If the servers have to be turned off until they are needed and the original servers are running Windows, how often do you think the backup servers be turned on?
I don't think Microsoft thought about that. And I'm certain they think their servers will stay online to compete with Linux. On top of that, I'm not certain I understand how an offline server is competing with Linux.
There's a simple question here:
Are they stupid or do they think we're stupid enough to believe this?
Get your hip-waders out folks, it's getting deep very fast.
Big hint: even if calculators are permitted, do your best to see if you can do it long-hand. If you punch everything in, you aren't actually doing the work and you aren't actually learning the process, no matter what someone says ("The only way you can punch the right keys is if you understand what you're doing.") longhand provides better comprehension of the problem. Besides, if you get an answer you don't trust, it's easier to look through what you've done and trace your work. Punch it into a calculator and you may or may not have gotten it right - if nothing else, use it for verification if you are so inclined. But be careful - I had a prof in Advanced Calc and DiffEq who loved to give problems whose answer would be "2" or "3.7" - something which would instill doubt in most minds - "How can it have such a simple result?"
There is a real-world situation for this: to learn to walk a tight-rope, bring it down until it's 6" off the floor. Most people have no problems practicing that way. But it's the same rope. The only difference is in your mind.
The only "real math" classes I took in college were Calc III, Advanced Calc, and DiffEq. I hated real math that much. Having studied under Hofstadter and Erdos while in high school made me realize I needed to be open & free in my thinking - abstract algebra, group theory, and Galois' work made me realize how much more suited I was for "pure math". It's so open and you can create anything you want to with your imagination.
I just wish the regular high school classes taught students something other than "real math" algebra and calculus so students could see a difference and which is better suited for them.
sigh.
Buying a diesel makes a difference if you are going to be using $0.41/gallon fuel in it, doesn't it?
Chutes & Ladders. Son, ride the chute back to square 1.
B&N? Ripoff!
on
GPU Gems
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Why does everyone insist on considering Amazon and B&N to be the only online bookstores? I have news for you folks: it's almost always cheaper to go to AddAll or BookPool and get a book cheaper including shipping than Amazon and B&N.
In the case of this book, I've taken the liberty of making your life easier by providing you with urls which will take you directly to the price list for the book. For future reference: AddAll is a shopping 'bot, looking at thirty-six stores.
AddAll Results and BookPool
Now, if you insist upon paying Amazon and B&N prices, let me know. You can PayPal the money to me and I'll order the book for you from AddAll or BookPool and have it shipped to you. (Of course, I'll keep the difference. After all, you were willing to pay the extra price!) If you're willing to waste your money, I'd rather collect the waste than Amazon or B&N.
p.s. Remember this the next time you see someone post a message saying, "it's -this price- at Amazon!"
p.p.s. Here's the listing from Froogle (just in case you haven't used it yet)
It sounds like some of the predicted features of Longhorn may be coming true.
The grapevine has it Longhorn won't be as open a system as all of the other operating systems Microsoft has put forward: you won't be able to get to the files on the HD directly and will have to go through Longhorn for everything; i.e., everything will be proprietary, not only in terms of file structure[1] but access methods. Put a few patents on the various technologies and you've locked 3rd parties: commercial, shareware, freeware, or opensource without securing a license (permission?). Microsoft passes the hat and not only do they make more money, but more importantly, they maintain even more control. Opensource, the bane of Microsoft? Difficult. Sure, it can be hacked, but remember, Microsoft's got a crack team of people cranking out patent applications for Longhorn-related material. On top of that, they almost missed the XML market[2]. Now, they're like a little boy with a hammer: everything looks like a nail.
And the stories about Microsoft making it possible to toss BIOS away? What do you suppose the intention is there? Make it even more difficult to "do your own thing". Sure, people will crack it, but it'll take awhile.
There has been a lot of talk from the inner circles at Redmond over the years regarding how long they have to maintain backward compatibility. How far back do they have to go? DOS? (which version?) Windows? (how far back?) and so on. Not only would people have to pay again[3] but the new code wouldn't be required to deal with the past.
[1] As an example of protecting proprietary material, they've already patented MS Office's XML file layouts because the contents will be a bit more open so they felt the need to protect it.
[2] The.net architects were summoned to see Mr. Bill (before.net) about XML and away Gates went. (not supposition - first hand story from.net architects)
[3] Microsoft loves to "pass the hat", don't they? Too much time between Win98 and XP? "Let's make more money." Add a couple of small changes and charge some more; ta-da! Win 98SE, Win 98ME. Now, why do you think there's talk of XP Reloaded before Longhorn? Don't worry about Longhorn running until 2006 or 2007. Rinky-dink changes to XP, and there's another influx of money.
The history folks would claim someone took Gates' comments out of [time] context.
Back in the days of their first machine & tinkering around, it's been said they were trying to decide whether to go the hardware or software route. They decided hardware would eventually be so inexpensive it would be difficult to make a profit; i.e., a good business; so they decided to go the software route.
That's supposed to have happened not long before they made a deal with IBM to offer|license what would become DOS without a product in hand. They then offered a guy who had a DOS-like program $50'000 and waited on the response. (we know how that turned out)
Imagine what would have happened if (1) IBM insisted upon purchasing the product instead of licensing it; or (2) the guy who wrote DOS had turned down the offer?
It'll happen anytime now, just as the Berlin wall did. The gov't is trying to create a massive Internet filter to prevent most of the citizens from seeing what the rest of the world is really like. They already know there are plenty of educated people know whats-what but they know there aren't enough of them to overthrow the powers-that-be. Obviously, that filter is too much for them to maintain so it's a balancing act which is just waiting for the tightrope walkers to lose their grip.
It's been noticed they put "watchers" in chat rooms who will edit improper comments, etc. Can you imagine trying to create an Internet-within-an-Internet (imagine Six Days of the Condor - that was the book, not the movie - a CIA within a CIA)? It's too big an undertaking.
Yes, China has an ungodly sized population, due to be outnumbered any day by Bangledash or India, but they simply cannot maintain the me-watch-you, you-watch-me style of government the USSR had.
And if you vote for "Hanoi John"[1] Kerry, China will invade Taiwan, and he'll end up being like Carter and make everyone stay home during the next Olympics.
Q:In the previous forty years[2], forty-nine members of Congress have run for the office of President. How many have won? A:None.
Is anyone counting how many votes Kerry is missing as a Senator because he's out running around, hoping to garner enough interest so it won't look like a landslide (against him) in November? A couple of those votes have been Democratic-sponsored bills and defeated by one vote(!) (I wonder whose vote was missing? And do you know what his response has been? "Bush made me do it."
[1]Yeah, he was a Vietnam War hero, and when he came back, he protested side-by-side, at Jane "Hanoi Jane" Fonda's protests - he'd become a pacifist and has remainded one ever since, including now.
[2]Before any of you numbnuts mention Kennedy, this is 2004. He ran in 1960. 2004-40=1964. He'd screwed his last woman on the side by then (he was dead)
a cell phone? I cancelled long-distance service for my landline because I had no use for it. Sure, if I use it it'll cost me an arm & a leg, but the only thing I use the landline for is to write a phone number down on receipts & whatnot as I've got a machine on it to collect messages. I have plenty of friends who don't even have a landline any more, preferring to select the best plan from the various cell vendors - especially now that you can keep the same number forever.
look above. that's why I suggested piezoelectricity. Pressure can be exerted upon a rock (even by another rock) and it will generate radio waves. So when you're playing rock, paper, scissors, and the two rocks happen to generate enough pressure, it'd be a matter of trying to know what radio frequencies to know to monitor and get a signal. There are some obvious questions about this - in addition to whether it would work; how broad the frequency spectrum you'd have to monitor, how much lead time you'd get, if the intensity of the impending quake could be measured by the signal, and so on.
The reason I'm still waiting is I suggested this to some of my college professors when I was in my early teens and it was thought to be possible but without a lot of studying....
Why would kinetic energy necessarily guarantee a buildup of potential energy?
Think about standing halfway up|down a flight of stairs and you have a package sitting on the stairs and you have it on a rope. Move either way (up or down) on the stairs. Does expending this energy mean a buildup is imminent? Of course not. If you are dragging it down the stairs, as it gets closer & closer to the bottom, the available potential energy is less & less. If you drag the package up the stairs, there is an obvious buildup of energy and if you were to bump the package or accidentally tug on the rope, the energy would be released. And anyone listening (measuring) without seeing the stairs, who would hear the package moving, wouldn't necessarily know which direction it was going - unless|until they learned out to measure a difference in the acoustics.
I'm sure someone's going to shoot holes in this by claiming all sorts of exceptions or places where it doesn't work, but this is just a rough idea.
Here in the midwest (Indiana) we're anxiously awaiting the next quake from the New Madrid fault. The last time it peaked, the Mississippi reversed direction for two days and the ground rippled like waves of four-to-five feet.
Imagine that with the fact most buildings in the midwest, whether it's Chicago, St. Louis, any other city familiar to you - if you aren't familiar with all of the cities, haven't been built to withstand an earthquake. After all, they don't come along often enough to warrant that type of concern and|or expense.
...to hear whether piezoelectricity can be used to detect quakes as well. With all of the smashing and crashing going on, one would think it would have the potential to generate radio waves such that a properly tuned instrument could receive|detect the signal.
If you have a song fragment and you use it as your cell's ringtone, it's bad but if you whistle it walking down the street or sing it in a bar (without it playing on a radio, jukebox, etc.) it's okay? For every rule they claim, there are so many exceptions to counter it. No matter what goes on, if someone [and their technology] is capable of reaching "their"[1] assets with a ten-foot pole and the sales aren't what they want the to be (so even if they increase over previous years, that may not be good enough), it's the fault of users?
This sounds like what Microsoft's logic would be if they had some [full-blown] competition - such in the days of when OS/2 was on par with the version of Windows at that time.
When|if Microsoft runs into competition (whether it be Linux or some other app-supportable OS), we're seeing what they will say then.
[1] "their" is obviously not truly their assets, but that of the artist(s) and|or producers and|or other persons who actually contribute to the IP. I think the record|music|entertainment industry has gotten a bit too big for their britches as we know they have little-to-nothing with affecting the quality of the finished product.
Sure, it costs you, but if you are able to reverse the communications, *ignore* the morons who will inevitably tell you to tape three or four pieces of paper together into a loop.
What to do?
I'm glad you asked. Fax them black construction paper. (if you want to really get them, then loop several pages of black paper and send it). I doubt there's a fax machine on the market which contains enough toner for more than a couple of sheets. And once you've wasted their toner (it shouldn't take very long), any faxed information [to them] will be skipped.
My grandmother is eighty-six and uses a reguar monitor and keyboard. She doesn't seem to have any problems using a standard monitor and keyboard. If you send her email, you'll get some back and in a pretty short period of time. She spends a lot of time surfing the web for some research she's working on.
And before she goes on her 3-mile walk every morning, she sends my mom email to tell her she was still alive and made it through another night.
Oh, she has had some knee pain problems so she's had one replaced and the other is due soon. The doctor said if all of his patients would walk that far before surgery, the physical therapy would be a lot less painful and much shorter.
Wasn't there a story on/. where someone lost their PC as part of a burlary and within the next two weeks or so, all of his address book members started getting spam payloads indicating the loser absorbed a virus?
Did anyone find out exactly what happened out of that? (or was it FOAF/UL?)
This is exactly why Microsoft has hinted before at an intermediate product between XP and Longhorn. It's not to provide customers with a better product while they are waiting, it's a form of Microsoft "passing the hat". Have we seen this behavior before? Think Windows 98, Windows SE, Windows ME. Did SE and ME provide anything sigificant to provide us with anything significant to put us in a position of XP? No. Did it provide Microsoft with anything? You bet. Pull together some early code, test it for compatibility with Win98, burn some CDs, push it onto the market, and all of the casual users run to BestBuy to keep their PCs up to date.
Microsoft doesn't have a need to keep the shareholders happy, simply because there are very few outside an inner-circle within Microsoft (clumsy, but accurate). Remember: Microsoft hasn't|doesn't pay dividends, hence their cash reserve (warchest) in excess of $40B.(for those who doubt divdends are paid, I suggest you spend a few minutes of research. Some key words to help you in your search: "MicrosoftstockNaderdividend". Nader is only involved after Microsoft failed to pay dividends for a long, long time and he tried to leverage them (so far, unsuccessfully). Basically, adding his name to the search helps to reduce the size of your search because without it, you'll get far too many hits and will be stuck with wading through them. Stock & owership are one thing when it comes to things such as purchasing another company or just plain leveraging, but when it comes down to hard, cold cash, little can be done to compete, hence Microsoft's true power.
Slashdot Mirror
If the servers have to be turned off until they are needed and the original servers are running Windows, how often do you think the backup servers be turned on?
I don't think Microsoft thought about that. And I'm certain they think their servers will stay online to compete with Linux. On top of that, I'm not certain I understand how an offline server is competing with Linux.
There's a simple question here:
Are they stupid or do they think we're stupid enough to believe this?
Get your hip-waders out folks, it's getting deep very fast.
Big hint: even if calculators are permitted, do your best to see if you can do it long-hand. If you punch everything in, you aren't actually doing the work and you aren't actually learning the process, no matter what someone says ("The only way you can punch the right keys is if you understand what you're doing.") longhand provides better comprehension of the problem. Besides, if you get an answer you don't trust, it's easier to look through what you've done and trace your work. Punch it into a calculator and you may or may not have gotten it right - if nothing else, use it for verification if you are so inclined. But be careful - I had a prof in Advanced Calc and DiffEq who loved to give problems whose answer would be "2" or "3.7" - something which would instill doubt in most minds - "How can it have such a simple result?"
There is a real-world situation for this: to learn to walk a tight-rope, bring it down until it's 6" off the floor. Most people have no problems practicing that way. But it's the same rope. The only difference is in your mind.
The only "real math" classes I took in college were Calc III, Advanced Calc, and DiffEq. I hated real math that much. Having studied under Hofstadter and Erdos while in high school made me realize I needed to be open & free in my thinking - abstract algebra, group theory, and Galois' work made me realize how much more suited I was for "pure math". It's so open and you can create anything you want to with your imagination.
I just wish the regular high school classes taught students something other than "real math" algebra and calculus so students could see a difference and which is better suited for them.
"Make things simple, not simpler." -Erasmus
"From simplicity arises elegance."-Me
sigh.
Buying a diesel makes a difference if you are going to be using $0.41/gallon fuel in it, doesn't it?
Chutes & Ladders. Son, ride the chute back to square 1.
Why does everyone insist on considering Amazon and B&N to be the only online bookstores? I have news for you folks: it's almost always cheaper to go to AddAll or BookPool and get a book cheaper including shipping than Amazon and B&N.
In the case of this book, I've taken the liberty of making your life easier by providing you with urls which will take you directly to the price list for the book. For future reference: AddAll is a shopping 'bot, looking at thirty-six stores. AddAll Results and BookPool
Now, if you insist upon paying Amazon and B&N prices, let me know. You can PayPal the money to me and I'll order the book for you from AddAll or BookPool and have it shipped to you. (Of course, I'll keep the difference. After all, you were willing to pay the extra price!) If you're willing to waste your money, I'd rather collect the waste than Amazon or B&N.
p.s. Remember this the next time you see someone post a message saying, "it's -this price- at Amazon!"
p.p.s.
Here's the listing from Froogle (just in case you haven't used it yet)
It sounds like some of the predicted features of Longhorn may be coming true.
.net architects were summoned to see Mr. Bill (before .net) about XML and away Gates went. (not supposition - first hand story from .net architects)
The grapevine has it Longhorn won't be as open a system as all of the other operating systems Microsoft has put forward: you won't be able to get to the files on the HD directly and will have to go through Longhorn for everything; i.e., everything will be proprietary, not only in terms of file structure[1] but access methods. Put a few patents on the various technologies and you've locked 3rd parties: commercial, shareware, freeware, or opensource without securing a license (permission?). Microsoft passes the hat and not only do they make more money, but more importantly, they maintain even more control. Opensource, the bane of Microsoft? Difficult. Sure, it can be hacked, but remember, Microsoft's got a crack team of people cranking out patent applications for Longhorn-related material. On top of that, they almost missed the XML market[2]. Now, they're like a little boy with a hammer: everything looks like a nail.
And the stories about Microsoft making it possible to toss BIOS away? What do you suppose the intention is there? Make it even more difficult to "do your own thing". Sure, people will crack it, but it'll take awhile.
There has been a lot of talk from the inner circles at Redmond over the years regarding how long they have to maintain backward compatibility. How far back do they have to go? DOS? (which version?) Windows? (how far back?) and so on. Not only would people have to pay again[3] but the new code wouldn't be required to deal with the past.
[1] As an example of protecting proprietary material, they've already patented MS Office's XML file layouts because the contents will be a bit more open so they felt the need to protect it.
[2] The
[3] Microsoft loves to "pass the hat", don't they? Too much time between Win98 and XP? "Let's make more money." Add a couple of small changes and charge some more; ta-da! Win 98SE, Win 98ME. Now, why do you think there's talk of XP Reloaded before Longhorn? Don't worry about Longhorn running until 2006 or 2007. Rinky-dink changes to XP, and there's another influx of money.
-5 for not proofreading before posting.
It's "bitches", not "bicches".
Instead of trying to get your message posted so fast, why not try to make it a better read?
The history folks would claim someone took Gates' comments out of [time] context.
Back in the days of their first machine & tinkering around, it's been said they were trying to decide whether to go the hardware or software route. They decided hardware would eventually be so inexpensive it would be difficult to make a profit; i.e., a good business; so they decided to go the software route.
That's supposed to have happened not long before they made a deal with IBM to offer|license what would become DOS without a product in hand. They then offered a guy who had a DOS-like program $50'000 and waited on the response. (we know how that turned out)
Imagine what would have happened if (1) IBM insisted upon purchasing the product instead of licensing it; or (2) the guy who wrote DOS had turned down the offer?
It'll happen anytime now, just as the Berlin wall did. The gov't is trying to create a massive Internet filter to prevent most of the citizens from seeing what the rest of the world is really like. They already know there are plenty of educated people know whats-what but they know there aren't enough of them to overthrow the powers-that-be. Obviously, that filter is too much for them to maintain so it's a balancing act which is just waiting for the tightrope walkers to lose their grip.
It's been noticed they put "watchers" in chat rooms who will edit improper comments, etc. Can you imagine trying to create an Internet-within-an-Internet (imagine Six Days of the Condor - that was the book, not the movie - a CIA within a CIA)? It's too big an undertaking. Yes, China has an ungodly sized population, due to be outnumbered any day by Bangledash or India, but they simply cannot maintain the me-watch-you, you-watch-me style of government the USSR had.
it's "ahold" of, you junior-level key-entry operator.
And if you vote for "Hanoi John"[1] Kerry, China will invade Taiwan, and he'll end up being like Carter and make everyone stay home during the next Olympics.
Q: In the previous forty years[2], forty-nine members of Congress have run for the office of President. How many have won?
A: None.
Is anyone counting how many votes Kerry is missing as a Senator because he's out running around, hoping to garner enough interest so it won't look like a landslide (against him) in November? A couple of those votes have been Democratic-sponsored bills and defeated by one vote(!) (I wonder whose vote was missing? And do you know what his response has been? "Bush made me do it."
[1]Yeah, he was a Vietnam War hero, and when he came back, he protested side-by-side, at Jane "Hanoi Jane" Fonda's protests - he'd become a pacifist and has remainded one ever since, including now.
[2]Before any of you numbnuts mention Kennedy, this is 2004. He ran in 1960. 2004-40=1964. He'd screwed his last woman on the side by then (he was dead)
...maybe they can just lump it - after all, they're giving refuge to some of the biggest spammers in the US and pumping the garbage back to us.
Until they learn to "play and work well with others", they can just learn to live with everyone else's fun.
a cell phone? I cancelled long-distance service for my landline because I had no use for it. Sure, if I use it it'll cost me an arm & a leg, but the only thing I use the landline for is to write a phone number down on receipts & whatnot as I've got a machine on it to collect messages. I have plenty of friends who don't even have a landline any more, preferring to select the best plan from the various cell vendors - especially now that you can keep the same number forever.
I should have said predict. I'm so used to the theory I say "detect in advance".
Sorry.
look above. that's why I suggested piezoelectricity. Pressure can be exerted upon a rock (even by another rock) and it will generate radio waves. So when you're playing rock, paper, scissors, and the two rocks happen to generate enough pressure, it'd be a matter of trying to know what radio frequencies to know to monitor and get a signal. There are some obvious questions about this - in addition to whether it would work; how broad the frequency spectrum you'd have to monitor, how much lead time you'd get, if the intensity of the impending quake could be measured by the signal, and so on.
The reason I'm still waiting is I suggested this to some of my college professors when I was in my early teens and it was thought to be possible but without a lot of studying....
Why would kinetic energy necessarily guarantee a buildup of potential energy?
Think about standing halfway up|down a flight of stairs and you have a package sitting on the stairs and you have it on a rope. Move either way (up or down) on the stairs. Does expending this energy mean a buildup is imminent? Of course not. If you are dragging it down the stairs, as it gets closer & closer to the bottom, the available potential energy is less & less. If you drag the package up the stairs, there is an obvious buildup of energy and if you were to bump the package or accidentally tug on the rope, the energy would be released. And anyone listening (measuring) without seeing the stairs, who would hear the package moving, wouldn't necessarily know which direction it was going - unless|until they learned out to measure a difference in the acoustics.
I'm sure someone's going to shoot holes in this by claiming all sorts of exceptions or places where it doesn't work, but this is just a rough idea.
You want scary?
Here in the midwest (Indiana) we're anxiously awaiting the next quake from the New Madrid fault. The last time it peaked, the Mississippi reversed direction for two days and the ground rippled like waves of four-to-five feet.
Imagine that with the fact most buildings in the midwest, whether it's Chicago, St. Louis, any other city familiar to you - if you aren't familiar with all of the cities, haven't been built to withstand an earthquake. After all, they don't come along often enough to warrant that type of concern and|or expense.
...to hear whether piezoelectricity can be used to detect quakes as well. With all of the smashing and crashing going on, one would think it would have the potential to generate radio waves such that a properly tuned instrument could receive|detect the signal.
we could see some of this in the next "Austin Powers" movie and they can involve the FemBots?
If you have a song fragment and you use it as your cell's ringtone, it's bad but if you whistle it walking down the street or sing it in a bar (without it playing on a radio, jukebox, etc.) it's okay? For every rule they claim, there are so many exceptions to counter it. No matter what goes on, if someone [and their technology] is capable of reaching "their"[1] assets with a ten-foot pole and the sales aren't what they want the to be (so even if they increase over previous years, that may not be good enough), it's the fault of users?
This sounds like what Microsoft's logic would be if they had some [full-blown] competition - such in the days of when OS/2 was on par with the version of Windows at that time.
When|if Microsoft runs into competition (whether it be Linux or some other app-supportable OS), we're seeing what they will say then.
[1] "their" is obviously not truly their assets, but that of the artist(s) and|or producers and|or other persons who actually contribute to the IP. I think the record|music|entertainment industry has gotten a bit too big for their britches as we know they have little-to-nothing with affecting the quality of the finished product.
Sure, it costs you, but if you are able to reverse the communications, *ignore* the morons who will inevitably tell you to tape three or four pieces of paper together into a loop.
What to do?
I'm glad you asked. Fax them black construction paper. (if you want to really get them, then loop several pages of black paper and send it). I doubt there's a fax machine on the market which contains enough toner for more than a couple of sheets. And once you've wasted their toner (it shouldn't take very long), any faxed information [to them] will be skipped.
My grandmother is eighty-six and uses a reguar monitor and keyboard. She doesn't seem to have any problems using a standard monitor and keyboard. If you send her email, you'll get some back and in a pretty short period of time. She spends a lot of time surfing the web for some research she's working on.
And before she goes on her 3-mile walk every morning, she sends my mom email to tell her she was still alive and made it through another night.
Oh, she has had some knee pain problems so she's had one replaced and the other is due soon. The doctor said if all of his patients would walk that far before surgery, the physical therapy would be a lot less painful and much shorter.
Wasn't there a story on /. where someone lost their PC as part of a burlary and within the next two weeks or so, all of his address book members started getting spam payloads indicating the loser absorbed a virus?
Did anyone find out exactly what happened out of that? (or was it FOAF/UL?)
This is exactly why Microsoft has hinted before at an intermediate product between XP and Longhorn. It's not to provide customers with a better product while they are waiting, it's a form of Microsoft "passing the hat". Have we seen this behavior before? Think Windows 98, Windows SE, Windows ME. Did SE and ME provide anything sigificant to provide us with anything significant to put us in a position of XP? No. Did it provide Microsoft with anything? You bet. Pull together some early code, test it for compatibility with Win98, burn some CDs, push it onto the market, and all of the casual users run to BestBuy to keep their PCs up to date.
Microsoft doesn't have a need to keep the shareholders happy, simply because there are very few outside an inner-circle within Microsoft (clumsy, but accurate). Remember: Microsoft hasn't|doesn't pay dividends, hence their cash reserve (warchest) in excess of $40B.(for those who doubt divdends are paid, I suggest you spend a few minutes of research. Some key words to help you in your search: "Microsoft stock Nader dividend". Nader is only involved after Microsoft failed to pay dividends for a long, long time and he tried to leverage them (so far, unsuccessfully). Basically, adding his name to the search helps to reduce the size of your search because without it, you'll get far too many hits and will be stuck with wading through them. Stock & owership are one thing when it comes to things such as purchasing another company or just plain leveraging, but when it comes down to hard, cold cash, little can be done to compete, hence Microsoft's true power.