MS probably isn't jealous, although they probably consider buying EA every now and then.
Heck, MS practically invented the rebox and resell strategy. Look at the products in their "Home Productivity" category, and see how many change very very little but are repackaged every year: Microsoft® MSN CarPoint, Microsoft® MSN eShop, Microsoft® MSN HomeAdvisor, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Personal Collection 2002, Microsoft® Proofing Tools, Microsoft® Publisher Deluxe with Photo Editing version 2002, Microsoft® Word version 2002, Microsoft® Works 7.0, Microsoft® Works Suite 2003, Word 2001 for Mac, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Personal Finance, Microsoft® Money 2002 Suite, Microsoft® Money 2003 Deluxe, Microsoft® Money 2003 Deluxe and Business, Microsoft® Money 2003 Standard, Microsoft® Money 2003 Suite, MSN Companion, Microsoft Class Server 2.0, Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac, Microsoft Great Plains: Small Business Manager, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Excel 2000, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Office XP Professional, Microsoft® Office XP Standard, Microsoft® Publisher version 2002, Word 2001 for Mac, MapPoint 2002, MapPoint Europe 2002, Microsoft® Pocket Streets 2002, Microsoft® MSN Expedia.Com Travel Services, Microsoft® Streets & Trips 2003, MSN Companion, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo Premium version 7, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo version 7, Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Greetings, Microsoft® MSN Explorer, Microsoft® MSN Yellow Pages, Microsoft® MSNBC, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Personal Collection 2002, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Digital Image Pro version 7, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Publishing Platinum 2002 5th Anniversary Edition, Word 2001 for Mac, Photo Imaging, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo Premium version 7, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo version 7, Microsoft® TV Photo Viewer, Microsoft® Greetings, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Digital Image Pro version 7, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Publishing Platinum 2002 5th Anniversary Edition.
And also look in their "Reference Software" category (and yeah, there are a couple of duplicates): MapPoint 2002, MapPoint Europe 2002, Microsoft Enterprise Learning Library 2, Microsoft® MSN Yellow Pages, Microsoft® TechNet Subscription, Microsoft® MSN CarPoint, Microsoft® MSN eShop, Microsoft® MSN HomeAdvisor, Microsoft® TechNet Subscription, Microsoft Class Server 2.0, Microsoft® Encarta® Africana Third Edition, Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia Deluxe 2003, Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia Standard 2003, Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003 CD-ROM, Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003 DVD ROM, Microsoft® Personal Collection 2002, Microsoft® PowerPoint version 2002, Microsoft® SLATE Magazine, Microsoft® Reader 2.0 for the Pocket PC, Microsoft® Reader 2.0 for Windows-based PCs and laptops, Microsoft® Pocket Streets 2002, Microsoft® MSN Expedia.Com Travel Services.
Of course, they've got a few games, too, a good number of which they've hit a few times with the ol' rebox-and-resell stick: Rise of Nations, FreeLancer, Impossible Creatures, Links® 2003, RalliSport Challenge, MechWarrior® 4: Mercenaries, Asheron's Call® 2, Age of Mythology, Combat Flight Simulator 3, Zoo Tycoon Marine Mania, Links® 2003 Championship Courses, MechWarrior® 4 'Mech Paks, Zoo Tycoon Dinosaur Digs, Dungeon Siege®, Action Pack, Links® Expansion Pack Volume 2, Racing Madness 2, Bicycle® Casino Games, Bicycle® Card Games, Bicycle® Board Games, Asheron's Call Dark Majesty, Zoo Tycoon, Flight Simulator 2002, MechWarrior® 4: Black Knight, Links® Championship Edition, Age of Empires® II Gold Edition, MechCommander® 2, Links® Expansion Pack, Train Simulator, Starlancer®, Sports Pack, Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition, Racing Madness, Plus! Game Pack: Cards & Puzzles, Pinball Arcade, Pandora's Box: Game of the Year Edition, NFL Fever 2000, NBA Inside Drive 2000, Motocross Madness®, Motocross Madness® 2, Monster Truck Madness® 2, Midtown Madness®, Midtown Madness® 2, MechWarrior® 4: Vengeance, Links® Extreme, Links® LS 2000, Links® LS Classic, Links® 2001, International Soccer 2000, Golf 1999 Edition, Golf 2001, Flight Simulator 98, Flight Simulator 2000, Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection, Crimson Skies, Combat Flight Simulator, Combat Flight Simulator 2, Close Combat, Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far, Close Combat III: The Russian Front, Classic Board Games, Casino, Baseball 2001, Asheron's Call®, Allegiance, Age of Empires®, Age of Empires® Expansion: The Rise of Rome, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings®, Age of Empires® II: The Conquerors Expansion, Age of Empires® Collectors Edition.
Plus the kids's stuff: Microsoft Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores Bugs, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus 3 CD Pack Vol. 1, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus 3 CD Pack Vol. 2, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the World of Animals, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Dinosaurs Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Explores Inside the Earth v1.0 Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Explores the Ocean v1.0 Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Explores the Solar System Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® in Concert: Activity Center, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Lands on Mars: Activity Center, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Rainforest Jewel Case, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Discovers Flight Activity Center, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Volcano Adventure Activity Center, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Whales and Dolphins Activity Center.
So, don't underestimate the power of the Microsoft to repackage their portfolio a dozen different ways to consistently drive the cost per sale down-down-down.
As a parent, I struggle with this all the time. I've found out that you cannot possibly eliminate all possible exposure of your children to the mass-market culture, unless you are willing to move to some kind of isolationist community, because it is everywhere. You can barely even slow it down. So I try to find a compromise somewhere.
This is what I do. For my five-year-old son, we limit trips to McDonalds, videos, TV, etc., etc. to something we consider close to "reasonable". On TV, he watches mostly PBS. He has a computer, with only semi-educational games on it. You wouldn't believe unless you have kids how insidious marketing is. My son knows about all sorts of things, like Harry Potter, without me ever mentioning them. I also occasionally mention to him in as neutral a way as possible, that these people are telling him about stuff because they want us to give them money, and that the thing about money is that we always have to decide how much to spend where, because there's only so much of it. I don't beat on it, I just mention it occasionally. I also try to spend as much time as I possibly can playing with him in ways completely unrelated to the pop culture. Last weekend we built a "contraption" made out of various toys, some hardware stuff lying around, and trash like paper towel rolls. He put marbles in one end, they'd bounce around and roll out the other. It was a lot of fun. I'm no psychology expert, but as near as I can tell, like almost anything else, the way to optimize a five-year-old is to spend a lot of time and attention.
With my 15-year-old daughter, it's a bit different. First of all, I try to listen. It's really, really hard. I'm not a very good listener. But I try. I try to find opportunities to listen. I try to find family activities that some or all of us can participate in that will give us opportunities to talk. I tell her what I most care about is her well-being, defined by opportunities for self-fulfillment, some degree of academic success, and a general trend toward the light and away from the dark, defining light and dark as physical/mental/spiritual/social health and the lack thereof, respectively, and that the longer she can put off smoking/drinking/drugs/sex the better. I explain that she decides. That more and more she must decide what is important. Within this contect I explain why I think pirating music is wrong (but I've downloaded a handful of tracks for her, and in every case we attempted to find some way to buy that single track online for $2 or less. I've explained my views on the media conglomerates.) I've explained how I believe that the vast majority of pop culture is a huge marketing machine, including subjects such as entertainment "news" and clothing fashions (but we go see pop movies and listen to pop music together, I even let her educate me on Eminem, a young man who, I must grudgingly admit, has some slight talent.) I try to explain these things by explaining as neutrally as I can the several sides of the issues, and where I stand, and why, and how relatively important it is. Again, as near as I can tell, and I'm no expert, actual time with the kid makes the biggest difference.
Finally, I occasionally write to companies. I don't do it as often as I'd like. I tell them what I hate about their products and why. Probably doesn't do any good, but if I don't speak out, it certainly can't help.
Man, I worry so much more about Disney mind control than I do porn. I have two kids, ages 5 and 15. Keeping the porn out is no problem. The Mouse, however, is incidious and all-pervasive.
. . . and it will not make the slightest difference. The vast, vast majority of music consumers don't understand about copy protection, could care less about copy protection, and won't notice copy protection.
If the new copy-protected CDs won't play in some players, maybe they'll notice, sort of. But they'll keep on buying CDs.
The vast majority of music buyers have only the vaguest understanding of the issues around copy protection/intellectual property/fair use, and that is all the understanding they will ever have.
Women dig Target. I know women who wouldn't be caught dead near a Wal-mart or K-mart who think that Target is cooler than The Penguin. (Actually, most of them could not care less about The Penguin but you get the idea.)
Why to women dig Target? I don't know. My guess is that they somehow manage to market an image that appeals to the masses, while behind the scenes running a massively efficient business machine with all the cuddliness of an industrial-strength rock crusher. Sort of like Microsoft.
And why is this post not off-topic, you ask? Because Target having chick-appeal while running the business with rock-crusher efficiency is exactly like Microsoft turning their legal rock crusher on K-Mart. Great popular marketing appeal on the outside, brutal rock-crusher on the inside.
Their next move is to throw a party, because they won! You can bet the lawyers and execs are breaking out the champagne. Paying $67 mil is nothing. It just comes out of the petty cash drawer along with the bribes^h^h^h^h^h campaign contributions for the politicians.
Yes, it is true. I've spent most of the last 10 years of my career working with Microsoft technology. I've worked with NT since 3.1 beta. I've been an MCSE since NT 3.5 (back when it was rare and there were no cheat-sites or even study books).
And I've done pretty well at it.
You might be wondering, gentle slashdot readers, why you care. Well, you probably won't ever care, after all, what's one minion out of thousands, but you might be interested to see things from inside the Borg, as it were.
First of all, don't ever ever ever underestimate Microsoft. These people are very good at what they do. I can hear the slashdot protests now, "no, they suck at what they do!". Au contraire my gentle friends. Microsoft's raison d'etre is not to produce good software. It is to produce a return on investment. And they have done very well. One can make the argument that MS is the most successful financial enterprise ever to exist.
I believe I am one of the people that Mr. Ballmer would like to enlist in the battle to destroy Linux. Unfortunately, I like choice. I run Linux (and Windows 2000/XP) at home. I use Perl on NT/2000. I like command-line tools. I don't like administration by mouse.
I don't see that MS will be successful in destroying Linux. I want them to try, though, because MS is at it's best with competition, and there isn't a whole lot of that around in many arenas right now.
At any time, if you find yourself thinking, "Oh, MS is doomed because of X-Y-Z", or "oh, MS is so stupid, because of X-Y-Z", check your assumptions, over and over." They have 50 gigabucks in the bank. They have a revenue stream that pumps out a gigabuck a month. They have 50,000 employees who are, by-and-large, very smart, and very dedicated. They have a some very good management. They are very good at recognizing and abandoning without hesitation or remorse unwinning strategies. But most of all, they have a company culture that never rests once threatened.
The article says, "Microsoft is yet to announce anything specific but has plans for virtualisation software, which will most likely form part of its Windows operating system."
To read between the lines a bit, I see several trends in MS technology:
Automatic update - note the various EULAs giving MS the right to do remote update at their discretion, the continual improvements to Windows Update, and the new corporate Software Update Server.
Remote administration - note the Remote Administration feature in W2K Server using Terminal Services as well as the remote admin/help desk features in XP.
Consulting - the various consulting arms of MS used to be break-even propositions to push product, now they are revenue-generating.
Partnering - MS grows ever-closer to a handful of big partners - HP, CSC, and Unisys to name a few.
Trusted Computing - i.e. Palladium and the TCPA.
The conclusion that I come to is that the MS master plan is to drop in servers pre-configured from partners such as HP using MS consulting directing the field operations and partner-consultants as the ground shock troops, lock out all those pesky local admins and users using trusted computing, and then administer it all from the Product Support Services centers in NC, TX, and WA. If it breaks and can't be fixed over the phone or via remote admin, then ship a new one.
The less local talent around, the better for Microsoft.
Of course, this will require a vampire-like attachment of MS's shiny sharp incisors to the customer's bank account, but MS is no doubt willing to make that sacrifice in the name of trusted computing for all.
Oh, and don't forget the automatic billing for content licensed to MS-partnered content providers. I leave it as an exercise for the student to see how that fits into the MS master plan.
Finally, speaking as one MS practitioner to another, don't sit still, and don't blindly accept the MS paradigm of administration by mouse. Learn the command-line. Learn scripting. Learn Perl. Use free tools such as Network Monitor, Ethereal, tools from sysinternals.com, etc. to dig beneath the surface. Get some Linux and cross-platform experience. Knowledge of technologies such as Opera and Samba to mention just two are essential to the enlightened technologist living in the MS world.
According to the article: "Since the law went into effect on April 22, 2002, Internet service providers have blocked access to more than 200 websites containing child pornography, Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher said."
I am not in favor of child pornography. I suspect the great majority of people aren't. It is a terrible very bad thing. And even if we all can't agree that it is a bad thing, it is illegal.
But . . . how do we know what they are blocking? Who decides if it is child pornography? What is to prevent the authorities from expanding this? What if someone posted a URL of a site alleged to be child pornography on slashdot, and so the authorities decided to block slashdot because it "contains links to child pornography".
And . . . how soon before the legislation is expanded to sites alleged to include music files or program files. And what about sites that traffic in encrypted data? We'd better block those, too, because who knows what is being hidden in that encryption? And what about sites that question the policies and actions of the government? After all, any site that attacks the government may well be abetting terrorism, and fighting terrorism is even more important than fighting child pornography.
Face it, people. Our "unalienable" rights are as fragile as tissue paper. It requires constant vigilence to see that they are not eroded. We need to find a different way to fight child porn.
You can read the article now. They've replaced Ms. Brecker's picture.
No doubt Ms. Brecker has been cross-referenced twelve ways from Sunday by scores of cyberfreaks and will have to change her home page, IM handle, and cell phone number. On the other hand, maybe the settlement money will pay for college. Or English tutoring!
According to Reuters Simonyi has rights to patents he developed at Microsoft and Microsoft is entitled to be first to negotiate for rights to Intentional Software's developments.
According the the Wall Street Journal the new company will be based in Bellvue, Washington, which is home to almost as much Microsoft real estate as Redmond.
It's probably just me. Don't get me wrong, I think both LOTR and Legos are fantasic. Surely both are examples of the highest art in both fiction and toymaking.
I am not sure I like them together too much.
It's the marketing aspect. It is a way for the marketers of LOTR to embed their mimes into an otherwise benign carrier in order to influence the behavior of the young so as to access the contents of the parents wallets.
I wonder if the end-state of the information age is such that every conceivable object or bundle of information is packed with marketing memes designed to influence the buying behavior of the mass consumer market.
It has been commonplace for many years to do product-placements in visual media, in which marketers pay money to have their message displayed within film or television show.
How long before the marketing becomes the message? How long before advertisers start secretly paying scriptwriters, authors, and songwriters to create works containing the marketing message? Or has it already happened?
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, I liked Treasure Planet. My son sat in my lap for two hours and I got in a nice nap. A deal for $15.
Heck, MS practically invented the rebox and resell strategy. Look at the products in their "Home Productivity" category, and see how many change very very little but are repackaged every year: Microsoft® MSN CarPoint, Microsoft® MSN eShop, Microsoft® MSN HomeAdvisor, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Personal Collection 2002, Microsoft® Proofing Tools, Microsoft® Publisher Deluxe with Photo Editing version 2002, Microsoft® Word version 2002, Microsoft® Works 7.0, Microsoft® Works Suite 2003, Word 2001 for Mac, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Personal Finance, Microsoft® Money 2002 Suite, Microsoft® Money 2003 Deluxe, Microsoft® Money 2003 Deluxe and Business, Microsoft® Money 2003 Standard, Microsoft® Money 2003 Suite, MSN Companion, Microsoft Class Server 2.0, Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac, Microsoft Great Plains: Small Business Manager, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Excel 2000, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Office XP Professional, Microsoft® Office XP Standard, Microsoft® Publisher version 2002, Word 2001 for Mac, MapPoint 2002, MapPoint Europe 2002, Microsoft® Pocket Streets 2002, Microsoft® MSN Expedia.Com Travel Services, Microsoft® Streets & Trips 2003, MSN Companion, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo Premium version 7, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo version 7, Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac, Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Greetings, Microsoft® MSN Explorer, Microsoft® MSN Yellow Pages, Microsoft® MSNBC, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Personal Collection 2002, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Digital Image Pro version 7, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Publishing Platinum 2002 5th Anniversary Edition, Word 2001 for Mac, Photo Imaging, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo Premium version 7, Microsoft ® Picture It! ® Photo version 7, Microsoft® TV Photo Viewer, Microsoft® Greetings, Microsoft® Office 2001 for Mac, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Digital Image Pro version 7, Microsoft® Picture It! ® Publishing Platinum 2002 5th Anniversary Edition.
And also look in their "Reference Software" category (and yeah, there are a couple of duplicates): MapPoint 2002, MapPoint Europe 2002, Microsoft Enterprise Learning Library 2, Microsoft® MSN Yellow Pages, Microsoft® TechNet Subscription, Microsoft® MSN CarPoint, Microsoft® MSN eShop, Microsoft® MSN HomeAdvisor, Microsoft® TechNet Subscription, Microsoft Class Server 2.0, Microsoft® Encarta® Africana Third Edition, Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia Deluxe 2003, Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia Standard 2003, Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003 CD-ROM, Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2003 DVD ROM, Microsoft® Personal Collection 2002, Microsoft® PowerPoint version 2002, Microsoft® SLATE Magazine, Microsoft® Reader 2.0 for the Pocket PC, Microsoft® Reader 2.0 for Windows-based PCs and laptops, Microsoft® Pocket Streets 2002, Microsoft® MSN Expedia.Com Travel Services.
Of course, they've got a few games, too, a good number of which they've hit a few times with the ol' rebox-and-resell stick: Rise of Nations, FreeLancer, Impossible Creatures, Links® 2003, RalliSport Challenge, MechWarrior® 4: Mercenaries, Asheron's Call® 2, Age of Mythology, Combat Flight Simulator 3, Zoo Tycoon Marine Mania, Links® 2003 Championship Courses, MechWarrior® 4 'Mech Paks, Zoo Tycoon Dinosaur Digs, Dungeon Siege®, Action Pack, Links® Expansion Pack Volume 2, Racing Madness 2, Bicycle® Casino Games, Bicycle® Card Games, Bicycle® Board Games, Asheron's Call Dark Majesty, Zoo Tycoon, Flight Simulator 2002, MechWarrior® 4: Black Knight, Links® Championship Edition, Age of Empires® II Gold Edition, MechCommander® 2, Links® Expansion Pack, Train Simulator, Starlancer®, Sports Pack, Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition, Racing Madness, Plus! Game Pack: Cards & Puzzles, Pinball Arcade, Pandora's Box: Game of the Year Edition, NFL Fever 2000, NBA Inside Drive 2000, Motocross Madness®, Motocross Madness® 2, Monster Truck Madness® 2, Midtown Madness®, Midtown Madness® 2, MechWarrior® 4: Vengeance, Links® Extreme, Links® LS 2000, Links® LS Classic, Links® 2001, International Soccer 2000, Golf 1999 Edition, Golf 2001, Flight Simulator 98, Flight Simulator 2000, Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection, Crimson Skies, Combat Flight Simulator, Combat Flight Simulator 2, Close Combat, Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far, Close Combat III: The Russian Front, Classic Board Games, Casino, Baseball 2001, Asheron's Call®, Allegiance, Age of Empires®, Age of Empires® Expansion: The Rise of Rome, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings®, Age of Empires® II: The Conquerors Expansion, Age of Empires® Collectors Edition.
Plus the kids's stuff: Microsoft Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores Bugs, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus 3 CD Pack Vol. 1, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus 3 CD Pack Vol. 2, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores the World of Animals, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Dinosaurs Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Explores Inside the Earth v1.0 Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Explores the Ocean v1.0 Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Explores the Solar System Jewel Case, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® in Concert: Activity Center, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Lands on Mars: Activity Center, Microsoft® Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Rainforest Jewel Case, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Discovers Flight Activity Center, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Volcano Adventure Activity Center, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus® Whales and Dolphins Activity Center.
So, don't underestimate the power of the Microsoft to repackage their portfolio a dozen different ways to consistently drive the cost per sale down-down-down.
As a parent, I struggle with this all the time. I've found out that you cannot possibly eliminate all possible exposure of your children to the mass-market culture, unless you are willing to move to some kind of isolationist community, because it is everywhere. You can barely even slow it down. So I try to find a compromise somewhere.
This is what I do. For my five-year-old son, we limit trips to McDonalds, videos, TV, etc., etc. to something we consider close to "reasonable". On TV, he watches mostly PBS. He has a computer, with only semi-educational games on it. You wouldn't believe unless you have kids how insidious marketing is. My son knows about all sorts of things, like Harry Potter, without me ever mentioning them. I also occasionally mention to him in as neutral a way as possible, that these people are telling him about stuff because they want us to give them money, and that the thing about money is that we always have to decide how much to spend where, because there's only so much of it. I don't beat on it, I just mention it occasionally. I also try to spend as much time as I possibly can playing with him in ways completely unrelated to the pop culture. Last weekend we built a "contraption" made out of various toys, some hardware stuff lying around, and trash like paper towel rolls. He put marbles in one end, they'd bounce around and roll out the other. It was a lot of fun. I'm no psychology expert, but as near as I can tell, like almost anything else, the way to optimize a five-year-old is to spend a lot of time and attention.
With my 15-year-old daughter, it's a bit different. First of all, I try to listen. It's really, really hard. I'm not a very good listener. But I try. I try to find opportunities to listen. I try to find family activities that some or all of us can participate in that will give us opportunities to talk. I tell her what I most care about is her well-being, defined by opportunities for self-fulfillment, some degree of academic success, and a general trend toward the light and away from the dark, defining light and dark as physical/mental/spiritual/social health and the lack thereof, respectively, and that the longer she can put off smoking/drinking/drugs/sex the better. I explain that she decides. That more and more she must decide what is important. Within this contect I explain why I think pirating music is wrong (but I've downloaded a handful of tracks for her, and in every case we attempted to find some way to buy that single track online for $2 or less. I've explained my views on the media conglomerates.) I've explained how I believe that the vast majority of pop culture is a huge marketing machine, including subjects such as entertainment "news" and clothing fashions (but we go see pop movies and listen to pop music together, I even let her educate me on Eminem, a young man who, I must grudgingly admit, has some slight talent.) I try to explain these things by explaining as neutrally as I can the several sides of the issues, and where I stand, and why, and how relatively important it is. Again, as near as I can tell, and I'm no expert, actual time with the kid makes the biggest difference.
Finally, I occasionally write to companies. I don't do it as often as I'd like. I tell them what I hate about their products and why. Probably doesn't do any good, but if I don't speak out, it certainly can't help.
I just want them to fix those wobbly wheels.
I just want them to fix those wobbly wheels.
Man, I worry so much more about Disney mind control than I do porn. I have two kids, ages 5 and 15. Keeping the porn out is no problem. The Mouse, however, is incidious and all-pervasive.
If the new copy-protected CDs won't play in some players, maybe they'll notice, sort of. But they'll keep on buying CDs.
The vast majority of music buyers have only the vaguest understanding of the issues around copy protection/intellectual property/fair use, and that is all the understanding they will ever have.
Maybe I'm wrong. I hope so.
Why to women dig Target? I don't know. My guess is that they somehow manage to market an image that appeals to the masses, while behind the scenes running a massively efficient business machine with all the cuddliness of an industrial-strength rock crusher. Sort of like Microsoft.
And why is this post not off-topic, you ask? Because Target having chick-appeal while running the business with rock-crusher efficiency is exactly like Microsoft turning their legal rock crusher on K-Mart. Great popular marketing appeal on the outside, brutal rock-crusher on the inside.
Their next move is to throw a party, because they won! You can bet the lawyers and execs are breaking out the champagne. Paying $67 mil is nothing. It just comes out of the petty cash drawer along with the bribes^h^h^h^h^h campaign contributions for the politicians.
And I've done pretty well at it.
You might be wondering, gentle slashdot readers, why you care. Well, you probably won't ever care, after all, what's one minion out of thousands, but you might be interested to see things from inside the Borg, as it were.
First of all, don't ever ever ever underestimate Microsoft. These people are very good at what they do. I can hear the slashdot protests now, "no, they suck at what they do!". Au contraire my gentle friends. Microsoft's raison d'etre is not to produce good software. It is to produce a return on investment. And they have done very well. One can make the argument that MS is the most successful financial enterprise ever to exist.
I believe I am one of the people that Mr. Ballmer would like to enlist in the battle to destroy Linux. Unfortunately, I like choice. I run Linux (and Windows 2000/XP) at home. I use Perl on NT/2000. I like command-line tools. I don't like administration by mouse.
I don't see that MS will be successful in destroying Linux. I want them to try, though, because MS is at it's best with competition, and there isn't a whole lot of that around in many arenas right now.
At any time, if you find yourself thinking, "Oh, MS is doomed because of X-Y-Z", or "oh, MS is so stupid, because of X-Y-Z", check your assumptions, over and over." They have 50 gigabucks in the bank. They have a revenue stream that pumps out a gigabuck a month. They have 50,000 employees who are, by-and-large, very smart, and very dedicated. They have a some very good management. They are very good at recognizing and abandoning without hesitation or remorse unwinning strategies. But most of all, they have a company culture that never rests once threatened.
The article says, "Microsoft is yet to announce anything specific but has plans for virtualisation software, which will most likely form part of its Windows operating system."
To read between the lines a bit, I see several trends in MS technology:
Automatic update - note the various EULAs giving MS the right to do remote update at their discretion, the continual improvements to Windows Update, and the new corporate Software Update Server.
Remote administration - note the Remote Administration feature in W2K Server using Terminal Services as well as the remote admin/help desk features in XP.
Consulting - the various consulting arms of MS used to be break-even propositions to push product, now they are revenue-generating.
Partnering - MS grows ever-closer to a handful of big partners - HP, CSC, and Unisys to name a few.
Trusted Computing - i.e. Palladium and the TCPA.
The conclusion that I come to is that the MS master plan is to drop in servers pre-configured from partners such as HP using MS consulting directing the field operations and partner-consultants as the ground shock troops, lock out all those pesky local admins and users using trusted computing, and then administer it all from the Product Support Services centers in NC, TX, and WA. If it breaks and can't be fixed over the phone or via remote admin, then ship a new one.
The less local talent around, the better for Microsoft.
Of course, this will require a vampire-like attachment of MS's shiny sharp incisors to the customer's bank account, but MS is no doubt willing to make that sacrifice in the name of trusted computing for all.
Oh, and don't forget the automatic billing for content licensed to MS-partnered content providers. I leave it as an exercise for the student to see how that fits into the MS master plan.
Finally, speaking as one MS practitioner to another, don't sit still, and don't blindly accept the MS paradigm of administration by mouse. Learn the command-line. Learn scripting. Learn Perl. Use free tools such as Network Monitor, Ethereal, tools from sysinternals.com, etc. to dig beneath the surface. Get some Linux and cross-platform experience. Knowledge of technologies such as Opera and Samba to mention just two are essential to the enlightened technologist living in the MS world.
I am not in favor of child pornography. I suspect the great majority of people aren't. It is a terrible very bad thing. And even if we all can't agree that it is a bad thing, it is illegal.
But . . . how do we know what they are blocking? Who decides if it is child pornography? What is to prevent the authorities from expanding this? What if someone posted a URL of a site alleged to be child pornography on slashdot, and so the authorities decided to block slashdot because it "contains links to child pornography".
And . . . how soon before the legislation is expanded to sites alleged to include music files or program files. And what about sites that traffic in encrypted data? We'd better block those, too, because who knows what is being hidden in that encryption? And what about sites that question the policies and actions of the government? After all, any site that attacks the government may well be abetting terrorism, and fighting terrorism is even more important than fighting child pornography.
Face it, people. Our "unalienable" rights are as fragile as tissue paper. It requires constant vigilence to see that they are not eroded. We need to find a different way to fight child porn.
No doubt Ms. Brecker has been cross-referenced twelve ways from Sunday by scores of cyberfreaks and will have to change her home page, IM handle, and cell phone number. On the other hand, maybe the settlement money will pay for college. Or English tutoring!
According to Reuters Simonyi has rights to patents he developed at Microsoft and Microsoft is entitled to be first to negotiate for rights to Intentional Software's developments.
According the the Wall Street Journal the new company will be based in Bellvue, Washington, which is home to almost as much Microsoft real estate as Redmond.
By all accounts the split was friendly.
It's probably just me. Don't get me wrong, I think both LOTR and Legos are fantasic. Surely both are examples of the highest art in both fiction and toymaking. I am not sure I like them together too much. It's the marketing aspect. It is a way for the marketers of LOTR to embed their mimes into an otherwise benign carrier in order to influence the behavior of the young so as to access the contents of the parents wallets. I wonder if the end-state of the information age is such that every conceivable object or bundle of information is packed with marketing memes designed to influence the buying behavior of the mass consumer market. It has been commonplace for many years to do product-placements in visual media, in which marketers pay money to have their message displayed within film or television show. How long before the marketing becomes the message? How long before advertisers start secretly paying scriptwriters, authors, and songwriters to create works containing the marketing message? Or has it already happened?