Dell announced today it will stop offering as an option on desktop and laptop computer systems an operating system it never advertised and buried deep within the bowels of its Web site where most customers could never find it. The reason cited for dropping the option was "low demand."
This is really a non-issue. The only people who could get Linux on a Dell had to know from the beginning that Linux was an option and know where to find the page that allowed them to select it. Dell only offered Linux in the first place as a flimsy token to open source people. Now Microsoft probably used that as a reason to not let Dell stick AOL icons on the desktop or something, so the option is gone. Is anyone really surprised?
If you believe in the Christian or Jewish Bible and take it as truth, the first muder was well documented. A domestic crime, brother against brother, committed with a club. (see Genesis 4) The iceman is just one in a long line of people who were killed prematurely by other people, not the first and certainly not the last. And yes, it could have been an accident - people wearing animal skins tend to look like animals. This was before orange hunting vests y'know...
davidu typed:I've receieved a number of emails, so I'll just setup a mailing list to decide what I do...mind if I add you to the list? Your opinion and experiance would be great.
davidu typed:I have boycottxp.com but I don't have the time to run it or set it up. If any one here is interested in helping me get it running, that'd be great.
I already have more Web site than I can handle, but if you'd like some pointers, mail me. Or redirect your domain to my site, if no one else is interested...
joeytsai typed:So, I have a question for everybody here - when you're looking for music online, what do you use? I'm using the opennap servers on napigator (via gnapster).
I use a Mac and don't have an ISDN, DSL, satellite, or cable connection - so I'm stuck using IRC channels. It sucks and I can never find what I look for - which is exactly how the RIAA wants it. If anybody can show me a decent program that works, I would really appreciate it. (I already tried Macster, Napster, Mactella, and LimeWire)
rknop typed:Indeed, there are lots of pro business folks out there who believe that business in the computer industry would do a whole lot better without the bullying monopolistic tactics of Microsoft.
Thank you! I'm glad someone besides me finally said that. I am extremely pro-business and extremely conservative, but I've spent the last five years now working on The Microsoft Boycott Campaign. Look how many conservatives are working with Ms opposition groups. Bob Dole and Robert Bork?? AND Ralph Nader. Considering that, who can still actually believe only liberal anti-business people oppose The Behemoth? Microsoft is a threat to you no matter where you are politically - a company that doesn't care about consumers or competition one bit. It's like cancer or some other deadly disease - you don't have to have any certain political viewpoint to be against it.
stu42j typed:I'm sorry but michael's "outhouse" reference totally went over my head. Could someonce explain it please?
Apparently somebody just finished watching CastAway. I won't ruin the ending for you since you've apparently never seen it, but the comment is humorous.
Today, BSNBC news reports that National Ocean Images Inc. has taken photographs of a mysterious black spot located in the Pacific ocean 457.6 square miles east of Hawaii. According to scientists (OK, one obsessed guy from Kansas), the spot is actually where Atlantis was swallowed by the sea some three thousand years ago. Or maybe the Titanic, or possibly the missing Mars Lander... Nonetheless, The US government and scientists from We Got a Grant and Have Nothing to Do National Laboratory will send a diving team to the spot this fall in hopes of determining what mysterious and historical artifact is not lying at the site.
reimero typed:Under Title 17 of the U.S. Code, libraries are permitted to lend materials - books, magazines, videotapes, DVDs, CDs, cassettes, CD-ROMs, etc, with certain restrictions. IANAL, but from everything I've seen and everything my local public library's lawyer has said (I'm an employee), the publishers don't really have much of a leg to stand on shy of changing U.S. Copyright law outright.
Book publishers can simply learn from the software industry and seal all books in a plastic bag, then stick a EULA inside the bag making anyone who opens the bag and/or reads the book bound by a license. Then the publishers can limit how the book is used (cannot use it as a coaster or prop up a couch with it), charge libraries extra money for a "multiple user" license, charge an annual fee for the right to continue using the book (Book.NET and Book XP), and then make the library or consumer purchase a new book every time they print a new edition. It's easy to see how silly the software industry is if you replace the word "software" with "book" every time you talk about licensing.
Seanasy typed:1.Windows Media format is the Best...
Did the reviewers have to pay for the medium? If so, the results might be different... Download a few hundred MP3 for free or pay $2 per each WMA file and then see which format is in first place.
Osty typed:Was linking to SA really necessary? I'm sure there are other reviews out there that could have been linked, reviews on major gaming sites that expect this kind of thing. I won't say it's "bad journalism", because Slashdot has little to do with actual journalism. I will say it was a bad judgement call on Hemos' part to leave those links in the submitted story.
This is why SA goes to goatse.cx now... The slash effect was literally killing their server. People visiting the site normally without going through/. will see the normal site.
idonotexist typed: What fools are Adobe? "Illustrator" is not a word to receive trademark protection because it not at all descriptive --- it is a generic term. For instance, "Word" could not receive trademark protection though it is utilized by Microsoft. "Hamburger" could not receive protection although it is utilized by McDonald's in its trademark. Moreover, if the mark is registered, registration itself does not grant protection.
You can trademark generic words that describe a specific type of product. The Ford Illustrator or Illustrator Weekly magazine would not violate Adobe copyrights (as fake examples) but Corel Illustrator software would. Adobe could claim Corel was deliberately producing software that would confuse consumers, which is the same argument companies use when they sue over copyright in domain names. JoshCorp Inc. can sue someone who registers joscorpinc.com or joshcoprinc.com because those domains will supposedly confuse customers.
SubtleNuance typed:At least it is not my families 7 years of financial data, or the copies of my child's baby-pictures - or my presentation that I needed for a job-interview.
Or your credit card numbers, or your medical data, or your telephone number, or any number of things that will be stolen from.NET users the next time Russian hackers have unlimited access to Microsoft's networks for six weeks... How soon we forgot what happened back in October..NET is a disaster waiting to happen.
Pinball Wizard typed:I don't quite get it. Advertising supports TV just fine. Furthermore, all TV gives you is a rough guesstimate of how many viewers watched an ad. They have no idea who is channel surfing, snacking or going to the bathroom. How is it that TV advertising is so expensive and profitable to the stations that sell it?
Despite millions upon millions of Internet users (and thousands added by the day), the Internet ad market is "in a downturn." Why is it in a downturn? Well, the market is in a downturn because the analysts say so. Advertising anlysts and (especially) financial analysts say "the ad market is falling, the ad market is falling!" like so many repetitive chicken littles, and the industry hears it and follows right after them. You hear the market for ads is down, so you aren't willing to pay as much for them; then site publishers hear the averaage payout has dropped so they reduce their prices to keep the competition from getting ahead. That leads to lower and lower prices as site publishers fight with each other over dollars that become more and more scarce because advertisers hear the market has collapsed. This leads to dotcom layoffs and failures beyond what we would see otherwise. The ad market, just like the stock market, is based on perception. If most people believe there's a problem, you'll have a problem.
And who profits from the downturn? The big media companies (Viacom, NBC/GE, AOLTW, etc.) can charge more for their own traditional broadcast and print ads. Oh, and it just so happens that those same companies own most of the financial and advertising analysts... Catching on?
CNBC, MarketWatch, Fortune, Money... You know who owns them. NOW you get it.
And no, I don't really believe in conspiracies... Just when a few companies control all areas of a particular market, you see them behave in similar ways from coincidence more than collusion.
El typedCorrection: they have stolen/borrowed/appropriated some really tight ideas... the only idea I know that was actually original to the boyz in Redmond was Bob... can anybody think of any others?
There is a long-running debate about Microsoft innovation among those of us who are active in the anti-Ms community. Check out BMS's Hall of Innovation for the ones we found. There are, not surprisingly, very few listed on the page. And yes, BoB is one of them.
Rosco P. Coltrane typed:Last time somebody "granted" me a reprieve was when I paid my taxes late, and it was the government. Am I the only one who has the distinct feeling that Microsoft takes itself for a state within the state ?
Microsoft sees itself as entirely above any earthly institution, government included. Governments of the US and other countries pay Microsoft millions of dollars a year for software, and have essentially let it get away with breaking any law that gets in the way of bringing in more money. Microsoft is now setting up an annual Microsoft Tax for all computer users, the licensing is just part of that. That will gradually expand as The Behemoth sticks its software into other products. Maybe a coin-slot on the XBox, or a credit card reader on the side of your computer-controlled thermostat. Eventually we'll get a 'Windows Usage' box on the 1040EZ form.
Bill Gates even bought himself an island in the Pacific (OK, technically he only bought part of a company that owns an entire island, but still...). That would be an excellent place to set up a small country for the small dictator. I assume doing that was Gates' backup plan in case the antitrust trial went really badly. Steve Ballmer could go there with Gates and run around going "De plane, de plane!" like the little guy on Fantasy Island.
SilentChris typed: Still, I'm pretty happy with the OS and service. Solid. $10 is not too bad considering I normally pay $9.95 - $14.95 to Cheap bytes for the latest RedHat distro.
This is how it starts... Microsoft will practically give the product away to make sure all Windows users upgrade to it, then they pull the noose tight and start raising annual license fees and charging more for services. Before you know it you're paying Microsoft $50 a month just to use your computer and there are no alternatives because all the competition went under when everybody was buying Windows for $10.
pipeb0mb typed:T'was horrible. No slashdot...no SomethingAwful
SomethingAwful.com went down because of reasons not related to the OSDN outage... Their host burnt out a hard disk because of power problems. SomethingAwful isn't connected to the OSDN network in any way. (It was actually part of eFront until that scam collapsed.) SA is back up now, as are several other sites affected by the same problem.
(This does not mean I represent OSDN or SA, because I don't - I just know what's up on the SA side of things.)
We don't even have cable TV here in this part of the state (ok, this part of my county - the ridges kinda cut us off), and the best dialup Internet I can get is 26.4K because of bad phone lines. It's extremely irritating, and I'd be happy just to get a 33.6 connection, much less DSL, cable, or *gasp* fiber...
Now that Napster is dead I have no access to music, because Gnutella and the other alternative networks don't function decently for people without high bandwidth.
Count your blessings, so to speak. (Be glad you aren't me.) I've never seen more than 10 seconds of streaming video in my life.
Fat Rat Bastard:.. that Microsoft owns part of AT&T ($5 billion's worth at the time of the investment).
Microsoft does indeed own 7% of AT&T, an investment worth $5 billion when it was first made.
AT&T sued Microsoft before, in 1996 or 1997, because Microsoft changed the terms of their NT source code contract. It was the same reason Bristol sued, except AT&T settled its suit out of court for an undisclosed amount of money before it got anywhere near a trial. (Bristol eventually settled as well, but only after it won the case and was awarded $1 by a jury).
Regardless of past settlements, its nice to see there's still one large company mostly outside the computer industry that has the balls to stand up and protect itself against these kinds of tactics.
Perhaps my statement got a 3 rating because other people agree with it... And it's not like blocking Quake stories works - every Slashdot story eventually ends up being about Quake in the talkbacks.
Don't get me wrong, I like the game - but I'd rather play it than read about it continually.
So when are you guys going to just admit that the whole purpose of this site is to discuss Quake? Every report ends up being about the game eventually. Every new technology: "how can this make Quake run faster/smoother." Every social change: "I hope they don't take my Quake away." And now the top story is some crap about network pings on a game released, what, four years ago? I honestly couldn't care less about this.
Slashdot headline: "National Science Foundation reports world to end today at 8:57PM. THIS should help me frag friends in Quake!"
...and that was today's episode of As The Massively Obvious Security Hole Turns, brought to you, as always, by Microsoft! 'Microsoft - What Do YOU Want To Crack Today?'
[annoying organ music]
Kids, don't forget to send in those Ovalteem labels for your free Windows XP Product Activation DECODER RINGS!
Tune in next week for our latest episode - Ballmer's Big Blunder!
[more annoying organ music, followed by station identification]
``We must continue to add new features and functionality, or else no one is going to want our product,'' Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said.
"We have no intention of shipping another bloated OS and shoving it down the throats of our users." -Paul Maritz, former Microsoft Vice President
Notice which one still works for Microsoft.
Seriously though.. Microsoft would have excellent software, OSes and apps alike, if it would focus more on creating good software and less on exterminating all current and potential competitors. Microsoft's paranoia about competition is the main problem with its products, since it leads to stupid decisions. Tying IE to Windows created more security problems than any other move in the history of computing.
Slashdot Mirror
This is really a non-issue. The only people who could get Linux on a Dell had to know from the beginning that Linux was an option and know where to find the page that allowed them to select it. Dell only offered Linux in the first place as a flimsy token to open source people. Now Microsoft probably used that as a reason to not let Dell stick AOL icons on the desktop or something, so the option is gone. Is anyone really surprised?
If you believe in the Christian or Jewish Bible and take it as truth, the first muder was well documented. A domestic crime, brother against brother, committed with a club. (see Genesis 4) The iceman is just one in a long line of people who were killed prematurely by other people, not the first and certainly not the last. And yes, it could have been an accident - people wearing animal skins tend to look like animals. This was before orange hunting vests y'know...
Sure, add me...
I already have more Web site than I can handle, but if you'd like some pointers, mail me. Or redirect your domain to my site, if no one else is interested...
I use a Mac and don't have an ISDN, DSL, satellite, or cable connection - so I'm stuck using IRC channels. It sucks and I can never find what I look for - which is exactly how the RIAA wants it. If anybody can show me a decent program that works, I would really appreciate it. (I already tried Macster, Napster, Mactella, and LimeWire)
Thank you! I'm glad someone besides me finally said that. I am extremely pro-business and extremely conservative, but I've spent the last five years now working on The Microsoft Boycott Campaign. Look how many conservatives are working with Ms opposition groups. Bob Dole and Robert Bork?? AND Ralph Nader. Considering that, who can still actually believe only liberal anti-business people oppose The Behemoth? Microsoft is a threat to you no matter where you are politically - a company that doesn't care about consumers or competition one bit. It's like cancer or some other deadly disease - you don't have to have any certain political viewpoint to be against it.
Apparently somebody just finished watching CastAway. I won't ruin the ending for you since you've apparently never seen it, but the comment is humorous.
Today, BSNBC news reports that National Ocean Images Inc. has taken photographs of a mysterious black spot located in the Pacific ocean 457.6 square miles east of Hawaii. According to scientists (OK, one obsessed guy from Kansas), the spot is actually where Atlantis was swallowed by the sea some three thousand years ago. Or maybe the Titanic, or possibly the missing Mars Lander... Nonetheless, The US government and scientists from We Got a Grant and Have Nothing to Do National Laboratory will send a diving team to the spot this fall in hopes of determining what mysterious and historical artifact is not lying at the site.
</SARCASM>
Book publishers can simply learn from the software industry and seal all books in a plastic bag, then stick a EULA inside the bag making anyone who opens the bag and/or reads the book bound by a license. Then the publishers can limit how the book is used (cannot use it as a coaster or prop up a couch with it), charge libraries extra money for a "multiple user" license, charge an annual fee for the right to continue using the book (Book.NET and Book XP), and then make the library or consumer purchase a new book every time they print a new edition. It's easy to see how silly the software industry is if you replace the word "software" with "book" every time you talk about licensing.
Did the reviewers have to pay for the medium? If so, the results might be different... Download a few hundred MP3 for free or pay $2 per each WMA file and then see which format is in first place.
This is why SA goes to goatse.cx now... The slash effect was literally killing their server. People visiting the site normally without going through /. will see the normal site.
You can trademark generic words that describe a specific type of product. The Ford Illustrator or Illustrator Weekly magazine would not violate Adobe copyrights (as fake examples) but Corel Illustrator software would. Adobe could claim Corel was deliberately producing software that would confuse consumers, which is the same argument companies use when they sue over copyright in domain names. JoshCorp Inc. can sue someone who registers joscorpinc.com or joshcoprinc.com because those domains will supposedly confuse customers.
Or your credit card numbers, or your medical data, or your telephone number, or any number of things that will be stolen from .NET users the next time Russian hackers have unlimited access to Microsoft's networks for six weeks... How soon we forgot what happened back in October. .NET is a disaster waiting to happen.
Despite millions upon millions of Internet users (and thousands added by the day), the Internet ad market is "in a downturn." Why is it in a downturn? Well, the market is in a downturn because the analysts say so. Advertising anlysts and (especially) financial analysts say "the ad market is falling, the ad market is falling!" like so many repetitive chicken littles, and the industry hears it and follows right after them. You hear the market for ads is down, so you aren't willing to pay as much for them; then site publishers hear the averaage payout has dropped so they reduce their prices to keep the competition from getting ahead. That leads to lower and lower prices as site publishers fight with each other over dollars that become more and more scarce because advertisers hear the market has collapsed. This leads to dotcom layoffs and failures beyond what we would see otherwise. The ad market, just like the stock market, is based on perception. If most people believe there's a problem, you'll have a problem.
And who profits from the downturn? The big media companies (Viacom, NBC/GE, AOLTW, etc.) can charge more for their own traditional broadcast and print ads. Oh, and it just so happens that those same companies own most of the financial and advertising analysts... Catching on?
CNBC, MarketWatch, Fortune, Money... You know who owns them. NOW you get it.
And no, I don't really believe in conspiracies... Just when a few companies control all areas of a particular market, you see them behave in similar ways from coincidence more than collusion.
There is a long-running debate about Microsoft innovation among those of us who are active in the anti-Ms community. Check out BMS's Hall of Innovation for the ones we found. There are, not surprisingly, very few listed on the page. And yes, BoB is one of them.
Microsoft sees itself as entirely above any earthly institution, government included. Governments of the US and other countries pay Microsoft millions of dollars a year for software, and have essentially let it get away with breaking any law that gets in the way of bringing in more money. Microsoft is now setting up an annual Microsoft Tax for all computer users, the licensing is just part of that. That will gradually expand as The Behemoth sticks its software into other products. Maybe a coin-slot on the XBox, or a credit card reader on the side of your computer-controlled thermostat. Eventually we'll get a 'Windows Usage' box on the 1040EZ form.
Bill Gates even bought himself an island in the Pacific (OK, technically he only bought part of a company that owns an entire island, but still...). That would be an excellent place to set up a small country for the small dictator. I assume doing that was Gates' backup plan in case the antitrust trial went really badly. Steve Ballmer could go there with Gates and run around going "De plane, de plane!" like the little guy on Fantasy Island.
This is how it starts... Microsoft will practically give the product away to make sure all Windows users upgrade to it, then they pull the noose tight and start raising annual license fees and charging more for services. Before you know it you're paying Microsoft $50 a month just to use your computer and there are no alternatives because all the competition went under when everybody was buying Windows for $10.
Join the club! We've been actively boycotting The Behemoth since late 1996.
SomethingAwful.com went down because of reasons not related to the OSDN outage... Their host burnt out a hard disk because of power problems. SomethingAwful isn't connected to the OSDN network in any way. (It was actually part of eFront until that scam collapsed.) SA is back up now, as are several other sites affected by the same problem.
(This does not mean I represent OSDN or SA, because I don't - I just know what's up on the SA side of things.)
Now that Napster is dead I have no access to music, because Gnutella and the other alternative networks don't function decently for people without high bandwidth.
Count your blessings, so to speak. (Be glad you aren't me.) I've never seen more than 10 seconds of streaming video in my life.
Microsoft does indeed own 7% of AT&T, an investment worth $5 billion when it was first made.
AT&T sued Microsoft before, in 1996 or 1997, because Microsoft changed the terms of their NT source code contract. It was the same reason Bristol sued, except AT&T settled its suit out of court for an undisclosed amount of money before it got anywhere near a trial. (Bristol eventually settled as well, but only after it won the case and was awarded $1 by a jury).
Regardless of past settlements, its nice to see there's still one large company mostly outside the computer industry that has the balls to stand up and protect itself against these kinds of tactics.
Don't get me wrong, I like the game - but I'd rather play it than read about it continually.
[annoying organ music]
Kids, don't forget to send in those Ovalteem labels for your free Windows XP Product Activation DECODER RINGS!
Tune in next week for our latest episode - Ballmer's Big Blunder!
[more annoying organ music, followed by station identification]
"We have no intention of shipping another bloated OS and shoving it down the throats of our users." -Paul Maritz, former Microsoft Vice President
Notice which one still works for Microsoft.
Seriously though.. Microsoft would have excellent software, OSes and apps alike, if it would focus more on creating good software and less on exterminating all current and potential competitors. Microsoft's paranoia about competition is the main problem with its products, since it leads to stupid decisions. Tying IE to Windows created more security problems than any other move in the history of computing.