Can't really say anything intelligent about this buyout except that I got spooked out by that slow zoom the woman with the vacant stare with with those ominous dark clouds in the background? I think this merger is doomed.
What can MS do? Anything they want. For one, you can bet they'll be encrypting web pages (no more looking at the source code). Bad news for you if you are web developer. And then no copying and pasting those NY Times articles onto your hard drive for that research paper you've been working on. Sorry, you'll need the $1000/year subscription for that. This is bad news for the user.
Content providers understand that 95% of users have MS on their desktops. So it's a pretty safe bet that they'll feel safe saying "Sorry, you need IE 7 to view this content. Please go to our non-IE 7 site for more generic, less-specialized stuff." Then, after 5 years, when 70% of the market has the newest version of the OS installed, they'll be fine. So what if they lose a few anti-Microsft techies? You don't need a 100% literacy rate or even a 75% literacy rate in society to make money selling magazines.
So there is some synergy going on. Content providers push Microsoft IE 7 because it helps them make cash and IE 7 becomes popular---well, because it's being packaged by MS on their next OS.
The only problem is you're relegated to playing as a human character, though the game does randomly choose one of several different races for you (which have little bearing on gameplay and mostly just affect appearances and your standing with certain factions).
Sounds like this game reviewer hasn't explored this game enough.
Go ahead, mod my liberal ass down. But there's just no logical, philosophical, or moral reason why Microsoft should have $40 billion cash and be making more of it hand over fist for creating infinitely cheap copies of code and charging whatever they can get away with. They've found a loophole in an economic system originally based on the production of material goods. Think about it: why does an Eminem CD sell for $15.99 while Microsoft Office sells for hundreds of dollars although, when compared to overall sales figures, it has basically the same insignificant manufacturing costs and insignificant production costs?
Sun needs some blame, too. The first GUI toolkit was horrid and not cross-platform. And now you also run into compatibility issues with newer applets not running in older JVM's and even some older code not running in newer JVM's.
Yeah, and innovation for the book died when they created the index, the table contents, and page numbering. As long as the glue that binds the book holds and the ink doesn't run when it gets wet, I'm happy.
How does one explain how a bunch of executives at Enron walk away without a day of jail time for wiping out millions upon millions of dollars from the life savings of thousands of people and yet this man, who didn't actually cause any damages, is getting his life ruined?
Re:Vacation vs burnout?
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
You need to consider that the US compiles its unemployment statistics very differently than these countries. For instance, they consider those who don't receive unemployment checks any more as people who have stopped looking. Even though they don't have a job and are still looking for work, they aren't counted. The US is probably at least close if not above the 10% unemployment mark but there is no way to know.
Re:Unionize, and I'll move my business elsewhere.
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 1
If you made this threat public during a union drive, it would be a violation of the law to threaten employees with moving the company if they unionized.
You know, workers have the same philosophy as you. They say: "no one tells us what to do with my brain or body without NEGOTIATING with US first." Only fair.
Problem is, the National Labor Relations Act, the law protecting workers' right to organize a union, has been so watered down as to be almost non-existant. If you want to start a union where you work, be prepared to be harrassed, spied-on, have your reputation sullied, and then ultimately fired. If you're lucky, when you take your former employer to court, you MIGHT win about 1.5 years later if you've got several witnesses who are also willing to put their ass on the line for you.
Organizing a union is not for the faint of heart. Things will have to get a lot tougher (like it did back in the 30s), before people get pissed off enough to do something. Also, most people are so baffled by company bullshit it's near impossible to convince them that it's in their best interest to form a union. And this is true for jobs that have near sweatshop like conditions.
If you're smart, you can continue to pay rent to your landlord while you save for the new home that will be YOURS and yours alone. No one says you need to be homeless before you get a home.
Are buying software and writing software mutually exclusive operations that must be done serially? I don't think so. I can buy a temporary solution today and lay the ground for a permananent improvement at the same time.
I'm not aware of any government project to create an open source operating system or office suite for the public. If you've heard of it, I'm all ears.
OS and office suites are NOT cutting edge technologies. Nobody is making the space shuttle here (hmmm...isn't that a project run by the government). Maintaining them would be far cheaper that buying a never-ending Microsoft license. And if you need to overhaul it every once in a while, big deal.
So you think there is a lot of competition for operating sytems and office suites created by the "free" market? Geez, have you looked at the market penetration stats for these two products?
I don't know why you are so down on government projects. There is waste in any endeavor, public and private. There are slug workers at MS, there are slug workers in government. Can you point me to one legitimate study that shows private companies are more productive? Or are just spouting rhetoric that you heard on some talk radio program?
So spend 15 years, spend 20. Who cares? How long did it take to build the road system that is still being tweaked and added to? At the end of the time, you'll have exactly what you need and you'll end up saving a bundle of money.
First, your assertion that I proposed that they start from scratch is wrong. I said it would be possible with that kind of money, to write the code from the bottom up and get very talented software programmer to boot. You could pay them all extremely for quite a long time. Plus, if you consider that this wouldn't just spare the Army's budget, but the entire federal government, the cost savings would be considerable indeed.
As far as yur "classified code" comment. I would quite expect that the OS would carry some heavy duty, military encryption components. Enough said on this point.
As far as "paying twice," this is subscription software the government is getting. They will be obligated to pony up again in a few years to keep the license. If that's not paying twice, I don't know what is.
As far as responsibility goes, NASA, although very privatized, is extremely accountable to Congress and the Executive Branch. As we saw with the recent shuttle disaster, the agency is coming under intense public scrutiny and change there is likely.
It is you who is being kneejerk. Take time to think things through.
I'm not aware of any law that states "the government must place all work out to bid." That would mean the DPW in your community wouldn't be able fix potholes. Of course, there is the unwritten law that says "Washington must line the pockets of insiders." I don't know how to get around that one.
I did a little research on Softmart, the company that landed this sweetheart deal. He says "I went to work for Softmart where I did my best to ensure that every single person in the US had at least two copies of Microsoft Office," in his bio found here: http://mail.sealicemanor.com/ken.htm
For 471 large, the DoD could directly hire the most brilliant software minds in the country to create their own operating system and office suite and any other necessary software. What's more, the OS could be released into the public domain and made freely available to the public (perhaps without any classified code).
Instead, the DoD is at the mercy of some large corporation, obligated to spend 1/2 billion in a few years to patch all the bugs.
Do you work for the cell phone companies or Business 2.0? Look at this cheezy paragraph. It reads like a trashy romance novel:
You say you want a revolution? The wireless revolution is here, right now. It's presenting untold new opportunities for fortune and glory. But forget the hype and hysteria over Wi-Fi and other small-scale schemes for building wireless local area networks. As Dunn and his ringtone cadre demonstrate, the great engine powering us into the new wireless age is, of all things, the good old cell phone.
Do you also smell the plastic, obnoxious odor of astroturf reeking off this article? I did, too. So I did a quick search on the guy who submitted this article, hhutkin here on Slashdot. See the stinky results: http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=hhutkin
Slashdot Mirror
Can't really say anything intelligent about this buyout except that I got spooked out by that slow zoom the woman with the vacant stare with with those ominous dark clouds in the background? I think this merger is doomed.
Content providers understand that 95% of users have MS on their desktops. So it's a pretty safe bet that they'll feel safe saying "Sorry, you need IE 7 to view this content. Please go to our non-IE 7 site for more generic, less-specialized stuff." Then, after 5 years, when 70% of the market has the newest version of the OS installed, they'll be fine. So what if they lose a few anti-Microsft techies? You don't need a 100% literacy rate or even a 75% literacy rate in society to make money selling magazines.
So there is some synergy going on. Content providers push Microsoft IE 7 because it helps them make cash and IE 7 becomes popular---well, because it's being packaged by MS on their next OS.
User: Browser? What's a browser?
Web guy: A browser is the application---er, software program---that you use to view web pages on the Internet.
User: Oh. How about them Mets?
Sounds like this game reviewer hasn't explored this game enough.
Peace.
JSP is probably not the way to go in the first place. This informative article, JSP: A Total Waste of Time? sums up some of the core problems pretty nicely.
I predict that---and this is probably total bullshit---O'Reilly will become 1/10th the master of the software universe he thinks he is.
I say tax their asses until they crap blood.
Ewwww...this software tastes terrible!
Sun needs some blame, too. The first GUI toolkit was horrid and not cross-platform. And now you also run into compatibility issues with newer applets not running in older JVM's and even some older code not running in newer JVM's.
Yeah, and innovation for the book died when they created the index, the table contents, and page numbering. As long as the glue that binds the book holds and the ink doesn't run when it gets wet, I'm happy.
How does one explain how a bunch of executives at Enron walk away without a day of jail time for wiping out millions upon millions of dollars from the life savings of thousands of people and yet this man, who didn't actually cause any damages, is getting his life ruined?
You need to consider that the US compiles its unemployment statistics very differently than these countries. For instance, they consider those who don't receive unemployment checks any more as people who have stopped looking. Even though they don't have a job and are still looking for work, they aren't counted. The US is probably at least close if not above the 10% unemployment mark but there is no way to know.
You know, workers have the same philosophy as you. They say: "no one tells us what to do with my brain or body without NEGOTIATING with US first." Only fair.
Organizing a union is not for the faint of heart. Things will have to get a lot tougher (like it did back in the 30s), before people get pissed off enough to do something. Also, most people are so baffled by company bullshit it's near impossible to convince them that it's in their best interest to form a union. And this is true for jobs that have near sweatshop like conditions.
I know, I used to be a labor organizer.
If you're smart, you can continue to pay rent to your landlord while you save for the new home that will be YOURS and yours alone. No one says you need to be homeless before you get a home.
Are buying software and writing software mutually exclusive operations that must be done serially? I don't think so. I can buy a temporary solution today and lay the ground for a permananent improvement at the same time.
I'm not aware of any government project to create an open source operating system or office suite for the public. If you've heard of it, I'm all ears.
OS and office suites are NOT cutting edge technologies. Nobody is making the space shuttle here (hmmm...isn't that a project run by the government). Maintaining them would be far cheaper that buying a never-ending Microsoft license. And if you need to overhaul it every once in a while, big deal.
So you think there is a lot of competition for operating sytems and office suites created by the "free" market? Geez, have you looked at the market penetration stats for these two products?
I don't know why you are so down on government projects. There is waste in any endeavor, public and private. There are slug workers at MS, there are slug workers in government. Can you point me to one legitimate study that shows private companies are more productive? Or are just spouting rhetoric that you heard on some talk radio program?
So spend 15 years, spend 20. Who cares? How long did it take to build the road system that is still being tweaked and added to? At the end of the time, you'll have exactly what you need and you'll end up saving a bundle of money.
As far as yur "classified code" comment. I would quite expect that the OS would carry some heavy duty, military encryption components. Enough said on this point.
As far as "paying twice," this is subscription software the government is getting. They will be obligated to pony up again in a few years to keep the license. If that's not paying twice, I don't know what is.
As far as responsibility goes, NASA, although very privatized, is extremely accountable to Congress and the Executive Branch. As we saw with the recent shuttle disaster, the agency is coming under intense public scrutiny and change there is likely.
It is you who is being kneejerk. Take time to think things through.
I'm not aware of any law that states "the government must place all work out to bid." That would mean the DPW in your community wouldn't be able fix potholes. Of course, there is the unwritten law that says "Washington must line the pockets of insiders." I don't know how to get around that one.
Instead, the DoD is at the mercy of some large corporation, obligated to spend 1/2 billion in a few years to patch all the bugs.
What a waste.
You say you want a revolution? The wireless revolution is here, right now. It's presenting untold new opportunities for fortune and glory. But forget the hype and hysteria over Wi-Fi and other small-scale schemes for building wireless local area networks. As Dunn and his ringtone cadre demonstrate, the great engine powering us into the new wireless age is, of all things, the good old cell phone.
Sorry, this isn't journalism, it's PR.
Do you also smell the plastic, obnoxious odor of astroturf reeking off this article? I did, too. So I did a quick search on the guy who submitted this article, hhutkin here on Slashdot. See the stinky results: http://slashdot.org/search.pl?query=hhutkin