An OS monopoly wouldn't be a too bad thing, really. If true OS, you'd still have the ability to choose from several product because the OS certified licenses aren't allowed to bind you to certain products iirc. Besides, if you really like a certain project but don't agree with things,, you can always fork and take matters into your own hands.
Anyways, the MS monopoly doesn't have to be horrible either. If MS decided to open up ALL win32 APIs, used PURE and UNENCRYPTED XML markup for Office documents, made all components in the OSes optional with an option to not install them in the first place and a few more things I can't think of atm, then the MS monoply would be allot less worse. Of course, this is Slashdot, people around here will always find something about MS to throw a fit at, just like some pro-MS sites will always manage to find something about Linux/OSS to throw a fit about.
Very true. Curerently, my college is quite MS-centric. It's got this whole "Microsoft Certified Academy" plaque somewhere in the main hall which gave me a fear for something which became a reality when I got into "Advanced Programming" classes. They basically told us to go learn ASP.NET from w3schools.org and to get ( download ) a ASP.NET forum up and running, which I didn't like for several reasons:
Advanced Programming is supposed to be for people who intend to continue to the next "tier"* of education, where ASP.NET is ignored and the main programming languages are C and Java.
The whole idea is fairly unrealistic, they expect us to run Windows 2000 AS with IIS, ASP.NET and some form of ASP.NET supported database idea. With no books or information provided.**
This whole MS only idea. Why not continue on C & C++ or start on Java, Python or something else that's pretty much platform independant?
And I won't even mention some of the books I must have for college: Very MS-centric. More or less to be expected, but a general understanding on other operating systems is never bad. Don't even get me started on the things they dont teach regarding Macs, which still hold a sizeable portion of the desktop market. ( when compared to Linux ) You'd think some general knowledge like knowing how to set up a network with Macs and Linux/Windows machines would be useful.
* Silly Dutch educational system.
** Not to mention licensing costs. W2k AS, 3999 USD and SQL Server, 1489 USD. Of course, we could fiddle around with Access database which would be a joke, but a less expensive on at 229 USD. I could of course use MSDE ( core of SQL Server ) which is free but comes with NO management tools. Woot. Not surprisingly, after the "teacher" told us to install W2k AS with SQL Server, legally, we told him to go hell.
If this were true, I can already imagine Soviet army personel encountering this weapon:
Soviet private: In the name of Lenin, what's that awful noise? Soviet sergeant: It sounds like... Oh no... Soviet private: Chickens? A whole bunch of chickens? Soviet sergeant: PULL BACK!!! Tell Dmitri to launch all ICBMs! Get me in contact with the Kremlin! Soviet private: What? They're going to peck us to death? Soviet sergeant: Silence, cappitalist pig! Those anglobastards witll suffer for their foul crime!
Also, articles in sector 24-D are down for maintenance and the MPF ( Moderator Patrol Force ) has had som skirmishes with GNAA trolls in sectors 12-C, 13-C, 13-D, 13-E and 14-D. Beware of crossfire and goatses.
... that's all fine but does it have bar graphs? Whenever I read anything at THG, my attention span flips over to "Goldfish" mode and I NEED the bar graphs! Nrrrgh! *twitch*
NOTICE: Player "SlashDread" entered the level for team RED NOTICE: Player "Spektr" entered the level for team RED NOTICE: Player "Dark_Lord_Seth" entered the level for team RED
Loading bots:
NOTICE: Player "TYPE_MISMATCH_233" entered the level for team BLUE NOTICE: Player "BUFFER_OVERFLOW_12" entered the level for team BLUE NOTICE: Player "BUFFER_OVERFLOW_13" entered the level for team BLUE NOTICE: Player "TYPE_MISMATCH_234" entered the level for team BLUE NOTICE: Player "ARRAY_OUT_OF_BOUNS_298" entered the level for team BLUE NOTICE: Player "UNDECLARED_POINTER_34" entered the level for team BLUE NOTICE: Player "UNDEFINED_MACRO_65" entered the level for team BLUE NOTICE: Player "ENDLESS_LOOP_43" entered the level for team BLUE
INFO: Game starts!
Say:: Global ( Spektr ) "TEAMS!!!" Say:: Global ( SlashDread ) "AAARGH!!!" Say:: Global ( Dark_Lord_Seth ) "FF = on!!!" Print:: Global "Spektr riddled BUFFER_OVERFLOW_13 full of holes with his gatling cannon!" Say:: Global ( Spektr ) "Ownage!" Print:: Global "SlashDread firmly planted a 40mm anti-tank round in UNDECLARED_POINTER_34's gut!" Print:: Global "Spektr introduced ENDLESS_LOOP_43 to a shrapnel grenade!" Print:: Global "TYPE_MISMATCH_234 had a close encounter with a tungsten slug from Dark_Lord_Seth's railgun!" Print:: Global "SlashDread had a close encounter with a tungsten slug from Dark_Lord_Seth's railgun!" Say:: Global ( SlashDread ) "TEAMKILLER!!!" Say:: Global ( Dark_Lord_Seth ) "Sorry!" Print:: Global "ARRAY_OUT_OF_BOUNS_298 slaughtered Dark_Lord_Seth with the TacNuke!" Print:: Global "ARRAY_OUT_OF_BOUNS_298 slaughtered Spektre with the TacNuke!"
Ping statistics for 212.187.153.21: Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 0, Burned to a crisp = 4 (100% loss), Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
Twomey: So, you people want part of our little scheme?
Annan: More or less, yes.
Twomey: What if I tell you to shove your head up your own ass?
Annan: I'm not sure my friend would appreciate that.
Twomey: Really now? I've got Verisign behind me.
Annan: Mario, say hi.
Mario Monti: Hi!
Annan: See that war chest with 500 million euros behind him? The one with the MS logo?
Twomey: You know, this whole scheme involving you sounds interesting all of the sudden. Do tell.
... matchmaking being made available to Windows developers...
Serious yet funny 28 year old male Microsoft DirectX developer looking for cute and timid Microsoft Windows software engineer, between the ages of 25 and 30 with shoulder-length dark hair and pale blue eyes. Looking for a serious and caring yet professional relationship to share experiences and get yelled at by Balmer together. Must be willing to enjoy coding, Pepsi Blue, anchovis pizza, good thrillers and a little bit of DirectXXX, preferably in combination with any of the former. Serious inquiries only. Respond to article nr. 123456
Saturn Day, Sun Day, Moon Day, Mars Day, Mercury Day, Jupiter Day, and Venus Day
... which makes sense, sort of, until one realises the planets are named after roman gods, in latin. But modern day astronomical terminology is based on both latin AND greek. For example, our solar system is the Sol system. Named after our very own star, the sun, which has the roman name Sol. However, that which is commonly known as the sphere of influence of our solar system is known as the heliosphere (... if we exclude the Oort cloud from our solar system and regard it as a debris field instead... Open for discussion, ofcourse! ) which is named after Helios, the Greek god of the sun.
However, for planetary bodies we usually agree on roman names. ( Whoever the hell named Sedna after an inuit goddess needs to spanked... Whoever called Sedna a planet in the first place needs to be spanked! ) This, to return on our whole day-naming scheme thing, does make for some more confusion considering the names of the days refer NOT to the gods but to the planetary bodies themselves. Sunday, Zondag, sonnstag... English, Dutch and German all refer to sunday as the day of the sun, not the day of the Roman god Sol or the Greek god Helios. Likewise, monday refers to the moon itself, rather then the Roman goddess of the moon Luna or her greek equivalent Selene. Makes sense? Thought not...
Hell, you could post a thought-provoking, insightful journal entry and recieve zero comments, while any 19 year old grrl who posts pics of her clevage gets 20 "you're so beautiful!" comments. Don't expect intelligent discussion on LJ like you would see on here or on kuro5hin. LJ is a bit socially xenophobic.
And you are surprised?
Wow, let me be the first to welcome you to the internet, then!
People (and their social/legal systems) weren't designed to connect directly to millions or billions of others.
Nope. But back in the 50s and 60s the US social system wasn't designed for a non-segregated soceity. Trust me, humanity will adept over time. That, or we'll nuke ourselves into oblivion before we adept. So far so good though...
Every nation does its fair share of spilling blood and almost every nations order embodies the same hypocritical reasoning (except maybe the Dutch).
Sorry kid. As a dutchy myself, I hate to bring you the bad news that my country is just a hypocritical as any other big country. Our PM keeps ranting about morals and values for all while: 1) Dutch troops are operating in south Iraq under the guise that we should act as one European Union and that we should set an example by... following into a war no one wants. 2) Large groups of gypsies and other assorted scum form small encampments and declare independance, refusing to pay any kind of tax while growing illegal drugs, diverting electricity and commiting serious crimes. All the while getting left alone. Meanwhile, dutch goverment officials crack down onserious crimes like letting a dog adopt and parent a hare. 3) Our entire social security system gets slashed, drawn, hung, quartered and raped just so we can fit european standards and act tough over other EU countries. Having elderly people rot away without enough care or being unable to give hospital patients adequate care is a minor concern, apparently.
Slashdot Mirror
Someone send Lucifer some mittens and one of those funky Russian hats... Must be mighty cold down there right now...
An OS monopoly wouldn't be a too bad thing, really. If true OS, you'd still have the ability to choose from several product because the OS certified licenses aren't allowed to bind you to certain products iirc. Besides, if you really like a certain project but don't agree with things,, you can always fork and take matters into your own hands.
Anyways, the MS monopoly doesn't have to be horrible either. If MS decided to open up ALL win32 APIs, used PURE and UNENCRYPTED XML markup for Office documents, made all components in the OSes optional with an option to not install them in the first place and a few more things I can't think of atm, then the MS monoply would be allot less worse. Of course, this is Slashdot, people around here will always find something about MS to throw a fit at, just like some pro-MS sites will always manage to find something about Linux/OSS to throw a fit about.
REDEEMER!
Hello Ati, you seem to have a new customer. Meet... Me!
Someone nominate the letter SCO sent to those Fortune 500 companies!
You're really living up to your nickname, aren't you?
Very true. Curerently, my college is quite MS-centric. It's got this whole "Microsoft Certified Academy" plaque somewhere in the main hall which gave me a fear for something which became a reality when I got into "Advanced Programming" classes. They basically told us to go learn ASP.NET from w3schools.org and to get ( download ) a ASP.NET forum up and running, which I didn't like for several reasons:
And I won't even mention some of the books I must have for college: Very MS-centric. More or less to be expected, but a general understanding on other operating systems is never bad. Don't even get me started on the things they dont teach regarding Macs, which still hold a sizeable portion of the desktop market. ( when compared to Linux ) You'd think some general knowledge like knowing how to set up a network with Macs and Linux/Windows machines would be useful.
* Silly Dutch educational system.
** Not to mention licensing costs. W2k AS, 3999 USD and SQL Server, 1489 USD. Of course, we could fiddle around with Access database which would be a joke, but a less expensive on at 229 USD. I could of course use MSDE ( core of SQL Server ) which is free but comes with NO management tools. Woot. Not surprisingly, after the "teacher" told us to install W2k AS with SQL Server, legally, we told him to go hell.
If this were true, I can already imagine Soviet army personel encountering this weapon:
Soviet private: In the name of Lenin, what's that awful noise?Soviet sergeant: It sounds like... Oh no...
Soviet private: Chickens? A whole bunch of chickens?
Soviet sergeant: PULL BACK!!! Tell Dmitri to launch all ICBMs! Get me in contact with the Kremlin!
Soviet private: What? They're going to peck us to death?
Soviet sergeant: Silence, cappitalist pig! Those anglobastards witll suffer for their foul crime!
For sale:
Second hand Mercedes, second hand laptop and second hand mobile phone.
Total price: 501
<--- You are here.
The latest news article is over here --->
CmdrTaco is not here --->
<--- ... but here.
Also, articles in sector 24-D are down for maintenance and the MPF ( Moderator Patrol Force ) has had som skirmishes with GNAA trolls in sectors 12-C, 13-C, 13-D, 13-E and 14-D. Beware of crossfire and goatses.
... that's all fine but does it have bar graphs? Whenever I read anything at THG, my attention span flips over to "Goldfish" mode and I NEED the bar graphs! Nrrrgh! *twitch*
Twomey: So, you people want part of our little scheme?
Annan: More or less, yes.
Twomey: What if I tell you to shove your head up your own ass?
Annan: I'm not sure my friend would appreciate that.
Twomey: Really now? I've got Verisign behind me.
Annan: Mario, say hi.
Mario Monti: Hi!
Annan: See that war chest with 500 million euros behind him? The one with the MS logo?
Twomey: You know, this whole scheme involving you sounds interesting all of the sudden. Do tell.
You really are the optimist on board, aren't you? :P
Serious yet funny 28 year old male Microsoft DirectX developer looking for cute and timid Microsoft Windows software engineer, between the ages of 25 and 30 with shoulder-length dark hair and pale blue eyes. Looking for a serious and caring yet professional relationship to share experiences and get yelled at by Balmer together. Must be willing to enjoy coding, Pepsi Blue, anchovis pizza, good thrillers and a little bit of DirectXXX, preferably in combination with any of the former. Serious inquiries only. Respond to article nr. 123456
However, for planetary bodies we usually agree on roman names. ( Whoever the hell named Sedna after an inuit goddess needs to spanked... Whoever called Sedna a planet in the first place needs to be spanked! ) This, to return on our whole day-naming scheme thing, does make for some more confusion considering the names of the days refer NOT to the gods but to the planetary bodies themselves. Sunday, Zondag, sonnstag... English, Dutch and German all refer to sunday as the day of the sun, not the day of the Roman god Sol or the Greek god Helios. Likewise, monday refers to the moon itself, rather then the Roman goddess of the moon Luna or her greek equivalent Selene. Makes sense? Thought not...
And you are surprised?
Wow, let me be the first to welcome you to the internet, then!
Not even a bouncy castle?
Want to trade it for my Brooklyn Bridge?
Nope. But back in the 50s and 60s the US social system wasn't designed for a non-segregated soceity. Trust me, humanity will adept over time. That, or we'll nuke ourselves into oblivion before we adept. So far so good though...
Saturn knocked out of orbit after 12 ton lorry crashed into it. Film at 11.
Sorry kid. As a dutchy myself, I hate to bring you the bad news that my country is just a hypocritical as any other big country. Our PM keeps ranting about morals and values for all while: 1) Dutch troops are operating in south Iraq under the guise that we should act as one European Union and that we should set an example by... following into a war no one wants. 2) Large groups of gypsies and other assorted scum form small encampments and declare independance, refusing to pay any kind of tax while growing illegal drugs, diverting electricity and commiting serious crimes. All the while getting left alone. Meanwhile, dutch goverment officials crack down onserious crimes like letting a dog adopt and parent a hare. 3) Our entire social security system gets slashed, drawn, hung, quartered and raped just so we can fit european standards and act tough over other EU countries. Having elderly people rot away without enough care or being unable to give hospital patients adequate care is a minor concern, apparently.
Corporate monkeys, start your lawyers! Ready... Set... GO!!!