Sure there are door knobs, but the locks are electronically controlled. As for air and heat, I was referring to windows and/or fireplaces. Certainly a house whose doors are electronically controlled also have windows and fireplaces that are electronically controlled.
If you've ever used an electric door lock, you'd discover that the lock allows the door to open without turning the doorknob. If you're able to turn the door knob, you're able to open and close the door. IE: There is a manual override.
Having electronically controlled windows, doors, or fireplaces does not mean that there can be no manual override. In fact, it's probably the first thing on the list of requirements for such a device.
You have a good point, but in the example presented, the speaker asked a question "How about foccacia?" He/she did not affirm a command or declare an intention:"I want to make foccacia." or "Computer, prepare the kitchen to make foccacia." AI has not progressed to the point where computers can tell the difference between an interrogative question and an implied meaning. "How about foccacia?" may signal to the computer to check for the necessary ingredients. In that case of a question, I would think that the computer would ask first. If the speaker had stated an intent, certainly the computer could go ahead and start preparations.
I think you're reading the article a little too litterally. In the context of the article, the writer is talking about cooking dinner, decides on foccacia, and is talking about how these electronic dodads do something cool. Seeing how it's supposed to be a demo house, with the "gee wiz that's neat" type of thing going on, I don't think it's a big deal any way you look at it.
There's nothing wrong with being a monopoly. It's some of the ways you can use a monopoly that are wrong.
For example, using your monopoly in one area to get on in another. Or, for example, forcing a company to use your product instead of a competitors by threatening not to sell them your product.
Just because they've got a monopoly doesn't mean they have to give everything away for free (or for the price YOU want it to sell for).
In the event of a power failure, you're stuck in the house with no air, heat, or way out.
Just because there isn't a doorknob on the outside doesn't mean there isn't one inside. Additionally, you'be hard pressed to find a house where the AC or heater still functioned when the power goes out.
Just like MS to naturally assume it knows the best course of action for me. I would hope that the house would ask me to do these things just in case I change my mind.
Are you sure? Are you really sure? Are you really really sure?
If you're going to cook something, and you tell the device that you're going to cook something according to the instructions in a cookbook, then I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that you're going to want the oven heated to the temperature specified in the cookbook.
If you think that's a trip, there are objects you can use with the.net framework to compile code, so you could write your own IDE or commandline utilities to build your code if you really wanted to.
Trust me, the only thing that keeps people at microsoft is NOT the employee stock option program. And this is me speaking as an MS employee, who views the stock programs as being virtually worthless.
The little things, like free soda are a nice touch. Bigger things, like giving everyone the day off for an all expenses paid trip to go skiing is also really cool. The free health club membership is damn nice too -- and it isn't a crappy gym either.
On top of that, the health and dental package (of which nothing comes out of your pocket -- no money comes from your paycheck, and there is no co-pay on virtually everything) is the best I've ever seen.
Then there is the actual work itself -- I get to work with some of the smartest people I've ever met and I've always got something interesting to work on (the two primary things I look for in a job). Contrary to popular belief, people here don't breath fire, carry pitchforks, or go around plotting how to kill Linux all day.
MS tries to hire the best people it can get it's hands on. Their employees are their life blood, and they do their best to treat them well. Take a look at the benefits package they list on their careers page. It is an outstanding company to work for.
The people that do well advance in the company. The people that don't, well...don't. Albiet, in a company the size of MS some chaff manages to rise through the ranks too, but I've generally been impressed with the people I've met.
I should also point out that when you talk about MS and Apple, the name "Steve" is somewhat ambiguious (Steve Jobs, Steve Balmer) -- though given the context in this case it wasn't too hard to figure out.;)
API of the week?!? The Win32 API will be 20 years old when Win2k is EOL'd. The 16bit API will be roughly 30-35 years old when final support is dropped for it when Win2k3 is EOL'd.
I'd say you had a legitimate point if the API changed with every release of Windows, but 3 frick'in decades is enough!
It's not like Microsoft is going "hmm, let's screw people... flip a switch and make the 16bit API stop working". It's more like "nobody writes code for this anymore, hardly anybody uses this, it restricts what we can do with the OS, so let's take it out." That cruft needs to be removed.
If you want to keep using it, stick with an unsupported OS. Otherwise spend the next 15 years writing a new client that works well, instead of spending 6 months at the last minute hacking something together that doesn't.
Why on earth would you upgrade to Longhorn!? Hell, why would you be using anything other than Win3.11 or Win95? There is no point! It's a waste of money! Why do I feel like I'm talking to a wall here...?:p
The purpose of the Constitution and Bill of Rights is not to enumerate all of the rights you have.
Without any laws, you have the right to do whatever you want. Laws are created to restrict your rights. The Constitution and it's ammendments purpose is to draw a line in the sand that the law cannot cross.
That's my point! You're not going to mess with the system because it works! The fact that the 16bit Windows API is getting dumped means nothing to you!
Ok, so if you don't trust the system, don't use it. Nothing is forcing you to make all of the content YOU create DRM enabled.
Your analogy doesn't make any sense to me. In order to HAVE the car keys, they must be given to you first. If you must be trusted in order to be given the car keys, then having the car keys implies that you are trusted.
If you have zero trusted systems, you have zero points of failure, and 100% security.
So you've got zero systems setup at home then?:p There is no such thing as a completely trusted system, no such thing as zero points of failure, and no such thing as 100% security.
Yup. Amazing, corporations want to keep you from copying the stuff they sell and giving it away to all your friends. Go figure.
If you don't like it, don't use it. I won't buy anything that "limits" my fair rights uses. If everyone else takes the same stance, it'll flop and the industry will move on to another way to screw people. If people do accept it and it becomes the defacto standard, I'll just have more money in my bank account to put towards a new car...
You're running legacy software on a legacy system. You aren't going to upgrade to Longhorn just so you can keep running your old billing system -- you're going to keep running it on that old IBM mainframe. And you sure as hell aren't going to replace your old IBM mainframe with a computer running a Desktop OS (Longhorn is not a server release...the server release comes out a year or two later).
The 16bit Windows API is over 10 years old TODAY. No decent app written in the last 7 years uses it. Hell, most half assed apps written in the last 7 years don't use it. Nobody is going to miss it. Let it die.
If that's a problem, start planning for the future -- you've been given plenty of notice.
DRM lets you send stuff to people you don't trust, because you trust that the software will prevent the people you do not trust from taking actions you wish to prevent.
The goal SCO intends with this "public showing" is to convince their audience that they do indeed have a case. If the people they show it to are smart enough to ask for this to be shown, either SCO shows it and convinces them (what they want), or lets their audience walk away unconvinced (what they don't want).
Any way you look at it, it isn't a big deal. The "public" showing does nothing. It's not like the facts will change between the lawsuit and the "showing."
I have a friend who works at Boeing. He was talking about how hard it was to get fired from the place once, and he mentioned there were only 2 things you could do (that he knew of) that would get you fired on the spot:
1) Getting caught having sex on company grounds 2) Intentially setting a fire
So if you do something that sets a fire in a lab, the first thing you say the the fire marshall is "I had no idea it would do that." And wham, you're off the hook.
If their case is "there is code we own that is copied in linux", then wouldn't they have to show you the code that was copied? I mean, either they show it or they don't. If they show it, they make their point. If they don't, they don't make their point. How can you show a piece of code that makes their point while excluding other code which would negate their point?
The article takes a few quotes from the memo and talks about them completely out of context. The message conveyed by the article and the message conveyed by the real memo are completely different.
Slashdot Mirror
Sure there are door knobs, but the locks are electronically controlled. As for air and heat, I was referring to windows and/or fireplaces. Certainly a house whose doors are electronically controlled also have windows and fireplaces that are electronically controlled.
If you've ever used an electric door lock, you'd discover that the lock allows the door to open without turning the doorknob. If you're able to turn the door knob, you're able to open and close the door. IE: There is a manual override.
Having electronically controlled windows, doors, or fireplaces does not mean that there can be no manual override. In fact, it's probably the first thing on the list of requirements for such a device.
You have a good point, but in the example presented, the speaker asked a question "How about foccacia?" He/she did not affirm a command or declare an intention:"I want to make foccacia." or "Computer, prepare the kitchen to make foccacia." AI has not progressed to the point where computers can tell the difference between an interrogative question and an implied meaning. "How about foccacia?" may signal to the computer to check for the necessary ingredients. In that case of a question, I would think that the computer would ask first. If the speaker had stated an intent, certainly the computer could go ahead and start preparations.
I think you're reading the article a little too litterally. In the context of the article, the writer is talking about cooking dinner, decides on foccacia, and is talking about how these electronic dodads do something cool. Seeing how it's supposed to be a demo house, with the "gee wiz that's neat" type of thing going on, I don't think it's a big deal any way you look at it.
There's nothing wrong with being a monopoly. It's some of the ways you can use a monopoly that are wrong.
For example, using your monopoly in one area to get on in another. Or, for example, forcing a company to use your product instead of a competitors by threatening not to sell them your product.
Just because they've got a monopoly doesn't mean they have to give everything away for free (or for the price YOU want it to sell for).
In the event of a power failure, you're stuck in the house with no air, heat, or way out.
Just because there isn't a doorknob on the outside doesn't mean there isn't one inside. Additionally, you'be hard pressed to find a house where the AC or heater still functioned when the power goes out.
Just like MS to naturally assume it knows the best course of action for me. I would hope that the house would ask me to do these things just in case I change my mind.
Are you sure? Are you really sure? Are you really really sure?
If you're going to cook something, and you tell the device that you're going to cook something according to the instructions in a cookbook, then I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that you're going to want the oven heated to the temperature specified in the cookbook.
...maybe because Gates was one of the people instrumental to Microsoft's success? He may no longer be the CEO of the company, but it's not like he sits around home all day drinking lattés and surfing the net...
I believe his title is "Chairman and Chief Software Architect." In the organizational scheme of the company, Ballmer still reports to Gates.
If you think that's a trip, there are objects you can use with the .net framework to compile code, so you could write your own IDE or commandline utilities to build your code if you really wanted to.
Does Apple still make Hypercard? That fits the bill to a T.
Incredibly simple to use, and you can do some really fun stuff with graphics and sound with little programming knowledge.
Trust me, the only thing that keeps people at microsoft is NOT the employee stock option program. And this is me speaking as an MS employee, who views the stock programs as being virtually worthless.
The little things, like free soda are a nice touch. Bigger things, like giving everyone the day off for an all expenses paid trip to go skiing is also really cool. The free health club membership is damn nice too -- and it isn't a crappy gym either.
On top of that, the health and dental package (of which nothing comes out of your pocket -- no money comes from your paycheck, and there is no co-pay on virtually everything) is the best I've ever seen.
Then there is the actual work itself -- I get to work with some of the smartest people I've ever met and I've always got something interesting to work on (the two primary things I look for in a job). Contrary to popular belief, people here don't breath fire, carry pitchforks, or go around plotting how to kill Linux all day.
MS tries to hire the best people it can get it's hands on. Their employees are their life blood, and they do their best to treat them well. Take a look at the benefits package they list on their careers page. It is an outstanding company to work for.
;)
The people that do well advance in the company. The people that don't, well...don't. Albiet, in a company the size of MS some chaff manages to rise through the ranks too, but I've generally been impressed with the people I've met.
I should also point out that when you talk about MS and Apple, the name "Steve" is somewhat ambiguious (Steve Jobs, Steve Balmer) -- though given the context in this case it wasn't too hard to figure out.
API of the week?!? The Win32 API will be 20 years old when Win2k is EOL'd. The 16bit API will be roughly 30-35 years old when final support is dropped for it when Win2k3 is EOL'd.
... flip a switch and make the 16bit API stop working". It's more like "nobody writes code for this anymore, hardly anybody uses this, it restricts what we can do with the OS, so let's take it out." That cruft needs to be removed.
I'd say you had a legitimate point if the API changed with every release of Windows, but 3 frick'in decades is enough!
It's not like Microsoft is going "hmm, let's screw people
If you want to keep using it, stick with an unsupported OS. Otherwise spend the next 15 years writing a new client that works well, instead of spending 6 months at the last minute hacking something together that doesn't.
Why on earth would you upgrade to Longhorn!? Hell, why would you be using anything other than Win3.11 or Win95? There is no point! It's a waste of money! Why do I feel like I'm talking to a wall here...? :p
The purpose of the Constitution and Bill of Rights is not to enumerate all of the rights you have.
Without any laws, you have the right to do whatever you want. Laws are created to restrict your rights. The Constitution and it's ammendments purpose is to draw a line in the sand that the law cannot cross.
That's my point! You're not going to mess with the system because it works! The fact that the 16bit Windows API is getting dumped means nothing to you!
Ok, so if you don't trust the system, don't use it. Nothing is forcing you to make all of the content YOU create DRM enabled.
:p There is no such thing as a completely trusted system, no such thing as zero points of failure, and no such thing as 100% security.
Your analogy doesn't make any sense to me. In order to HAVE the car keys, they must be given to you first. If you must be trusted in order to be given the car keys, then having the car keys implies that you are trusted.
If you have zero trusted systems, you have zero points of failure, and 100% security.
So you've got zero systems setup at home then?
Yup. Amazing, corporations want to keep you from copying the stuff they sell and giving it away to all your friends. Go figure.
If you don't like it, don't use it. I won't buy anything that "limits" my fair rights uses. If everyone else takes the same stance, it'll flop and the industry will move on to another way to screw people. If people do accept it and it becomes the defacto standard, I'll just have more money in my bank account to put towards a new car...
They're dos games, not games that use the 16bit windows api. But DOS apps will probably bite it too. And again I say good riddence.
You're running legacy software on a legacy system. You aren't going to upgrade to Longhorn just so you can keep running your old billing system -- you're going to keep running it on that old IBM mainframe. And you sure as hell aren't going to replace your old IBM mainframe with a computer running a Desktop OS (Longhorn is not a server release...the server release comes out a year or two later).
The 16bit Windows API is over 10 years old TODAY. No decent app written in the last 7 years uses it. Hell, most half assed apps written in the last 7 years don't use it. Nobody is going to miss it. Let it die.
If that's a problem, start planning for the future -- you've been given plenty of notice.
That's a backwards statement.
DRM lets you send stuff to people you don't trust, because you trust that the software will prevent the people you do not trust from taking actions you wish to prevent.
It has nothing to do with defining who YOU trust.
The goal SCO intends with this "public showing" is to convince their audience that they do indeed have a case. If the people they show it to are smart enough to ask for this to be shown, either SCO shows it and convinces them (what they want), or lets their audience walk away unconvinced (what they don't want).
Any way you look at it, it isn't a big deal. The "public" showing does nothing. It's not like the facts will change between the lawsuit and the "showing."
While you can't say "there was no code shown" you can say "Based on what I saw I believe they don't have a case."
And let's face it, if they have nothing, go to court, and then show nothing, they're going to lose anyway, so it's not exactly a big deal...
I have a friend who works at Boeing. He was talking about how hard it was to get fired from the place once, and he mentioned there were only 2 things you could do (that he knew of) that would get you fired on the spot:
1) Getting caught having sex on company grounds
2) Intentially setting a fire
So if you do something that sets a fire in a lab, the first thing you say the the fire marshall is "I had no idea it would do that." And wham, you're off the hook.
Question ...
If their case is "there is code we own that is copied in linux", then wouldn't they have to show you the code that was copied? I mean, either they show it or they don't. If they show it, they make their point. If they don't, they don't make their point. How can you show a piece of code that makes their point while excluding other code which would negate their point?
You forgot that IBM chose 2 (ok, it wasn't recurring revenue ... they just gouged their customers), failed, and then went to 1.
Sharepoint is a *bad* portal. If it was free, you'd use it, but its not, so nobody purposely chooses it.
How is it bad? I think it's pretty damn cool myself...I was impressed the first time I used it anyway.
MS's prices are higher compared to what? Linux? Yeah, can't beat zero. Oracle? Sun? Guess what, the MS solution is cheaper...
The article takes a few quotes from the memo and talks about them completely out of context. The message conveyed by the article and the message conveyed by the real memo are completely different.