My boss likes to say things about "The Standards". In her worldview, anything is the best choice for any given situation if it's "The Industry Standard". That phrase is practically sacred to her. The only reason we're not running Windows (her favourite OS) on our servers is because in her perception, "The Industry Standard" for large Web sites is Solaris on SPARC hardware. But the instant her businessperson friends start saying how wonderful Win2K3 on Compaq servers is, she'll probably be listing our Sun Enterprise servers on eBay...
After so many years in the tech field, I'm starting to get really really wary of people who say such glowing things about "The Standards". It seems to be a thinly-veiled way of saying "What Everybody Else Is Doing". In the 1800s, "The Standard" way of life for a wealthy white Southerner in the US would include the ownership of slaves. And "The Standard" in industrialised Western nations was, of course, for women (and blacks) to not have the right to vote.
The point of my little screed is-- if the best defence a company has for their products/services/actions/lack of actions is that they are "the standard"... well, it either shows a severe lack of imagination, or an adherence to "this is today's fad; tomorrow, the fad may be different" mentality. The same sort of mentality that hardcore gamers demonstrate, when one year they get the WhizBang(R) CyberWhatever(TM) 3000 AGP card with 128MB of RAM and are all "wow, look at me", and the next year, they wouldn't be caught dead with anything less than a WhizBang(R) CyberWhatever(TM) Pro 5000 AGP card with 256MB of RAM... Because, I mean, the Pro 5000 is "The Standard" now, and anyone with less is "obviously a limpdicked little fagot" (sic). (End sarcasm)...
Companies that speak of "The Standard", to me, reek of rat-race-ism, and-- to be frank-- of pure faddishness. Remember: "The Standard" == "What everyone else is doing". And "everyone else" is running Windows on their x86 hardware, and we all know how sterling an example of quality engineering either of those things are... (no flames, please)
Will Apple use a bit of additional money to pay back the money Microsoft invested in them back... oh, was it 5, 6, 7 years ago? That might revive the old OS wars, and make a lot of Mac fans (including myself) quite happy...
What about the various services that will put THEIR name on your WHOIS records for a small fee? GoDaddy offers such a service... I believe it's called DomainsByProxy, or something like that... Are these services going to become illegal? Whenever I register a "potentially controversial" site (read: one where the far-fringe-right-wing lunatics might potentially come and try to bomb my house or something), I use a service like that.
...what exactly are the specs on current Xbox hardware, and are there any barriers to hacking one to run Linux at present? (grins) This could be a great way to make a cheap Linux (or NetBSD) workstation...
To: CEO From: John Smith, IT Manager, MCSE Subject: Four Linux Live CDs
Dear Sir:
I know your time is precious, so I'll just provide an executive summary.
* Linux doesn't run Microsoft Office * Linux doesn't make Bill Gates any money * Linux users are commies. (I read it from my friends on the Microsoft newsgroups. They're always right.) * Running Linux makes us Unamerican (possible fear of PATRIOT Act backlash?)
SUMMARY: Avoid Linux. Buy Windows. (No, this has nothing to do with the fact that Microsoft just offered us a huge check because they heard we were considering Linux...)
...by requiring all emails to use Microsoft's proprietary, heavily patented, closed-source "SMTP++" technology, which runs only under Windows... Thereby, of course, locking out all non-Windows users...
Just hold the damned phone. As per the LICENSE on Microsoft's own site, does anything actually prohibit building an interoperability plug-in, or (as others have suggested) a simple OpenOffice.org <---> MS Office converter? Disregarding the GPL, for the moment?
Frankly, I don't give a flaming rat's patootie if the MSOffice plugin/converter thingie is GPLd, so long as it works. What on earth is to stop the OpenOffice.org folks from creating a separate project, call it say the "Wordverter", which reads and writes Word files, and which adheres strictly to the terms given by MS?
Who gives a damn if it's GPLd? It's just a plug-in. The rest of OOo won't be affected unless MS finally manages to get a patent on the concept of a word processor, or a trademark on the word "Office"... Which, even in this era of megacorpocracy, seems unlikely... (for now)
...ANOTHER sort of "Intellectual(R) Property(TM)". This is getting ridiculous. I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever reach a point where Joe Beer and his wife Martha will wake up, take their head out of their Bibles and their AOL chat rooms, and start to give a damn about any of this corporate power grabbing...
Fuck the grammar book. I'm a female, and I CHOOSE to ignore the sexist leanings of the English language. I also CHOOSE to say "humankind" instead of "mankind".
I was merely making a point. What precisely is my "agenda"-- opposing the accumulation of vast, unearthly amounts of power and money by titanic corporations?
My point is-- with sufficient funds, American law is QUITE malleable. For that matter, so is language. Look at what the mass media has done to the word "hacker", for instance.
Really? So where's the alternative to Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office that will run ALL Windows programs and properly open ALL Office documents?
...That's what I thought.
You think we live in a free market? Do you really think that Microsoft Windows would have a 95% desktop market share in a "free market"?
Ah-- almost forgot. I should note here how INCREDIBLY easy it would^Wwill be to tar-and-feather anyone who complains about this shameless redefinition of the word "unlimited" as a "file-sharing hacker" and a "thief". Cue patronizing brow-beating about "capitalism" and being a good "consumer" here.
Remember what a certain modern leader said: "There ought to be limits to freedom." This is the same concept. It's currently in vogue.
Slashdot Mirror
My boss likes to say things about "The Standards". In her worldview, anything is the best choice for any given situation if it's "The Industry Standard". That phrase is practically sacred to her. The only reason we're not running Windows (her favourite OS) on our servers is because in her perception, "The Industry Standard" for large Web sites is Solaris on SPARC hardware. But the instant her businessperson friends start saying how wonderful Win2K3 on Compaq servers is, she'll probably be listing our Sun Enterprise servers on eBay...
After so many years in the tech field, I'm starting to get really really wary of people who say such glowing things about "The Standards". It seems to be a thinly-veiled way of saying "What Everybody Else Is Doing". In the 1800s, "The Standard" way of life for a wealthy white Southerner in the US would include the ownership of slaves. And "The Standard" in industrialised Western nations was, of course, for women (and blacks) to not have the right to vote.
The point of my little screed is-- if the best defence a company has for their products/services/actions/lack of actions is that they are "the standard"... well, it either shows a severe lack of imagination, or an adherence to "this is today's fad; tomorrow, the fad may be different" mentality. The same sort of mentality that hardcore gamers demonstrate, when one year they get the WhizBang(R) CyberWhatever(TM) 3000 AGP card with 128MB of RAM and are all "wow, look at me", and the next year, they wouldn't be caught dead with anything less than a WhizBang(R) CyberWhatever(TM) Pro 5000 AGP card with 256MB of RAM... Because, I mean, the Pro 5000 is "The Standard" now, and anyone with less is "obviously a limpdicked little fagot" (sic). (End sarcasm)...
Companies that speak of "The Standard", to me, reek of rat-race-ism, and-- to be frank-- of pure faddishness. Remember: "The Standard" == "What everyone else is doing". And "everyone else" is running Windows on their x86 hardware, and we all know how sterling an example of quality engineering either of those things are... (no flames, please)
Will Apple use a bit of additional money to pay back the money Microsoft invested in them back... oh, was it 5, 6, 7 years ago? That might revive the old OS wars, and make a lot of Mac fans (including myself) quite happy...
Does any company actually have a business plan that isn't based around suing people any more?
The collective Unix/Linux knowledge of SlashDot:
;) )
"lol lunix ownz windoze suxxx"
(Of course, that's true, but it's still funny to type it like that
Yes, but left-wing lunatics generally don't come and harass you in meatspace because you're hosting a gay/bi/les/trans site...
What about the various services that will put THEIR name on your WHOIS records for a small fee? GoDaddy offers such a service... I believe it's called DomainsByProxy, or something like that... Are these services going to become illegal? Whenever I register a "potentially controversial" site (read: one where the far-fringe-right-wing lunatics might potentially come and try to bomb my house or something), I use a service like that.
...what exactly are the specs on current Xbox hardware, and are there any barriers to hacking one to run Linux at present? (grins) This could be a great way to make a cheap Linux (or NetBSD) workstation...
Okay, what was the fifth? Solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, ???
It's also short for Jessica, dumbass. And look up "Leah" some time.
...who parsed that as "Final Fantasy 2 vs. Amazon Gift Ordering Patent"?
When will the Microsoft-worship end???
To: CEO
From: John Smith, IT Manager, MCSE
Subject: Four Linux Live CDs
Dear Sir:
I know your time is precious, so I'll just provide an executive summary.
* Linux doesn't run Microsoft Office
* Linux doesn't make Bill Gates any money
* Linux users are commies. (I read it from my friends on the Microsoft newsgroups. They're always right.)
* Running Linux makes us Unamerican (possible fear of PATRIOT Act backlash?)
SUMMARY: Avoid Linux. Buy Windows. (No, this has nothing to do with the fact that Microsoft just offered us a huge check because they heard we were considering Linux...)
Woman.
Yeah, just like last time. Fat lot of good that did.
...by requiring all emails to use Microsoft's proprietary, heavily patented, closed-source "SMTP++" technology, which runs only under Windows... Thereby, of course, locking out all non-Windows users...
Don't laugh, it could happen!
Like, twenty seconds?
That'll probably be the benchmark of data rate in the future.... Libraries-of-Congress/sec.
...but the ping times suck. Can you imagine playing Quake over that kind of link?
Just hold the damned phone. As per the LICENSE on Microsoft's own site, does anything actually prohibit building an interoperability plug-in, or (as others have suggested) a simple OpenOffice.org <---> MS Office converter? Disregarding the GPL, for the moment?
Frankly, I don't give a flaming rat's patootie if the MSOffice plugin/converter thingie is GPLd, so long as it works. What on earth is to stop the OpenOffice.org folks from creating a separate project, call it say the "Wordverter", which reads and writes Word files, and which adheres strictly to the terms given by MS?
Who gives a damn if it's GPLd? It's just a plug-in. The rest of OOo won't be affected unless MS finally manages to get a patent on the concept of a word processor, or a trademark on the word "Office"... Which, even in this era of megacorpocracy, seems unlikely... (for now)
...ANOTHER sort of "Intellectual(R) Property(TM)". This is getting ridiculous. I'm beginning to wonder if it will ever reach a point where Joe Beer and his wife Martha will wake up, take their head out of their Bibles and their AOL chat rooms, and start to give a damn about any of this corporate power grabbing...
Fuck the grammar book. I'm a female, and I CHOOSE to ignore the sexist leanings of the English language. I also CHOOSE to say "humankind" instead of "mankind".
There is no "conspiracy" necessary for large corporations to, independently of each other and yet in parallel...be assholes.
Most people are stupid and cruel. Do you think there's some vast conspiracy to be stupid and cruel? No. It's just the way things are. Same deal...
I was merely making a point. What precisely is my "agenda"-- opposing the accumulation of vast, unearthly amounts of power and money by titanic corporations?
My point is-- with sufficient funds, American law is QUITE malleable. For that matter, so is language. Look at what the mass media has done to the word "hacker", for instance.
Really? So where's the alternative to Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office that will run ALL Windows programs and properly open ALL Office documents?
...That's what I thought.
You think we live in a free market? Do you really think that Microsoft Windows would have a 95% desktop market share in a "free market"?
Ah-- almost forgot. I should note here how INCREDIBLY easy it would^Wwill be to tar-and-feather anyone who complains about this shameless redefinition of the word "unlimited" as a "file-sharing hacker" and a "thief". Cue patronizing brow-beating about "capitalism" and being a good "consumer" here.
Remember what a certain modern leader said: "There ought to be limits to freedom." This is the same concept. It's currently in vogue.