Sure non-competes are common, but Microsoft competes against almost everyone, so your chances of finding post-microsoft employment with a non-competitor without changing industries is slim.
As far as jumping into almost exactly the same position, yes it was a bad move seemingly designed to prompt this sort of lawsuit. I just think that it will hurt Microsoft more in the long run than it will hurt Google.
This seems like a bad move for Microsoft. They already seem to have a hard time finding people willing to work for them. Every Microsoftie that I have talked to recently says that their groups are short headcount or have open headcount and haven't been able to fill positions for quite a while.
Who wants to work for a company that will sue you when you move on to a new, more exciting job?
Think like a very large set of development organizations that are trying to improve their code quality.
Exchange has one set of quality requirements that all of their components must comply with.
Longhorn has another set of quality requirements that all of their components must comply with.
Monad didn't have time to jump through the hoops for both in time for other teams to take a dependency on them. Exchange is still pretty big and important around Microsoft, so it made sense for the team and is much better than having the project canceled due to schedule problems.
Chances are that once it ships with Exchange, it will also be freely downloadable for Longhorn.
Testing only takes 10 minutes if your configuration has no complexity or interdependency.
Note: I test software for a living.
With the complexity of most fortune 5000 companies, for anything integral to networking or used as an interface between mulitple software applications, it could easily take months to make sure that a change doesn't break anything.
There is a reason why Windows Update exists and why it is giving you dozens of updates every month.
Put an un-patched windows 2000 or XP box on an open internet connection and you will be (silently) spreading viruses in minutes.
When I was working at Microsoft, the corporate network was so flooded that newly installed systems were instantly infected unless we took them off of the network before we installed and patched a windows 2000 system.
Support from hardware manufacturers for drivers for one. Time for 3rd parties to start porting their applications for another. WOW emulation application compatibility for another.
Anything that is doing tricky work tied closely to the OS might have problems: Anti-virus, firewalls, virtual private networks, low-level utilities, etc.
Compared to Digital Image version 9, I was impressed with the enhancements in version 10 when I first started playing with it.
I am not suggesting that it is ready for professionals. I just do a little touch up on my own amature digital photos and in places where I don't have the time to figure out how to make Elements work, Digital Image works nicely.
That said, I haven't looked at Paint Shop Pro lately...and given your comments, it sounds like I probably should.
-Even though I post on slashdot, I don't claim to be an authority.:)
Take a look at the latest version of Digital Image by Microsoft...it is rapidly improving and is almost a competitor to the CS edition of Photoshop...almost.
Microsoft has also been trying to keep the "run hungry, everyone else is after you" mentality for a number of years...although I think the beancounters and frustrated managers are starting to take over.:)
Sure, and 2600 recently had an article on this. Unfortunately, there are so many abstractions that it really is difficult and expensive to reduce the footprint of what forensics can uncover and it is almost impossible to remove all traces of evidence.
Even if you live only in RAM and don't put anything on disk, data has been recovered from powered down RAM before....and at one point or another, you do want to save your data.
Bicycle riders who want to stay alive stop if both the traffic light and pedestrian light are red.
Some bicycle riders fudge the traffic laws, but the laws are there to keep them safe and should be followed.
I have been commuting to work by bicycle recently and I would never run through a stoplight controlled intersection when both the traffic and pedestrian lights are red. I'll go hit the pedestrian button and wait for the light. Anything else is risking your life.
Most ISPs won't delegate reverse DNS lookups to their small (8 IP block) DSL customers. I would happily do reverse DNS if my ISP let me. Unfortunately, most people think that reverse DNS is either dead or not-needed so they normally don't even think about using it.
I'd rather see the MTAs all do PKI to authenticate eachother, only issue certs to those that sign non-UCE agreements, and revoke certs when servers start breaking the non-UCE agreements. If a cert issuer starts issuing a large number of certs to MTAs that start sending UCE, revoke the cert of the issuer.
At Microsoft, I'd guess that at least 20% of the workforce has been there for at least 10 years and the company isn't quite 30 years old yet. I have worked with several people there who have been there for 15 years or more.
In order to stay around for decades, you need to work for a company that will exist for decades and you need to show that you have value beyond the current project.
I was talking about post-compiler unit tests, but you make a good point.
The compiler catches a lot of things...and the programmers usually fix those before they attempt to check-in their changes.
Once they check-in, build, and run the unit tests specifically written for their application or feature, in my experience 95% of those tests don't find any bugs after the initial set of test-development bugs are found and fixed.
Unit testing doesn't find bugs, it just ensures that you didn't regress the obvious or break something that your previously fixed.
With end user applications, on average, a couple hours of active ad-hoc testing and test case development per week finds 95% more bugs than hundreds to thousands of automated unit tests will.
For an API, unit testing might be more effective, but APIs are much simpler to test than full end user applications.
With corporations increasing in size, we have reached the point where places like Microsoft alone have more yearly net profit than the entire continent of Africa has GDP...if I remember right, Microsoft is more profitable than the top dozen or so nations in the world.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure non-competes are common, but Microsoft competes against almost everyone, so your chances of finding post-microsoft employment with a non-competitor without changing industries is slim.
As far as jumping into almost exactly the same position, yes it was a bad move seemingly designed to prompt this sort of lawsuit. I just think that it will hurt Microsoft more in the long run than it will hurt Google.
This seems like a bad move for Microsoft. They already seem to have a hard time finding people willing to work for them. Every Microsoftie that I have talked to recently says that their groups are short headcount or have open headcount and haven't been able to fill positions for quite a while.
Who wants to work for a company that will sue you when you move on to a new, more exciting job?
Think like a very large set of development organizations that are trying to improve their code quality.
Exchange has one set of quality requirements that all of their components must comply with.
Longhorn has another set of quality requirements that all of their components must comply with.
Monad didn't have time to jump through the hoops for both in time for other teams to take a dependency on them. Exchange is still pretty big and important around Microsoft, so it made sense for the team and is much better than having the project canceled due to schedule problems.
Chances are that once it ships with Exchange, it will also be freely downloadable for Longhorn.
Testing only takes 10 minutes if your configuration has no complexity or interdependency.
Note: I test software for a living.
With the complexity of most fortune 5000 companies, for anything integral to networking or used as an interface between mulitple software applications, it could easily take months to make sure that a change doesn't break anything.
Visit http://www.securityfocus.com/ and read the ntbugtraq archives.
There is a reason why Windows Update exists and why it is giving you dozens of updates every month.
Put an un-patched windows 2000 or XP box on an open internet connection and you will be (silently) spreading viruses in minutes.
When I was working at Microsoft, the corporate network was so flooded that newly installed systems were instantly infected unless we took them off of the network before we installed and patched a windows 2000 system.
We can only hope that the virus writers will be forced to update. :)
Realistically though, it will largely depend on the specific vulnerabilities that they are exploiting.
Support from hardware manufacturers for drivers for one.
Time for 3rd parties to start porting their applications for another.
WOW emulation application compatibility for another.
To answer your question, yes, your 32 bit applications will run through a WOW interface on the 64 bit versions of Windows.
VMware and VirtualPC abstract the computer, not the processor. I do not think they they will (currently) be able to do what you think they can do.
Well, many applications.
Anything that is doing tricky work tied closely to the OS might have problems:
Anti-virus, firewalls, virtual private networks, low-level utilities, etc.
Compared to Digital Image version 9, I was impressed with the enhancements in version 10 when I first started playing with it.
:)
I am not suggesting that it is ready for professionals. I just do a little touch up on my own amature digital photos and in places where I don't have the time to figure out how to make Elements work, Digital Image works nicely.
That said, I haven't looked at Paint Shop Pro lately...and given your comments, it sounds like I probably should.
-Even though I post on slashdot, I don't claim to be an authority.
Yes, yes...thank you. I was thinking Photoshop Elements when I typed CS in my original post.
Take a look at the latest version of Digital Image by Microsoft...it is rapidly improving and is almost a competitor to the CS edition of Photoshop...almost.
:)
Microsoft has also been trying to keep the "run hungry, everyone else is after you" mentality for a number of years...although I think the beancounters and frustrated managers are starting to take over.
NetMotion Wireless has products that have been doing this for years.
I'd be very interested to hear your other observations. Please do post them when you have time.
Thanks.
Sure, and 2600 recently had an article on this. Unfortunately, there are so many abstractions that it really is difficult and expensive to reduce the footprint of what forensics can uncover and it is almost impossible to remove all traces of evidence.
...and at one point or another, you do want to save your data.
Even if you live only in RAM and don't put anything on disk, data has been recovered from powered down RAM before.
No. Get someone trained in forensics to capture the data before you tamper with the crime scene by patching the hole.
Depending on what you are working with, patching the hole or even unplugging the computer might destroy the crime scene.
Bicycle riders who want to stay alive stop if both the traffic light and pedestrian light are red.
Some bicycle riders fudge the traffic laws, but the laws are there to keep them safe and should be followed.
I have been commuting to work by bicycle recently and I would never run through a stoplight controlled intersection when both the traffic and pedestrian lights are red. I'll go hit the pedestrian button and wait for the light. Anything else is risking your life.
No, you can delegate smaller IP spaces.
It might seem impossible depending on your DNS server and management software, but it is possible.
However, it is enough work that most large ISPs don't even mention it as a possibility.
Most ISPs won't delegate reverse DNS lookups to their small (8 IP block) DSL customers. I would happily do reverse DNS if my ISP let me. Unfortunately, most people think that reverse DNS is either dead or not-needed so they normally don't even think about using it.
I'd rather see the MTAs all do PKI to authenticate eachother, only issue certs to those that sign non-UCE agreements, and revoke certs when servers start breaking the non-UCE agreements. If a cert issuer starts issuing a large number of certs to MTAs that start sending UCE, revoke the cert of the issuer.
You would be amazed at how many Microsoft employees read slashdot.
At Microsoft, I'd guess that at least 20% of the workforce has been there for at least 10 years and the company isn't quite 30 years old yet. I have worked with several people there who have been there for 15 years or more.
In order to stay around for decades, you need to work for a company that will exist for decades and you need to show that you have value beyond the current project.
I was talking about post-compiler unit tests, but you make a good point.
The compiler catches a lot of things...and the programmers usually fix those before they attempt to check-in their changes.
Once they check-in, build, and run the unit tests specifically written for their application or feature, in my experience 95% of those tests don't find any bugs after the initial set of test-development bugs are found and fixed.
Unit testing doesn't find bugs, it just ensures that you didn't regress the obvious or break something that your previously fixed.
With end user applications, on average, a couple hours of active ad-hoc testing and test case development per week finds 95% more bugs than hundreds to thousands of automated unit tests will.
For an API, unit testing might be more effective, but APIs are much simpler to test than full end user applications.
With corporations increasing in size, we have reached the point where places like Microsoft alone have more yearly net profit than the entire continent of Africa has GDP...if I remember right, Microsoft is more profitable than the top dozen or so nations in the world.
How do you "control" that much power?