We get voter cards in the mail about a month before the election.
If you wish to wait until election day like most people do (instead of casting an absentee ballot at the local post office), you go to the designated polling place with your voter card and a photo ID, take a ballot with your candidate's/party's name on it (we normally have around ten different parties of which 5-6 or so make it into the parliament), put it in an envelope behind a screen, seal it and give it to the voting official who puts it in a strongbox while two of his colleagues (these are all local guys from different parties) watch. They then strike your name off the voter list and you're done. It's all very serious and very proper. Counting is done in parallell - again with three officials present at all times. We normally get the first solid results within hours after the last polling place closes with some of the absentee and overseas ballots being counted up to a week later.
If you want to vote in a different polling place, that's fine. If you want to vote from overseas - no problem. One person, one vote. No problems, no cheating, no confusion and we consistently get turnouts in the 80-90% range for our parliament elections.
To a Swede, it's inconcievable that the USA, one of the proudest democracies in the world, is unable to hold a general election that stands up to any kind of standard regarding voter integrity... Register for voting? 4711 different voting methods? Insane. You might as well use a pair of crooked dice to select the President.
There has to be a federal database of every citizen in the US, right? Use it for some good for once. Automatically remove all under-aged and other criteria you may want (taking away the opportunity for Jeb Bush to get rid of a bunch of left-wing hippie voters) and send voter cards to the rest. If you wish you can include ballots for all parties that got more than 1% in the last election in that letter and let the rest of the ballots be available at the polling place. Do not register party affiliation anywhere. Do not pass Go. Do not let anyone except a federally appointed multi-partisan voting commission interfere with this process, at any level at all.
It's just basic checks and balances, it's not like it's rocket science.
no one ever talks about how the massacre was halted.
It was halted because Hugh Thompson put a stop to it. It's not like Bush did it, you know. And it's not like Kerry was alone in his testimony either. Shit happened, but by trying to suppress it (Colin Powell, I'm looking at YOU), the Army did their veterans a great disservice. If they had opened it up and come down hard on Medina, Calley and a few others, the VC would not have had this great PR victory and maybe more of the returning veterans could have been greeted as homecoming soldiers rather than returning pond scum. Because that's what the My Lai cover-up did - reduce all veterans to the same level as Calley. That's the real theft of honor here, not a bunch of people brave enough to stand up for what they believed was right.
How about telling it to Le Thi Huynh? Now you tell me again, who's more deserving of the title Honorstealer; John Kerry, Max Cleland and Hugh Thompson or Bush/Cheney?
Max Cleland blew himself up with a grenade on the way to get a beer at an air base. While tragic, it is disgusting that he has let people think he was wounded in combat.
Let people think? I don't think he can force people to think, but this is what he's said himself:
"On April 8, 1968, I volunteered for one last mission. The helicopter moved in low. The troops jumped out with M16 rifles in hand as we crouched low to the ground to avoid the helicopter blades. Then I saw the grenade. It was where the chopper had lifted off. It must be mine, I thought. Grenades had fallen off my web gear before. Shifting the M16 to my left hand and holding it behind me, I bent down to pick up the grenade. A blinding explosion threw me backwards."
Disgusting, indeed. And it wasn't even his grenade. BTW, this happened just four days after his Silver Star citation:
Captain Cleland distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action on 4 April 1968... during an enemy attack near Khe Sanh.
When the battalion command post came under a heavy enemy rocket and mortar attack, Captain Cleland, disregarding his own safety, exposed himself to the rocket barrage as he left his covered position to administer first aid to his wounded comrades. He then assisted in moving the injured personnel to covered positions.
Continuing to expose himself, Captain Cleland organized his men into a work party to repair the battalion communications equipment, which had been damaged by enemy fire.
His gallant action is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
When John Kerry appeared before the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the spring of 1971, his testimony sent shock waves throughout America and the world. Here was a young, articulate Ivy-Leaguer, a highly decorated Naval officer who had seen combat in Vietnam. Now, driven by conscience and lofty ideals, Lt. Kerry said he felt compelled to break his silence and tell the unvarnished truth about the Vietnam War and those who fought it.
...
That single act earned for Kerry the lasting enmity of Vietnam veterans, especially those who had borne the brunt of his accusations, that small percentage of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who actually served on the frontlines. Many of these combat veterans would carry the scars of their service for life. Kerry's repudiation of their sacrifice represented yet another war wound, one that would never heal.
POWs like John McCain? Scarred veterans like Max Cleland? Maybe the veteran William Laws Calley? For shame!
Maybe a drunk, AWOL frat boy high on coke and Air National Guard issue oxygen could help us set the record straight here? I hear he got kidnapped by Delta Kappa Phi once and forced to drink a whole keg of Bud, I guess that makes him not only a POW, but subject of cruel and unusual punishment as well. Talk about stolen honor...
I'd like the next revision of the document to state that they won't use their own patents against software licensed as Open Source.
Messman hints at this in the press release:
"We will use our patents for the original purpose patents were established - to encourage innovation - not to shut down options for customers."
In the context of the rest of the PR, it's no question that's what he means even if it isn't spelled out. Maybe their counsel made them reserve that right in case a really flagrant patent infringment case pops up -- what if Microsoft came along and trampled all over their patents with a new application and made just enough parts of the infringing app open-source to get off the hook but tied the rest to a closed API or DLL -- just enough open for the no-sue clause but not enough for the OSS part to be really useful?
I recently applied for a Linux eval kit and got a 3-DVD set from Novell with SuSE Linux, both Pro and Enterprise, Groupwise and a lot of other goodies like their Netware implementation for Linux. The program is currently closed, but if they ever re-open it - go for it. The packaging was excellent, SuSE worked fine out-of-the-box and delivery was prompt. They even followed-up with a non-intrusive e-mail a month later asking how it went and pointing me to more resources.
Novell's running a class act here and they deserve our support so if you're in a position to select a distro for your company, take another look at Novell's offerings. If you download an Enterprise eval version 9, you get 30 days free installation support for it. You can't beat that.
Presumably he thinks that the travel ban makes sense, and is in the interest of Americans (clearly you disagree, but so be it)
Could there not be a slightly more intelligent headline for it than "Voting against the citizens of the 8th district"? It's like they take personal affront at the outrage that is potential traveling to Cuba, though I bet most of them would gladly accept a few cigars if no one was looking. The whole website is just ridiculous, with a lot of silly claims.
So what if Fidel's mad as a hatter, the rest of Cuba seems nice enough. Say, here's an idea - why don't Bush just invade the place and get it over with? After all, there's a bunch of really dangerous terrorists there (they are all at this terrorist camp called Camp Delta and they're even color-coded orange for easy detection by US troops) - just send in the 101st Airborne and sweep the place clean of the godless terrorist commies.
So basically, you disagree with his political positions.
Not necessarily. I do disagree with the notion that being for gay marriage somehow is casting a "vote against the citizens of the 8th district". Where does that connection come from?
Yes, I'm sure that's exactly the reason for a travel ban.
Would you care to elucidate on that and please explain how voting against the Cuban travel ban can be construed as "voting against the citizens of the 8th district" as the website claims? What, if any, is their connection with Cuba? Are they all Fidel's devil-spawn making it a top priority to keep them off the island so they can't achieve critical commie mass?
You can't go back unless you've already been there. This site is clearly the product of a 4-year old (I have a 5-year old and he has better reasoning skills, not to mention design sense) with a box of crayons while mom and dad were away and the babysitter got drunk. Maybe she helped him, but only if she was really, really drunk.
Clearly? It had me fooled until I found this snippet:
Make no mistake, this site is run by guys sitting around in their underwear.
Cheney is way too ugly to be sitting around in underwear, that's how I spotted the joke. Up until that point, I figured the Bush/Cheney campaign had just decided on the stunning political move of being honest and truthful. I know, I know, that's hard to believe. But it was on the internets, so I figured it had to be true.
Republican logic: A vote by Van Hollen against the Cuban travel ban is seen as a "vote against the citizens of the 8th District". Not to mention his votes against banning human cloning and claimed support for gay marriage. I think I speak for all thinking people when I say "WTF?". Are all citizens of the 8th district clone-hating, anti-gay and vehemently against anyone ever going to Cuba?
Are they afraid they might succumd to the lure of Fidel unless there's a ban on travel there? "Gee, Martha, I was this close to going to Cuba today, but thanks to God and the republicans, I was turned away at the airport. Just imagine, I might have seen gay clones going on a wild rampage of the streets of Havana. The horror!"
If that's the case, I hope he votes for a permanent travel ban for all citizens of the 8th district going anywhere, because quite frankly, we in the rest of the world don't want them to escape out of their little reservation.
Apparently it's real. I caught the reference in one of the comments in a linked blog, someone claimed to have one. They seem designed for people with hearing problems, for meditation assistance and whenever you want an earpiece without anything in your ear.
Rove probably gave Bush one of them and told him he could channel God through it. The fun part is imagining watching Bush as Rove gets drunk and tells the President to don a top hat and hop around on one leg while whistling "Dixie".
If Bush was wired, the receiver would be the size of a deck of cards or smaller, not some giant thing strapped to his back.
If they wanted to get rid of the earpiece, they could have used a Neurophone which is about the right size for that bulge. Flantech's FAQ states that the transducers do not have to be placed on the temples, they can be placed anywhere on the body - but closer to Bush's brain is obviously better (so they were probably placed on Karl Rove).
Duke Nukem Forever. And you will still be looking forward to it when you're sitting on the porch of the Shady Pines Retirement Home, complaining about how everything was much better back in the old days.
There's one big glaring hole in your reasoning: The Nobel Prize is not awarded by the same Swedish body of scientists and academics that awards the others, the Peace Prize is awarded by Norwegians.
Slashdot Mirror
What's wrong with that is that they used their ill-gotten gains (over-priced Windows, as seen in court) and market monopoly to push their own version of a supposedly open technology. That created lock-in and made is easy for them to push ActiveX and IIS to sell Windows servers, making it more difficult for the "better product" to compete on even remotely equal terms. To add insult to injury, they ignored IE for years after they won the first browser battle - simply because they had achieved their market dominance. Tell me again how that benefits the end user.
Are you going to get upset with Apple for giving away iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie? What about Safari?
Don't forget the free iPods. :-) Apple don't have a 90% market share. If they did and pulled the same move, I'd be upset with them. I was upset with IBM for their strong-arm tactics when they oned the market, too. It's not always about Microsoft, even if Bill and Ballmer like to go on about how we should feel sorry for them. It's about abusing their position in the market.
MSIE was free back then. Netscape Navigator wasn't, it cost (IIRC) around $25 or so. It wasn't just the bundling, it was the 800 lbs gorilla doing the funky billion dollar dance all over the puny competitor. Just another business day in Redmond.
Karl Rove.
+25 Insightful
If you wish to wait until election day like most people do (instead of casting an absentee ballot at the local post office), you go to the designated polling place with your voter card and a photo ID, take a ballot with your candidate's/party's name on it (we normally have around ten different parties of which 5-6 or so make it into the parliament), put it in an envelope behind a screen, seal it and give it to the voting official who puts it in a strongbox while two of his colleagues (these are all local guys from different parties) watch. They then strike your name off the voter list and you're done. It's all very serious and very proper. Counting is done in parallell - again with three officials present at all times. We normally get the first solid results within hours after the last polling place closes with some of the absentee and overseas ballots being counted up to a week later.
If you want to vote in a different polling place, that's fine. If you want to vote from overseas - no problem. One person, one vote. No problems, no cheating, no confusion and we consistently get turnouts in the 80-90% range for our parliament elections.
To a Swede, it's inconcievable that the USA, one of the proudest democracies in the world, is unable to hold a general election that stands up to any kind of standard regarding voter integrity... Register for voting? 4711 different voting methods? Insane. You might as well use a pair of crooked dice to select the President.
There has to be a federal database of every citizen in the US, right? Use it for some good for once. Automatically remove all under-aged and other criteria you may want (taking away the opportunity for Jeb Bush to get rid of a bunch of left-wing hippie voters) and send voter cards to the rest. If you wish you can include ballots for all parties that got more than 1% in the last election in that letter and let the rest of the ballots be available at the polling place. Do not register party affiliation anywhere. Do not pass Go. Do not let anyone except a federally appointed multi-partisan voting commission interfere with this process, at any level at all.
It's just basic checks and balances, it's not like it's rocket science.
Exactly, just see what Saddam got out of it...
I guess that's why Slashdot's been 503 so much lately, it's the FEC regulating the Politics topic.
It was halted because Hugh Thompson put a stop to it. It's not like Bush did it, you know. And it's not like Kerry was alone in his testimony either. Shit happened, but by trying to suppress it (Colin Powell, I'm looking at YOU), the Army did their veterans a great disservice. If they had opened it up and come down hard on Medina, Calley and a few others, the VC would not have had this great PR victory and maybe more of the returning veterans could have been greeted as homecoming soldiers rather than returning pond scum. Because that's what the My Lai cover-up did - reduce all veterans to the same level as Calley. That's the real theft of honor here, not a bunch of people brave enough to stand up for what they believed was right.
How about telling it to Le Thi Huynh? Now you tell me again, who's more deserving of the title Honorstealer; John Kerry, Max Cleland and Hugh Thompson or Bush/Cheney?
Let people think? I don't think he can force people to think, but this is what he's said himself:
Disgusting, indeed. And it wasn't even his grenade. BTW, this happened just four days after his Silver Star citation:
Now, who's stealing who's honor again?
Do a Google search for the third and then see if you think Kerry or Calley did most harm to the POWs.
POWs like John McCain? Scarred veterans like Max Cleland? Maybe the veteran William Laws Calley? For shame!
Maybe a drunk, AWOL frat boy high on coke and Air National Guard issue oxygen could help us set the record straight here? I hear he got kidnapped by Delta Kappa Phi once and forced to drink a whole keg of Bud, I guess that makes him not only a POW, but subject of cruel and unusual punishment as well. Talk about stolen honor...
Messman hints at this in the press release:
In the context of the rest of the PR, it's no question that's what he means even if it isn't spelled out. Maybe their counsel made them reserve that right in case a really flagrant patent infringment case pops up -- what if Microsoft came along and trampled all over their patents with a new application and made just enough parts of the infringing app open-source to get off the hook but tied the rest to a closed API or DLL -- just enough open for the no-sue clause but not enough for the OSS part to be really useful?
Novell's running a class act here and they deserve our support so if you're in a position to select a distro for your company, take another look at Novell's offerings. If you download an Enterprise eval version 9, you get 30 days free installation support for it. You can't beat that.
Could there not be a slightly more intelligent headline for it than "Voting against the citizens of the 8th district"? It's like they take personal affront at the outrage that is potential traveling to Cuba, though I bet most of them would gladly accept a few cigars if no one was looking. The whole website is just ridiculous, with a lot of silly claims.
So what if Fidel's mad as a hatter, the rest of Cuba seems nice enough. Say, here's an idea - why don't Bush just invade the place and get it over with? After all, there's a bunch of really dangerous terrorists there (they are all at this terrorist camp called Camp Delta and they're even color-coded orange for easy detection by US troops) - just send in the 101st Airborne and sweep the place clean of the godless terrorist commies.
And hey, I just found the reason for the travel ban: Full story at the Register. :-)
Not necessarily. I do disagree with the notion that being for gay marriage somehow is casting a "vote against the citizens of the 8th district". Where does that connection come from?
Yes, I'm sure that's exactly the reason for a travel ban.
Would you care to elucidate on that and please explain how voting against the Cuban travel ban can be construed as "voting against the citizens of the 8th district" as the website claims? What, if any, is their connection with Cuba? Are they all Fidel's devil-spawn making it a top priority to keep them off the island so they can't achieve critical commie mass?
You can't go back unless you've already been there. This site is clearly the product of a 4-year old (I have a 5-year old and he has better reasoning skills, not to mention design sense) with a box of crayons while mom and dad were away and the babysitter got drunk. Maybe she helped him, but only if she was really, really drunk.
Clearly? It had me fooled until I found this snippet:
Make no mistake, this site is run by guys sitting around in their underwear.
Cheney is way too ugly to be sitting around in underwear, that's how I spotted the joke. Up until that point, I figured the Bush/Cheney campaign had just decided on the stunning political move of being honest and truthful. I know, I know, that's hard to believe. But it was on the internets, so I figured it had to be true.
Are they afraid they might succumd to the lure of Fidel unless there's a ban on travel there? "Gee, Martha, I was this close to going to Cuba today, but thanks to God and the republicans, I was turned away at the airport. Just imagine, I might have seen gay clones going on a wild rampage of the streets of Havana. The horror!"
If that's the case, I hope he votes for a permanent travel ban for all citizens of the 8th district going anywhere, because quite frankly, we in the rest of the world don't want them to escape out of their little reservation.
Rove probably gave Bush one of them and told him he could channel God through it. The fun part is imagining watching Bush as Rove gets drunk and tells the President to don a top hat and hop around on one leg while whistling "Dixie".
If they wanted to get rid of the earpiece, they could have used a Neurophone which is about the right size for that bulge. Flantech's FAQ states that the transducers do not have to be placed on the temples, they can be placed anywhere on the body - but closer to Bush's brain is obviously better (so they were probably placed on Karl Rove).
Only if they drop the soap in the showers.
I actually do believe Samsung has the resources.
Duke Nukem Forever. And you will still be looking forward to it when you're sitting on the porch of the Shady Pines Retirement Home, complaining about how everything was much better back in the old days.
There's one big glaring hole in your reasoning: The Nobel Prize is not awarded by the same Swedish body of scientists and academics that awards the others, the Peace Prize is awarded by Norwegians.