No, they aren't forcing you to use their software. Other than the OEMs and bundled software, you do have a viable alternatives. Even in that case, blame your vendor, not Microsoft.
If you use their software, you are bound by what they think will benefit them as a company. You do not argue that Ford parts work on Toyota now, do you?
They must have responsibility, and those responsibilities must be enforced by the government.
Yes, there are countries out there with that philosophy - it's called socialism, where governments control everything that companies do.
Microsoft should be punished if they attempt to lock you in so you can't have access your data (this include data made for you) unless you pay them some money. Every format should be open and available to other developers (be them open source or not).
No, Microsoft is a company with a motive of making profit and consequently providing employment. If you get locked in, you're a fool - don't blame Microsoft. They're not under any obligation to open up their material, whatsoever.
If I make a text, book, memorandum with word I expect it to be mine not encrypted in some proprietary mambo jumbo that MS thinks it's the solution for me. Just like I expect to have access to the raw format of my cameras.
A textbook is a bad analogy, but a camera is a better analogy. If I come up with a camera with features that no one else has, I would do anything to lock users to my camera - including having a closed format. There is nothing wrong in that - you're using my product because you find something useful, and I exploit that to my benefit.
It may not agree with your ethics, but that doesn't make it unethical.
It dosen't matter to me, and it shouldn't matter for you too, that opening the office format will make thousand of microsoft stock holders a few cents poorer.
It might not matter to you, but that does not mean it shouldn't matter to others (it doesn't matter to me, but a precedent where a company is forced to do some things because a few folks feel so is ridiculous and scary).
I'm not a fan of Microsoft, but I'm a fan of capitalism. Microsoft has made a good move here, and rather than accept that, folks here go pedantic about how they could have done better.
They are a business, they need not do the altruistic best thing unless something was in it for them.
Right now, they're choosing the middle ground - opening up a format in a way that they have the upper hand and yet, folks can't fault them.
If you were a company whose motive was profit, would you really care about doing something that would make you part of the pack?
MS sees itself as being different from the pack, and so, this is a logical choice for them. It may not the perfect choice or the right one, but it does make a lot of sense from their perspective.
(Need to open up the formats in a way that the competition can be kept on its toes, like you said - what better way?)
While Google's existing translator and Altavista's Babelfish are good, they do not help in the translation of several other languages.
That would be a really good benefit - for instance, I wanted something translated to and fro from Svensk (Swedish), but I really couldn't find any translation service that did.
Good translation of the more common languages would be nice, but simple translations, even - of a variety of languages would be really useful.
Sorry, when someone goes to this great lengths to continue using his favorite editor, it's got to be because it's more to him than just a mere editor.
If an app gave me a wrist pain, I'd switch in the blink of an eye to another - unless it is so good that I'd go to any lengths to minimize the pain than stop using it.
So, using another editor is not really an option, finding a way of easing the pain is. Besides, today it's Emacs hurting the pinky, tomorrow it could be vi hurting the fore-finger because of all the::::::::s.
This is another "i spilled hot coffee on my self now im going to sue you!" deal.
Okay, have you even seen the whole case of the hot-coffee lawsuit? Or checked the facts?
That was an old woman, and the coffee was spilled down her lap and other surrounding areas causing third degree burns on that required skin grafts and a hospital stay for seven-days.
She had approached them first for medical compensation and was refused, at which point she sued them. And incidentally, a judge later lowered the awarding amount to merely $480,000, which the media never publicized.
And btw, McDonalds serves their coffee at 185 degrees, a good 20 degrees more than other restaurants - there have been cases of folks with first degree burns because of that.
At the temperature that McDonalds serves their coffee, it just takes about five seconds for first degree burns to occur - which would require skin grafting.
Next time you shoot off your mouth without knowing the facts, you might want to look at the reasons why some lawsuits may have been won. I hate frivolous lawsuits too, but that doesn't mean I walk around talking nonsense.
I don't call dairy vegetarian, either. I call myself a lacto-vegetarian, that's all.
I think vegetarian is defined as someone who eats plants and plant products - if you are going to be eating eggs and milk, you could be an ovo-lacto-vegetarian (that's the convention that's followed in a lot of places in Asia).
Get a used PDA and a portable keyboard, such as this.
They are small, easy to carry and really work well. You can download one of the many opensource light-weight wordprocessors out there and use it quite easily in any environment.
Even the older Palms come with IR options, and so communication is not a problem.
Unless you're going to be churning out megs of text daily, it would do quite well.
Well, I'm asian and I can assure you that until I'd come to the US, the only animal related products I'd had was dairy related - milk, cheese and yoghurt.
Surprisingly, we are quite strict about how we define vegetarian, as well (for instance, folks in the US mysteriously add eggs and mushrooms under vegetarian items -- duh!!!).
And all the food I'd had was quite tasty, well flavoured and spicy, thank you very much. The meat-imitations that you'd mentioned are for the benefit of meat eaters converting to vegetarianism.
However, that doesn't mean there isn't any real vegetarian food out there. Merely that you've not seen enough.
As an aside, have you ever noticed how vegetarian meals often are imitations of meat or dairy products?
You're making the assumption that the food is western-vegetarian. Someone could be eating Asian food, which isn't don't really contain imitations of dairy or meat products.
In case of x86, Windows was an early adopter and that is why it is stuck - it has nothing to do with the hardware, but rather the OS.
On the other hand, if you have a hardware platform made specifically for games and one which excels in games by providing more processing muscle, people *will* make games for it.
In this case, it is originally being made for games *anyway* - which means, it is already a big plus. Therefore, the chances of more games being developed is high, if it gets adopted by a large chunk of computer users.
PC users aren't going to change tomorrow, but Mac users will - if Apple takes up the hardware - hence my argument
Mac notebooks are particularly excellent - both iBook & Powerbook.
Now if they can make good products from these processors, maybe more games will be available for that platform. At the very least, one would have some market value in porting the games to that platform.
I'd have switched to Mac a long time ago, but games are one of the main things holding me back. I already use Linux exclusively for development, but there aren't many games for Linux. But Mac could have the best of both the worlds! Who knows...
Globally, things are going well -- which is a good thing.
And patriotism is as bad as racism or any of the many -isms, the last prejudice of humanity, I'd say.
You discriminate based on someone's colour or faith or gender -- or you discriminate based on where they were born. What's the big freakin' difference?
Slashdot Mirror
No, they aren't forcing you to use their software. Other than the OEMs and bundled software, you do have a viable alternatives. Even in that case, blame your vendor, not Microsoft.
If you use their software, you are bound by what they think will benefit them as a company. You do not argue that Ford parts work on Toyota now, do you?
They must have responsibility, and those responsibilities must be enforced by the government.
Yes, there are countries out there with that philosophy - it's called socialism, where governments control everything that companies do.
Microsoft should be punished if they attempt to lock you in so you can't have access your data (this include data made for you) unless you pay them some money. Every format should be open and available to other developers (be them open source or not).
No, Microsoft is a company with a motive of making profit and consequently providing employment. If you get locked in, you're a fool - don't blame Microsoft. They're not under any obligation to open up their material, whatsoever.
If I make a text, book, memorandum with word I expect it to be mine not encrypted in some proprietary mambo jumbo that MS thinks it's the solution for me. Just like I expect to have access to the raw format of my cameras.
A textbook is a bad analogy, but a camera is a better analogy. If I come up with a camera with features that no one else has, I would do anything to lock users to my camera - including having a closed format. There is nothing wrong in that - you're using my product because you find something useful, and I exploit that to my benefit.
It may not agree with your ethics, but that doesn't make it unethical.
It dosen't matter to me, and it shouldn't matter for you too, that opening the office format will make thousand of microsoft stock holders a few cents poorer.
It might not matter to you, but that does not mean it shouldn't matter to others (it doesn't matter to me, but a precedent where a company is forced to do some things because a few folks feel so is ridiculous and scary).
I'm not a fan of Microsoft, but I'm a fan of capitalism. Microsoft has made a good move here, and rather than accept that, folks here go pedantic about how they could have done better.
Bleh.
They are a business, they need not do the altruistic best thing unless something was in it for them.
Right now, they're choosing the middle ground - opening up a format in a way that they have the upper hand and yet, folks can't fault them.
If you were a company whose motive was profit, would you really care about doing something that would make you part of the pack?
MS sees itself as being different from the pack, and so, this is a logical choice for them. It may not the perfect choice or the right one, but it does make a lot of sense from their perspective.
(Need to open up the formats in a way that the competition can be kept on its toes, like you said - what better way?)
Why wasn't a link to the Windypundit article placed in the blurb?
It's just off the page and contains a lot more information.
Wow, that's just fantastic!
Thanks, I was looking for some of the less common languages, and it turned out that Systran has those.
Owe you one, mate.
While Google's existing translator and Altavista's Babelfish are good, they do not help in the translation of several other languages.
That would be a really good benefit - for instance, I wanted something translated to and fro from Svensk (Swedish), but I really couldn't find any translation service that did.
Good translation of the more common languages would be nice, but simple translations, even - of a variety of languages would be really useful.
Sorry, when someone goes to this great lengths to continue using his favorite editor, it's got to be because it's more to him than just a mere editor.
::::::::s.
If an app gave me a wrist pain, I'd switch in the blink of an eye to another - unless it is so good that I'd go to any lengths to minimize the pain than stop using it.
So, using another editor is not really an option, finding a way of easing the pain is. Besides, today it's Emacs hurting the pinky, tomorrow it could be vi hurting the fore-finger because of all the
This is another "i spilled hot coffee on my self now im going to sue you!" deal.
Okay, have you even seen the whole case of the hot-coffee lawsuit? Or checked the facts?
That was an old woman, and the coffee was spilled down her lap and other surrounding areas causing third degree burns on that required skin grafts and a hospital stay for seven-days.
She had approached them first for medical compensation and was refused, at which point she sued them. And incidentally, a judge later lowered the awarding amount to merely $480,000, which the media never publicized.
And btw, McDonalds serves their coffee at 185 degrees, a good 20 degrees more than other restaurants - there have been cases of folks with first degree burns because of that.
At the temperature that McDonalds serves their coffee, it just takes about five seconds for first degree burns to occur - which would require skin grafting.
Next time you shoot off your mouth without knowing the facts, you might want to look at the reasons why some lawsuits may have been won. I hate frivolous lawsuits too, but that doesn't mean I walk around talking nonsense.
Or be given a stapler. Red in color.
Well, perhaps - but it would still cater to that particular demographic! :-)
Useful is a very relative term, you know?
> I think most bloggers would be categorized as "mostly useless".
That's too a broad statement to be making for everybody, don't you think?
I don't call dairy vegetarian, either. I call myself a lacto-vegetarian, that's all.
I think vegetarian is defined as someone who eats plants and plant products - if you are going to be eating eggs and milk, you could be an ovo-lacto-vegetarian (that's the convention that's followed in a lot of places in Asia).
Get a used PDA and a portable keyboard, such as this.
They are small, easy to carry and really work well. You can download one of the many opensource light-weight wordprocessors out there and use it quite easily in any environment.
Even the older Palms come with IR options, and so communication is not a problem.
Unless you're going to be churning out megs of text daily, it would do quite well.
They are fungi, not plants. Vegetarian -- someone who eats vegetables, not fungi.
Well, I'm asian and I can assure you that until I'd come to the US, the only animal related products I'd had was dairy related - milk, cheese and yoghurt.
Surprisingly, we are quite strict about how we define vegetarian, as well (for instance, folks in the US mysteriously add eggs and mushrooms under vegetarian items -- duh!!!).
And all the food I'd had was quite tasty, well flavoured and spicy, thank you very much. The meat-imitations that you'd mentioned are for the benefit of meat eaters converting to vegetarianism.
However, that doesn't mean there isn't any real vegetarian food out there. Merely that you've not seen enough.
As an aside, have you ever noticed how vegetarian meals often are imitations of meat or dairy products?
You're making the assumption that the food is western-vegetarian. Someone could be eating Asian food, which isn't don't really contain imitations of dairy or meat products.
Any reason you are spamming the place with the Bitmicro/Memtech links?
> Wake me up when they're introduced.
From TFA:
"Flash-based drives based on the new technology are expected on the market by August of this year."
A couple of months and they will be.
You think so?
;)
I'd love to own an iBook, my damn notebook is SO humongous when compared to those Macs that I feel stupid lugging them around.
I probably should find out if there is a Tech Mac User's Group of sorts!
In case of x86, Windows was an early adopter and that is why it is stuck - it has nothing to do with the hardware, but rather the OS.
On the other hand, if you have a hardware platform made specifically for games and one which excels in games by providing more processing muscle, people *will* make games for it.
In this case, it is originally being made for games *anyway* - which means, it is already a big plus. Therefore, the chances of more games being developed is high, if it gets adopted by a large chunk of computer users.
PC users aren't going to change tomorrow, but Mac users will - if Apple takes up the hardware - hence my argument
I agree.
Mac notebooks are particularly excellent - both iBook & Powerbook.
Now if they can make good products from these processors, maybe more games will be available for that platform. At the very least, one would have some market value in porting the games to that platform.
I'd have switched to Mac a long time ago, but games are one of the main things holding me back. I already use Linux exclusively for development, but there aren't many games for Linux. But Mac could have the best of both the worlds! Who knows...
Yeah, but where are you gonna get the damn Naquadah from, huh?
Huh!?! P3x742!?
Well said.
And I'll add one more thing - if an x86 version compatible version of iBook or Powerbook were to come out, I'll be among the first guys to buy one.
No matter how good other notebooks are, they don't come close to Apple's works.
Yeah, but for the life of me, I cannot understand what's the question behind Goatse!?
> Dupe anyone ???!?!
Oh yeah, the Slashdot Editors dupe us on all days and twice on Sundays.
Very well said.
Globally, things are going well -- which is a good thing.
And patriotism is as bad as racism or any of the many -isms, the last prejudice of humanity, I'd say.
You discriminate based on someone's colour or faith or gender -- or you discriminate based on where they were born. What's the big freakin' difference?
Hopefully, globalization will take that away.