I think that a potential threat to the image of the Xbox brand would be more important to MS than the threat of a class action lawsuit. If they lost the latter, the settlement would probably require that they distribute discount coupons for Xbox 360 games.
I don't think the issue is as simple as that. US companies get certain benefits from being incorporated in the US such as low corporate tax rates. In return, they should be providing jobs for people who live in the country they are getting the benefits from.
My unconventional point of view on immigration is that we should have a lottery for US citizenship that doesn't favor any particular group or profession as long as the people are not criminals or have communicable diseases. So if some Thai, Indian, Ecuadorian, or Ukrainian wants to become a US citizen and wins the lottery, let them in. If they don't want to be a citizen, they can work in their own country.
"It is widely known that there aren't enough comp sci/engineer grads in America, the number of new grads drop every year, so where does Microsoft conjure up these experts?"
So your saying that the only "experts" are new grads? For most people, the real education starts after they have left academia.
I think Sun's use of the word "platform" had to do with their hope that people would forget entirely about writing code for a specific (real) platform and just write to the Java API. Had Sun been able to produce and market Java hardware accelerators as they once planned, the Java Platform would have become a real boy.
I don't know what you were trying to accomplish, but if you wanted a GUI element in.NET you could have used a ListView, a DataGrid, or the newer DataGridView.
BTW the.NET DataSet (which contains DataTables) doesn't just work with databases. You can manually set Rows and Tables or read XML into them.
Obviously, the fact that Java has been around 3 or 4 times longer than.NET is going to mean it has more depth. Being newer isn't a design flaw.
As far as your personal project is concerned, you shouldn't count the time you screwed up as time you spent on C#. It also sounds like you know Java well and.NET, not so much, so you made the best decision given your skill set.
We've definitely entered the "branding" era in software development. Windows Vista and Windows CE have little in common just as J2EE has little in common with JME and Desktop Linux has little in common with a tiny embedded Linux.
I don't think you can judge the contribution that Woz or Gates made in the early days by comparing them. The fact is they both made significant contributions (it's often forgotten that MS was a major player in mirocomputers long before IBM decided to jump into that market).
Well, it's not Hitler evil, but it's the same degree of evil that MS is often accused of. Besides, if you're going to stand up on your high horse and say that your motto is "do no evil", than you'd better hold yourself to a higher standard than those who make no such claim.
"For others, it's worth more than $50 to have a system that's free (as in freedom AND beer)."
I guess you mean to "have a OS that's free". The system is neither free as in freedom or beer. Unless of course Dell is giving out their PCs for free and Intel is publishing all their technical documentation on their processors and licensing all their related patents for free.
"Well, it would mean mass adoption of Linux if people could just choose between Linux and windows like any other component and see that it was $50 cheaper."
That would make sense if Linux and Windows were just different brands of a commodity product, but they aren't. If you need to run Windows apps, Linux won't do you any good. Likewise, if you need to run a Linux application, you can't run it on Windows simply by paying an extra $50.
"They both may be monopolies, but there IS quite a difference. The difference is that Telmex *IS* a competitive and efficient company."
If Telemx is really competitive compared to MS, then there must be stronger telecom competitors in Mexico than MS had in computers in the US. What competitors does Telemx have that are stronger than Sun, Oracle, IBM, and Apple?
Isn't there evidence that Telmex maintains it's monopoly through political influence and protectionism rather than through providing better service than competitors could provide?
"We hate him because he produces crappy software and uses unethical techniques to promote it."
There are lots of guys out there running software companies that produce crappier software than MS and are less ethical. Since they aren't rich, however, nobody gives a shit.
What drove adoption of USB by PC makers wasn't the fact that it was available for the iMac, but the eventual availability of USB devices. The iMac represented too small a market to account for the effort device makers made to support USB.
Certainly a device driver is the cleanest way to talk to a hardware device, but it's not true that it is always the only way to do it. The only restriction is whether the OS prevents you from accessing the hardware from the user level.
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What makes you think US programmers are bad?
I think that a potential threat to the image of the Xbox brand would be more important to MS than the threat of a class action lawsuit. If they lost the latter, the settlement would probably require that they distribute discount coupons for Xbox 360 games.
I don't think the issue is as simple as that. US companies get certain benefits from being incorporated in the US such as low corporate tax rates. In return, they should be providing jobs for people who live in the country they are getting the benefits from.
My unconventional point of view on immigration is that we should have a lottery for US citizenship that doesn't favor any particular group or profession as long as the people are not criminals or have communicable diseases. So if some Thai, Indian, Ecuadorian, or Ukrainian wants to become a US citizen and wins the lottery, let them in. If they don't want to be a citizen, they can work in their own country.
"It is widely known that there aren't enough comp sci/engineer grads in America, the number of new grads drop every year, so where does Microsoft conjure up these experts?"
So your saying that the only "experts" are new grads? For most people, the real education starts after they have left academia.
"Oh, right, because we all know that paying a bad programmer an extra $100k/year suddenly makes him a good programmer."
Oh, right, because we all know that paying a bad foreign programmer less suddenly makes him a good programmer.
I think Sun's use of the word "platform" had to do with their hope that people would forget entirely about writing code for a specific (real) platform and just write to the Java API. Had Sun been able to produce and market Java hardware accelerators as they once planned, the Java Platform would have become a real boy.
I don't know what you were trying to accomplish, but if you wanted a GUI element in .NET you could have used a ListView, a DataGrid, or the newer DataGridView.
.NET DataSet (which contains DataTables) doesn't just work with databases. You can manually set Rows and Tables or read XML into them.
BTW the
Obviously, the fact that Java has been around 3 or 4 times longer than .NET is going to mean it has more depth. Being newer isn't a design flaw.
.NET, not so much, so you made the best decision given your skill set.
As far as your personal project is concerned, you shouldn't count the time you screwed up as time you spent on C#. It also sounds like you know Java well and
We've definitely entered the "branding" era in software development. Windows Vista and Windows CE have little in common just as J2EE has little in common with JME and Desktop Linux has little in common with a tiny embedded Linux.
Please answer the same question for C#.
What aspect of C$ is poorly designed compared to Java?
I don't think you can judge the contribution that Woz or Gates made in the early days by comparing them. The fact is they both made significant contributions (it's often forgotten that MS was a major player in mirocomputers long before IBM decided to jump into that market).
You don't see the logic in behaving in a manner that is consistent with your stated goals?
Well, it's not Hitler evil, but it's the same degree of evil that MS is often accused of. Besides, if you're going to stand up on your high horse and say that your motto is "do no evil", than you'd better hold yourself to a higher standard than those who make no such claim.
There are no good alternatives because the government isn't allowing it.
"For others, it's worth more than $50 to have a system that's free (as in freedom AND beer)."
I guess you mean to "have a OS that's free". The system is neither free as in freedom or beer. Unless of course Dell is giving out their PCs for free and Intel is publishing all their technical documentation on their processors and licensing all their related patents for free.
"Well, it would mean mass adoption of Linux if people could just choose between Linux and windows like any other component and see that it was $50 cheaper."
That would make sense if Linux and Windows were just different brands of a commodity product, but they aren't. If you need to run Windows apps, Linux won't do you any good. Likewise, if you need to run a Linux application, you can't run it on Windows simply by paying an extra $50.
"They both may be monopolies, but there IS quite a difference. The difference is that Telmex *IS* a competitive and efficient company."
If Telemx is really competitive compared to MS, then there must be stronger telecom competitors in Mexico than MS had in computers in the US. What competitors does Telemx have that are stronger than Sun, Oracle, IBM, and Apple?
Isn't there evidence that Telmex maintains it's monopoly through political influence and protectionism rather than through providing better service than competitors could provide?
"We hate him because he produces crappy software and uses unethical techniques to promote it."
There are lots of guys out there running software companies that produce crappier software than MS and are less ethical. Since they aren't rich, however, nobody gives a shit.
"Right I forgot for a second, it's about MONEY - no one CARES about the patent really - it's just a means to an end, right?"
Patents have always been about money. What did you think they were for - bragging rights?
What drove adoption of USB by PC makers wasn't the fact that it was available for the iMac, but the eventual availability of USB devices. The iMac represented too small a market to account for the effort device makers made to support USB.
Certainly a device driver is the cleanest way to talk to a hardware device, but it's not true that it is always the only way to do it. The only restriction is whether the OS prevents you from accessing the hardware from the user level.
"They did it w/ USB. They did it with mice."
USB was available on the PC first. Mice were used on several Xerox computers before the Lisa.
Branding has always been based on emotions, not logic.
You think bloggers are journalists.