Here's another technical nonsensity he got from who-the-hell-knows where:
>>DOS 7.0 was under Windows 95 and DOS 7.1 brought the FAT32 file system to Win95, not the other way around.
All versions of WIndows 95 had FAT32. I'm not sure what DOS 7.1 was, but 7.0 had it. And the DOS implementation in those versions was not the implementation of FAT32; Windows never used DOS for file calls. In fact, even Windows for Workgroups 3.11, where a lot of Win95 core parts were first implemented, also had a fully 32-bit file system driver (vfat), although no FAT32.
The DOS in Win95 was sort-of compatible with FAT32, in that it could read the directories and files, but it was not the file system implementation used by Windows.
In current versions, the 16-bit portions are basically just stubs, there's only as much Win16 code as there needs to be to support 16-bit Windows implementations, and even a Linux-based implementation would need as much 16-bit code.
If one accepts that most of Windows could be implemented on Linux through an official WINE, one must also accept that huge code investments would have to be thrown away. One of the great advantages of Windows is that anyone who creates a hardware device of any kind writes Windows drivers for it, but they would have to ditch their device driver model. Go look at Microsoft's device driver development facilities, they're extensive and represent a huge investment.
I hope nobody gets the impression that I take Cringely's stupid idea seriously just because I posted to this thread. They guy is an interesting writer, but his writing often betrays a serious ignorance of how computers work. Plus he stole the Cringely name from Infoworld.
Real writes the pushiest software there is and they have a history of public lying on these matters, such as Glaser's testimony before a Senate committee.
I agree, Real obviously works hard to make their player as intrusive and pushy as possible. RealOne periodically reminds you if you have made associations to a different media player, asks you if you want to switch them to RealOne and makes it very difficult to say no. If it weren't for Major League Baseball games I wouldn't have it on my computer. Windows Media Player is far more pleasant to use.
I know another small software company thinking similarly. Recent economic conditions have hurt the business, they are spending their time on other efforts, and passing the product on to the open source community is a good way to minimize the screwing of their old customers. The Mozilla license also gives them some options to re-enter some day.
So it's a good thing in the sense that the products won't necessarily die, but not a good sign of things in general.
On an ongoing basis you can expect maybe 5-8Mbps from HomePlug. The newer HomePNA hardware is faster (steady 10Mbps) and works well. If you're basically using it to share an Internet connection, both are fine of course.
Also, make sure to set the password on your HomePlug hardware or everone on your street up to the transformer is on your LAN.
Microsoft has been working on this for ages. Remember Cairo? I think I first heard presentations on it in 92. Basically all of it has been implemented over the years except for the famed object file system, which is basically what this sounds like. Plans are currently to implement it in Longhorn.
People who run antivirus software and keep it up to date are almost completely immune to this nonsense. And it's not like they haven't been warned; anyone who thinks about this knows. Almost everything out there that's prevelant in the wild was patched by MS or put in everyone's virus definitions long ago.
Here's the virus count for my gateway since July 4 of this year:
Interesting point. If WSH were part of the command interpreter it would be a shell, but would there be any real functional difference?
Apart from modest improvements in batch programming, MS has kept the scripting out of the command interpreter. Perhaps this new shell is a move to the UNIX style of integrating the shell and scripting environment. Or maybe the ad is misleading.
Most of these capabilities are already in Windows Script Host, which has been standard in Windows for years. What's new, I suppose, is that this version is based on the.NET Framework.
So now Slashdot officially endores state central planning? The government really seems to have thought this out all right, I guess we should let them decide what software we should run. Hey, it worked in the.su, didn't it?
No, it's not the same. The Look and feel cases (Lotus v. Borland, Apple v. Microsoft) did not involve one party making the product look exactly like the other. You're just not allowed to do this.
The judge overstates the importance of the distribution channel. On the client this will change absolutely nothing, just as any inclusion of the.NET Framework would affect nothing.
Even if Microsoft had just shipped the Sun Java VM from the begining it would not have afforded Java any more success on the client than it got through Microsoft's VM, which was the fastest and most compatible around in spite of the few unimportant differences Sun sued over. Does anyone out there really think that ISVs will be more likely to write Java apps, or users more likely to use them, if MS is forced to ship Sun's VM?
On the server the idea that bundling will help is so dumb it doesn't deserve serious consideration.
This is an overly simplistic view of NDAs. I've signed a ton of them and the majority are just to prohibit information release before a certain date. Plenty more would allow you to work on a product, but just not release some details of it.
Home Depot used to be one of those Java poster children that they trotted out at JavaOne, but I never saw any of it show up in the stores. To this day their systems, except for the actual registers, are straight out of the 70's. I think they're terminals connected to an HP/UX box.
I'm going to scan in and OCR all of the OReilly books and put them online so that people don't have to go through all the hassle of going to a bookstore and paying the exhorbitant cost of the books. And they can swap books with their friends.
Certainly numbers are interesting and relevant, but positions of principle are important in an issue like this. I personally think of the 2nd amendment as saying that people have a right to protect themselves (a right they basically lack in England), and I think of that right as important and fundamental.
Where was the article about collision when Sun entered this market with Java? I guess this is bad now because it's Microsoft offering something new, and everyone who buys their products was forced to because it's a monopoly. Sheesh...
Slashdot Mirror
Here's another technical nonsensity he got from who-the-hell-knows where:
>>DOS 7.0 was under Windows 95 and DOS 7.1 brought the FAT32 file system to Win95, not the other way around.
All versions of WIndows 95 had FAT32. I'm not sure what DOS 7.1 was, but 7.0 had it. And the DOS implementation in those versions was not the implementation of FAT32; Windows never used DOS for file calls. In fact, even Windows for Workgroups 3.11, where a lot of Win95 core parts were first implemented, also had a fully 32-bit file system driver (vfat), although no FAT32.
The DOS in Win95 was sort-of compatible with FAT32, in that it could read the directories and files, but it was not the file system implementation used by Windows.
It's called "thunking," not chunking.
In current versions, the 16-bit portions are basically just stubs, there's only as much Win16 code as there needs to be to support 16-bit Windows implementations, and even a Linux-based implementation would need as much 16-bit code.
If one accepts that most of Windows could be implemented on Linux through an official WINE, one must also accept that huge code investments would have to be thrown away. One of the great advantages of Windows is that anyone who creates a hardware device of any kind writes Windows drivers for it, but they would have to ditch their device driver model. Go look at Microsoft's device driver development facilities, they're extensive and represent a huge investment.
I hope nobody gets the impression that I take Cringely's stupid idea seriously just because I posted to this thread. They guy is an interesting writer, but his writing often betrays a serious ignorance of how computers work. Plus he stole the Cringely name from Infoworld.
Real writes the pushiest software there is and they have a history of public lying on these matters, such as Glaser's testimony before a Senate committee.
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003
I agree, Real obviously works hard to make their player as intrusive and pushy as possible. RealOne periodically reminds you if you have made associations to a different media player, asks you if you want to switch them to RealOne and makes it very difficult to say no. If it weren't for Major League Baseball games I wouldn't have it on my computer. Windows Media Player is far more pleasant to use.
I know another small software company thinking similarly. Recent economic conditions have hurt the business, they are spending their time on other efforts, and passing the product on to the open source community is a good way to minimize the screwing of their old customers. The Mozilla license also gives them some options to re-enter some day.
So it's a good thing in the sense that the products won't necessarily die, but not a good sign of things in general.
On an ongoing basis you can expect maybe 5-8Mbps from HomePlug. The newer HomePNA hardware is faster (steady 10Mbps) and works well. If you're basically using it to share an Internet connection, both are fine of course.
Also, make sure to set the password on your HomePlug hardware or everone on your street up to the transformer is on your LAN.
Microsoft has been working on this for ages. Remember Cairo? I think I first heard presentations on it in 92. Basically all of it has been implemented over the years except for the famed object file system, which is basically what this sounds like. Plans are currently to implement it in Longhorn.
People who run antivirus software and keep it up to date are almost completely immune to this nonsense. And it's not like they haven't been warned; anyone who thinks about this knows. Almost everything out there that's prevelant in the wild was patched by MS or put in everyone's virus definitions long ago.
Here's the virus count for my gateway since July 4 of this year:
717 WORM_KLEZ.H
120 WORM_SIRCAM.A
45 WORM_YAHA.E
11 PE_NIMDA.E
6 WORM_BUGBEAR.A
2 WORM_HYBRIS.B
1 JS_NIMDA.A
1 WORM_HYBRIS.C
1 WORM_KLEZ.E
Interesting point. If WSH were part of the command interpreter it would be a shell, but would there be any real functional difference?
Apart from modest improvements in batch programming, MS has kept the scripting out of the command interpreter. Perhaps this new shell is a move to the UNIX style of integrating the shell and scripting environment. Or maybe the ad is misleading.
Macro viruses aren't usually based on WSH, but on internal scripting in applications. WSH is very popular among Windows system administrators.
Most of these capabilities are already in Windows Script Host, which has been standard in Windows for years. What's new, I suppose, is that this version is based on the .NET Framework.
So now Slashdot officially endores state central planning? The government really seems to have thought this out all right, I guess we should let them decide what software we should run. Hey, it worked in the .su, didn't it?
No, it's not the same. The Look and feel cases (Lotus v. Borland, Apple v. Microsoft) did not involve one party making the product look exactly like the other. You're just not allowed to do this.
Pretty obvious copyright infringement. What are these people thinking?
The judge overstates the importance of the distribution channel. On the client this will change absolutely nothing, just as any inclusion of the .NET Framework would affect nothing.
Even if Microsoft had just shipped the Sun Java VM from the begining it would not have afforded Java any more success on the client than it got through Microsoft's VM, which was the fastest and most compatible around in spite of the few unimportant differences Sun sued over. Does anyone out there really think that ISVs will be more likely to write Java apps, or users more likely to use them, if MS is forced to ship Sun's VM?
On the server the idea that bundling will help is so dumb it doesn't deserve serious consideration.
This is an overly simplistic view of NDAs. I've signed a ton of them and the majority are just to prohibit information release before a certain date. Plenty more would allow you to work on a product, but just not release some details of it.
>>Microsoft can sign NDAs. Open source developers can't.
Says who? When did this rule get invented?
They're buying some Microsoft systems for point of sale.
Home Depot used to be one of those Java poster children that they trotted out at JavaOne, but I never saw any of it show up in the stores. To this day their systems, except for the actual registers, are straight out of the 70's. I think they're terminals connected to an HP/UX box.
So I'll put it on Gnutella so there will be no bandwidth problem.
I'm going to scan in and OCR all of the OReilly books and put them online so that people don't have to go through all the hassle of going to a bookstore and paying the exhorbitant cost of the books. And they can swap books with their friends.
Let's see how Tim feels about that.
Certainly numbers are interesting and relevant, but positions of principle are important in an issue like this. I personally think of the 2nd amendment as saying that people have a right to protect themselves (a right they basically lack in England), and I think of that right as important and fundamental.
Reason Magazine is also a libertarian vehicle, but they recently had a piece on the effects of gun control in England. Consider this when you consider more stringent gun control in the USA.
Really? What's the support like these days for Linux 1.0?
Where was the article about collision when Sun entered this market with Java? I guess this is bad now because it's Microsoft offering something new, and everyone who buys their products was forced to because it's a monopoly. Sheesh...