More of the story about why the competitors lost market share:
1) Microsoft apparently was deliberately allowing piracy of
Microsoft Office and other Microsoft products. I know this because I called
the Microsoft legal department, accused them of allowing piracy, and forced
them to stop some of the local pirate outlets. In response, Microsoft brought
one court case. But the other pirates continued. Later Microsoft made it
impossible to contact their legal department.
Legitimate suppliers of alternative products could not compete because
computer customers were being offered pirated copies of Microsoft Office for
$50 when bought with a computer -- or less.
2) The people who owned most of the WordPerfect stock did not WANT to
compete. You can read the book about this written by the COO of WordPerfect,
Almost Perfect, available online.
My opinion is that Microsoft allowed piracy, and that was the biggest
contributing factor toward the failure of competitors.
Anyone can speculate how that one small page of foolish ideas could become a
Slashdot story. This is my guess:
Vlad Dolezal: I've written 481 words that I think are just
wonderful! [Actual count]
CmdrTaco: Good. I'm not such a good writer myself. I just like to
play games.
Vlad: I want you to make what I wrote a Slashdot story.
CmdrTaco: We try to run stories of real significance, not just
something someone wrote.
Vlad: But I will give you this whole box of Twinkies! CmdrTaco: We're not supposed to run stories because someone paid
us.
Vlad: But it's a whole box! And it is less than a month old!
CmdrTaco: Okay, I'll run the story.
Some Slashdot stories, like this one, try not to involve themselves
with facts. Linux is popular because:
1) It is stable. Window XP SP2 sometimes has problems that
re-installing over the original installation won't fix. Those problems happen
often enough that the total cost of ownership of computers using Windows XP is
significantly higher.
2) When you buy a computer, you are partnering with a technology
company. Microsoft is commonly adversarial. With Linux, you have a true
partner, not a company that plays sneaky games.
3) With Linux, you will always have a reasonably easy upgrade path.
With Microsoft products, apparently each new version of Microsoft Windows is
designed to require new hardware. That makes money for the computer
manufacturers, who are Microsoft's biggest customers.
1) Your organization pays to have your paper published.
2) The scientific journal has trees cut to make paper.
3) When the journal gets A Round Tuit, which could be months after the paper is accepted, the paper is published in the journal.
4) Subscribers pay an extremely high subscription cost.
5) Subscribers get a printed publication in the mail, when they would rather have text-searchable.PDF files.
The journal says, "We were able to make money this way in the past, why should we change? We will publish papers that a) have merit, and b) make us money. No, wait, that is a) make us money, and b) have merit. Scientific progress should be slowed to accommodate our business model."
Check out NameCheap.com. They are an eNom.com reseller.
GoDaddy's reputation is not one of a few bad stories. In my opinion, GoDaddy tries to confuse non-technical people by offering services they don't need that are presented as valuable.
First, I have an ENORMOUS appreciation of wikiPedia. It's an excellent starting point for research, in my experience. Thanks to you and everyone who make it so wonderful.
Wow! This thread really got crazy. There is no problem with my grandparent post, in spite of the complaints. Those who are feeling so negative are confusing "claiming causation" with proposing a theory. Anyone can propose a theory that fits the facts.
The story is about a common kind of mistake that shows how important it is to understand the scientific method. Someone does a study and finds that there is a statistical correlation between one phenomenon and another. Then there is a claim that one of the phenomena is the cause of the other. Actually, however, they can both be related to something else that is not understood.
Single people die earlier than married people. The reason does not appear to be that marriage prolongs life. Apparently those who have no strong ties to another person when they are 50 or older are likely to be alone because of some huge stress in their lives. It is the stress that kills, not being unmarried.
There is a lot I don't understand about the system of registratoin. For example, the registrar Oregon URLS says it charges $100,000 per domain. There are a lot of registrars listed which have names not designed to get respect.
Why not buy 5 years at a cheap registrar, and transfer to a more expensive registrar, buying only one extra year?
You should not be allowed to post comments on Slashdot if you don't know some basic things about the software industry. For example, since April 1, 1994 Microsoft Owns the Catholic Church.
Also, the U.S. government is NOT a subsidiary of Microsoft. They are both subsidiaries of the same organization, "Do Evil if You Can". For example, see Remarkable occurrences involving the Bush family.
"What we need is a list of known good registrars..."
Any recommendations?
eNom.com is the
real provider for many domain name resellers. For example, NameCheap is one of many who
buy from eNom.com.
eNom.com has been competing with its re-sellers with eNomCentral.com. Note that
eNom.com is now apparently doing what GoDaddy does. In my opinion, GoDaddy.com
tries to get more money by confusing people who have little technical
knowledge.
Some of the negative stories about GoDaddy on Slashdot:
The difference is that there are many, many other kinds of GSM phones, and all of them have the same GSM functionality, although the iPhone has some additional functionality.
What percentage of people want to use their phone to do something other than make calls? Of those, how many are willing to pay a lot for the phone, and be locked to Comcast?
"Whether it's the iPhone or not is debatable; but that sort of
handheld-computer-masquerading-as-a-phone is going to be bigger than the
personal computer."
It's difficult for me to see that that could possibly be so. Most of
the work I do on a personal computer, I will always do at home or at work. I
need a big, comfortable display. I need a full-size keyboard. The most
comfortable chairs in which I sit are in front of my desks.
"In fact, I would go so far as to say that within 10 years, that
sort of handheld will be most people's personal computers."
I guess predictions are a cultural thing. It has become acceptable
that anyone can predict anything.
I can make predictions, too. But I don't like my predictions to be
about the future. For greater accuracy, I like to make predictions about the
past:
I predict that, once the novelty has worn away, most people who own
iPhones will use them mostly to make telephone calls. There is nothing so
urgent about my email messages that I need to interrupt what I am doing when I
am away from my desk and answer them, using a tiny keyboard and one finger.
That's a useful explanation. I wish John Doerr had not given an exaggerated explanation with few facts.
He was quoted as saying that the iPhone is "bigger than the personal computer...", I thought that he knew that wasn't true, as the Fortune Magazine writer implied. That made me wonder what was being concealed. I'm still wondering if there are agreements between Apple and VCs that are not public.
In my opinion, his statement was poor public relations.
Slashdot Mirror
More of the story about why the competitors lost market share:
1) Microsoft apparently was deliberately allowing piracy of Microsoft Office and other Microsoft products. I know this because I called the Microsoft legal department, accused them of allowing piracy, and forced them to stop some of the local pirate outlets. In response, Microsoft brought one court case. But the other pirates continued. Later Microsoft made it impossible to contact their legal department.
Legitimate suppliers of alternative products could not compete because computer customers were being offered pirated copies of Microsoft Office for $50 when bought with a computer -- or less.
2) The people who owned most of the WordPerfect stock did not WANT to compete. You can read the book about this written by the COO of WordPerfect, Almost Perfect, available online.
My opinion is that Microsoft allowed piracy, and that was the biggest contributing factor toward the failure of competitors.
Anyone can speculate how that one small page of foolish ideas could become a Slashdot story. This is my guess:
Vlad Dolezal: I've written 481 words that I think are just wonderful! [Actual count]
CmdrTaco: Good. I'm not such a good writer myself. I just like to play games.
Vlad: I want you to make what I wrote a Slashdot story.
CmdrTaco: We try to run stories of real significance, not just something someone wrote.
Vlad: But I will give you this whole box of Twinkies!
CmdrTaco: We're not supposed to run stories because someone paid us.
Vlad: But it's a whole box! And it is less than a month old!
CmdrTaco: Okay, I'll run the story.
Some Slashdot stories, like this one, try not to involve themselves with facts. Linux is popular because:
1) It is stable. Window XP SP2 sometimes has problems that re-installing over the original installation won't fix. Those problems happen often enough that the total cost of ownership of computers using Windows XP is significantly higher.
2) When you buy a computer, you are partnering with a technology company. Microsoft is commonly adversarial. With Linux, you have a true partner, not a company that plays sneaky games.
3) With Linux, you will always have a reasonably easy upgrade path. With Microsoft products, apparently each new version of Microsoft Windows is designed to require new hardware. That makes money for the computer manufacturers, who are Microsoft's biggest customers.
Support the RIAA, CIA, NSA, DMCA, BSA, and anything else that ends with A, and accept that these incidents are coincidence.
Some of the steps to publication:
.PDF files.
1) Your organization pays to have your paper published.
2) The scientific journal has trees cut to make paper.
3) When the journal gets A Round Tuit, which could be months after the paper is accepted, the paper is published in the journal.
4) Subscribers pay an extremely high subscription cost.
5) Subscribers get a printed publication in the mail, when they would rather have text-searchable
The journal says, "We were able to make money this way in the past, why should we change? We will publish papers that a) have merit, and b) make us money. No, wait, that is a) make us money, and b) have merit. Scientific progress should be slowed to accommodate our business model."
Check out NameCheap.com. They are an eNom.com reseller.
GoDaddy's reputation is not one of a few bad stories. In my opinion, GoDaddy tries to confuse non-technical people by offering services they don't need that are presented as valuable.
I'm keeping a list of stories about GoDaddy on Slashdot, in order by date:
Go Daddy Usurps Network Solutions (2005-05-04)
GoDaddy Serves Blank Pages to Safari & Opera (2005-12-08)
GoDaddy.com Dumps Linux for Microsoft (2006-03-23)
GoDaddy Holds Domains Hostage (2006-06-17)
GoDaddy Caves To Irish Legal Threat (2006-09-16)
MySpace and GoDaddy Shut Down Security Site (2007-01-26)
That incident prompted this web site:
Exposing the Many Reasons Not to Trust GoDaddy with Your Domain Names.
Alternative Registrars to GoDaddy? (2007-02-03)
GoDaddy Bobbles DST Changeover? (2007-03-11)
850K RegisterFly Domains Moved To GoDaddy (2007-05-29)
GoDaddy Silences RateMyCop.com (2008-03-12)
Any error or stories not included?
First, I have an ENORMOUS appreciation of wikiPedia. It's an excellent starting point for research, in my experience. Thanks to you and everyone who make it so wonderful.
Second, thanks for your informative explanations.
Funny. LOL. Good point. If he paid $5,000 he didn't get much for his money.
MOD PARENT UP, of course.
Perhaps the news articles reflect the increasing importance of WikiPedia, and the desires of some people to control it.
Quote from the Slashdot story: "Merkey filed a harassment lawsuit in 2005 against a number of people and organizations, including Slashdot."
Maybe someday Slashdot will be important enough that there are a lot of accusations.
Wow! This thread really got crazy. There is no problem with my grandparent post, in spite of the complaints. Those who are feeling so negative are confusing "claiming causation" with proposing a theory. Anyone can propose a theory that fits the facts.
I don't see any mistake in what I said.
And, it was only a Slashdot comment, not a full article on what I know about the subject. I was presenting a more plausible and well-respected theory.
It seemed to me that you were mostly interested in acting superior, not in merely adding to the discussion.
The story is about a common kind of mistake that shows how important it is to understand the scientific method. Someone does a study and finds that there is a statistical correlation between one phenomenon and another. Then there is a claim that one of the phenomena is the cause of the other. Actually, however, they can both be related to something else that is not understood.
Single people die earlier than married people. The reason does not appear to be that marriage prolongs life. Apparently those who have no strong ties to another person when they are 50 or older are likely to be alone because of some huge stress in their lives. It is the stress that kills, not being unmarried.
Thanks. I didn't know how to access the list.
There is a lot I don't understand about the system of registratoin. For example, the registrar Oregon URLS says it charges $100,000 per domain. There are a lot of registrars listed which have names not designed to get respect.
Why not buy 5 years at a cheap registrar, and transfer to a more expensive registrar, buying only one extra year?
Terrible error.
You should not be allowed to post comments on Slashdot if you don't know some basic things about the software industry. For example, since April 1, 1994 Microsoft Owns the Catholic Church.
Also, the U.S. government is NOT a subsidiary of Microsoft. They are both subsidiaries of the same organization, "Do Evil if You Can". For example, see Remarkable occurrences involving the Bush family.
It's not mis-information. I'm asking a question, and I don't know how to find the answer, and I don't see that you have provided an answer.
Do you know with certainty that Gandi.net is not an eNom.com reseller? Many or most of the eNom hide the connection.
We are talking about a Flash decompiler? Yes, it would matter.
What Flash de-compiler do you use? (Google search)
Closed source flash tools lists only one decompiler. The Open Source Flash Projects list has no decompilers.
"What we need is a list of known good registrars..."
Any recommendations?
eNom.com is the real provider for many domain name resellers. For example, NameCheap is one of many who buy from eNom.com.
eNom.com has been competing with its re-sellers with eNomCentral.com. Note that eNom.com is now apparently doing what GoDaddy does. In my opinion, GoDaddy.com tries to get more money by confusing people who have little technical knowledge.
Some of the negative stories about GoDaddy on Slashdot:
GoDaddy Holds Domains Hostage
GoDaddy Caves To Irish Legal Threat
MySpace and GoDaddy Shut Down Security Site
GoDaddy Serves Blank Pages to Safari & Opera
GoDaddy Bobbles DST Changeover?
GoDaddy.com Dumps Linux for Microsoft
Go Daddy Usurps Network Solutions
Alternative Registrars to GoDaddy?
Other reasons not to buy from GoDaddy: NoDaddy.
The difference is that there are many, many other kinds of GSM phones, and all of them have the same GSM functionality, although the iPhone has some additional functionality.
What percentage of people want to use their phone to do something other than make calls? Of those, how many are willing to pay a lot for the phone, and be locked to Comcast?
"Whether it's the iPhone or not is debatable; but that sort of handheld-computer-masquerading-as-a-phone is going to be bigger than the personal computer."
It's difficult for me to see that that could possibly be so. Most of the work I do on a personal computer, I will always do at home or at work. I need a big, comfortable display. I need a full-size keyboard. The most comfortable chairs in which I sit are in front of my desks.
"In fact, I would go so far as to say that within 10 years, that sort of handheld will be most people's personal computers."
I guess predictions are a cultural thing. It has become acceptable that anyone can predict anything.
I can make predictions, too. But I don't like my predictions to be about the future. For greater accuracy, I like to make predictions about the past:
I predict that tying the iPhone to Comcast will tend to lower Apple's status. For examples of how Comcast is seen by the public, watch the YouTube videos A Comcast Technician Sleeping on my Couch and Cancelling Comcast.
I predict that, once the novelty has worn away, most people who own iPhones will use them mostly to make telephone calls. There is nothing so urgent about my email messages that I need to interrupt what I am doing when I am away from my desk and answer them, using a tiny keyboard and one finger.
That's a useful explanation. I wish John Doerr had not given an exaggerated explanation with few facts.
He was quoted as saying that the iPhone is "bigger than the personal computer...", I thought that he knew that wasn't true, as the Fortune Magazine writer implied. That made me wonder what was being concealed. I'm still wondering if there are agreements between Apple and VCs that are not public.
In my opinion, his statement was poor public relations.
It's not about money. It is about being unclear what parts of the document can be copied freely.
If they don't specify which part of a document is copyrighted, you can't know what parts are copyrighted, and therefore you can't copy anything.
To me, that's government craziness.