And now, when you are younger, you can look upon the older and wiser and try not to become as pessimistic, disillusioned and bitter as they have.
Oh, I'm not pessimistic, disillusioned or bitter. I only wasted a year and a half of my life as a corporate wage slave - I realised that it was all a con pretty quickly. I just makes me sad when I look at some of my ex-collegues who still haven't "got it" and are wasting their young lives believing that what they are doing is important and that their employers care about them.
It's the same old trick. Stop people buying your competitors product by promising something better soon. Repeat until you actually have something to offer. It's a trick Microsoft have used many times too.
The everyday perks were incredible, free drinks, 1/2 subsidized lunch room, laptop, iPAQ, yearly budget to purchase anything you want (that will help the company)... It was really amazing.
It works like this:
1) get graduates straight out of universtiy. 2) condition them to believe working extremely long hours and weekends is "normal". 3) condition them to believe that if you're a real professional then your work is more important than socialising with your friends and spending time with your family. 4) pay them relatively low salaries, but promise big ones in the future. 5) give them free pop, sweeties and toys. 6) See how far you can push the suckers!
When you are older and wiser, believe me you will look back on your free drinks and 1/2 subsidized lunch room and realise how gullible you were when you were younger...
Internet Explorer is one example you left off that list of products that Microsoft attempted to enter where they were the underdog.
By giving away a product for free!
Giving stuff away for free != profit.
Profit == basis of all business.
Therefore winning browser wars != example of Microsoft successfully moving into new sector.
I'm sure Microsoft could "win" the game console wars if they gave the consoles and games away for free. But that wouldn't be profitable and there also not an example of MS successfully moving into a new sector.
I'm no Microsoft fan, but this is Business 101.
Gosh, sounds link I must take that Business 101 course! Thanks!
You, reading this, don't believe me. You think I'm bullshitting.
I believe you.
You can't believe that'd ever get past anyone... but that's exactly why it can... and one day, maybe, will...
This kind of fraud has happened before. I don't know of any case where transaction processing software has been tampered with, but I do know that about ten years ago one of the major banks lost several hundred million dollars because someone generated false transactions on their system. The bank hushed it up because they didn't want to spook their customers. It didn't even appear in their annual report and filings. But it happened.
It's funny but just talking about this stuff feels like a crime.
I used to work for a software company that did software for banks - the big international ones. Not only that, but it was the crucial transaction processing software, the software that moves money around the world.
What used to suprise me was that we would go to do installs at the banks sites with a binary we would take on a tape. Although the bigger banks would often check the source code, they wouldn't check the binaries we installed.
The company was responsible for one system for one major bank that transacted hundreds of billions of dollars a day. When I'm planning my fantasy bank robbery, getting modified binaries into those key transaction systems is my method:-)
But they don't. Windows and Office are still the cash cows at Microsoft - and always have been. They have consistently failed to dominate other markets:
a) They tried to 'kill' AOL with MSN, and failed dismally. Now dial-up is yesterdays market.
b) They tried to 'kill' Palm and dominate the handheld market, and failed. The handheld market is now also becoming yesterday's news.
c) Mobiles is where the action is at, and Microsoft is really struggling to make any impact at all there.
It is a fallacy to say that Microsoft is good at making money in new markets. They are actually very good at wasting huge sums trying to dominate new markets, and failing.
Bill Gates did the clever stuff over a decade ago, recognising the importance of the PC OS and Office markets, and fighting like mad to dominate it. That has generated vast amounts of money. But their efforts elsewhere haven't been so successful.
It's only recently that they've started to take on Sony. Sony is Godzilla to Microsoft's King Kong. In the past, the giant gorilla has had an easy time swatting less powerful foes. Taking on Godzilla is a whole new ballgame. My money is on Godzilla.
MS has an internal website called "Fight linux" that the sales people use to prep for meetings. I wish they'd make the site public because it has some of the best anti-linunx information available anywhere.
I expect that there is a simple reason why MS doesn't make their "Fight Linux" web site external. It is because then the OSS community would come up with a rebuttal. Do you think that the information Microsoft gives to its sales people is unbiased, truthful? Think about it - it is much better to have a sales person that really believes MS solutions are better than one who knows the facts but can argue the case for MS solutions. So MS are going to tell their sales people, for instance, "Linux has more security holes than Linux, look at these facts!", and they'll miss out those facts that do not support their argument.
I work with a lot of marketeers, and I know that for complex arguments, it is possible to put together convincing, fact-based arguments whatever point you want to get across. Especially if your target is not well informed, which is normally the case in the IT world.
PS Quantum doesn't need to be very complicated. Superposition seems complicated when they throw the math at you but its really just this:
The universe hasn't yet decided the outcome of certain quantum events so all possibilities exist at time zero. A quantum calculation involves forcing the universe to resolve the uncertainty at time one. Programming a quantum calculation involves setting things up so that the universe will select or sort for the outcome you are looking for given a range of inputs.
[Slaps forehead] Oh, now I understand! It's all so simple! At a quantum level, all possibilities exist and all we are doing is forcing the universe to resolve uncertainty! Piece of cake!
I'm often thought that, if the OSS developers really wants to help OSS take off, they should create a simple, well designed web site with the facts for and against, and perhaps some case studies. Something that would be have a compelling argument for PHBs.
It seems that this guy has put together lots of good facts, but it fails hugely in one respect. It is not business-like. Someone needs to go though this and remove emotion and long-windedness and highlight the best facts.
Consider this sentence:
Denial has always been Microsoft's "remedy of choice", blaming "dumb users", "criminal hackers", and "poor administration" for security problems. Apparently Microsoft itself employs plenty of dumb users and poor administrators, because they've had to disconnect their internal systems for major cleanups with every big worm attack, and they got slammed pretty hard by the Slammer worm in JAN 2003
Extract the fact:
Jan 2003, Microsoft disconnected their own internal network because they because they became infected by the Slammer worm.
Now, which of these two sentences do you think would have the most influence on business decision makers (or PHBs if you prefer)?
My grandfather was a professional photographer, and when I went to see movies with him at the cinema he used to love to explain to me how the special effects were done (painting scenery on sheets of glass, that type of stuff). Then one day we went to see something - (Close Encounters or Star Wars or something) and the film made him kind of sad because he couldn't explain the effects to me. I remember thinking that that must be a defining moment in one's life - when you start to find things in your own profession that you don't understand because it has quicker than you've been able to keep up.
I'm only 32 and I've been into computers since I was a kid. But I can't get my head round this quantum stuff at all. At least my grandad was in his late sixties before he started not understanding things. Seems like our generation aren't going to be so lucky. Or perhaps everyone else understands it and I'm just dim. Ho hum.
I don't like this move to subscription that has become popular. Macromedia also is trying to do it.
It's great for the provider - over time it makes you a lot more money, and you get a more regular cash flow. And it eases the pressure to come up with major releases. You can just make minor improvements regularly to justify the charge. Fixing bugs and security holes should not be considered a service - it is repairing a faulty product.
So as a provider, it's great. But as a customer, it's not so good - stuff basically ends up being more expensive, and you get locked in to one provider.
I think it is a development that needs to be resisted. Profit margins are far too high on a lot of software anyway. This kind of move just makes OSS solutions even more attractive.
I have mixed feelings about this type of thing. Is it better for governments to do this type of thing in secret, and for we the general public to remain happy and unaware, or for it to be done in the open, and for us to realise that it happening and to be unhappy about it?
Ireland is an interesting case because a few years ago it became public knowledge that the Brits had been covertly monitoring all calls between Ireland and the UK for years.* And personally I don't think you are paranoid if you believe your government (especially if you live in the UK or USA) is electronically monitoring hundreds of thousands of telephone calls, SMS messages, emails etc. right at this very minute. My question is, being that governments already do this, and if it done only in the name of combatting crime and terrorism and not abused, is it not perhaps better if Joe and Janette Public remain blissfully unaware of it?
*I can't recall the exact details, but as I recall people became aware of this because a telecom tower in the east of Ireland was put out of service and up for sale, and it was discovered that its purpose was to monitor calls between Ireland and the UK.
The company is trying to adopt a more paternal role. It's using its vast resources to help the ailing PC industry in new ways.
So, Microsoft's press pack for lazy journalists says that MS is now a mature grown-up company. Lazy journalist writes that MS has changed for the better.
Argh. And don't you just hate MS doublespeak!:
"[..]we need to be even more committed to charging in and helping out and building products in areas where we don't compete today... because that's what's really in the best interest of the customers," Ballmer said.
Steve. Please. Drop the bullshit. You need to move into other markets to maintain your current revenue growth. It is not because "that's what's really in the best interest of the customers".
Do you think Microsofties say these things to themselves so many times that they end up believing them? It's kind of like a bizarre cult. I chatted to some friends of friends the other day who work at Microsoft. I was ruminating on the facts surronding OSS. They just flipped. They couldn't believe that I could be so stupid as to think that OSS was ever going to get anywhere. MS calls OSS people "zealots", but believe me, you wouldn't believe how fanatical and brain-washed some Microsofties are.
Really? The sales figures given here don't look so good. But even if you are right, compared to their original predictions, 16k is a tiny number.
The Brits could have predicted this...
on
Buy a Segway... Please
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Back in the early/mid eighties in the UK there was a scientist/inventor/businessman called Clive Sinclair. He had a string of successes in consumer electronics, starting with a digital watch and progressing to home computers. One of his final products was a revolutionary electric one person "car", incorporating lots of new and clever technology. It was predicted that it would be huge success, as where most of his other products. But it was a dismal failure. Nobody wanted one. It looks like history is repeating...
I've been thinking for a while about using Instant Messaging/ICQ or whatever at work. We have people working together in offices in several different countries, on various platforms. We normally use email/phone to communicate. Anyone use ICQ or Messenger? Good or bad experience? What's the best software to use?
If Microsoft have these powers, they will abuse them. Microsoft will use it to further force you to do what they want you to do, not what you want to do. Even with the very recent legal difficulties, they are still acting exactly as before. And this has just cost me a couple of hours of my time. Let me explain - bear with me, the gall of MS will amaze you...
I use Windows XP with Mozilla. The software my bank uses is only compatible with the Microsoft JVM (stupid bankers...). I have previously installed the Sun JVM, so in an effort to get the Microsoft JVM working I used the new "Set program access and defaults" option which Microsoft added to Windows XP as part of the settlement. It is supposed to make it easier for you to set the default email, JVM and browser clients. I intended to change my defaults to IE and the MS virtual machine, use my bank's site, and then change them back again to Mozilla(1). To cut a long story short, once I had changed my default browser from Mozilla to IE, it was impossible to change it back again. The new configurator that Microsoft had added as part of the legal settlement had renamed all of the mozilla files so they wouldn't work anymore, replacing their old extention with "new", i.e. so mozilla.exe became mozilla.new. Not only that, it also removed the mozilla icon from the desktop, the "power bar" and the menu. So the only way I could get it working again was to completely reinstall it. And they did this as part of the legal settlement!
F*uck them. I'm going to move to Linux for my desktop. It might have installation hassels too, but at least I'll know that they haven't been designed to be difficult on purpose.
(1) This may seem an odd thing to do, but you can't download the Microsoft JVM from the MS site any more, so I thought this might be a way to reactive it.
1) Destroy a nuclear warhead storage facility in China ("The dragon awakes...") 2) Destroy a damn in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. 3) Destroy all enemy forces in Iraq ("Operation: Final Justice")
Can't they just use make-believe places and situations? I find this kind of stuff offensive.
If a company in China or Russian or wherever released a game about invading and destroying things in the USA, I'm sure many people in the USA - and especially elements of the press - would be outraged. Imagine if an Arabic country released a game like this - many people would see it as inciting hatred towards the USA.
Plea to game makers - please make the baddies aliens and dragons or robots.
Slashdot Mirror
And now, when you are younger, you can look upon the older and wiser and try not to become as pessimistic, disillusioned and bitter as they have.
Oh, I'm not pessimistic, disillusioned or bitter. I only wasted a year and a half of my life as a corporate wage slave - I realised that it was all a con pretty quickly. I just makes me sad when I look at some of my ex-collegues who still haven't "got it" and are wasting their young lives believing that what they are doing is important and that their employers care about them.
It's the same old trick. Stop people buying your competitors product by promising something better soon. Repeat until you actually have something to offer. It's a trick Microsoft have used many times too.
I'm going to fetch my broom...
The everyday perks were incredible, free drinks, 1/2 subsidized lunch room, laptop, iPAQ, yearly budget to purchase anything you want (that will help the company)... It was really amazing.
It works like this:
1) get graduates straight out of universtiy.
2) condition them to believe working extremely long hours and weekends is "normal".
3) condition them to believe that if you're a real professional then your work is more important than socialising with your friends and spending time with your family.
4) pay them relatively low salaries, but promise big ones in the future.
5) give them free pop, sweeties and toys.
6) See how far you can push the suckers!
When you are older and wiser, believe me you will look back on your free drinks and 1/2 subsidized lunch room and realise how gullible you were when you were younger...
Internet Explorer is one example you left off that list of products that Microsoft attempted to enter where they were the underdog.
By giving away a product for free!
Giving stuff away for free != profit.
Profit == basis of all business.
Therefore winning browser wars != example of Microsoft successfully moving into new sector.
I'm sure Microsoft could "win" the game console wars if they gave the consoles and games away for free. But that wouldn't be profitable and there also not an example of MS successfully moving into a new sector.
I'm no Microsoft fan, but this is Business 101.
Gosh, sounds link I must take that Business 101 course! Thanks!
You, reading this, don't believe me. You think I'm bullshitting.
I believe you.
You can't believe that'd ever get past anyone... but that's exactly why it can... and one day, maybe, will...
This kind of fraud has happened before. I don't know of any case where transaction processing software has been tampered with, but I do know that about ten years ago one of the major banks lost several hundred million dollars because someone generated false transactions on their system. The bank hushed it up because they didn't want to spook their customers. It didn't even appear in their annual report and filings. But it happened.
It's funny but just talking about this stuff feels like a crime.
I used to work for a software company that did software for banks - the big international ones. Not only that, but it was the crucial transaction processing software, the software that moves money around the world.
:-)
What used to suprise me was that we would go to do installs at the banks sites with a binary we would take on a tape. Although the bigger banks would often check the source code, they wouldn't check the binaries we installed.
The company was responsible for one system for one major bank that transacted hundreds of billions of dollars a day. When I'm planning my fantasy bank robbery, getting modified binaries into those key transaction systems is my method
They know they have to make money in new places.
But they don't. Windows and Office are still the cash cows at Microsoft - and always have been. They have consistently failed to dominate other markets:
a) They tried to 'kill' AOL with MSN, and failed dismally. Now dial-up is yesterdays market.
b) They tried to 'kill' Palm and dominate the handheld market, and failed. The handheld market is now also becoming yesterday's news.
c) Mobiles is where the action is at, and Microsoft is really struggling to make any impact at all there.
It is a fallacy to say that Microsoft is good at making money in new markets. They are actually very good at wasting huge sums trying to dominate new markets, and failing.
Bill Gates did the clever stuff over a decade ago, recognising the importance of the PC OS and Office markets, and fighting like mad to dominate it. That has generated vast amounts of money. But their efforts elsewhere haven't been so successful.
It's only recently that they've started to take on Sony. Sony is Godzilla to Microsoft's King Kong. In the past, the giant gorilla has had an easy time swatting less powerful foes. Taking on Godzilla is a whole new ballgame. My money is on Godzilla.
MS has an internal website called "Fight linux" that the sales people use to prep for meetings. I wish they'd make the site public because it has some of the best anti-linunx information available anywhere.
I expect that there is a simple reason why MS doesn't make their "Fight Linux" web site external. It is because then the OSS community would come up with a rebuttal. Do you think that the information Microsoft gives to its sales people is unbiased, truthful? Think about it - it is much better to have a sales person that really believes MS solutions are better than one who knows the facts but can argue the case for MS solutions. So MS are going to tell their sales people, for instance, "Linux has more security holes than Linux, look at these facts!", and they'll miss out those facts that do not support their argument.
I work with a lot of marketeers, and I know that for complex arguments, it is possible to put together convincing, fact-based arguments whatever point you want to get across. Especially if your target is not well informed, which is normally the case in the IT world.
PS Quantum doesn't need to be very complicated. Superposition seems complicated when they throw the math at you but its really just this:
The universe hasn't yet decided the outcome of certain quantum events so all possibilities exist at time zero. A quantum calculation involves forcing the universe to resolve the uncertainty at time one. Programming a quantum calculation involves setting things up so that the universe will select or sort for the outcome you are looking for given a range of inputs.
[Slaps forehead] Oh, now I understand! It's all so simple! At a quantum level, all possibilities exist and all we are doing is forcing the universe to resolve uncertainty! Piece of cake!
I'm often thought that, if the OSS developers really wants to help OSS take off, they should create a simple, well designed web site with the facts for and against, and perhaps some case studies. Something that would be have a compelling argument for PHBs.
It seems that this guy has put together lots of good facts, but it fails hugely in one respect. It is not business-like. Someone needs to go though this and remove emotion and long-windedness and highlight the best facts.
Consider this sentence:
Denial has always been Microsoft's "remedy of choice", blaming "dumb users", "criminal hackers", and "poor administration" for security problems. Apparently Microsoft itself employs plenty of dumb users and poor administrators, because they've had to disconnect their internal systems for major cleanups with every big worm attack, and they got slammed pretty hard by the Slammer worm in JAN 2003
Extract the fact:
Jan 2003, Microsoft disconnected their own internal network because they because they became infected by the Slammer worm.
Now, which of these two sentences do you think would have the most influence on business decision makers (or PHBs if you prefer)?
My grandfather was a professional photographer, and when I went to see movies with him at the cinema he used to love to explain to me how the special effects were done (painting scenery on sheets of glass, that type of stuff). Then one day we went to see something - (Close Encounters or Star Wars or something) and the film made him kind of sad because he couldn't explain the effects to me. I remember thinking that that must be a defining moment in one's life - when you start to find things in your own profession that you don't understand because it has quicker than you've been able to keep up.
I'm only 32 and I've been into computers since I was a kid. But I can't get my head round this quantum stuff at all. At least my grandad was in his late sixties before he started not understanding things. Seems like our generation aren't going to be so lucky. Or perhaps everyone else understands it and I'm just dim. Ho hum.
I don't like this move to subscription that has become popular. Macromedia also is trying to do it.
It's great for the provider - over time it makes you a lot more money, and you get a more regular cash flow. And it eases the pressure to come up with major releases. You can just make minor improvements regularly to justify the charge. Fixing bugs and security holes should not be considered a service - it is repairing a faulty product.
So as a provider, it's great. But as a customer, it's not so good - stuff basically ends up being more expensive, and you get locked in to one provider.
I think it is a development that needs to be resisted. Profit margins are far too high on a lot of software anyway. This kind of move just makes OSS solutions even more attractive.
DRA = Defence Research Agency
The ETF tower was operated by personnel from an RAF unit based in Malvern, Worcestershire.
That was probably at the Malvern DRA. I know some of the guys there read Slashdot, but I guess they can't comment on this stuff!
They do some amazing stuff there.
I have mixed feelings about this type of thing. Is it better for governments to do this type of thing in secret, and for we the general public to remain happy and unaware, or for it to be done in the open, and for us to realise that it happening and to be unhappy about it?
Ireland is an interesting case because a few years ago it became public knowledge that the Brits had been covertly monitoring all calls between Ireland and the UK for years.* And personally I don't think you are paranoid if you believe your government (especially if you live in the UK or USA) is electronically monitoring hundreds of thousands of telephone calls, SMS messages, emails etc. right at this very minute. My question is, being that governments already do this, and if it done only in the name of combatting crime and terrorism and not abused, is it not perhaps better if Joe and Janette Public remain blissfully unaware of it?
*I can't recall the exact details, but as I recall people became aware of this because a telecom tower in the east of Ireland was put out of service and up for sale, and it was discovered that its purpose was to monitor calls between Ireland and the UK.
I love this bit:
... because that's what's really in the best interest of the customers," Ballmer said.
The company is trying to adopt a more paternal role. It's using its vast resources to help the ailing PC industry in new ways.
So, Microsoft's press pack for lazy journalists says that MS is now a mature grown-up company. Lazy journalist writes that MS has changed for the better.
Argh. And don't you just hate MS doublespeak!:
"[..]we need to be even more committed to charging in and helping out and building products in areas where we don't compete today
Steve. Please. Drop the bullshit. You need to move into other markets to maintain your current revenue growth. It is not because "that's what's really in the best interest of the customers".
Do you think Microsofties say these things to themselves so many times that they end up believing them? It's kind of like a bizarre cult. I chatted to some friends of friends the other day who work at Microsoft. I was ruminating on the facts surronding OSS. They just flipped. They couldn't believe that I could be so stupid as to think that OSS was ever going to get anywhere. MS calls OSS people "zealots", but believe me, you wouldn't believe how fanatical and brain-washed some Microsofties are.
Rant over and out.
Really? The sales figures given here don't look so good. But even if you are right, compared to their original predictions, 16k is a tiny number.
Back in the early/mid eighties in the UK there was a scientist/inventor/businessman called Clive Sinclair. He had a string of successes in consumer electronics, starting with a digital watch and progressing to home computers. One of his final products was a revolutionary electric one person "car", incorporating lots of new and clever technology. It was predicted that it would be huge success, as where most of his other products. But it was a dismal failure. Nobody wanted one. It looks like history is repeating...
Thanks Sandman.
I've checked out Trillian. Unfortunately it's not available for the Mac ("Fire" is similar for Mac), but we might use it on the PCs.
I've been thinking for a while about using Instant Messaging/ICQ or whatever at work. We have people working together in offices in several different countries, on various platforms. We normally use email/phone to communicate. Anyone use ICQ or Messenger? Good or bad experience? What's the best software to use?
If Microsoft have these powers, they will abuse them. Microsoft will use it to further force you to do what they want you to do, not what you want to do. Even with the very recent legal difficulties, they are still acting exactly as before. And this has just cost me a couple of hours of my time. Let me explain - bear with me, the gall of MS will amaze you...
I use Windows XP with Mozilla. The software my bank uses is only compatible with the Microsoft JVM (stupid bankers...). I have previously installed the Sun JVM, so in an effort to get the Microsoft JVM working I used the new "Set program access and defaults" option which Microsoft added to Windows XP as part of the settlement. It is supposed to make it easier for you to set the default email, JVM and browser clients. I intended to change my defaults to IE and the MS virtual machine, use my bank's site, and then change them back again to Mozilla(1). To cut a long story short, once I had changed my default browser from Mozilla to IE, it was impossible to change it back again. The new configurator that Microsoft had added as part of the legal settlement had renamed all of the mozilla files so they wouldn't work anymore, replacing their old extention with "new", i.e. so mozilla.exe became mozilla.new. Not only that, it also removed the mozilla icon from the desktop, the "power bar" and the menu. So the only way I could get it working again was to completely reinstall it. And they did this as part of the legal settlement!
F*uck them. I'm going to move to Linux for my desktop. It might have installation hassels too, but at least I'll know that they haven't been designed to be difficult on purpose.
(1) This may seem an odd thing to do, but you can't download the Microsoft JVM from the MS site any more, so I thought this might be a way to reactive it.
I would have thought an American Bald Eagle would be more appropriate...
As to this-- look, there's tons of North Korean and Iraqi movies about the downfall of America in various ways.
Really? "Tons"? Can you give me more details?
Did not Red Alert 2 let you blow away famous American Icons?
Doesn't sound so much fun after September 11th, does it? I'm sure no USA games company would attempt to release a game like that now.
In the campaigns described on the site, you can:
1) Destroy a nuclear warhead storage facility in China ("The dragon awakes...")
2) Destroy a damn in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.
3) Destroy all enemy forces in Iraq ("Operation: Final Justice")
Can't they just use make-believe places and situations? I find this kind of stuff offensive.
If a company in China or Russian or wherever released a game about invading and destroying things in the USA, I'm sure many people in the USA - and especially elements of the press - would be outraged. Imagine if an Arabic country released a game like this - many people would see it as inciting hatred towards the USA.
Plea to game makers - please make the baddies aliens and dragons or robots.