Does anyone remember a few years ago Sen. Jake Garn also went up into space? I don't think he did much more than Dennis Tito did, yet NASA invited him up there. He too had never been to space before.
Well almost. Think about it. Who uses software that's three years old anyway? I mean - at my company, Office 97 is almost impossible to find anymore. Users want the latest and greatest. So we buy the newest version every year, anyway. If there had always been a three year expiration, we never would have noticed. Microsoft is just forcing those users who want to stick with old software to upgrade.
And as far as this helping to push people to Linux, etc. I don't think it will do that either. Most people are comfortable with what they know and are willing to pay to maintain the status quo.
They're not going to want to have to learn a whole new O/S that has the reputation of being difficult to use and for which there is an apparent lack of software. I'll bet that people might bitch and moan, but in the end, they'll submit and pay up every three years or whatever. They're doing it already, but now it will be forced.
It looks like Microsoft is starting to play hardball over licensing - what with forced expiration and activation codes and so on. Maybe it's a good time to buy MSFT stock? They've probably decided the only way they can grow their revenue is by beating it out of people. And it will work.
I think their screwing around of Randall Schwartz cost them a lot of support in the Open Source community. I would never buy anything Intel as long as they're still giving Randall legal problems. They ought to drop it - he was just doing what comes naturally and was not intending any harm. They ought to lighten up.
Halloween patented by lady in Delaware
on
Patent Warfare
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· Score: 1
I came across a patent the other day that patents the idea of donors writing their name and address on a bag decorated for Halloween and then placing said bag in a larger bag carried by the recipient.
No kidding. Here I am - a Sybase/Oracle DBA with close to 10 yrs. experience plus Java plus Unix SA and what do these geniuses have me doing?
Coding freakin' shell scripts!
They just can't understand what a DBA is hired for. Unfortunately they're paying me a tremendous salary and I get out at 5PM on the dot each day. If only they knew - what a waste of money and talent...
Well one way they've "managed" me has been to hire kids fresh out of high school who stay a few months and manage to screw everything up just so I can go in and straighten it all up over the next month or so...
Unbelievable bosses. Don't any of them read Peopleware?
When I took this job several years ago as a Unix SA, I looked into why disk space was so tight. It turned out that we have online many accounts of people who have left, some over five years ago!
Everything is like in suspended animation - passwords the same as the day people left, all their files are still out there, etc.
I've repeatedly asked my bosses over the years why we can't get rid of this old junk, and each boss has told me that we can't inconvenience the users. They MIGHT need instantaneous access to this old stuff someday. At least that's what the users keep saying to us.
Passwords here are likewise very static. Even the root password, which is used by many users for "convenience sake", is still the same as it was years ago. What a mess and I'm making no progress in changing the mindset here and this is a Fortune 100 corporation!
The database "sa" password is so engrained - it is coded in programs, scripts, etc. that it is really virtually impossible to change. A million things would break and guess who'd bear the brunt of that ?
I guess Linux will only ever have Netscape 4.72 for the next several years then? This is a little worrisome if nobody is developing a decent browser that can compare to the functionality of IE. As IE progresses and adds features and sites more and more modify themselves to suit IE, it seems like us Linux users will slowly but surely get excluded from being able to access this growing number of Web sites. HTML will progress, but Linux will be stuck with a dinosaur of a '90s browser in Netscape 4.7.
I know there's other browsers out there - Opera and others - but none compare with IE, most unfortunately.
This is not good for the future of Linux. Why will anyone want to use Linux if, in a few years, the best we can say is that "Yes you can access MANY web sites" (but not all - and a diminishing number at that).
I am certainly not a biologist in an sense, and I am unclear on a couple of points.
First, I thought everyone had different genes? Isn't that what makes some people have blue eyes vs. brown eyes etc.? So if they map the gene sequence that determines eye color, aren't they mapping one person's gene sequence? I don't get it.
Second, how does gene therapy work? I saw a story on TV where they identified someone's defective genes and "inserted" good genes somehow. Well - how did they do that? Don't you have the same chromosomes in every cell? Wouldn't they have to replace all cells' chromosomes? That seems like it would be impossible.
That dangers of letting computer geeks on this site....
One thing everyone is overlooking is that gt 90% of all the world's computers run some form of Windows, not Linux. That's the hard reality.
For whatever reason, which we don't really need to know about as we are just programmers, Microsoft is not supporting Java wholeheartedly on Windows. So what if they come up with their own language, as long as it's got some really neat technical features like what's in Java? Cool, I say. At least Microsoft know how to get the best performance out of Windows and in the end we all benefit.
Face it, we are all going to have to learn this language sooner or later. Our management will see to that. Windows is the most common OS on this planet and if we want to continue to earn a living, this language is in our future.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone remember a few years ago Sen. Jake Garn also went up into space? I don't think he did much more than Dennis Tito did, yet NASA invited him up there. He too had never been to space before.
Well almost. Think about it. Who uses software that's three years old anyway? I mean - at my company, Office 97 is almost impossible to find anymore. Users want the latest and greatest. So we buy the newest version every year, anyway. If there had always been a three year expiration, we never would have noticed. Microsoft is just forcing those users who want to stick with old software to upgrade.
And as far as this helping to push people to Linux, etc. I don't think it will do that either. Most people are comfortable with what they know and are willing to pay to maintain the status quo. They're not going to want to have to learn a whole new O/S that has the reputation of being difficult to use and for which there is an apparent lack of software. I'll bet that people might bitch and moan, but in the end, they'll submit and pay up every three years or whatever. They're doing it already, but now it will be forced.
It looks like Microsoft is starting to play hardball over licensing - what with forced expiration and activation codes and so on. Maybe it's a good time to buy MSFT stock? They've probably decided the only way they can grow their revenue is by beating it out of people. And it will work.
How about this: GNU httptunnel
I think their screwing around of Randall Schwartz cost them a lot of support in the Open Source community. I would never buy anything Intel as long as they're still giving Randall legal problems. They ought to drop it - he was just doing what comes naturally and was not intending any harm. They ought to lighten up.
Patent 5,735,548
I have always enjoyed listening to: Guy Kawasaki, Randall Scwartz and Larry Wall, in no particular order.
Coding freakin' shell scripts!
They just can't understand what a DBA is hired for. Unfortunately they're paying me a tremendous salary and I get out at 5PM on the dot each day. If only they knew - what a waste of money and talent...
Well one way they've "managed" me has been to hire kids fresh out of high school who stay a few months and manage to screw everything up just so I can go in and straighten it all up over the next month or so...
Unbelievable bosses. Don't any of them read Peopleware?
Everything is like in suspended animation - passwords the same as the day people left, all their files are still out there, etc.
I've repeatedly asked my bosses over the years why we can't get rid of this old junk, and each boss has told me that we can't inconvenience the users. They MIGHT need instantaneous access to this old stuff someday. At least that's what the users keep saying to us.
Passwords here are likewise very static. Even the root password, which is used by many users for "convenience sake", is still the same as it was years ago. What a mess and I'm making no progress in changing the mindset here and this is a Fortune 100 corporation!
The database "sa" password is so engrained - it is coded in programs, scripts, etc. that it is really virtually impossible to change. A million things would break and guess who'd bear the brunt of that ?
And you think you had a mess of a situation...
Registering a domain name from any country other than the US?
Buying a book from Amazon.com from abroad?
Buying software from Microsoft or anyone else from abroad?
Unbelievable!! I'm sure Mr. Pool is really going to collect from Amazon or Microsoft or InterNIC.
What if I'm working abroad and I buy a US Savings bond or something? what if I use eTrade on a business trip to London?
Is this guy on drugs? How clever this bozo is: I invented international trade on the Internet.
Who is he? Al Gore's cousin from Virginia?
Can I get a patent on domestic trade on the Internet?
I know there's other browsers out there - Opera and others - but none compare with IE, most unfortunately.
This is not good for the future of Linux. Why will anyone want to use Linux if, in a few years, the best we can say is that "Yes you can access MANY web sites" (but not all - and a diminishing number at that).
First, I thought everyone had different genes? Isn't that what makes some people have blue eyes vs. brown eyes etc.? So if they map the gene sequence that determines eye color, aren't they mapping one person's gene sequence? I don't get it.
Second, how does gene therapy work? I saw a story on TV where they identified someone's defective genes and "inserted" good genes somehow. Well - how did they do that? Don't you have the same chromosomes in every cell? Wouldn't they have to replace all cells' chromosomes? That seems like it would be impossible.
That dangers of letting computer geeks on this site....
For whatever reason, which we don't really need to know about as we are just programmers, Microsoft is not supporting Java wholeheartedly on Windows. So what if they come up with their own language, as long as it's got some really neat technical features like what's in Java? Cool, I say. At least Microsoft know how to get the best performance out of Windows and in the end we all benefit.
Face it, we are all going to have to learn this language sooner or later. Our management will see to that. Windows is the most common OS on this planet and if we want to continue to earn a living, this language is in our future.
Let's be practical, gentlemen.