Hats off to this CEO. First off, I'm very impressed by his stance on patents. To find a CEO today that shares his vision of "non-obvious" patents is a chore. I like to think of most CEOs as "IP Raiders." Next, his comparing Microsoft's code base to a ratty housing project is also on point. It's good to be reminded how a company with both the monitary resources and marketing might can actually "mold" reality into something that shelters their position. The virus problem in Windows isn't all MS's fault, but there's more than enough blame to go around. Finally, his point on the XBox is very important, and I am enthralled to see it stated so well. Closed PC architectures are an upcoming menance, and if history is to be our guide here it's clear that we have no protection from our government(s). MS got off scot-free from the anti-trust action (something not even the Bell System was able to do.) They'll probably get away with this as well, but at least we'll have a choice with gentlemen like Mr. Robertson out there. A giant thank you to him for his response, and props to the/. community for coming out with some excellent questions.
Neverwinter Nights had to be the game that most obsessed me. At least that's the one that's most recent on my mind. I've always been enthralled by RPG's (I played Secret of the Silver Blades without stopping as a child, and had to fake sickness 2 days in a row to miss school and continue playing.) NWN (IMO) was the pinnicle of all RPG engines, and I've found all the old modules that I loved to play (pen n paper or otherwise.) Hat's off to the Bioware guys for this one... it's a true gem.
-A.M.
Re:MUMMY, PLEASE HELP ME WITH MY MASTURBATION
on
Hi-Tech Weed-Killer
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· Score: -1, Offtopic
Wonder when someone will come up with an autonomic process that recognizes this most dignified ASCII art, sprays its author with a pesticide, and ensures that it doesn't raise its ugly head again.
This and other recent developments in IT have made it clear to me that even in technology history has a way of repeating itself. First we had models of large centralized computers with leased applications, etc. Then the "PC Revolution" moved the industry into a more decentralized model. Now I'm working with Web Services and I see the old becoming new again. Centralized computing (albeit more distributed now!), with metered applications or even leased applications (the paradigm is the same, you pay X for X amount of usage.) The same is true in systems management nowadays: most serious SM tools provide some way to catalog usage and perform some type of billing based on this (see CA Unicenter's ChargeBack technology.) And vendors such as HP and friends are selling you way more hardware than you'll ever use, and then charging you on a per use basis. History definately repeats itself.... high-tech is not immune.
Seems to me that National Instruments could use this recommendation to develop a web services based version of LabView. It'd be cool to have a loosely coupled, geographically independant sensor network that one could run experiments against. Now if we only had RemoteHandsML.
Wonder if they dropped this on the market just to keep the steady stream of products rolling? Even if the performance isn't totally up to par, you've gotta give them this: $70 for a graphics accelerator that can perform this well is still an achievement. I can still remember paying $200 for my first MonsterFX. Now that seems like as old as Hercules graphics.
First off we have no state income tax (*applause*), and now this... how nice it is to live in NH. Thank you Gen. John Stark for setting the tone years ago. It truly is Live Free or Die.
Scientists were surprised to find what appeared to be frozen plankton....
But they weren't surprised to find a dupe post on a popular news website entitled Slashdot.
Can anyone say Content Management?
-A.M.
Let's see if I read this right. Microsoft requires FoxPro apps to be run on a Windows platform. Some may even say that they "tie" the use of such a custom app to their OS (although we all know that they don't undertake such behavior, as stated in their testimony to the Fed courts, right?) Maybe Slashdot should start a category for articles that we all know are coming. Something like the "You Knew It Was Coming" category or such. While I'm always awed by their lack of hubris, I'd say that anyone who was truly shocked or awed by this development would have to still be quite wet behind the ears.
My $.02 worth,
Alabama Mike
Remeber the "science of pricing" article from a few days ago? The software that tests thousands of prices in real-time to see what the real price should be? If so, I wonder if this is related to that story? I mean, Amazon was one of the first adopters of this technology, and it does sound like something a bug in that software could cause. Anyone have any insights?
I used to work for a Managed Service Provider, and let me tell you, they sold off thousands of pieces of IT gear for pennies on the dollar. I'm sure this is nowhere near a unique situation, as I know someone who has a warehouse full of hardware bought from dead or dying companies (no exaggeration, a whole freekin warehouse.) Maybe someone was having an IT yard sale (or perhaps it was five fingered merchandise.)
Can you say do-it-yourself enterprise disk array? Anyone want to give EMC a run for their money? Could this be the future of Open Source enterprise hardware? I can see the press report now (from a storage company): "Building your own disk array flies in the face of all capitalistic principles... In fact, it's down right communistic!"
Actually, the term "Enterprise" when attached to a software package usually indicates a 150% markup with an insanely expensive *mandatory* "support contract." At least in my experience that's how it seems to play out. But hey, hats off to Red Hat (no pun intended.) I hope they're wildly successful pushing an "Enterprise" version of Linux (which according to SCO we all have their IP to thank!)
Funny how the US is ready to spend many, many billions of dollars to disarm a 2-bit egomanical dictor in some remote oil-laden sandbox, but wouldn't on the best day stop to ponder committing that level of resource to investigating defenses from cosmic meanaces such as these. I guess we'll have to wait until I meteor hits the Pentagon or some other well known structure before we can talk about it!
Another Slashdot "plum". Posting stories that are months old (shame on zdnet for treating this as a new subject.) This is simply the new "Assemblies" technology introduced with the.NET framework. Unfortunately, I've had the "pleasure" of working with it lately. I don't know what Miguel D'Icaza is so fired up about... It's java with a M$ twist. Anyways, anyone who thinks this is an end-all-be-all solution to DLL hell is wrong. I've recently gone through 3 hours of chasing my tail while trying to deploy some code that was dependant on a DLL in the Global Assembly Cache (one I wrote.) More a VS.NET issue than a.NET framework one, I had changed some lines in the AssemblyInfo.cs source (which controls the metadata for the assembly such as title, copyright, version, etc.) and low and behold my code couldn't find it. Don't want to digress here, but want to say that no, this isn't the promised land... just another road apple with whipped cream on it (to use McNealy's analogy).
Slashdot Mirror
-A.M.
-A.M.
-A.M.
-A.M.
Seems to me that National Instruments could use this recommendation to develop a web services based version of LabView. It'd be cool to have a loosely coupled, geographically independant sensor network that one could run experiments against. Now if we only had RemoteHandsML.
-A.M.
-AlabamaMike (who now lives in Manchester)
Scientists were surprised to find what appeared to be frozen plankton ....
But they weren't surprised to find a dupe post on a popular news website entitled Slashdot.
Can anyone say Content Management?
-A.M.
Let's see if I read this right. Microsoft requires FoxPro apps to be run on a Windows platform. Some may even say that they "tie" the use of such a custom app to their OS (although we all know that they don't undertake such behavior, as stated in their testimony to the Fed courts, right?) Maybe Slashdot should start a category for articles that we all know are coming. Something like the "You Knew It Was Coming" category or such. While I'm always awed by their lack of hubris, I'd say that anyone who was truly shocked or awed by this development would have to still be quite wet behind the ears. My $.02 worth, Alabama Mike
Remeber the "science of pricing" article from a few days ago? The software that tests thousands of prices in real-time to see what the real price should be? If so, I wonder if this is related to that story? I mean, Amazon was one of the first adopters of this technology, and it does sound like something a bug in that software could cause. Anyone have any insights?
I used to work for a Managed Service Provider, and let me tell you, they sold off thousands of pieces of IT gear for pennies on the dollar. I'm sure this is nowhere near a unique situation, as I know someone who has a warehouse full of hardware bought from dead or dying companies (no exaggeration, a whole freekin warehouse.) Maybe someone was having an IT yard sale (or perhaps it was five fingered merchandise.)
Can you say do-it-yourself enterprise disk array? Anyone want to give EMC a run for their money? Could this be the future of Open Source enterprise hardware? I can see the press report now (from a storage company): "Building your own disk array flies in the face of all capitalistic principles ... In fact, it's down right communistic!"
Actually, the term "Enterprise" when attached to a software package usually indicates a 150% markup with an insanely expensive *mandatory* "support contract." At least in my experience that's how it seems to play out. But hey, hats off to Red Hat (no pun intended.) I hope they're wildly successful pushing an "Enterprise" version of Linux (which according to SCO we all have their IP to thank!)
Funny how the US is ready to spend many, many billions of dollars to disarm a 2-bit egomanical dictor in some remote oil-laden sandbox, but wouldn't on the best day stop to ponder committing that level of resource to investigating defenses from cosmic meanaces such as these. I guess we'll have to wait until I meteor hits the Pentagon or some other well known structure before we can talk about it!
Gotta love the capture of this a$$hole, but damn do I hate the govt's ability to pull such things.
Another Slashdot "plum". Posting stories that are months old (shame on zdnet for treating this as a new subject.) This is simply the new "Assemblies" technology introduced with the .NET framework. Unfortunately, I've had the "pleasure" of working with it lately. I don't know what Miguel D'Icaza is so fired up about ... It's java with a M$ twist. Anyways, anyone who thinks this is an end-all-be-all solution to DLL hell is wrong. I've recently gone through 3 hours of chasing my tail while trying to deploy some code that was dependant on a DLL in the Global Assembly Cache (one I wrote.) More a VS.NET issue than a .NET framework one, I had changed some lines in the AssemblyInfo.cs source (which controls the metadata for the assembly such as title, copyright, version, etc.) and low and behold my code couldn't find it. Don't want to digress here, but want to say that no, this isn't the promised land ... just another road apple with whipped cream on it (to use McNealy's analogy).