Who said "Never assign to maliciousness what cannot be explained by stupidity".
While the first link on this page could be explained as an MS consipiracy, the second points to the most likely reason. Namely, poor programming and testing.
Yes the USA is a democracy, but you do have some fairly shady organisations with some very dubious practices.
The regimes in places like Chile and Argentina were supported, if not actually put there, by the CIA. Think of the number of disappeared people there.
Similarly, the USA funded and armed Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran, only to have it backfire when Iraq ceased to be a fried. Other examples of this include Afghanistan and Pakistan, also armed by the US in order to subvert Russia.
Neither ESR or RMS should open their mouths when it comes to linking free or open-source software with politics. However, RMS is closest on this - the price of freedom is vigilance.
I had a glance through some of the material on torture and disappearances in Chile under the Pinochet regime.
He may be in his 80s and ill, but Spain is definitely right to demand his extradition from Britain. I just wonder how much will come out on CIA involvement if he does come to trial.
One missing from the article (which I found interesting and informative) is that while memory has become cheap programs have increased in functionality and complexity. So, more space available but lots more to get in there.
Increased processing power and memory space is no excuse for sloppy programming and lack of optimisation.
Instead of thinking about your own circumstances, think about the organisation with 10,000+ PCs. Now try and imagine the costs of distributing new software, service packs, installing new discs to replace crashed ones, resetting configurations because users have screwed their old ones, cleaning up after viruses, etc. etc.
All of this is estimated to cost in the order of thousands of dollars per year per user. For "non-power" users (for example help desk operators, or counter staff) the use of NCs look attractive, none of the problems above means a much lower maintenance cost. This doesn't mean that PCs will go away, they will still be about for those who need them.
I will remind you that all big guys, together, nicely and jointly removed the compilers from their systems
Not the fault of the vendors. A compiler company (Greenhills?) sued for restraint of trade because most vendors were giving away a Pascal compiler with their UNIX release. They won their case, and vendors were only allowed to ship compilers necessary to build the operating system. Because Sun and IBM (but not HP!) have dynamic kernels that don't need compiling, they no longer are allowed to ship a C compiler.
NCR produce large scale machines used for datawarehouses. Essentially they have the database engine (Teradata) implemented in hardware.
While they have sold a number of these the market is small, and the likes of Oracle on Solaris are just as good and cheaper.
I suspect that it is the "patents" on this that Netscape has supposedly infringed, rather than the ATM systems (sales of which are also going downhill, since NCR insist that you buy both hardware and software from them).
Anything scientific in the "Mail on Sunday" should be taken with a large pinch of salt. It tends to be read by ladies (I use the word advisedly) with blue rinses and husbands named Geoffery. Said ladies usually have an abiding belief in the omniscience of Margaret Thatcher and the place of menials in the home.
Agreed. HP produce some reasonable hardware, but their software isn't anything to write home about.
If you need this level of mail service (multiple channels, X.400, SMTP, strong administration authentication, good administration tools) have a look at PP, basically the next generation of MMDF.
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Who said "Never assign to maliciousness what cannot be explained by stupidity".
While the first link on this page could be explained as an MS consipiracy, the second points to the most likely reason. Namely, poor programming and testing.
> I don't want Washington to decide how a private company might be split up.
So let's invert the quote, would you be happy for a private company to decide who should be in government?
> The private sector builds businesses and wealth. Government consumes it.
So change the government. You have a (small) say in what government gets voted in. What say do you have in who runs companies and their policies?
The one thing I couldn't determine was whether they were striping the network traffic across the cards on the NT based systems.
:-)
Since these machines look network bound this just might make a difference
Absolutely true. You haven't got the right example though, Britain essentially invented concentration camps. Done during the Boer War.
We have also sent fighter planes to Indonesia of late.
The comment I was replying to was talking about the USA, hence the response.
Yes the USA is a democracy, but you do have some fairly shady organisations with some very dubious practices.
The regimes in places like Chile and Argentina were supported, if not actually put there, by the CIA. Think of the number of disappeared people there.
Similarly, the USA funded and armed Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran, only to have it backfire when Iraq ceased to be a fried. Other examples of this include Afghanistan and Pakistan, also armed by the US in order to subvert Russia.
Neither ESR or RMS should open their mouths when it comes to linking free or open-source software with politics. However, RMS is closest on this - the price of freedom is vigilance.
What makes you think that China is communist? Just because it says it is doesn't make it so.
In fact it is Just Another Totalitarian Regime (JATR). As such it is no different from Pinochet's Chile or Hussein's Iraq.
I don't approve of totalitarian regimes, regardless of their politics.
ESR does not speak for me on this. He can keep his libertarian politics and naive statements about communism to himself.
geting mown down by some maniac with a semi-automatic firearm.
Actually it was a maniac with 17 legally held weapons. Why he thought he needed all of them I don't know.
I had a glance through some of the material on torture and disappearances in Chile under the Pinochet regime.
He may be in his 80s and ill, but Spain is definitely right to demand his extradition from Britain. I just wonder how much will come out on CIA involvement if he does come to trial.
Is this enough to get the Echelon system working?
One missing from the article (which I found interesting and informative) is that while memory has become cheap programs have increased in functionality and complexity. So, more space available but lots more to get in there.
Increased processing power and memory space is no excuse for sloppy programming and lack of optimisation.
But I don't know what sort of political conclusion you want to draw from that.
Paxman is not known for treating his interviewees lightly. He is a very bright, ruthless interrogater with impeccable manners.
If you are going to submit questions then make sure they are "opening" so they allow Paxman to follow up.
I really hope the BBC makes a webcast of this for you people on the other side of the pond.
This used to be true, however there is a (varying) degree of regulation in most of Western Europe.
Instead of thinking about your own circumstances, think about the organisation with 10,000+ PCs. Now try and imagine the costs of distributing new software, service packs, installing new discs to replace crashed ones, resetting configurations because users have screwed their old ones, cleaning up after viruses, etc. etc.
All of this is estimated to cost in the order of thousands of dollars per year per user. For "non-power" users (for example help desk operators, or counter staff) the use of NCs look attractive, none of the problems above means a much lower maintenance cost. This doesn't mean that PCs will go away, they will still be about for those who need them.
Not the fault of the vendors. A compiler company (Greenhills?) sued for restraint of trade because most vendors were giving away a Pascal compiler with their UNIX release. They won their case, and vendors were only allowed to ship compilers necessary to build the operating system. Because Sun and IBM (but not HP!) have dynamic kernels that don't need compiling, they no longer are allowed to ship a C compiler.
if once you have paid him the danegeld
You never get rid of the Dane.
From "Danegeld" by Rudyard Kipling
NCR produce large scale machines used for datawarehouses. Essentially they have the database engine (Teradata) implemented in hardware.
While they have sold a number of these the market is small, and the likes of Oracle on Solaris are just as good and cheaper.
I suspect that it is the "patents" on this that Netscape has supposedly infringed, rather than the ATM systems (sales of which are also going downhill, since NCR insist that you buy both hardware and software from them).
About 0.1% of all NT installations are apparently running on Alpha.
As far as I recollect it was first coined as the "Internet Dial Tone" by the former head of the Open Group, Joseph De Feo.
In a previous existence he was a champion of open systems at Barclays Bank in the UK
Anything scientific in the "Mail on Sunday" should be taken with a large pinch of salt. It tends to be read by ladies (I use the word advisedly) with blue rinses and husbands named Geoffery. Said ladies usually have an abiding belief in the omniscience of Margaret Thatcher and the place of menials in the home.
Agreed. HP produce some reasonable hardware, but their software isn't anything to write home about.
If you need this level of mail service (multiple channels, X.400, SMTP, strong administration authentication, good administration tools) have a look at PP, basically the next generation of MMDF.
Doen't seem quite apposite any more.
What was at issue was the fact that Apple spent a fortune doing HCI work to ensure that the Mac had high usability.
It was this that was ripped off and formed the basis of the court case.
These are examples from a large bank
IBM parallel sysplex running OS/390
IBM SP frame running AIX
Sun Starfire running Solaris
HP V2500 running HP-UX
NT doesn't even come to the knees of one of these systems.
Does this make Ballmer Rasputin?