If they got this case dropped, it would (conservativly) add about $100 billion to their market cap. I think the shareholders/might/ be willing to make that trade;)
Personally, I would be happy with a fine in the US -- if the fine could be used to support an open source consumer OS.
IOW, fine MS a billion or so dollars and use it to fund an (OSX-like) GUI for, say, linux (or FreeBSD, or whatever).
MS would gladly pay the money to get out of this mess. And it would be the only viable way (that I can think of) to actually have a real Windows alternative. Everybody wins.
I don't know if our courts are allowed to make creative punishments like that. But it probably could be a decent settlement.
This may sound silly, at first, but I wonder if giving these drugs will help save some people or kill more in the long run.
The thing that makes AIDS such a devastating disease is that it takes too long to kill. So it has time to spread much farther. So extending the lives of people with AIDS without serious changes to their behavior will mean that more people will be infected. I don't know what the real impact will be, but I am curious.
On a side note, I do think drugs should be patentable. It's the only way to motivate real reasearch on a drug. But is anyone else bothered by the fact that a drug company will make more money by treating a disease like AIDS than curing it. I mean if one of these companies came up with a cure right now, their collective stock prices would drop like a rock: they would lose a steady stream of revenue for a short-term pop.
Kinda the same reason microsoft wants subscription based software;)
I've been a professional programmer for several years. I started in C++ and am now doing Java. As far as that debate goes, Java IMHO is a much better learning language than C++. It has a much cleaner syntax (no preprocessor, not figgin ugly template syntax, etc). And it has a much broader and more standard standard library. Plus, it's a lot easier to debug.
Having said that, I'm not sure that either one is a good introductory language. Personally, after reading the book The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (which, I think, is used as the intro CS course at MIT -- not that I could get in there;), I think an alternative language like Scheme might not be such a bad idea.
Now, I don't think that Scheme is a great general purpose language, but it's very flexible and allows you to experiment with a couple of different paradigms. (You don't need to use an 'Object-Oriented' language to leran or program in good object-oriented style.
Plus, since it's a language that one will probably never use in a job, it will give the students a little more diversity (rather than tying their minds to one particular language).
It's been a couple years since I was a teenager. But I remember it being a tought time. These days you have so much responsibility at that age, but zero freedom. It can be very oppressive.
I have to think that this oppression is what makes (or should I say contributes) to some of these kids going crazy.
And now the solution to these kids is to just keep taking away more rights:
Just a few years ago, at 16 (probably younger) I could:
Play any damn video game I wanted
Buy any damn CD I wanted
Buy cigarettes
See any rated-R movie
Drive
.......
And kids at 16 are pretty damn smart. They've been around. A lot of them hold jobs. They are adults.
Now we keep taking away these freedoms from young people to "protect them". Maybe I'm being silly, but if my life was as restrictive when I was 16 as they're trying to make it for today's 16 year olds, I might have cracked too.
Easy, Mr. Wizard. I'm no expert on oil drilling, but what I've seen (from watching Beverly Hillbillies (sp?)) is that oil often has significant head built up so that once there is a path drilled to the oil (gas, whatever) it shoots out of the ground with tremendous force. Once it's out of the ground, there is plenty of oxygen to burn it. (This is what Saddam did.)
Anyway, I'm sure this isn't a problem for them, but it's still funny as hell. So lighten up.
I went to high school in a small-ish, low income town. I had average to poor grades. Maybe I was just lazy. But I'd like to think that part of it was the lack of good teachers. I was never challanged by any of them, I could coast by without doing any work, so why bother?
I scored very well on the ACT compared to my classmates. Top 1% in my school. I never would have gotten in to college without those high scores.
I was able to complete my degree (BSEE) from a pretty good school, which would have been very tough for most of the guys in my high school with better grades.
My point is that using those scores could be just as unfair as not using them. How can you base everything on the grades you got from your school when schools are so different?
I think the best way to judge students is to get as many different criteria as you can and view them in their totality, not to throw out all the ones that might be unfair -- they're all unfair to some people.
But I want X so that I can continue using the GIMP
As I understand it, they've already ported an X-server than runs side by side with the Mac gui. So you'll be able to run the GIMP as a native OS X app...
I think the idea here is that the VP is supposed to be an intermediate code. By not limiting the number of registers, it'll be easier to translate it into future processors which will probably have more registers.
It's a lot like the Java Virtual Machine, excpet the JVM has no (general purpose) registers, for, I would think, the same reason.
I've been using Napster, but mostly because the RIAA doesn't provide a real alterntive. I would be willing to pay, say, a buck a song (like on emusic) rather than using Napster -- if the option were available. In other words, yes, I think what people are doing on Napster is illegal (although, Napster itself isn't;) -- but, in some sense justified. --tim
Slashdot Mirror
If they got this case dropped, it would (conservativly) add about $100 billion to their market cap. I think the shareholders /might/ be willing to make that trade ;)
--t
IOW, fine MS a billion or so dollars and use it to fund an (OSX-like) GUI for, say, linux (or FreeBSD, or whatever).
MS would gladly pay the money to get out of this mess. And it would be the only viable way (that I can think of) to actually have a real Windows alternative. Everybody wins.
I don't know if our courts are allowed to make creative punishments like that. But it probably could be a decent settlement.
--tim
The thing that makes AIDS such a devastating disease is that it takes too long to kill. So it has time to spread much farther. So extending the lives of people with AIDS without serious changes to their behavior will mean that more people will be infected. I don't know what the real impact will be, but I am curious.
On a side note, I do think drugs should be patentable. It's the only way to motivate real reasearch on a drug. But is anyone else bothered by the fact that a drug company will make more money by treating a disease like AIDS than curing it. I mean if one of these companies came up with a cure right now, their collective stock prices would drop like a rock: they would lose a steady stream of revenue for a short-term pop.
Kinda the same reason microsoft wants subscription based software ;)
--tim
Having said that, I'm not sure that either one is a good introductory language. Personally, after reading the book The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (which, I think, is used as the intro CS course at MIT -- not that I could get in there ;), I think an alternative language like Scheme might not be such a bad idea.
Now, I don't think that Scheme is a great general purpose language, but it's very flexible and allows you to experiment with a couple of different paradigms. (You don't need to use an 'Object-Oriented' language to leran or program in good object-oriented style.
Plus, since it's a language that one will probably never use in a job, it will give the students a little more diversity (rather than tying their minds to one particular language).
--tim
I'm guessing they use several pixels for each color for altering the brightness.
--t
I have to think that this oppression is what makes (or should I say contributes) to some of these kids going crazy.
And now the solution to these kids is to just keep taking away more rights:
Just a few years ago, at 16 (probably younger) I could:
- Play any damn video game I wanted
- Buy any damn CD I wanted
- Buy cigarettes
- See any rated-R movie
- Drive
- .......
And kids at 16 are pretty damn smart. They've been around. A lot of them hold jobs. They are adults.Now we keep taking away these freedoms from young people to "protect them". Maybe I'm being silly, but if my life was as restrictive when I was 16 as they're trying to make it for today's 16 year olds, I might have cracked too.
--tim
http://content.honeywell.com/yourhome/webpad/webpa d.htm
--tim
Anyway, I'm sure this isn't a problem for them, but it's still funny as hell. So lighten up.
--t
I scored very well on the ACT compared to my classmates. Top 1% in my school. I never would have gotten in to college without those high scores.
I was able to complete my degree (BSEE) from a pretty good school, which would have been very tough for most of the guys in my high school with better grades.
My point is that using those scores could be just as unfair as not using them. How can you base everything on the grades you got from your school when schools are so different?
I think the best way to judge students is to get as many different criteria as you can and view them in their totality, not to throw out all the ones that might be unfair -- they're all unfair to some people.
--tim
-t
-t
As I understand it, they've already ported an X-server than runs side by side with the Mac gui. So you'll be able to run the GIMP as a native OS X app...
--t
It's a lot like the Java Virtual Machine, excpet the JVM has no (general purpose) registers, for, I would think, the same reason.
--t
Whas the big deal anyway. In order to get credit for a class you have to pay for it. Who cares if I actually go to the lectures?
--tim
I've been using Napster, but mostly because the RIAA doesn't provide a real alterntive. I would be willing to pay, say, a buck a song (like on emusic) rather than using Napster -- if the option were available. In other words, yes, I think what people are doing on Napster is illegal (although, Napster itself isn't ;) -- but, in some sense justified. --tim