As thrilled as some are with the graphics, I can't reconcile in my mind that what my imagination of a text piece of equipment would look like in someone else's graphic rendering. Rather like reading a series of books which then makes it to TV/Film and seeing who they cast doesn't fit how you imagined it. Not really a big deal, though I think for pure flexibility it's still hard to beat a good mud client and a decent mud.
Considering some of the groups I've been in, the screen would get a tad crowded, seems like single or limited player ability is the strong suit.
There was a GUI D&D game someone came up with about 10 years ago, pretty good looking, and would certainly benifit from today's crop of graphic cards, with an absolutely staggering variety of equipment and places to hang it on yourself. I only played it a couple times. With a large number of variables the learning curve increases, and IMHO the game had a pretty steep one.
Equipment in use:
<Worn on body>Six feet of dirt and a small monument.
A sizeable amount of my spam is in non-english character sets and originating from.cn sites, even offers to lease office space in Hong Kong. Just nuts, since I have no way of reading it. If you're not getting a lot of it, be glad.
Someone posted a link to a travesty generator which created EULA's sometime in the past. I've tried to find it again, but no luck. Anyone with a link to it, please post. It's all about the same, anyway, a travesty, just on a different scale.
Whichever view is more convincing to a Judge is what matters here, not the almost limitless potential of technology.
Sure, but like dentistry and teeth, the truth can be painful in the extracting. Too often there's more effort put into the whining, pissing and moaning about why the tooth shouldn't be pulled, how bad it hurts to pull it, but little on how well off everyone concerned is once it's out in the open. (My wisdom tooth experience a perfect example, life's much better without impacted wisdom teeth, thank you very much, but took a while and considerable suffering to actually get me into the chair.)
Now that painful truth has been brought out, don't believe for a moment Microsoft hasn't already devoted a lot of effort to strategizing how to make the most of it (i.e. by violating the published API they could still make their expansion packs work more smoothly than third party products) to continue domination of the market.
In the interest of idly exploring possible releases...
WindowsLite: Minimum OS, no Explorer, no plugins, no bloat. Platform to build upon servers, print managers, development, etc.
WindowsBusiness: OS with all the API junk for Office apps and networking
WindowsGamer: Essentially WindowsLite worked for best interaction with Video cards, sound cards, game controllers
WindowsDeluxe: The full heap, bloat, security holes and all
WindowsPersonal: Geared for home use, budget minded user, can be configured with buyer selection of browser, mail client, media tools, etc.
My observation is thus, looking at a digital display and associating it with time versus the relative position of hands on a clock display requires more mental time. i.e. If the hour hand is near 12 and the minute hand is between 6 and 12, it's getting near noon.
This exercise is more clear when you look at 3 different numbers then see what relation they have in scale and part of the whole in a pie chart. It's comparative, rather than exact. A digital stopwatch may be the best too for timing at the track, but in things relative we can mentally associate in one look at the face of a clock faster than we can translate digits from a digital clock into where in the day the time is.
It's not just style, though an analog clock is more easily made stylish than the attempts at gold digital watches (my dad has a gold TI LED watch from the 70's), but how easily the interface tells us what we want to know, which attracts us.
Lord knows, I have enough on my mind without trying to look at the rate of change on a digital display and trying to figure out my rate of acceleration instead of looking at an analog speedometer.
If it's easier to use and quick to learn, it'll be adopted. If not it'll be consigned to the junk drawer.
Remember when people said we'd all be wearing digital watches and looking at digital clocks and kids today wouldn't know how to read time from a clock with hands? Snicker. Score one for a tried and true analog design.:)
Me: lessee whass happening on Slashdot
Computer: -click- [cannot detect modem] -DOINK!-
Me: ^%#$*! <hit reload>
Computer: Silence.. [cannot detect modem]
Me: %@$*&^! <check diags which say all is fine and there's a modem, try again>
Computer: [cannot detect modem] -DOINK!- Reloading previously cached page...
Me: &#*$#, #&*$! and ^$*#@!
It sure is wonderful living in this modern age with all these conveniences which make life so simple... come to think of it, Ma and Pa Kettle didn't really have it all so bad.
When I go it's for the Consumer Electronics Show or I'm passing through on the way to AZ. I've received the junk from Wynn and others in the mail inviting me to join high roller clubs and get perks, etc, but for my money I'd rather be on a beach in Costa Rica, sipping a maragarita and reading the latest Terry Pratchett novel.
The air stinks of something, usually auto exhaust. I've seen a few sunsets and sinrises where the air to the south east is the same color, brown. The traffic gridlock isn't along the strip, if you've been there, the worst of it is in other areas, far removed. I think the real target is just to offer some other Disney-esque attraction. Vegas used to be known for some pretty good deals, but I've noticed in the past few years you can get just as fleeced without gambling as in any other tourist destination. Worst is, it's a city with a pretty slimey side, when you see a family of mexican immigrants standing on the sidewalk trying to shove call-girl booklets into the hands of every passerby. Inside the hotels, it's pretty glitzy, but I've never been able to shake off the veiws of the seedier side.
There will also be unusual safeguards. Since more than a few riders here are
bound to be sloshed by more than a few drinks, every stop will be walled and
sealed in glass, with doors timed to open only at the moment trains arrive --
so no one in a stupor falls from a platform.
Hey, that's great, we can look forward to drunken sots riding around all night on the monorail in their own pool of spew. That's a real attraction, isn't it?
"Look kids, a pyramid, Venice, a castle, a pirate ship! Honey, don't keep away from that man Aren't the bright lights don't stick your food in that, it's disgusting beautiful? Would you like to go to the top or the Mister, put that whiskey bottle away and don't look at my kid like that or there's gonna be some real trouble Stratosphere?"
The motel was across the strip with the airport in between the 2, so it was a pretty cheap motel and I had a shuttle.
Lucky you. I've stayed at the Tropicana, the Nugget and another I forget, all big hotels. Even the MGM Grand has some insane number of rooms, like 9,000+ and has no free shuttle. I just checked out the map and you'll notice the planned route for the Monorail doesn't extend to the airport, gee, that's fascinating, don't you think?
It's like there's this amazing agreement that you have to pay $10 upon entering LV and another $10 upon leaving. Do the math and see how long it would take to add up enough to extend that monorail to the terminal.
Las Vegas could start by having free hotel shuttles from the fscking airport!
Am I right? Eh?!?! Ever been there, you know of what I say.
Every fscking time I've been there I have to fork over ~$10 for a Bell taxi or something, which all smell like they last scrubbed inside with a dead cat! Seriously, every other major city I've been in the big hotels have shuttles, but not LV, I swear it's a labor thing of somesort or a major bribe has been paid.
In either case, I would certainly like to see how well the monorail plan gets around to the airport.
but I will say that Monsoon Wedding is
distributed by Miramax and that would lead me to guess it's just another feelgood film with very little to say ultimately.
Go - see - IT!
It's no plugged on FOX, ABC, NBC, etc, where I live, and cable isn't exactly everywhere. It would truly be a loss if it were assumed to be some artsy-fartsy movie or so foreign it's inaccessible. It's just plain a great movie. Lots of subplots, great music (well, I'd love to have the soundtrack and I've never considered myself an fan of Indian music) many people I've nearly had to shove into the theater to see it come out with, "wow, that was really a great movie!" Pity it's limited in run, while a piece of dog poo like that blair witch project thing that suckered so many people in with it's internet/chatroom rumor campaign (not entirely unlike what Katz takes a less obvious swing at here.)
Now I can't speak for everyone, but it really is one of the best flicks I've seen in years. Probably because I'm so fried on predictable hollywood tripe.
Hilary Rosen: "I ask them, 'What have you done last week?' They may say they wrote a paper on
this or that. So I tell them, 'Oh, you wrote a paper, and you got an A? Would it bother you if somebody could just take that paper and get an A too? Would that bug you?'
No, it wouldn't bug me. It would if the person who copied it and got an 'A' was competing with me for the same job and got it, particularly if the paper was in the relevent field. It would also bug me if they published it, but the threat of humiliation of being exposed for this prevents most people.
Hilary gets it wrong of course, because we already pay fat royalty fees for the privilege of listening to the music whenever and where ever we want, however, my truck doesn't have a CD player and copying my own CD's onto cassette (while time consuming and impractical to automate) lets me enjoy the music, whenever, where ever I want. If I couldn't I would most definitely buy less music, however, it attempting to be a consumer I'm a criminal by the RIAA's reckoning. Why not bring back 78's?
Now if I were in a band and we cut a CD and suddenly copies where popping up all over the place, we only have ourselves to blame. Clearly one of us, or collectively trusted someone, who spread the music. The distributor would be the villain, but how can you apply this to CD/Record shop sales people, if they sell a CD someone copies? Clearly everyone who makes CD ripping/burning software, rips/burns or otherwise transfers to another piece of media, borrows or lends music should be locked up. I suggest (for those who remember the house on the beach in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish) we lock up the RIAA for their own protection.
But you're basically preaching to the choir about how saccarine and flat the US culture becomes when people look to the mainstream media (which is heavily subsidized by, Oh look(!) ads).
Recently I saw Monsoon Wedding (which I can't recomment highly enough if you want a fun, totally kick-butt cool movie to see, which I've never seen advertised on the TV, meanwhile a dog (Scorpion King) is plugged everywhere. So seeking better entertainment is effectively taking the risk to check out different movies, books, music, and even trod the less beaten path (which we did on Sunday and it was loaded with poison oak, but pretty cool otherwise.)
Old computers end up in my appartments and I take them with me whereever I go. I just can't seem to throw them out... might be good form something someday!;)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates (news
- web sites) took the witness stand on Monday, telling a federal judge that
antitrust sanctions sought by nine states would cripple Microsoft
[slow down a monopoly juggernaut on its way to world domination] and set
its Windows operating system back 10 years[leading to an operating system less inconvenient to used than the present on], to the detriment of
consumers [we'll have to jack up the prices to make up for lost 'Microsoft Tax' revenues] and the computer industry [That part of it that isn't already dead from declining markets, consolidation and predatory practices of monopolists].
Appearing in person for the first time [second time actually, first time he behaved like an ass which probably has a lot to do with the fix he's in now] in
Microsoft's four-year antitrust battle, Gates
warned U.S. District Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly of dire consequences["If you don't play according to my rules, I'll take my ball and go straight home"] if the judge
accepts suggestions that include a version of
Windows that can be customized by computer
makers and rival software designers [Which, heaven forbid, would lead to some real innovation, not just
that dictated from Redmond] .
Gates said the nine states threaten Windows'
existence as a stable platform[Watch out for perjury, Bill] that allows a
wide range of computer hardware [PC's, soon to be phased out Alpha's and the odd multi processor system] and software [Mostly theirs]
to work together, and would deny Microsoft the
incentive[Huge profits only realized by monopolies and other criminal activity] to make continual improvements [Rather than make it secure, stable and open].
"The (states' ideas) would undermine all three elements of Microsoft's
success [Getting rich, richer, richer still], causing great damage to Microsoft [Excluding the damage they do to others and themselves], other companies [Partners yet to be screwed] that build
upon Microsoft's products [Which used to be made by other companies now out of business or holding less than 5% of the market], and the businesses and consumers that use PC
software," the world's richest man [who gained much of his wealth from predatory and monoplistic practices] said in his 155-page written
submission [Doubtlessly not composed in Word Perfect].
Some legal analysts have said Gates' failure to take the stand at the
original trial damaged the company's defense [No worse than heavy sighes, evasive answers, and contemptful attitued toward the court]. The Justice Department [Soon to be part of the Microsoft empire]
(news - web sites), instead, showed unflattering portions of a videotaped
pretrial interview in which Gates appeared uncooperative and quibbled
over the meaning of common words.
The nine states still pursuing the case have refused to sign on to a
proposed settlement of the case reached between Microsoft and the
Justice Department in November[Written by Microsoft, agreed to by DoJ].
Appearing as Microsoft's seventh witness at the remedy hearings, Gates
credited Microsoft's Windows monopoly with having helped to unite a
fragmented personal computer industry[I.e. destroy all the fragments and the companies which were developing them].
"By reducing Windows to some undefined 'core operating system' the
(states) would turn back the clock on Windows development by about ten
years and effectively freeze it there," he said [Which would actually make it more accessable to consumers and business customers who don't want all the bundled and confusing bloat, thus pulling it out of the dark ages]
Gates said the company's new.NET strategy for Internet-based services [And to kill Java and absorb 95% of that market, too, locking every user into running Windows proprietary software]
would spark a new round of opportunities in the computer industry [Opportunities go bankrupt, to deal with more bugs, to be vulnerable to more security flaws, to spend huge bucks retraining or recruiting new staff,...],
contradicting some witnesses for the states who feared Microsoft would
use its Windows monopoly to dominate this emerging technology [Which they would].
The demands of the non-settling states are technically impossible, Gates
said [And amazingly his nose didn't grow an inch or three]. And he dismissed the idea that Windows' could function properly
with add-on features, known as "middleware," that were easily added and
removed [i.e. we trust no-one but ourselves and we're basically barely any good at it ourselves].
"There is no clear dividing line between where a particular block of
"middleware" ends and the rest of the operating system begins," Gates
said[Particularly because Microsoft violates their own API's whenever it will gain them an advantage, hence dirty software].
That's not Capitalism running amok, that's "Innovation" Very innovative to tackle public institutions, as they have to provide transparency to pretty much everything. Much more difficult for BSA or Microsoft to pull same trick on the private sector, since a private party would have to invite them in.
Anyone who recalls Mr. Gates testimony in the Antitrust trial, before Thomas Penfield Jackson may wish to recall the Gates' contemptable behaviour towards the legal procedings and the court. Clearly it was all beneath him and the court and trial should just go away and let him get on with business as usual.
It's my impression that the often friendly, affable-if-nerdy face of Mr. Gates does hide a darker side, one which has more disdain for the little guy than the PR suggests, i.e. "we're providing what the customer wants, why is that so wrong?" I think we see where it actually ends up.
As far as switching from Microsoft to something, I expect Apple would be easier than Linux, for two reasons.
1. Not all school computer use is classroom, administration relies heavily on wordprocessors, spreadsheets, and various canned software packages, which Linux has a start on, but not as well as Apple.
2. Educational programs are plentiful between Mac and PC, not so plentiful for Linux. It should be motivation for those who are OpenSource/GPL enthusiasts or evangelists to actually create, but it's easier to be an armchair quarterback.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering some of the groups I've been in, the screen would get a tad crowded, seems like single or limited player ability is the strong suit.
There was a GUI D&D game someone came up with about 10 years ago, pretty good looking, and would certainly benifit from today's crop of graphic cards, with an absolutely staggering variety of equipment and places to hang it on yourself. I only played it a couple times. With a large number of variables the learning curve increases, and IMHO the game had a pretty steep one.
Equipment in use:
<Worn on body>Six feet of dirt and a small monument.
Uh... That's on the supply end of security concerns, isn't it? I don't think you want that.
Definitely get lists of references you can contact to see how much of their advice was followed and how the previous clients are holding up.
"Quick, destroy the evidence!"
"How?"
"Take a picture of it!"
They include pictures, sometimes there's fragments of badly worded english, too.
A sizeable amount of my spam is in non-english character sets and originating from .cn sites, even offers to lease office space in Hong Kong. Just nuts, since I have no way of reading it. If you're not getting a lot of it, be glad.
Just food for thought, or maybe it's FUD for thought, the CIA could already be doing this to others. Don't expect them to own up if they are.
"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself" has been replaced by "be afraid, be very afraid", have a nice day.
Sure, but like dentistry and teeth, the truth can be painful in the extracting. Too often there's more effort put into the whining, pissing and moaning about why the tooth shouldn't be pulled, how bad it hurts to pull it, but little on how well off everyone concerned is once it's out in the open. (My wisdom tooth experience a perfect example, life's much better without impacted wisdom teeth, thank you very much, but took a while and considerable suffering to actually get me into the chair.)
Now that painful truth has been brought out, don't believe for a moment Microsoft hasn't already devoted a lot of effort to strategizing how to make the most of it (i.e. by violating the published API they could still make their expansion packs work more smoothly than third party products) to continue domination of the market.
In the interest of idly exploring possible releases...
WindowsLite: Minimum OS, no Explorer, no plugins, no bloat. Platform to build upon servers, print managers, development, etc.
WindowsBusiness: OS with all the API junk for Office apps and networking
WindowsGamer: Essentially WindowsLite worked for best interaction with Video cards, sound cards, game controllers
WindowsDeluxe: The full heap, bloat, security holes and all
WindowsPersonal: Geared for home use, budget minded user, can be configured with buyer selection of browser, mail client, media tools, etc.
This exercise is more clear when you look at 3 different numbers then see what relation they have in scale and part of the whole in a pie chart. It's comparative, rather than exact. A digital stopwatch may be the best too for timing at the track, but in things relative we can mentally associate in one look at the face of a clock faster than we can translate digits from a digital clock into where in the day the time is.
It's not just style, though an analog clock is more easily made stylish than the attempts at gold digital watches (my dad has a gold TI LED watch from the 70's), but how easily the interface tells us what we want to know, which attracts us.
Lord knows, I have enough on my mind without trying to look at the rate of change on a digital display and trying to figure out my rate of acceleration instead of looking at an analog speedometer.
Remember when people said we'd all be wearing digital watches and looking at digital clocks and kids today wouldn't know how to read time from a clock with hands? Snicker. Score one for a tried and true analog design. :)
Computer: -click- [cannot detect modem] -DOINK!-
Me: ^%#$*! <hit reload>
Computer: Silence
Me: %@$*&^! <check diags which say all is fine and there's a modem, try again>
Computer: [cannot detect modem] -DOINK!- Reloading previously cached page...
Me: &#*$#, #&*$! and ^$*#@!
It sure is wonderful living in this modern age with all these conveniences which make life so simple... come to think of it, Ma and Pa Kettle didn't really have it all so bad.
When I go it's for the Consumer Electronics Show or I'm passing through on the way to AZ. I've received the junk from Wynn and others in the mail inviting me to join high roller clubs and get perks, etc, but for my money I'd rather be on a beach in Costa Rica, sipping a maragarita and reading the latest Terry Pratchett novel.
The air stinks of something, usually auto exhaust. I've seen a few sunsets and sinrises where the air to the south east is the same color, brown. The traffic gridlock isn't along the strip, if you've been there, the worst of it is in other areas, far removed. I think the real target is just to offer some other Disney-esque attraction. Vegas used to be known for some pretty good deals, but I've noticed in the past few years you can get just as fleeced without gambling as in any other tourist destination. Worst is, it's a city with a pretty slimey side, when you see a family of mexican immigrants standing on the sidewalk trying to shove call-girl booklets into the hands of every passerby. Inside the hotels, it's pretty glitzy, but I've never been able to shake off the veiws of the seedier side.
Hey, that's great, we can look forward to drunken sots riding around all night on the monorail in their own pool of spew. That's a real attraction, isn't it?
"Look kids, a pyramid, Venice, a castle, a pirate ship! Honey, don't keep away from that man Aren't the bright lights don't stick your food in that, it's disgusting beautiful? Would you like to go to the top or the Mister, put that whiskey bottle away and don't look at my kid like that or there's gonna be some real trouble Stratosphere?"
Lucky you. I've stayed at the Tropicana, the Nugget and another I forget, all big hotels. Even the MGM Grand has some insane number of rooms, like 9,000+ and has no free shuttle. I just checked out the map and you'll notice the planned route for the Monorail doesn't extend to the airport, gee, that's fascinating, don't you think? It's like there's this amazing agreement that you have to pay $10 upon entering LV and another $10 upon leaving. Do the math and see how long it would take to add up enough to extend that monorail to the terminal.
Am I right? Eh?!?! Ever been there, you know of what I say.
Every fscking time I've been there I have to fork over ~$10 for a Bell taxi or something, which all smell like they last scrubbed inside with a dead cat! Seriously, every other major city I've been in the big hotels have shuttles, but not LV, I swear it's a labor thing of somesort or a major bribe has been paid.
In either case, I would certainly like to see how well the monorail plan gets around to the airport.
Spacewalking
Go - see - IT!
It's no plugged on FOX, ABC, NBC, etc, where I live, and cable isn't exactly everywhere. It would truly be a loss if it were assumed to be some artsy-fartsy movie or so foreign it's inaccessible. It's just plain a great movie. Lots of subplots, great music (well, I'd love to have the soundtrack and I've never considered myself an fan of Indian music) many people I've nearly had to shove into the theater to see it come out with, "wow, that was really a great movie!" Pity it's limited in run, while a piece of dog poo like that blair witch project thing that suckered so many people in with it's internet/chatroom rumor campaign (not entirely unlike what Katz takes a less obvious swing at here.)
Now I can't speak for everyone, but it really is one of the best flicks I've seen in years. Probably because I'm so fried on predictable hollywood tripe.
No, it wouldn't bug me. It would if the person who copied it and got an 'A' was competing with me for the same job and got it, particularly if the paper was in the relevent field. It would also bug me if they published it, but the threat of humiliation of being exposed for this prevents most people.
Hilary gets it wrong of course, because we already pay fat royalty fees for the privilege of listening to the music whenever and where ever we want, however, my truck doesn't have a CD player and copying my own CD's onto cassette (while time consuming and impractical to automate) lets me enjoy the music, whenever, where ever I want. If I couldn't I would most definitely buy less music, however, it attempting to be a consumer I'm a criminal by the RIAA's reckoning. Why not bring back 78's?
Now if I were in a band and we cut a CD and suddenly copies where popping up all over the place, we only have ourselves to blame. Clearly one of us, or collectively trusted someone, who spread the music. The distributor would be the villain, but how can you apply this to CD/Record shop sales people, if they sell a CD someone copies? Clearly everyone who makes CD ripping/burning software, rips/burns or otherwise transfers to another piece of media, borrows or lends music should be locked up. I suggest (for those who remember the house on the beach in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish) we lock up the RIAA for their own protection.
Recently I saw Monsoon Wedding (which I can't recomment highly enough if you want a fun, totally kick-butt cool movie to see, which I've never seen advertised on the TV, meanwhile a dog (Scorpion King) is plugged everywhere. So seeking better entertainment is effectively taking the risk to check out different movies, books, music, and even trod the less beaten path (which we did on Sunday and it was loaded with poison oak, but pretty cool otherwise.)
Old computers end up in my appartments and I take them with me whereever I go. I just can't seem to throw them out... might be good form something someday! ;)
Appearing in person for the first time [second time actually, first time he behaved like an ass which probably has a lot to do with the fix he's in now] in Microsoft's four-year antitrust battle, Gates warned U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of dire consequences["If you don't play according to my rules, I'll take my ball and go straight home"] if the judge accepts suggestions that include a version of Windows that can be customized by computer makers and rival software designers [Which, heaven forbid, would lead to some real innovation, not just that dictated from Redmond] .
Gates said the nine states threaten Windows' existence as a stable platform[Watch out for perjury, Bill] that allows a wide range of computer hardware [PC's, soon to be phased out Alpha's and the odd multi processor system] and software [Mostly theirs] to work together, and would deny Microsoft the incentive[Huge profits only realized by monopolies and other criminal activity] to make continual improvements [Rather than make it secure, stable and open].
"The (states' ideas) would undermine all three elements of Microsoft's success [Getting rich, richer, richer still], causing great damage to Microsoft [Excluding the damage they do to others and themselves], other companies [Partners yet to be screwed] that build upon Microsoft's products [Which used to be made by other companies now out of business or holding less than 5% of the market], and the businesses and consumers that use PC software," the world's richest man [who gained much of his wealth from predatory and monoplistic practices] said in his 155-page written submission [Doubtlessly not composed in Word Perfect].
Some legal analysts have said Gates' failure to take the stand at the original trial damaged the company's defense [No worse than heavy sighes, evasive answers, and contemptful attitued toward the court]. The Justice Department [Soon to be part of the Microsoft empire] (news - web sites), instead, showed unflattering portions of a videotaped pretrial interview in which Gates appeared uncooperative and quibbled over the meaning of common words.
The nine states still pursuing the case have refused to sign on to a proposed settlement of the case reached between Microsoft and the Justice Department in November[Written by Microsoft, agreed to by DoJ].
Appearing as Microsoft's seventh witness at the remedy hearings, Gates credited Microsoft's Windows monopoly with having helped to unite a fragmented personal computer industry[I.e. destroy all the fragments and the companies which were developing them]. "By reducing Windows to some undefined 'core operating system' the (states) would turn back the clock on Windows development by about ten years and effectively freeze it there," he said [Which would actually make it more accessable to consumers and business customers who don't want all the bundled and confusing bloat, thus pulling it out of the dark ages]
Gates said the company's new .NET strategy for Internet-based services [And to kill Java and absorb 95% of that market, too, locking every user into running Windows proprietary software]
would spark a new round of opportunities in the computer industry [Opportunities go bankrupt, to deal with more bugs, to be vulnerable to more security flaws, to spend huge bucks retraining or recruiting new staff, ...],
contradicting some witnesses for the states who feared Microsoft would
use its Windows monopoly to dominate this emerging technology [Which they would].
The demands of the non-settling states are technically impossible, Gates said [And amazingly his nose didn't grow an inch or three]. And he dismissed the idea that Windows' could function properly with add-on features, known as "middleware," that were easily added and removed [i.e. we trust no-one but ourselves and we're basically barely any good at it ourselves].
"There is no clear dividing line between where a particular block of "middleware" ends and the rest of the operating system begins," Gates said[Particularly because Microsoft violates their own API's whenever it will gain them an advantage, hence dirty software].
That's not Capitalism running amok, that's "Innovation" Very innovative to tackle public institutions, as they have to provide transparency to pretty much everything. Much more difficult for BSA or Microsoft to pull same trick on the private sector, since a private party would have to invite them in.
It's my impression that the often friendly, affable-if-nerdy face of Mr. Gates does hide a darker side, one which has more disdain for the little guy than the PR suggests, i.e. "we're providing what the customer wants, why is that so wrong?" I think we see where it actually ends up.
As far as switching from Microsoft to something, I expect Apple would be easier than Linux, for two reasons.
1. Not all school computer use is classroom, administration relies heavily on wordprocessors, spreadsheets, and various canned software packages, which Linux has a start on, but not as well as Apple.
2. Educational programs are plentiful between Mac and PC, not so plentiful for Linux. It should be motivation for those who are OpenSource/GPL enthusiasts or evangelists to actually create, but it's easier to be an armchair quarterback.