But how can someone be a monopoly where there are multiple other options? Apple, Linux, etc?
This is a common misconception of anti-trust law (IANAL). Unlike what we were taught by Parker Brothers, a monopoly isn't defined as a 100% market-share. According to the way anti-trust law is applied, a monopoly exists when the average consumer believes there are no viable alternatives. In this particular case, MS has an OS monopoly because the cost of switching is prohibitively high for most end-users. Saying that you can give up most of your existing apps to switch to Linux, or ditch your hardware to switch to Apple is no answer for users.
The Mozilla Organization is strongly opposed to implementing document.all.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. If I may, I'd like to make a couple of rebuttal points.
Gecko is Open Source: unless there's something funky about the license, someone could fork it and implement document.all.
Gecko was just an example: there are other HTML renderers one might consider.
In any event, I merely threw that comment in as an after-thought (as I said then, others had already brought up the point). The point I was really interested in getting across was the first one: MS's complaint that modifying Windows will break apps is hypocritical.
I do appreciate the heads-up, though. That might explain the JS problem my buddy in the next cube is having with NS 6.2.
I partially agree with you, insofar that it has become socially acceptable to define any sort of non-conformance an "illness" to be medicated, and I think that's wrong. The Onion has satirized this trend on at least two occasions ("Ritalin Cures Next Picasso" and "Millions of Children Still Suffering from 'Youthful Tendency Disorder'").
On the other hand, it was my understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong) that these two particular fellas were suffering from some sort of psychosis; something not really comparable to ADD. Surely mental illness isn't solely the province of adulthood. Unless, that is, it's your position that mental illnesses aren't real. If so, I must amicably part ways with you.
Finally, while I don't think corporal punishment is all bad, I think inflicting it "at regular intervals", or "for every transgression" is a tad extreme.
It's not like these kids were absolute freaks of nature.
Depends on your definition. They were suffering from mental illnesses for which they were supposed to be taking anti-psychotics (in a video-taped pre-confession, one of them admitted that he was deliberately refusing to take his meds to let his rage build until it could explode). I think that exempts them from most definitions of "typical teenager".
so I just can't uninstall Internet Explorer and have all of my applications work.
Big deal. I can't upgrade Windows and have all of my applications work. Does that mean Mircosoft can argue that Windows version x is a critical part of Windows version x+1? Put another way, since when is the ability to run every existing application a feature of Windows?
I find Netscape on Windows... slower. I clocked it - IE loads faster on my PII/350 with 128MB RAM (Windows 2000) than my Athlon 1500 with 512MB RAM loads Netscape 6.
I would suggest that part of the reason for that is the fact that by virtue of running Windows 2000, you've already loaded most of the IE DLLs into memory. Again, to look at things from another perspective, would IE load faster than Netscape on (say) a Mac? How about Solaris? (I honestly don't know.)
In closing, I'd like to point out what so many others have elsewhere: even if we grant that Windows needs an HTML renderer to function, why does it have to be IE? You mentioned that lots of other Microsoft products simply call an API. That's just begging for someone to write a wrapper for Gecko and drop it in place of shdocvw.dll and/or mshtml.dll.
That can't be the only reason, because when I tried uninstalling OE after installing Outlook 2000, I wasn't able to read simple, plain-text mail. Oh, and would you mind pointing me to the Outlook command for reading news? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
I wish you were correct, but do you forget Jon Johanneson (sp?)??? He was extridited from his home contry for distributing DeCSS in violation of the DMCA.
No, he wasn't. He is being prosecuted, but within his native country.
[Blizzard] could reasonably press the case the their EULA forbids the use of non-licensed servers, so such use violates the license agreement and terminates your right to use the program at all.
Except that you're conflating server owners with client owners. Bnetd isn't subject to Blizzard's EULA. If Blizzard went the EULA route, they'd have to target their own customers, which is bad for business. The great [sic] thing about the DMCA is that corporations can always find someone else to demonize.
First, I'm fairly confident that battle.net is free, though that doesn't mean it will always remain so. Second, battle.net being free doesn't make the point silent, but irrelevant; a non-starter. The point is therefore moot, not mute.
RL's had a hard drive? My HX didn't come with one by default, and we never seemed to get around to buying one. It did, though, have a read-only C: drive. I assume it was firmware, or some such. It had MS-DOS 2.2 on it, so the PC booted up in something like 5 seconds.
Finding programs that explicitly supported TGA was a pain.
Too true. I learned to develop an affinity for text-based games.
What happened to your HX?
[Sound of old wound tearing open]
Sometime in 1997, I moved in with my current SO into a tiny apartment, and so there wasn't room for both my "real" PC and my "antique" one. The parents took it and donated it to Goodwill, and I quickly came to rue that day. I have since learned greater respect for older hardware.
I had a 1000HX, which was effectively a PS/2 clone (IBM, not Sony;-). It was the first time I had seen a 3 1/2" floppy. The demo model at Radio Shack showed an animation of both-sized floppies sliding into a guy's shirt pockets. The 5 1/4" ripped the shirt, but the 3 1/2" went right in. It's a pity we couldn't hardly ever find software that came on the latter at the time (except Civilization, which forced me to upgrade to 640k RAM).
As recently as 1993, there was a company in New Jersey that sold mail-order hardware to extend the life of the pre-386 Tandys (sorry, don't recall the name; for all I know, it still exists). I couldn't afford anything from them at the time, but they sold an improved processor (8088)
for the HX to run at just north of 8MHz, and boards to give it up to a full 1MB of RAM and EGA graphics! They once claimed to be working on a hardware emulator to let it act as a very slow 386, but then they just sort of disappeared from my radar.
The RL's 3-voice PCM sound capability... [and]...the special Tandy graphics.
Ack! I had nearly forgotten those. My friends were awed by the 3-voice sound, but laughed at the "TGA", since they had the PC squeaker and EGA, respectively. I was fairly happy with the compromise, even though it meant that I usually got stuck with CGA. If I wanted to see it in its full 16-color glory, though, I only had to fire up "Personal Deskmate II" (a Windows-like shell). Ah, those were the days...
I realize I'm picking on you for no good reason, but why did you capitalize the "S" in "Microsoft"? I've seen others do this, and my curiosity has finally gotten the better of me.
...your refrigerator will use these RFID tags to determine what you have and don't have in your fridge.
I've heard this before. What I don't understand is, How will my über-fridge know about the left-overs I didn't finish last night, or the doggie-bag from my local restaurant? For that matter, how does know how much milk is left in that gallon jug, or how much of that stick of butter remains?
It sounds great in theory, but I don't understand how it's going to work in practice.
I'm pretty sure "Underrated" has been around at least as long as I have (mid-1999?; can't even remember). I don't know how slashcode decides which of multiple moderations gets displayed (if something is modded as both funny and insightful, which do we see?), but this is the first time I've seen underrated get chosen, so it doesn't surprise me that you haven't noticed it before. I think its most common use is for meta-moderation, though regular moderators can use it if they choose. There's also an "Overrated" rating. I pretty much have to assume you've seen all the others, since most of them appear attached to this article (especially if you choose to read at -- *shudder* -- -1).
Now, I readily admit that I didn't read the article in question, so maybe the example you give isn't what you were referring to, but "aught" and "our will pass through a spell checker without complaint. I agree about the general lack of proof-reading demonstrated, though.
All these people running Linux 1.x are equally screwed.
Not really. They have the source code; they can fix whatever's wrong with it themselves (or barring that, hire someone to do it for them). No such option exists for Win95 and Win 3.x.
How else do corporate trade secrets and national top-secret materials avoid getting published?
I can't speak to state secrets, but with trade secrets, I think you're misunderstanding the law (IANAL). Basically, what happens is that you enter into a voluntary agreement whereby you give up your right to speak in order to have access to those secrets. Breaking this agreement opens you up to civil liability (i.e., you get sued for breach of contract), but you aren't going to do any hard time for it. Similarly, if you were told the trade secret by a third party, you're free and clear to repeat it if you so choose. Remember: the first amendment is only designed to protect you from the government.
Slashdot Mirror
But how can someone be a monopoly where there are multiple other options? Apple, Linux, etc?
This is a common misconception of anti-trust law (IANAL). Unlike what we were taught by Parker Brothers, a monopoly isn't defined as a 100% market-share. According to the way anti-trust law is applied, a monopoly exists when the average consumer believes there are no viable alternatives. In this particular case, MS has an OS monopoly because the cost of switching is prohibitively high for most end-users. Saying that you can give up most of your existing apps to switch to Linux, or ditch your hardware to switch to Apple is no answer for users.
The Mozilla Organization is strongly opposed to implementing document.all.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. If I may, I'd like to make a couple of rebuttal points.
In any event, I merely threw that comment in as an after-thought (as I said then, others had already brought up the point). The point I was really interested in getting across was the first one: MS's complaint that modifying Windows will break apps is hypocritical.
I do appreciate the heads-up, though. That might explain the JS problem my buddy in the next cube is having with NS 6.2.
Wow. I'm not exactly sure how to respond to that.
I partially agree with you, insofar that it has become socially acceptable to define any sort of non-conformance an "illness" to be medicated, and I think that's wrong. The Onion has satirized this trend on at least two occasions ("Ritalin Cures Next Picasso" and "Millions of Children Still Suffering from 'Youthful Tendency Disorder'").
On the other hand, it was my understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong) that these two particular fellas were suffering from some sort of psychosis; something not really comparable to ADD. Surely mental illness isn't solely the province of adulthood. Unless, that is, it's your position that mental illnesses aren't real. If so, I must amicably part ways with you.
Finally, while I don't think corporal punishment is all bad, I think inflicting it "at regular intervals", or "for every transgression" is a tad extreme.
It's not like these kids were absolute freaks of nature.
Depends on your definition. They were suffering from mental illnesses for which they were supposed to be taking anti-psychotics (in a video-taped pre-confession, one of them admitted that he was deliberately refusing to take his meds to let his rage build until it could explode). I think that exempts them from most definitions of "typical teenager".
so I just can't uninstall Internet Explorer and have all of my applications work.
Big deal. I can't upgrade Windows and have all of my applications work. Does that mean Mircosoft can argue that Windows version x is a critical part of Windows version x+1? Put another way, since when is the ability to run every existing application a feature of Windows?
I find Netscape on Windows... slower. I clocked it - IE loads faster on my PII/350 with 128MB RAM (Windows 2000) than my Athlon 1500 with 512MB RAM loads Netscape 6.
I would suggest that part of the reason for that is the fact that by virtue of running Windows 2000, you've already loaded most of the IE DLLs into memory. Again, to look at things from another perspective, would IE load faster than Netscape on (say) a Mac? How about Solaris? (I honestly don't know.)
In closing, I'd like to point out what so many others have elsewhere: even if we grant that Windows needs an HTML renderer to function, why does it have to be IE? You mentioned that lots of other Microsoft products simply call an API. That's just begging for someone to write a wrapper for Gecko and drop it in place of shdocvw.dll and/or mshtml.dll.
That can't be the only reason, because when I tried uninstalling OE after installing Outlook 2000, I wasn't able to read simple, plain-text mail. Oh, and would you mind pointing me to the Outlook command for reading news? I can't seem to find it anywhere.
Indeed. "Throwing me in jail isn't going to bring him back to life, now is it?"
I wish you were correct, but do you forget Jon Johanneson (sp?)??? He was extridited from his home contry for distributing DeCSS in violation of the DMCA.
No, he wasn't. He is being prosecuted, but within his native country.
[Blizzard] could reasonably press the case the their EULA forbids the use of non-licensed servers, so such use violates the license agreement and terminates your right to use the program at all.
Except that you're conflating server owners with client owners. Bnetd isn't subject to Blizzard's EULA. If Blizzard went the EULA route, they'd have to target their own customers, which is bad for business. The great [sic] thing about the DMCA is that corporations can always find someone else to demonize.
If battle.net is free, this point is mute.....
First, I'm fairly confident that battle.net is free, though that doesn't mean it will always remain so. Second, battle.net being free doesn't make the point silent, but irrelevant; a non-starter. The point is therefore moot, not mute.
RL's had a hard drive? My HX didn't come with one by default, and we never seemed to get around to buying one. It did, though, have a read-only C: drive. I assume it was firmware, or some such. It had MS-DOS 2.2 on it, so the PC booted up in something like 5 seconds.
Finding programs that explicitly supported TGA was a pain.
Too true. I learned to develop an affinity for text-based games.
What happened to your HX?
[Sound of old wound tearing open]
Sometime in 1997, I moved in with my current SO into a tiny apartment, and so there wasn't room for both my "real" PC and my "antique" one. The parents took it and donated it to Goodwill, and I quickly came to rue that day. I have since learned greater respect for older hardware.
I had a 1000RL... (8086 8mhz I think)
I had a 1000HX, which was effectively a PS/2 clone (IBM, not Sony ;-). It was the first time I had seen a 3 1/2" floppy. The demo model at Radio Shack showed an animation of both-sized floppies sliding into a guy's shirt pockets. The 5 1/4" ripped the shirt, but the 3 1/2" went right in. It's a pity we couldn't hardly ever find software that came on the latter at the time (except Civilization, which forced me to upgrade to 640k RAM).
As recently as 1993, there was a company in New Jersey that sold mail-order hardware to extend the life of the pre-386 Tandys (sorry, don't recall the name; for all I know, it still exists). I couldn't afford anything from them at the time, but they sold an improved processor (8088) for the HX to run at just north of 8MHz, and boards to give it up to a full 1MB of RAM and EGA graphics! They once claimed to be working on a hardware emulator to let it act as a very slow 386, but then they just sort of disappeared from my radar.
The RL's 3-voice PCM sound capability... [and] ...the special Tandy graphics.
Ack! I had nearly forgotten those. My friends were awed by the 3-voice sound, but laughed at the "TGA", since they had the PC squeaker and EGA, respectively. I was fairly happy with the compromise, even though it meant that I usually got stuck with CGA. If I wanted to see it in its full 16-color glory, though, I only had to fire up "Personal Deskmate II" (a Windows-like shell). Ah, those were the days...
The obvious choice of a buyer would be MicroSoft.
I realize I'm picking on you for no good reason, but why did you capitalize the "S" in "Microsoft"? I've seen others do this, and my curiosity has finally gotten the better of me.
One minor nitpick: I believe terrorists use terrorizing as a primary means to a goal, not the primary goal itself.
I've heard this before. What I don't understand is, How will my über-fridge know about the left-overs I didn't finish last night, or the doggie-bag from my local restaurant? For that matter, how does know how much milk is left in that gallon jug, or how much of that stick of butter remains?
It sounds great in theory, but I don't understand how it's going to work in practice.
I'm pretty sure "Underrated" has been around at least as long as I have (mid-1999?; can't even remember). I don't know how slashcode decides which of multiple moderations gets displayed (if something is modded as both funny and insightful, which do we see?), but this is the first time I've seen underrated get chosen, so it doesn't surprise me that you haven't noticed it before. I think its most common use is for meta-moderation, though regular moderators can use it if they choose. There's also an "Overrated" rating. I pretty much have to assume you've seen all the others, since most of them appear attached to this article (especially if you choose to read at -- *shudder* -- -1).
Hope this is helpful.
Pardon my ignorance, but just how many known Pompeii-style disasters have occurred since 100,000 BCE?
Were you interviewed for PBS by Alan Alda? I remember seeing some program he hosted which detailed exactly this theory.
Sun took exception to that [] and sued and won.
Sun didn't actually win; they settled with Microsoft.
Of course, maybe I should learn to proof-read my own posts. :(
Now, I readily admit that I didn't read the article in question, so maybe the example you give isn't what you were referring to, but "aught" and "our will pass through a spell checker without complaint. I agree about the general lack of proof-reading demonstrated, though.
Ooh... a 1000 RL! And I thought I was special with my 1000 HX (IBM PS/2 clone).
All these people running Linux 1.x are equally screwed.
Not really. They have the source code; they can fix whatever's wrong with it themselves (or barring that, hire someone to do it for them). No such option exists for Win95 and Win 3.x.
How else do corporate trade secrets and national top-secret materials avoid getting published?
I can't speak to state secrets, but with trade secrets, I think you're misunderstanding the law (IANAL). Basically, what happens is that you enter into a voluntary agreement whereby you give up your right to speak in order to have access to those secrets. Breaking this agreement opens you up to civil liability (i.e., you get sued for breach of contract), but you aren't going to do any hard time for it. Similarly, if you were told the trade secret by a third party, you're free and clear to repeat it if you so choose. Remember: the first amendment is only designed to protect you from the government.
They settled with MS. Their part is at an end.