Under Gates, Microsoft grew to the empire that it is today. Gates strategic moves were critical to the success of the company:
1) The DOS deal with IBM. 2) The MS Office deal with Apple, and using that contract to gain GUI engineering knowledge from Apple. 3) Porting MS Office to DOS and using it to sell WIndows (ex: buy Excel and get Windows for free) 4) Outsmarting IBM in the OS/2 deal while continuing development of Windows/Promising Windows 95 vapourware to fend off OS/2 Warp, which was superior. 5) Pricing Windows MS Office ridiculously cheaply, pushing out Word Perfect, Lotus 123, etc that were trying to come up with Windows 95 versions. 6) Windows NT to push out Novell in the enterprise. 7) MS Exchange which is still the back-end collaboration framework of choice 8) The sneaky deal with Sun over licensing Java 9) InternetExplorer + ISS + ASP to gain a foothold on the internet despite starting late
Ballmer hasn't had nearly the same impact. So far MSN hasn't really gone anywhere, the high-end console wars are a draw with the Wii way on top at the low-end, Windows server hasn't unseated Linux,.NET has its niche but isn't unseating Java, Google is still dominating search, and Windows Mobile is losing ground.
The lack of namespaces in any programming language is a massive car wreck just waiting to happen. I once spent a few days trying to resolve an issue with a web portal application with different components brought together where the issue was caused entirely by a function name collision.
Newspapers want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the traffic that comes from Google linking to them, but they want sole access to the internet advertising revenues associated with their content.
Also, how does the judge propose helping the newspapers fend off online classified services like craigslist, which are the real threat to newspapers.
With this judgment, one of two things will happen:
1) Google stops linking to them entirely and their online business dries up. 2) All or most newspapers grant Google the right to link to and show excerpts of their stories.
Either way, the newspapers won't see a revival. Their only hope is to set up some kind of common online newspaper portal to take the place of Google news. Except, this time, there isn't the equivalent of Apple's iTunes to save them from their own stupidity.
I have a couple of questions about Lithium Ion, as a raw material:
1) What rate of extraction is sustainable? Is it enough to supply all the transportation of electronic devices of the world if petroleum-powered vehicles are replaced, or will production fall short of those needs? 2) What is the environmental impact of extraction, production and disposal?
Until these questions and resolved satisfactorily, I have my doubts.
This would appear to be the primary motivation not only for the GPL, but for other open source licenses as well (ex BSD).
Were source code put directly into the public domain, not only companies use the source code without contributing their changes back to the community (which the BSD license does allow), they would be allowed to appropriate the source code and stamp their own copyright on it (copyfraud it, which even BSD-style licenses explicitly forbid). Not only could they sue anybody else that used that source code, but potentially the original author of that code as well.
I guess open source and GPL authors could see copyfraud coming a mile away.
You obviously haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this.
In a capitalist society (not that I'm criticizing capitalism per se), the incentive is to extract oil as quickly as possible. Given limited (I mean in an absolute sense, the supply of oil is not infinite) supply, the logical conclusion is that the rate of extraction will be high up until the point of decline, at which point the decline will be pronounced.
Remember that Peak Oil has already happened on a national level. The U.S. passed its own peak oil in the early 70's, and the production rate is much less than it was then. I heard it estimated that it took the energy of one barrel of oil to produce 20 then. Now, it takes one to product two. The rate of decline was something along the lines of 4%/year, if memory serves.
Besides, the thing to remember is that Saudi Arabia produces roughly 25% of the world's oil. That country is also extracting oil at a fairly fast clip, and their oil fields were discovered in the 50's. When Saudia Arabia enters a 4% annual decline, that will have a fairly significant impact.
Basically, it's what is IMO a fact, that oil production/extraction will peak at a certain level (X number of barrels per day) and then begin an inexorable decline. Whether or not this output is replaced by alternative energy remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, most people don't understand how much energy we get from oil. Oil is the densest, easiest to transport, and most reliable energy source available. Once it's gone, alternatives will fall short of those standards:
The total oil production volume amounted to a cubic mile (not a type) of oil per year. To equal this, it would take 104 coal fired plants running for 50 years, 52 nuclear plants running for 50 years, 32, 800 wind turbines running for 50 years.... you get the picture.
So when oil production starts winding down, we'll be hard-pressed to replace that output. The only way we can aspire to coming close to equaling that output is through energy consumption and more efficient use of energy. So far, the government's record on this is pathetic, and the private sector has had, at best, limited results.
I used to work for Compuware (Detroit based), but this was at the Montreal office and I never had to travel to the head office. Still, this is an example of an IT company that's based out of Detroit. They sell software and consulting, and I think they got started by providing IT consulting to GM.
The point is that the Supreme Court cancelled the recount of the Florida election results, effectively appointing George W. Bush president. Why didn't they allow the recount to finish?
I'm not asking a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely curious about what the historical precedent is for regimes to be overthrown since it doesn't seem to happen.
My Russian friend used the colloquialism "every country is three meals away from a revolution" to describe the threshold for revolution, to make the case that nobody missed three meals during the Great Depression but did before the Russian Revolution.
I also read Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" in which Heinlein asserted that revolutions are never started or run by ordinary people, but by well organized political factions.
There's also 1984, in which Orwell points out that revolutions always involve the middle class, and the proletariat never drives revolutions.
There's also the wild card of alleged CIA involvement, which was behind the Orange (Ukraine) and Rose (Georgia) revolutions.
All of these tidbits of information aren't helping me to predict the outcome of the latest situation in Iran. What's driving the protests other than the election results? Will the revolutionaries succeed?
1) Once bandwidth and/or video compression issues are resolved, the preferred medium for HD video will be video downloads, probably (but not limited to) iTunes since it's the only cross-platform DRM'd content provider. 2) Can't rip or make backup copies the way it's possible to with DVDs (legality notwithstanding). 3) Ubiquity of DVD readers. I have four devices that can read DVDs, including my MacBook Pro, XBox 360, $50 upscaling DVD player, and my OpenSolaris box (once I install the drivers from Fluendo). Since I don't have a PS3 (don't plan on getting one) or a $350 Blu-Ray player (don't plan on getting one) I need to go out of my way to get one. 4) My existing movie collection is all DVD. I have no desire to start replacing it, as I finally caved in recently and starting replacing 3 of my VHS tapes with DVDs. 5) Upscaling DVD player makes my DVDs look great on my 46 inch HDTV. Granted, it's not as good a Blu-Ray, but I'm not a videophile, so I probably won't see a significant difference.
The movie studios will have to address all of the above if they hope to convert me to Blu-Ray.
The CRTC regulates communications in Canada and it's an arm's length agency. That is to say that the federal cabinet can't control its decisions. The Conservatives tried to force them to deregulate VOIP. The CRTC disobeyed the order. There was nothing the cabinet could do.
How do the Liberals expect to get around this fact?
I can't remember where I read this, but from what I understand the reason Linux died on the netbook was because the netbook makers didn't bother to install the right drivers for various hardware components and didn't configure them properly. This resulted in many Linux netbooks getting returned.
OEMs tend not to want to write their own software or do much configuration. Their business model has traditionally been to assemble commodity components, load Windows on them, and maybe the odd driver not included in Windows.
It will take a polished corporate effort such as Moblin or Android to get a non-Windows OS on netbooks.
The big problem with HTML5/JavaScript/CSS is that each browser has quirky behaviours that need to be tested. Even if Internet Explorer no longer existed, developers would have to test against Firefox, Safari, Chrome and maybe Opera. An example of a quirk is Safari not recognizing table element widths in percentages. A Flash developer tests against one Flash runtime, same with a Silverlight developer and a JavaFX developer.
Adobe released a beta of a multiple browser runtime testing tool, but it's apparently very flawed.
So until the above problems are solved, many RIA developers will simply use Flex, Silverlight or JavaFX, instead of coding for a hodge-podge of different browsers.
I tried a few searches on Bing, and one thing I noticed right away is how fast it is. It seems to be just a little snappier than Google. The search results seem to have equal correctness.
Why does any RIA discussion fail to mention JavaFX?
JavaFX ties in seamlessly with server-side Java code. It has a desktop component, a mobile component, and a TV component. This means it uses common APIs among the three, which no other RIA framework has. What's more, depending on what Oracle decides to do, it may become the only open source RIA framework.
Granted, JavaFX is late to the party, but JavaFX 1.2 has shown solid improvements, with more to come. There was a demo of a really cool media builder tool at JavaOne.
So why are only Flash and Silverlight get mentioned in any RIA discussion?
The point isn't to be an anti-Microsoft troll. It's to illustrate the prototypical anti-open source company is. Unfortunately, due to their tradition anti-open source stance, they're the best example.
I realize that Microsoft is edging closer to 3), which is the Apple view of open source, but I couldn't think of a better example to illustrate the extreme.
No business involves themselves with open source out of idealism or philanthropy. It's all about self-interest.
Here's the continuum of corporations and their open-source philosophies:
1) Sun: Open-source almost all their products, gain developer adoption, get bottom-up adoption in corporations, and then charge for support. 2) IBM/Red Hat: Contribute to the open source community in a large way, but maintain other products that are completely proprietary. Talk up how "pro open source" you are in a massively exaggerated way, unlike Sun that quietly walks the walk. 3) Apple: Open source some stuff, close source most others. Definitely take more from the community that you give. 4) Microsoft: Open source nothing. Publicly slam open source: Proprietary development all the way.
SAP hasn't figured out where it is on the continuum. It's that simple.
I'm in Canada and I tried to access the site. Naturally, I got the pop-up telling me that my ISP wasn't supported. When I tried to enter my Canadian postal code, it wouldn't let me enter letters.
This is the same kind of U.S.-only mindset that hulu has. Hell, I even tried to access that block through an anonymous VPN and it still blocked me.
This kind of stuff really makes my blood boil:
1) Promote the hell out of website or service. 2) Tell me I don't have it. 3) Tell me I don't get it. 4) DO NOT profit.
The gall of them...telling me to switch to one of their ISPs just to view their crappy site.
This is enough to make me go out of my way not to give money to Disney.
Yeah, I know somebody will reply about my sig and point out that Steve Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder. It's weird, because it's most definitely against Apple's interest as a content provider and a computer vendor to allow one ISP to be favoured over another.
Slashdot Mirror
Under Gates, Microsoft grew to the empire that it is today. Gates strategic moves were critical to the success of the company:
1) The DOS deal with IBM.
2) The MS Office deal with Apple, and using that contract to gain GUI engineering knowledge from Apple.
3) Porting MS Office to DOS and using it to sell WIndows (ex: buy Excel and get Windows for free)
4) Outsmarting IBM in the OS/2 deal while continuing development of Windows/Promising Windows 95 vapourware to fend off OS/2 Warp, which was superior.
5) Pricing Windows MS Office ridiculously cheaply, pushing out Word Perfect, Lotus 123, etc that were trying to come up with Windows 95 versions.
6) Windows NT to push out Novell in the enterprise.
7) MS Exchange which is still the back-end collaboration framework of choice
8) The sneaky deal with Sun over licensing Java
9) InternetExplorer + ISS + ASP to gain a foothold on the internet despite starting late
Ballmer hasn't had nearly the same impact. So far MSN hasn't really gone anywhere, the high-end console wars are a draw with the Wii way on top at the low-end, Windows server hasn't unseated Linux, .NET has its niche but isn't unseating Java, Google is still dominating search, and Windows Mobile is losing ground.
The lack of namespaces in any programming language is a massive car wreck just waiting to happen. I once spent a few days trying to resolve an issue with a web portal application with different components brought together where the issue was caused entirely by a function name collision.
Newspapers want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the traffic that comes from Google linking to them, but they want sole access to the internet advertising revenues associated with their content.
Also, how does the judge propose helping the newspapers fend off online classified services like craigslist, which are the real threat to newspapers.
With this judgment, one of two things will happen:
1) Google stops linking to them entirely and their online business dries up.
2) All or most newspapers grant Google the right to link to and show excerpts of their stories.
Either way, the newspapers won't see a revival. Their only hope is to set up some kind of common online newspaper portal to take the place of Google news. Except, this time, there isn't the equivalent of Apple's iTunes to save them from their own stupidity.
Dinosaur juice! Dinosaur farts! Nice! :)
Glad to see that somebody who understands what fossil fuels are also has a sense of humour.
I have a couple of questions about Lithium Ion, as a raw material:
1) What rate of extraction is sustainable? Is it enough to supply all the transportation of electronic devices of the world if petroleum-powered vehicles are replaced, or will production fall short of those needs?
2) What is the environmental impact of extraction, production and disposal?
Until these questions and resolved satisfactorily, I have my doubts.
This would appear to be the primary motivation not only for the GPL, but for other open source licenses as well (ex BSD).
Were source code put directly into the public domain, not only companies use the source code without contributing their changes back to the community (which the BSD license does allow), they would be allowed to appropriate the source code and stamp their own copyright on it (copyfraud it, which even BSD-style licenses explicitly forbid). Not only could they sue anybody else that used that source code, but potentially the original author of that code as well.
I guess open source and GPL authors could see copyfraud coming a mile away.
And then oil came along, which was a superior energy source. Do you know of an energy source that is superior to oil? I don't.
You obviously haven't spent a lot of time thinking about this.
In a capitalist society (not that I'm criticizing capitalism per se), the incentive is to extract oil as quickly as possible. Given limited (I mean in an absolute sense, the supply of oil is not infinite) supply, the logical conclusion is that the rate of extraction will be high up until the point of decline, at which point the decline will be pronounced.
Remember that Peak Oil has already happened on a national level. The U.S. passed its own peak oil in the early 70's, and the production rate is much less than it was then. I heard it estimated that it took the energy of one barrel of oil to produce 20 then. Now, it takes one to product two. The rate of decline was something along the lines of 4%/year, if memory serves.
Besides, the thing to remember is that Saudi Arabia produces roughly 25% of the world's oil. That country is also extracting oil at a fairly fast clip, and their oil fields were discovered in the 50's. When Saudia Arabia enters a 4% annual decline, that will have a fairly significant impact.
So far all I've read in this thread are posters decrying this as a massive tax grab. That's a limited perspective, to say the least.
Yeah, mod me down as a paranoid troll, but we're already passed Peak Oil.
For those who don't understand what Peak Oil is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil
Basically, it's what is IMO a fact, that oil production/extraction will peak at a certain level (X number of barrels per day) and then begin an inexorable decline. Whether or not this output is replaced by alternative energy remains to be seen.
Nonetheless, most people don't understand how much energy we get from oil. Oil is the densest, easiest to transport, and most reliable energy source available. Once it's gone, alternatives will fall short of those standards:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3084
The total oil production volume amounted to a cubic mile (not a type) of oil per year. To equal this, it would take 104 coal fired plants running for 50 years, 52 nuclear plants running for 50 years, 32, 800 wind turbines running for 50 years.... you get the picture.
So when oil production starts winding down, we'll be hard-pressed to replace that output. The only way we can aspire to coming close to equaling that output is through energy consumption and more efficient use of energy. So far, the government's record on this is pathetic, and the private sector has had, at best, limited results.
I used to work for Compuware (Detroit based), but this was at the Montreal office and I never had to travel to the head office. Still, this is an example of an IT company that's based out of Detroit. They sell software and consulting, and I think they got started by providing IT consulting to GM.
Which deadline? Who set the deadline and why was it considered so critical?
The point is that the Supreme Court cancelled the recount of the Florida election results, effectively appointing George W. Bush president. Why didn't they allow the recount to finish?
I'm not asking a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely curious about what the historical precedent is for regimes to be overthrown since it doesn't seem to happen.
My Russian friend used the colloquialism "every country is three meals away from a revolution" to describe the threshold for revolution, to make the case that nobody missed three meals during the Great Depression but did before the Russian Revolution.
I also read Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" in which Heinlein asserted that revolutions are never started or run by ordinary people, but by well organized political factions.
There's also 1984, in which Orwell points out that revolutions always involve the middle class, and the proletariat never drives revolutions.
There's also the wild card of alleged CIA involvement, which was behind the Orange (Ukraine) and Rose (Georgia) revolutions.
All of these tidbits of information aren't helping me to predict the outcome of the latest situation in Iran. What's driving the protests other than the election results? Will the revolutionaries succeed?
Why should I invest in Blu-Ray?
1) Once bandwidth and/or video compression issues are resolved, the preferred medium for HD video will be video downloads, probably (but not limited to) iTunes since it's the only cross-platform DRM'd content provider.
2) Can't rip or make backup copies the way it's possible to with DVDs (legality notwithstanding).
3) Ubiquity of DVD readers. I have four devices that can read DVDs, including my MacBook Pro, XBox 360, $50 upscaling DVD player, and my OpenSolaris box (once I install the drivers from Fluendo). Since I don't have a PS3 (don't plan on getting one) or a $350 Blu-Ray player (don't plan on getting one) I need to go out of my way to get one.
4) My existing movie collection is all DVD. I have no desire to start replacing it, as I finally caved in recently and starting replacing 3 of my VHS tapes with DVDs.
5) Upscaling DVD player makes my DVDs look great on my 46 inch HDTV. Granted, it's not as good a Blu-Ray, but I'm not a videophile, so I probably won't see a significant difference.
The movie studios will have to address all of the above if they hope to convert me to Blu-Ray.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Android free?
If so, then how did Microsoft get Android off the netbook? Did they pay Asus to install XP? If so, then Microsoft is really desperate.
There only seems to be one Dell desktop on the Canadian store, and no laptops. I think there's a netbook too.
The CRTC regulates communications in Canada and it's an arm's length agency. That is to say that the federal cabinet can't control its decisions. The Conservatives tried to force them to deregulate VOIP. The CRTC disobeyed the order. There was nothing the cabinet could do.
How do the Liberals expect to get around this fact?
I can't remember where I read this, but from what I understand the reason Linux died on the netbook was because the netbook makers didn't bother to install the right drivers for various hardware components and didn't configure them properly. This resulted in many Linux netbooks getting returned.
OEMs tend not to want to write their own software or do much configuration. Their business model has traditionally been to assemble commodity components, load Windows on them, and maybe the odd driver not included in Windows.
It will take a polished corporate effort such as Moblin or Android to get a non-Windows OS on netbooks.
The big problem with HTML5/JavaScript/CSS is that each browser has quirky behaviours that need to be tested. Even if Internet Explorer no longer existed, developers would have to test against Firefox, Safari, Chrome and maybe Opera. An example of a quirk is Safari not recognizing table element widths in percentages. A Flash developer tests against one Flash runtime, same with a Silverlight developer and a JavaFX developer.
Adobe released a beta of a multiple browser runtime testing tool, but it's apparently very flawed.
So until the above problems are solved, many RIA developers will simply use Flex, Silverlight or JavaFX, instead of coding for a hodge-podge of different browsers.
I tried a few searches on Bing, and one thing I noticed right away is how fast it is. It seems to be just a little snappier than Google. The search results seem to have equal correctness.
How up to date is your Java plugin? Sun made dramatic performance improvements with Java 6 update 10.
Why does any RIA discussion fail to mention JavaFX?
JavaFX ties in seamlessly with server-side Java code. It has a desktop component, a mobile component, and a TV component. This means it uses common APIs among the three, which no other RIA framework has. What's more, depending on what Oracle decides to do, it may become the only open source RIA framework.
Granted, JavaFX is late to the party, but JavaFX 1.2 has shown solid improvements, with more to come. There was a demo of a really cool media builder tool at JavaOne.
So why are only Flash and Silverlight get mentioned in any RIA discussion?
The point isn't to be an anti-Microsoft troll. It's to illustrate the prototypical anti-open source company is. Unfortunately, due to their tradition anti-open source stance, they're the best example.
I realize that Microsoft is edging closer to 3), which is the Apple view of open source, but I couldn't think of a better example to illustrate the extreme.
No business involves themselves with open source out of idealism or philanthropy. It's all about self-interest.
Here's the continuum of corporations and their open-source philosophies:
1) Sun: Open-source almost all their products, gain developer adoption, get bottom-up adoption in corporations, and then charge for support.
2) IBM/Red Hat: Contribute to the open source community in a large way, but maintain other products that are completely proprietary. Talk up how "pro open source" you are in a massively exaggerated way, unlike Sun that quietly walks the walk.
3) Apple: Open source some stuff, close source most others. Definitely take more from the community that you give.
4) Microsoft: Open source nothing. Publicly slam open source: Proprietary development all the way.
SAP hasn't figured out where it is on the continuum. It's that simple.
I'm in Canada and I tried to access the site. Naturally, I got the pop-up telling me that my ISP wasn't supported. When I tried to enter my Canadian postal code, it wouldn't let me enter letters.
This is the same kind of U.S.-only mindset that hulu has. Hell, I even tried to access that block through an anonymous VPN and it still blocked me.
This kind of stuff really makes my blood boil:
1) Promote the hell out of website or service.
2) Tell me I don't have it.
3) Tell me I don't get it.
4) DO NOT profit.
The gall of them...telling me to switch to one of their ISPs just to view their crappy site.
This is enough to make me go out of my way not to give money to Disney.
Yeah, I know somebody will reply about my sig and point out that Steve Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder. It's weird, because it's most definitely against Apple's interest as a content provider and a computer vendor to allow one ISP to be favoured over another.