I never said unions shouldn't be able to be political. I was responding to a post claiming unions weren't by giving examples of how they are.
- Milo Hyson
Re:Well, I see the usual anti-union bushwah
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
Seniority: I've worked longer than you therefore I'm better than you and deserve more.
What are you smoking? The value of something is determined by what it can do, not what it has done. I'm assuming that you'd argue that an IBM XT (having been around much longer) is better than a brand-new 1GHz box?
Doing something for 20 years doesn't mean anything if you suck. Some people can pick up a book and in five minutes do a better job at something than someone who has done it all their life.
You think the new kid getting promoted over you is unfair because you've been working longer? How about the old guy getting promoted over you even though he can't work for shit?
Re:Aren't you all special.....
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
...when your jobs are shipped to India and you're lucky to clear 40K a year, you'll see the ultimate wisdom of collective bargaining
If somebody is able to do the same for less, more power to them. Competition is one of the major driving forces in economics. If the new guy on the block is making things difficult for you, maybe you should make some changes in your own situation or get out of the market. You're not entitled to a job.
How would you like it if only certain brands of products belonging to certain organizations could be sold at certain supermarkets? Imagine no Rice Krispies because General Mills has a contract with Safeway. You're advocating this exact same principle in employment.
How would you like it if you couldn't have the job you wanted because you weren't a member of the union and couldn't join for one reason or another?
What a good IT union would do is...
...assure your pension/401K where ever you worked.
...provide uniform health benefits for you and your family, which would allow you to freelance, contract or set up your own business without worrying every time Junior gets the scooter.
Provides death and catastrophic injury benefits for you and your SO.
...provide training and financial advice for you.
...help you find jobs without recruiters
...arbirtrate workplace disputes without resorting to lawyers.
...would not establish a maximum wage, nor would it prevent you from being promoted or becoming a manager. It would not mandate hiring and promotion.
Each of these things can be obtained by anyone without the assistance of a union. The only thing a union does it serve it all to you on a silver platter instead of requiring you to take some initiative in your life.
...the top executives get millions of shares apiece and the 500 workers get to split 400,000-1m shares in options.
Yes, the more critical positions for which demand is higher and supply is lower typically get more money than the average worker. That's economics again.
...how much freedom you would have if you didn't have to worry about being covered by every company you worked for and switching 401K's every year.
I think you summed it all up right there. Let someone else manage your affairs for you so that you don't have to.
- Milo Hyson
Re:A story from the front lines
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
That ended in 1999 when Adobe decided to move their front-line support to North Carolina, Adobe having decided that the $11-12-an-hour positions they were obliged to staff in the Puget Sound area could be filled elsewhere for a lot less.
If a business can find some resource elsewhere for less money, they will usually switch over to it. Sure, this seems unfair for the losing side. Welcome to the world of economics.
...they wanted to give employees the opportunity to do the jobs they wanted...
Excuse me for saying so, but this sounds like a very spoiled attitude. Most people work to make a living. Few end up doing what they want.
Nobody is guaranteed a job. Nobody is guaranteed a job they enjoy. Nobody is guaranteed the job they want.
- Milo Hyson
Re:I'm a Union IT Professional
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
But here are the important things, things that get even more important as you young geeks grow into middle-aged geeks and have families.
Not all middle-aged people (geeks or otherwise) choose to have families. Therefore, this argument doesn't necessarily apply.
1) As I mentioned-- medical, dental, pension.
I've never worked for anybody that didn't provide these things already.
2) Overtime for working beyond 40 hours.
I already get this -- guaranteed by state law.
3) My pager stays on my desk when I go home at night; i.e., I can have a Real Life(tm) with my family (and my compilers).
My pager goes home with me because that's the whole purpose for having a pager -- to reach me after hours. It's part of the job, which I didn't have to accept if I didn't like the terms. If someone needs to get in touch with me at work, they can call me, walk over to my desk or send me an email.
4) I'm not an at-will employee-- I can't be fired just because the boss can hire someone for less money.
So what? Whether you're at-will or not, you're not entitled to a job. You have to earn it.
5) I can't be fired for my continual, unabashedly militant leftist political and union organizing activities.
Neither can I, and I'm non-union. Again, state law.
6) I don't have to kiss suits' asses.
I've never encountered nor heard of this being a job requirement anywhere.
I wouldn't necessarily call union laborers unskilled. I would say that unions have a tendency to restrict their members and keep them from achieving their full potential.
Why do you think so many people have weekend hobbies that are radically different from their day jobs? A lot of people are capable of doing numerous things very well, but their jobs don't allow them to.
Think about it. Carpenters who rebuild cars. Plumbers who build furniture. Telecomm engineers who landscape. The list goes on.
I once knew a software engineer who did construction, electrical and telecomm in his spare time. He had some big players in those industries fighting to be on his projects because he was so good at it all. Yet in his day job, he was bored to tears because the companies he worked for "had people who handle those things." He ended up working for himself and doing all those things and more.
- Milo Hyson
Questions for Union Supporters
on
IT Unions?
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· Score: 1
I have a few questions for the pro-Union people.
Why do unions seem to reward seniority over ability or acomplishments? Why should somebody get a higher wage simply because they've worked longer, when the quality of their work is inferior?
Why do unions try and force workers in their industry or company to unionize instead of simply accepting some people's desire to remain non-union?
Why do unions create such strict and incredibly small divisions of labor, thus requiring many more people to do a job than it should require?
I have my own ideas about these issues (see below), but I would seriously like to hear from others who may have different views. Perhaps somebody can enlighten me about something I hadn't thought of.
So here are my thoughts about the above questions:
Paying members more money the longer they work seems like an incentive for them to stay in the union. After all, when someone gets passed over by a collegue half their age, it makes them want to leave. Translation: Longer memberships at progressively higher salaries equals more dues for the union.
True, the more members there are in the union the stronger their voice is against employers. However, the flip side is that more members equals more dues for the union.
Strict division of labor increases the number of workers required to accomplish a task. Five people doing the job of one person equals five times the dues for the union.
Sounds to me like the underlying motive here is all money. And not money for the workers either. Am I wrong?
I was in a similar position. A few years ago, I started a business with my best friend. It never went anywhere. Last year, we went our separate ways, splitting off into two companies. Mine took off. Her's...well...you know the rest.
Once I became successful and my services had a little demand, I was suddenly surrounded by people who where telling me to raise my rates and grow my business. When I asked why, they said, "Because you can." I figured I was fine where I was, so I stayed put.
Now, most of them are out of business and I'm still going strong. Sure, I'm growing, just not exponentially like all of the generic three-letter companies around here.
With this technology, tech support calls will increase. No longer will users be able to simply reboot their machines when Win-whatever crashes. They'll have to call support to do it for them.:P
This is a simple analogy to hopefully help people understand the differences between the Free Software Movement (FSM) and the Open Software Movement (OSM). This is my personal take on things, so I apologize in advance if I got anything wrong here.
Think back to your school days, specifically basic geometry. Remember the relationship between rectangles and squares? All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. This is because squares are a certain type of rectangle.
The same holds true in the open-source world. The OSM is about providing access to the source code of software. Different people license their source in different ways (e.g. BSD vs. Sun Microsystems). The FSM is based around one of these licenses, taking the OSM one step further. It specifies that open-source software must always remain open. The OSM does not specify this.
To use an OOP analogy, just like a square is a subclass of a rectangle, the FSM is a subclass of the OSM. That's my take anyway. =)
It seems to me that all of the issues surrounding the DIVX video system would apply to this technology as well. For example:
Music will be more expensive. If we assume a typical CD contains 12 tracks and costs $15, that's $1.25 per track. I doubt the cost of a key to play a track will be that cheap. Plus, the keys are only good for a certain amount of time. That $1.25 is a one-time fee allowing you to listen as many times as you want.
More complicated and inconvenient audio systems. Right now, all one has to do is pop a disc into a player and start it up. With DataPlay, you'll have to go buy (or re-buy) a key first.
Also, try explaining to your little one why they can't listen to their favorite Disney soundtrack because money is tight and you can't afford a key right now.
Space-shifting will be more expensive. You take your new disc over to a friend's house only to find out you have to buy another key to play it on their system.
You might have to hide your player. If manufacturers came up with some kind of automatic payment system to make key purchases easier, you might have to lock away your hardware to prevent a family member or friend from inadvertently charging your credit card through the roof.
Also, what happens if your player is stolen and you don't report it right away (maybe you got robbed when you were away on vacation)? Are you still liable for charges generated?
What if you accidentally put in the wrong disc and get charged for something you didn't mean to play?
What if a record company sells the rights to a song and the receiving party has different listening terms? What if the company decides they want people to listen to certain songs (e.g. newer ones) and they stop selling keys for others?
The record companies can track which songs you listen to, what devices you use, and when and where you use them. Get ready for a lot more spam.
What about competition? Right now you can visit five different stores and probably see five different prices for the same CDs. Are DataPlay keys going to be sold competitively or is it going to be another monopoly?
What about billing errors? What if charges show up for songs you've never listened to? How will you prove it?
What happens if a song is owned by a small studio and that studio goes out of business? Will you be unable to buy anymore keys for their songs?
The signal has to be converted to analog at some point. It won't take long for people to disassemble their crypto-speakers and hard-wire a link to a conventional recording system. It only takes one person with the right electronics to rip a studio-quality version of a song. Since there are legitimate uses for such electronics, it will be difficult to prosecute.
I think there will be many such attempts at controlling access to products. Will it ever end? Only time will tell.
Don't be misled by the flexibility of the English language, there may be an art to good programming, but programming ain't art.
The problem with this statement is something that this particular/. thread has superbly pointed out. The definition of art is highly subjective. Period.
This is a question I've asked many people throughout the years, and nobody has been able to give me a satisfactory answer. Why does a person have to identify themselves as being in a single profession? We regularly hear people referred to as electricians, plumbers, artists, programmers, etc. You rarely hear of someone who is all of the above even though they do exist.
I myself have been the subject of many verbal assaults by people who think I should just pick a single field and stick with it. The problem is there are many people out there like me who have the ability to do more than one thing, and as time goes on there's going to be more of us.
Furthermore, universities, etc. won't be able to afford to run computing courses, since, as is the stated aim of many OS people, MS will be dead - and MS funds a lot of universities.
Let's think about UNIX for a moment. Linux and the BSDs are generally considered part of the UNIX family. UNIX was developed at a university in the 60's, long before MS was ever thought of.
That was way before we had this massive information distrubition system we know and love called the Internet. I don't think universities these days will be too impacted by the disappearance of MS.
I just asked around the office, and everyone here thought SSH was the name of the protocol. Nobody had any clue it was trademarked. We've been tossing it around as a generic term for years.
I also asked a couple of clients. They said the same thing. Sounds to me like this is another case of failing to protect a trademark and losing it to the public domain.
...they've been competing in the junglel of business for decades longer than you have...
Here's a classic piece of social FUD that I just can't leave alone. Let's examine the rationale behind this statement.
When people say that someone is better at something because they're more experienced, what is it they're really saying? They're implying that because the person has spent time with something, they've gained additional knowledge about it. The thing is, it's not an automatic process. Experience isn't anything magical. Just because somebody has experience doesn't necessarily mean they've learned anything. In addition, experience is not necessarily the only way to gain that knowledge.
Granted, there are some things that can only be learned by experience. But most of the time this expression is used in reference to something that can be learned through other means. The problem is that society feels learning through experience is the "correct" way. When it comes to education, there is no right and wrong. It's all a matter of did you learn and can you apply it.
Experience is worthless if nothing is learned. Knowledge is worthless if not applied.
...it's not so important in an inhouse (corporate) environment, where software generally has a... specific platform.
This may be true in small startups which have grown up in a Windows-dominant world. But many older companies have millions invested in legacy equipment that they can't just toss out. Even newer companies have realized the benefits of having multiple platforms installed in-house. It fosters innovation and thinking if nothing else.
Once MS has provided a functional alternative to java, you can expect significant usage.
I don't see this happening anytime soon. Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping people from working cross-platform. In all of the.NET literature I've read (and I've gone looking for it) Microsoft likes to talk about language-independence, but they conveniently seem to neglect platform-independence. If they do discuss that anywhere, please let me know... I'd love to read it.
Microsoft's core business is Windows. Developing tools that further the growth of competing systems is not how Microsoft operates. Look at J++. Modifying Java to contain Windows-specific features is not playing nice with others.
I just want to go on record here as saying that everyone who knocks UNIX because of its age is a hypocrite. I want you all to do me a favor. Take the next ten minutes, step away from your computer and just walk around and look at things. Think about the technologies used in them and how old those techniques are. Then come back and try and tell me how something is a piece of crap because it's 20 years old.
Here's what I see around me:
Several buildings based on architecture from the 40's and 50's (all still standing).
CRT technology in my computer monitor -- been around since the 40's I believe.
Electric lights -- 100 years or so.
A pneumatic cylinder on my office chair. The technology has been around since the Industrial Revolution.
Wheels on my office chair. Wheels everywhere. How many tens of thousands of years old is that technology?
My alarm didn't wake me this morning. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was the start of one of the worst days of my life, not to mention everybody else's too.
I nearly scalded myself in the shower. The cold water kept coming and going. The kitchen was even worse. I could smell rotting food even before I entered the room. I opened the fridge (after fighting with the Fridged-X system over my password) to find most of the contents spoiled, including the items just delivered yesterday. It appears the thermostat had reset itself to actually heat the food!
I tried to make a can of hash, but the stove refused to function, saying something about an unhandled interrupt exception. I had to go out to the garage and reset the breaker to reboot the damn thing.
I finally got out of the house and wouldn't you know it, my car wouldn't start. I ended up walking to work and getting there late. The elevators weren't working, and of course I work on the 30th floor. The stairwells were crammed with people franticly trying to get to their offices.
So here I am sitting at my desk, picking my butt. I'm unable to work because the systems are down (of course). Preliminary reports indicate that an April Fools Day virus has exploited a previously unknown weakness in network-connected Windows-based systems (i.e. pretty much everything).
Fortunately for you, dear diary, my Transmeta WebPad is zipping along just fine, it's Linux OS completely unaffected. And my FreeBSD-based MP9 player works too. Will people ever learn?
Don't use the install program or, if you do, click on "I Disagree." This way you're not agreeing to the EULA.
Use some free utility from the net to unpackage the CAB files (or whatever format the data is stored in).
Reverse-engineer to your heart's content.
As long as there's no legislation making all reverse-engineering illegal, you haven't broken the software license (because you never agreed to it in the first place) and therefore you're still within your legal rights.
Now I imagine someday the CAB files and whatnot will be encrypted so this method won't work, and will fall under the same umbrella as the current DeCSS case.
I'm sure down the road Microsoft will make producing music so brain-dead and easy that you'll end up saving so much money on the production you can afford their encryption license. This seems to be their strategy with software development at least.
Slashdot Mirror
I never said unions shouldn't be able to be political. I was responding to a post claiming unions weren't by giving examples of how they are.
- Milo Hyson
What are you smoking? The value of something is determined by what it can do, not what it has done. I'm assuming that you'd argue that an IBM XT (having been around much longer) is better than a brand-new 1GHz box?
Doing something for 20 years doesn't mean anything if you suck. Some people can pick up a book and in five minutes do a better job at something than someone who has done it all their life.
You think the new kid getting promoted over you is unfair because you've been working longer? How about the old guy getting promoted over you even though he can't work for shit?
- Milo Hyson
- Unions typically attempt to influence political issues via large donations to lobbyists.
- I've witnessed union members get irate because a non-member was selling union stickers at a garage sale.
- Unions try to increase their membership bases (thus leading to more money for the union) by distributing propaganda to the public.
Nope, not political.- Milo Hyson
Take it to the labor board.
- Milo Hyson
If somebody is able to do the same for less, more power to them. Competition is one of the major driving forces in economics. If the new guy on the block is making things difficult for you, maybe you should make some changes in your own situation or get out of the market. You're not entitled to a job.
How would you like it if only certain brands of products belonging to certain organizations could be sold at certain supermarkets? Imagine no Rice Krispies because General Mills has a contract with Safeway. You're advocating this exact same principle in employment.
How would you like it if you couldn't have the job you wanted because you weren't a member of the union and couldn't join for one reason or another?
What a good IT union would do is...
...assure your pension/401K where ever you worked.
...provide uniform health benefits for you and your family, which would allow you to freelance, contract or set up your own business without worrying every time Junior gets the scooter.
Provides death and catastrophic injury benefits for you and your SO.
...provide training and financial advice for you.
...help you find jobs without recruiters
...arbirtrate workplace disputes without resorting to lawyers.
...would not establish a maximum wage, nor would it prevent you from being promoted or becoming a manager. It would not mandate hiring and promotion.
Each of these things can be obtained by anyone without the assistance of a union. The only thing a union does it serve it all to you on a silver platter instead of requiring you to take some initiative in your life.
Yes, the more critical positions for which demand is higher and supply is lower typically get more money than the average worker. That's economics again.
I think you summed it all up right there. Let someone else manage your affairs for you so that you don't have to.
- Milo Hyson
If a business can find some resource elsewhere for less money, they will usually switch over to it. Sure, this seems unfair for the losing side. Welcome to the world of economics.
Excuse me for saying so, but this sounds like a very spoiled attitude. Most people work to make a living. Few end up doing what they want.
Nobody is guaranteed a job. Nobody is guaranteed a job they enjoy. Nobody is guaranteed the job they want.
- Milo Hyson
Not all middle-aged people (geeks or otherwise) choose to have families. Therefore, this argument doesn't necessarily apply.
1) As I mentioned-- medical, dental, pension.
I've never worked for anybody that didn't provide these things already.
2) Overtime for working beyond 40 hours.
I already get this -- guaranteed by state law.
3) My pager stays on my desk when I go home at night; i.e., I can have a Real Life(tm) with my family (and my compilers).
My pager goes home with me because that's the whole purpose for having a pager -- to reach me after hours. It's part of the job, which I didn't have to accept if I didn't like the terms. If someone needs to get in touch with me at work, they can call me, walk over to my desk or send me an email.
4) I'm not an at-will employee-- I can't be fired just because the boss can hire someone for less money.
So what? Whether you're at-will or not, you're not entitled to a job. You have to earn it.
5) I can't be fired for my continual, unabashedly militant leftist political and union organizing activities.
Neither can I, and I'm non-union. Again, state law.
6) I don't have to kiss suits' asses.
I've never encountered nor heard of this being a job requirement anywhere.
- Milo Hyson
Why do you think so many people have weekend hobbies that are radically different from their day jobs? A lot of people are capable of doing numerous things very well, but their jobs don't allow them to.
Think about it. Carpenters who rebuild cars. Plumbers who build furniture. Telecomm engineers who landscape. The list goes on.
I once knew a software engineer who did construction, electrical and telecomm in his spare time. He had some big players in those industries fighting to be on his projects because he was so good at it all. Yet in his day job, he was bored to tears because the companies he worked for "had people who handle those things." He ended up working for himself and doing all those things and more.
- Milo Hyson
- Why do unions seem to reward seniority over ability or acomplishments? Why should somebody get a higher wage simply because they've worked longer, when the quality of their work is inferior?
- Why do unions try and force workers in their industry or company to unionize instead of simply accepting some people's desire to remain non-union?
- Why do unions create such strict and incredibly small divisions of labor, thus requiring many more people to do a job than it should require?
I have my own ideas about these issues (see below), but I would seriously like to hear from others who may have different views. Perhaps somebody can enlighten me about something I hadn't thought of.So here are my thoughts about the above questions:
- Paying members more money the longer they work seems like an incentive for them to stay in the union. After all, when someone gets passed over by a collegue half their age, it makes them want to leave. Translation: Longer memberships at progressively higher salaries equals more dues for the union.
- True, the more members there are in the union the stronger their voice is against employers. However, the flip side is that more members equals more dues for the union.
- Strict division of labor increases the number of workers required to accomplish a task. Five people doing the job of one person equals five times the dues for the union.
Sounds to me like the underlying motive here is all money. And not money for the workers either. Am I wrong?- Milo Hyson
Once I became successful and my services had a little demand, I was suddenly surrounded by people who where telling me to raise my rates and grow my business. When I asked why, they said, "Because you can." I figured I was fine where I was, so I stayed put.
Now, most of them are out of business and I'm still going strong. Sure, I'm growing, just not exponentially like all of the generic three-letter companies around here.
- Milo Hyson
With this technology, tech support calls will increase. No longer will users be able to simply reboot their machines when Win-whatever crashes. They'll have to call support to do it for them. :P
- Milo Hyson
You could always try Eterm, my emulator of choice. Has a lot more visual options.
- Milo Hyson
Think back to your school days, specifically basic geometry. Remember the relationship between rectangles and squares? All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. This is because squares are a certain type of rectangle.
The same holds true in the open-source world. The OSM is about providing access to the source code of software. Different people license their source in different ways (e.g. BSD vs. Sun Microsystems). The FSM is based around one of these licenses, taking the OSM one step further. It specifies that open-source software must always remain open. The OSM does not specify this.
To use an OOP analogy, just like a square is a subclass of a rectangle, the FSM is a subclass of the OSM. That's my take anyway. =)
- Milo Hyson
- Music will be more expensive. If we assume a typical CD contains 12 tracks and costs $15, that's $1.25 per track. I doubt the cost of a key to play a track will be that cheap. Plus, the keys are only good for a certain amount of time. That $1.25 is a one-time fee allowing you to listen as many times as you want.
- More complicated and inconvenient audio systems. Right now, all one has to do is pop a disc into a player and start it up. With DataPlay, you'll have to go buy (or re-buy) a key first.
- Space-shifting will be more expensive. You take your new disc over to a friend's house only to find out you have to buy another key to play it on their system.
- You might have to hide your player. If manufacturers came up with some kind of automatic payment system to make key purchases easier, you might have to lock away your hardware to prevent a family member or friend from inadvertently charging your credit card through the roof.
- What if you accidentally put in the wrong disc and get charged for something you didn't mean to play?
- What if a record company sells the rights to a song and the receiving party has different listening terms? What if the company decides they want people to listen to certain songs (e.g. newer ones) and they stop selling keys for others?
- The record companies can track which songs you listen to, what devices you use, and when and where you use them. Get ready for a lot more spam.
- What about competition? Right now you can visit five different stores and probably see five different prices for the same CDs. Are DataPlay keys going to be sold competitively or is it going to be another monopoly?
- What about billing errors? What if charges show up for songs you've never listened to? How will you prove it?
- What happens if a song is owned by a small studio and that studio goes out of business? Will you be unable to buy anymore keys for their songs?
- The signal has to be converted to analog at some point. It won't take long for people to disassemble their crypto-speakers and hard-wire a link to a conventional recording system. It only takes one person with the right electronics to rip a studio-quality version of a song. Since there are legitimate uses for such electronics, it will be difficult to prosecute.
I think there will be many such attempts at controlling access to products. Will it ever end? Only time will tell.Also, try explaining to your little one why they can't listen to their favorite Disney soundtrack because money is tight and you can't afford a key right now.
Also, what happens if your player is stolen and you don't report it right away (maybe you got robbed when you were away on vacation)? Are you still liable for charges generated?
- Milo Hyson
The problem with this statement is something that this particular /. thread has superbly pointed out. The definition of art is highly subjective. Period.
- Milo Hyson
I myself have been the subject of many verbal assaults by people who think I should just pick a single field and stick with it. The problem is there are many people out there like me who have the ability to do more than one thing, and as time goes on there's going to be more of us.
- Milo Hyson
Let's think about UNIX for a moment. Linux and the BSDs are generally considered part of the UNIX family. UNIX was developed at a university in the 60's, long before MS was ever thought of.
That was way before we had this massive information distrubition system we know and love called the Internet. I don't think universities these days will be too impacted by the disappearance of MS.
- Milo Hyson
I also asked a couple of clients. They said the same thing. Sounds to me like this is another case of failing to protect a trademark and losing it to the public domain.
- Milo Hyson
Here's a classic piece of social FUD that I just can't leave alone. Let's examine the rationale behind this statement.
When people say that someone is better at something because they're more experienced, what is it they're really saying? They're implying that because the person has spent time with something, they've gained additional knowledge about it. The thing is, it's not an automatic process. Experience isn't anything magical. Just because somebody has experience doesn't necessarily mean they've learned anything. In addition, experience is not necessarily the only way to gain that knowledge.
Granted, there are some things that can only be learned by experience. But most of the time this expression is used in reference to something that can be learned through other means. The problem is that society feels learning through experience is the "correct" way. When it comes to education, there is no right and wrong. It's all a matter of did you learn and can you apply it.
Experience is worthless if nothing is learned. Knowledge is worthless if not applied.
- Milo Hyson
This may be true in small startups which have grown up in a Windows-dominant world. But many older companies have millions invested in legacy equipment that they can't just toss out. Even newer companies have realized the benefits of having multiple platforms installed in-house. It fosters innovation and thinking if nothing else.
- Milo Hyson
I don't see this happening anytime soon. Microsoft has a vested interest in keeping people from working cross-platform. In all of the .NET literature I've read (and I've gone looking for it) Microsoft likes to talk about language-independence, but they conveniently seem to neglect platform-independence. If they do discuss that anywhere, please let me know ... I'd love to read it.
Microsoft's core business is Windows. Developing tools that further the growth of competing systems is not how Microsoft operates. Look at J++. Modifying Java to contain Windows-specific features is not playing nice with others.
- Milo Hyson
Here's what I see around me:
- Milo Hyson
My alarm didn't wake me this morning. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was the start of one of the worst days of my life, not to mention everybody else's too.
I nearly scalded myself in the shower. The cold water kept coming and going. The kitchen was even worse. I could smell rotting food even before I entered the room. I opened the fridge (after fighting with the Fridged-X system over my password) to find most of the contents spoiled, including the items just delivered yesterday. It appears the thermostat had reset itself to actually heat the food!
I tried to make a can of hash, but the stove refused to function, saying something about an unhandled interrupt exception. I had to go out to the garage and reset the breaker to reboot the damn thing.
I finally got out of the house and wouldn't you know it, my car wouldn't start. I ended up walking to work and getting there late. The elevators weren't working, and of course I work on the 30th floor. The stairwells were crammed with people franticly trying to get to their offices.
So here I am sitting at my desk, picking my butt. I'm unable to work because the systems are down (of course). Preliminary reports indicate that an April Fools Day virus has exploited a previously unknown weakness in network-connected Windows-based systems (i.e. pretty much everything).
Fortunately for you, dear diary, my Transmeta WebPad is zipping along just fine, it's Linux OS completely unaffected. And my FreeBSD-based MP9 player works too. Will people ever learn?
- Milo Hyson
- Don't use the install program or, if you do, click on "I Disagree." This way you're not agreeing to the EULA.
- Use some free utility from the net to unpackage the CAB files (or whatever format the data is stored in).
- Reverse-engineer to your heart's content.
As long as there's no legislation making all reverse-engineering illegal, you haven't broken the software license (because you never agreed to it in the first place) and therefore you're still within your legal rights.Now I imagine someday the CAB files and whatnot will be encrypted so this method won't work, and will fall under the same umbrella as the current DeCSS case.