This type of attitude is actually pretty widespread at Microsoft, I gathered.
Two years ago when I interviewed with the Shell team, they showed me their latest eye-candy interface, which looked quite a lot like the glassy OS X interface. I commented (perhaps mistakenly during my interview when he was showing it to me) that it looked quite a lot like Apple's latest market offering.
My interviewer's response: "I've never used that."
As a senior software engineer, he was simply handed down specs for him to work with, flesh out, and build; no questions about where the instructions came from, what influenced them, or why the interface was good or bad.
Unsurprisingly, I ended up not getting an offer from the Shell group that year, but eventually came around to interview again and got offers from both Avalon and Shell. Where did I eventually choose to work? Google, because by every indication, they pay attention to the market, where it's going, and they are actually innovating in as many sectors as possible.
If upper management wants to avoid competition to the point of zealotry (some of the open source gurus out there should take note of this!), it doesn't surprise me what they produce ends up sucking.
I really don't want to inspire a flame war of any sort nor get modded down, but honestly, Bill Gates worked very hard to be in the nice position he's in now.
In the early stages of Microsoft, he ported an entire programming language onto a new platform in a matter of weeks. Although the stuff Microsoft churns out may not be the best, I have to give him credit for his business savvy and, at least for him, his technical brilliance.
That said, I don't use any of Microsoft's products. I just have to admire the company for how they've become what they are.
Re:Transformers
on
Robosaurus
·
· Score: 2, Informative
FYI, Optimus Prime was brought back in the third season in a two part episode, The Return of Optimus Prime.
Also, concerning Optimus Prime's trailer, all Transformers have an allotted amount of subspace where they can instantaneously store and retrieve stuff. He also stores his gun there, and that also explains why larger Transformers like Megatron can shrink in their transformation process. That's the mythology anyway.
"For good measure, SCO is seeking at least a billion dollars from IBM....
SCO is the big, bad company that violates one of their sacred principles, as they would see it."
I don't think this article sees very much of the issue. Why didn't they do a more serious analysis of SCO and the fact that many top executives are dumping stock? Why didn't they look at it from a legal standpoint focusing on the etymology of the code supposedly in question? Why didn't they point out keenly that SCO has not produced any real evidence?
Regardless of what side you're on, you have to look at these things. These facts at least are concrete, vs. the complete lack of evidence specifically implicating a linux user as the author of MyDoom. For all we know, it could be SCO spreading FUD over linux and painting themselves as the victim when they in fact are responsible. We don't know now, do we?
I like that feature too, but I should note that the GTK+ mail client Sylpheed (http://sylpheed.good-day.net) has had that feature much longer than Mozilla mail. Furthermore, it is orders of magnitude faster than the gigantic Mozilla suite. Not bashing Mozilla, but for the record, Sylpheed, the mail client I use, had it too.
That said, I'm hoping Mozilla will continue to advance and that they'll truly abandon the SeaMonkey underpinnings for the faster *birds and extension framework.
That's not Fibonacci. Fibonacci is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13,...
The series you mention is called the Lucas series, which is simply the Fibonacci series without the initial 1. Considering Winamp 1 wasn't released twice, I don't believe it's Fibonacci. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
According to a previous Slashdot story (also on CNET at http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5069246.html), Microsoft is trying to push toward a more complete DRM technology, quite likely filtering all requests for document access through one of Microsoft's centralized servers.
Since this document format is "open sourced" that probably means there's stuff in there Microsoft isn't telling us about. They likely won't reveal the secret behind their second most popular product line that easily.
That said, I'll be curious to see how this will affect development of OpenOffice and equivalents in the near future. Is it better to try to reverse engineer a Microsoft format (and possibly risk patent infringement) or just go with something else? More importantly, will businesses be willing to adopt it if not every Microsoft product can save in this format?
I am a linux advocate as much as the next guy (RHL9 and Debian), but I have to give Microsoft credit for what they do. They don't write the world's best or most reliable software, but here's what they do.
First, they provide a (de facto, not internationalized or official) standard operating system for users and developers of consumer-oriented software. Their market share ensures this and also ensures that people won't have to fiddle with all the settings of their operating system. This of course also means it is much more vulnerable to viruses and trojans, but that's also partly a byproduct of their initially somewhat flawed design in DOS and along the way so many years ago.
Second, Microsoft is a BUSINESS. Yes, linux can be a business too, but Microsoft has been around longer. They're defending their assets using negative publicity and FUD and predatory practices. We've had this type of stuff before in the airline industry with the oligopolistic airlines forcing out smaller potential competitors. We've had this type of stuff with Standard Oil and AT&T. The question we have to ask is this: if you were Microsoft, wouldn't you think what they're doing is a good idea? Would you actually be idealistic and release your source code to the developer community and sing Kumbaya? Given that you're a corporation that has to defend both its employees and shareholders, wouldn't you attack linux and let a few excess projects run on for the sake of all those families with parents working on them?
I use the Pilot P500, an absolutely wonderful smooth writing 0.5 mm tipped pen. It uses a gel ink which never smudges and is archival quality, so it won't melt your paper over time. It's nice to be able to write in pen quickly and very precisely; it makes my handwriting easier to read and makes writing small (and conserving paper for notes) much better.
It may seem like there will be a lot of competition in the search engine sector, but there is one new emerging market which stands to grow as a result of this new competition from Amazon.
The keyword marketing and advertising management services. Those services which offer to optimize or increase the return on investment for companies who have large sets or portfolios of keywords stand to benefit from this potential new source of revenue. A new search company means keyword advertising management agencies can increase the scope of their services as well as the cost for them.
It seems to me this article implies that the bankers' lack of information is a form of security.
They don't know exactly what services will be removed, and hence probably are not aware of what services could be running and producing security holes.
The fact it is customizable also seems to present itself as a major security issue. How are we to know that these customized ATMs that also deal out lottery tickets or supermarket coupons were necessarily programmed (by the banker) correctly and securely? We can deploy this en masse too? So the potential for a large scale security breach would be high?
I'm also a tad confused by the statement that it will be secure since it will not be hooked up online into a network. But it will have scriptable programming and customization?
Maybe if everything goes right, it will be perfectly secure. Are ATMs basically vaults and are we still making sure that that stays the same?
I used GNOME 2.2, but I cannot glean from the article whether the one quirk was fixed or not in 2.4.
The one thing keeping me from using GNOME (and for which I now use a more minimalistic window manager/desktop environment) is the fact that it is difficult to move one window into a different virtual desktop. You have to make it visible on all panels first then go to the desktop you want it to appear on and click show on just this desktop. Is there a way around this? Has GNOME 2.4 fixed this?
Besides that, it's good to see this project improve. Hope it gets faster and easier to use.
I really don't think these statistics really indicate the truth.
First off, video games are frequently directed toward males. How often do video game heroines become sex objects? Lara Croft is the easy example, but there are dozens of others in RPGs, fighting games, adventure, horror, and practically every genre.
Perhaps the grain of truth in this is that women may be becoming more technically inclined than they were in the past. Certainly as a university student, the number of women in engineering is on the rise. Also, perhaps they see the presence of video game heroines as a show of the power of femininity in these games. Even while Eidos was building Tomb Raider, they were particularly cautious and uncertain about making their main character a woman.
Regardless, is the show of women a good sign? If it helps create diversity in video games and help manufacturers build more innovative games than "Adventures of Barbie," then this can only help the industry.
Let's consider everything in context. It's true that the FSF does not completely approve of Apple's 2.0 license. It's true that Apple does not make their entire OS source code available in any form, let alone under GPL.
Still, it is an improvement over the more restrictive license earlier, and much, much better than the days before Jobs' return from NeXT. At that time, none of the source code was available.
Furthermore, I think this is a Good Thing. A commercial vendor releasing the source code to any central part of their operating system was unheard of years ago. Sun and Microsoft have yet to do this; complaints about Apple's specific license are paltry in comparison to the strict use of binaries in place in other operating systems.
The SCO case has already inspired the ire of the entire Linux community. It's even made Germany make SCO's claim completely null and void within its borders.
Considering that SCO is not doing well financially, is being countersued by IBM, and is still yet to provide concrete evidence, Red Hat might as well save its resources and stay out of this. Although it most certainly has a stake in the outcome of the argument, it's quite likely that their involvement will not bring about much change.
That said, I commend Red Hat for doing what they're doing and, at the very least, making explicit the sentiment in Linux community feels for SCO.
Once you get past single-variable calculus, particularly a firm grip on integration, I highly recommend H.M. Schey's book, "div, grad, curl, and all that" which clearly explains multivariable vector calculus, along with some physics for concreteness and good measure.
Slashdot Mirror
This type of attitude is actually pretty widespread at Microsoft, I gathered.
Two years ago when I interviewed with the Shell team, they showed me their latest eye-candy interface, which looked quite a lot like the glassy OS X interface. I commented (perhaps mistakenly during my interview when he was showing it to me) that it looked quite a lot like Apple's latest market offering.
My interviewer's response: "I've never used that."
As a senior software engineer, he was simply handed down specs for him to work with, flesh out, and build; no questions about where the instructions came from, what influenced them, or why the interface was good or bad.
Unsurprisingly, I ended up not getting an offer from the Shell group that year, but eventually came around to interview again and got offers from both Avalon and Shell. Where did I eventually choose to work? Google, because by every indication, they pay attention to the market, where it's going, and they are actually innovating in as many sectors as possible.
If upper management wants to avoid competition to the point of zealotry (some of the open source gurus out there should take note of this!), it doesn't surprise me what they produce ends up sucking.
I really don't want to inspire a flame war of any sort nor get modded down, but honestly, Bill Gates worked very hard to be in the nice position he's in now.
In the early stages of Microsoft, he ported an entire programming language onto a new platform in a matter of weeks. Although the stuff Microsoft churns out may not be the best, I have to give him credit for his business savvy and, at least for him, his technical brilliance.
That said, I don't use any of Microsoft's products. I just have to admire the company for how they've become what they are.
FYI, Optimus Prime was brought back in the third season in a two part episode, The Return of Optimus Prime.
Also, concerning Optimus Prime's trailer, all Transformers have an allotted amount of subspace where they can instantaneously store and retrieve stuff. He also stores his gun there, and that also explains why larger Transformers like Megatron can shrink in their transformation process. That's the mythology anyway.
Just being of service.
"For good measure, SCO is seeking at least a billion dollars from IBM....
SCO is the big, bad company that violates one of their sacred principles, as they would see it."
I don't think this article sees very much of the issue. Why didn't they do a more serious analysis of SCO and the fact that many top executives are dumping stock? Why didn't they look at it from a legal standpoint focusing on the etymology of the code supposedly in question? Why didn't they point out keenly that SCO has not produced any real evidence?
Regardless of what side you're on, you have to look at these things. These facts at least are concrete, vs. the complete lack of evidence specifically implicating a linux user as the author of MyDoom. For all we know, it could be SCO spreading FUD over linux and painting themselves as the victim when they in fact are responsible. We don't know now, do we?
I like that feature too, but I should note that the GTK+ mail client Sylpheed (http://sylpheed.good-day.net) has had that feature much longer than Mozilla mail. Furthermore, it is orders of magnitude faster than the gigantic Mozilla suite. Not bashing Mozilla, but for the record, Sylpheed, the mail client I use, had it too.
That said, I'm hoping Mozilla will continue to advance and that they'll truly abandon the SeaMonkey underpinnings for the faster *birds and extension framework.
That's not Fibonacci. Fibonacci is 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ...
The series you mention is called the Lucas series, which is simply the Fibonacci series without the initial 1. Considering Winamp 1 wasn't released twice, I don't believe it's Fibonacci. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
According to a previous Slashdot story (also on CNET at http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-5069246.html), Microsoft is trying to push toward a more complete DRM technology, quite likely filtering all requests for document access through one of Microsoft's centralized servers.
Since this document format is "open sourced" that probably means there's stuff in there Microsoft isn't telling us about. They likely won't reveal the secret behind their second most popular product line that easily.
That said, I'll be curious to see how this will affect development of OpenOffice and equivalents in the near future. Is it better to try to reverse engineer a Microsoft format (and possibly risk patent infringement) or just go with something else? More importantly, will businesses be willing to adopt it if not every Microsoft product can save in this format?
I am a linux advocate as much as the next guy (RHL9 and Debian), but I have to give Microsoft credit for what they do. They don't write the world's best or most reliable software, but here's what they do.
First, they provide a (de facto, not internationalized or official) standard operating system for users and developers of consumer-oriented software. Their market share ensures this and also ensures that people won't have to fiddle with all the settings of their operating system. This of course also means it is much more vulnerable to viruses and trojans, but that's also partly a byproduct of their initially somewhat flawed design in DOS and along the way so many years ago.
Second, Microsoft is a BUSINESS. Yes, linux can be a business too, but Microsoft has been around longer. They're defending their assets using negative publicity and FUD and predatory practices. We've had this type of stuff before in the airline industry with the oligopolistic airlines forcing out smaller potential competitors. We've had this type of stuff with Standard Oil and AT&T. The question we have to ask is this: if you were Microsoft, wouldn't you think what they're doing is a good idea? Would you actually be idealistic and release your source code to the developer community and sing Kumbaya? Given that you're a corporation that has to defend both its employees and shareholders, wouldn't you attack linux and let a few excess projects run on for the sake of all those families with parents working on them?
C'mon.
I use the Pilot P500, an absolutely wonderful smooth writing 0.5 mm tipped pen. It uses a gel ink which never smudges and is archival quality, so it won't melt your paper over time. It's nice to be able to write in pen quickly and very precisely; it makes my handwriting easier to read and makes writing small (and conserving paper for notes) much better.
It may seem like there will be a lot of competition in the search engine sector, but there is one new emerging market which stands to grow as a result of this new competition from Amazon.
The keyword marketing and advertising management services. Those services which offer to optimize or increase the return on investment for companies who have large sets or portfolios of keywords stand to benefit from this potential new source of revenue. A new search company means keyword advertising management agencies can increase the scope of their services as well as the cost for them.
It seems to me this article implies that the bankers' lack of information is a form of security.
They don't know exactly what services will be removed, and hence probably are not aware of what services could be running and producing security holes.
The fact it is customizable also seems to present itself as a major security issue. How are we to know that these customized ATMs that also deal out lottery tickets or supermarket coupons were necessarily programmed (by the banker) correctly and securely? We can deploy this en masse too? So the potential for a large scale security breach would be high?
I'm also a tad confused by the statement that it will be secure since it will not be hooked up online into a network. But it will have scriptable programming and customization?
Maybe if everything goes right, it will be perfectly secure. Are ATMs basically vaults and are we still making sure that that stays the same?
I used GNOME 2.2, but I cannot glean from the article whether the one quirk was fixed or not in 2.4.
The one thing keeping me from using GNOME (and for which I now use a more minimalistic window manager/desktop environment) is the fact that it is difficult to move one window into a different virtual desktop. You have to make it visible on all panels first then go to the desktop you want it to appear on and click show on just this desktop. Is there a way around this? Has GNOME 2.4 fixed this?
Besides that, it's good to see this project improve. Hope it gets faster and easier to use.
I really don't think these statistics really indicate the truth.
First off, video games are frequently directed toward males. How often do video game heroines become sex objects? Lara Croft is the easy example, but there are dozens of others in RPGs, fighting games, adventure, horror, and practically every genre.
Perhaps the grain of truth in this is that women may be becoming more technically inclined than they were in the past. Certainly as a university student, the number of women in engineering is on the rise. Also, perhaps they see the presence of video game heroines as a show of the power of femininity in these games. Even while Eidos was building Tomb Raider, they were particularly cautious and uncertain about making their main character a woman.
Regardless, is the show of women a good sign? If it helps create diversity in video games and help manufacturers build more innovative games than "Adventures of Barbie," then this can only help the industry.
Let's consider everything in context. It's true that the FSF does not completely approve of Apple's 2.0 license. It's true that Apple does not make their entire OS source code available in any form, let alone under GPL.
Still, it is an improvement over the more restrictive license earlier, and much, much better than the days before Jobs' return from NeXT. At that time, none of the source code was available.
Furthermore, I think this is a Good Thing. A commercial vendor releasing the source code to any central part of their operating system was unheard of years ago. Sun and Microsoft have yet to do this; complaints about Apple's specific license are paltry in comparison to the strict use of binaries in place in other operating systems.
The SCO case has already inspired the ire of the entire Linux community. It's even made Germany make SCO's claim completely null and void within its borders.
Considering that SCO is not doing well financially, is being countersued by IBM, and is still yet to provide concrete evidence, Red Hat might as well save its resources and stay out of this. Although it most certainly has a stake in the outcome of the argument, it's quite likely that their involvement will not bring about much change.
That said, I commend Red Hat for doing what they're doing and, at the very least, making explicit the sentiment in Linux community feels for SCO.
Once you get past single-variable calculus, particularly a firm grip on integration, I highly recommend H.M. Schey's book, "div, grad, curl, and all that" which clearly explains multivariable vector calculus, along with some physics for concreteness and good measure.