You do understand that the chance of the president getting involved in the choice of what operating system to use in the white house is about as likely as the CEO of IBM getting involved in the choice of what brand of toilet paper to use in their office in Bangalore, don't you?
What's wrong with being Microsoft, or rather Windows, specific? The last time I checked Windows was still the most popular operating system out there. And there is a reason for that: it does what the customer needs for the right price with fewer pain points for the non-technical user than any other operating system (although Apple has been trying to change that equation lately by finally dropping their price point after 25 years).
I know a little bit about Python and while it has some good points, I can't see using for a lot of my projects..NET is an excellent development environment.
Google's stated goal is to index the world's data. But there's no profit in that. The real profit is from advertising. The best advertising is targetted. The best targetted advertising comes from knowing as much about the customer as possible. If you look at all of Google's offerings, all of them are about gathering information about you. Notice that Google hasn't entered the gaming market, they haven't entered the development tools environment, they don't have a database offering or an e-mail server (one that you can host yourself). Google is all about gathering as much information about you that they possibly can.
But then, Slashdot welcomes its new Google overlords.
Actually, I am a.NET developer. And for the record, as a former C programmer who has worked on embedded systems I do know what a pointer is.
And why demonize.NET developers? How many modern Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, Erlang or whatever flavour of the week language the cool kids are using know what pointers are? Let's face it, the two main metrics for knowing if someone is a competent programmer (pointers and recursion) have pretty much disappeared. Some of these new kids may have the capability of understanding but none of them have taken the time to learn these concepts because there is no longer any need.
Just like they sued Microsoft on behalf of Sun "for the good of the people".
The justice department doesn't go out and look for these cases. They only get involved after intense lobbying. And given the Google has a monopoly on search (71% sounds low unless they're including sites that index themselves instead of using an outside service) I would say that the Justice department should be keeping an eye on them.
Not to mention that Google is looking more and more evil despite their cute slogan. They bought DoubleClick. Does anybody think that they did that because they couldn't reporduce DoubleClick's technology? They wanted the DoubleClick databases going back to the early days of the internet. Combine that historical data with all of the data they have about you (almost every search you've ever made, the contents of your mail if you use GMail, the contents of your documents if you use Google Docs, information about your videos if you post them to YouTube, what news you read if you get it from Google News, where you like to go if you use Google Maps, etc.) The information that Google knows about an individual is staggering. It makes the CIA look like a bunch of amateurs.
I know that slashdotters don't like Microsoft, but isn't it a little too obsessive to be criticising them for their version numbering scheme? Isn't that like hating someone because their hair is just the wrong shade of brown or the daiameter of the buttons on their shirt are a millimetre too small?
Some of them will get what they want. But parents on the edge will rationalize and say "this other mp3 player does the same as the iPod; I'll buy little Janey this one instead". Not to mention that when little Janey loses her $300 iPod two weeks after getting it, there's no way she's getting another one.
That's the way that iPod's market share will slowly erode. Don't get me wrong: I think that the iPod has a few more years of dominance left but the fact that you can get something else **much** cheaper is going to be a lot more important. And once there is widespread acceptance of other mp3 players then it becomes a commodity item and the race to the bottom is on. It becomes like cars, as an example. Nobody argues that the Toyota Corolla is better than a Mercedes or a Porsche, but it's still the best selling car in the world because it's cheap and it does what people need it to do.
I can see point number 3 being a good thing but how does a company not properly supporting a product and not taking responsibility for a mess it caused help me as a customer?
no, beta means "still not ready for prime time and should not be used in production". The strange thing is most of Google's applications are production ready. I think they're just covering themselves in case something goes wrong. Particularly if they get sued they can claim that it's just beta software.
Given the Apple is still riding the image of cool they created in their 1984 Superbowl ad (the one where the woman dressed like a Hooter's girl throws a sledgehammer) I think that the proper ad campaign could help Microsoft.
Actually, that was the Catholic Church. In 897 A.D. Pope Stephen VI exhumed his predecessor Pope Formosus and put him on trial. After that his body was thrown in the Tiber.
So are the closest relatives (or possibly descendants as priests weren't known for obeying their vows of chastity in those days) of Formosus going to sue the Church for defamation too?
OF course, because you wouldn't want to ask your customers what they want. It's a much better approach to do what you want and then expect your customers to just live with it.
Given that the trailing edge of the baby boom turns 48 this year, I would have to guess that this statistic is a result of the demographic bulge. So the reason that these numbers are starting to skew higher is that there is now a higher percentage of the general population over 50.
In other words, move along there's nothing to see here.
I always find it interesting when people whose religion is science bring out the old saw that correlation != causation.
As a huge amount of the basis for scientific thought is statistical evidence, science uses correlation to assume causation all over the place; for example, cigarettes cause cancer.
Specifically, how do I benefit? I'm a developer living in Toronto: how does it benefit me? I have a friend who recently moved to France: she works in the television industry: how does it benefit her? I have another friend who moved back to England last year who is a carpenter: how does this benefit him?
The fact is that this move doesn't benefit the vast majority of Europeans, nor does it benefit "everyone". It benefits a handfull of political types who will "win" this fight and so increase their personal political power and a number of consultants who specialize in open source software. It equally harms other politicians who will lose power and consultants who work with Microsoft products.
In terms of benefiting real people this is pretty much a wash.
I was in a little diner just south of Tom's River about ten years ago and when I told them I wanted poutine and described it to them they were horrified. They brought it to me anyway and I let a bunch of people try it. It was a pretty big hit with everybody who tried it.
But I'm pretty sure that they had never heard of fries, cheese (no cheese curds available) and gravy before that.
But even in your post you speak of a few good people. The question is who was in charge of this decision. It might well have been someone with hte best of intentions.
Of course, you've been on the ground there. My speculations are mostly based on an article I read in the Economist about a year ago.
To everybody who thinks that the only reason that Nigeria would switch to Windows is bribery, I offer another possible explanation (note that I have no more evidence for this than anybody else has for bribery allegations):
Nigeria is one of the few countries in Africa where the economy is not a complete basket case. These countries (particularly South Africa, Botswana, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria) are currently setting up call centres and have stated long term goals to become off-shoring destinations. While there is some off-shoring in the open source world there is a huge market for off-shoring in the Microsoft world. Perhaps the government of Nigeria is looking at that market and thinking that they could take a chunk of India's off-shoring revenue in a few years. If so, training their people to use Windows machines instead of Linux could be considered an investment in the future.
Slashdot Mirror
You do understand that the chance of the president getting involved in the choice of what operating system to use in the white house is about as likely as the CEO of IBM getting involved in the choice of what brand of toilet paper to use in their office in Bangalore, don't you?
What's wrong with being Microsoft, or rather Windows, specific? The last time I checked Windows was still the most popular operating system out there. And there is a reason for that: it does what the customer needs for the right price with fewer pain points for the non-technical user than any other operating system (although Apple has been trying to change that equation lately by finally dropping their price point after 25 years). I know a little bit about Python and while it has some good points, I can't see using for a lot of my projects. .NET is an excellent development environment.
Google's stated goal is to index the world's data. But there's no profit in that. The real profit is from advertising. The best advertising is targetted. The best targetted advertising comes from knowing as much about the customer as possible. If you look at all of Google's offerings, all of them are about gathering information about you. Notice that Google hasn't entered the gaming market, they haven't entered the development tools environment, they don't have a database offering or an e-mail server (one that you can host yourself). Google is all about gathering as much information about you that they possibly can.
But then, Slashdot welcomes its new Google overlords.
why is it all these non-shavers with extremely high user numbers think they've been here longer than me?
You're ignoring the great perks of joining such a uniong: GETTING TO DUMP BOILING OIL ON CEOS.
I'd join a guild of lawyers to be allowed to do that!
Hello Aphoxema
Been here for years. Many more years that you in fact (take a look at the user numbers).
But thanks for the offer.
Actually, I am a .NET developer. And for the record, as a former C programmer who has worked on embedded systems I do know what a pointer is.
And why demonize .NET developers? How many modern Java, Perl, Python, Ruby, Erlang or whatever flavour of the week language the cool kids are using know what pointers are? Let's face it, the two main metrics for knowing if someone is a competent programmer (pointers and recursion) have pretty much disappeared. Some of these new kids may have the capability of understanding but none of them have taken the time to learn these concepts because there is no longer any need.
Just like they sued Microsoft on behalf of Sun "for the good of the people".
The justice department doesn't go out and look for these cases. They only get involved after intense lobbying. And given the Google has a monopoly on search (71% sounds low unless they're including sites that index themselves instead of using an outside service) I would say that the Justice department should be keeping an eye on them.
Not to mention that Google is looking more and more evil despite their cute slogan. They bought DoubleClick. Does anybody think that they did that because they couldn't reporduce DoubleClick's technology? They wanted the DoubleClick databases going back to the early days of the internet. Combine that historical data with all of the data they have about you (almost every search you've ever made, the contents of your mail if you use GMail, the contents of your documents if you use Google Docs, information about your videos if you post them to YouTube, what news you read if you get it from Google News, where you like to go if you use Google Maps, etc.) The information that Google knows about an individual is staggering. It makes the CIA look like a bunch of amateurs.
But then, Slashdot likes Google.
except that unions don't get to dump boiling oil on CEOs.
I think I like this guild idea.
I know that slashdotters don't like Microsoft, but isn't it a little too obsessive to be criticising them for their version numbering scheme? Isn't that like hating someone because their hair is just the wrong shade of brown or the daiameter of the buttons on their shirt are a millimetre too small?
Some of them will get what they want. But parents on the edge will rationalize and say "this other mp3 player does the same as the iPod; I'll buy little Janey this one instead". Not to mention that when little Janey loses her $300 iPod two weeks after getting it, there's no way she's getting another one.
That's the way that iPod's market share will slowly erode. Don't get me wrong: I think that the iPod has a few more years of dominance left but the fact that you can get something else **much** cheaper is going to be a lot more important. And once there is widespread acceptance of other mp3 players then it becomes a commodity item and the race to the bottom is on. It becomes like cars, as an example. Nobody argues that the Toyota Corolla is better than a Mercedes or a Porsche, but it's still the best selling car in the world because it's cheap and it does what people need it to do.
Where's Marvin when you need him?
You talk about this as if it's a good thing.
I can see point number 3 being a good thing but how does a company not properly supporting a product and not taking responsibility for a mess it caused help me as a customer?
no, beta means "still not ready for prime time and should not be used in production". The strange thing is most of Google's applications are production ready. I think they're just covering themselves in case something goes wrong. Particularly if they get sued they can claim that it's just beta software.
Given the Apple is still riding the image of cool they created in their 1984 Superbowl ad (the one where the woman dressed like a Hooter's girl throws a sledgehammer) I think that the proper ad campaign could help Microsoft.
Actually, that was the Catholic Church. In 897 A.D. Pope Stephen VI exhumed his predecessor Pope Formosus and put him on trial. After that his body was thrown in the Tiber.
So are the closest relatives (or possibly descendants as priests weren't known for obeying their vows of chastity in those days) of Formosus going to sue the Church for defamation too?
OF course, because you wouldn't want to ask your customers what they want. It's a much better approach to do what you want and then expect your customers to just live with it.
Given that the trailing edge of the baby boom turns 48 this year, I would have to guess that this statistic is a result of the demographic bulge. So the reason that these numbers are starting to skew higher is that there is now a higher percentage of the general population over 50.
In other words, move along there's nothing to see here.
I always find it interesting when people whose religion is science bring out the old saw that correlation != causation.
As a huge amount of the basis for scientific thought is statistical evidence, science uses correlation to assume causation all over the place; for example, cigarettes cause cancer.
Everyone? How does "everyone" benefit?
Specifically, how do I benefit? I'm a developer living in Toronto: how does it benefit me? I have a friend who recently moved to France: she works in the television industry: how does it benefit her? I have another friend who moved back to England last year who is a carpenter: how does this benefit him?
The fact is that this move doesn't benefit the vast majority of Europeans, nor does it benefit "everyone". It benefits a handfull of political types who will "win" this fight and so increase their personal political power and a number of consultants who specialize in open source software. It equally harms other politicians who will lose power and consultants who work with Microsoft products.
In terms of benefiting real people this is pretty much a wash.
What's wrong with Friday night math homework parties? (BMath '91)
I don't know about that.
I was in a little diner just south of Tom's River about ten years ago and when I told them I wanted poutine and described it to them they were horrified. They brought it to me anyway and I let a bunch of people try it. It was a pretty big hit with everybody who tried it.
But I'm pretty sure that they had never heard of fries, cheese (no cheese curds available) and gravy before that.
But even in your post you speak of a few good people. The question is who was in charge of this decision. It might well have been someone with hte best of intentions.
Of course, you've been on the ground there. My speculations are mostly based on an article I read in the Economist about a year ago.
To everybody who thinks that the only reason that Nigeria would switch to Windows is bribery, I offer another possible explanation (note that I have no more evidence for this than anybody else has for bribery allegations):
Nigeria is one of the few countries in Africa where the economy is not a complete basket case. These countries (particularly South Africa, Botswana, Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria) are currently setting up call centres and have stated long term goals to become off-shoring destinations. While there is some off-shoring in the open source world there is a huge market for off-shoring in the Microsoft world. Perhaps the government of Nigeria is looking at that market and thinking that they could take a chunk of India's off-shoring revenue in a few years. If so, training their people to use Windows machines instead of Linux could be considered an investment in the future.
Yes, they have a monopoly on Slashdot fanboys