The thing is, they aren't a 'growth' stock, at all. In the two years ended 2001, MS showed a net of 21 Billion dollars US, however, they had over $22 Billion in salaries that were paid in (inflated) stock, and options. This 'payroll' was never declared against income, nor taxed, obviously. So...bottom line: They were losing money before the market crumbled.
Also, the fact that their net income was artificially inflated had the side effect of making them appear healthier where financing (bonds, short term corporate 'paper', etc) was concerned. Just like Enron. And Apple, actually, and many others. But with the numbers so high, and the market 'weighting' in the S&P 500 so heavy, Microsoft perpetrated a giant, government-ordained, fraud on investors.
Don't get me wrong, they still have the $45 Bil, but at some point there will be a reckoning. Any one of us, with a small-to-medium-sized company, should be able to easily imagine what the terms of biz loans, credit, etc, would be like if our payrolls weren't part of the 'cost of doing business'. No?
My guess is that the Germans are more spooked by 'backdoors' in the OS, and the cozy relationship between MS and the DOJ (read: white house, oil-based oligarchy, etc), than saving a few bucks. Although, with the current US efforts to let the dollar fall (and Europe, Japan, and Asia go 'belly-up', in terms of currencies and trade) saving a few hundred million marks isn't such a bad side effect of German attention to their own security, sovereignty, etc.
That looks interesting, but after running XP Pro, and win2k in VPC on a tricked-out titanium powerbook, I have to wonder about the speed of processes in the win98 'guest', not to mention the MOL, itself.
Although, during a failed attempt to install X11 (don't ask), i did notice a 68k-emulator app that got me thinking how crazy it would be to run ancient 'legacy' mac apps in an emulator..in an Xfree86 guest...on a New world mac... and the... back to work
Anyways, if it makes you happy, you're right in the investment sense, but I'm right in the technological sense.
All the best, mate. You've brought some interesting perspective into the picture.
Whoa, pardner... don't concede anything on he "you got me on the investment thing'..
Homeboy poster just invested 10 cents of his bandwidth to read a couple lamer synopses of 'financials', meanwhile someone else, after what's known as 'due diligence' popped for $20 Million in Sun stock, in one fell swoop... what's that tell you?
That MSNBC-dude knows something the Street doesn't? Don't bank on it.
As for the OS updates, apple has to pay licensing fees for codecs included in some of these updates and they have to pay them based on download totals and CD sales. For instance, last year, Apple paid out $7400 in liscensing for the OS8.6 update. It includes several sorenson codecs and a few TCP/IP network protocols that have to paid for.
Oh okay, so, if I down;load one free update w/codecs, etc, from Apple, and post it into the binaries groups, and 60,000 people download a copy of a copy...how much money have I saved Apple then?
$14/month BellSouth 'dial tone', no services, listed, pulse...taxes in. And Earthlink's Unlimited Phone plan: 42$/month, taxes in, 24/7 unlimited to all 50 states and all of Canada [from here in south florida, with family in LA, SF, and Montreal, and Vancouver, and biz in SF and NYUC, it is a bargain and a half]. For 4.95 a month extra, virtual numbers anywhere, with area code/cities that show up on 'screens', and a 'local' number for friends and family to call me wherever I am, free.. All normal services plus voicemail over the phone, or online. Total: $66/month, and my charges the month before the service: 42 to Bell, 450 to long distance. Min. savings/month: $400US... and, by virtue of being in on the 'ground floor, my dsl is no longer linked to a phone number, only the MAC address: meaning, portability for dsl/phone.
That was resolved a long time ago. I think it cost Apple 85 Grand, or something. Who cares about the Abbey Road Apple anyway? The Beatles belong to Michael Jackson [unless Paul grabs them as Michael's credit cards meltdown] slow-->fast...
Kazaa??? why? I roll over a 24 Gb account at giganews every ten days, USENET...think mega terra flops , long retention, multiple streams, no waiting for Junior to wake up and reboot his Winbloze box so you can get the last segs of whatever.... sheesh, Kazaa, right
OK, maybe SP1 made it more secure, or less crash-prone (wasn't bad before though, and doesn't seem better now), or something. Yes, I'll tell myself that -- something improved. I'm just not sure exactly what it is.
Only thing i really noticed is the presence of the MS Virtual Machine update that allows the real JAVA Virtual Machine to run
but it's very likely that the next version will "report home" more often with what you do with your Virtual PC.
Use the app, Little Snitch(TM) <http://www.obdev.at/>
Nothing 'calls home' unless I say "yeah, go ahead"...nothing.
I open the Sys Prefs, click Lil Snitch, hit admin pass, 'New', browse to VPC, click 'Rules':
Application: VirtualPC Permission: Deny Server: any Port: any Protocol: any
If you're testing browsers in Win32, then you just kill the "Deny" and get an OSX window giving chance to allow/deny each attempt at UDP/TCP that identifies what is trying to call out, which port, to which server, etc.. allow IE, etc, and kill the rest.
But VPC, like Adobe, OfficeX, etc, just keeps right on going, apps 'assuming' there's no net connect available, biz as usual...
That's funny, Gates & MS did buy a nice chunk of SCO back in 89-90 or so. Are they still holding the stock? It was something like an eighth of the company, or maybe a fourth with other companies involved.
Very nice of them.
But you should realize that if you get any refund at all, what you've actually done is extend Uncle Sam an interest-free 'loan' [the amount of which rose, incrementally, every week or two as your deductions went in], which you 'get back' and perceive as a bonus.
I love that new 'math', you know...the chances of 'x' are the same/better/worse than the chances of 'y'...
I will swear off flying forever... oh Look, I just Saved Planet Earth... so, what are ya waiting for? Send me $10 apiece, or $5 + bow down and kiss my butt, or i start booking flights in 6 hours.
They've been selling 'bottled', [actually little coke-sized cans], pressurized oxygen, on the street and in machines, in Tokyo, for at least 40 years, far as i can remember..
This 'deal' involving eBay, Amazon, MS, etc, in agreeing to pay these 'fees' or licensing bucks is a page right out of John D. Rockefeller's 'book'.
John D., of course, was the first hugely successful oil baron in America. At the time, oil was all over Jersey, Pennsylvannia, the East in other words. It was also out West, but rockefeller was already well-to-do, and the market for oil was in the East, not the West.
"Rocky" puts his thinking cap on and approached the Railroad companies with a 'proposal': He wanted to start paying triple the highest current cost to ship a barrel of oil by train... [You see where this is going? ]
The train guys, of course, thought the old guy had 'lost it', but they agreed, and when all of the many dozens upon dozens of 'indie' oil driller/suppliers couldn't afford the treble increase in shipping, John D bought THEM, that is, if he got around to it before they went bankrupt.
Companies are a lot 'cheaper' to buy when they're insolvent. Anyway, John D spawned Nelson, who became governor of New York, and the family WAS Citibank, and Standard Oil...amongst others, but the financing for the empire really started with the offer to get 'gouged'.
~L.F.
P.S. Gambling, by the way, played a huge roll in the 'profits' of the Net. Actually, gambling and sex account for about 70 cents out of every dollar that changed hands on the Internet.
I was interviewed by national zine in Toronto, related to my adventures in telemarketing on a grandly larcenous level, and asked for no cash, however the publisher did ask me to consider writing a book about that part of my life, that they [the publishers] would have first right of refusal on.
I wouldn't ask for cash for an article, but a book? Hell yes, why should one of the shittiest writers in the annals of the New York Times make a fucking nickel off his misconceptions and questionable motives for the hack writing he was about to spew?
Kevin's g-friend kept a pretty good journal/weblog going on the whole deal and it was obvious they were confronted by [in the reporter's case] a one-sided know-nothing liar..[either that or a combo of a true believer and an ignoramus, take your pick]. Libel is a tough one to prove, but it certainly looks like a decent plaintiff's attorney wouldn't have any problem constructing 'motive', and once that's established, then 'oops' no longer makes the pattern of misrepresentation densible. Hopefully a lawyer has already gotten to kevin on that.
I'm nowheres near being an 'official' trekky or whatever, but i always loved Star trek, and couldn't care less about pro reviewers opinions of it. Someone mentioned that it was exactly like a 'bigger' version of the TV show, and THAT is exactly why it's so cool to see TNG films.
I have a theory that, like watching others have sex, or the average workady job, syndicated, or long-running shows, are fundamentally ridiculous. Fair enough. Not everything has to be 'important', or 'new'... Remember the TV episode 'A Fistful of Datas'? That was amazing. Clever, witty, good scripting, and film making. A lot of us 'want' the films of TNG to remain loyal to cast and such, it was awkward to see the original cast in a higher-tech 'world'. One missed the funky recycling of late 50s early 60s Franco-Spanish gladiator outfits and Christmas tree lights and BS that that shows production people had to work with. I look forward to nenesis, even more, now.
Well it's obvious what it all means to me: If i switch my web server to port 81, and they start at the other end of the earth, it'll be just a little over 9 1/2 hours before earthlink shuts me down.... assuming i'm the very last IP that gets crunched. Nice.
Slashdot Mirror
The thing is, they aren't a 'growth' stock, at all. In the two years ended 2001, MS showed a net of 21 Billion dollars US, however, they had over $22 Billion in salaries that were paid in (inflated) stock, and options. This 'payroll' was never declared against income, nor taxed, obviously. So...bottom line: They were losing money before the market crumbled.
Also, the fact that their net income was artificially inflated had the side effect of making them appear healthier where financing (bonds, short term corporate 'paper', etc) was concerned. Just like Enron. And Apple, actually, and many others. But with the numbers so high, and the market 'weighting' in the S&P 500 so heavy, Microsoft perpetrated a giant, government-ordained, fraud on investors.
Don't get me wrong, they still have the $45 Bil, but at some point there will be a reckoning. Any one of us, with a small-to-medium-sized company, should be able to easily imagine what the terms of biz loans, credit, etc, would be like if our payrolls weren't part of the 'cost of doing business'. No?
My guess is that the Germans are more spooked by 'backdoors' in the OS, and the cozy relationship between MS and the DOJ (read: white house, oil-based oligarchy, etc), than saving a few bucks. Although, with the current US efforts to let the dollar fall (and Europe, Japan, and Asia go 'belly-up', in terms of currencies and trade) saving a few hundred million marks isn't such a bad side effect of German attention to their own security, sovereignty, etc.
That looks interesting, but after running XP Pro, and win2k in VPC on a tricked-out titanium powerbook, I have to wonder about the speed of processes in the win98 'guest', not to mention the MOL, itself. Although, during a failed attempt to install X11 (don't ask), i did notice a 68k-emulator app that got me thinking how crazy it would be to run ancient 'legacy' mac apps in an emulator ..in an Xfree86 guest...on a New world mac... and the ... back to work
Oh dear another slash dot numerical illiterate needs a demo:
Take two million bucks
Spend one million on IBM at $85 per share
Spend one million on Sun at $4
IBM moves 5%
Sun moves 12%
Get your calculator, cuz this is tough
Find 5% of one million [IBM], now find 12% of one million [Sun].
Subtract, and whaddya get? [No 'LOW BAT' Isn't an answer]
Stick with programming and let one of the kids handle your investments
$14/month BellSouth 'dial tone', no services, listed, pulse...taxes in. And Earthlink's Unlimited Phone plan: 42$/month, taxes in, 24/7 unlimited to all 50 states and all of Canada [from here in south florida, with family in LA, SF, and Montreal, and Vancouver, and biz in SF and NYUC, it is a bargain and a half]. For 4.95 a month extra, virtual numbers anywhere, with area code/cities that show up on 'screens', and a 'local' number for friends and family to call me wherever I am, free.. All normal services plus voicemail over the phone, or online. Total: $66 /month, and my charges the month before the service: 42 to Bell, 450 to long distance. Min. savings/month: $400US... and, by virtue of being in on the 'ground floor, my dsl is no longer linked to a phone number, only the MAC address: meaning, portability for dsl/phone.
That was resolved a long time ago. I think it cost Apple 85 Grand, or something. Who cares about the Abbey Road Apple anyway? The Beatles belong to Michael Jackson [unless Paul grabs them as Michael's credit cards meltdown] slow-->fast...
Kazaa??? why? I roll over a 24 Gb account at giganews every ten days, USENET...think mega terra flops , long retention, multiple streams, no waiting for Junior to wake up and reboot his Winbloze box so you can get the last segs of whatever.... sheesh, Kazaa, right
Sorry to br redundant, but i'd rather that, than to fail to express my gratitrude. thank you.
but it's very likely that the next version will "report home" more often with what you do with your Virtual PC.
:=)
Use the app, Little Snitch(TM) <http://www.obdev.at/>
Nothing 'calls home' unless I say "yeah, go ahead"...nothing.
I open the Sys Prefs, click Lil Snitch, hit admin pass, 'New', browse to VPC, click 'Rules':
Application: VirtualPC
Permission: Deny
Server: any
Port: any
Protocol: any
If you're testing browsers in Win32, then you just kill the "Deny" and get an OSX window giving chance to allow/deny each attempt at UDP/TCP that identifies what is trying to call out, which port, to which server, etc.. allow IE, etc, and kill the rest.
But VPC, like Adobe, OfficeX, etc, just keeps right on going, apps 'assuming' there's no net connect available, biz as usual...
End of phone home, E.T. have to write letter
That's funny, Gates & MS did buy a nice chunk of SCO back in 89-90 or so. Are they still holding the stock? It was something like an eighth of the company, or maybe a fourth with other companies involved.
Very nice of them. But you should realize that if you get any refund at all, what you've actually done is extend Uncle Sam an interest-free 'loan' [the amount of which rose, incrementally, every week or two as your deductions went in], which you 'get back' and perceive as a bonus.
I love that new 'math', you know...the chances of 'x' are the same/better/worse than the chances of 'y'... I will swear off flying forever... oh Look, I just Saved Planet Earth... so, what are ya waiting for? Send me $10 apiece, or $5 + bow down and kiss my butt, or i start booking flights in 6 hours.
They've been selling 'bottled', [actually little coke-sized cans], pressurized oxygen, on the street and in machines, in Tokyo, for at least 40 years, far as i can remember..
This 'deal' involving eBay, Amazon, MS, etc, in agreeing to pay these 'fees' or licensing bucks is a page right out of John D. Rockefeller's 'book'.
John D., of course, was the first hugely successful oil baron in America. At the time, oil was all over Jersey, Pennsylvannia, the East in other words. It was also out West, but rockefeller was already well-to-do, and the market for oil was in the East, not the West.
"Rocky" puts his thinking cap on and approached the Railroad companies with a 'proposal': He wanted to start paying triple the highest current cost to ship a barrel of oil by train... [You see where this is going? ]
The train guys, of course, thought the old guy had 'lost it', but they agreed, and when all of the many dozens upon dozens of 'indie' oil driller/suppliers couldn't afford the treble increase in shipping, John D bought THEM, that is, if he got around to it before they went bankrupt.
Companies are a lot 'cheaper' to buy when they're insolvent. Anyway, John D spawned Nelson, who became governor of New York, and the family WAS Citibank, and Standard Oil...amongst others, but the financing for the empire really started with the offer to get 'gouged'.
~L.F.
P.S. Gambling, by the way, played a huge roll in the 'profits' of the Net. Actually, gambling and sex account for about 70 cents out of every dollar that changed hands on the Internet.
I was interviewed by national zine in Toronto, related to my adventures in telemarketing on a grandly larcenous level, and asked for no cash, however the publisher did ask me to consider writing a book about that part of my life, that they [the publishers] would have first right of refusal on.
I wouldn't ask for cash for an article, but a book? Hell yes, why should one of the shittiest writers in the annals of the New York Times make a fucking nickel off his misconceptions and questionable motives for the hack writing he was about to spew?
Kevin's g-friend kept a pretty good journal/weblog going on the whole deal and it was obvious they were confronted by [in the reporter's case] a one-sided know-nothing liar..[either that or a combo of a true believer and an ignoramus, take your pick]. Libel is a tough one to prove, but it certainly looks like a decent plaintiff's attorney wouldn't have any problem constructing 'motive', and once that's established, then 'oops' no longer makes the pattern of misrepresentation densible. Hopefully a lawyer has already gotten to kevin on that.
To which Groucho Marx replied, "I have my principles...and if you don't like, well...I have others."
I'm nowheres near being an 'official' trekky or whatever, but i always loved Star trek, and couldn't care less about pro reviewers opinions of it. Someone mentioned that it was exactly like a 'bigger' version of the TV show, and THAT is exactly why it's so cool to see TNG films. I have a theory that, like watching others have sex, or the average workady job, syndicated, or long-running shows, are fundamentally ridiculous. Fair enough. Not everything has to be 'important', or 'new' ... Remember the TV episode 'A Fistful of Datas'? That was amazing. Clever, witty, good scripting, and film making. A lot of us 'want' the films of TNG to remain loyal to cast and such, it was awkward to see the original cast in a higher-tech 'world'. One missed the funky recycling of late 50s early 60s Franco-Spanish gladiator outfits and Christmas tree lights and BS that that shows production people had to work with. I look forward to nenesis, even more, now.
Well it's obvious what it all means to me: If i switch my web server to port 81, and they start at the other end of the earth, it'll be just a little over 9 1/2 hours before earthlink shuts me down.... assuming i'm the very last IP that gets crunched. Nice.