Well, Norway is a rich nation and an oil-producing nation. It is not however a nation of many people. My understanding of MS's business model is that US businesses adopt upgrades en masse (leading to US home adoption). That finances expansion, which probably happens in areas where the most non-MS users exist. Asia comes to mind.
I think that recent Brazilian moves towards FOSS are much more significant given Brazil's population and influence in South America.
Then again, one can always hope that Norway might be the early adopter amongst an army of pissed off EU countries adopting alternatives. If so, more power to them.
While this might be an interesting comparison, it serves more to demonstrate the weakness of Lucas as a writer than the strength of his creation.
Faromir and Baromir's temptations (apt analogues to the historical fall of the Nazgul kings) are the possibility of using the Ring to save his kingdom; Anakin's is the possibility of using the dark side of the force to save his wife.
Both treat the seductive temptation of evil. MHO: Lucas thrashes about for a whole movie in a failed attempt to present what Tolkien elegantly manages in two chapters of his epic.
I've tried any number of calendar programs out there, including Outlook, iCal, my Clie PDA, various OSS offerings, even the paper and pencil kind.
In the end, I discovered that there were two issues. First, there was always a couple of things that I liked but couldn't do - sorting, or categorizing - whatever. Second, and more importantly, I never managed to get into a reliable habit of checking my program d'Jour.
So, I decided to take advantae of what I DO habitually do. I open a web-brower every day with a tablist of sites for daily reading. And I always check my email. Taking advantage of that, I built a small system on top of MySQL for personal use. All the features I want, none that I don't. The main interface is a web form (written in bash of all things - practice for a project at work). It only took a couple hours to get it up and running. It's viewable from anywhere, and it sends me email reminders for those important things.
The project is nowhere near being ready for release into the wild, even in the event that demand for a mySQL/bash-driven calendar app increased beyond the current estimated level of zero. Nonetheless, there's no vendor lock-in and no difficulty learning the features or making time to check up on the information daily.
I'll say it again, I LOVE competition. Ever since AMD became a threat to Intel, we've seen outrageous processor wars and benchmarking tribunals. I can buy a P4 3 gig processor for about $150 now.
Most likely, Intel will take that performance throne with their "secret". They have a way of doing that (like HT); but, we'll see something better come from AMD. And so the cycle continues...and we all benefit!
Hey MS Windows users: He's talking to you! Would you rather sit at home pretending that XP's new icon theme is "innovation," or using a system that's trying to compete through real improvements? Do you think that MS would have been forced into handling spyware and security if competition existed? What spectacular Next Great Thing would come out of Redmond if you opposed their monopoly by using Linux/Mac?
Pinto's Rule of Responsible Consumption: No matter how good it is now, a monopolist's product will be better next year if there is competition. Therefore, never buy from a company with > 75% market share, ever.
So what if Longhorn will be more robust than Apple? What makes Microsoft so sure that OS X 10.5 won't have even better features than Longhorn. Based on the previous records of both companies, I would say that 10.5 and Longhorn should be expected at roughly the same time...
My first exposure to computers was in the fifth grade, and it was exactly as parent described: MS-DOS used to ship with a QBasic interpreter and two demo games - "Gorillaz" and "Nibbles."
I immediately fell in love with coding when I began "hacking" nibbles - changing snake colors, adding players, building new levels, etc.
At the time, I had an old IBM XT box with no hard disk, two 5.25" drives and a graphics-incapable monitor. I remember getting to middle school and literally picking a 286 off of the curb. It had a built-in monitor that could display 320x240 monochrome. I was thrilled at the opportunity to finally run Gorillaz!
I don't know if today's kids would share the excitement that I did; Nibbles is less on par with the gameplay experience to which they are currently accustomed. Nonetheless, BASIC is a simple interpreted language and honestly, it was the spark that kindled the desire of many a current 20-something developer like me. It's a great way to get a feel for the ability to directly affect the behavior of your computer.
Apparently this was not a "written contract" as much as an "Agree/Disagree" situation on the ADC signup with a bunch of legalese to scroll through, EULA-style.
I've never signed up for an ADC, but that's what TFA says, and I'll believe it until it's demonstrated otherwise.
Ignorance has never been promoted as a valid defense for contract-breaking, but let's call a spade a spade here and dispense with the over-dramatic picture painting.
Wow... In one day, we have computerized sneakers, gendered robots, and now this.
Let's put it all together. Imagine, if in a few years I could get a pair of Adidas, one male, and one female. I could name them, take them for walks, and watch them build a relationship. Forget 100 hours of battery life. We'll have to take them in for marriage counseling. Forget roving mars. I want my footwear to be able to pass a turing test. Perhaps the shoes could even spend some quality time in my closet and produce me a few pairs of sandles.
~p
"It is my intention to comandeer one of these ships, pick up a crew in Tortuga, raid, pillage, plunder, and otherwise pilfer my weasly black guts out." - Johny Depp, PoC Curse of the Black Perl
"It is my intention to manipulate the US and foreign legal systems to the significant extent allowed by my personal and corporate wealth in the unceasing pursuit of yet more wealth. Any ill effects experienced by individuals or corporations as a result are none of my concern except in the frequent case where such damages were in fact the product of my intent and design." -Bill Gates
It's not that MS has not told us. They are simply using actions rather than words.
Slashdot Mirror
I think that recent Brazilian moves towards FOSS are much more significant given Brazil's population and influence in South America.
Then again, one can always hope that Norway might be the early adopter amongst an army of pissed off EU countries adopting alternatives. If so, more power to them.
My question: Is Redmond irrelevant to Norway, or Norway irrelevant to Redmond?
Faromir and Baromir's temptations (apt analogues to the historical fall of the Nazgul kings) are the possibility of using the Ring to save his kingdom; Anakin's is the possibility of using the dark side of the force to save his wife.
Both treat the seductive temptation of evil. MHO: Lucas thrashes about for a whole movie in a failed attempt to present what Tolkien elegantly manages in two chapters of his epic.
I've tried any number of calendar programs out there, including Outlook, iCal, my Clie PDA, various OSS offerings, even the paper and pencil kind.
In the end, I discovered that there were two issues. First, there was always a couple of things that I liked but couldn't do - sorting, or categorizing - whatever. Second, and more importantly, I never managed to get into a reliable habit of checking my program d'Jour.
So, I decided to take advantae of what I DO habitually do. I open a web-brower every day with a tablist of sites for daily reading. And I always check my email. Taking advantage of that, I built a small system on top of MySQL for personal use. All the features I want, none that I don't. The main interface is a web form (written in bash of all things - practice for a project at work). It only took a couple hours to get it up and running. It's viewable from anywhere, and it sends me email reminders for those important things.
The project is nowhere near being ready for release into the wild, even in the event that demand for a mySQL/bash-driven calendar app increased beyond the current estimated level of zero. Nonetheless, there's no vendor lock-in and no difficulty learning the features or making time to check up on the information daily.
I'll say it again, I LOVE competition. Ever since AMD became a threat to Intel, we've seen outrageous processor wars and benchmarking tribunals. I can buy a P4 3 gig processor for about $150 now.
Most likely, Intel will take that performance throne with their "secret". They have a way of doing that (like HT); but, we'll see something better come from AMD. And so the cycle continues...and we all benefit!
Hey MS Windows users: He's talking to you! Would you rather sit at home pretending that XP's new icon theme is "innovation," or using a system that's trying to compete through real improvements? Do you think that MS would have been forced into handling spyware and security if competition existed? What spectacular Next Great Thing would come out of Redmond if you opposed their monopoly by using Linux/Mac?
Pinto's Rule of Responsible Consumption: No matter how good it is now, a monopolist's product will be better next year if there is competition. Therefore, never buy from a company with > 75% market share, ever.
~p
Great idea. It sure worked well for Lindows!
So what if Longhorn will be more robust than Apple? What makes Microsoft so sure that OS X 10.5 won't have even better features than Longhorn. Based on the previous records of both companies, I would say that 10.5 and Longhorn should be expected at roughly the same time...
I immediately fell in love with coding when I began "hacking" nibbles - changing snake colors, adding players, building new levels, etc.
At the time, I had an old IBM XT box with no hard disk, two 5.25" drives and a graphics-incapable monitor. I remember getting to middle school and literally picking a 286 off of the curb. It had a built-in monitor that could display 320x240 monochrome. I was thrilled at the opportunity to finally run Gorillaz!
I don't know if today's kids would share the excitement that I did; Nibbles is less on par with the gameplay experience to which they are currently accustomed. Nonetheless, BASIC is a simple interpreted language and honestly, it was the spark that kindled the desire of many a current 20-something developer like me. It's a great way to get a feel for the ability to directly affect the behavior of your computer.
I've never signed up for an ADC, but that's what TFA says, and I'll believe it until it's demonstrated otherwise.
Ignorance has never been promoted as a valid defense for contract-breaking, but let's call a spade a spade here and dispense with the over-dramatic picture painting.
Wow... In one day, we have computerized sneakers, gendered robots, and now this. Let's put it all together. Imagine, if in a few years I could get a pair of Adidas, one male, and one female. I could name them, take them for walks, and watch them build a relationship. Forget 100 hours of battery life. We'll have to take them in for marriage counseling. Forget roving mars. I want my footwear to be able to pass a turing test. Perhaps the shoes could even spend some quality time in my closet and produce me a few pairs of sandles.
~p
"It is my intention to manipulate the US and foreign legal systems to the significant extent allowed by my personal and corporate wealth in the unceasing pursuit of yet more wealth. Any ill effects experienced by individuals or corporations as a result are none of my concern except in the frequent case where such damages were in fact the product of my intent and design." -Bill Gates
It's not that MS has not told us. They are simply using actions rather than words.
~p
"I said no lies!"