This is a little offtopic, and a trifle condescending, but do we care enough about children not to give them asinine names? How many Trawandas, DeLeroys, and Yasomethins do we need?
How are those any different from Steven, Michael, or John -- other than that they don't come from your particular cultural background?
As Frank Zappa once said about his children--whom he named Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emukkha, and Diva Muffin--"it's the last name that gets them in trouble".
It may require IE's entire URL-parsing module to be rewritten from scratch. Fixing particularly pervasive flaws may require rewriting an ENTIRE codebase from scratch (not that I think IE is THAT poorly designed).
But there's not a piece of software in the world that cannot be fixed when a bug is found, given sufficient time, resources, and expertise.
"A high-volume system like (Windows) that has been thoroughly tested will be by far the most secure," than it's low-attack competitors like Mac OS X and Linux.
In theory, yes, the code may be tighter. But which system will have more successful attacks executed against it? In the Real World, the most reliable system is the one you have to take offline and clean up least often.
"hackers are good for maturation" of the platform, because they have forced the company to develop new inspection techniques for the code.
In the same way that an outbreak of American soldiers getting killed in Iraq is proof that we're winning, I suppose.
"Today, virus writers don't find holes," he said. "They just sit back and wait for patches to appear
Doe he really mean "patches"? Or does he mean documentation of vulnerabilities? I'm sure the "virus writers" (another term he misues) aren't waiting for Microsoft to say "ok, here's a Windows Update that corrects the problem" before designing their own exploits of the flaw.
Adopt Postgres or MySQL instead of Oracle, save $40K.
This would only work if those products are functionally equivalent to Oracle. While I am a huge fan of developing with PostgreSQL, there's no way I'd run a massive, mission-critial financial system on it.
Then again, I'd say the same about MS SQL Server.
Whatever. The point is, and we all already know this, is that for a comparison to be valid, ALL variables must be controlled to the greatest extent possible. If Oracle runs on both test platforms, use it on both platforms. If one of the test systems uses a cluster of cheap x86 servers, the other system(s) must do the same.
Why any re$earch lab would agree to do a $tudy where thi$ proce$$ i$ not ob$served i$ $omething that I ju$t can't under$tand.
Do we reall want IBM marketing linux? Look what happened to OS/2.
IBM didn't really market OS/2, though. They just kind of made it available for sale.
In fact, one could argue that by Warp 3, the first real marketing push the OS got, IBM already knew the product had a limited amount of time left and were just trying to maximize their ROI before Windows 95 got released a few months later and pushed OS/2 out of the market.
I'm sure al-Jazeera, being a state-funded news organization, is also factual and even-handed?
The idea that any news source CAN be unbiased is a fallacy. A century ago, when every city in the United States had at least two daily papers, there was no pretense of impartiality; one paper had a conservative perspective, another liberal, and you would read whichever paper(s) held your attention.
As more media outlets went bankrupt or got consolidated, the viewpoints become less diverse -- if there was only one paper in town, it was in the best interest of their circulation numbers to try to be neutral and not drive anyone away. It's only recently, with the emergence of opinionated outlets like FOX News, that this trend has started to reverse itself.
I have nothing again'st people making a living, but lets see how your tune changes when they start outsourcing journalist jobs...
Ah, but there's the rub. Journalism jobs CAN'T be outsourced. Reporting on an event most always requires you to be on the scene, and round-trip airfare from Bangladesh to the local school board meeting ends up being a lot more expensive than hiring someone local (esp. since American journalists making more than ~$50k/yr is a fairly rare phenomenon).
If a programming job can be done just as competently by an Indian coder as by an American coder (and that's still an unresolved 'if' in my book), for less money, there's no economic reason not to give the work to the Indian. Americans will have to find different jobs.
Which makes me wonder... why did IT professionals in the US never unionize? At this point, it's probably too late.
What you think makes a good product will in fact be very different from what your customers think is a good product.
This would be a great opportunity for someone to argue that open source software will never come to dominate the market as long as developers continue to scratch their own itches instead of thinking in terms of customers.
My best advise is to start a small software company while still employed.
Remember, never take business advise (sic) from somebody without talking to a lawyer first. IANAL, but...
If you're doing anything even similar to software development for your current employer, don't be surprised when they fire you and take you to court seeking ownership of the software product you developed for your own company. If you're bound by a non-compete clause, they'll try to get you with that; if you're not, they'll try to claim your software takes advantage of their trade secrets and may end up getting you anyway.
Imagine what the life would be like today if printing presses, typewriters and even the lowly sheets of paper had been incredulously controlled by some mediaval robber baron!?
Yes, instead we should be looking towards the GOVERNMENT to establish standards that all printing presses, typewriters, and sheets of paper must conform to!
That type of governmental oversight may be popular in the nations of the European Union, but it's anathema to a long-standing tradition of United States laissez-faire industrial policy.
Why do none of the remedys require microsoft to release all APIs?
Basically, for such an action to be considered as a remedy, it would have to be proven that the closedness of "secret" APIs was responsible for Microsoft's abuse of monopoly. This would be hard to prove for a few reasons, not the least of which is that the APIs are... secret.
The environment should have a media player, an email client, file management utilities, a calendar, games, HTML renderer, screen savers, contact managers, diagnostics, and many other things.
The operating SYSTEM should NOT!
By these definitions, Microsoft would be the first to tell you that MS Windows is an operating ENVIRONMENT. Most of the tools you mention have been bundled as part of the Windows product since version 3.0 or earlier.
Let's just hope that the EU can fine them cash and not accept Microsoft coupons like the US does.
I have about as much hope of that as I do of Slashdot admins participating in the meritocratic moderation system instead of adding their two cents directly to the stories they approve.
I know you're only on dialup and every extra page you have to load is a nuisance, CmdrTaco, but would it kill you to post the story, hit the reply button, and not type in your personal opinions until THEN?
When my Dad brought home an XT, my 7-year-old self LOVED to play Donkey. The 16-color textmode graphics may not have been as pretty as what other 8-bit compters of the time were cranking out, but the game was SIMPLE and FUN.
Remember, the IBM PC belonged to a legacy of BUSINESS computers. It was optimized for working on spreadsheets and driving line printers, not games and entertainment. That came later.
Okay, I will grant that there are some good arguments for the Mac-style single-menu interface, but when it comes down to it I PREFER Windows-style menus -- it seems more logical to me.
A truly great GUI would allow users to select their preference from both kinds of behavior.
Say you're a product architect at a company that builds smartphones, and the CTO tasks you to survey what's in the marketplace. Which are you more likely to report back as your recommendation?
1) We can license Symbian's solution, there are licensing fees to pay but the system is ready to ship today, and it's proven compatible with products x, y, and z already on the market, or
2) We can roll our own mobile platform based on Linux, it'll require a team of developers and at least a year-long project to get it ready to sell, and while it should be interoperable with other Linux systems there's a chance of incompatibilities.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a little offtopic, and a trifle condescending, but do we care enough about children not to give them asinine names?
How many Trawandas, DeLeroys, and Yasomethins do we need?
How are those any different from Steven, Michael, or John -- other than that they don't come from your particular cultural background?
As Frank Zappa once said about his children--whom he named Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emukkha, and Diva Muffin--"it's the last name that gets them in trouble".
...both spoof issues appear to be unfixable...
Is this just FUD?
Of course it is.
It may require IE's entire URL-parsing module to be rewritten from scratch. Fixing particularly pervasive flaws may require rewriting an ENTIRE codebase from scratch (not that I think IE is THAT poorly designed).
But there's not a piece of software in the world that cannot be fixed when a bug is found, given sufficient time, resources, and expertise.
"A high-volume system like (Windows) that has been thoroughly tested will be by far the most secure," than it's low-attack competitors like Mac OS X and Linux.
In theory, yes, the code may be tighter. But which system will have more successful attacks executed against it? In the Real World, the most reliable system is the one you have to take offline and clean up least often.
"hackers are good for maturation" of the platform, because they have forced the company to develop new inspection techniques for the code.
In the same way that an outbreak of American soldiers getting killed in Iraq is proof that we're winning, I suppose.
"Today, virus writers don't find holes," he said. "They just sit back and wait for patches to appear
Doe he really mean "patches"? Or does he mean documentation of vulnerabilities? I'm sure the "virus writers" (another term he misues) aren't waiting for Microsoft to say "ok, here's a Windows Update that corrects the problem" before designing their own exploits of the flaw.
The Kama Sutra Technical Manual.
Chapter 1: Insert tab A into slot B.
WRONG
You're supposed to do some prep work first.
Microsoft is deprecating the use of "@" in URLS.
The popularity of IE is about to drop sharply as the entire XXX-site-password-hacking community finds their reliable tricks no longer work.
Should knock MS's browser marketshare down 10-15% just from that alone.
Just 30 posts so far, hours after an article on MS is put up on Slashdot.
You posted this @3:56AM. Did you expect an immediate deluge of comments?
Adopt Postgres or MySQL instead of Oracle, save $40K.
This would only work if those products are functionally equivalent to Oracle. While I am a huge fan of developing with PostgreSQL, there's no way I'd run a massive, mission-critial financial system on it.
Then again, I'd say the same about MS SQL Server.
Whatever. The point is, and we all already know this, is that for a comparison to be valid, ALL variables must be controlled to the greatest extent possible. If Oracle runs on both test platforms, use it on both platforms. If one of the test systems uses a cluster of cheap x86 servers, the other system(s) must do the same.
Why any re$earch lab would agree to do a $tudy where thi$ proce$$ i$ not ob$served i$ $omething that I ju$t can't under$tand.
Microsoft would do us all a favor if on the next version of their OS they go back to good old fashioned INI files.
Should we abandon relational databases and go back to CSV files while we're at it?
Do we reall want IBM marketing linux? Look what happened to OS/2.
IBM didn't really market OS/2, though. They just kind of made it available for sale.
In fact, one could argue that by Warp 3, the first real marketing push the OS got, IBM already knew the product had a limited amount of time left and were just trying to maximize their ROI before Windows 95 got released a few months later and pushed OS/2 out of the market.
"Eivind-sponsored benchmarks prove that multiple Linux Web servers perform better than a Windows mainframe acting as a Web server consolidator."
Windows... mainframe?
Is there a HOWTO for this? I'm trying to get XP to boot up on this here IBM z800, but it doesn't seem to work for some reason.
I'm sure al-Jazeera, being a state-funded news organization, is also factual and even-handed?
The idea that any news source CAN be unbiased is a fallacy. A century ago, when every city in the United States had at least two daily papers, there was no pretense of impartiality; one paper had a conservative perspective, another liberal, and you would read whichever paper(s) held your attention.
As more media outlets went bankrupt or got consolidated, the viewpoints become less diverse -- if there was only one paper in town, it was in the best interest of their circulation numbers to try to be neutral and not drive anyone away. It's only recently, with the emergence of opinionated outlets like FOX News, that this trend has started to reverse itself.
I have nothing again'st people making a living, but lets see how your tune changes when they start outsourcing journalist jobs...
Ah, but there's the rub. Journalism jobs CAN'T be outsourced. Reporting on an event most always requires you to be on the scene, and round-trip airfare from Bangladesh to the local school board meeting ends up being a lot more expensive than hiring someone local (esp. since American journalists making more than ~$50k/yr is a fairly rare phenomenon).
If a programming job can be done just as competently by an Indian coder as by an American coder (and that's still an unresolved 'if' in my book), for less money, there's no economic reason not to give the work to the Indian. Americans will have to find different jobs.
Which makes me wonder... why did IT professionals in the US never unionize? At this point, it's probably too late.
I know for a fact that the survivors of the dot bomb are plagued with all kinds of moral and managerial problems
And your proposed solution to this is to have scads of people with zero managerial experience go into business for themselves?
insert yourself into the IT chain not just as a programmer, but as a manager and steakholder
mmm... steak.
What you think makes a good product will in fact be very different from what your customers think is a good product.
This would be a great opportunity for someone to argue that open source software will never come to dominate the market as long as developers continue to scratch their own itches instead of thinking in terms of customers.
Anyone want to run with it?
My best advise is to start a small software company while still employed.
Remember, never take business advise (sic) from somebody without talking to a lawyer first. IANAL, but...
If you're doing anything even similar to software development for your current employer, don't be surprised when they fire you and take you to court seeking ownership of the software product you developed for your own company. If you're bound by a non-compete clause, they'll try to get you with that; if you're not, they'll try to claim your software takes advantage of their trade secrets and may end up getting you anyway.
Imagine what the life would be like today if printing presses, typewriters and even the lowly sheets of paper had been incredulously controlled by some mediaval robber baron!?
Yes, instead we should be looking towards the GOVERNMENT to establish standards that all printing presses, typewriters, and sheets of paper must conform to!
That type of governmental oversight may be popular in the nations of the European Union, but it's anathema to a long-standing tradition of United States laissez-faire industrial policy.
Why do none of the remedys require microsoft to release all APIs?
Basically, for such an action to be considered as a remedy, it would have to be proven that the closedness of "secret" APIs was responsible for Microsoft's abuse of monopoly. This would be hard to prove for a few reasons, not the least of which is that the APIs are... secret.
The environment should have a media player, an email client, file management utilities, a calendar, games, HTML renderer, screen savers, contact managers, diagnostics, and many other things.
The operating SYSTEM should NOT!
By these definitions, Microsoft would be the first to tell you that MS Windows is an operating ENVIRONMENT. Most of the tools you mention have been bundled as part of the Windows product since version 3.0 or earlier.
Let's just hope that the EU can fine them cash and not accept Microsoft coupons like the US does.
I have about as much hope of that as I do of Slashdot admins participating in the meritocratic moderation system instead of adding their two cents directly to the stories they approve.
I know you're only on dialup and every extra page you have to load is a nuisance, CmdrTaco, but would it kill you to post the story, hit the reply button, and not type in your personal opinions until THEN?
I bet those things would be bid up sky-high on eBay!
Even higher than the REGULAR price of a G5? Impossible.
As an ad for Apple: ooh, look how powerful those G5 computers are--I think I'll buy one for my home! AND migrate the server farm I manage at work!
As an ad for Virginia Tech: ooh, look at all the blinkenlights--I think I'll send my son or daughter (okay, just son) to Virginia Tech!
I agree with parent.
When my Dad brought home an XT, my 7-year-old self LOVED to play Donkey. The 16-color textmode graphics may not have been as pretty as what other 8-bit compters of the time were cranking out, but the game was SIMPLE and FUN.
Remember, the IBM PC belonged to a legacy of BUSINESS computers. It was optimized for working on spreadsheets and driving line printers, not games and entertainment. That came later.
Okay, I will grant that there are some good arguments for the Mac-style single-menu interface, but when it comes down to it I PREFER Windows-style menus -- it seems more logical to me.
A truly great GUI would allow users to select their preference from both kinds of behavior.
Do you really think that you are going to find an Einstein in the patent office?
It's more likely than finding an Einstein commenting on patent law in a Slashdot thread.
Say you're a product architect at a company that builds smartphones, and the CTO tasks you to survey what's in the marketplace. Which are you more likely to report back as your recommendation?
1) We can license Symbian's solution, there are licensing fees to pay but the system is ready to ship today, and it's proven compatible with products x, y, and z already on the market, or
2) We can roll our own mobile platform based on Linux, it'll require a team of developers and at least a year-long project to get it ready to sell, and while it should be interoperable with other Linux systems there's a chance of incompatibilities.