Microsoft is far to big to change direction. They are a marketing company trying to wring every last penny out of windows and related tools. They have never been a technology company and trying to change now will do nothing but burn vast sums of money. Windows is obsolete and they know they have to replace it but they will never be able to come up with anything better.
They could develop new and better OS's at a fraction of their current research costs by simply giving cash to universities to do the work and keeping their hands off the projects. Sadly they can't think like that.
Another benefit to having Excel or Access online is that they're not based on presentation, and the calculation-intensive stuff is easily spread across a cluster of machines. If they can also make it as easy as it is now to generate forms and reports based on the data, while hosting database apps, I'd sign up in a heartbeat.
What on earth are you doing in excel that could need a cluster of machines? Cracking AES? Have you implemented bubblesort in visual basic just for a laugh?
Even the most complex reports don't need more CPU power than can be provided by a 4 year old computer.
Microsoft is following its normal behavior of ripping off other peoples ideas because they just don't have any of their own. This may have worked well in the past ( windows, office, etc. ) but it's not viable now, google are big enough to not be prone to Microsoft's anti-competitive tactics and google don't depend on microsoft's OS.
Microsoft have never been able to dominate without their unfair advantage and they are losing that. The stranglehold that kept MS in business for decades is now falling apart.
I predict a long protracted death for microsoft. And good riddance, I never liked their poor quality products or nasty business practices anyway.
We know they're frauds. We know that we're buying a ponzi scheme. They're the only ones who seem to believe their "models" have a basis in reality. Sort of like how facebook "models" my friends.
Doubleplus true.
However I suspect the majority of the general public will be fooled, even after getting burnt by these money-grabbing parasites.
Yeah it's a lot of money, but it is absolutely standard for interns at top tech places like MS and Google...
There are companies that love technology but they are normally small companies and don't pay nearly as much or get nearly as much hype. People that love technology tend to gravitate towards them whilst people that love money and image ork for the huge multinationals.
MS isn't top-tech. They have never written anything that a group of hobbyists have not done better.
$4500-$6000 a month is a LOT of coin for pretty much most of the country not containing coastline.
It's well over the odds for an intern. That kind of money will attract a great number of the kind of people that work for money and will say or do anything to get it. You know those kind of people, multinationals are full of them.
What it won't do is attract great computer scientists.
As a UK citizen who works abroad I have not had a vote for years. Their stupid rules don't allow me to vote yet they allow illegal immigrants to register any number of votes each.
But delivering them this way is attracting too much attention. Better to deliver the machines to their normal IT supplier, perhaps by getting one of your people on the payroll.
It would be far cheaper to put malware on a USB key with a logo of some government project on the side and mail that to them. They could use the same CD autorun thing that the U3 malware uses.
Seriously, they don't have one good tech guy who could wipe the drives/check the internals for rogue hardware?
Not at a cost less than the price of one new laptop. Smart hardware people with time to prepare could hide just about any device just about anywhere. Or hide nothing at all just so people waste time looking for what isn't there.
I get the impression this is just a prank by someone with a little too much free cash and a bad sense of humor. Either that or a marketing thing by a laptop manufacturer.
...near as worthwhile a target as Windows platforms due to (a) market share...
Someone always trots out the market share argument for the poor security record of windows. It's a poor argument. Anyone with a net connection could find a few hundred windows machines and a few hundred linux machines with nmap in not very much time. If it turns out the windows ones are easier to crack that's in no way because there are more of them.
Give someone with no IT knowledge a windows machine and a ubuntu machine and they will both update themselves with little to no user interaction. The windows one will reboot more often and has still have a higher chance of security problems because microsoft software is written to a lower standard and tested by less people.
Linux is better than windows. That's not to say that linux is perfect, or anywhere near perfect, or that being 'better than windows' is good enough.
I used to have warm, fuzzy feelings about O'Reilly and my shelf full of O'Reilly books. That was before they started spamming me. I'm a college professor, and they sent me spam trying to get me to adopt one of their physics books for my courses.
Europe hires good staff from anywhere. Americans are very welcome to apply for anything. Just like most of the world you will have hell of paperwork to get a visa but that's the same nonsense everyone has when trying to work away from home.
You will get screwed on tax by your own government and because of that many banks won't want to touch you but you only need one bank anyway.
I've known many Americans working in Europe, it's really not unusual.
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Microsoft is far to big to change direction. They are a marketing company trying to wring every last penny out of windows and related tools. They have never been a technology company and trying to change now will do nothing but burn vast sums of money. Windows is obsolete and they know they have to replace it but they will never be able to come up with anything better.
They could develop new and better OS's at a fraction of their current research costs by simply giving cash to universities to do the work and keeping their hands off the projects. Sadly they can't think like that.
Another benefit to having Excel or Access online is that they're not based on presentation, and the calculation-intensive stuff is easily spread across a cluster of machines. If they can also make it as easy as it is now to generate forms and reports based on the data, while hosting database apps, I'd sign up in a heartbeat.
What on earth are you doing in excel that could need a cluster of machines? Cracking AES? Have you implemented bubblesort in visual basic just for a laugh?
Even the most complex reports don't need more CPU power than can be provided by a 4 year old computer.
Microsoft is following its normal behavior of ripping off other peoples ideas because they just don't have any of their own. This may have worked well in the past ( windows, office, etc. ) but it's not viable now, google are big enough to not be prone to Microsoft's anti-competitive tactics and google don't depend on microsoft's OS.
Microsoft have never been able to dominate without their unfair advantage and they are losing that. The stranglehold that kept MS in business for decades is now falling apart.
I predict a long protracted death for microsoft. And good riddance, I never liked their poor quality products or nasty business practices anyway.
Why is it that these people insist on trying to apply a veneer of respectability to this shit?
Maybe the same reason people believe in horoscopes?
Maybe just because everyone else believes in them and they don't want to stand out?
Maybe just because most people are dumb.
Can't you cut the Wall St. Assholes a break? You don't think they bleed black pus when cut like the rest of us?
That is one theory that someone should test. A sample size of a few hundred should be used for a scientifically valid test.
We know they're frauds. We know that we're buying a ponzi scheme. They're the only ones who seem to believe their "models" have a basis in reality. Sort of like how facebook "models" my friends.
Doubleplus true.
However I suspect the majority of the general public will be fooled, even after getting burnt by these money-grabbing parasites.
financial experts
You mean snake oil merchants.
Bill Gates holds the world record for the largest donation to charity in the history of earth.
1) That seems to be false, buffet gave more - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5115920.stm
2) So what? If I robbed a load of people and donated that money to charity it would not make me a good person in the eyes of most people.
Sorry, but if you are only making that with 10 years of experience and an MBA, you either picked the wrong field, or well, you need to change jobs.
So you earn more than him, it's likely to be because you have the kind of job no one would want to do and he has a job he enjoys.
Taking a pay cut for a better job was one of the best things I ever did. Within certain limits money does not affect happiness.
$6000 X 12 = $72,000. Depending on the profession and the education degree, that can be a reasonable entry point.
Reasonable entry point? Crap.
Anyone who gets that kind of money on a -first job- will never value money or hard work. It's FAR too much FAR too soon.
Yeah it's a lot of money, but it is absolutely standard for interns at top tech places like MS and Google...
There are companies that love technology but they are normally small companies and don't pay nearly as much or get nearly as much hype. People that love technology tend to gravitate towards them whilst people that love money and image ork for the huge multinationals.
MS isn't top-tech. They have never written anything that a group of hobbyists have not done better.
$4500-$6000 a month is a LOT of coin for pretty much most of the country not containing coastline.
It's well over the odds for an intern. That kind of money will attract a great number of the kind of people that work for money and will say or do anything to get it. You know those kind of people, multinationals are full of them.
What it won't do is attract great computer scientists.
Did you even read the summary? He specifically mentioned that he knows about serial console and many of these machines might not have serial ports.
Some machines don't have serial ports. The easy solution is to buy a serial card for these machines.
Everything else is more expensive and more complex.
Both the conservatives and lib-dems say they will scrap the ID card scheme... why not vote for one of them!?
Because they are both lying. All governments crave control.
From the UK and don't like the ID card proposals? Then use your vote next year!
As a UK citizen who works abroad I have not had a vote for years. Their stupid rules don't allow me to vote yet they allow illegal immigrants to register any number of votes each.
The system is rigged to skew results to the left.
'better operating system' is a function of reliability and usability, not of speed performing some arbitrary task.
10% faster or slower just doesn't matter in normal use.
You sir, are completely out of touch with tech support scripts.
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Now go and unplug your dam satellite and hold the reset button down whilst plugging it in.
>
Offtopic, but does anyone know how to remove the U3 "feature" using Linux?
I looked and looked but found nothing useful. In the end I just used the windows tool on a work XP machine.
But delivering them this way is attracting too much attention. Better to deliver the machines to their normal IT supplier, perhaps by getting one of your people on the payroll.
It would be far cheaper to put malware on a USB key with a logo of some government project on the side and mail that to them. They could use the same CD autorun thing that the U3 malware uses.
Seriously, they don't have one good tech guy who could wipe the drives/check the internals for rogue hardware?
Not at a cost less than the price of one new laptop. Smart hardware people with time to prepare could hide just about any device just about anywhere. Or hide nothing at all just so people waste time looking for what isn't there.
I get the impression this is just a prank by someone with a little too much free cash and a bad sense of humor. Either that or a marketing thing by a laptop manufacturer.
Exactly. Those which often cry "freedom" often forget that my freedom includes the freedom of choosing the choices they dislike.
I have chosen Windows 7, and I'm damn happy I did so.
Can I have the freedom to use a open source OS of my choosing on my laptop without having to pay a arbitrary third party for the privilege?
...near as worthwhile a target as Windows platforms due to (a) market share...
Someone always trots out the market share argument for the poor security record of windows. It's a poor argument. Anyone with a net connection could find a few hundred windows machines and a few hundred linux machines with nmap in not very much time. If it turns out the windows ones are easier to crack that's in no way because there are more of them.
Give someone with no IT knowledge a windows machine and a ubuntu machine and they will both update themselves with little to no user interaction. The windows one will reboot more often and has still have a higher chance of security problems because microsoft software is written to a lower standard and tested by less people.
Linux is better than windows. That's not to say that linux is perfect, or anywhere near perfect, or that being 'better than windows' is good enough.
I used to have warm, fuzzy feelings about O'Reilly and my shelf full of O'Reilly books. That was before they started spamming me. I'm a college professor, and they sent me spam trying to get me to adopt one of their physics books for my courses.
O'Reilly do physics books now? Thats news to me.
We know. But the EU doesn't hire Americans.
Europe hires good staff from anywhere. Americans are very welcome to apply for anything. Just like most of the world you will have hell of paperwork to get a visa but that's the same nonsense everyone has when trying to work away from home.
You will get screwed on tax by your own government and because of that many banks won't want to touch you but you only need one bank anyway.
I've known many Americans working in Europe, it's really not unusual.
That's a photoshopped image isn't it?
They didn't seriously broadcast that did they?