They have been ripping us off for years because of their monopoly. Now they must compete or dye. Me, I already don't use the local telco and haven't looked back.
You can visit the ICANN site and listen to the meeting, informative to say the least. Many sound like they have poor memories, some you can almost hear then snore over the mics and likely many had too much to drink before the meeting.
Someone didn't want ICANN making much decisions so they stacked it with people who would paralyze any further development. This is clear.
The UN is not much different for the most part.
The internet naming is already fragmented and less standard. China for example is using DNS to filter content. We can expect this fragmention to continue.
Ultimately the Internet belongs to the people. And it will be run by the people if necessary. If something becomes popular, ICANN nor the UN could stop it. The Chinese are already creative, using proxies outside their country to bypass the government.
Microsoft and Ballmer just don't get clustering at all and I feel sorry for the 25% that got sucked in by M$ BS. Ballmer is bringing spoons to a steak party.
An OS that is graphical wastes resources in a clustered environment. It wastes CPU in managing it; it wastes electricity in powering it and adds to the total BTU output that raises A/C costs. Forget about the complexities added in that M$ solutions are new, poorly tested and of beta quality when compared to any UNIX/POSIX type OS. None of the aforementioned adds value to the compute task and often detracts from it. Most can be critical project problems if not managed and planned for.
One also has to look at the software acquisition economics. Say you have a 1024 node cluster. 1000 * 1024 for server licenses is $1M $$. FC4 is out and even if you used commercial Linux you would never pay $1M for this quantity of licenses unless they tossed in the installation and configured the cluster for you.
There are also other issues such as kernel/network performance and tuning but I will skip this.
My dream cluster would be few thousand Linux AMD 64 dual core, dual CPU systems with 16GB of ram in a 2 or 4 U package with front loading drives and can be managed without a VGA... hm... this OS/hardware exists without Microsoft!
If you'd RTFA you'd understand that they were invited there to show techniques that hackers use so MS developers
So like most Microsoft events it is staged. This is why other events like Black Hat are far more credible... inviting anyone who wants to sign up. Demonstration of DMA with USB is old news, Microsoft developers knew it was a problems many years ago and it still remains a problem. In fact they participated in it's design.
At this point, in order to see the kernel, you have to sign off on MS's shared source license.
I fail to see why an open source programers would want to use or look at the NT/Windows kernel. I figure Solaris, BSD and Linux will all borrow from each other and Microsoft will quietly borrow from open source to get a decent scheduler.
Forgive me, but is SCO even a player in the server market?
I have used dozens of POSIX OSes including SCO and although SCO had a good market share at one time have they not lost it? Does anyone actually run SCO in a production environment any more? Why would they not switch to Solaris (x86/AMD64), OpenBSD, FreeBSD or one of many Linux distributions?
SCO lost it as they priced it too high, poorly maintened it and it was intrinically a slow pig. When they got UNIXWare they botched this too as it's development too is stagnent. They spend too much on business hype and lawyers and not enough on product devlopment.
So for those new to the SCO story, run like hell from it.
First, it sets a pace for the federal and perhaps later for the world to follow. Although your point about enforcing this to another country may be more difficult is a fact.
But a second point is if a phisher became successful enough, it would warrent setting the fool up. Just wait until they travel and get them in a friendly juristiction. It wouldn't be the first time a criminal was caught by the bait of a good job or prize.
This is why we need to elect normal people to government. Normal people as defined as not a professional politician. Arnold isn't corrupted with long ties to special interests and can pass laws for the people. Established politicians wouldn't be too concerned about a law like this because of special interests.
So we get laws with teeth to protect people. Good deal.
So vote for non-politicians to administer government, it always seems to work better over time.
How can I cheaply defend myself from his actions and keep my domain name?
When contacted, all you have to do is show the reason why you own the domain name. Other factors to watch for, if a company registers their business name after you registered the domain name they are SOL. The rules are fair for the most part.
Microsoft has yet to realize that software is now a commodity item. $600++ for the OS and Office is far over priced if they want to remain at the top. The price should be like a book, say $50 like they sell it in China. (less for illegal copies).
Google is already in the worlds biggest emerging market and presumably making a profit. http://www.google.cn/
Microsoft is jealous but it isn't going to change the fact that to compute you do not need Microsoft.
But imagine if Google came up with that killer app to cluster the whole worlds computer network which is best run on Linux. Or perhaps turn their CPU power into automated remote support for software updates to Linux and charge $19 per year for the service or perhaps free if Google put a single ad banner on the screen. And a user could select from the finest open source to install and run. If their system was stolen they could restore data and setting with their Google account. Now that would turn Microsoft on its end.
Google has it right, it is about servicing the customers needs for a profit and not DRM butt kissing, perpetual bug fixing, insatiable patching, often crashing and expensive. So unless Google side steps, Microsoft might as well save their dollars.
It may be true in some cases that Windows runs more stable than Linux.
True, if you find the most competent NT admin and stable hardware for Windows but for Linux you get a Windows type custom compiling Linux on unstable hardware.
Was this somehow funded by Microsoft? Or free advertising for their fledging business.
Wow, is that a long letter to say M$ is not happy that the Commonwealth decided to use a documented and open standard format available to non-Microsoft operating environments.
Open standards are important, this is why telephones work around the world. It is why if it is Ford, Honda, GM or Toyota we can use the same fuel in out cars. It is why a plane can take off in China and land in the US. It is why Open standards, unlike their proprietary ones are not incubated in a vacuum toward monopolization, but are designed to foster interoperability and longevity.
Microsoft is missing the whole point of open standards. It is inevitable that they occur.
I don't know who rated the message you resonded to as troll, guess we are getting troll moderators. There is a lot of truth to it. But to your last message:
I don't know what kind of world you think we live in, but Linux is not for everyone. Period. It has a wonderful place in the server world, and for some desktop users who really are into computers, but for your average sales drone, it has no place.
Now what in business today requires Windows on the PC part? Are we sure our dependance on Microsoft is like heroin? Cannot order entry be done through Linux? Cannot a Linux user surf the web? Can a Linux user not use Java based applications to do busiess?
About the biggest thing business users loose with Linux is users can download Windows spyware and make it work. The WMV file from a porn site might not play. The company will not have to spend as much time and resources maintaining the thing.
Business has lost sight of what the PC is for. It isn't entertainment for 8 hours on non-business activities we should be focusing on. It is a work tool. Users who download spyware that compromize their PC should be fired for being utterly stupid and out of control. If not fired, written up and the repairs charged to their managers department.
And there is an old saying, to change gives you the chance of becoming better. Resistance to change is the admission you don't want to get better. People overrate the negative of change and unrate it's beneits. More importantly, people get over change.
So once we realize the current PC model costs too much in the corporations, maybe more will say no to "How much do you want to pay today" mentality.
PONCE - Price of not changing and evolving is stagnation. Windows users change all the time, DOS 2 thru 6, Win 2.0, W3.0, W3.1, W95, W98, W2K, W2003, Win Me, XP, XP2, and soon vista. We change, we must and FUD to the cost of change.
How can microsoft continue to grow with it's current market share? Granted it still has competition, but that's not going to change much.
In one word, China. But others markets like India and South America also exist and are growing markets.
Microsoft is finding it tough there, most agree if it wasn't pirated non-paying customers Microsoft would even count in the market.
Linux is doing well in China, even though Dell and HP will not sell Linux desktops/laptops in the US by agreements with Microsoft; they do routinely sell Linux loaded desktops/laptops in China.
Given the size of China, the market does have lots of growth. Microsoft does not have the monopoly it has in the US which means new users are free to choose alternatives. And what is more ominous to Microsoft is that if China goes Linux it will eventually influence the US. A truly secure $99 Internet PC appliance anyone?
Given China may eventually have 1 billion users, the OS dominance war has in fact only began.
Gartner indicates that 'mainstream' use of open source in IT environments may be 5 years away.
I wonder where he has been. I started using Linux IN the datacenter some 4-5 years ago now. One system was up for almost 4 years running DNS and Squid. For DNS, we occassionally patched it, for squid we had a job that restarted it once per week at 11pm on Sundays. It didn't make it to 4 years because the UPS had to be upgraded. We had bets if she would reboot, the na-sayer lost.
And it was a no-name left over PC to begin with. The moral of the story is that it isn't the hardware as would the other OS have you believe.
Not adopting Linux where it is suitable has more to do with an inability to change fo the better and what shares does the CEO/CFO/CIO own.
Not for a Microsoft MS-DOS PC it wasn't. These PCs didn't even have any other viable networking option with the OS until Novell came along. Microsoft didn't really get much networking until Windows 3.0 and it was a hacked up mess. So how could a PC transmit email? It didn't unless you loaded Novell with ccMail or some other similar infrastructure add in. Novell got a start here as people were tired of copying to floppies (sneakernet).
VisiCalc, SuperCalc and later Lotus was the rage that drove the PCs in business. For home, but shorty after business it was Procomm to a local Fido BBS or perhaps to a UNIX system running mmdf or uucp. For PCs, email was second or perhaps third.
The raw fact of the mater is Microsoft has invented nothing but FUD. Every technology they use or sell has been borrowed from someone else, except perhaps for NETBIOS that no one wants to use any more. The only thing really innovative about Microsoft is the strong arm marketing tactics used to create a monopoly. History of the technology is best gotten from more neutral sources than Microsoft that would have you believe they invented the internet.
First, skip the DRM... it is a pain and is something that adds no value to the consumer thus will eventually die. Those systems that will survive will not have DRM, or deal with it so smoothly the user will not know it exists, and be cheap. Consumers are not going to pay billions or closed, proprietary DRM when they can DIY for a fraction of the cost.
The recipe is only older PCs, or perhaps small PCs like Sokris and a wireless card.
A list of such sites you might want to visit include:
...demonstrated to America the foolishness of such excessive consumption of fossil fuels...
North America still has a wild card to play, but with radical consequences for the world. But people resist change. Besides, in an open market situation it will compensate quite quickly as oil goes up the alternative sources will be developed. Capital investment is also relatively inexpensive.
The best alternatives would be wind for electric power and instead of giving away grain, add water and yeast and make a 100% renewable fuel source called hydroxyls (alcohols). The best part about this is it is usually just water that comes out the tail pipe, good bye smog. It is also renwable -- works as long as the sun glows hot.
Here is the issue, if we turn grain into alcohol it will raise the cost of food prices. This creates wars.
But yet another good point exists, instead of having multi-billion dollar refineries you can make it locally in Alaska or Texas or everywhere inbetween. Keep the dollars in the local economy. But that is what Exxon and the government does want and that is why it isn't fostered. Imagine famer Joe making his own hootch tax free!
When the price is high enough, say $120-150 per barrel the consumer will demand and get the alternative.
Batteries are a gimmic. We can't even keep a PC going for more than 2 hours and this is generally unsuitable in the transportation industry. Besides most batteries contain hazardous materials and are expensive to produce and maintain. Besides, you would still have to charge them with power made from fossel fuels unless you were near a hydro dam.
For some like Iceland with thermal energy source abundant, they may use Hydrogen as they could convert the thermal energy to produce hydrogen. But to get hydrogen in liquid quantity takes energy to make. Thus not a general replacement for alcohol.
And once we convert to alcohol, let the Arabs eat oil.
Now how would they serve 1/2 of a 50' tall chick at Swiss Chalet?
More seriously, maybe get that DNA and culture up some, let them range over Africa and harvest them for food. You might need a tank to hunt them, as I sure would not want to be out there with a spear or 12-gauge shotgun.
Well, I don't understand why they don't want to support it. The Office 2003 XML format is also open (perhaps a bit less "open", but open anyway),...
XML, although it can be read can be closed. I haven't seen the 2003 format, but ther are all sorts of things one can do to say we are using XML yet close it up real good so other programs can't use it.
With the state moving to open formats, this will be good as I and many others will be able to use the documents. Because I refuse to pay $700++ for office and use Open Office as the alternative. For me it works great. The best part is I can use in in Linux and in Windows. (I am still forced to use Windows at work).
For me, this is a wait and see. It was only this last year I bought a DVD player and DVD-RW. Why? Cheap and they now work. When the CDRW first came out more coasters were made than working images. I know, I made a few coasters but don't have that problem today.
For most of us, we will wait and see. But part of the reason I bought my first DVD-RW was that I could get programs like DVD Decrypter. The only program I know that can burn DVD_ISOs of Linux and Solaris reliably.
I am absolutely appalled that you post this sort of information on your website. It is my duty, as a parent, to teach my children where meat comes from.
Actually, he can post whatever he wants on HIS web site. It wasn't HIS website that did this; it was Fuddruckers that included content from another persons site without assuring the content was suitable for your child. He had no agreement with Fuddruckers. He is fully with in his rights to do this. If anything, you should hold Fuddruckers and their web master as the cause.
And there is little harm in this, after all it is true and your child learned something. Too many irrational brats out there don't know anything about anything but whine. Now your child knows how beef gets to the table and it will give him something to talk to other kids! Learning is natural.
Now before I get moderated as a cow lover, it is true, I eat beef at least 5 times a week. But this post is the most humorous I have seen in a long time!
The Fuddruckers web site now seems to be redirected to Google. Maybe teach your family that this occured because Fuddruckers was plageristically using another persons work for their own gain.
Doing that wouldn't necessarily be all that difficult. Use a cross-platform database like Oracle or DB2 so you can run it on both platforms and use a portable language like Java or pay to maintain a C or C++ app for both platforms (hey, if hundreds of Open Source apps can do it, so can a large company).
Your right, it isn't too difficult but it is too difficult for your average I/T worker. How many people in your shop can write Java or C/C++? Most shops, these people leave to either become consultants or work for software development firms. I/T people are often too tied up making sure the executive toys are working. If your shop is different than this, stay as you might have some good I/T management.
Slashdot Mirror
They have been ripping us off for years because of their monopoly. Now they must compete or dye. Me, I already don't use the local telco and haven't looked back.
Good bye ma bell.... don't need you.
You can visit the ICANN site and listen to the meeting, informative to say the least. Many sound like they have poor memories, some you can almost hear then snore over the mics and likely many had too much to drink before the meeting.
Someone didn't want ICANN making much decisions so they stacked it with people who would paralyze any further development. This is clear.
The UN is not much different for the most part.
The internet naming is already fragmented and less standard. China for example is using DNS to filter content. We can expect this fragmention to continue.
Ultimately the Internet belongs to the people. And it will be run by the people if necessary. If something becomes popular, ICANN nor the UN could stop it. The Chinese are already creative, using proxies outside their country to bypass the government.
Microsoft and Ballmer just don't get clustering at all and I feel sorry for the 25% that got sucked in by M$ BS. Ballmer is bringing spoons to a steak party.
An OS that is graphical wastes resources in a clustered environment. It wastes CPU in managing it; it wastes electricity in powering it and adds to the total BTU output that raises A/C costs. Forget about the complexities added in that M$ solutions are new, poorly tested and of beta quality when compared to any UNIX/POSIX type OS. None of the aforementioned adds value to the compute task and often detracts from it. Most can be critical project problems if not managed and planned for.
One also has to look at the software acquisition economics. Say you have a 1024 node cluster. 1000 * 1024 for server licenses is $1M $$. FC4 is out and even if you used commercial Linux you would never pay $1M for this quantity of licenses unless they tossed in the installation and configured the cluster for you.
There are also other issues such as kernel/network performance and tuning but I will skip this.
My dream cluster would be few thousand Linux AMD 64 dual core, dual CPU systems with 16GB of ram in a 2 or 4 U package with front loading drives and can be managed without a VGA... hm... this OS/hardware exists without Microsoft!
If you'd RTFA you'd understand that they were invited there to show techniques that hackers use so MS developers
So like most Microsoft events it is staged. This is why other events like Black Hat are far more credible... inviting anyone who wants to sign up. Demonstration of DMA with USB is old news, Microsoft developers knew it was a problems many years ago and it still remains a problem. In fact they participated in it's design.
At this point, in order to see the kernel, you have to sign off on MS's shared source license.
I fail to see why an open source programers would want to use or look at the NT/Windows kernel. I figure Solaris, BSD and Linux will all borrow from each other and Microsoft will quietly borrow from open source to get a decent scheduler.
Forgive me, but is SCO even a player in the server market?
I have used dozens of POSIX OSes including SCO and although SCO had a good market share at one time have they not lost it? Does anyone actually run SCO in a production environment any more? Why would they not switch to Solaris (x86/AMD64), OpenBSD, FreeBSD or one of many Linux distributions?
SCO lost it as they priced it too high, poorly maintened it and it was intrinically a slow pig. When they got UNIXWare they botched this too as it's development too is stagnent. They spend too much on business hype and lawyers and not enough on product devlopment.
So for those new to the SCO story, run like hell from it.
Sheesh, what a waste of fucking paper.
Not really a waste of paper for two reasons.
First, it sets a pace for the federal and perhaps later for the world to follow. Although your point about enforcing this to another country may be more difficult is a fact.
But a second point is if a phisher became successful enough, it would warrent setting the fool up. Just wait until they travel and get them in a friendly juristiction. It wouldn't be the first time a criminal was caught by the bait of a good job or prize.
This is why we need to elect normal people to government. Normal people as defined as not a professional politician. Arnold isn't corrupted with long ties to special interests and can pass laws for the people. Established politicians wouldn't be too concerned about a law like this because of special interests.
So we get laws with teeth to protect people. Good deal.
So vote for non-politicians to administer government, it always seems to work better over time.
How can I cheaply defend myself from his actions and keep my domain name?
When contacted, all you have to do is show the reason why you own the domain name. Other factors to watch for, if a company registers their business name after you registered the domain name they are SOL. The rules are fair for the most part.
Microsoft has yet to realize that software is now a commodity item. $600++ for the OS and Office is far over priced if they want to remain at the top. The price should be like a book, say $50 like they sell it in China. (less for illegal copies).
Google is already in the worlds biggest emerging market and presumably making a profit. http://www.google.cn/
Microsoft is jealous but it isn't going to change the fact that to compute you do not need Microsoft.
But imagine if Google came up with that killer app to cluster the whole worlds computer network which is best run on Linux. Or perhaps turn their CPU power into automated remote support for software updates to Linux and charge $19 per year for the service or perhaps free if Google put a single ad banner on the screen. And a user could select from the finest open source to install and run. If their system was stolen they could restore data and setting with their Google account. Now that would turn Microsoft on its end.
Google has it right, it is about servicing the customers needs for a profit and not DRM butt kissing, perpetual bug fixing, insatiable patching, often crashing and expensive. So unless Google side steps, Microsoft might as well save their dollars.
It may be true in some cases that Windows runs more stable than Linux.
True, if you find the most competent NT admin and stable hardware for Windows but for Linux you get a Windows type custom compiling Linux on unstable hardware.
Was this somehow funded by Microsoft? Or free advertising for their fledging business.
Wow, is that a long letter to say M$ is not happy that the Commonwealth decided to use a documented and open standard format available to non-Microsoft operating environments.
Open standards are important, this is why telephones work around the world. It is why if it is Ford, Honda, GM or Toyota we can use the same fuel in out cars. It is why a plane can take off in China and land in the US. It is why Open standards, unlike their proprietary ones are not incubated in a vacuum toward monopolization, but are designed to foster interoperability and longevity.
Microsoft is missing the whole point of open standards. It is inevitable that they occur.
Now this list is seriously flawed if not for:
More subjective, the order is warped and not from this planet.
I don't know who rated the message you resonded to as troll, guess we are getting troll moderators. There is a lot of truth to it. But to your last message:
I don't know what kind of world you think we live in, but Linux is not for everyone. Period. It has a wonderful place in the server world, and for some desktop users who really are into computers, but for your average sales drone, it has no place.
Now what in business today requires Windows on the PC part? Are we sure our dependance on Microsoft is like heroin? Cannot order entry be done through Linux? Cannot a Linux user surf the web? Can a Linux user not use Java based applications to do busiess?
About the biggest thing business users loose with Linux is users can download Windows spyware and make it work. The WMV file from a porn site might not play. The company will not have to spend as much time and resources maintaining the thing.
Business has lost sight of what the PC is for. It isn't entertainment for 8 hours on non-business activities we should be focusing on. It is a work tool. Users who download spyware that compromize their PC should be fired for being utterly stupid and out of control. If not fired, written up and the repairs charged to their managers department.
And there is an old saying, to change gives you the chance of becoming better. Resistance to change is the admission you don't want to get better. People overrate the negative of change and unrate it's beneits. More importantly, people get over change.
So once we realize the current PC model costs too much in the corporations, maybe more will say no to "How much do you want to pay today" mentality. PONCE - Price of not changing and evolving is stagnation. Windows users change all the time, DOS 2 thru 6, Win 2.0, W3.0, W3.1, W95, W98, W2K, W2003, Win Me, XP, XP2, and soon vista. We change, we must and FUD to the cost of change.
How can microsoft continue to grow with it's current market share? Granted it still has competition, but that's not going to change much.
In one word, China. But others markets like India and South America also exist and are growing markets.
Microsoft is finding it tough there, most agree if it wasn't pirated non-paying customers Microsoft would even count in the market.
Linux is doing well in China, even though Dell and HP will not sell Linux desktops/laptops in the US by agreements with Microsoft; they do routinely sell Linux loaded desktops/laptops in China.
Given the size of China, the market does have lots of growth. Microsoft does not have the monopoly it has in the US which means new users are free to choose alternatives. And what is more ominous to Microsoft is that if China goes Linux it will eventually influence the US. A truly secure $99 Internet PC appliance anyone?
Given China may eventually have 1 billion users, the OS dominance war has in fact only began.
Gartner indicates that 'mainstream' use of open source in IT environments may be 5 years away.
I wonder where he has been. I started using Linux IN the datacenter some 4-5 years ago now. One system was up for almost 4 years running DNS and Squid. For DNS, we occassionally patched it, for squid we had a job that restarted it once per week at 11pm on Sundays. It didn't make it to 4 years because the UPS had to be upgraded. We had bets if she would reboot, the na-sayer lost.
And it was a no-name left over PC to begin with. The moral of the story is that it isn't the hardware as would the other OS have you believe.
Not adopting Linux where it is suitable has more to do with an inability to change fo the better and what shares does the CEO/CFO/CIO own.
Just use Postgres dude!
Alread do, but this is worth repeating.
I thought the first killer app was email?
Not for a Microsoft MS-DOS PC it wasn't. These PCs didn't even have any other viable networking option with the OS until Novell came along. Microsoft didn't really get much networking until Windows 3.0 and it was a hacked up mess. So how could a PC transmit email? It didn't unless you loaded Novell with ccMail or some other similar infrastructure add in. Novell got a start here as people were tired of copying to floppies (sneakernet).
VisiCalc, SuperCalc and later Lotus was the rage that drove the PCs in business. For home, but shorty after business it was Procomm to a local Fido BBS or perhaps to a UNIX system running mmdf or uucp. For PCs, email was second or perhaps third.
The raw fact of the mater is Microsoft has invented nothing but FUD. Every technology they use or sell has been borrowed from someone else, except perhaps for NETBIOS that no one wants to use any more. The only thing really innovative about Microsoft is the strong arm marketing tactics used to create a monopoly. History of the technology is best gotten from more neutral sources than Microsoft that would have you believe they invented the internet.
So I hope you were being funny.
First, skip the DRM... it is a pain and is something that adds no value to the consumer thus will eventually die. Those systems that will survive will not have DRM, or deal with it so smoothly the user will not know it exists, and be cheap. Consumers are not going to pay billions or closed, proprietary DRM when they can DIY for a fraction of the cost.
The recipe is only older PCs, or perhaps small PCs like Sokris and a wireless card.
A list of such sites you might want to visit include:
http://www.mythtv.org/ (entertainment)
http://www.soekris.com/ (custom controlers)
http://openwap.org/ (Customized wireless access point)
http://fedora.redhat.com/ (General server for hold those mp files)
http://www.atheros.com/ (You can get Linux/BSD drivers for the 54g wireless stuff, eg. DWL-AG650/AG520 or perhaps a prizm 54g chipset)
http://www.bbdsoft.com/iocard_digital.html (digital I/O cards for signaling, security and control
http://www.zorg.org/homeauto/index.shtml (Get X10 and interface to it)
http://www.dlink.com (Get a video cam or two)
North America still has a wild card to play, but with radical consequences for the world. But people resist change. Besides, in an open market situation it will compensate quite quickly as oil goes up the alternative sources will be developed. Capital investment is also relatively inexpensive.
The best alternatives would be wind for electric power and instead of giving away grain, add water and yeast and make a 100% renewable fuel source called hydroxyls (alcohols). The best part about this is it is usually just water that comes out the tail pipe, good bye smog. It is also renwable -- works as long as the sun glows hot.
Here is the issue, if we turn grain into alcohol it will raise the cost of food prices. This creates wars.
But yet another good point exists, instead of having multi-billion dollar refineries you can make it locally in Alaska or Texas or everywhere inbetween. Keep the dollars in the local economy. But that is what Exxon and the government does want and that is why it isn't fostered. Imagine famer Joe making his own hootch tax free!
When the price is high enough, say $120-150 per barrel the consumer will demand and get the alternative.
Batteries are a gimmic. We can't even keep a PC going for more than 2 hours and this is generally unsuitable in the transportation industry. Besides most batteries contain hazardous materials and are expensive to produce and maintain. Besides, you would still have to charge them with power made from fossel fuels unless you were near a hydro dam.
For some like Iceland with thermal energy source abundant, they may use Hydrogen as they could convert the thermal energy to produce hydrogen. But to get hydrogen in liquid quantity takes energy to make. Thus not a general replacement for alcohol.
And once we convert to alcohol, let the Arabs eat oil.
Now how would they serve 1/2 of a 50' tall chick at Swiss Chalet?
More seriously, maybe get that DNA and culture up some, let them range over Africa and harvest them for food. You might need a tank to hunt them, as I sure would not want to be out there with a spear or 12-gauge shotgun.
XML, although it can be read can be closed. I haven't seen the 2003 format, but ther are all sorts of things one can do to say we are using XML yet close it up real good so other programs can't use it.
With the state moving to open formats, this will be good as I and many others will be able to use the documents. Because I refuse to pay $700++ for office and use Open Office as the alternative. For me it works great. The best part is I can use in in Linux and in Windows. (I am still forced to use Windows at work).
For me, this is a wait and see. It was only this last year I bought a DVD player and DVD-RW. Why? Cheap and they now work. When the CDRW first came out more coasters were made than working images. I know, I made a few coasters but don't have that problem today.
For most of us, we will wait and see. But part of the reason I bought my first DVD-RW was that I could get programs like DVD Decrypter. The only program I know that can burn DVD_ISOs of Linux and Solaris reliably.
That was short lived as the article at http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/11914 will show how this industry is doing.
So this person will opt out until less restrictive and functional tools are available. I will be quite content to let someone else break this in.
I am absolutely appalled that you post this sort of information on your website. It is my duty, as a parent, to teach my children where meat comes from.
Actually, he can post whatever he wants on HIS web site. It wasn't HIS website that did this; it was Fuddruckers that included content from another persons site without assuring the content was suitable for your child. He had no agreement with Fuddruckers. He is fully with in his rights to do this. If anything, you should hold Fuddruckers and their web master as the cause.
And there is little harm in this, after all it is true and your child learned something. Too many irrational brats out there don't know anything about anything but whine. Now your child knows how beef gets to the table and it will give him something to talk to other kids! Learning is natural.
Now before I get moderated as a cow lover, it is true, I eat beef at least 5 times a week. But this post is the most humorous I have seen in a long time!
The Fuddruckers web site now seems to be redirected to Google. Maybe teach your family that this occured because Fuddruckers was plageristically using another persons work for their own gain.
Doing that wouldn't necessarily be all that difficult. Use a cross-platform database like Oracle or DB2 so you can run it on both platforms and use a portable language like Java or pay to maintain a C or C++ app for both platforms (hey, if hundreds of Open Source apps can do it, so can a large company).
Your right, it isn't too difficult but it is too difficult for your average I/T worker. How many people in your shop can write Java or C/C++? Most shops, these people leave to either become consultants or work for software development firms. I/T people are often too tied up making sure the executive toys are working. If your shop is different than this, stay as you might have some good I/T management.