I have emailed a complete "before" and "after" stored procedure example to the grandparent
that illustrates pretty much all cases involved in the translation. I am the owner of that code and declare that it is released to public
domain, if the grandparent wishes to distribute it. While it is hard to back
up this statement since I want to remain anonymous, all I can vouch for
is my reputation on slashdot, which will have to be taken at face value.
any chance you'd release that script as Free Software?
There were several quick-and-dirty, throwaway scripts that were tailored
for this conversion project. Essentially, we first converted by hand a
sample stored procedure that had most of the features used, and got it
to work. The script processed the other stored procedures according to
the things that had to be changed. Finally, the results were manually
adjusted (mainly to fix things Oracle complained about).
I just searched for these scripts and unfortunately
can't find them. (: (This was in
2002.) It really was not suited for general purpose use, though.
But here is a short excerpt from the original and translated code to give
you a flavor and even shows some tricky areas.
(Sorry, the "lameness filter" will not allow me to post the code
excerpts - "too many junk characters". Does anyone know how to
bypass this? There are about 150 lines of sample code that I want
to post. I even tried the "CODE" formatting method and it still
doesn't work.)
I mean, if you can't cope with the bureaucracy of registering
as a non-profit, how are you going to cope with the bureaucracy of
school management?
I briefly looked into (and gave up) applying for non-profit status for
an open-source project - the main reason being so that people could
deduct donations on their tax forms - and found out that it can be a
real pain that distracts from your goals. After all, it dips into Uncle
Sam's (in the U.S.) revenue, so they aren't motivated to make the
approval and appeal process simple. And it isn't free, either, although
the fees (was it $135/yr?) aren't too unreasonable. Most organizations
have their lawyers set the thing up, although it can be done without a
lawyer if you're willing to do the requirements research and paperwork.
An alternative that I started to investigate, that is apparently much
easier, was to seek what's called "fiscal sponsorship" from another
organization that already has an approved U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit
status. There are very strict rules about the nature of financial
transactions that can take place between the two entities, but the basic
idea is that donations are made to the sponsoring entity, which then
decides to fund the subsidiary according to what they perceive it needs.
The main advantages are that donations are tax-deductible and donors
supposedly have some assurance that their funds aren't personally
enriching the donee instead of being used for the project. (I didn't
complete the process of setting this up for other reasons, though, so
that's all I know about it.) Anyway, that's what I would recommend
that the story submitter look into.
Same reasons. The more publicity, the better. If Oracle
believes in it enough to offer support, everyone else can feel a little
bit easier about using it.
I doubt it. Unlike MySQL, PostgreSQL is much more of a direct
competitor to Oracle. In fact, I've converted PG databases to Oracle
with ease. (Why did I do this? The client wanted Oracle, so I ported
our PG product to it.) The translation of some rather intensive PL/pgSQL
to PL/SQL was almost trivial, with a translator script I wrote in a day.
The resemblance is so close that if I didn't know better (and maybe I
don't), I would almost say PG "borrowed" some of its syntax from Oracle.
Going back would be a little harder if some of the more obscure Oracle
PL/SQL features were used, but probably not rocket science for most
applications. There are other interesting resemblances - you can see
very meticulous, almost obsessive Oracle emulation in the behavior of
date/time stuff (search the PG source code for "Oracle" - beautifully
commented stuff is in there).
With MySQL on the other hand, even without getting into an ACID problems
discussion (some of which have been improved in recent releases),
has a very poor feature overlap with Oracle, not a minor one
being not having anything like PL/SQL.
I guess the thing that bothers me personally about this is that it is
publicity for MySQL, subconsciously encouraging more people to adopt it
over the (IMHO) much better PostgreSQL. I think that it will poison your
mind to learn DB theory from MySQL.:) But
that is just my personal view and I encourage alternate viewpoints.
Software is also covered by copywrite, and is one of the
few industries protected by copywrite AND patents (the only one i know
of actually, but im sure there are a few others probably).
It is worse: software is protected by copyright AND patents AND trade
secret (if the source code is not disclosed). While I would like to see
software patents abolished, at a minimum I think it should be "pick one
of the three, and you can't have the two others."
No, ideally in that case you would pay 1.95, if the item
came out to be 1.98 then you would pay 2.00. At the end of the day or
month or year you should be even or close to it.
I would venture that the 1.98 item would also be adjusted to
1.95, due to the psychological price point of "under $2" that
induces more sucke^H^H^H^H^H people to buy.
Or, if it's going to be 2.00, might as well make it 2.95.
That's what will really happen, probably.
So what if I write an interactive information system as described, with
the one difference is that I'm still alive, and I just want my genius
available to my friends and family without actually having to talk to
them. Does the system all of a sudden owe licensing costs to MS when I
die?
Well, if the patent does get approved, there is one minor
consolation. It will expire in 20 years, which is a small amount of
time compared to forever. (And hopefully you'll live that long, so you
wouldn't owe the licensing costs to MS.) If someone's going to patent it
anyway - given the insanity of the current system that even allows such
things to be patented - might as well start the clock running as soon as
possible. And as much as I dislike MS, better them than some patent
troll. At least up to now, most of their patents have been used
defensively - not that that guarantees future behavior, of course.
The author doesn't mention that when you are not using the
print head, you should put scotch tape over the ink holes to
prevent them from drying out, especially for a use like this
where the head parking mechanism
that normally does this is no longer available. (I do this
for half-used cartridges I have lying around for everyday
use, and it works well. The official
cartridge storage caddies that come or use to come with some printers
really don't work too well for preventing the ink from drying
over a long period of time.)
If a head is really clogged, if you are brave you can
clear it out by literally sucking out the holes. I have been told
that if you spit it out right away and rinse your mouth, there is
no harm, as long as you don't mind a colorful mouth and teeth for
a day or so. As a disclaimer, though, check with your local friendly
poison center first before doing this at home.:)
Wouldn't heating the water up increase the solubility of CO2?
No, it is the opposite (which may seem counterintutive, since
many things dissolve better in hot water). But think of a
carbonated soda pop: if you first open the bottle when it is cold, the carbonation
will stay much longer, provided you keep it cold (recorking helps too,
but that's beside the point). If you first
open it warm, and especially if you keep it warm, it will go flat
very quickly. In the extreme case, boiling it will make it go flat
instantly - try it!
Although it is apparent that he disapproves CC licences in general,
RMS didn't seem to touch on an aspect of "non-commercial use" CC
licenses that I find troubling. The problem is that "non-commercial" is
not clearly defined. Certainly there can be blatant commercial use that
is easy to identify, but there are many situations where it is not so
clear. Suppose, for example, the material is posted a personal home
page, which is provided free by the ISP in exchange for advertisements.
Does that constitute "commercial use"? Clearly, the ISP is profiting
from the material if it is drawing people to that page and thus the ads.
It is easy to come up with many such examples, and it is even hard to
come up with examples where the use is disconnected from the slightest
taint of a direct or indirect commercial connection. Is a Red Cross
advertisement commericial or noncommercial? If the Red Cross
paid a magazine for a full-page ad, then the magazine is earning some
money from it.
I will usually avoid using "non-commercial use" material
in my own work. For one thing, it is incompatible
with say GPL-licensed software, since e.g. a CC-licensed "non-commercial use" icon would
prevent a commercial entity from using it, defeating the
purpose of the GPL.
Most likely the GP was using pseudo legalese, trying to show off his/her ability to
sound like a legal document where things like "the party of the
first part, Sony Music Exploitation Group Limited Japan, hereinafter referred
to as Label,..." are used. Presumably the GP felt this would lend a
more authoritative tone to his/her post, when actually it just made
him/her look like an idiot.
Wow. I'll say it again: I haven't made any arguments. Nor have I expressed any opinions.
Apparently everyone here feels so strongly on this subject that they're asassinating me for even asking the question.
Uhm, look again at what you asked:
At what point does our loathing of Microsoft and our support of OSS equate to a massive economic loss to our own nation? At what point do American supporters of OSS achieve a shot to their own shared national foot?
Are you telling me that "our loathing of Microsoft" and
"a shot to their own shared national foot" do not convey an opinion or attempt an argument?
Are you stupid or just ignorant? Oh, and when are you going to stop beating your wife?
Just asking.
If ads appear on Wikipedia, you can bet that spamm^H^H^H^Hadvertisers
will start making changes to pages, from subtle changes to attract their
ads to a page to careful changes in a article's wording to put their ad
in more favorable light. This already happens now by astroturfers of
various sorts, such as those who add "External Links" that are really
commercials, but you can be sure the problem will become far worse. It
will become harder to detect and correct as advertisers become more
sophisticated in order to protect and nourish their advertising
investment, just as spammers continually innovate in getting email
through spam blockers or bumping up their Google rating. The volunteer
editors will be so overwhelmed with spam that "Articles for deletion"
will become a joke, and the better editors - who want to see their labor
directed towards producing new and better content, not fighting a losing
battle against spam - may just give up in disgust and go on to
more productive things in their lives. I wish it weren't so,
but on the internet it seems that money attracts scum.
If you like big machines, take a look at the
Bagger 288.
(Search for "Bagger 288" for other pictures.
This one gives a good perspective on the incredible
size of this thing.)
We may have something for that too
in the future, but this is not the hack for piracy-at-will.
You mean this is not the hack for
extracting your legally purchased content into a
sensible format that allows you to skip all the mandatory
previews etc. and actually watch it without shackles.
But wait, there's more! There are so many unanswered questions. How
do you connect (not by DSL or cable!)? What's the interface? Does it
run on a computer, or a separate appliance?
Apparently, it will conveniently interface directly to your brain, so
there may be no need for a separate appliance. They issued a press
release that unfortunately seems to be down on their site right now, but
the following is from a Google cache
of it:
Vancouver, Canada - The International Association of Brain Interface
Technologies (IABIT) is pleased to announce a US$10 million fund for the
study and advancement of Brain Interface (BI) technology. The fund will
issue one US$500,000 grant and two US$250,000 grants each year for ten
years beginning in 2007.
Brain Interface refers collectively to the disciplines known as Brain
Machine Interface (BMI), Brain Computer Interface (BCI), Direct Brain
Interface (DBI), and Adaptive Brain Interface (ABI). BI is technology
through which computers interface directly with the brain. In the field
of medicine, the technology being developed promises miraculous advances
that will someday enable persons with spinal cord injuries to regain
mobility, blind persons to regain vision and deaf persons to regain the
ability to hear. While medical applications are at the forefront of BI
research, other commercial applications abound. Over the next decade,
BMI technology is expected to revolutionize the video gaming, film &
television, medical, and defense industries to name a few.
"BI researchers around the world are making quantum leaps forward and
the field of BMI technology is poised to explode," says Nigel Malkin,
Director of IABIT. IABIT is a not-for-profit organization founded to
enable the sharing of resources, knowledge and technology that will
serve to advance the BI industry as a whole while at the same time
affording the highest level of respect for proprietary knowledge and
technologies. "We are thrilled to have this fund at our disposal to
contribute to the advancement of BI technology," says Malkin. Grant
recipients will be chosen by a panel of member peers spanning several
BI-related industries.
Note, by the way, that "International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies"
seems to be a different name for "The International Association of Brain Interface
Technologies (IABIT)" which you can see by going to the
http://www.iabit.org/ vs. http://www.iavrt.org/ home pages.
Big props to WinMagic for their marketing. They've been all over the
government computer press for the last 1-2 years with press releases and
random mentions that make it appear they are the only workable solution.
As a result, the agencies that jumped on the bandwagon in time to meet a
(seemingly common) end of year deadline have grabbed their SecureDoc
software and started installing.
Wow, if they win, someone
is going to be obscenely wealthy. Talk about growing money on
trees.... It looks like they're privately
held - too bad, it would have made an interesting investment gamble.
I wonder if there are any open-source contenders (where the
government effectively just pays for the vendor's support). That would
save a huge amount of our tax dollars. Not that there would be a chance
in hell it would happen even if there were; it sounds like WinMagic
has probably saturated the hallowed halls of Washington with their sales reps.
Others, on the other hand, are not amused that he describes himself as
its "co-inventor".
While Dave Winer made important contributions to RSS, it was created by Netscape. See
What is RSS:
The original RSS, version 0.90, was designed by Netscape as a format
for building portals of headlines to mainstream news sites. It was
deemed overly complex for its goals; a simpler version, 0.91, was
proposed and subsequently dropped when Netscape lost interest in the
portal-making business. But 0.91 was picked up by another vendor,
UserLand Software [i.e. Dave Winer], which intended to use it as the
basis of its weblogging products and other web-based writing software.
Although I still use Thunderbird's ancestor (the Mozilla Suite),
so far I've had no problem just editing the subject line as needed with
vi [foldername], or put notes in the body if I want. Most
important, I delete humongous binary attachments after I
extract them, which otherwise would account for 99% of the
storage space I would need. Of course this is not nearly as
convenient as something built-in to the client, but until
that happens this seems to work for me. Are there any known drawbacks
to doing this? (Sometimes I delete the *.msf file - after
compacting folders - just to be sure, forcing it to build a
new one. I've never figured out what that file has in it, or
when rebuilding it is needed.) I also use grep etc. extensively
with the folder files to find emails I need, since they are often far
more powerful and faster than any tools built into the client.
I use the client for what it does best and other tools for the
rest.
I firmly believe that software patents should require a functional
implementation be submitted within 2 years of an initial application.
Hardware patents require engineering diagrams; software patents should
require very specific algorithm and data descriptions that are more
easily expressed as code. The code in question should not be published
by the patent office, but kept in archives to assist with any future
dispute resolution by the courts.
I would propose that the code in question should be published if
a patent is to be issued for it. It will already have the dual
protection of copyright and patent. Isn't one purpose of patents
to promote the arts and sciences by disclosing inventions, instead of
keeping them trade secrets, in exchange for the temporary monopoly
granted?
You do realize that everyone is going to be biased when talking about
their company, right?
I do realize that most people have been brainwashed to be like
that, and I think it is sad statement on society. I don't believe that
bias and deception is essential for competitiveness, but unfortunately
it has become more or less a self-fulfilling maxim. Salespeople who I
have discovered have misled me in the past have gotten an earful from me
and no more of my business, so when dealing with (the apparently few)
people like me, such behavior is in fact anticompetitive for them. It
is very possible to be enthusiastic about one's work and product without
being compromising honesty. I admire salespeople who present me with
the full picture, good and bad. Even if it means they lose that sale, I
will go back to them. There are such people, even though they may be
rare, that I can trust.
Do I expect society to change? No. But I can set an example,
however small its effect might have.
When your child is applying for college, are you going to mention all
of his/her shortcomings in the admissions letter? If not, then you're
pretty much doing the exact same thing Bill is.
Speak for yourself. I hope you can sleep at night knowing your
child has was admitted under false pretenses. Oh wait, I guess you can,
and that says something about you.
Whether you believe it or not, I actually do not plan to write a
misleading admissions letter for my son, and he knows that. Just
because "everyone else" is doing it does not justify that I do so. If
there is something negative that is important for the admission process
and should not be omitted, then they will be told that. Hopefully they
will take my honesty into account. Fortunately, I think my son will be
able to stand on his own merits, because he knows those merits must be
earned. Whether time proves me right or wrong, I like to believe that I
have instilled in him a sense of ethics and honor.
No, I wouldn't like to have Bill Gates for president, not because he's
an atheist, but because he's dishonest. From obvious lies he told
during the antitrust trial to the one-sided, biased spin he puts on
almost anything having to do with Microsoft, I simply cannot trust him.
Once a person has lied to me, it is very difficult and often impossible
to re-earn my trust. In Bill Gates' case, I think it is impossible. I
think this is sad for him, but it is his own doing. He is not someone I
admire or respect because of it. At least he has his riches to bask in,
but I could never trust him.
I suppose some will come to his defense and say that he was just
defending or promoting his company, and that's the way business works.
Well, I don't buy that. Does a person's integrity have a price?
This is also why over time I am becoming more and more cynical and
distrustful
about almost any information provided by corporations - it is
almost always one-side, biased in their favor, with any relevant
negative aspects suppressed. This unethical behavior is defended, even
encouraged, in the name of capitalism, business promotion, salesmanship,
and so on as a good, positive thing.
To be forthcoming, in the past I too have twisted the truth to my employer's
customers to please those who signed my paycheck, and I feel
terrible about it. But it is unethical and very wrong, and it is wrong
for society to encourage it as a positive virture. I have decided that
I simply won't do it anymore. Thankfully my life situation permits that
the moment. I realize others aren't so fortunate. But that isn't
an excuse for Bill Gates.
Slashdot Mirror
I have emailed a complete "before" and "after" stored procedure example to the grandparent that illustrates pretty much all cases involved in the translation. I am the owner of that code and declare that it is released to public domain, if the grandparent wishes to distribute it. While it is hard to back up this statement since I want to remain anonymous, all I can vouch for is my reputation on slashdot, which will have to be taken at face value.
There were several quick-and-dirty, throwaway scripts that were tailored for this conversion project. Essentially, we first converted by hand a sample stored procedure that had most of the features used, and got it to work. The script processed the other stored procedures according to the things that had to be changed. Finally, the results were manually adjusted (mainly to fix things Oracle complained about).
I just searched for these scripts and unfortunately can't find them. (: (This was in 2002.) It really was not suited for general purpose use, though.
But here is a short excerpt from the original and translated code to give you a flavor and even shows some tricky areas.
(Sorry, the "lameness filter" will not allow me to post the code excerpts - "too many junk characters". Does anyone know how to bypass this? There are about 150 lines of sample code that I want to post. I even tried the "CODE" formatting method and it still doesn't work.)
I briefly looked into (and gave up) applying for non-profit status for an open-source project - the main reason being so that people could deduct donations on their tax forms - and found out that it can be a real pain that distracts from your goals. After all, it dips into Uncle Sam's (in the U.S.) revenue, so they aren't motivated to make the approval and appeal process simple. And it isn't free, either, although the fees (was it $135/yr?) aren't too unreasonable. Most organizations have their lawyers set the thing up, although it can be done without a lawyer if you're willing to do the requirements research and paperwork.
An alternative that I started to investigate, that is apparently much easier, was to seek what's called "fiscal sponsorship" from another organization that already has an approved U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. There are very strict rules about the nature of financial transactions that can take place between the two entities, but the basic idea is that donations are made to the sponsoring entity, which then decides to fund the subsidiary according to what they perceive it needs. The main advantages are that donations are tax-deductible and donors supposedly have some assurance that their funds aren't personally enriching the donee instead of being used for the project. (I didn't complete the process of setting this up for other reasons, though, so that's all I know about it.) Anyway, that's what I would recommend that the story submitter look into.
I doubt it. Unlike MySQL, PostgreSQL is much more of a direct competitor to Oracle. In fact, I've converted PG databases to Oracle with ease. (Why did I do this? The client wanted Oracle, so I ported our PG product to it.) The translation of some rather intensive PL/pgSQL to PL/SQL was almost trivial, with a translator script I wrote in a day. The resemblance is so close that if I didn't know better (and maybe I don't), I would almost say PG "borrowed" some of its syntax from Oracle. Going back would be a little harder if some of the more obscure Oracle PL/SQL features were used, but probably not rocket science for most applications. There are other interesting resemblances - you can see very meticulous, almost obsessive Oracle emulation in the behavior of date/time stuff (search the PG source code for "Oracle" - beautifully commented stuff is in there).
With MySQL on the other hand, even without getting into an ACID problems discussion (some of which have been improved in recent releases), has a very poor feature overlap with Oracle, not a minor one being not having anything like PL/SQL.
I guess the thing that bothers me personally about this is that it is publicity for MySQL, subconsciously encouraging more people to adopt it over the (IMHO) much better PostgreSQL. I think that it will poison your mind to learn DB theory from MySQL. :) But
that is just my personal view and I encourage alternate viewpoints.
Or, if it's going to be 2.00, might as well make it 2.95. That's what will really happen, probably.
If a head is really clogged, if you are brave you can clear it out by literally sucking out the holes. I have been told that if you spit it out right away and rinse your mouth, there is no harm, as long as you don't mind a colorful mouth and teeth for a day or so. As a disclaimer, though, check with your local friendly poison center first before doing this at home. :)
I will usually avoid using "non-commercial use" material in my own work. For one thing, it is incompatible with say GPL-licensed software, since e.g. a CC-licensed "non-commercial use" icon would prevent a commercial entity from using it, defeating the purpose of the GPL.
Most likely the GP was using pseudo legalese, trying to show off his/her ability to sound like a legal document where things like "the party of the first part, Sony Music Exploitation Group Limited Japan, hereinafter referred to as Label,..." are used. Presumably the GP felt this would lend a more authoritative tone to his/her post, when actually it just made him/her look like an idiot.
Apparently everyone here feels so strongly on this subject that they're asassinating me for even asking the question.
Uhm, look again at what you asked:
Are you telling me that "our loathing of Microsoft" and "a shot to their own shared national foot" do not convey an opinion or attempt an argument? Are you stupid or just ignorant? Oh, and when are you going to stop beating your wife? Just asking.
If ads appear on Wikipedia, you can bet that spamm^H^H^H^Hadvertisers will start making changes to pages, from subtle changes to attract their ads to a page to careful changes in a article's wording to put their ad in more favorable light. This already happens now by astroturfers of various sorts, such as those who add "External Links" that are really commercials, but you can be sure the problem will become far worse. It will become harder to detect and correct as advertisers become more sophisticated in order to protect and nourish their advertising investment, just as spammers continually innovate in getting email through spam blockers or bumping up their Google rating. The volunteer editors will be so overwhelmed with spam that "Articles for deletion" will become a joke, and the better editors - who want to see their labor directed towards producing new and better content, not fighting a losing battle against spam - may just give up in disgust and go on to more productive things in their lives. I wish it weren't so, but on the internet it seems that money attracts scum.
If you like big machines, take a look at the Bagger 288. (Search for "Bagger 288" for other pictures. This one gives a good perspective on the incredible size of this thing.)
You mean this is not the hack for extracting your legally purchased content into a sensible format that allows you to skip all the mandatory previews etc. and actually watch it without shackles.
Apparently, it will conveniently interface directly to your brain, so there may be no need for a separate appliance. They issued a press release that unfortunately seems to be down on their site right now, but the following is from a Google cache of it:
Note, by the way, that "International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies" seems to be a different name for "The International Association of Brain Interface Technologies (IABIT)" which you can see by going to the http://www.iabit.org/ vs. http://www.iavrt.org/ home pages.Wow, if they win, someone is going to be obscenely wealthy. Talk about growing money on trees.... It looks like they're privately held - too bad, it would have made an interesting investment gamble.
I wonder if there are any open-source contenders (where the government effectively just pays for the vendor's support). That would save a huge amount of our tax dollars. Not that there would be a chance in hell it would happen even if there were; it sounds like WinMagic has probably saturated the hallowed halls of Washington with their sales reps.
In Trump's case, I think anything with his name on it cheapens it.
Although I still use Thunderbird's ancestor (the Mozilla Suite), so far I've had no problem just editing the subject line as needed with vi [foldername], or put notes in the body if I want. Most important, I delete humongous binary attachments after I extract them, which otherwise would account for 99% of the storage space I would need. Of course this is not nearly as convenient as something built-in to the client, but until that happens this seems to work for me. Are there any known drawbacks to doing this? (Sometimes I delete the *.msf file - after compacting folders - just to be sure, forcing it to build a new one. I've never figured out what that file has in it, or when rebuilding it is needed.) I also use grep etc. extensively with the folder files to find emails I need, since they are often far more powerful and faster than any tools built into the client. I use the client for what it does best and other tools for the rest.
I would propose that the code in question should be published if a patent is to be issued for it. It will already have the dual protection of copyright and patent. Isn't one purpose of patents to promote the arts and sciences by disclosing inventions, instead of keeping them trade secrets, in exchange for the temporary monopoly granted?
I do realize that most people have been brainwashed to be like that, and I think it is sad statement on society. I don't believe that bias and deception is essential for competitiveness, but unfortunately it has become more or less a self-fulfilling maxim. Salespeople who I have discovered have misled me in the past have gotten an earful from me and no more of my business, so when dealing with (the apparently few) people like me, such behavior is in fact anticompetitive for them. It is very possible to be enthusiastic about one's work and product without being compromising honesty. I admire salespeople who present me with the full picture, good and bad. Even if it means they lose that sale, I will go back to them. There are such people, even though they may be rare, that I can trust.
Do I expect society to change? No. But I can set an example, however small its effect might have.
When your child is applying for college, are you going to mention all of his/her shortcomings in the admissions letter? If not, then you're pretty much doing the exact same thing Bill is.
Speak for yourself. I hope you can sleep at night knowing your child has was admitted under false pretenses. Oh wait, I guess you can, and that says something about you.
Whether you believe it or not, I actually do not plan to write a misleading admissions letter for my son, and he knows that. Just because "everyone else" is doing it does not justify that I do so. If there is something negative that is important for the admission process and should not be omitted, then they will be told that. Hopefully they will take my honesty into account. Fortunately, I think my son will be able to stand on his own merits, because he knows those merits must be earned. Whether time proves me right or wrong, I like to believe that I have instilled in him a sense of ethics and honor.
I suppose some will come to his defense and say that he was just defending or promoting his company, and that's the way business works. Well, I don't buy that. Does a person's integrity have a price? This is also why over time I am becoming more and more cynical and distrustful about almost any information provided by corporations - it is almost always one-side, biased in their favor, with any relevant negative aspects suppressed. This unethical behavior is defended, even encouraged, in the name of capitalism, business promotion, salesmanship, and so on as a good, positive thing.
To be forthcoming, in the past I too have twisted the truth to my employer's customers to please those who signed my paycheck, and I feel terrible about it. But it is unethical and very wrong, and it is wrong for society to encourage it as a positive virture. I have decided that I simply won't do it anymore. Thankfully my life situation permits that the moment. I realize others aren't so fortunate. But that isn't an excuse for Bill Gates.
You misspelled "getting rich".
No, I think he meant "drowning in wealth".