The government is not trying to "legislate Digital Music". It's warning the traditional record industry that there will be penalties (ironic ones, yes) for them if they continue to use their corporate lawyers to beat down the "e-music" industry! This is brilliant for the online music people, as it might give them some hope that the old-school music fraternity will stop suing them every time they try to do something new. It's also brilliant for the artists that rely on the distribution power of online music. As soon as they're free to use the net to get their music out there, without the fear of some contrived lawsuit the better for all of us!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
The common mentality of people offering anything on the net seems to be to support it with advertising! It's almost as if advertising is the fallback multipurpose revenue generator. How much more of this do we have to put up with? We already have websites plastered so thick with ads that you can barely read them!
I'll be brave. I'd like to actually question the wisdom to all this advertising. If advertising actually works, there would have to be a lot of people clicking on the banner ads, right? Yet I talk to people I know and they say that they barely ever bother with them. So for it to average out, there must be one helluva lot of people just clicking on every ad that comes up in front of them! Actually, a while back (can't remember where) I saw statistics that pointed toward the fact that IE users click on far more ads than Netscape users! So, taking the liberty of assuming that there are more Netscape users downloading MP3's. I wonder if the same applies to MP3's? I wonder if the MP3 using community fits into the same profile, and would reject the whole idea?
Food for thought!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
There are a lot of people on here that seem to think that a new standard for transmission over the POTS is a waste of time because of the availability of DSL/Cable/Whatever.
This is, as usual, a very narrow minded and selfish approach. Of course internet over POTS is going to survive.
I live in Australia, here we are just beginning trials of DSL, and even when it comes in it'll only be available in metropolitan areas. Considering we are a country that has some of the most remote internet users (many hundreds of kilometres from the nearest city), I can't see broadband or services with similar speeds for a similar price getting out into the rural areas for a long time! Hence net over POTS lives on!
Then you have to take into consideration all the other third world countries where the internet is only available to a select few. These people aren't going to be getting DSL to their houses like the rich fat americans any time soon!
Next to consider is the average household user. The person who just wants to get/send emails and maybe do a bit of surfing sometimes. Why would they bother with anything other than a V.92 modem?
There's also the people using satellite.net connections to think about. A lot of those use a modem as their uplink. I'm sure they'd welcome an extra 15Kbps upstream!
With all that, without even mentioning the cost difference between analogue and digital services, I think the humble modem will live a while longer. Even if only half what I've said is valid!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I'd have to say that this is the exception rather than the rule!
Only earlier this year, our very own LUG down here in Australias smallest state was invited to run a stall at a local computer show. We gave away a stack of CD's of various distributions. It was that popular that after a while we had to start taking peoples names and telling them to come back in ten minutes after we'd finished burning the CD!
Also, and slightly more impressively. Last year I attended this expo in Melbourne, where they had allocated quite a large section of the place to Linux, which impressed me. But what impressed me more was that the LUG for that state were invited to have a stall at the event... all expenses paid! They not only got the floor space donated, but most of the equipment as well... including a nice SGI box!
Maybe this is the way to go at IT expos. Support your local LUG!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Maybe we should send him up with a satellite. I mean, *if* he actually makes it up there he may as well do something useful.
I've always wanted to send up a satellite that performs but one task... Which is transmitting the old Amiga Workbench 1.3 picture of the hand holding the disk.
I can see it now....The AmigaImmortal Project!;)
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Even though this is just some big names preinstalling RedHat in most cases, it'll go a damn long way toward helping the reputation of Linux in general.
I notice particularly, that they mention shipping Web/Proxy boxes to Lexus/Toyota. This relates to something that I have been trying to push for in my LUG. I wanted us to present Linux as a viable option to K-12 schools, who in a lot of cases are beginning to think seriously about doing things properly with regard to the internet, but the cost is too much! Using a free OS can help offset that a bit!
Only problem is, that when you tell most people about it, you mention RedHat, or other distros and various other names that they've never heard of, and you get nothing other than a blank look! But now you can mention Dell, or particularly Big Blue, and they'll immediately have more confidence!
Sad, but true!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I hope the people involved in developing the "wired home" and associated technologies take note of this.
I can imagine it. The Saturday Night Fever Virus. It triggers at about 11:00pm on a Saturday. All your lights start flashing on and off, your stereo starts playing a BeeGees track and your toaster burns some toast (for that authentic nightclub-smoke atmosphere).
Or even better... the ILoveYou@Home virus. Your bed starts vibrating, the lights dim, the stereo starts playing some romantic music, then it rings your neighbor and starts the same thing at their house!;)
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
In my experience, ATA/66 drives are rarely much faster than ATA/33, and benchmarks I've done and seen reflect that. ATA/66 seems to only be able to achieve the 66Mb/sec about 10% of the time, the rest of the time it runs closer to 33!
It makes you wonder exactly how much trust to put in the "100" in ATA/100 given its track record. Much like CDROM drives in the past, hard drives seem to tout a maximum speed which is achieved very rarely.
However, I hope I'm wrong. Most aspects of computers have been getting faster and faster over recent years, except harddrives. Given the huge size of some of the newest OSes (*coughwin2kcough*) we are going to need all the speed we can get, otherwise it's going to be back to the old C64-loading-off-tape days where you had to anticipate wanting to use your computer so you could boot it up while you did something else!;)
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I'm usually not this harsh, but this time I think I can make an exception.
I hated Doom. The FPS genre wasn't really worth playing until somewhere about the release of Duke3d. Doom was much like all of ID's games. Too dark, and completely without any sort of personality. Duke3d was a brilliant game, because it was fun to play. Your character had a personality.
At the time of Dooms original release I was still using my Amiga, and for the life of me I really couldn't see what all the fuss was about. You walked around with a gun in this poorly lit environment, unable to jump, taking hits from chunky looking baddies using a character with all the charisma of Sly Stallone. Coming from a platform where fluid movement, and fun to control characters were the norm, I found doom one of the most boring experiences ever.
Doom II was no better. Then there was Quake, a game that had less different textures than I have fingers to count them on. That's if you could see them at all, it was so dark. QuakeII, however, even though it looked a bit samey throughout was a good engine, and not a bad game. Then came QuakeIII. A brilliant engine which was sadly lacking the game.
I can only hope that Duke Forever materialises to remind everyone what a truly fun game is like. But, in the same way Billy Corgan said it was hard to compete with the Britney Spears' of the world, it's really hard to compete with the Doom rehashes of the world!
End rant.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Firstly, the whole Napster thing has gotten totally out of hand. Napster does not == piracy. Napster doesn't pirate songs, people pirate songs!
Secondly. I think I've just about heard enough from Mr. Stallman. I really can't understand the worship that people in particularly the Linux community have for him. Don't get me wrong, GNU is good. But does it justify the hero worship?
I'm sorry, but writing a few lines about this isn't going to make it go away.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
The study, like all that have previously sought to put a figure on sales lost to the piracy of anything, make one very stupid assumption.
They assume that obtaining a pirate copy of something means that you would have otherwise bought it. Says who? I ask all those people out there with thousands of MP3's... Would you have bought all those CD's? Could you even afford it?
As I see it, the resulting figures mean nothing!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I really can't understand what the DOJ or the court think this is going to achieve.
Splitting MS up seems to me, to be a good idea, but splitting them into two/three companies that deal in different areas seems pointless. Wont this simply create three companies with monopolies in those areas (OS, Applications, and Web Browser for example)?
Weren't the Baby Bells all different companies trying to service the same areas? Isn't the whole point of splitting a company, intended to create several different companies which compete against each other, hence giving the consumer better value and more choice?
It seems to me like a punishment rather than an effort to give consumers a better deal.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
It was acknowledging the three years, two months, one week and 3 days it takes to fire up the damn thing! I am of course talking about Netscape 4.x Messenger here. I can't comment on the Mozilla version.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I wouldn't want to be in Bleems shoes right about now. Sony, even though they've already been through the courts once, must be going to try it again, even if just to slow things down. It's a bit like someone working out the formula for Coke and handing it to Pepsi!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
This is probably more proof that Linux makes a good news headline these days. Why not 'Mac Users Unscathed...'? Because it's not as newsworthy as Linux. Not that there's a problem with people becoming more penguin-aware, but you do have to wonder.
Also, Windows Eudora, Pegasus, Netscape (ack) etc. users would also have been unaffected, because they have the sense not to use one of the most godawful mail clients ever.
Probably the scariest thing to come out of this is the amount of people/organisations out there using Outlook!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Yes, a lot of people are going to respond to this by saying that it's still wrong, and against the law.
But, this is just another case of the law, particularly copyright law giving no consideration to the internet. It's time for a change. It's time for people like Metallica to realise the intangible benefits of communities like Napster. If people trade lots of Metallica songs, it still means their music is being played, it means that it's being heard more, and helps make them a household name. People aren't going to stop buying the albums because of Napster. Any true fan would have the real hard copy. In most cases, the money spent using your net connection to download a whole album would be close enough to the price of the CD anyway.
I used to like Metallica. Now I'll never buy another one of their CDs.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Clueless would be an understatement. It makes you wonder whether this is simply a journalistic flamebait.
Anyways:
What amazes me the most is that open source has gained so much momentum without showing any goods.
How do you begin to criticise this article? It is it's own worst enemy. Open source has never shown any goods? Sure, and The Spice Girls were five talented young ladies!
It's clear that Linux has a future and that it's still attracting smart people. Open source, on the other hand, appears to be struggling.
Linux is open source. If one example of a process is a success, doesn't that, by definition, make the process a success too?
It's best at tearing apart the establishment because it consists of underappreciated programmers who suddenly have a voice.
Aren't there MS programmers credited in the Linux source? Or doesn't this person consider MS programmers appreciated?
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Does anyone really believe this? This is what they've been saying about silicon based processors for years too... touting that we'd have to find an alternative real soon, be it copper or bio or whatever.
That said, harddrives, be they IDE or SCSI are still unbearably slow for the size of modern OSes (Be and QNX excluded). So, a replacement that has some speed behind it would be more than welcome!
Mike Tyson is a bit player... he has to be... otherwise he'd just be fighting himself (that said, a boxing and WWF analogy in an IT discussion is quite ridiculous).
In the same way he is a bit of the whole boxing world, Microsoft may become a bit of the whole software/IT industry instead of trying to proclaim itself as being the whole industry.
You've gotta wonder about babelfish... when this piece of portugese was put through the translator:
streetlawyer submeteu uma ligação completamente surpreender: os staffers aparentemente desconhecidos de Andover.Net têm usado a característica offtopic undocumented da discussão no slash comunicar-se em Slashdot Marketing. A verdade é revelada de repente toda.
You get the following:
to streetlawyer full submitted a plugging to surprise: staffers pparently unknown of Andover.Net offtopic has used the feature undocumented of the quarrel in slash to communicate in Slashdot Marketing. The truth is disclosed suddenly all.
Then put that back in:
ao streetlawyer submetido completamente plugging à surpresa: o desconhecido dos staffers pparently de Andover.Net offtopic usou a característica undocumented da discussão no slash comunicar-se no marketing de Slashdot. A verdade é divulgada de repente tudo.
And back to english again:
when streetlawyer submitted full plugging to the surprise: the stranger of staffers pparently of Andover.Net offtopic used the feature undocumented of the quarrel in slash to communicate itself in the marketing of Slashdot. The truth is divulged suddenly everything.
And back to portugese again:
quando o streetlawyer submeteu completamente plugging à surpresa: o desconhecido dos staffers pparently de Andover.Net offtopic usou a característica undocumented da discussão no slash comunicar-se no marketing de Slashdot. A verdade divulged de repente tudo.
Moral of the story... don't try and pick up portugese chicks using translated pickup lines!
Slashdot Mirror
This is wonderful news!
The government is not trying to "legislate Digital Music". It's warning the traditional record industry that there will be penalties (ironic ones, yes) for them if they continue to use their corporate lawyers to beat down the "e-music" industry!
This is brilliant for the online music people, as it might give them some hope that the old-school music fraternity will stop suing them every time they try to do something new.
It's also brilliant for the artists that rely on the distribution power of online music. As soon as they're free to use the net to get their music out there, without the fear of some contrived lawsuit the better for all of us!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
This is getting out of hand!
The common mentality of people offering anything on the net seems to be to support it with advertising! It's almost as if advertising is the fallback multipurpose revenue generator.
How much more of this do we have to put up with?
We already have websites plastered so thick with ads that you can barely read them!
I'll be brave. I'd like to actually question the wisdom to all this advertising.
If advertising actually works, there would have to be a lot of people clicking on the banner ads, right?
Yet I talk to people I know and they say that they barely ever bother with them. So for it to average out, there must be one helluva lot of people just clicking on every ad that comes up in front of them!
Actually, a while back (can't remember where) I saw statistics that pointed toward the fact that IE users click on far more ads than Netscape users!
So, taking the liberty of assuming that there are more Netscape users downloading MP3's. I wonder if the same applies to MP3's? I wonder if the MP3 using community fits into the same profile, and would reject the whole idea?
Food for thought!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Ahhh... I can see it now!
;)
Screechdot: News for Birds, seed that scatters.
Running Nestscape Navigator for Mynahsoft CageDoor 2000 of course...
I wonder whether they thought to teach the birds how to restart Windows... Otherwise the screeching after a crash could become unbearable!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
There are a lot of people on here that seem to think that a new standard for transmission over the POTS is a waste of time because of the availability of DSL/Cable/Whatever.
.net connections to think about. A lot of those use a modem as their uplink. I'm sure they'd welcome an extra 15Kbps upstream!
This is, as usual, a very narrow minded and selfish approach.
Of course internet over POTS is going to survive.
I live in Australia, here we are just beginning trials of DSL, and even when it comes in it'll only be available in metropolitan areas.
Considering we are a country that has some of the most remote internet users (many hundreds of kilometres from the nearest city), I can't see broadband or services with similar speeds for a similar price getting out into the rural areas for a long time! Hence net over POTS lives on!
Then you have to take into consideration all the other third world countries where the internet is only available to a select few. These people aren't going to be getting DSL to their houses like the rich fat americans any time soon!
Next to consider is the average household user. The person who just wants to get/send emails and maybe do a bit of surfing sometimes. Why would they bother with anything other than a V.92 modem?
There's also the people using satellite
With all that, without even mentioning the cost difference between analogue and digital services, I think the humble modem will live a while longer. Even if only half what I've said is valid!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I'd have to say that this is the exception rather than the rule!
Only earlier this year, our very own LUG down here in Australias smallest state was invited to run a stall at a local computer show. We gave away a stack of CD's of various distributions.
It was that popular that after a while we had to start taking peoples names and telling them to come back in ten minutes after we'd finished burning the CD!
Also, and slightly more impressively. Last year I attended this expo in Melbourne, where they had allocated quite a large section of the place to Linux, which impressed me.
But what impressed me more was that the LUG for that state were invited to have a stall at the event... all expenses paid!
They not only got the floor space donated, but most of the equipment as well... including a nice SGI box!
Maybe this is the way to go at IT expos. Support your local LUG!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Maybe we should send him up with a satellite. I mean, *if* he actually makes it up there he may as well do something useful.
;)
I've always wanted to send up a satellite that performs but one task...
Which is transmitting the old Amiga Workbench 1.3 picture of the hand holding the disk.
I can see it now....The AmigaImmortal Project!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Even though this is just some big names preinstalling RedHat in most cases, it'll go a damn long way toward helping the reputation of Linux in general.
I notice particularly, that they mention shipping Web/Proxy boxes to Lexus/Toyota.
This relates to something that I have been trying to push for in my LUG.
I wanted us to present Linux as a viable option to K-12 schools, who in a lot of cases are beginning to think seriously about doing things properly with regard to the internet, but the cost is too much! Using a free OS can help offset that a bit!
Only problem is, that when you tell most people about it, you mention RedHat, or other distros and various other names that they've never heard of, and you get nothing other than a blank look!
But now you can mention Dell, or particularly Big Blue, and they'll immediately have more confidence!
Sad, but true!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I hope the people involved in developing the "wired home" and associated technologies take note of this.
;)
I can imagine it. The Saturday Night Fever Virus. It triggers at about 11:00pm on a Saturday. All your lights start flashing on and off, your stereo starts playing a BeeGees track and your toaster burns some toast (for that authentic nightclub-smoke atmosphere).
Or even better... the ILoveYou@Home virus. Your bed starts vibrating, the lights dim, the stereo starts playing some romantic music, then it rings your neighbor and starts the same thing at their house!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
In my experience, ATA/66 drives are rarely much faster than ATA/33, and benchmarks I've done and seen reflect that.
;)
ATA/66 seems to only be able to achieve the 66Mb/sec about 10% of the time, the rest of the time it runs closer to 33!
It makes you wonder exactly how much trust to put in the "100" in ATA/100 given its track record. Much like CDROM drives in the past, hard drives seem to tout a maximum speed which is achieved very rarely.
However, I hope I'm wrong. Most aspects of computers have been getting faster and faster over recent years, except harddrives.
Given the huge size of some of the newest OSes (*coughwin2kcough*) we are going to need all the speed we can get, otherwise it's going to be back to the old C64-loading-off-tape days where you had to anticipate wanting to use your computer so you could boot it up while you did something else!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Begin rant;
I'm usually not this harsh, but this time I think I can make an exception.
I hated Doom. The FPS genre wasn't really worth playing until somewhere about the release of Duke3d.
Doom was much like all of ID's games. Too dark, and completely without any sort of personality.
Duke3d was a brilliant game, because it was fun to play. Your character had a personality.
At the time of Dooms original release I was still using my Amiga, and for the life of me I really couldn't see what all the fuss was about. You walked around with a gun in this poorly lit environment, unable to jump, taking hits from chunky looking baddies using a character with all the charisma of Sly Stallone.
Coming from a platform where fluid movement, and fun to control characters were the norm, I found doom one of the most boring experiences ever.
Doom II was no better. Then there was Quake, a game that had less different textures than I have fingers to count them on. That's if you could see them at all, it was so dark.
QuakeII, however, even though it looked a bit samey throughout was a good engine, and not a bad game.
Then came QuakeIII. A brilliant engine which was sadly lacking the game.
I can only hope that Duke Forever materialises to remind everyone what a truly fun game is like. But, in the same way Billy Corgan said it was hard to compete with the Britney Spears' of the world, it's really hard to compete with the Doom rehashes of the world!
End rant.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Now all we need to do is design a computer that can hold your underpants! :)
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Firstly, the whole Napster thing has gotten totally out of hand. Napster does not == piracy. Napster doesn't pirate songs, people pirate songs!
Secondly. I think I've just about heard enough from Mr. Stallman.
I really can't understand the worship that people in particularly the Linux community have for him.
Don't get me wrong, GNU is good. But does it justify the hero worship?
I'm sorry, but writing a few lines about this isn't going to make it go away.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
The study, like all that have previously sought to put a figure on sales lost to the piracy of anything, make one very stupid assumption.
They assume that obtaining a pirate copy of something means that you would have otherwise bought it.
Says who? I ask all those people out there with thousands of MP3's... Would you have bought all those CD's? Could you even afford it?
As I see it, the resulting figures mean nothing!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
I really can't understand what the DOJ or the court think this is going to achieve.
Splitting MS up seems to me, to be a good idea, but splitting them into two/three companies that deal in different areas seems pointless.
Wont this simply create three companies with monopolies in those areas (OS, Applications, and Web Browser for example)?
Weren't the Baby Bells all different companies trying to service the same areas?
Isn't the whole point of splitting a company, intended to create several different companies which compete against each other, hence giving the consumer better value and more choice?
It seems to me like a punishment rather than an effort to give consumers a better deal.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Nope.
It was acknowledging the three years, two months, one week and 3 days it takes to fire up the damn thing!
I am of course talking about Netscape 4.x Messenger here. I can't comment on the Mozilla version.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Heh,
That guy is a spitting image of a guy I know. Same body-shape, same hair colour, same mess, same Anime stuff on the wall.
Only difference is, my friends machine is an Amiga 4000/040!
Heh... bet he doesn't have that in his little cube!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Geez,
I wouldn't want to be in Bleems shoes right about now.
Sony, even though they've already been through the courts once, must be going to try it again, even if just to slow things down.
It's a bit like someone working out the formula for Coke and handing it to Pepsi!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
The Backend (used by scripts to get the Slashdot Headlines) doesn't appear to be working!
I'm just getting the latest headline and no others.
Anyone else with the same prob?
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Linux Users Unscathed By ILOVEYOU???
This is probably more proof that Linux makes a good news headline these days.
Why not 'Mac Users Unscathed...'? Because it's not as newsworthy as Linux.
Not that there's a problem with people becoming more penguin-aware, but you do have to wonder.
Also, Windows Eudora, Pegasus, Netscape (ack) etc. users would also have been unaffected, because they have the sense not to use one of the most godawful mail clients ever.
Probably the scariest thing to come out of this is the amount of people/organisations out there using Outlook!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Iay ownay histencray ouyay 'lashdotsay'!
;)
:)
Uoyay aymay ownay isskay hetay erversay!
..... Enjoy your sleep dudes!
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
It's time for this to stop.
Yes, a lot of people are going to respond to this by saying that it's still wrong, and against the law.
But, this is just another case of the law, particularly copyright law giving no consideration to the internet.
It's time for a change. It's time for people like Metallica to realise the intangible benefits of communities like Napster. If people trade lots of Metallica songs, it still means their music is being played, it means that it's being heard more, and helps make them a household name.
People aren't going to stop buying the albums because of Napster. Any true fan would have the real hard copy. In most cases, the money spent using your net connection to download a whole album would be close enough to the price of the CD anyway.
I used to like Metallica. Now I'll never buy another one of their CDs.
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Clueless would be an understatement. It makes you wonder whether this is simply a journalistic flamebait.
Anyways:
What amazes me the most is that open source has gained so much momentum without showing any goods.
How do you begin to criticise this article? It is it's own worst enemy.
Open source has never shown any goods? Sure, and The Spice Girls were five talented young ladies!
It's clear that Linux has a future and that it's still attracting smart people. Open source, on the other hand, appears to be struggling.
Linux is open source. If one example of a process is a success, doesn't that, by definition, make the process a success too?
It's best at tearing apart the establishment because it consists of underappreciated programmers who suddenly have a voice.
Aren't there MS programmers credited in the Linux source? Or doesn't this person consider MS programmers appreciated?
"How much truth can advertising buy?" - iNsuRge - AK47
Does anyone really believe this? This is what they've been saying about silicon based processors for years too... touting that we'd have to find an alternative real soon, be it copper or bio or whatever.
That said, harddrives, be they IDE or SCSI are still unbearably slow for the size of modern OSes (Be and QNX excluded). So, a replacement that has some speed behind it would be more than welcome!
Mike Tyson is a bit player... he has to be... otherwise he'd just be fighting himself (that said, a boxing and WWF analogy in an IT discussion is quite ridiculous).
In the same way he is a bit of the whole boxing world, Microsoft may become a bit of the whole software/IT industry instead of trying to proclaim itself as being the whole industry.
You've gotta wonder about babelfish... when this piece of portugese was put through the translator:
streetlawyer submeteu uma ligação completamente
surpreender: os staffers aparentemente desconhecidos de Andover.Net têm
usado a característica offtopic undocumented da discussão no slash
comunicar-se em Slashdot Marketing. A verdade é revelada de repente
toda.
You get the following:
to streetlawyer full submitted a plugging to surprise: staffers pparently unknown of Andover.Net
offtopic has used the feature undocumented of the quarrel in slash to communicate in Slashdot
Marketing. The truth is disclosed suddenly all.
Then put that back in:
ao streetlawyer submetido completamente plugging à surpresa: o desconhecido dos staffers
pparently de Andover.Net offtopic usou a característica undocumented da discussão no slash
comunicar-se no marketing de Slashdot. A verdade é divulgada de repente tudo.
And back to english again:
when streetlawyer submitted full plugging to the surprise: the stranger of staffers pparently of
Andover.Net offtopic used the feature undocumented of the quarrel in slash to communicate
itself in the marketing of Slashdot. The truth is divulged suddenly everything.
And back to portugese again:
quando o streetlawyer submeteu completamente plugging à surpresa: o desconhecido dos
staffers pparently de Andover.Net offtopic usou a característica undocumented da discussão
no slash comunicar-se no marketing de Slashdot. A verdade divulged de repente tudo.
Moral of the story... don't try and pick up portugese chicks using translated pickup lines!