One scene that sticks out in that film for me is the bit where Ben Kingsley and Rob Redford are discussing plot and they wander into this glass booth, sit down on some groovy curved seating, and then get up and leave the booth.
That groovey seating was in fact a Cray. There is no purpose to that scence (other than the plot dissemnation) than too show off the Cray, something that only real hardcore nerds would notice. Which was nice.
As much as I dislike Microsoft, I have to say that Bill Gates' only crime is to play the game of capitalism harder than everyone else. Simply put, MS is capitalism taken to the extreme. Capitalism is about doing everything you can in order to beat your competitors, dominate the market and extract as much cash from as many people as possible. Bill Gates is (unfortunatly) very very good at this.
Where some companies may wish to beat thier competitors, MS devotes the entire resources of the company to utterly destroying theirs. Some companies might want to dominate their chosen market, MS will stop at nothing (even theft of competitors products, in the Stac case) to establish and maintain a total monopoly over theirs.
While we see much of MSs behaviour as unethical and harmful to the tech industry as a whole, as well as lowering the general standard for software and souring the computing expirience for the masses, he is only doing what is taught in bisness school. Just harder and nastier.
I see MS as the enevitable product of our economic system: crush the opposition, establish as many monopolies as possible, exploit them for all they are worth. This could have been any company in any market, if they had someone as simgle-minded as BillG driving them. It is only a matter of time before it happens in other markets, too.
There is a serious bug in free-market capitalism. Enevitably, one company becomes dominant in a given market, and if left unchecked, establishes and exploits a monopoly. By this point, this company has so much economic and political power that it is able to act as it pleases./. is rife with examples.
Governments have had to bring in anti-monopoly laws to attempt to stop this from happening. This trial is as much about this as about MS.
Not to be melodramatic, but what is on trial here is free-market capitalism itself.
It is, in fact, pretty much the default on SuSE 7.0. That's why I am using it on this box: my 40Gb partition fscks faster than I can read it. This can't be a bad thing!
Although many of them are labeled 'NT only'. Well, as a confirmed worshipper of the church of the toy penguin, *I* certainly won't be reading those.
Bloody Microsoft gets everywhere these days.
Surely the DMCA only applies to music shared on machines within the boarders of the USA? So mp3 that originate outside the USA (which can now be identified by the MD5 footprint) could still be shared around?
Probably not, but worth a try.
Damn good point.
I love Linux on my desktop, PalmOS on my palmtop. But...
What if I had Linux + X + [KDE | Gnome] on my palmtop, and I could recompile my fav apps to run on it (and deal with the change in screen size somehow) that would mean I could carry my fav apps with me...share data/files from one to the other...in fact have a mini version of my desktop machine in my pocket. Wow.
Think about it: more or less every app that runs on your desktop can also run on your palmtop (screensize/input devices permitting).
That would so monsterously k3wl. Oh, and quite useful, too.:)
Quick off topic question, Stoutlimb: This "Ken's guide to the Bible" - does it really exist? If so, could you mail enough details for me to get a copy, to jim@bealzebub.demon.co.uk? Thanks!
My girlfriend had a simular experience, when she mentioned her Linux machine wasn't working right (turned out to be a faulty HDD) whilst in a computer shop.
The sales droids laughed and told her that "Linux is not for beginners" (assumtion - she is a girl, therefore is new to computers) and to "...get a real OS!" (assumtion - Linux is too complicated for them, so must be way over the head of a mere girl).
You mean : "Yes, it is, but that's the way our legal system works."
People who want to share copyrighted files over Napster should be required to specific permission from the content owner for each and every single transfer of that content.
Wrong, and just plain stupid. That's like saying that everyone who tapes a tv show must request and receive permission first.
Er..I don't know about the States, but here in the UK that's exactly the case. Nobody ever does, but it's still the law. Still plain stupid though.
What I am am say in both cases here is just because something is stupid has no effect on it's legality. The law is an ass!
Yeah, like when the bloke (who's name I don't remember) who played the transexual in 'The Crying Game', and won best ACTOR... sort of gave the film away a bit for us Euros.
I wonder what will happen when kiddies realise they can use Napster to trade warez and porn etc. (zip the files up and rename them to.mp3). That'll put the cat amoung the pigeons.
No, Linux is utopian socialism! From each according to ability: All geeks contribute to the source To each accourding to need: All geeks can have whatever apps they need. Money is redundant and all users are equal!
And now, back on topic, I'm horrified by the implications here. I'm just happy that I jumped the MS ship years ago and join the Linux bandwagon. This greedy moneygrabbing tactic will just herd ordinary lusers to do the same.
Slashdot Mirror
One scene that sticks out in that film for me is the bit where Ben Kingsley and Rob Redford are discussing plot and they wander into this glass booth, sit down on some groovy curved seating, and then get up and leave the booth.
That groovey seating was in fact a Cray. There is no purpose to that scence (other than the plot dissemnation) than too show off the Cray, something that only real hardcore nerds would notice. Which was nice.
Where some companies may wish to beat thier competitors, MS devotes the entire resources of the company to utterly destroying theirs. Some companies might want to dominate their chosen market, MS will stop at nothing (even theft of competitors products, in the Stac case) to establish and maintain a total monopoly over theirs.
While we see much of MSs behaviour as unethical and harmful to the tech industry as a whole, as well as lowering the general standard for software and souring the computing expirience for the masses, he is only doing what is taught in bisness school. Just harder and nastier.
I see MS as the enevitable product of our economic system: crush the opposition, establish as many monopolies as possible, exploit them for all they are worth. This could have been any company in any market, if they had someone as simgle-minded as BillG driving them. It is only a matter of time before it happens in other markets, too.
There is a serious bug in free-market capitalism. Enevitably, one company becomes dominant in a given market, and if left unchecked, establishes and exploits a monopoly. By this point, this company has so much economic and political power that it is able to act as it pleases. /. is rife with examples.
Governments have had to bring in anti-monopoly laws to attempt to stop this from happening. This trial is as much about this as about MS.
Not to be melodramatic, but what is on trial here is free-market capitalism itself.
And now for a glibly relevant .sig:
Give it Palm sync and I'm sold.
...is how to pronounce it? Ricer FS? Raiser FS? Riser FS?
It is, in fact, pretty much the default on SuSE 7.0. That's why I am using it on this box: my 40Gb partition fscks faster than I can read it. This can't be a bad thing!
Er, just to be pedantic...Waters wrote all the lyrics for DSOTM, didn't he?
Don't know about you, but when I saw the verse headings in red I instinctively clicked on them - guess Gutenburg didn't invent the Hyperlink, then...
It's a joke, dammit
Surely the DMCA only applies to music shared on machines within the boarders of the USA? So mp3 that originate outside the USA (which can now be identified by the MD5 footprint) could still be shared around?
Probably not, but worth a try.
I love Linux on my desktop, PalmOS on my palmtop. But...
What if I had Linux + X + [KDE | Gnome] on my palmtop, and I could recompile my fav apps to run on it (and deal with the change in screen size somehow) that would mean I could carry my fav apps with me...share data/files from one to the other...in fact have a mini version of my desktop machine in my pocket. Wow.
Think about it: more or less every app that runs on your desktop can also run on your palmtop (screensize/input devices permitting).
That would so monsterously k3wl. Oh, and quite useful, too. :)
DI27 for PalmOS. Works for me! ;)
Quick off topic question, Stoutlimb: This "Ken's guide to the Bible" - does it really exist? If so, could you mail enough details for me to get a copy, to jim@bealzebub.demon.co.uk? Thanks!
GeekGrrl: Oh GrammarNazi, the sun shining in your hair makes me feel -- oh, let's quickly go home and make babies!
GrammarNazi: Don't touch me woman. I shall not be sullied by one who can so casualy split an infinitive.
The sales droids laughed and told her that "Linux is not for beginners" (assumtion - she is a girl, therefore is new to computers) and to "...get a real OS!" (assumtion - Linux is too complicated for them, so must be way over the head of a mere girl).
....or a fun way to spend a weekend ;)
Nope. That's the way our legal system works.
You mean : "Yes, it is, but that's the way our legal system works."
People who want to share copyrighted files over Napster should be required to specific permission from the content owner for each and every single transfer of that content.
Wrong, and just plain stupid. That's like saying that everyone who tapes a tv show must request and receive permission first.
Er..I don't know about the States, but here in the UK that's exactly the case. Nobody ever does, but it's still the law. Still plain stupid though.
What I am am say in both cases here is just because something is stupid has no effect on it's legality. The law is an ass!
I wonder what will happen when kiddies realise they can use Napster to trade warez and porn etc. (zip the files up and rename them to .mp3).
That'll put the cat amoung the pigeons.
No, Linux is utopian socialism!
From each according to ability: All geeks contribute to the source
To each accourding to need: All geeks can have whatever apps they need.
Money is redundant and all users are equal!
And now, back on topic, I'm horrified by the implications here. I'm just happy that I jumped the MS ship years ago and join the Linux bandwagon. This greedy moneygrabbing tactic will just herd ordinary lusers to do the same.
NUKE the USA!