We look forward to your contribution.
Just so you know, I actively track and participate in the Bugzilla process for Firefox. I have in the past submitted bug reports. It's not a big deal.
I never said "Uhh firefox sucks" or anything like it. I am sure many of the issues you have are difficult. I am not claiming elsewise. Issues are often hard to resolve.
You dont have to get snippy, defensive, and all in a bundle anytime any suggests Firefox is less than perfect.
To say that "Firefox is compliant" is a joke. Firefox aka Gecko is more compliant, but don't be fooled into thinking that it renders everything right all the time. It certainly doesn't. Not to say IE is better.. it's not.
Unluckily, the W3C has made a complete mess of web standards. To the point that there are so many barely used, misunderstood, unclear, ambigious, and depreciated standards that figuring anything out at all is an accomplishment of some scale.
So let me guess. They used a localized version of MS Flight Simulator 2004, with some localized, highly detailed information loaded into it. And they've figured out a quick way to have it do "checkpoints", in this case, with GPS, some way to confirm real-world observation with what FS is doing inside the plane.
No the plane does not run Flight Simulator. They use FS to test their telemetry code, but that is it. Why would you think the plane itself runs Flight Simulator?
Not so original. That's how US cruise missiles work, for one. For another, seen this on TV some time ago for someone doing exactly this with their own project.
Who said it's original?
I guess getting cash, as long as I only use Microsoft stuff, for whatever I want to work on, is sort of one of those mixed emotion things. About on par with getting free stuff from Marlboro because I smoke a carton of cigs a week.
or Louisiana-Pacific providing me with free siding for my house. or Johns-Manville providing me with free insulation.
Umm.. no. Read up on it. They started work on the plane first, and then got the cash from MS afterwards. The important thing though is NOT the the operating system of the plane, but rather, the telemetry and automation control code. It's the principles involved, not the implementation.
why use windows when the OS can be hijacked and used as a weapon?
What makes you think they have a TCP stack on this OS? It's windows embedded. What makes you think they have an ethernet device? What makes you think it can be used as weapon?
Speculation. That's what.
Also, FYI: MS got to its place in the industry legally and ethically. Once they got there is when they got into trouble.
Finally, let's see here. I can think of 1000's of ways planes like this could be used for good. Maybe if you weren't a cynic you could to. I'll give you five ways for fun:
1. Search and rescue. A police/sheriff/parks department could easily afford 4-5 of these if they were a $1k/each. They could be programmed to look for infrared signatures that indicate missing persons. Instead of hundreds of people searching for a missing child for days, a larger area could be searched and monitored.
2. Anti-terrorism. These could be used to monitor the borders and equipped with bomb-detecting sensors.
3. Environmental research. These planes can be made to have long-ranges. They are low-impact and fuel-efficent. What better way to study remote areas without intruding with the blunt-instrument of a human research party?
4. Weather-research. These planes could be very useful in studying weather patterns and taking frequent samples of atmospheric conditions.
5. Traffic reports. Why send a "traffic-chopper" when you can send a small, quiet, fuel-efficent drone. Very handy, fast, and useful.
I'll give you a bonus: firefighting wild-fires. Big-planes are very slow and inefficent to put out forest fires, not to mention expensive. A helicopter model of this unit could be used in a swarm to put out forest-fires before they spread to hundreds of thousands of acres. Instead of buying a $10M fire-fighting plane, purchase 10,000 of these units to be on quick alert. They could be setup to provide near constant dumping of fire-retardant on an area complete with mid-area refueling and pulling water from the neartest river/lake/hydrant.
They use XP embedded because you can write complex applications and do lots of programming without re-inventing the wheel.
In this case, I think XP +.NET is a great choice instead of using a simple microcontroller with assembler code. Why?
1. Device drivers. They are using a wireless modem to get data back and forth to the ground. That's important.
2. Telemetry. The plane fly's itself without help from the ground. This isn't often done. Most of these projects the plane is a dumb terminal to a complex application running on the ground. This way is the exact oppsite. The ground system gives the plane mission goals, and the plane and it's onboard "overhead" process the goals and determine what actions are needed to get there. The goals are things like "fly between nav point 1 and 2, then directly proceed to nav point 3".
3. Advanced image processing. One of the goals of the project is to recognize objects on land. Other systems have to take a picture, transmit back to the ground station for processing. On this one the plane can do it right away, and proceed to their next point without the latency (which is significant) of transmitting back and forth.
4. Robustness. Their plane is better than most others because it can operate with very little supervision from the ground. That's pretty important step forward. It can land itself in the case of something going wrong, the plane's flight hardware failing, etc.
You really have to have tried to do something like this before to appreciate the difficulty of having an autonomous plane like this. Even the Pentagon/CIA recognizes the trouble involved. The first UAV's were basically just remote controlled. They spent two years making them more autonomous which to me is a big deal.
Lastly I doubt many people here would consider an "award from Microsoft" as being much of anything to brag about.
You mean most people wouldn't like to get cash to work on cool geek projects you want to be working on anyways?
You should read the bit. 512 mb is for on one card, the other 512 mb is a "black box" logging device.
And I am sure for a fact that the 512 Mb card is overkill - you just don't need that much space for XP embedded. I've seen images that will fit on a 128 mb card.
Granted, I am not saying it's better than Linux, for example, but it's still pretty good for Windows.
That's absurd. The patent renewal fees are a legitimate (and small) cost of business. If RedHat takes 50% of IBM's software business, and IBM gets desperate, lawsuits will be made against patents that Linux violates. You can take that the bank. And if IBM wins, basically the damages would more than cover legal fees and lost profits.
which is every bit as commercially viable as the more traditional litigious application of software pat
That's a completly moronic 1990's style notion.
While things are good, having the goodwill of the "linux community" might be all good and great.
What about next time IBM is rasping for cash revenues? It's easy to make rosy promises when times are good. It's hard to follow them when roses turn to crap.
Having the love and support of 500,000 volunteer Linux nerds is a good thing, but don't think for a minute that IBM wouldn't trade that in for cold hard cash if they were facing a very bad economic outlook.
The way it basically works is that process is started, and an approximation of entire image is copied over to the other machine. After a minute or so on some images, more on machines with many resources, the machines are basically close in contents. When the delta between the machines is fairly small, execution on the first is stopped, and all changes comitted to the second. Commands in the pipeline are moved to the second machine and the machine unpaused.
On virtual machines with big resources it does take a solid minute or more to get things to that point, but the result is flawless everytime. Having a shared fast disk array really helps, FYI.
That's fine.. how do you propose that my aunt does her work with topological mapping against a CLI? Make a small change in a 20MB text file, and then render it to PS, and output to dead tree? (Repeat?)..
CLI is good for it's good for, but pretty much terrible for everything else.. if you want to do text processing, by all means, go for it.
Remember this: when the DOJ's settlement with Microsoft expires next year, Microsoft can takes its gloves off.
Any new anti-trust action would have to start with a trial to determine if MS was a monopoly on desktop operating systems. The cost barrier of switching to Linux is zero, the penetration is gaining, and it is very argubably a better, more complete product.
A new anti-trust action against MS would fail at the "Is MS a monopoly phase?" most likely.
With that hurdle out of the way, MS can be as vicious as they ever wanted.
They could perform a hostile takeover of Google if they wanted.
All that Microsoft has to do is skate the fine line between antitrust and default configuration to give their own product better placement than Google enjoys, so the masses automatically switch due to the ease that the computer/browser integrates with Microsoft's search engine.
Remember as well that the anti-trust settlement expires in 2005 and parts in 2006. Meaning, that any new anti-trust action will have to re-establish that Microsoft is in fact a monopoly in desktop operating systems for Intel x86 hardware (which was the original finding).
And I think this time that Microsoft will present it's same exact argument they did in the first trial: Linux and Mac. And this time, the judge will have a much, much, much harder time discounting the competition.
I just think that ballmer is saying this to appease skittish shareholders.
It could be that, or that they are developing a product specifically targetted towards beating google.
When the world's largest most profitable software company targets you, you would probably take notice too.
but they cant. when you are a company that large you can pretty much dictate to insurance companies the rates.
Unless it just recently changed, Microsoft *is* the insurance company. Large companies are often self-insured.
The point is, they don't even have to offer insurance. That's an expense, as are the dozens of other best-of-breed benefits they provide.
They also own your life.
What is this, "The Firm" for you? They don't own your life. Get involved with real people who work at Microsoft. It is rare that developers or testers out there work long-work weeks, weekends, etc. Around ship time, yes, days get a few hours longer and you may lose a weekend.
And if you think that's not how it is in the rest of the computer industry, or virtually any industry, than you are dead wrong.
As far as "company-town" stuff, I'd like to see you back that absurd notion up. This isn't the 1800's.
Bill Gates has created one of the best places in the world to work, this is from a blog I read:
I need to thank Microsoft for several things: our benefits, our technology, and the people with whom I work.
Three months ago, my oldest daughter, Jenna, age 9, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was a normal, healthy kid one day and being rushed in for emergency brain surgery the next. She's now recovering from her second surgery, during which they were able to get 90 percent of the tumor out. Her treatment plan will take many more months, but she's come a long way and continues to make progress daily.
When you and your family are healthy, you might tend to take our benefits for granted. I certainly will never do that again. We have the best benefits of any company. Everything has been covered--surgeries, hospital stays, chemotherapy, prescriptions, home nursing and equipment, physical and speech therapy, follow-up visits, and consultations. The medical bills are very large, but everything is covered. We were provided with a case manager who oversees the entire process and helps us deal with the paperwork, organization, and approval processes. In short, they've been phenomenal to deal with.
Our technology was also a godsend during this ordeal. A friend and coworker set up a Web site for Jenna the day after her first surgery (http://www.caringbridge.org/sc/jennawit). We have used this site to keep family and friends updated on Jenna's condition and progress. There was no network or wireless access in the hospital, so I used my Smartphone and my laptop to dial in and keep the Web site up to date. I also was able to help other families get their Web sites set up for their children who were in the hospital. Jenna's Web site has had more than 97,000 hits to date, and thousands of well wishes have been posted by friends, family, coworkers, and even complete strangers. If you ever doubted that our technology has had an impact on the world, just take a look at the guestbook on Jenna's site, and you'll see how technology has helped to bring people closer together.
Lastly, I must comment on the wonderful people with whom I work. The support has been incredible from day one of Jenna's illness. I was able to take family leave with no questions asked. My team stepped in and took care of my job while my manager worked out a replacement for me, and I was able to just walk away and focus on my family for three months. Also, hundreds of Microsoft folks have offered to help me and my family in any way that they can. We can't thank you all enough for everything that you've done.
Thank you, Microsoft, for our benefits, and thank you, employees of Microsoft. The work you do has truly made a difference in my family's life.
The benefits at Microsoft are second to-none, anywhere in the country, and probably the world. Paid family leave. The best medical care money can buy. Supportive work environment.
The top execs at Microsoft could gut the benefits and give the employees basic HMO coverage for probably 1/50th the per employee cost, and in the process reap another couple of hundred million a year for themselves.
They wouldn't be the first place to go that route. But did they?
Dell With WindowsXP = thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people in your area who can easily troubleshoot and correct problems.
Micron (very aged) with FreeBSD = dozens, hundreds, or maybe a few thousand of people who can isolate problems. Chances are hardware will fail at some point and replacement parts will be needed.
Why bother with that Micron? If you spend a half-day or a whole day at any point getting it working, or troubleshooting it, than it has exceeded it's replacement cost.
don't see how the premeditate installation of a DVD player is that different from the premeditated purchasing of fast food at a drive up window.
Of course it's all the same. This has nothing specific to do with DVDs. The only difference is that watching a DVD is a continuous and intentionally distracting act, while, reaching for a soda can be reasonably be seen as a perfunctory action.
The issue in terms of law becomes: did he act with reckless disregard for human life. Regardless the distraction, that should be the test.
Read the law sometime. Unless you are familiar with the statues of Alaska, you are probably very wrong.
In most states, 2nd degree murder can also be qualified when you show "gross and flagrant disregard for human life". Manslaughter usually carries with it the tag of "negligent", "careless", etc.
What this man is accused of is showing an amazing indifference to others safety while operating a heavy fast machine. He acted with malice ("my DVD-watching enjoyment is more important than your right to avoid being killed in a car crash") towards his fellow citizens.
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
Have you ever worked on programming projects of significant size with other programmers before? What I describe and you recount is not a trivial task, but I would wager (and I really mean this, e-mail me anyone if you want to test me) that it would take me a solid work-week to engineer such a fix.
would challenge you to compile a new Intel C library using a Microsoft C compiler from 6 years ago too. Heck, compile glibc using an IRIX compiler from six years ago.
I am not saying we should use Microsoft.
I am saying that proprietary embedded systems vendors are setup to handle this type thing, and Linux/Microsoft/general purpose isn't.
I've done embedded systems work before and the difference in platform stability is like you've never imagined.
The point is though that the government/military/whatever isn't in the software business.
The military is in the killing business. Having them run a "Open SOurce Audit Office" isn't trivial. It's not a "no-brainer". You should get acquanited with Washington for a bit, and then get back to me.
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We look forward to your contribution.
Just so you know, I actively track and participate in the Bugzilla process for Firefox. I have in the past submitted bug reports. It's not a big deal.
I never said "Uhh firefox sucks" or anything like it. I am sure many of the issues you have are difficult. I am not claiming elsewise. Issues are often hard to resolve.
You dont have to get snippy, defensive, and all in a bundle anytime any suggests Firefox is less than perfect.
To say that "Firefox is compliant" is a joke. Firefox aka Gecko is more compliant, but don't be fooled into thinking that it renders everything right all the time. It certainly doesn't. Not to say IE is better.. it's not.
Unluckily, the W3C has made a complete mess of web standards. To the point that there are so many barely used, misunderstood, unclear, ambigious, and depreciated standards that figuring anything out at all is an accomplishment of some scale.
So let me guess. They used a localized version of MS Flight Simulator 2004, with some localized, highly detailed information loaded into it. And they've figured out a quick way to have it do "checkpoints", in this case, with GPS, some way to confirm real-world observation with what FS is doing inside the plane.
No the plane does not run Flight Simulator. They use FS to test their telemetry code, but that is it. Why would you think the plane itself runs Flight Simulator?
Not so original. That's how US cruise missiles work, for one. For another, seen this on TV some time ago for someone doing exactly this with their own project.
Who said it's original?
I guess getting cash, as long as I only use Microsoft stuff, for whatever I want to work on, is sort of one of those mixed emotion things. About on par with getting free stuff from Marlboro because I smoke a carton of cigs a week. or Louisiana-Pacific providing me with free siding for my house. or Johns-Manville providing me with free insulation.
Umm.. no. Read up on it. They started work on the plane first, and then got the cash from MS afterwards. The important thing though is NOT the the operating system of the plane, but rather, the telemetry and automation control code. It's the principles involved, not the implementation.
why use windows when the OS can be hijacked and used as a weapon?
What makes you think they have a TCP stack on this OS? It's windows embedded. What makes you think they have an ethernet device? What makes you think it can be used as weapon?
Speculation. That's what.
Also, FYI: MS got to its place in the industry legally and ethically. Once they got there is when they got into trouble.
Finally, let's see here. I can think of 1000's of ways planes like this could be used for good. Maybe if you weren't a cynic you could to. I'll give you five ways for fun:
1. Search and rescue. A police/sheriff/parks department could easily afford 4-5 of these if they were a $1k/each. They could be programmed to look for infrared signatures that indicate missing persons. Instead of hundreds of people searching for a missing child for days, a larger area could be searched and monitored.
2. Anti-terrorism. These could be used to monitor the borders and equipped with bomb-detecting sensors.
3. Environmental research. These planes can be made to have long-ranges. They are low-impact and fuel-efficent. What better way to study remote areas without intruding with the blunt-instrument of a human research party?
4. Weather-research. These planes could be very useful in studying weather patterns and taking frequent samples of atmospheric conditions.
5. Traffic reports. Why send a "traffic-chopper" when you can send a small, quiet, fuel-efficent drone. Very handy, fast, and useful.
I'll give you a bonus: firefighting wild-fires. Big-planes are very slow and inefficent to put out forest fires, not to mention expensive. A helicopter model of this unit could be used in a swarm to put out forest-fires before they spread to hundreds of thousands of acres. Instead of buying a $10M fire-fighting plane, purchase 10,000 of these units to be on quick alert. They could be setup to provide near constant dumping of fire-retardant on an area complete with mid-area refueling and pulling water from the neartest river/lake/hydrant.
They use XP embedded because you can write complex applications and do lots of programming without re-inventing the wheel.
.NET is a great choice instead of using a simple microcontroller with assembler code. Why?
In this case, I think XP +
1. Device drivers. They are using a wireless modem to get data back and forth to the ground. That's important.
2. Telemetry. The plane fly's itself without help from the ground. This isn't often done. Most of these projects the plane is a dumb terminal to a complex application running on the ground. This way is the exact oppsite. The ground system gives the plane mission goals, and the plane and it's onboard "overhead" process the goals and determine what actions are needed to get there. The goals are things like "fly between nav point 1 and 2, then directly proceed to nav point 3".
3. Advanced image processing. One of the goals of the project is to recognize objects on land. Other systems have to take a picture, transmit back to the ground station for processing. On this one the plane can do it right away, and proceed to their next point without the latency (which is significant) of transmitting back and forth.
4. Robustness. Their plane is better than most others because it can operate with very little supervision from the ground. That's pretty important step forward. It can land itself in the case of something going wrong, the plane's flight hardware failing, etc.
You really have to have tried to do something like this before to appreciate the difficulty of having an autonomous plane like this. Even the Pentagon/CIA recognizes the trouble involved. The first UAV's were basically just remote controlled. They spent two years making them more autonomous which to me is a big deal.
Lastly I doubt many people here would consider an "award from Microsoft" as being much of anything to brag about.
You mean most people wouldn't like to get cash to work on cool geek projects you want to be working on anyways?
You should read the bit. 512 mb is for on one card, the other 512 mb is a "black box" logging device.
And I am sure for a fact that the 512 Mb card is overkill - you just don't need that much space for XP embedded. I've seen images that will fit on a 128 mb card.
Granted, I am not saying it's better than Linux, for example, but it's still pretty good for Windows.
That's absurd. The patent renewal fees are a legitimate (and small) cost of business. If RedHat takes 50% of IBM's software business, and IBM gets desperate, lawsuits will be made against patents that Linux violates. You can take that the bank. And if IBM wins, basically the damages would more than cover legal fees and lost profits.
which is every bit as commercially viable as the more traditional litigious application of software pat
That's a completly moronic 1990's style notion.
While things are good, having the goodwill of the "linux community" might be all good and great.
What about next time IBM is rasping for cash revenues? It's easy to make rosy promises when times are good. It's hard to follow them when roses turn to crap.
Having the love and support of 500,000 volunteer Linux nerds is a good thing, but don't think for a minute that IBM wouldn't trade that in for cold hard cash if they were facing a very bad economic outlook.
The way it basically works is that process is started, and an approximation of entire image is copied over to the other machine. After a minute or so on some images, more on machines with many resources, the machines are basically close in contents. When the delta between the machines is fairly small, execution on the first is stopped, and all changes comitted to the second. Commands in the pipeline are moved to the second machine and the machine unpaused.
On virtual machines with big resources it does take a solid minute or more to get things to that point, but the result is flawless everytime. Having a shared fast disk array really helps, FYI.
That's fine.. how do you propose that my aunt does her work with topological mapping against a CLI? Make a small change in a 20MB text file, and then render it to PS, and output to dead tree? (Repeat?)..
CLI is good for it's good for, but pretty much terrible for everything else.. if you want to do text processing, by all means, go for it.
I am not saying there is. But I am sure the VietCong and Saddamm Hussein took notice when attacked.
Remember this: when the DOJ's settlement with Microsoft expires next year, Microsoft can takes its gloves off.
Any new anti-trust action would have to start with a trial to determine if MS was a monopoly on desktop operating systems. The cost barrier of switching to Linux is zero, the penetration is gaining, and it is very argubably a better, more complete product.
A new anti-trust action against MS would fail at the "Is MS a monopoly phase?" most likely.
With that hurdle out of the way, MS can be as vicious as they ever wanted.
They could perform a hostile takeover of Google if they wanted.
All that Microsoft has to do is skate the fine line between antitrust and default configuration to give their own product better placement than Google enjoys, so the masses automatically switch due to the ease that the computer/browser integrates with Microsoft's search engine.
Remember as well that the anti-trust settlement expires in 2005 and parts in 2006. Meaning, that any new anti-trust action will have to re-establish that Microsoft is in fact a monopoly in desktop operating systems for Intel x86 hardware (which was the original finding).
And I think this time that Microsoft will present it's same exact argument they did in the first trial: Linux and Mac. And this time, the judge will have a much, much, much harder time discounting the competition.
I just think that ballmer is saying this to appease skittish shareholders.
It could be that, or that they are developing a product specifically targetted towards beating google.
When the world's largest most profitable software company targets you, you would probably take notice too.
but they cant. when you are a company that large you can pretty much dictate to insurance companies the rates.
Unless it just recently changed, Microsoft *is* the insurance company. Large companies are often self-insured.
The point is, they don't even have to offer insurance. That's an expense, as are the dozens of other best-of-breed benefits they provide.
They also own your life.
What is this, "The Firm" for you? They don't own your life. Get involved with real people who work at Microsoft. It is rare that developers or testers out there work long-work weeks, weekends, etc. Around ship time, yes, days get a few hours longer and you may lose a weekend.
And if you think that's not how it is in the rest of the computer industry, or virtually any industry, than you are dead wrong.
As far as "company-town" stuff, I'd like to see you back that absurd notion up. This isn't the 1800's.
Bill Gates has created one of the best places in the world to work, this is from a blog I read:
I need to thank Microsoft for several things: our benefits, our technology, and the people with whom I work. Three months ago, my oldest daughter, Jenna, age 9, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was a normal, healthy kid one day and being rushed in for emergency brain surgery the next. She's now recovering from her second surgery, during which they were able to get 90 percent of the tumor out. Her treatment plan will take many more months, but she's come a long way and continues to make progress daily. When you and your family are healthy, you might tend to take our benefits for granted. I certainly will never do that again. We have the best benefits of any company. Everything has been covered--surgeries, hospital stays, chemotherapy, prescriptions, home nursing and equipment, physical and speech therapy, follow-up visits, and consultations. The medical bills are very large, but everything is covered. We were provided with a case manager who oversees the entire process and helps us deal with the paperwork, organization, and approval processes. In short, they've been phenomenal to deal with. Our technology was also a godsend during this ordeal. A friend and coworker set up a Web site for Jenna the day after her first surgery (http://www.caringbridge.org/sc/jennawit). We have used this site to keep family and friends updated on Jenna's condition and progress. There was no network or wireless access in the hospital, so I used my Smartphone and my laptop to dial in and keep the Web site up to date. I also was able to help other families get their Web sites set up for their children who were in the hospital. Jenna's Web site has had more than 97,000 hits to date, and thousands of well wishes have been posted by friends, family, coworkers, and even complete strangers. If you ever doubted that our technology has had an impact on the world, just take a look at the guestbook on Jenna's site, and you'll see how technology has helped to bring people closer together. Lastly, I must comment on the wonderful people with whom I work. The support has been incredible from day one of Jenna's illness. I was able to take family leave with no questions asked. My team stepped in and took care of my job while my manager worked out a replacement for me, and I was able to just walk away and focus on my family for three months. Also, hundreds of Microsoft folks have offered to help me and my family in any way that they can. We can't thank you all enough for everything that you've done. Thank you, Microsoft, for our benefits, and thank you, employees of Microsoft. The work you do has truly made a difference in my family's life.
(This is the original post)
The benefits at Microsoft are second to-none, anywhere in the country, and probably the world. Paid family leave. The best medical care money can buy. Supportive work environment.
The top execs at Microsoft could gut the benefits and give the employees basic HMO coverage for probably 1/50th the per employee cost, and in the process reap another couple of hundred million a year for themselves.
They wouldn't be the first place to go that route. But did they?
No. Not at all.
Depends, how much did SuSe or RedHat pay you to make your post? And how much did SCO pay me to make this post?
Dell With WindowsXP = thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people in your area who can easily troubleshoot and correct problems.
Micron (very aged) with FreeBSD = dozens, hundreds, or maybe a few thousand of people who can isolate problems. Chances are hardware will fail at some point and replacement parts will be needed.
Why bother with that Micron? If you spend a half-day or a whole day at any point getting it working, or troubleshooting it, than it has exceeded it's replacement cost.
If it runs Microsoft's software, then it necessarily has some sort of DRM on it. Thus, I'd have to favor Linux.
Nope. Not true. A Big Old Lie.
don't see how the premeditate installation of a DVD player is that different from the premeditated purchasing of fast food at a drive up window.
Of course it's all the same. This has nothing specific to do with DVDs. The only difference is that watching a DVD is a continuous and intentionally distracting act, while, reaching for a soda can be reasonably be seen as a perfunctory action.
The issue in terms of law becomes: did he act with reckless disregard for human life. Regardless the distraction, that should be the test.
Read the law sometime. Unless you are familiar with the statues of Alaska, you are probably very wrong.
In most states, 2nd degree murder can also be qualified when you show "gross and flagrant disregard for human life". Manslaughter usually carries with it the tag of "negligent", "careless", etc.
What this man is accused of is showing an amazing indifference to others safety while operating a heavy fast machine. He acted with malice ("my DVD-watching enjoyment is more important than your right to avoid being killed in a car crash") towards his fellow citizens.
You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
Have you ever worked on programming projects of significant size with other programmers before? What I describe and you recount is not a trivial task, but I would wager (and I really mean this, e-mail me anyone if you want to test me) that it would take me a solid work-week to engineer such a fix.
would challenge you to compile a new Intel C library using a Microsoft C compiler from 6 years ago too. Heck, compile glibc using an IRIX compiler from six years ago.
I am not saying we should use Microsoft.
I am saying that proprietary embedded systems vendors are setup to handle this type thing, and Linux/Microsoft/general purpose isn't.
I've done embedded systems work before and the difference in platform stability is like you've never imagined.
The point is though that the government/military/whatever isn't in the software business.
The military is in the killing business. Having them run a "Open SOurce Audit Office" isn't trivial. It's not a "no-brainer". You should get acquanited with Washington for a bit, and then get back to me.