...what I tell people in "traditional" engineering disciplines is to jump to industry and let your employer pay for grad school. But I don't see that happening as much in computer geek companies right now. It might in the next year, as people realize that their fresh-out-of-high-school developers need some theoretical knowledge behind their code-fu to develop kick-ass relational database solutions, etc.
If you're even contemplating further education, and you like theory stuff, stay in school. It might not pay as well, but money isn't the only reward.
Me? I'm just a two-bit hack nearing an AE undergrad degree and wondering what the heck to do with the rest of my life. I'll be in industry mainly because the thought of more school at this point is nauseating. So what do I know?
In talking about the influence of the Church in the Phillipines: "Of course, building the Internet infrastructure also adds to the Church's considerable political clout. Two months ago, Jaime Cardinal Sin, the nation's influential archbishop..." [emphasis mine].
Their nation's archbishop's name is "Cardinal Sin"? Oh, those wacky Catholics...=)
It is quite evident that Clancy lives by his word: he appears to produces book to make money, not out of literary or artistic motives.
Of the latter books [The Bear and the Dragon and Rainbow Six especially, but maybe also the Sum of All Fears-Debt of Honor-Executive Orders trilogy], I'd be inclined to agree with your sentiment. Earlier, Clancy's writing was more concise. There are many, many threads about the decline in the later books, mainly based around the fact that Jack Ryan is a tired character.
For example, I'm about 600 pages into TBatD, and only about 2/3 of it is really necessary--a lot of it is repetitive and fluffy. Some have joked that Clancy's getting paid by the page. I just think his editor is slacking...-shrug-
If you want a really good Clancy tome, though, Without Remorse is your book. Well-written, as it should be, since it was the first novel Clancy ever started writing. He finished and published it about ten or fifteen years later. It's a hell of a book and my fave.
[Moderators: Don't flag this as "Offtopic" because of thread drift, 'kay? I mean, it's not as if I don't have the karma to lose, but what's the point? It's relevant to this discussion.] --
tysto writes: "Using the same logic, the Authors Guild should logically be against public libraries. After all, people who use libraries can (oh horrors!) read a new book without having to pay for it!"
There are some writers who hate libraries. For example, Tom Clancy has vented some of his frustrations on alt.books.tom-clancy. [I recommend reading a.b.t-c--I'm a regular, and it's a keeper. Katz, here's a "VC" for ya, buddy.]
Clancy writes: Samuel Johnson once wrote that no one but a fool writes for any reason except money, and I will not dispute the words of Dr. Johnson. Libraries purchase books, sure, and lend them out, and they last, typically, 10 readings before falling apart. But, you see, a writer only gets paid for the purchase, not the use, and in the case of computer owners AND internet surfers, it does strike me as odd that such people cannot afford to buy a damned book.
However, I am wealthy, and the wealthy are not allowed to have any opinions at all, and are the one class in America whom it is okay to loathe. Why? I suppose class envy is the usual reason, though, my dad was a mailman, and I am, therefore, working class.
People hate us for having huge houses. Well, okay, I do have a very large house, but I paid workers to build it, and thus my AFTER-TAX money went to workers with wives, families, and pickup trucks. For this I am disliked?
I suppose justice is where one finds it, and one must take the bitter with the sweet. Sniff...
Please do not take this postseriously. I *AM* allowed to have a sense of humor, even if the Washington Post and New York Times hate me. Unlike them, I have no illusions of godhood.
I've been reading a.b.t-c for several years now, and I'm still not always sure how to take TC when he posts to the NG. I've gotten a couple nice emails from him, and, curse my metal body, I came in second [maybe third] in the guess who TC's alter ego is contest. I also know who won. But I ain't sayin'--because, as I've said before, I respect TC's privacy. But I had that particular account killfiled at one point...
BAH! When I was your age, I walked to school--uphill, both ways, barefoot [but only because this was Mississippi]--and I LIKED IT!
Seriously, though; I traversed an environment that I'd love to really see become a geek-producing powerhouse: The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. Yeah, there were geeks there. Yeah, we ran Linux [remembers Slackware, remembers screaming, proud Debian user now]. Yeah, we ran our own BBS's. But we--or at least I--weren't cognizant of the totality of what was going on outside. I wish I'd read/.--or had it to read--when I was there [1995-97]. I probably would have chucked this aero eng thing and gone into that. Damn the guys that were smart enough to go into CS--especially the one or two who combined it with biz degrees. Bah!
But seriously, I'll rant that activities are very good for the soul. Student government can be one, if you're at a school where it does anything besides play pretty. Yeah, yeah, politics--but you learn lots of interpersonal skills, teambuilding, etc. Actually, you learn how not to do it most of the time.
Ramblin' a bit...but then hey, my boss is gone and he didn't leave me with anything to do for the next, uh, four hours. Heh.
...when I was hired in to my company, there was no manager for our small group. We're weird ducks anyway--a commercial products group based inside a NASA/DoD contractor, and no one wanted to do anything with us. Corporate tried to make my boss--a damned good project engineer--into the manager. I like the guy a lot, but he'll tell you that he's no manager-type. It does take a certain type of person to manage other people, and that's not always the #2 guy.
What happened? My boss held the job strictly on a temporary basis, we got a guy hired into the job, and things went back to A-OK. The "new guy" kept the heat off of the engineers and also brought some new insights in.
So, there's a lesson in this: Tell the PHB's to bring in someone new to the group. A manager doesn't have to know all about your group's work. A manager does have to communicate well with those horizontal and vertical to them. So explain how you're not qualified to take the job but very qualified to stay where you are. Good luck!
The College Board is listening "to the best educational interests of our children"? I would disagree.
As others have pointed out, it would be far, far better for logic, pseudo-code, and theory to be taught in such a course. AP courses are supposed to prepare you academically for college--as well as trying to get you out of a class or two. I know--I had 35 hours when I started college, mostly due to AP credit.
I'm not much of a programmer, but my field [aerospace engineering] doesn't require it. I would have been much, much better served by a AP CS class that taught programming theory and basics--regardless of the language taught!--than a language you'll use.
If you're going to finish and get a CS degree, having that background behind you will put you at an advantage. As I see a lot lately, those people who seek IT/geek jobs don't always finish school. Companies around here hire workers out who haven't finished their degrees. Consequently, UAH's CS department has stayed focused on teaching fundamentals, as they should. You can pick up a programming language if you have the fundamentals of computer science down--it's much harder if you're just trying to learn the language. I can speak to that--having virtually zero in the way of theory, I struggle with every new language.
Teaching Java just exacerbates the situation, and teaches HS students to cash in. That's not what the Advanced Placement Program is supposed to be about.
Next/. Poll: Whose abode do you want sat photos of?
o CmdrTaco
o Hemos
o CowboyNeal
o JonKatz
o timothy
o Cliff
I'm betting JonKatz will win; a group of crazed/.'ers will invade his back yard, seeking to do him wrong. Jesse Jackson will be there, mumbling something incoherent about Hellmouth...
AHA! You're discussing "pilot astronauts". On STS, that's only the Commander and the Pilot. The ISS crew only needs one "pilot astronaut" at a time. These guys would more likely be titled Mission or Payload Specialists--and yes, they'd be taught to run a payload. But I could train a chimp to run the payload I work on...=) --
So, now when someone pings a server and requests someone's copy of DeCSS, we're going to hear the sound of a lawyer screaming, "Copyright violation!" all across the server room? Scary. --
Can you, really? For MSFT to do Linux right and have it not be some fad thing, it will be a sea change for them. For them to do it wrong may just exacerbate their situation--especially if the true OSS Nazis [of which I would classify myself] could keep kicking their butts on stuff.
For MSFT to go into this regime requires some philosophical changes. I think they will eventually realize that it's vital for them to do so--and perhaps even profitable!
M$ releases a Linux distro that no serious Linux user will want to use, mainly because we know it will be put together without security, stability and compatibility in mind. M$ is known for not repairing bugs that are serious security holes in current products. Not because they can`t, simply because that don`t want to.
If Redmond is going into this business, though, wouldn't they do well to hire people familiar with developing Linux [API's, kernels, drivers, etc.]? Those will be external people, and they might--might--change the MSFT culture. Maybe not.
In steps the Open Source Business Model that so many depend on nowadays- Support Contracts. Sure, M$ will help fix the holes it created, but you have to pay, and your going to pay one way or the other.
I'd argue that you might get better service from an OSBM than a CSBM, because you can check their OS'd source for BS. =)
Of course, anyone that has the source can fix the bugs themselves, and eventually someone would release patches to fix everything M$ did wrong, right?
Wrong.
M$ won`t use a standard Linux licensing model, they will stick with the licensing model they`ve always used. You rent the product, no you may not see the source and if you spread around any information about a flaw in our product, you will be sue`d.
Not to mention the forking that could occur if M$ entered the market and started making proprietary standards and forcing people to use their software to do certain tasks.
I'll admit that it has the potential for wrong. But I think it will more likely screw them up. Hey, we're willing to run away from companies that make bad moves, right? Just look at Netscape--I used them exclusively until late '97 or '98...started using MSIE and Eudora on my Windows box, and I'm [relatively] happy with that combo, even though I don't like either company much. Something better comes along for my needs on a Windows platform, buh-bye.
Do you really think M$ won`t release new kernels on a bi monthly basis just to make money? Whether they be good kernels that add functionality or not doesn`t matter when the bottom dollar is the reason for releasing it.
Kernels? Probably not. Patches? Yep. Probably by a subscription offering, too.
...because, after all, the more OSS programmers the better, right?
Actually, I think that holds some water:
Headlines around the world proclaim: "Microsoft: 'If you can't beat them, join them.'"
PHB's and Grandma go, "This Linicks stuff must not be too bad if Microsoft is using it."
Microsoft releases a version of Linux with a nice wrapper overlaid--perhaps on the order of what they're wanting to do with.NET. They OSS the software.
Holes are found, holes are exploited. Because it's Microsoft, they move to act as quickly as the holes are found.
End result? Maybe better software out of Redmond. Also, people may decide to get the binaries from MSFT and tack on their own features. Innovation improves. MSFT sees the innovations, and since they're in the public domain, they package it and sell it to the PHB and Grandma.
Not that it's likely to happen, mind you: it's not a matter of business sense. Were Microsoft seeking to profit from Linux, they'd get enough expertise under their belts and be the mother of all enterprise-level support companies. But releasing their code is something seemingly antithetical to MSFT. But I honestly think it might be the best thing for them.
Granted, I have their nationwide plan, but I have to dial all areacode-prefix-last4 all the time on my phone, even local stuff.
Of course, this will mostly go away if we zap long distance charges in the USA. What a benefit to the consumer! Watch the rapidly declining long-distance rates, and notice how Sprint is already tying their rates to flat fees [following somewhat the idea of flat-rate ISP services].
Now, where have I read the abolition of LD calls before? Oh, yeah, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001. But he had the end-date for LD calling as 12/31/1999. I guess that would be a Y2K problem, huh?
Obviously if you're going to hold a major news conference you want to give the newsies plenty of time to show up, run up the antennas on their satellite trucks, and prepare good questions for the reporters. You also want the scientists around the world who are going to be eagerly watching this live the opportunity to set up conference rooms with cable feeds.
Awww, come on. The newsies are already in Florida and have to be wanting to cover something else. Witness the speed with which the newsies can throw something together and the plethora of extra resources they have. When you have money to pay a set of helicopters to fly along with a friggin' Ryder truck to Tallahassee, NASA can make this move faster.
Sports press conferences are laid on inside of a day--sometimes, inside of hours. Science news is, in general, a lot more interesting and a lot more important than sports. So why do we have to wait a month [at times]?
A full announcement is expected next week from NASA -- wouldn't it be nice if they would simply release news as it happens rather than create News Happenings?
Of course it would, but that would mean that NASA would understand good PR. No, they like to hold things close to the vest, preferring pomp and circumstance to timely news. NASA's still stuck in the Sixties as far as their public relations shop runs.
Anyone who's read NASA Watch for some time knows how clueless NASA's PR shop is. But they were getting better under the late Brian Welch, who, I feel, was working to improve the immediacy and efficacy of NASA press coverage. Welch was instrumental in the Dreamtime work done on ISS, and really had a thing for using Webcams on stuff. He initially opposed Keith Cowing's press accreditation efforts, but I really do feel that Brian "got it".
But in this era of "faster, cheaper, better", NASA PAO seems to be still thinking "slower, costlier, bad theater".
Well, I ain't got time to get the college fire department out on this--the fraternity guys are sleeping off last night's kegger, so I won't round 'em up for another one so we can piss on this, but how about a haiku to calm everyone down?
Java hates Linux?
Oh--what is it that you say?
Linux hates Java?
Either way, I'd say people are taking this argument far, far too seriously for a Friday morning. With all the FUD, you'd think we were talking Redmond...
Actually, about how it looks like it would be pronounced. Start with a z-like buzz, make a "veh" sounds, go back to the buzz, then say, "Duh." That's how the 'stronauts are saying it apparently--when they're not saying something like, "Piece of shit Russian hardware. Russian spacecraft, American spacecraft--all the parts are made in Taiwan!" --
The payload I've been working on--and from the best I can tell, most of the other payloads on UF-1, the first of the many Utilization Flights--was bumped from its flight. Technically, we weren't on schedule, but the schedule is unrealistic to begin with.
The manifest is full of lies, damned lies, and statistics, but that's no different than any other NASA program. It's the typical NASA FUD: make the schedules unreasonable, and when the contractors fail to meet specs, blame the contractors, slip the schedule, and ask Congress for more money.
It makes one wish for the days of carte blanche, when the schedules were unreasonable, but you could at least throw enough money and brainpower at a situation to get the thing solved. People worked long hours, slept at their desks, had recreation at work, and took simple pleasure at their jobs being finally completed--then moved to another job.
You see, the geek culture today has a lot of roots in the geek culture of the '60s--but instead of Apollo and Saturn, we work on Linux and Gnome. Rather than the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union, which hid all their secrets behind an impenetrable Iron Curtain, we now fight the Evil Empire of Redmond, which hides all their secrets behind the impentrable Closed-Source Curtain.
All of which begs to ask: where's the deals with Life, and when does Tom Wolfe write a book on the open-source movement?
...when I finally get off my slacker ass and install Debian [last time I installed Linux was three machines ago, and it was a 1996 era version of Slackware with much help on the install], I'll write down every question I have. Of course, I guess I'll have to edit out questions like, "Why do I have such a crappy computer?" =) --
No longer is it "one-time cost" versus "open-source-and-usually-no-cost". I think the subscription model will actually promote faster revisions of Office as a way to show value to the subscribers--if it's updated and patched often, you'll be more likely to want to keep using software that seems good. Nice job for Microsoft--we'll just see what the costs are and if people will bail for the alternatives... --
Perhaps I over-stated the difficulty end a bit...I'd like to point out that it does have a cost, though, that most folks tend not to think about unless they're audiophiles [which I don't necessarily claim to be =]. I think/.ers are a bit too knee jerk at times on issues like this, but that's okay--a knee-jerk reaction often can result in an insightful reply that makes people think anew about the issues. --
Software is relatively simple to produce these days--even outdated stuff. Most folks don't keep it, though, because the stocks aren't in high demand.
It's not the same way with stuff in "old media"--to get something from vinyl to a digital format, it has to be recorded from analog, transferred to digital hardware, remastered to make sure it sounds close to the original, then transferred to the new format. That's why you used to see "DDD", "AAD", and "ADD" on the backs of CD's [and in some cases, you still do]. For the most part, new music is created and stored digitally, but that's not the case with your Buddy Holly LP's. =)
Which is better? Depends on the market. The market, to me, seems to dictate that the consumer is willing to bear the cost of the low-volume, high-cost production that converting A-->D runs. So it's nice free-market stuff.
Don't compare it to software the way the original poster does--new versions are upgrades, not ports. A port still costs money [or time-cost of money], though. This is a huge transferrence that requires one or more trained people to listen to.
Said Congress might eventually revisit the DMCA: "Judges are not best suited to deal with cases like these. Judges are best suited to deal with matters between private parties.... Judges do not have any special training to rule on decisions such as these and lack the objective perspective to make those best decisions."
Kaplan raises an interesting point: Congresscritters are so unbelievably far removed from being lawmakers that they rely on interest groups to write legislation for them. It ends up leaving all sorts of interesting Easter Eggs in the legislative vagaries. We are then left with what happens countless times these days: judges legislate from the bench, rather than Congress [or state and local government] writing sound, well-formed legislation.
Consider the current problems in Florida. The laws are contradictory--no one has been able to say, "This is what we will do, because this is the law says." Conversely, everyone is able to claim a small slice of legality for their position, throwing it into court.
This is nothing new, of course, but we can and should demand more thoughtful consideration of legislation from our Congresscritters. I dare say many of them don't truly study--or have their staff study--the full implications of their legislation. While it is often the case that well-meaning legislation has unintended consequences--I've been bitten in the ass myself on that with stuff locally--it is readily apparent that no one, other than those who wrote the DCMA, really considered the scope of the legislation.
...if for no other reason than susceptibility to virii that exploit default settings of Outlook--unless you send out staff to install all computers with specific instructions to kill auto-preview, etc. We've been hit with every last one of the Outlook-exploiting virii to come out in the past year, and while it's mostly an annoyance, it does tend to tie up the servers for a few days. --
Slashdot Mirror
...what I tell people in "traditional" engineering disciplines is to jump to industry and let your employer pay for grad school. But I don't see that happening as much in computer geek companies right now. It might in the next year, as people realize that their fresh-out-of-high-school developers need some theoretical knowledge behind their code-fu to develop kick-ass relational database solutions, etc.
If you're even contemplating further education, and you like theory stuff, stay in school. It might not pay as well, but money isn't the only reward.
Me? I'm just a two-bit hack nearing an AE undergrad degree and wondering what the heck to do with the rest of my life. I'll be in industry mainly because the thought of more school at this point is nauseating. So what do I know?
--
In talking about the influence of the Church in the Phillipines: "Of course, building the Internet infrastructure also adds to the Church's considerable political clout. Two months ago, Jaime Cardinal Sin, the nation's influential archbishop..." [emphasis mine].
Their nation's archbishop's name is "Cardinal Sin"? Oh, those wacky Catholics...=)
[Put away thy holy flames...I'm Methodist.]
--
Of the latter books [The Bear and the Dragon and Rainbow Six especially, but maybe also the Sum of All Fears-Debt of Honor-Executive Orders trilogy], I'd be inclined to agree with your sentiment. Earlier, Clancy's writing was more concise. There are many, many threads about the decline in the later books, mainly based around the fact that Jack Ryan is a tired character.
For example, I'm about 600 pages into TBatD, and only about 2/3 of it is really necessary--a lot of it is repetitive and fluffy. Some have joked that Clancy's getting paid by the page. I just think his editor is slacking...-shrug-
If you want a really good Clancy tome, though, Without Remorse is your book. Well-written, as it should be, since it was the first novel Clancy ever started writing. He finished and published it about ten or fifteen years later. It's a hell of a book and my fave.
[Moderators: Don't flag this as "Offtopic" because of thread drift, 'kay? I mean, it's not as if I don't have the karma to lose, but what's the point? It's relevant to this discussion.]--
tysto writes: "Using the same logic, the Authors Guild should logically be against public libraries. After all, people who use libraries can (oh horrors!) read a new book without having to pay for it!"
There are some writers who hate libraries. For example, Tom Clancy has vented some of his frustrations on alt.books.tom-clancy. [I recommend reading a.b.t-c--I'm a regular, and it's a keeper. Katz, here's a "VC" for ya, buddy.]
Clancy writes: Samuel Johnson once wrote that no one but a fool writes for any reason except money, and I will not dispute the words of Dr. Johnson. Libraries purchase books, sure, and lend them out, and they last, typically, 10 readings before falling apart. But, you see, a writer only gets paid for the purchase, not the use, and in the case of computer owners AND internet surfers, it does strike me as odd that such people cannot afford to buy a damned book.
However, I am wealthy, and the wealthy are not allowed to have any opinions at all, and are the one class in America whom it is okay to loathe. Why? I suppose class envy is the usual reason, though, my dad was a mailman, and I am, therefore, working class.
People hate us for having huge houses. Well, okay, I do have a very large house, but I paid workers to build it, and thus my AFTER-TAX money went to workers with wives, families, and pickup trucks. For this I am disliked?
I suppose justice is where one finds it, and one must take the bitter with the sweet. Sniff...
Please do not take this postseriously. I *AM* allowed to have a sense of humor, even if the Washington Post and New York Times hate me. Unlike them, I have no illusions of godhood.
I've been reading a.b.t-c for several years now, and I'm still not always sure how to take TC when he posts to the NG. I've gotten a couple nice emails from him, and, curse my metal body, I came in second [maybe third] in the guess who TC's alter ego is contest. I also know who won. But I ain't sayin'--because, as I've said before, I respect TC's privacy. But I had that particular account killfiled at one point...
--
BAH! When I was your age, I walked to school--uphill, both ways, barefoot [but only because this was Mississippi]--and I LIKED IT!
Seriously, though; I traversed an environment that I'd love to really see become a geek-producing powerhouse: The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science. Yeah, there were geeks there. Yeah, we ran Linux [remembers Slackware, remembers screaming, proud Debian user now]. Yeah, we ran our own BBS's. But we--or at least I--weren't cognizant of the totality of what was going on outside. I wish I'd read /.--or had it to read--when I was there [1995-97]. I probably would have chucked this aero eng thing and gone into that. Damn the guys that were smart enough to go into CS--especially the one or two who combined it with biz degrees. Bah!
But seriously, I'll rant that activities are very good for the soul. Student government can be one, if you're at a school where it does anything besides play pretty. Yeah, yeah, politics--but you learn lots of interpersonal skills, teambuilding, etc. Actually, you learn how not to do it most of the time.
Ramblin' a bit...but then hey, my boss is gone and he didn't leave me with anything to do for the next, uh, four hours. Heh.
--
...when I was hired in to my company, there was no manager for our small group. We're weird ducks anyway--a commercial products group based inside a NASA/DoD contractor, and no one wanted to do anything with us. Corporate tried to make my boss--a damned good project engineer--into the manager. I like the guy a lot, but he'll tell you that he's no manager-type. It does take a certain type of person to manage other people, and that's not always the #2 guy.
What happened? My boss held the job strictly on a temporary basis, we got a guy hired into the job, and things went back to A-OK. The "new guy" kept the heat off of the engineers and also brought some new insights in.
So, there's a lesson in this: Tell the PHB's to bring in someone new to the group. A manager doesn't have to know all about your group's work. A manager does have to communicate well with those horizontal and vertical to them. So explain how you're not qualified to take the job but very qualified to stay where you are. Good luck!
--
The College Board is listening "to the best educational interests of our children"? I would disagree.
As others have pointed out, it would be far, far better for logic, pseudo-code, and theory to be taught in such a course. AP courses are supposed to prepare you academically for college--as well as trying to get you out of a class or two. I know--I had 35 hours when I started college, mostly due to AP credit.
I'm not much of a programmer, but my field [aerospace engineering] doesn't require it. I would have been much, much better served by a AP CS class that taught programming theory and basics--regardless of the language taught!--than a language you'll use.
If you're going to finish and get a CS degree, having that background behind you will put you at an advantage. As I see a lot lately, those people who seek IT/geek jobs don't always finish school. Companies around here hire workers out who haven't finished their degrees. Consequently, UAH's CS department has stayed focused on teaching fundamentals, as they should. You can pick up a programming language if you have the fundamentals of computer science down--it's much harder if you're just trying to learn the language. I can speak to that--having virtually zero in the way of theory, I struggle with every new language.
Teaching Java just exacerbates the situation, and teaches HS students to cash in. That's not what the Advanced Placement Program is supposed to be about.
--
Next /. Poll: Whose abode do you want sat photos of?
o CmdrTaco
o Hemos
o CowboyNeal
o JonKatz
o timothy
o Cliff
I'm betting JonKatz will win; a group of crazed /.'ers will invade his back yard, seeking to do him wrong. Jesse Jackson will be there, mumbling something incoherent about Hellmouth...
--
AHA! You're discussing "pilot astronauts". On STS, that's only the Commander and the Pilot. The ISS crew only needs one "pilot astronaut" at a time. These guys would more likely be titled Mission or Payload Specialists--and yes, they'd be taught to run a payload. But I could train a chimp to run the payload I work on...=)
--
So, now when someone pings a server and requests someone's copy of DeCSS, we're going to hear the sound of a lawyer screaming, "Copyright violation!" all across the server room? Scary.
--
Can you, really? For MSFT to do Linux right and have it not be some fad thing, it will be a sea change for them. For them to do it wrong may just exacerbate their situation--especially if the true OSS Nazis [of which I would classify myself] could keep kicking their butts on stuff.
For MSFT to go into this regime requires some philosophical changes. I think they will eventually realize that it's vital for them to do so--and perhaps even profitable!
If Redmond is going into this business, though, wouldn't they do well to hire people familiar with developing Linux [API's, kernels, drivers, etc.]? Those will be external people, and they might--might--change the MSFT culture. Maybe not.
I'd argue that you might get better service from an OSBM than a CSBM, because you can check their OS'd source for BS. =)
I'll admit that it has the potential for wrong. But I think it will more likely screw them up. Hey, we're willing to run away from companies that make bad moves, right? Just look at Netscape--I used them exclusively until late '97 or '98...started using MSIE and Eudora on my Windows box, and I'm [relatively] happy with that combo, even though I don't like either company much. Something better comes along for my needs on a Windows platform, buh-bye.
Kernels? Probably not. Patches? Yep. Probably by a subscription offering, too.
--
...because, after all, the more OSS programmers the better, right?
Actually, I think that holds some water:
End result? Maybe better software out of Redmond. Also, people may decide to get the binaries from MSFT and tack on their own features. Innovation improves. MSFT sees the innovations, and since they're in the public domain, they package it and sell it to the PHB and Grandma.
Not that it's likely to happen, mind you: it's not a matter of business sense. Were Microsoft seeking to profit from Linux, they'd get enough expertise under their belts and be the mother of all enterprise-level support companies. But releasing their code is something seemingly antithetical to MSFT. But I honestly think it might be the best thing for them.
Would that mean the revolution was won? =)
--
Granted, I have their nationwide plan, but I have to dial all areacode-prefix-last4 all the time on my phone, even local stuff.
Of course, this will mostly go away if we zap long distance charges in the USA. What a benefit to the consumer! Watch the rapidly declining long-distance rates, and notice how Sprint is already tying their rates to flat fees [following somewhat the idea of flat-rate ISP services].
Now, where have I read the abolition of LD calls before? Oh, yeah, Arthur C. Clarke's 2001. But he had the end-date for LD calling as 12/31/1999. I guess that would be a Y2K problem, huh?
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Awww, come on. The newsies are already in Florida and have to be wanting to cover something else. Witness the speed with which the newsies can throw something together and the plethora of extra resources they have. When you have money to pay a set of helicopters to fly along with a friggin' Ryder truck to Tallahassee, NASA can make this move faster.
Sports press conferences are laid on inside of a day--sometimes, inside of hours. Science news is, in general, a lot more interesting and a lot more important than sports. So why do we have to wait a month [at times]?
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Of course it would, but that would mean that NASA would understand good PR. No, they like to hold things close to the vest, preferring pomp and circumstance to timely news. NASA's still stuck in the Sixties as far as their public relations shop runs.
Anyone who's read NASA Watch for some time knows how clueless NASA's PR shop is. But they were getting better under the late Brian Welch, who, I feel, was working to improve the immediacy and efficacy of NASA press coverage. Welch was instrumental in the Dreamtime work done on ISS, and really had a thing for using Webcams on stuff. He initially opposed Keith Cowing's press accreditation efforts, but I really do feel that Brian "got it".
But in this era of "faster, cheaper, better", NASA PAO seems to be still thinking "slower, costlier, bad theater".
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Well, I ain't got time to get the college fire department out on this--the fraternity guys are sleeping off last night's kegger, so I won't round 'em up for another one so we can piss on this, but how about a haiku to calm everyone down?
Java hates Linux?
Oh--what is it that you say?
Linux hates Java?
Either way, I'd say people are taking this argument far, far too seriously for a Friday morning. With all the FUD, you'd think we were talking Redmond...
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The NBC sports guy? That Jim Gray? The guy who never smiles? Figures--he was done after the Pete Rose thing, I guess.
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Actually, about how it looks like it would be pronounced. Start with a z-like buzz, make a "veh" sounds, go back to the buzz, then say, "Duh." That's how the 'stronauts are saying it apparently--when they're not saying something like, "Piece of shit Russian hardware. Russian spacecraft, American spacecraft--all the parts are made in Taiwan!"
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The payload I've been working on--and from the best I can tell, most of the other payloads on UF-1, the first of the many Utilization Flights--was bumped from its flight. Technically, we weren't on schedule, but the schedule is unrealistic to begin with.
The manifest is full of lies, damned lies, and statistics, but that's no different than any other NASA program. It's the typical NASA FUD: make the schedules unreasonable, and when the contractors fail to meet specs, blame the contractors, slip the schedule, and ask Congress for more money.
It makes one wish for the days of carte blanche, when the schedules were unreasonable, but you could at least throw enough money and brainpower at a situation to get the thing solved. People worked long hours, slept at their desks, had recreation at work, and took simple pleasure at their jobs being finally completed--then moved to another job.
You see, the geek culture today has a lot of roots in the geek culture of the '60s--but instead of Apollo and Saturn, we work on Linux and Gnome. Rather than the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union, which hid all their secrets behind an impenetrable Iron Curtain, we now fight the Evil Empire of Redmond, which hides all their secrets behind the impentrable Closed-Source Curtain.
All of which begs to ask: where's the deals with Life, and when does Tom Wolfe write a book on the open-source movement?
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...when I finally get off my slacker ass and install Debian [last time I installed Linux was three machines ago, and it was a 1996 era version of Slackware with much help on the install], I'll write down every question I have. Of course, I guess I'll have to edit out questions like, "Why do I have such a crappy computer?" =)
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No longer is it "one-time cost" versus "open-source-and-usually-no-cost". I think the subscription model will actually promote faster revisions of Office as a way to show value to the subscribers--if it's updated and patched often, you'll be more likely to want to keep using software that seems good. Nice job for Microsoft--we'll just see what the costs are and if people will bail for the alternatives...
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Perhaps I over-stated the difficulty end a bit...I'd like to point out that it does have a cost, though, that most folks tend not to think about unless they're audiophiles [which I don't necessarily claim to be =]. I think /.ers are a bit too knee jerk at times on issues like this, but that's okay--a knee-jerk reaction often can result in an insightful reply that makes people think anew about the issues.
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Software is relatively simple to produce these days--even outdated stuff. Most folks don't keep it, though, because the stocks aren't in high demand.
It's not the same way with stuff in "old media"--to get something from vinyl to a digital format, it has to be recorded from analog, transferred to digital hardware, remastered to make sure it sounds close to the original, then transferred to the new format. That's why you used to see "DDD", "AAD", and "ADD" on the backs of CD's [and in some cases, you still do]. For the most part, new music is created and stored digitally, but that's not the case with your Buddy Holly LP's. =)
Which is better? Depends on the market. The market, to me, seems to dictate that the consumer is willing to bear the cost of the low-volume, high-cost production that converting A-->D runs. So it's nice free-market stuff.
Don't compare it to software the way the original poster does--new versions are upgrades, not ports. A port still costs money [or time-cost of money], though. This is a huge transferrence that requires one or more trained people to listen to.
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Kaplan raises an interesting point: Congresscritters are so unbelievably far removed from being lawmakers that they rely on interest groups to write legislation for them. It ends up leaving all sorts of interesting Easter Eggs in the legislative vagaries. We are then left with what happens countless times these days: judges legislate from the bench, rather than Congress [or state and local government] writing sound, well-formed legislation.
Consider the current problems in Florida. The laws are contradictory--no one has been able to say, "This is what we will do, because this is the law says." Conversely, everyone is able to claim a small slice of legality for their position, throwing it into court.
This is nothing new, of course, but we can and should demand more thoughtful consideration of legislation from our Congresscritters. I dare say many of them don't truly study--or have their staff study--the full implications of their legislation. While it is often the case that well-meaning legislation has unintended consequences--I've been bitten in the ass myself on that with stuff locally--it is readily apparent that no one, other than those who wrote the DCMA, really considered the scope of the legislation.
And they say it's not important to vote. *snort*
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...if for no other reason than susceptibility to virii that exploit default settings of Outlook--unless you send out staff to install all computers with specific instructions to kill auto-preview, etc. We've been hit with every last one of the Outlook-exploiting virii to come out in the past year, and while it's mostly an annoyance, it does tend to tie up the servers for a few days.
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