Yes it is. They are in charge, they control both houses of congress and the presidency and the supreme court. If it's not their fault whose fault is it?
Also answer honestly now.
Do you really think the fate of the patriot act would be the same under Bush and Dean? Do you honestly think there would be no difference in the enforcement of the act and/or modification of the act if Howard Dean was the president?
" Well, first and foremost, you have to realize that the US is not a homogenous entity. The south lagged, keeping segregation in effect for longer than the north."
I think that's irrelevant. The issue is one of federal laws and universaly granted rights. If a person is a slave in one part of the US then US is a country in which slavery is legal.
"Second, the USA has a much larger percentage of non-whites. In Europe, it would have been prohibitively expensive to maintain seperate schools and the like for a group that made up a tiny fraction of the population. Finally, while Euorpe may not have had much segregation on their home soil, England and Frace were both trying to cling to power in their colonies, ruling over other ethnic groups without giving them self determination."
Once again irrelevant. The issue is not WHY slavery existed but THAT slavery existed.
" I'm afraid you've already lost the bet on granting homosexuals equality. The SCOTUS has already ruled that no laws may be enacted forbidding homosexual practices"
The SCOTUS simply decided that sodomy was not illegal. In this respect it has caught up to where Europe was decades ago. I don't know any european country where "homosexual practices" have been illegal. Hawaii may have legalized gay marriages but those marriages are not recognized by any other state. In fact many states have passed resolutions and laws explicitly banning gay marriege. In this respect too the US will lag Europe and canada by decades.
The bill was brought up just after 9/11. It was a opportunistic bill brought up republicans in a time of shock and great sadness in our country. They capitalized on the (rightful) outrage and anger America to shove an evil bill down our throats.
Anybody who voted against it was going to be called a traitor and a terrorist every day by Fox News and only the bravest of the brave stood by their principles.
Anybody who voted against this bill deserves all of your money and votes and support.
BTW. Howard Dean was not in congress and did not get a chance to prove his mettle by voting for or against it but he has been a vocal opponent of it.
There are plenty of Java shops out there and plenty of Java jobs. In fact there is anecdotal evidence that Java jobs outnumber.NET jobs by quite a bit.
It all depends on what makes you more happy. Are you happy every day when you go to work or not? If you are going to be miserable coding in a windows environment then don't do it. The money is not worth it if you spend your entire day miserable and then come home and take it out on your family.
"Bash them all the you like. Microsoft's development tools have always been good. The Visual Studio suite is much better than any equivalent product I've seen."
It is certainly not better then webobjects. It is certainly much worse then the upcoming Xcode environment from Apple.
"but I think Microsoft actually "sees the light" in some respects, especially when it comes to a development platform."
I don't know. I am trying hard to think of a company that partnered with MS and didn't get backstabbed and for the life of me I can't think of one. I am sure each and every one of those companies said to themselves "I think MS acually sees the light now and despite what they did to those other companies I am sure they won't screw us".
"If we dismiss the travesty that Eolas is trying to get away with because the victims are Microsoft and plug-ins, don't come bitching to me when you get sued off your ass for using a JPEG or GIF on your website."
What makes you think the you won't get sued anyway? What bizarre labrynth of though processes convinced you that If MS wins all patent lawsuits will go away?
" But of course, he doesn't mean anything he says. He wants to squeeze as much money as possible out of the patent system without looking too much like a bad boy, and that's about it."
Then why isn't MS pushing for an end to all software patents? Why do they keep harping about the sanctity of intellectual property".
either you believe in IP or you don't. MS clearly is a very stong believer of IP so that means they have to take the good with the bad. If they infringe they have to pay.
" While I have no love for Microsoft, this will be a good thing if it results in the defeat of this patent suit."
What makes you think that if MS wins this suit software patents will go away? What makes you think that if MS wins nobody else will be sued for software patent?
Honestly where did you get such a stupid idea from?
"Eolas could easily proceed to sue the Mozilla Foundation, Opera, and anyone else who writes a browser with plugin technologies. "
This is highly unlikely. IT would not be worth it sue opera because they don't really make that much money. Even if you win you are unlikely to collect enough money to cover your legal fees because opera will declare bankrupcy and fold.
Suing Mozilla is even more futile because they have no money at all.
Besides which eolas has already stated that they only intend to go after MS.
"Would I like to see Microsoft set back a bit, or at least forced to mess with IE some? Yeah."
If that's what you want then this lawsuit is the best thing in the world for you. I would not be surprised if Eolas gave some of their winnings to mozilla if they prevail.
"Keep in mind, that if Microsoft is screwed over with abuse of a patent, you might be next."
First of all no matter what happens with MS you might be screwed over with patents. I honestly don't know where you got the idea that if MS wins this case then everybody else is somehow magically immune from patents. Are you really that dense?
Second of all MS will not get "screwed over". They will pay the fine and license the technology. It's a part of their business plan and they have done it many times in the past. MS paid AOL 700 million to settle suit remember that? They have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle dozens of lawsuits. It's just a matter of course for them. They steal technologies and break the law on purpose knowing that by the time the suit gets decided they will have made more money then they will pay out.
In this case I hope to hell eolas wins. Although the couple of hundred million by MS is pocket change it's still better then letting them get away with it.
Why is MS acting like it's going to lose this lawsuit. It has never done that before. All the times it's been sued (too many to count at this point) it has always put up a public face of invincibilty and constant press releases about how the suit is groundless and how it is positive it's going to win.
Maybe this suit is so strong they know they are going to lose or maybe they want to lose so they have an excuse to make IE even more closed then it already is.
Maybe they will just abandon standards altogether with the next version of IE and blame it on the lawsuit.
We may be about to witness a complete bifurcation of the internet soon.
"Yeah, that's a good reputation for the Linux community to have. "
Linux community already has a bad reputation. You are seen as communists and thiefs and a cancer on society. You are seen as lawless hippies stealing other peoples intellectual property and spreading your anti capitalist crusade across the world.
Do you know why you are seen that way? Because MS and their lapdog SCO says so. The press prints their hateful drivel every day in every major and minor publication.
If you want to sit on your ass do nothing about the constant barrage of hate speach from MS then by all mean go ahead but I for one hope that the majority of the linux community does not take a "turn the other cheek" approach.
There is a war against linux by MS and it's minions. If you don't fight back you will be killed.
"Maybe it's time to end the anti-MS pissing contest"
I don't think we should end the anti-MS pissing contest until MS ends the anti-linux pissing contest and the anti linux PR machine and the anti linux legislature lobbying.
Slashdot Mirror
"The problem isn't "those damn Republicans.""
Yes it is. They are in charge, they control both houses of congress and the presidency and the supreme court. If it's not their fault whose fault is it?
Also answer honestly now.
Do you really think the fate of the patriot act would be the same under Bush and Dean? Do you honestly think there would be no difference in the enforcement of the act and/or modification of the act if Howard Dean was the president?
" Well, first and foremost, you have to realize that the US is not a homogenous entity. The south lagged, keeping segregation in effect for longer than the north."
I think that's irrelevant. The issue is one of federal laws and universaly granted rights. If a person is a slave in one part of the US then US is a country in which slavery is legal.
"Second, the USA has a much larger percentage of non-whites. In Europe, it would have been prohibitively expensive to maintain seperate schools and the like for a group that made up a tiny fraction of the population. Finally, while Euorpe may not have had much segregation on their home soil, England and Frace were both trying to cling to power in their colonies, ruling over other ethnic groups without giving them self determination."
Once again irrelevant. The issue is not WHY slavery existed but THAT slavery existed.
" I'm afraid you've already lost the bet on granting homosexuals equality. The SCOTUS has already ruled that no laws may be enacted forbidding homosexual practices"
The SCOTUS simply decided that sodomy was not illegal. In this respect it has caught up to where Europe was decades ago. I don't know any european country where "homosexual practices" have been illegal. Hawaii may have legalized gay marriages but those marriages are not recognized by any other state. In fact many states have passed resolutions and laws explicitly banning gay marriege. In this respect too the US will lag Europe and canada by decades.
How could anybody possibly be worse.
Even if they voted for it then if they are against it now they should get your vote. Especially if their opponent is for it.
Look deeper.
The bill was brought up just after 9/11. It was a opportunistic bill brought up republicans in a time of shock and great sadness in our country. They capitalized on the (rightful) outrage and anger America to shove an evil bill down our throats.
Anybody who voted against it was going to be called a traitor and a terrorist every day by Fox News and only the bravest of the brave stood by their principles.
Anybody who voted against this bill deserves all of your money and votes and support.
BTW. Howard Dean was not in congress and did not get a chance to prove his mettle by voting for or against it but he has been a vocal opponent of it.
Just exactly what is the difference between a conservative and a republican?
Is Ann Coulter a concervative? Is she a republican? Why should it matter to me when she calls me a traitor and says that I hate America?
".NET API is even patentable."
It can't be patentable because Java is prior art.
There are plenty of Java shops out there and plenty of Java jobs. In fact there is anecdotal evidence that Java jobs outnumber .NET jobs by quite a bit.
It all depends on what makes you more happy. Are you happy every day when you go to work or not? If you are going to be miserable coding in a windows environment then don't do it. The money is not worth it if you spend your entire day miserable and then come home and take it out on your family.
"Bash them all the you like. Microsoft's development tools have always been good. The Visual Studio suite is much better than any equivalent product I've seen."
It is certainly not better then webobjects. It is certainly much worse then the upcoming Xcode environment from Apple.
Yes but does ECMA issue standards for patented material or not? If so what good is a ECMA standard?
"but I think Microsoft actually "sees the light" in some respects, especially when it comes to a development platform."
I don't know. I am trying hard to think of a company that partnered with MS and didn't get backstabbed and for the life of me I can't think of one. I am sure each and every one of those companies said to themselves "I think MS acually sees the light now and despite what they did to those other companies I am sure they won't screw us".
So you think patents are somehow socialist? I think you are the only person in the world who thinks that way.
"My point is that software patents are bad. The logic of the parent was that software patents aren't bad if their used against the right companies."
I don't think so. Sure software patents are bad but they exist nevertheless. In this case software patents are being used against Microsoft.
In a world where software patents exist whether we like them or not it's a good thing when they are used against Microsoft.
So?
I hate people who bitch about slashdot. It's a free world man, you don't have to hang around here if you don't want to.
Complaining about slashdot is like complaining about how hot it is when you have an air conditioner.
"If we dismiss the travesty that Eolas is trying to get away with because the victims are Microsoft and plug-ins, don't come bitching to me when you get sued off your ass for using a JPEG or GIF on your website."
What makes you think the you won't get sued anyway? What bizarre labrynth of though processes convinced you that If MS wins all patent lawsuits will go away?
" But of course, he doesn't mean anything he says. He wants to squeeze as much money as possible out of the patent system without looking too much like a bad boy, and that's about it."
It's called capitalism. Get used to it.
"That means the CONSUMER drives it,"
Then why isn't MS pushing for an end to all software patents? Why do they keep harping about the sanctity of intellectual property".
either you believe in IP or you don't. MS clearly is a very stong believer of IP so that means they have to take the good with the bad. If they infringe they have to pay.
" While I have no love for Microsoft, this will be a good thing if it results in the defeat of this patent suit."
What makes you think that if MS wins this suit software patents will go away? What makes you think that if MS wins nobody else will be sued for software patent?
Honestly where did you get such a stupid idea from?
"Eolas could easily proceed to sue the Mozilla Foundation, Opera, and anyone else who writes a browser with plugin technologies. "
This is highly unlikely. IT would not be worth it sue opera because they don't really make that much money. Even if you win you are unlikely to collect enough money to cover your legal fees because opera will declare bankrupcy and fold.
Suing Mozilla is even more futile because they have no money at all.
Besides which eolas has already stated that they only intend to go after MS.
"Would I like to see Microsoft set back a bit, or at least forced to mess with IE some? Yeah."
If that's what you want then this lawsuit is the best thing in the world for you. I would not be surprised if Eolas gave some of their winnings to mozilla if they prevail.
"Keep in mind, that if Microsoft is screwed over with abuse of a patent, you might be next."
First of all no matter what happens with MS you might be screwed over with patents. I honestly don't know where you got the idea that if MS wins this case then everybody else is somehow magically immune from patents. Are you really that dense?
Second of all MS will not get "screwed over". They will pay the fine and license the technology. It's a part of their business plan and they have done it many times in the past. MS paid AOL 700 million to settle suit remember that? They have paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle dozens of lawsuits. It's just a matter of course for them. They steal technologies and break the law on purpose knowing that by the time the suit gets decided they will have made more money then they will pay out.
In this case I hope to hell eolas wins. Although the couple of hundred million by MS is pocket change it's still better then letting them get away with it.
"Microsoft may have done a lot of bad things, but this patent applies to every browser out there. "
Yes and no. Mozilla can easily get by without plug ins because of XUL.
When you think about it Mozilla does not really need plug ins. With XUL and XML-RPC you can just about anything you want.
It would be wonderful if Mozilla had to ditch plug ins and go strictly to XUL.
Why is MS acting like it's going to lose this lawsuit. It has never done that before. All the times it's been sued (too many to count at this point) it has always put up a public face of invincibilty and constant press releases about how the suit is groundless and how it is positive it's going to win.
Maybe this suit is so strong they know they are going to lose or maybe they want to lose so they have an excuse to make IE even more closed then it already is.
Maybe they will just abandon standards altogether with the next version of IE and blame it on the lawsuit.
We may be about to witness a complete bifurcation of the internet soon.
"Yeah, that's a good reputation for the Linux community to have. "
Linux community already has a bad reputation. You are seen as communists and thiefs and a cancer on society. You are seen as lawless hippies stealing other peoples intellectual property and spreading your anti capitalist crusade across the world.
Do you know why you are seen that way? Because MS and their lapdog SCO says so. The press prints their hateful drivel every day in every major and minor publication.
If you want to sit on your ass do nothing about the constant barrage of hate speach from MS then by all mean go ahead but I for one hope that the majority of the linux community does not take a "turn the other cheek" approach.
There is a war against linux by MS and it's minions. If you don't fight back you will be killed.
"Maybe it's time to end the anti-MS pissing contest"
I don't think we should end the anti-MS pissing contest until MS ends the anti-linux pissing contest and the anti linux PR machine and the anti linux legislature lobbying.