Jackson did not make up his mind - but rather he gave the 'appearance of bias' by talking to reporters before the case was over.
IIRC Jackson was a conservative judge appointed by Reagan. In addition, the Clinton administration was actually pretty conservative when it came to economic regulation like antitrust laws. Microsoft was just THAT GUILTY.
The appeals court was most certainly conservative and they upheld a substantial part of the judgement of Jackson.
To some extent I agree with you - they should be allowed to improve their product. Unfortunately what they did with Netscape was look at a competitor (who was beginning to market itself as a platform, along with Java) and use its Windows monopoly to crush them. Its called monopoly maintenance.
Windows CE must be making a profit, after all the only thing I've heard from the press over the last six years is how Palm's days are numbered.
The funny thing is that there would probably be noticeably less WinCE sales if it was the same product made by a company who didn't dominate PC desktops.
Still, if it weren't for Microsoft we might not have Palm, Sony, and Handspring releasing the nice products that they are. Its a good time to be PDA hunting, unless of course Microsoft wipes out the rest of the market. That doesn't seem to be happening though.
While Avery Brooks had some great moments, I think the knock on him was that he was considered 'inconsistent'. When he was on, though, I don't think there was anyone better - even Patrick Stewart (possibly the best Trek actor ever).
Star Trek was always a bit too much of a white man's club. That really had a lot to do with Roddenberry. Its not that he was a racist, but just that he liked to emphasize characters he identified with (hi Wil Wheaton). Since he created all of the franchise up to DS9, that is really when characters from different races started taking a center role in Trek. Its too bad VOY had to suck so bad, it had an American Indian, an Asian, a black man (can't really say of African descent in this case), and a large breasted blonde. Oh wait, those aren't a minority on television:).
Well, I disagree with your assessment of the Dax change. It was really neat to see the new one struggling with who and what she was when the original Dax was fully mature and unshakeable.
I don't think I will buy the early season DVDs until the later seasons are out. Talk about boring. Still, by the end DS9 blows away all of the other Treks.
Considering its early in the 2nd season, I think Enterprise has a great deal of promise. The characters, which were a major hole in Voyager, are great. They are limited by the 'prequel' status, but hopefully they can pull 7 seasons out of it. Its kind of funny that there are 'fantasy' stories by fans with Kirk and Spock being gay lovers - well, instead of going that far they just made the Vulcan a female. Nice. The fact that shes a hottie doesn't hurt at all.
They may just try to claim that they settled the antitrust complaints, but the EU (besides being a completely separate entity) is going after them for different infractions than the US was.
I think there are a lot of countries around the world that are nervous about the behavior that came out during the antitrust trial. They see Microsoft gaining more and more political power in the US (the trial taught Microsoft that its stupid for a company of their size to not 'play the game' in Washington) and they are worried that a major part of their infrastructure will be dominated by a US company. It goes to countries feeling threatened so much by Microsoft that they will go so far as to spend money to develop alternatives, or mandate use of open source, or in this case - they bring antitrust laws to bear on the company. To not take Microsoft as a serious threat to their countries would be folly, as MS could simply double licensing fees at will and cause government expenses to skyrocket (or possibly even more nefarious things like NSA backdoors or security holes causing massive problems for governments).
In the end hopefully this will simply serve to give us a more balanced computing environment. I would hate for Microsoft to simply be exterminated - thats not what we need no matter how bad the company has been. What we need is healthy vibrant competition in the computing marketplace - at all levels including the ones that are currently dominated by Microsoft.
Even though they cocreated the standard - they do seem to be strange bedfellows in this one. Perhaps they really will reach a middle ground, a scheme where the average person (we all know people who really want to will always crack media encryption) can use their purchased goods as they see fit - up to the point where they want to violate copyright law (sidestepping the issue whether locking down internet music downloads helps the industry).
I have hope in that Philips has been seen as the good guy in this fight, but Sony? Im not too sure what their corporate take on this is.
Still, its funny how these companies are spending all this cash to prevent consumers from stealing music. I have an idea, drop the price. You wont lose revenue because people will buy a lot more music if its fairly priced. Heck, some of my friends and I have been buying movies like crazy at 10 bucks a shot - movies I would never have paid 15 or 20 for. Pretend like there really ARE market forces in the music industry and COMPETE dammit!
It might not even be that - but if you think about it the people that are making these decisions see 100 or 200 dollars a month as negligible.
How easy, for example, is it for someone like GW Bush to understand the plight of someone making minimum wage? Hes never been there, his parents have never been there, nor his grandparents.
The monetary frame of reference of our politicians is so skewed that a doubling of rates really IS no big deal to them. But they do understand the plight of corporate heads, as that is where they come from and where they will go after government. So OF COURSE they are going to be rabidly pro corporate, even without all the legalized bribery.
Well, this may be drifting off topic.. but since we are talking about taxes...
Think about your statement for a minute. Tax and spend Democrats? And this compares to cut taxes for the rich and spend?
And lets not forget that the lack of internet taxation was maintained during Clinton-Gore. Both were Democrats last time I checked.
The fact is that the economy has tanked, and these states are looking for revenue wherever they can find it. Adding taxes on things currently exempt is a favorite way for anti-tax politicians to get away with raising taxes.
Political note: I consider myself a moderate, but then doesn't everyone?
That might work a little differently. I know in the case of Apple you get charged sales tax because Apple has personnel in every state. I assume Dell is in the same situation (local Dell account reps and such).
If nanorobotics means hordes of itty bitty robots in our bloodstream, yes, thats what I mean...
And yes, I fear the EULA/costs associated with such a system the way things are going now.
Security shouldn't be too big an issue unless they try to retrofit some other general purpose OS to the job. I would hope that any design would have security first if you are talking about stuff that directly interfaces with our bodies.
And yes, our immune system IS the original. We could continue to find ways to improve it, or we can augment it with technology. The future just might end up being a combination of both.
The user interface out of the box of a common Linux distro (like maybe Redhat or something) might look very much like Windows - but its not like you can't customize the heck out of it. As far as drab goes, you can't really say the interface on Irix is all that exciting anyway. I do like the way that SGI at least attempts to make things a little friendlier to the user/admin. They sometimes fail miserably, but sometimes they get it mostly right UI wise.
With that said, OS X looks like an excellent platform for Maya now that the software has reached feature parity with versions on other platforms.
Well, from science fiction land I'm looking forward to nanotechnology to save the day on this one. Hopefully about the time everything under the sun becomes resistent to antibiotics we will have microscopic robots running through our blood stream wiping out invaders.
Does that mean we will be cyborgs? Kind of I guess... but we are going to machines sooner or later.. this sounds like a good place to start.
I wonder how much it will cost and how much control software companies will have over us then?
I think most products nowadays support both USB 2.0 and Firewire. And its a lot of fun to see how much the current (well, the generation before the cutting edge version coming out now) version of Firewire beats USB 2.0 solidly in performance - just like many Firewire lovers thought it would.
Just because its designed by Apple doesn't mean it isn't great technology that everyone can use.
There are a couple of reasons Intel might want to kill firewire.
1) It was designed by a competitor, Apple (who made the situation worse by implementing a high fee for a time). If it was designed by say, Microsoft or Dell, I doubt they would be working so hard to marginalize it.
2) It uses no CPU resources like USB. Greater tax on CPUs = need for better CPUs.
Intel would be well served to push IEEE-1394 (Firewire) as it encourages people to use their desktops for highly CPU intensive things like video editing.
Unfortunately for those interested in not having these types of restrictions that 'vocal minority' happens to generally vote for the party currently in power in the United States.
What does this mean? Well, we can expect the judiciary to continue to see people appointed to judgeships that believe that things like pornography should be restricted. This, in turn, means that you can expect the laws to become more restrictive with regard to 'public morals' as time goes on - even if the letter of the law(s) stays the same.
Its probably related to the increasing drive density - but it may also come from companies cutting costs to move more units to stay alive in the soft economy.
Just looking down the list of comments, it does seem that everyone has noticed the increasing number (or at least it seems that way) of massive drive failures from certain manufacturers.
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In many (most?) situations Windows is only the best choice because of Microsoft's monopoly position in PC desktops.
Jackson did not make up his mind - but rather he gave the 'appearance of bias' by talking to reporters before the case was over.
IIRC Jackson was a conservative judge appointed by Reagan. In addition, the Clinton administration was actually pretty conservative when it came to economic regulation like antitrust laws. Microsoft was just THAT GUILTY.
The appeals court was most certainly conservative and they upheld a substantial part of the judgement of Jackson.
Well, as long as Sun, Apple, et al don't do the same thing then there will be a lot more people willing to spend the kind of money it takes to switch.
Really? Do Sony or Nintendo have a monopoly in video game consoles like Microsoft has in PC desktop OSes?
To some extent I agree with you - they should be allowed to improve their product. Unfortunately what they did with Netscape was look at a competitor (who was beginning to market itself as a platform, along with Java) and use its Windows monopoly to crush them. Its called monopoly maintenance.
What cave have you been in? The decision was simply an approval of the agreement that the Bush administration made with Microsoft.
Windows CE must be making a profit, after all the only thing I've heard from the press over the last six years is how Palm's days are numbered.
The funny thing is that there would probably be noticeably less WinCE sales if it was the same product made by a company who didn't dominate PC desktops.
Still, if it weren't for Microsoft we might not have Palm, Sony, and Handspring releasing the nice products that they are. Its a good time to be PDA hunting, unless of course Microsoft wipes out the rest of the market. That doesn't seem to be happening though.
No, but I do think that 95 percent market share pretty much means they have a monopoly.
While Avery Brooks had some great moments, I think the knock on him was that he was considered 'inconsistent'. When he was on, though, I don't think there was anyone better - even Patrick Stewart (possibly the best Trek actor ever).
:).
Star Trek was always a bit too much of a white man's club. That really had a lot to do with Roddenberry. Its not that he was a racist, but just that he liked to emphasize characters he identified with (hi Wil Wheaton). Since he created all of the franchise up to DS9, that is really when characters from different races started taking a center role in Trek. Its too bad VOY had to suck so bad, it had an American Indian, an Asian, a black man (can't really say of African descent in this case), and a large breasted blonde. Oh wait, those aren't a minority on television
Well, I disagree with your assessment of the Dax change. It was really neat to see the new one struggling with who and what she was when the original Dax was fully mature and unshakeable.
I don't think I will buy the early season DVDs until the later seasons are out. Talk about boring. Still, by the end DS9 blows away all of the other Treks.
Considering its early in the 2nd season, I think Enterprise has a great deal of promise. The characters, which were a major hole in Voyager, are great. They are limited by the 'prequel' status, but hopefully they can pull 7 seasons out of it. Its kind of funny that there are 'fantasy' stories by fans with Kirk and Spock being gay lovers - well, instead of going that far they just made the Vulcan a female. Nice. The fact that shes a hottie doesn't hurt at all.
They may just try to claim that they settled the antitrust complaints, but the EU (besides being a completely separate entity) is going after them for different infractions than the US was.
I think there are a lot of countries around the world that are nervous about the behavior that came out during the antitrust trial. They see Microsoft gaining more and more political power in the US (the trial taught Microsoft that its stupid for a company of their size to not 'play the game' in Washington) and they are worried that a major part of their infrastructure will be dominated by a US company. It goes to countries feeling threatened so much by Microsoft that they will go so far as to spend money to develop alternatives, or mandate use of open source, or in this case - they bring antitrust laws to bear on the company. To not take Microsoft as a serious threat to their countries would be folly, as MS could simply double licensing fees at will and cause government expenses to skyrocket (or possibly even more nefarious things like NSA backdoors or security holes causing massive problems for governments).
In the end hopefully this will simply serve to give us a more balanced computing environment. I would hate for Microsoft to simply be exterminated - thats not what we need no matter how bad the company has been. What we need is healthy vibrant competition in the computing marketplace - at all levels including the ones that are currently dominated by Microsoft.
What do you mean? China considers Taiwan a province, so I doubt they would get all that offended if you mixed them up.
Taiwan probably doesn't like it, however.
Even though they cocreated the standard - they do seem to be strange bedfellows in this one. Perhaps they really will reach a middle ground, a scheme where the average person (we all know people who really want to will always crack media encryption) can use their purchased goods as they see fit - up to the point where they want to violate copyright law (sidestepping the issue whether locking down internet music downloads helps the industry).
I have hope in that Philips has been seen as the good guy in this fight, but Sony? Im not too sure what their corporate take on this is.
Still, its funny how these companies are spending all this cash to prevent consumers from stealing music. I have an idea, drop the price. You wont lose revenue because people will buy a lot more music if its fairly priced. Heck, some of my friends and I have been buying movies like crazy at 10 bucks a shot - movies I would never have paid 15 or 20 for. Pretend like there really ARE market forces in the music industry and COMPETE dammit!
It might not even be that - but if you think about it the people that are making these decisions see 100 or 200 dollars a month as negligible.
How easy, for example, is it for someone like GW Bush to understand the plight of someone making minimum wage? Hes never been there, his parents have never been there, nor his grandparents.
The monetary frame of reference of our politicians is so skewed that a doubling of rates really IS no big deal to them. But they do understand the plight of corporate heads, as that is where they come from and where they will go after government. So OF COURSE they are going to be rabidly pro corporate, even without all the legalized bribery.
They may not care if they kill ecommerce. They probably think they can make it up by taxing local purchases.
Its really pretty silly, but politicians are getting antsier the longer the economy stays in the dump.
Well, this may be drifting off topic .. but since we are talking about taxes ...
Think about your statement for a minute. Tax and spend Democrats? And this compares to cut taxes for the rich and spend?
And lets not forget that the lack of internet taxation was maintained during Clinton-Gore. Both were Democrats last time I checked.
The fact is that the economy has tanked, and these states are looking for revenue wherever they can find it. Adding taxes on things currently exempt is a favorite way for anti-tax politicians to get away with raising taxes.
Political note: I consider myself a moderate, but then doesn't everyone?
That might work a little differently. I know in the case of Apple you get charged sales tax because Apple has personnel in every state. I assume Dell is in the same situation (local Dell account reps and such).
If nanorobotics means hordes of itty bitty robots in our bloodstream, yes, thats what I mean ...
And yes, I fear the EULA/costs associated with such a system the way things are going now.
Security shouldn't be too big an issue unless they try to retrofit some other general purpose OS to the job. I would hope that any design would have security first if you are talking about stuff that directly interfaces with our bodies.
And yes, our immune system IS the original. We could continue to find ways to improve it, or we can augment it with technology. The future just might end up being a combination of both.
The user interface out of the box of a common Linux distro (like maybe Redhat or something) might look very much like Windows - but its not like you can't customize the heck out of it. As far as drab goes, you can't really say the interface on Irix is all that exciting anyway. I do like the way that SGI at least attempts to make things a little friendlier to the user/admin. They sometimes fail miserably, but sometimes they get it mostly right UI wise.
With that said, OS X looks like an excellent platform for Maya now that the software has reached feature parity with versions on other platforms.
Well, from science fiction land I'm looking forward to nanotechnology to save the day on this one. Hopefully about the time everything under the sun becomes resistent to antibiotics we will have microscopic robots running through our blood stream wiping out invaders.
... but we are going to machines sooner or later .. this sounds like a good place to start.
Does that mean we will be cyborgs? Kind of I guess
I wonder how much it will cost and how much control software companies will have over us then?
Music monkeys? I break cables all the time, and Im supposed to be the smart geeky one. Anything that plugs into my laptop is prone to get broken.
Firewire definitely has a very nice, somewhat durable, and small, connector.
I think most products nowadays support both USB 2.0 and Firewire. And its a lot of fun to see how much the current (well, the generation before the cutting edge version coming out now) version of Firewire beats USB 2.0 solidly in performance - just like many Firewire lovers thought it would.
Just because its designed by Apple doesn't mean it isn't great technology that everyone can use.
There are a couple of reasons Intel might want to kill firewire.
1) It was designed by a competitor, Apple (who made the situation worse by implementing a high fee for a time). If it was designed by say, Microsoft or Dell, I doubt they would be working so hard to marginalize it.
2) It uses no CPU resources like USB. Greater tax on CPUs = need for better CPUs.
Intel would be well served to push IEEE-1394 (Firewire) as it encourages people to use their desktops for highly CPU intensive things like video editing.
Unfortunately for those interested in not having these types of restrictions that 'vocal minority' happens to generally vote for the party currently in power in the United States.
What does this mean? Well, we can expect the judiciary to continue to see people appointed to judgeships that believe that things like pornography should be restricted. This, in turn, means that you can expect the laws to become more restrictive with regard to 'public morals' as time goes on - even if the letter of the law(s) stays the same.
Its probably related to the increasing drive density - but it may also come from companies cutting costs to move more units to stay alive in the soft economy.
Just looking down the list of comments, it does seem that everyone has noticed the increasing number (or at least it seems that way) of massive drive failures from certain manufacturers.