I've been writing a bookmarking application that directs the user to Google and later remembers the last Google search so you can resume it. This API will simplify the interface significantly and open up a whole new world of possibilities.
I'd be interested to know how the people who settled will feel in a few years. I suspect they will regret their decision. I was bullied when I was a kid. I never fought back, and I regret it every day.
I'm not judging the peole who settled... it's a tough and wildly unfair situation. However, I suspect that they will find that the choice they made ends up costing them more than they thought.
b) Open source software, the only decent challenger at this time, is flawed when it comes to using it as a business model.
Buzz! Sorry, wrong. Buy a vowel or sit down.
Open Source is all about the free market. It allows businesses to keep their options open instead of being tied to a single vendor. The great fallacy in thinking that OSS doesn't make a good business model is the assumption that OSS exists to make a business model. Businesses profit from open source by keeping their costs down in a wide variety of ways (not just in saving licensing costs). I don't know if many businesses will ever make money by producing OSS, and I don't care: that's not how OSS is profitable.
We're not disagreeing. I'm a devoted free marketer too. I think Microsoft puts out some great products, at least as far as user-interface is concerned. They are on top for that and a variety of other reasons.
However, being on top now doesn't keep them on top forever, and I think their position at the top of the hill could very well change. The marklet incresingly wants to be free to from being tied to a particular vendor, and that goes straight against MS's entire business model.
In short, we agree: the market rules. I think the market will rule against MS.
I'd be satisfied if they stopped breaking the anti-trust laws. Beyond that, let the market decide. Open source will win in the market. I think MS knows that and that's why they're increasingly afraid.
An guess: the designers (who we know were a non-MS group) were using MySQL to store the information on logged-in users... you have to log in to use the site. So when they hastily transferred the site to an MS box they still needed to use MySQL because they didn't have time to rewrite the whole application.
Invasive American culture -- from movies, music, fast-food
It always gets my hackles up to hear our culture described as "invasive". Nobody's forcing people to go into the Moscow Pizza Hut or buy Coca-Cola in Beijing.
Hmmm, that's an insightful question. I'd bet that if someone were running Apache and configured it to return IIS headers, Microsoft's lawyers would have something to say about that. IANAL, but representing your server as another trademarked server has got to be a tort of some kind.
The Way Out People have already
changed the HTTP headers for the site. I wonder if they actually changed the server, though. Is there a non-felony way to get other information about the server?
First, CUI was My Search Engine of Choice.
Then WebCrawler was My Search Engine of Choice.
Then AltaVista came along and became My Search Engine of Choice.
Now Google is My Search Engine of Choice. Why shouldn't something else come along?
I love Google, and I do have a hard time imagining someone else doing a better job, but I'll drop them like a bad habit if something better comes along.
Pigeons are amazing creatures, and deserve a far better reputation among humans than they have.
More pigeons were awarded the Dickin Medal during the WW II era than all other species combined. Yes, we have a pigeon overpopulation problem in most cities, but people should remember what amazing creatures they are.
I'm interested in Open Office, but the first thing I always look for in a web site about a GUI-based software products is a set of screen shots, and they don't have any. I want to see what the product looks like. It would be really cool if OpenOffice would make some screen shots of their prodict available.
I can only say that this article quotes myth and ignorance as though they were informed opinions. For example, in the question of support, the "experts" they quoted seemed completely unaware both that you can hire excellent technical support for Linux and that for most closed source you need to ALSO need to buy tech support separately to get real help. The difference is that with open source you have a variety of competitors to choose from for tech support, whereas with closed source you usually only have one shop to purchase from.
I somehow find it relieving and encouraging that maybe there aren't any black holes out there. If you read enough science fiction where the spaceship gets sucked into a micro-black hole it starts to get into your brain.
Of course, neutron stars kill you just as dead and almost as flat...
Considering the amount of traffic/. gets, the fact that it was developed with a relatively small staff and budget, and considering the complicated job it has to do, I'd say it's a shining star in the world of online services. I'd be interested to hear examples of other sites that do all that with some other language.
Trust me - engineers make about the worst executives you could imagine. Lets be realistic.
My boss (who is also chief owner) is an engineer and is an excellent boss and executive. Not only does he have the respect and friendship of the entire company, but he's kept the company profitable (and, ergo, us employed) while most of the rest of the tech industry was going down the crapper.
The GPL comes with responsibilities. Those repsonsibilities are extremely reasonable and almost never involve costs that any company is likely to care about (no, it doesn't "infect" your code).
Nevertheless, those responsibilities exist, and so I've always felt that calling it "free as in freedom" software is not quite accurate: your actions are limited in certain regards. This is one more reason I prefer "open source" over "free software".
Slashdot Mirror
I've been writing a bookmarking application that directs the user to Google and later remembers the last Google search so you can resume it. This API will simplify the interface significantly and open up a whole new world of possibilities.
I'd be interested to know how the people who settled will feel in a few years. I suspect they will regret their decision. I was bullied when I was a kid. I never fought back, and I regret it every day. I'm not judging the peole who settled... it's a tough and wildly unfair situation. However, I suspect that they will find that the choice they made ends up costing them more than they thought.
Buzz! Sorry, wrong. Buy a vowel or sit down.
Open Source is all about the free market. It allows businesses to keep their options open instead of being tied to a single vendor. The great fallacy in thinking that OSS doesn't make a good business model is the assumption that OSS exists to make a business model. Businesses profit from open source by keeping their costs down in a wide variety of ways (not just in saving licensing costs). I don't know if many businesses will ever make money by producing OSS, and I don't care: that's not how OSS is profitable.
In short, we agree: the market rules. I think the market will rule against MS.
I'd be satisfied if they stopped breaking the anti-trust laws. Beyond that, let the market decide. Open source will win in the market. I think MS knows that and that's why they're increasingly afraid.
An guess: the designers (who we know were a non-MS group) were using MySQL to store the information on logged-in users... you have to log in to use the site. So when they hastily transferred the site to an MS box they still needed to use MySQL because they didn't have time to rewrite the whole application.
It always gets my hackles up to hear our culture described as "invasive". Nobody's forcing people to go into the Moscow Pizza Hut or buy Coca-Cola in Beijing.
Do you? Representing somebody else's trademarked product as your own product is absolutely grounds for a lawsuit.
Hmmm, that's an insightful question. I'd bet that if someone were running Apache and configured it to return IIS headers, Microsoft's lawyers would have something to say about that. IANAL, but representing your server as another trademarked server has got to be a tort of some kind.
The Way Out People have already changed the HTTP headers for the site. I wonder if they actually changed the server, though. Is there a non-felony way to get other information about the server?
I love Google, and I do have a hard time imagining someone else doing a better job, but I'll drop them like a bad habit if something better comes along.
Pigeons are amazing creatures, and deserve a far better reputation among humans than they have. More pigeons were awarded the Dickin Medal during the WW II era than all other species combined. Yes, we have a pigeon overpopulation problem in most cities, but people should remember what amazing creatures they are.
I'm interested in Open Office, but the first thing I always look for in a web site about a GUI-based software products is a set of screen shots, and they don't have any. I want to see what the product looks like. It would be really cool if OpenOffice would make some screen shots of their prodict available.
Damn, it seems we're getting close to the Improbability Drive.
"That's a good name --- ground! I wonder if it will be friends with me?" Thud!
You: (glancing at PDA) Um, just sorta heard it.
I can only say that this article quotes myth and ignorance as though they were informed opinions. For example, in the question of support, the "experts" they quoted seemed completely unaware both that you can hire excellent technical support for Linux and that for most closed source you need to ALSO need to buy tech support separately to get real help. The difference is that with open source you have a variety of competitors to choose from for tech support, whereas with closed source you usually only have one shop to purchase from.
Of course, neutron stars kill you just as dead and almost as flat...
Stop letting the cat out!
Considering the amount of traffic /. gets, the fact that it was developed with a relatively small staff and budget, and considering the complicated job it has to do, I'd say it's a shining star in the world of online services. I'd be interested to hear examples of other sites that do all that with some other language.
I misread your posting such that I thought you actually had something useful to say.
Care to be more specific?
I just sent an email alerting Vincent Flanders. I'm sure he'll love this one.
My boss (who is also chief owner) is an engineer and is an excellent boss and executive. Not only does he have the respect and friendship of the entire company, but he's kept the company profitable (and, ergo, us employed) while most of the rest of the tech industry was going down the crapper.
The GPL comes with responsibilities. Those repsonsibilities are extremely reasonable and almost never involve costs that any company is likely to care about (no, it doesn't "infect" your code). Nevertheless, those responsibilities exist, and so I've always felt that calling it "free as in freedom" software is not quite accurate: your actions are limited in certain regards. This is one more reason I prefer "open source" over "free software".