The unspoken "Why?" of all of this is that companies are trying to understand our social connectedness as a way to SELL us things.
Why use the scattershot TV ad to get us to buy a new car when they can simply allow the desirability of ownership trickle down the social food chain?
This is "Keeping up with the Joneses" taken to perfection. Once it is calculated which other individual or group we all choose to imitate, you find that there are only 30 people in the world who have to be given that new promotional edition MP3 player and soon everyone else in the world will HAVE to have one too. How Pavlovian!
The only problem I have with this way of thinking is that it continues down the path we are on of valuing everything except quality in product selection. It assumes (probably accurately) that many of us do what we do by imitation rather than making our own choices based on our own thought processes.
No need to enslave the masses when you can tap into their programming and get them to do what you want willingly. 2084, here we come.
(use of this technology in politics and it's ramifications left as an exercise for the reader)
Most likely my next PC will be a Shuttle, or something very much like it (even smaller footprint would be desirable. I want a desktop system, no fan noise, separate keyboard, video and mouse. And paying a lot more for a laptop to do that is silly.
I hope more systems integrators "get it" soon. The Big Case vs Laptop at premium prices is a false economic choice to have to make.
Here is What Comparisons of Laptops and Desktops a
on
Dell's Gaming Monster
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I've had several laptops and many many computers (in addition to the many more inflicted on me at work).
My computers slowly grow obsolete and get thrown out while still in a working state, but it's hard to forsee current systems becoming useless any time soon. I've been through dozens of monitors, keyboards (especially) and mice though.
The display on my 2 year old Compaq laptop has gone bad once already, the lettering on the keys is now unreadable from use. Both my laptop and desktop systems are quite useable from the perspective of "horsepower", but the laptop will much sooner become useless without one form of expensive repair or another.
In the mean time there is a store near me that will practically GIVE me an old style 17-inch monitor and NEW keyboards and mice are priced in the teens.
So, what's wrong with this picture?
What's wrong is that laptop keyboards should have developed an industry standard form factor and connection standard long ago. Likewise, the small card that is the video card for my laptop should be easily replaced, and easily connected to the monitor, which should also be easily replaced. At that point I'd have no problem justifying $3000 or more for a machine that I could be confident would last (with some easy end-user repairs and upgrades) for many years to come. Further integration of IO devices as is the case with notepad computers is insanity. Of course, if you have an unlimited money supply (spending your companies money for instance) insanity is par for the course.
I'll stick with my desktops and use the laptop in emergencies until the peripherals issue is addressed. (For any company that wants to implement this, please contact me for information about where to send the royalty checks.)
One thing I've figured out about Open Source that wasn't obvious for me from the beginning is that there is no "right way" to approach issues such as this. In fact, the greatest strength of Open Source is that the tree of alternative approaches is self pruning. Mono may be a great success, or it may fizzle. Novell may decide to put a lot of resources into it, or may decide to not fund it at all. But in the latter case, anyone who thinks its objectives are worthwhile at least has the option to continue working on it.
The real turning point will be (is, actually) that companies and governmental entities (NASA, recent example) will start to leverage this rather than attempt to fend it off. For any company who's main line of business is not JUST selling software, this is a no-brainer. I think in the future we will look back and see the "software-only" business model as being a big mistake. Software is useless without hardware, and equally useless without meaningful applications.
Any company that can't profitably make use of its own software to pursue other activities should be questioning their business model for the long term. (hmmm, did I single anyone out there?)
I don't recall ever seeing pictures that you could click on to get larger pictures referred to as "screenshots". To me a screenshot is an image produced by capturing an image off of your screen, and theoretically without a lot of editing.
The second of the two pictures _might_ qualify, but the first doesn't. Anyone else notice this? Or care? I thought it sloppy for a professional publication. But I'm often disappointed with them these days.
"Some people get by fine on faith and that works for them. I've known many happy faithful people and I sometimes even envy that quality in them."
I don't see why so many people think that faith and science are mutually exclusive. As a scientist, do you think that in your lifetime you will understand the entire universe? Will mankind?
I suppose if I thought this was the case I wouldn't bother with faith. I'd just wait until tomorrow and then KNOW everything there is to know. But since I don't expect everything to be known any time soon (if ever), I see nothing wrong at all with having a working hypothesis.
"I know its almost but not quite ready for primetime on the desktop, and at the cusp of being the best thing out there for servers."
Depends on what you do. Other than Second Life (see Sig) I play no games on my computer at all. Once SL comes out with it's Linux version later this year there will be absolutely no reason for me to keep a Windows system.
Everyone I know who feels a "need" to run Windows is using it primarily to play games, other than that we are dealing with people who just don't know any better. For these people, the Clue-train is just pulling into the station. But for non-gamers, Linux is the better desktop now. I prove it almost every day by helping some Windows user get "unstuck".
"Finally, Livio takes a shot at the idea that mathematics is a universal concept across the entire universe. To be honest, I have always assumed that it was. After all, I am a Trekkie and this concept goes unstated throughout all four TV series. The idea that mathematics is a human construction and probably holds no water in another civilization that grew up on the other side of the universe makes a lot of sense to me. I have to admit; I need to ponder that one for a while. "
Uh, yeah. I guess if a Klingon on TV can do math, then anyone or anything in the real universe can.
Or something. heheh, heheh, hehe.
I figure out how American government works and who to vote for next year by watching West Wing. Dean in 2004!, er, or whatever year we vote.
This article reminds me of the Microsoft photo/GPS one posted later in the day. Big company trying to impress us with all the nifty research they are doing to make our lives better.
Except the web site is down, or the text includes typos that would be caught by a third grader. Or the concept has a tendency to excuse or mollify poor performance of existing products. Or the proposed solution has a tendency to line the big companies pockets with money.
Back in the "good ole days" big companies made HARDWARE primarily and software was a secondary concern. Research into faster disk drives, memory devices and CPUs had obvious benefits to both manufacturer and consumer (and this is still the case). But these software research operation always give me the creeps. In both cases we have some highly proprietary thing being worked on, that they would REALLY like to tell us about, but which have secrecy as a primary component.
I don't think they needed to do any research to make the colorization of printed currency questionable. I can't get one page in ten to come out properly on a consumer grade inkjet printer. By the time I account for ink cartridges that are ALMOST empty, print head that are dried up after only a day of not being used, and the astronomical cost of ink, I'd much rather pay more for a black toner laser printer and skip color until some company in Hong Kong has figured out how to do it economically, probably 10 years from now.
The solution to counterfeiting is to get away from paper currency. Any "research" between here and there is a waste of time.
That a company with $40 Billion can have such an online presence as this: Server Error in '/' Application. Server Too Busy Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Server Too Busy
Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
Stack Trace:
[HttpException (0x80004005): Server Too Busy]
System.Web.HttpRuntime.RejectRequestInternal(HttpW orkerRequest wr) +147
Version Information: Microsoft.NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.573; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.573
Thanks for that link. I turned mine off about 4 years ago too. The only problem has been that it seems like people around you get dumber and dumber. It's really pathetic to liten to a physisist bable on for an hour or so about his collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes (or something like that) and then see the look on his face when you finally get a word in edgwise and ask "What the heck are you talking about?"
And in answer to other posts: Yes, I find staring at my computer screen more interesting (even Slashdot) becuase I can intereact with it, search it, add to it. Also you don't have to view content on the Internet based on someone elses schedule. It's all there, all the time.
"We will research, improve, innovate and ultimately implement nanotech solutions for one simple reason: we can. It's been the same right throughout human history."
Spot On!
And then after that... MACRO Technology.
We will develop paper clips the size of a HOUSE!
A 512MB stick of memory will be the size of a football field!
Books so large it will take the whole neighborhood to turn the pages.
And planets the size of, well, really big planets!
I started reading (thinking it was just HTML as advertised) and when I got to the bottom of the first page I clicked on the graphic down there (assuming it would take me to the next page). I still don't know what that graphic represents, but it doesn't do anything.
I finally looked up top, but with hard-coded font sizes on that frame and my 1600x1400 screen size the word "Brows" is almost microscopic, and its actually quite difficult to hit the page forward button without accidentally hitting one of the nearby buttons.
This is horrible web design by any standards.
A quick look at the source for that header frame (looks to be a couple hundred lines!) shows checks for specific browsers and OSs...sure enough it doesn't work on my iBook at all.
I also don't see the normal alternate text tags for people with disabilities.
They should have just posed links to the PDF file for download, or even a DOC file that I could easily read with Open Office, or better yet, produce a true HTML version of the document.
So, from your point of view, what is there about this page to like?
That is the weirdest HTML formatted article I have ever seen. Let me guess... they converted a DOC file to PDF, printed it, faxed it to themselves, scanned it and then ran it through a OCR to HTML conversion program using a Microsoft designed XML parser (Patented of course!)
Gees whatever happened to content oriented plain old HTML.
*shakes head*
I'll read the friggin thing when I have a couple of hours to wait for the pages to load.
PS: for anyone else having trouble: you have to click on those microscopic VCR style buttons at the top of the page to get the page transitions. Then go get a cup of coffee.
"People come to the US looking for jobs..PANIC!!!! People leave the US looking for jobs...PANIC!!! President tries to solve this problem by trying to kill all those annoying foreigners...PANIC!!!"
Actually the two things are related. They have been sending people here to set up consultancies for years. They get start-up funding like you wouldn't believe from back home. A guy that worked for me graduated about a month before taking a job at our company. I helped him get through the H1B visa process hardly knowing what the thing was at the time. he worked for us for a year or so, then went out and bought a Farrari (sp?), a huge house, and started his own company. Just like that. Now he ships work back to India.
I have no problem with him doing this, or with the fat cats back in India helping him.
I DO have a problem with the morons here in congress who voted (and continue to vote) for extending the H1B visa program so that more and more of this can happen. H1B has been a total failure, in addition to making terrorist infiltration easier, we have lost jobs, productivity, and economic stability as a results. Just wait 'till all the results are in.
Maybe we should be allowed to vote in some politicians from India. I bet the problem would get straightened out real fast if that were a possibility.
I wrote them a nasty letter. While I was doing so it occured to me...
If what they say is true why aren't they just using an MP3 stream? that works everywhere. Could it be this has something to do with their hosting company being a big Windows 2000 server farm?
http://www.corsis.com
Lets see, last time a big hosting company went all Windows, wasn't that Digex? I wonder what ever happened to them? hehe
Funny their demise didn't make nearly the splash that their switch to Windows did. Oh well.
" I would like to write an open letter to the people of RealMedia, telling them how I disp *BUFFERING*"
Yeah, seems like no matter how high you set the buffering value it falls behind. It almost seems like that setting isn't actually connected to anything in the code. Maybe there will be an open surce equivalent soon that will let you write the whole godam stream to a file before it even starts playing. That would solve the problem...
As is so often the case, Microsofts tactics (and I don't doubt for a minute there is some financial incentive behind this) will pay off for them. The more locked into WMA people get the more they will get screwed over in the long run.
I can hardly wait for the fuckwits at Microsoft to Screw you Tapit brothers, I'll not be listening again. (They didn't give very good car advice anyway, it's just a comedy show these days).
Couldn't they have at least waited for the community player to get off the ground?
Well, they have stopped support for IE on the Mac so thats a moot point. IE was the best browser for the Mac for exactly the amount of time that it was the ONLY browser for the Mac. I switched to Mozilla when it was still flaky and slow, but the Safari browser blows both the others away.
Basically Microsoft doesn't like competition. If they can't buy them or put them out of business they just take there equipment and go home like a pouty child.
I have a feeling once there is a native office suite for the Mac, most likely Open Office, but others are in the works, Microsoft will, again, pack up it's toys and slink back to the Intel platform only. If Intel ever decided to throw a curve ball at Microsoft they (MS) would be in big big trouble.
I think this deadly embrace that Intel and Microsoft are in though is bad for both companies in the long run. MS would be far better off as platform neutral vendor of software of all kinds. Intel would be far better off just beating the crap out of other hardware companies in terms of price performance. They will price themselves out of the market for low cost PCs in a few years (well, now actually), especially non-US ones and it is at that point that Microsoft may wish to revive its ability to create software for something other than Intel boxes.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought they were working on Longhorn.
No?
The unspoken "Why?" of all of this is that companies are trying to understand our social connectedness as a way to SELL us things.
Why use the scattershot TV ad to get us to buy a new car when they can simply allow the desirability of ownership trickle down the social food chain?
This is "Keeping up with the Joneses" taken to perfection. Once it is calculated which other individual or group we all choose to imitate, you find that there are only 30 people in the world who have to be given that new promotional edition MP3 player and soon everyone else in the world will HAVE to have one too. How Pavlovian!
The only problem I have with this way of thinking is that it continues down the path we are on of valuing everything except quality in product selection. It assumes (probably accurately) that many of us do what we do by imitation rather than making our own choices based on our own thought processes.
No need to enslave the masses when you can tap into their programming and get them to do what you want willingly. 2084, here we come.
(use of this technology in politics and it's ramifications left as an exercise for the reader)
Who needs words to program anyway!
.25*+/4 3 5 6
4.5
Wow, at the rate it's downloading the finished product will be on store shelves before I have the demo downloaded.
Most likely my next PC will be a Shuttle, or something very much like it (even smaller footprint would be desirable. I want a desktop system, no fan noise, separate keyboard, video and mouse. And paying a lot more for a laptop to do that is silly.
I hope more systems integrators "get it" soon. The Big Case vs Laptop at premium prices is a false economic choice to have to make.
I've had several laptops and many many computers (in addition to the many more inflicted on me at work).
My computers slowly grow obsolete and get thrown out while still in a working state, but it's hard to forsee current systems becoming useless any time soon. I've been through dozens of monitors, keyboards (especially) and mice though.
The display on my 2 year old Compaq laptop has gone bad once already, the lettering on the keys is now unreadable from use. Both my laptop and desktop systems are quite useable from the perspective of "horsepower", but the laptop will much sooner become useless without one form of expensive repair or another.
In the mean time there is a store near me that will practically GIVE me an old style 17-inch monitor and NEW keyboards and mice are priced in the teens.
So, what's wrong with this picture?
What's wrong is that laptop keyboards should have developed an industry standard form factor and connection standard long ago. Likewise, the small card that is the video card for my laptop should be easily replaced, and easily connected to the monitor, which should also be easily replaced. At that point I'd have no problem justifying $3000 or more for a machine that I could be confident would last (with some easy end-user repairs and upgrades) for many years to come. Further integration of IO devices as is the case with notepad computers is insanity. Of course, if you have an unlimited money supply (spending your companies money for instance) insanity is par for the course.
I'll stick with my desktops and use the laptop in emergencies until the peripherals issue is addressed. (For any company that wants to implement this, please contact me for information about where to send the royalty checks.)
Interesting how split the "community" is on this.
One thing I've figured out about Open Source that wasn't obvious for me from the beginning is that there is no "right way" to approach issues such as this. In fact, the greatest strength of Open Source is that the tree of alternative approaches is self pruning. Mono may be a great success, or it may fizzle. Novell may decide to put a lot of resources into it, or may decide to not fund it at all. But in the latter case, anyone who thinks its objectives are worthwhile at least has the option to continue working on it.
The real turning point will be (is, actually) that companies and governmental entities (NASA, recent example) will start to leverage this rather than attempt to fend it off. For any company who's main line of business is not JUST selling software, this is a no-brainer. I think in the future we will look back and see the "software-only" business model as being a big mistake. Software is useless without hardware, and equally useless without meaningful applications.
Any company that can't profitably make use of its own software to pursue other activities should be questioning their business model for the long term. (hmmm, did I single anyone out there?)
I don't recall ever seeing pictures that you could click on to get larger pictures referred to as "screenshots". To me a screenshot is an image produced by capturing an image off of your screen, and theoretically without a lot of editing.
The second of the two pictures _might_ qualify, but the first doesn't. Anyone else notice this? Or care? I thought it sloppy for a professional publication. But I'm often disappointed with them these days.
"Some people get by fine on faith and that works for them. I've known many happy faithful people and I sometimes even envy that quality in them."
I don't see why so many people think that faith and science are mutually exclusive. As a scientist, do you think that in your lifetime you will understand the entire universe? Will mankind?
I suppose if I thought this was the case I wouldn't bother with faith. I'd just wait until tomorrow and then KNOW everything there is to know. But since I don't expect everything to be known any time soon (if ever), I see nothing wrong at all with having a working hypothesis.
"I know its almost but not quite ready for primetime on the desktop, and at the cusp of being the best thing out there for servers."
Depends on what you do. Other than Second Life (see Sig) I play no games on my computer at all. Once SL comes out with it's Linux version later this year there will be absolutely no reason for me to keep a Windows system.
Everyone I know who feels a "need" to run Windows is using it primarily to play games, other than that we are dealing with people who just don't know any better. For these people, the Clue-train is just pulling into the station. But for non-gamers, Linux is the better desktop now. I prove it almost every day by helping some Windows user get "unstuck".
"Finally, Livio takes a shot at the idea that mathematics is a universal concept across the entire universe. To be honest, I have always assumed that it was. After all, I am a Trekkie and this concept goes unstated throughout all four TV series. The idea that mathematics is a human construction and probably holds no water in another civilization that grew up on the other side of the universe makes a lot of sense to me. I have to admit; I need to ponder that one for a while. "
Uh, yeah. I guess if a Klingon on TV can do math, then anyone or anything in the real universe can.
Or something. heheh, heheh, hehe.
I figure out how American government works and who to vote for next year by watching West Wing. Dean in 2004!, er, or whatever year we vote.
*scratches head*
This article reminds me of the Microsoft photo/GPS one posted later in the day. Big company trying to impress us with all the nifty research they are doing to make our lives better.
Except the web site is down, or the text includes typos that would be caught by a third grader. Or the concept has a tendency to excuse or mollify poor performance of existing products. Or the proposed solution has a tendency to line the big companies pockets with money.
Back in the "good ole days" big companies made HARDWARE primarily and software was a secondary concern. Research into faster disk drives, memory devices and CPUs had obvious benefits to both manufacturer and consumer (and this is still the case). But these software research operation always give me the creeps. In both cases we have some highly proprietary thing being worked on, that they would REALLY like to tell us about, but which have secrecy as a primary component.
I don't think they needed to do any research to make the colorization of printed currency questionable. I can't get one page in ten to come out properly on a consumer grade inkjet printer. By the time I account for ink cartridges that are ALMOST empty, print head that are dried up after only a day of not being used, and the astronomical cost of ink, I'd much rather pay more for a black toner laser printer and skip color until some company in Hong Kong has figured out how to do it economically, probably 10 years from now.
The solution to counterfeiting is to get away from paper currency. Any "research" between here and there is a waste of time.
That a company with $40 Billion can have such an online presence as this:
W orkerRequest wr) +147
.NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.573; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.573
Server Error in '/' Application.
Server Too Busy
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.Web.HttpException: Server Too Busy
Source Error:
An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.
Stack Trace:
[HttpException (0x80004005): Server Too Busy]
System.Web.HttpRuntime.RejectRequestInternal(Http
Version Information: Microsoft
"Of course then the seals will probably have problems with martian fines but that's why you will be rebuilding the hardsuits."
You mean they already have parking meters on Mars TOO?!
Count me out. I'll just stay here in the suburbs.
Thanks for that link. I turned mine off about 4 years ago too. The only problem has been that it seems like people around you get dumber and dumber. It's really pathetic to liten to a physisist bable on for an hour or so about his collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes (or something like that) and then see the look on his face when you finally get a word in edgwise and ask "What the heck are you talking about?"
And in answer to other posts: Yes, I find staring at my computer screen more interesting (even Slashdot) becuase I can intereact with it, search it, add to it. Also you don't have to view content on the Internet based on someone elses schedule. It's all there, all the time.
"We will research, improve, innovate and ultimately implement nanotech solutions for one simple reason: we can. It's been the same right throughout human history."
Spot On!
And then after that... MACRO Technology.
We will develop paper clips the size of a HOUSE!
A 512MB stick of memory will be the size of a football field!
Books so large it will take the whole neighborhood to turn the pages.
And planets the size of, well, really big planets!
Why? Because we can, thats why!
(no text) Really!
Yes I did have problems with it.
I started reading (thinking it was just HTML as advertised) and when I got to the bottom of the first page I clicked on the graphic down there (assuming it would take me to the next page). I still don't know what that graphic represents, but it doesn't do anything.
I finally looked up top, but with hard-coded font sizes on that frame and my 1600x1400 screen size the word "Brows" is almost microscopic, and its actually quite difficult to hit the page forward button without accidentally hitting one of the nearby buttons.
This is horrible web design by any standards.
A quick look at the source for that header frame (looks to be a couple hundred lines!) shows checks for specific browsers and OSs...sure enough it doesn't work on my iBook at all.
I also don't see the normal alternate text tags for people with disabilities.
They should have just posed links to the PDF file for download, or even a DOC file that I could easily read with Open Office, or better yet, produce a true HTML version of the document.
So, from your point of view, what is there about this page to like?
"OK, so I guess I was wrong on that. I've tried to do a bit more research, and you're right in that I'm wrong,"
You have violated the Slashdot Prime Directive.
Please turn in your ID at the front desk.
That is the weirdest HTML formatted article I have ever seen. Let me guess... they converted a DOC file to PDF, printed it, faxed it to themselves, scanned it and then ran it through a OCR to HTML conversion program using a Microsoft designed XML parser (Patented of course!)
Gees whatever happened to content oriented plain old HTML.
*shakes head*
I'll read the friggin thing when I have a couple of hours to wait for the pages to load.
PS: for anyone else having trouble: you have to click on those microscopic VCR style buttons at the top of the page to get the page transitions. Then go get a cup of coffee.
"People come to the US looking for jobs..PANIC!!!! People leave the US looking for jobs...PANIC!!! President tries to solve this problem by trying to kill all those annoying foreigners...PANIC!!!"
Actually the two things are related. They have been sending people here to set up consultancies for years. They get start-up funding like you wouldn't believe from back home. A guy that worked for me graduated about a month before taking a job at our company. I helped him get through the H1B visa process hardly knowing what the thing was at the time. he worked for us for a year or so, then went out and bought a Farrari (sp?), a huge house, and started his own company. Just like that. Now he ships work back to India.
I have no problem with him doing this, or with the fat cats back in India helping him.
I DO have a problem with the morons here in congress who voted (and continue to vote) for extending the H1B visa program so that more and more of this can happen. H1B has been a total failure, in addition to making terrorist infiltration easier, we have lost jobs, productivity, and economic stability as a results. Just wait 'till all the results are in.
Maybe we should be allowed to vote in some politicians from India. I bet the problem would get straightened out real fast if that were a possibility.
PS:
I wrote them a nasty letter. While I was doing so it occured to me...
If what they say is true why aren't they just using an MP3 stream? that works everywhere. Could it be this has something to do with their hosting company being a big Windows 2000 server farm?
http://www.corsis.com
Lets see, last time a big hosting company went all Windows, wasn't that Digex? I wonder what ever happened to them? hehe
Funny their demise didn't make nearly the splash that their switch to Windows did. Oh well.
" I would like to write an open letter to the people of RealMedia, telling them how I disp *BUFFERING*"
Yeah, seems like no matter how high you set the buffering value it falls behind. It almost seems like that setting isn't actually connected to anything in the code. Maybe there will be an open surce equivalent soon that will let you write the whole godam stream to a file before it even starts playing. That would solve the problem...
As is so often the case, Microsofts tactics (and I don't doubt for a minute there is some financial incentive behind this) will pay off for them. The more locked into WMA people get the more they will get screwed over in the long run.
I can hardly wait for the fuckwits at Microsoft to Screw you Tapit brothers, I'll not be listening again. (They didn't give very good car advice anyway, it's just a comedy show these days).
Couldn't they have at least waited for the community player to get off the ground?
https://www.helixcommunity.org/
Well, they have stopped support for IE on the Mac so thats a moot point. IE was the best browser for the Mac for exactly the amount of time that it was the ONLY browser for the Mac. I switched to Mozilla when it was still flaky and slow, but the Safari browser blows both the others away.
Basically Microsoft doesn't like competition. If they can't buy them or put them out of business they just take there equipment and go home like a pouty child.
I have a feeling once there is a native office suite for the Mac, most likely Open Office, but others are in the works, Microsoft will, again, pack up it's toys and slink back to the Intel platform only. If Intel ever decided to throw a curve ball at Microsoft they (MS) would be in big big trouble.
I think this deadly embrace that Intel and Microsoft are in though is bad for both companies in the long run. MS would be far better off as platform neutral vendor of software of all kinds. Intel would be far better off just beating the crap out of other hardware companies in terms of price performance. They will price themselves out of the market for low cost PCs in a few years (well, now actually), especially non-US ones and it is at that point that Microsoft may wish to revive its ability to create software for something other than Intel boxes.
"I hate computers that don't have a reset button and pressing the power button doesn't always turn the computer off. "
I guess if Microsoft ever succeeds in getting manufacturers to use WinCE we will have to have little reset buttons on just about everything!
(sorry I couldn't resist)