What if the choice was not between starvation and ethics (it almost never is). What if your choice was write code to cure cancer and drive a nissan or write bomb targetting software and drive a BMW. Either way your family is fed, clothed and sheltered and living in lilly white suburbia land. Which path do you chose?
I guess I was a asleep that day in school when occams razor was proven. Was that in science or mathematics? Please point out a link to me where occams razor is proven and the mathematical underpinning of it. Also any link explaining how it supercedes all other laws of mathematics and science would be helpful as well.
" The Cyclic Model is a radical, new cosmological scenario which proposes that the Universe undergoes an endless sequence of epochs"
Whatever else this model is it's neither new nor radical. It's actually a re-statement of Hindu mythology which has been around for thousands of years. It would be funny though is a six thousand year old myth did indeed describe the universe correctly.
This letter should be required reading for every open source advocate. Put it in your own words and blast any MS astroturfer with it. This is serious ammunition folks make use of it.
" If you can't even be bothered to address the basic thesis (even matches=more casualties) then this is just a waste of bandwidth."
The problem with the thesis (or any arguments against the thesis) is that you need real numbers. You seem to presume that the military was perfectly happy dropping bombs and not killing people. A position I find ridiculus. We bombed for months and it should be safe to presume that we killed tens of thousands of people. I really don't see your "accident" point at all. Sure several thousand innocent civilians died but the casualy numbers include the "so called" soldiers too. If we killed over three thousand innocent people we probably killed over thirty thousand people alltogether. If that's not the case then our 10 to 1 civilians to soldier killed ratio is more like 5/1 or even 2/1. Exactly how many people do you think were killed in afghanistan anyways.
Which brings me to my second point. We don't know the answer for sure because the press is unwilling, unable, or is actively prevented form telling us. So we have to guess using cojectures like "surely they killed more then 10 soldiers for every innocent civilan".
You can't make a thesis, defend one, or dispute one without facts. All we have here are conjectures. Nevertheless it makes sense that we killed at least thirty thousand humans in afghanistan in exchange for less then a dozen US soldiers killed. That's pretty uneven and it's a significant body count.
Why would the United States spend billions of dollars and bomb rocks? What a silly thing to say. Bombing was targetted at the (so called) soldiers.
BTW nobody in afghanistan was impeding the movement of the press except the US military. Just like nobody is impeding the movement of the press in palestine except the israeli army. The reason we don't have numbers is because the US military controlled what you are allowed to see and hear. They kept a tight lid on the press in afghanistan and gave the public the rummy show stand up act to keep them occupied.
We are predetors. Our natural instinct is to kill not only to eat but to gain prosition in the pack and to mate with the most females. I don't think we will even overcome our instincts.
IIRC we killed about a 100,000 people in iraq. I don't know how many we killed in afghanistan (only we had free press in this country we migh have had some numbers) but I'd venture to say it's impossible to bomb continuously for a month not kill at least 30 thousand people.
"Not only do they need to catch up and match the features, they need to offer some significant improvements to make MS chase them for a change"
I think you are wrong on this one. If it's 80% as good and costs less people will switch. The switch will start with the small businesses and then spread from there. What we really need is for MS to aggressively pursue piracy so that the small business person can not steal office. Same with the third world. The minute we can end piracy open source wins.
"Sadly, this often happens in the private sector, too. Oh, well."
It happens in MOST large companies. In fact MOST large companies are run not too differently then the govt. If you want security go work for the govt or a large business. You have to put up with insane regulations and inept management but they are never going to go out of business. Otherwise there are always the small businesses.
You know when I was in school 1984 was required reading. I am thinking that is no longer the case.
Re:CORBA is too heavy & EJB is too RMI/IIOP de
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Web Services
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· Score: 2
I don't think I'll hold my breath to see how compatible MS SOAP is with everybody elses. There are already subtle differences between the MS soap and apache soap. Also the ms parser does an ebrace and extend by executing script in the XML (which just sounds like a recipe for disaster to me).
Re:CORBA is too heavy & EJB is too RMI/IIOP de
on
Web Services
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· Score: 2
Parsing the XML is not the problem I can parse a comma delimeted file with a while loop and an explode. The problem with XML is that people abuse the hell out of it. People send you XML which changes with each invocation for example. Besides there is no real validation in XML so you have to code all the validation anyway. XML does not save code, it does not save bandwith. It's just a buzzword.
"Relative to Netscape, they have done a lot better."
The things people say on slashdot really amaze me sometimes. Nestcape got bought by the one of the biggest media companies in the world for a gob of money. Their shareholders made a lot of money, their employees are now working for AOL/TW and you think opera did better then them? What criterea are you using to make such a statement?
As for NS the product there was no point in making it better. As soon as MS bundled it with windows the game was over. The folks at NS realized this and started marketing server side stuff and then MS started bundling IIS. Anytime netscape started marketing a product MS made sure they offered a competing one for free and forced all windows users to install it. In the end all they had left was the portal and AOL bought that. They did the best they could under the circumstances. Nobody can survive when a monopoly started giving away competing products. The people at opera had nothing to lose the people at netscape were beholden to their shareholders to spend all their efforts trying to find something to sell that MS wasn't. It's a completely different scenario. It would have been criminal for the CEO of netscape to continue to spend money developing netscape. In the end their revenues would have dropped to where opera is today (pretty damned close to zero) and netscape stock would have been worthless. The shareholders deserved better and as it turned out they got better.
Opera is not "doing well" they are tiny company making a tiny amount of money. I agree that it's a far superior piece of software then IE (but then again so is Mozilla) but just because opera is surviving as a business does not mean they are "doing well". How much money did they make last year? Where does that put them in the fortune 500? They probably made less money then my local locally owned supermarket did.
Slashdot Mirror
What if the choice was not between starvation and ethics (it almost never is). What if your choice was write code to cure cancer and drive a nissan or write bomb targetting software and drive a BMW. Either way your family is fed, clothed and sheltered and living in lilly white suburbia land. Which path do you chose?
Unfortunately there are far too many people who think like you in every profession imaginable.
" Where are we, the public, going to get the resources to fight this kind of thing?"
You can't. That's capitalism for you. As the who said once "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"
I guess I was a asleep that day in school when occams razor was proven. Was that in science or mathematics? Please point out a link to me where occams razor is proven and the mathematical underpinning of it. Also any link explaining how it supercedes all other laws of mathematics and science would be helpful as well.
" The Cyclic Model is a radical, new cosmological scenario which proposes that the Universe undergoes an endless sequence of epochs"
Whatever else this model is it's neither new nor radical. It's actually a re-statement of Hindu mythology which has been around for thousands of years. It would be funny though is a six thousand year old myth did indeed describe the universe correctly.
This letter should be required reading for every open source advocate. Put it in your own words and blast any MS astroturfer with it. This is serious ammunition folks make use of it.
" If you can't even be bothered to address the basic thesis (even matches=more casualties) then this is just a waste of bandwidth."
The problem with the thesis (or any arguments against the thesis) is that you need real numbers. You seem to presume that the military was perfectly happy dropping bombs and not killing people. A position I find ridiculus. We bombed for months and it should be safe to presume that we killed tens of thousands of people. I really don't see your "accident" point at all. Sure several thousand innocent civilians died but the casualy numbers include the "so called" soldiers too. If we killed over three thousand innocent people we probably killed over thirty thousand people alltogether. If that's not the case then our 10 to 1 civilians to soldier killed ratio is more like 5/1 or even 2/1. Exactly how many people do you think were killed in afghanistan anyways.
Which brings me to my second point. We don't know the answer for sure because the press is unwilling, unable, or is actively prevented form telling us. So we have to guess using cojectures like "surely they killed more then 10 soldiers for every innocent civilan".
You can't make a thesis, defend one, or dispute one without facts. All we have here are conjectures. Nevertheless it makes sense that we killed at least thirty thousand humans in afghanistan in exchange for less then a dozen US soldiers killed. That's pretty uneven and it's a significant body count.
Why would the United States spend billions of dollars and bomb rocks? What a silly thing to say. Bombing was targetted at the (so called) soldiers.
BTW nobody in afghanistan was impeding the movement of the press except the US military. Just like nobody is impeding the movement of the press in palestine except the israeli army. The reason we don't have numbers is because the US military controlled what you are allowed to see and hear. They kept a tight lid on the press in afghanistan and gave the public the rummy show stand up act to keep them occupied.
We are predetors. Our natural instinct is to kill not only to eat but to gain prosition in the pack and to mate with the most females. I don't think we will even overcome our instincts.
IIRC we killed about a 100,000 people in iraq. I don't know how many we killed in afghanistan (only we had free press in this country we migh have had some numbers) but I'd venture to say it's impossible to bomb continuously for a month not kill at least 30 thousand people.
"I also don't see the need to support a monopoly in the making any more than I see the need to support a monopoly that already exists."
Quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever read in my life. Only on slashdot I guess.
"It would take an unimaginable sum of money for me to sell out and lose the respect of my peers."
Well lucky for you MS has unimaginable sums of money.
Don't expect a post like this to be modded up on slashdot. I wish we could keep mod points around just for posts like these.
"Not only do they need to catch up and match the features, they need to offer some significant improvements to make MS chase them for a change"
I think you are wrong on this one. If it's 80% as good and costs less people will switch. The switch will start with the small businesses and then spread from there. What we really need is for MS to aggressively pursue piracy so that the small business person can not steal office. Same with the third world. The minute we can end piracy open source wins.
"Sadly, this often happens in the private sector, too. Oh, well."
It happens in MOST large companies. In fact MOST large companies are run not too differently then the govt. If you want security go work for the govt or a large business. You have to put up with insane regulations and inept management but they are never going to go out of business. Otherwise there are always the small businesses.
Its B.
You know when I was in school 1984 was required reading. I am thinking that is no longer the case.
I don't think I'll hold my breath to see how compatible MS SOAP is with everybody elses. There are already subtle differences between the MS soap and apache soap. Also the ms parser does an ebrace and extend by executing script in the XML (which just sounds like a recipe for disaster to me).
Parsing the XML is not the problem I can parse a comma delimeted file with a while loop and an explode. The problem with XML is that people abuse the hell out of it. People send you XML which changes with each invocation for example. Besides there is no real validation in XML so you have to code all the validation anyway. XML does not save code, it does not save bandwith. It's just a buzzword.
"So, do we like them or hate them?
I guess I'll wait for the next slashback to tell me."
So American.
I can only like or hate there are no shades of grey.
Please tell me what to think.
" Come on Bill, you throw out a wild claim like that that has no foundation in reality and it makes all of your other claims suspect."
Acutally what he is doing is lying under oath. If you, I or Bill Clinton did it we would be tried for perjury. When Bill Gates does it no problem.
Huh? You seem to be talking about the US supreme court but somehow you have ti completely backwards.
"Relative to Netscape, they have done a lot better."
The things people say on slashdot really amaze me sometimes. Nestcape got bought by the one of the biggest media companies in the world for a gob of money. Their shareholders made a lot of money, their employees are now working for AOL/TW and you think opera did better then them? What criterea are you using to make such a statement?
As for NS the product there was no point in making it better. As soon as MS bundled it with windows the game was over. The folks at NS realized this and started marketing server side stuff and then MS started bundling IIS. Anytime netscape started marketing a product MS made sure they offered a competing one for free and forced all windows users to install it. In the end all they had left was the portal and AOL bought that. They did the best they could under the circumstances. Nobody can survive when a monopoly started giving away competing products. The people at opera had nothing to lose the people at netscape were beholden to their shareholders to spend all their efforts trying to find something to sell that MS wasn't. It's a completely different scenario. It would have been criminal for the CEO of netscape to continue to spend money developing netscape. In the end their revenues would have dropped to where opera is today (pretty damned close to zero) and netscape stock would have been worthless. The shareholders deserved better and as it turned out they got better.
This does not work anything that is not a primitive. You can not write a function that returns a recordset for example.
Opera is not "doing well" they are tiny company making a tiny amount of money. I agree that it's a far superior piece of software then IE (but then again so is Mozilla) but just because opera is surviving as a business does not mean they are "doing well". How much money did they make last year? Where does that put them in the fortune 500? They probably made less money then my local locally owned supermarket did.