"Under Gates, MS used to steal the best ideas; now they steal the bad ones."
Inside Microsoft, that is considered an improvement... in making people suffer. Still, however, Microsoft is forced to release bad operating system versions only every other release. MS doesn't have complete control yet. In the future, all releases will have new problems.
I should have said that in my opinion, "Only the CPU and chipset design groups have been consistently successful." Also, that is only an outsider's opinion. There may be well-managed groups inside Intel that are unknown to me.
I like what you said in this thread. It's helpful.
I have talked with two Intel employees who said they work in two different groups at Intel concerned with how processors interact with storage. They said Intel's SSD caching risks data integrity, and it is not possible to RAID Mirror Intel's SSD caching using Intel's Ivy Bridge chipset.
Also, quoting from the Intel Rapid Storage Technology RAID driver GUI: "The Windows write-cache buffer flushing policy can be enabled for all RAID array drives to ensure data integrity or disabled to improve data performance. Click the Help icon for more information on setting the wnte-cache buffer flushing policy based on your needs."
Based on talking with Intel employees, I have developed an opinion that SSDs and SSD interaction with processors are still in development stages. There are, it is apparent to me, many poorly managed groups at Intel. Only the CPU design group has been consistently successful. It's only my guess, but I'm guessing that former Intel CEO Paul Otellini was fired by Intel's board of directors for an especially severe issue of bad management.
Communication is important, not just marketing. Many problems occur when not everyone in a company understands the issues.
You can get some free help from our web site: Futurepower.
Major points:
No one else can know your products as well as people inside your company. An outsider with experience can help, but you must guide the work. Yes, that is difficult and time-consuming, but it is necessary.
Don't be overly influenced by marketing for consumer products. Almost all consumer product marketing contains some dishonesty. Some marketing people are financially successful abusing the customer, but there are always drawbacks. For example, after 8 years of suffering from cancer, Steve Jobs died; I'm sure you will consider that a drawback.
There are many, many people who think they get away with their own methods of being abusive. It is a reasonable theory that they don't.
Every writer needs an editor. Truly professional writers want as many people as possible to search for mistakes and insufficiencies in what they have written.
Deal creatively with the tough conflicts. Resolve conflicts, don't avoid them. Often advertising that has helped readers understand conflicts has been extremely successful.
Everything is marketing. As it says on our web site, "Every public activity of a company helps form the public view of the company and is therefore advertising."
See other issues on our web site: For example, "Give one thing one name." Don't be like Intel and give one thing, a storage driver, 5 names.
"Except that saying OpenOffice or LibreOffice are as good as Microsoft Office is false."
Maybe, but it's not that simple. Both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice/LibreOffice have many weird quirks.
Last week I tried to copy some text using the latest version of LibreOffice from one place to another, and the last sentence of what I copied was always made bold.
People say not to use the latest version of Microsoft Office if you have a document longer than about 30 pages, because then the formatting will be unstable.
A major problem is that Microsoft has, at present, a virtual monopoly. Once a large population has learned and accepted the quirks of Microsoft Office, it is difficult to get them to learn the quirks of something else.
We humans have not been very good at taking care of ourselves, apparently because those in power rarely have any technical knowledge, on any interest in learning. We need governments to put money into supporting a free office suite. We need legislation against proprietary file formats.
Microsoft is, in my opinion, very abusive. Customers of Microsoft pay close to a full price for new versions of software, even though many issues are not fixed. That can go on forever. Companies with virtual monopolies make more money if there are bugs and insufficiencies and proprietary file formats, because then customers have a reason to "upgrade".
There is a HUGE, fundamental problem, rooted in history. Originally, there were two kinds of programs, "word processors" and "page layout" programs. Only page layout programs allow sufficient control over how a page looks. Microsoft Office is a word processor. Microsoft Office does not have the necessary kinds of controls to take full control over the appearance of pages.
Adobe InDesign, for example, has the necessary controls, but, in my opinion, Adobe is a very badly managed company, and the InDesign user interface is poorly designed. Apparently Adobe has abandoned Framemaker and Pagemaker. Adobe software is extremely expensive.
It would be less expensive for everyone if governments paid to fix the problems of OpenOffice/LibreOffice, and that became a worldwide standard, open-source Office suite. That's what governments are for, to advance the common good. (Not killing people and destroying their property.)
In fact, I can find nothing that says fair use applies to issues "in the interest of the public", as the grandparent comment says. It seems unlikely that the result of a court case now would be like that of the case concerning the Pentagon Papers:"Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."
Whistleblower laws are independent of fair use laws.
The U.S. now allows dual citizenship, a person can have two passports from two different countries.
It is possible, and likely, that Linus is also still a citizen of Finland, which also allows dual citizenship, but I don't see that in a quick Google search. I think it is very unlikely that Linus would voluntarily, with no reason, relinquish his citizenship of Finland.
"Watching the first of his two debates with 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, I began to experience the nausea of a bad dream coming true. At 73, Ronald Reagan would be the oldest president ever reelected. Some voters were beginning to imagine grandpa -- who can never find his reading glasses -- in charge of a bristling nuclear arsenal, and it was making them nervous. Worse, my father now seemed to be giving them legitimate reason for concern. My heart sank as he floundered his way through his responses, fumbling with his notes, uncharacteristically lost for words. He looked tired and bewildered." Page 205.
When I said "before Reagan", I meant "before Reagan was president of the United States". The huge economic damage allowed because of Reagan's ignorance, carelessness, and willingness to reward supporters didn't begin until after he was elected president. See this 1986 L.A. Times article: 'Star Wars' Leads All Defense Costs: Anti-Missile Program Fast Becoming a Solidly Entrenched Part of Budget. Quote: "About 6,500 scientists have signed a pledge not to work on 'Star Wars.' "
"Low cost" hardware: Exactly correct. In the beginning, still quite expensive.
Quote: As Electric Pencil began to sell successfully, Shrayer was amazed at the demand for his product. He considered naming his firm the Electric Pencil and Eraser Company, but settled on Michael Shrayer Software. He sent a few brochures to dealers and the response was overwhelming.
Another quote: "We always felt that if Shrayer had had the inclination to upgrade Pencil, that no one could have taken that market away from him. Electric Pencil was like Kleenex and Coke. It was generic, and he could have owned the microcomputer word-processing market."
The California culture in the late 70s encouraged "do your own thing", but Michael Schrayer was the most counter-cultural person I've ever met, in both good and self-defeating ways.
I was visiting a computer store owned by a friend. A man walked in who looked homeless. He wore clothes that everyone else I knew would have thrown away. This was in California before Reagan, before there were a lot of homeless people.
I quietly asked my friend if he would ask the homeless person to leave; maybe there would be a concern about theft. My friend laughed, "That's Michael Shrayer, he wrote Electric Pencil, he's a multi-millionaire".
The reason they make hugely expensive computer cases is not so they will sell a lot of them. The reason is that they want to manipulate people into thinking paying more is sensible. So, by advertising very high prices they may sneakily get people to pay $50 when before they would only pay $35.
Here in the U.S. there is a big effort to do that with food.
I'm not sure. The correct method would be for Boeing to make sure the public understood all the issues before they started building 787s. Now they risk public relations hassles.
There is NO intent in saying that to imply that a 787 might crash. But if there is a runway or other accident, would passengers be less likely to survive?
Version 17.0.1 crashed a few hours ago; it is considerably more crashy than earlier versions. There was a 3. version that was much more stable. Maybe version 18.0 will be better.
The crashes occur when I am doing a lot of research, and have many windows and tabs open, and then go in an out of hibernation or sleep mode.
It seems to me, and many others, that Microsoft has an internal policy of deliberately making bad versions of Windows to increase sales. Look at the background of bad versions: Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows 8.
A company that has a virtual monopoly can make money by deliberately abusing its customers. That's especially true when a product is complicated and customers don't have the time to become technically knowledgeable.
Many people who buy a Windows computer now will want to buy Windows 9 when it is released because Windows 8 is so weird. That tends to double sales, because customers don't pay an upgrade price, Microsoft requires them to pay for an entirely new operating system, even though there have been few changes between versions. Also, Microsoft has established multiple prices. Customers who bought Windows 7 because they didn't like Windows Vista paid far more per copy than computer manufacturers.
It seems that abuse is deliberate Microsoft company policy. Yes, Microsoft management is incompetent, but also knowingly destructive. For example, a court case established that a Microsoft manager had said before Windows Vista was released that it was not ready to be released. Knowing that, Vista was released anyway.
Microsoft has been alternating bad and good versions of operating systems since the days of DOS. For example, DOS version 3.0 had serious bugs. DOS version 3.1 fixed the bugs. Customers who owned DOS 3 were required to pay the full retail price for DOS 3.1, even though there were few changes.
Slashdot Mirror
"Under Gates, MS used to steal the best ideas; now they steal the bad ones."
Inside Microsoft, that is considered an improvement... in making people suffer. Still, however, Microsoft is forced to release bad operating system versions only every other release. MS doesn't have complete control yet. In the future, all releases will have new problems.
I should have said that in my opinion, "Only the CPU and chipset design groups have been consistently successful." Also, that is only an outsider's opinion. There may be well-managed groups inside Intel that are unknown to me.
Hairy Feet,
I like what you said in this thread. It's helpful.
I have talked with two Intel employees who said they work in two different groups at Intel concerned with how processors interact with storage. They said Intel's SSD caching risks data integrity, and it is not possible to RAID Mirror Intel's SSD caching using Intel's Ivy Bridge chipset.
Also, quoting from the Intel Rapid Storage Technology RAID driver GUI: "The Windows write-cache buffer flushing policy can be enabled for all RAID array drives to ensure data integrity or disabled to improve data performance. Click the Help icon for more information on setting the wnte-cache buffer flushing policy based on your needs."
Based on talking with Intel employees, I have developed an opinion that SSDs and SSD interaction with processors are still in development stages. There are, it is apparent to me, many poorly managed groups at Intel. Only the CPU design group has been consistently successful. It's only my guess, but I'm guessing that former Intel CEO Paul Otellini was fired by Intel's board of directors for an especially severe issue of bad management.
After weeks in Hawaii, I get island fever.
Communication is important, not just marketing. Many problems occur when not everyone in a company understands the issues.
You can get some free help from our web site: Futurepower.
Major points:
No one else can know your products as well as people inside your company. An outsider with experience can help, but you must guide the work. Yes, that is difficult and time-consuming, but it is necessary.
Don't be overly influenced by marketing for consumer products. Almost all consumer product marketing contains some dishonesty. Some marketing people are financially successful abusing the customer, but there are always drawbacks. For example, after 8 years of suffering from cancer, Steve Jobs died; I'm sure you will consider that a drawback.
There are many, many people who think they get away with their own methods of being abusive. It is a reasonable theory that they don't.
Every writer needs an editor. Truly professional writers want as many people as possible to search for mistakes and insufficiencies in what they have written.
Deal creatively with the tough conflicts. Resolve conflicts, don't avoid them. Often advertising that has helped readers understand conflicts has been extremely successful.
Everything is marketing. As it says on our web site, "Every public activity of a company helps form the public view of the company and is therefore advertising."
See other issues on our web site: For example, "Give one thing one name." Don't be like Intel and give one thing, a storage driver, 5 names.
I download each version once, and install it on 16 computers.
"Except that saying OpenOffice or LibreOffice are as good as Microsoft Office is false."
Maybe, but it's not that simple. Both Microsoft Office and OpenOffice/LibreOffice have many weird quirks.
Last week I tried to copy some text using the latest version of LibreOffice from one place to another, and the last sentence of what I copied was always made bold.
People say not to use the latest version of Microsoft Office if you have a document longer than about 30 pages, because then the formatting will be unstable.
A major problem is that Microsoft has, at present, a virtual monopoly. Once a large population has learned and accepted the quirks of Microsoft Office, it is difficult to get them to learn the quirks of something else.
We humans have not been very good at taking care of ourselves, apparently because those in power rarely have any technical knowledge, on any interest in learning. We need governments to put money into supporting a free office suite. We need legislation against proprietary file formats.
Microsoft is, in my opinion, very abusive. Customers of Microsoft pay close to a full price for new versions of software, even though many issues are not fixed. That can go on forever. Companies with virtual monopolies make more money if there are bugs and insufficiencies and proprietary file formats, because then customers have a reason to "upgrade".
There is a HUGE, fundamental problem, rooted in history. Originally, there were two kinds of programs, "word processors" and "page layout" programs. Only page layout programs allow sufficient control over how a page looks. Microsoft Office is a word processor. Microsoft Office does not have the necessary kinds of controls to take full control over the appearance of pages.
Adobe InDesign, for example, has the necessary controls, but, in my opinion, Adobe is a very badly managed company, and the InDesign user interface is poorly designed. Apparently Adobe has abandoned Framemaker and Pagemaker. Adobe software is extremely expensive.
It would be less expensive for everyone if governments paid to fix the problems of OpenOffice/LibreOffice, and that became a worldwide standard, open-source Office suite. That's what governments are for, to advance the common good. (Not killing people and destroying their property.)
Why be unfriendly?
In fact, I can find nothing that says fair use applies to issues "in the interest of the public", as the grandparent comment says. It seems unlikely that the result of a court case now would be like that of the case concerning the Pentagon Papers: "Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government."
Whistleblower laws are independent of fair use laws.
That's interesting. Could you provide links to more information? I think that's the way it should be.
Painting the roof tops white is a very, very good idea.
There is excellent paint available, for exactly that purpose.
The U.S. now allows dual citizenship, a person can have two passports from two different countries.
It is possible, and likely, that Linus is also still a citizen of Finland, which also allows dual citizenship, but I don't see that in a quick Google search. I think it is very unlikely that Linus would voluntarily, with no reason, relinquish his citizenship of Finland.
I posted the link to the L.A. Times article to show an example of Ronald Reagan's inattention. His son thought the same thing: Reagan Son Claims Dad Had Alzheimer's as President Quote:
"Watching the first of his two debates with 1984 Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale, I began to experience the nausea of a bad dream coming true. At 73, Ronald Reagan would be the oldest president ever reelected. Some voters were beginning to imagine grandpa -- who can never find his reading glasses -- in charge of a bristling nuclear arsenal, and it was making them nervous. Worse, my father now seemed to be giving them legitimate reason for concern. My heart sank as he floundered his way through his responses, fumbling with his notes, uncharacteristically lost for words. He looked tired and bewildered." Page 205.
There are many other such sources.
When I said "before Reagan", I meant "before Reagan was president of the United States". The huge economic damage allowed because of Reagan's ignorance, carelessness, and willingness to reward supporters didn't begin until after he was elected president. See this 1986 L.A. Times article: 'Star Wars' Leads All Defense Costs: Anti-Missile Program Fast Becoming a Solidly Entrenched Part of Budget. Quote: "About 6,500 scientists have signed a pledge not to work on 'Star Wars.' "
"Low cost" hardware: Exactly correct. In the beginning, still quite expensive.
More about Electric Pencil: This 1982 InfoWorld article is interesting: "Electric Pencil, first micro word processor".
Quote: As Electric Pencil began to sell successfully, Shrayer was amazed at the demand for his product. He considered naming his firm the Electric Pencil and Eraser Company, but settled on Michael Shrayer Software. He sent a few brochures to dealers and the response was overwhelming.
Another quote: "We always felt that if Shrayer had had the inclination to upgrade Pencil, that no one could have taken that market away from him. Electric Pencil was like Kleenex and Coke. It was generic, and he could have owned the microcomputer word-processing market."
The California culture in the late 70s encouraged "do your own thing", but Michael Schrayer was the most counter-cultural person I've ever met, in both good and self-defeating ways.
I was visiting a computer store owned by a friend. A man walked in who looked homeless. He wore clothes that everyone else I knew would have thrown away. This was in California before Reagan, before there were a lot of homeless people.
I quietly asked my friend if he would ask the homeless person to leave; maybe there would be a concern about theft. My friend laughed, "That's Michael Shrayer, he wrote Electric Pencil, he's a multi-millionaire".
The reason they make hugely expensive computer cases is not so they will sell a lot of them. The reason is that they want to manipulate people into thinking paying more is sensible. So, by advertising very high prices they may sneakily get people to pay $50 when before they would only pay $35.
Here in the U.S. there is a big effort to do that with food.
I'm not sure. The correct method would be for Boeing to make sure the public understood all the issues before they started building 787s. Now they risk public relations hassles.
Balanced information:
U.S. regulators say Boeing 787 is safe but needs review.
FAA Orders Review Of Boeing 787 Dreamliner quote: "... we are confident about the safety of this aircraft, but we are concerned about these incidents."
A bigger issue: When composite burns it releases poisons. I haven't seen any discussion of Boeing's view of that. Here is a PDF file: Postcrash Health Hazards from Burning Aircraft Composites.
There is NO intent in saying that to imply that a 787 might crash. But if there is a runway or other accident, would passengers be less likely to survive?
I notice that things are still okay in West Wyalong.
Impressive map.
Version 17.0.1 crashed a few hours ago; it is considerably more crashy than earlier versions. There was a 3. version that was much more stable. Maybe version 18.0 will be better.
The crashes occur when I am doing a lot of research, and have many windows and tabs open, and then go in an out of hibernation or sleep mode.
Why not just fix the bugs?
Here is a Slashdot comment from 7 years ago: There is a HUGE, well-known bug in Firefox 1.5, the CPU and Memory Hogging bug.
Firefox is the most unstable software in common use. One percent of the time it crashes: Crashes per 100 Active Daily Users
I use it only because it has add-ons I need.
That's a quote from a Monty Python comedy, in case someone doesn't realize that.
That makes sense to me. That seems the way the original design was done.
However, the issue is whether Microsoft tests their new operating systems before they ship them. Windows XP had serious bugs until Service Pack 2.
It seems to me, and many others, that Microsoft has an internal policy of deliberately making bad versions of Windows to increase sales. Look at the background of bad versions: Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows 8.
A company that has a virtual monopoly can make money by deliberately abusing its customers. That's especially true when a product is complicated and customers don't have the time to become technically knowledgeable.
Many people who buy a Windows computer now will want to buy Windows 9 when it is released because Windows 8 is so weird. That tends to double sales, because customers don't pay an upgrade price, Microsoft requires them to pay for an entirely new operating system, even though there have been few changes between versions. Also, Microsoft has established multiple prices. Customers who bought Windows 7 because they didn't like Windows Vista paid far more per copy than computer manufacturers.
It seems that abuse is deliberate Microsoft company policy. Yes, Microsoft management is incompetent, but also knowingly destructive. For example, a court case established that a Microsoft manager had said before Windows Vista was released that it was not ready to be released. Knowing that, Vista was released anyway.
Microsoft has been alternating bad and good versions of operating systems since the days of DOS. For example, DOS version 3.0 had serious bugs. DOS version 3.1 fixed the bugs. Customers who owned DOS 3 were required to pay the full retail price for DOS 3.1, even though there were few changes.
It's not surprising to me that a Microsoft product would have a vulnerability that might encourage people to pay more money to Microsoft.
With so little U.S. government supervision of abuses, having a virtual monopoly allows many tricky ways of making money.