So all Microsoft has to do is delay and cause these people huge legal bills (pocket change for Microsoft) and then probably buy up the entire patent portfolio at firesale prices.
Isn't it ironic that, in a story about how the U.S. has too much influence over ICANN, somebody proposes that we use the SSN (an uniquely American identifier) to identify people on the Web?
But most people aren't interested in knowing more about computers and pcs in general. They just want things to work. How much do you know about an internal combustion engine? If somebody told you that you should buy a car that required you to spend a few hours every week being a grease monkey, would the car be a great tool because you felt you accomplished something or just a pain in the ass when you are late for an important meeting and need to do a two hour overhaul on the engine yourself to get there?
I'd say this kid is just not interested in programming.
You said that his efforts had "nothing in the sense of real programming". What did you expect for a first effort? A full RDBMS system? A true artifical intelligence? A solution to the halting problem?
And if he thinks that having to write code is stupid, maybe he just has no real interest in being a programmer.
The problem is that in order to do good innovation you need a research department. While there might be other ways to run such a department, the following set of rules usually work:
1. it needs to be a full time job for a number of people (because they need to devote a large chunk of their energy to this) 2. they need to work together in a geographical sense: while this may not be a requirement, this has always worked. Note that I don't think anybody has ever tried a physically distributed pure research team (that's true research, not just working out the details). 3. They need a lot of funding for things like conferences, copies of papers, equipment, etc. These are critical so they can see what other people have done to inspire their creativity.
Note that all of these require a lot of funding which is in short supply in the OSS world. Like it or not, true innovation is going to continue to come from corprations and universites for the foreseeable future.
I re-read the parent and I can't see where he/she said anything about only doing this on a server.
In fact, I wouldn't consider a server "my system". When I talk about "my system", I'm referring to my desktop not to one of the servers in the backroom (which are really everybody's system).
So when my mother, who uses her computer for playing bridge online and printing e-mail pictures of her granchildren buys a new printer, you think she should have to recompile her kernel.
Are you going to pay for a full computer science program at a good university for her so she can even understand that idea.
The only erason Linux can do these things is because the vast majority of users are technically savvy. Any real solution needs to be usable by the average user.
For a programmer an improved operating system is one with less program faults, less resource requirements, and better performance on the same hardware. Microsoft seems bound and determined to go in exactly the opposite direction.
Using the same logic, the car companies should be building Model T's with race car engines. After all, the only thing that a real motorhead cares about is the performance and not the "luxuries" like a comfortable seat, a good stereo system, a good environmental system, a quiet ride, roominess, etc.
Hint: people who are not programmers also buy computers
At the same time should we empower the finance department to hire/fire anybody who doesn't understand the terms ROI, balance sheet, income statement, TCO, and all of the other jargon that they use?
Frankly, in the modern corporation, these terms are infinitely more important than any computer jargon. They are directly connected to the most important part of everybody's job: maximizing the bottom line (do you even know what the "bottom line" is?).
That means that the average I.T. worker's prediliction to use the latest technology because it's cool even though some less cool technology would have a better ROI would be a good reason for termination. But then, most I.T. workers don't know what ROI means.
So you're implying that a Java/PHP application will compile natively in.NET. Let's get real here. Of course if you decide to change your development language there will be a lot of rewriting. That's why you decide on a development language when you start a project and don't change it.
I've never seen a good business reason for moving a code base from one platform to another except in situations where the platform went away (software targetting BeOS, NeXT, various other platforms tat don't exist anymore). Unless you believe that Microsoft is gonig under soon, there's no reason to move.NET applicatinos to another platform.
And the client platform doesn't matter. A properly built.NET application will run cross-browser. It takes a little more work but making apps work cross-browser in PHP is also extra work (N.B.:I haven't played with the Atlas libraries to see if they are cross-browser. If they aren't, I'll have to do some hacks to ensure that they will work with at least Firefox, Opera and Netscape seamlessly)
Slashdot Mirror
Shouldn't these comments be modded -1 Offtopic ;) (including this one)
But what if my brain isn't powerful enough to control a computer?
So all Microsoft has to do is delay and cause these people huge legal bills (pocket change for Microsoft) and then probably buy up the entire patent portfolio at firesale prices.
But if, say, a French company had 9x% of the OS market, do you think that the EU would be quite so eager?
Hmmm...
AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease. Which means that ou have to have sex to contract it. So I guess Slashdotters aren't really at risk.
Move along. Nothing to see here...
That's because huge publicly traded corporations rarely go out of business. Usually they get bought out instead. Just another type of failure.
Isn't it ironic that, in a story about how the U.S. has too much influence over ICANN, somebody proposes that we use the SSN (an uniquely American identifier) to identify people on the Web?
But most people aren't interested in knowing more about computers and pcs in general. They just want things to work. How much do you know about an internal combustion engine? If somebody told you that you should buy a car that required you to spend a few hours every week being a grease monkey, would the car be a great tool because you felt you accomplished something or just a pain in the ass when you are late for an important meeting and need to do a two hour overhaul on the engine yourself to get there?
Sounds like a desperate attempt to save a few bucks by not hiring testers: release the software and "challenge" people to break it.
I challenge Sun to hire a full development team including quality assurance and not put the onus on the community to find their bugs.
yeah. pretty much. i suggest that you switch to cobol.
I'd say this kid is just not interested in programming.
You said that his efforts had "nothing in the sense of real programming". What did you expect for a first effort? A full RDBMS system? A true artifical intelligence? A solution to the halting problem?
And if he thinks that having to write code is stupid, maybe he just has no real interest in being a programmer.
Drinking age in most of Canada is 19. It's ony 18 in Quebec, Alberta and Manitoba.
You know this reminds me of a cartoon one of my philosophy profs showed me in university:
There's a church with some grafitti on it reading:
God is Dead
-Nietzsche
and a gravestone reading:
Nietzsche is dead
-God
Oddly, I'm not sure I believe StarOffice is going to kill MS-Office any time soon.
The problem is that in order to do good innovation you need a research department. While there might be other ways to run such a department, the following set of rules usually work:
1. it needs to be a full time job for a number of people (because they need to devote a large chunk of their energy to this)
2. they need to work together in a geographical sense: while this may not be a requirement, this has always worked. Note that I don't think anybody has ever tried a physically distributed pure research team (that's true research, not just working out the details).
3. They need a lot of funding for things like conferences, copies of papers, equipment, etc. These are critical so they can see what other people have done to inspire their creativity.
Note that all of these require a lot of funding which is in short supply in the OSS world. Like it or not, true innovation is going to continue to come from corprations and universites for the foreseeable future.
I re-read the parent and I can't see where he/she said anything about only doing this on a server.
In fact, I wouldn't consider a server "my system". When I talk about "my system", I'm referring to my desktop not to one of the servers in the backroom (which are really everybody's system).
So when my mother, who uses her computer for playing bridge online and printing e-mail pictures of her granchildren buys a new printer, you think she should have to recompile her kernel.
Are you going to pay for a full computer science program at a good university for her so she can even understand that idea.
The only erason Linux can do these things is because the vast majority of users are technically savvy. Any real solution needs to be usable by the average user.
A lot of geeks would come up with that password.
Of course most women would disagree.
Do you really think they get arrested independently? I always thought they did that for the publicity as well.
I think Arnie might be a little busy right now.
Although the citizens of the state of California might be happy if he took some time off to make a movie.
I used to think Toby McGuire and Elijah Wood were the same actor.
I was actually pretty impressed that he got the lead role in both Spiderman and Lord of the Rings until I found out.
For a programmer an improved operating system is one with less program faults, less resource requirements, and better performance on the same hardware. Microsoft seems bound and determined to go in exactly the opposite direction.
Using the same logic, the car companies should be building Model T's with race car engines. After all, the only thing that a real motorhead cares about is the performance and not the "luxuries" like a comfortable seat, a good stereo system, a good environmental system, a quiet ride, roominess, etc.
Hint: people who are not programmers also buy computers
At the same time should we empower the finance department to hire /fire anybody who doesn't understand the terms ROI, balance sheet, income statement, TCO, and all of the other jargon that they use?
Frankly, in the modern corporation, these terms are infinitely more important than any computer jargon. They are directly connected to the most important part of everybody's job: maximizing the bottom line (do you even know what the "bottom line" is?).
That means that the average I.T. worker's prediliction to use the latest technology because it's cool even though some less cool technology would have a better ROI would be a good reason for termination. But then, most I.T. workers don't know what ROI means.
So you're implying that a Java/PHP application will compile natively in .NET. Let's get real here. Of course if you decide to change your development language there will be a lot of rewriting. That's why you decide on a development language when you start a project and don't change it.
.NET applicatinos to another platform.
.NET application will run cross-browser. It takes a little more work but making apps work cross-browser in PHP is also extra work (N.B.:I haven't played with the Atlas libraries to see if they are cross-browser. If they aren't, I'll have to do some hacks to ensure that they will work with at least Firefox, Opera and Netscape seamlessly)
I've never seen a good business reason for moving a code base from one platform to another except in situations where the platform went away (software targetting BeOS, NeXT, various other platforms tat don't exist anymore). Unless you believe that Microsoft is gonig under soon, there's no reason to move
And the client platform doesn't matter. A properly built
But next time they're hoping for a success
But do you have any problem with the fact that, just maybe, you should get less than most people.
Or, in other words, are you really sure where exactly you belong on the deserve more/less curve?