If BG was truly following the law, how would they know that the gas they turned off was to a house with 85 year-old people in it?
It is my understanding that part of observing privacy is that this kind of information is not known to people internal to a company (and hence exploitable) except in specific "need-to-know" instances.
My point is, the people at BG probably had NO IDEA that they were turning off gas to an elderly couple. I imagine that an accounting database routine kicked out an address to a field tech who went to the address and turned a knob without talking to anyone in the house. I am sure the whole "the privacy laws prevented us" story was made up after the BG's publicity people heard about the story.
Enterprise Agreements for one. The company I am working at pays millions of dollars a year for a MS bulk licensing agreement. If a MS backed alternative came out, we would probably negotiate down our agreement.
The main place this will hurt is when the next version of Office (2005?) comes out. MS's revenue stream (and to some degree - their stock price) is based on getting people to upgrade perfectly good products (or as close as MS can get) for something very similar, though with some new feature and current support cycle. If they offered a truly competitive version for less money, I know a lot of people (this company included) who will try to make it work in place of the more expensive suite.
Does this mean that *NIX will become the standard platform for applications since something written on it can now run on Windows as well as Apple and Linux?
From the article Microsoft is set to include its Services for Unix (SFU) add-on for Windows as an integral part of the next major release of the Windows server operating system, codenamed Longhorn and expected in 2008.
Oh really? That's fantastic, especially since it's something - by the article's own timeline - that won't be here for another four years.
Actually, SFU is currently available and versions of it have been for quite some time. The big "news" is that it is incorporated by default for "free" (as in beer).
Talk about rugged, a friend of mine who sells these things has a picture of one of these that stopped a bullet in Iraq! The bullet was still lodged in it and it booted!
Recently, I needed 3rd level support for an IBM product. I was told I would have to wait 24 - 48 hours for them to set up a meeting with the 3rd tier support half-way around the world! When I got the inevitable call to ask my opinion about how the issue was resolved, I told them I was very displeased with their service and that they should have someone available here!
If the market demands that vendors provide people in a way that only local people can provide, then businesses will provide that (and the jobs that go along with it). Demand personal visits on issues. Demand 24x7 availability. Eventually, it will be cheaper to have workers residing in the local economy.
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If BG was truly following the law, how would they know that the gas they turned off was to a house with 85 year-old people in it?
It is my understanding that part of observing privacy is that this kind of information is not known to people internal to a company (and hence exploitable) except in specific "need-to-know" instances.
My point is, the people at BG probably had NO IDEA that they were turning off gas to an elderly couple. I imagine that an accounting database routine kicked out an address to a field tech who went to the address and turned a knob without talking to anyone in the house. I am sure the whole "the privacy laws prevented us" story was made up after the BG's publicity people heard about the story.
What revenue source?
Enterprise Agreements for one. The company I am working at pays millions of dollars a year for a MS bulk licensing agreement. If a MS backed alternative came out, we would probably negotiate down our agreement.
The main place this will hurt is when the next version of Office (2005?) comes out. MS's revenue stream (and to some degree - their stock price) is based on getting people to upgrade perfectly good products (or as close as MS can get) for something very similar, though with some new feature and current support cycle. If they offered a truly competitive version for less money, I know a lot of people (this company included) who will try to make it work in place of the more expensive suite.
Windows with the free Services for Unix could run the cheaper version just as well as Linux.
If that happened, they would lose a significant revenue source.
If you think this has been drawn out, consider how long the Microsoft monopoly court case took.
Which platform should we use, the one that goes out of support in four years or the one that has daily kernel releases?
A truly safe society is one where everyone agrees on the rules, and eveyone follows the rules.
When one group (i.e. the police or in Iraq, the US Military) are in charge of making sure everyone is following the rules, no one is safe.
Does this mean that *NIX will become the standard platform for applications since something written on it can now run on Windows as well as Apple and Linux?
Is UNIX the new (although pre-existing) Java?
From the article Microsoft is set to include its Services for Unix (SFU) add-on for Windows as an integral part of the next major release of the Windows server operating system, codenamed Longhorn and expected in 2008. Oh really? That's fantastic, especially since it's something - by the article's own timeline - that won't be here for another four years.
Actually, SFU is currently available and versions of it have been for quite some time. The big "news" is that it is incorporated by default for "free" (as in beer).
If the software suggested routes away from the enemy for both sides, I guess we would call that "peace"
Talk about rugged, a friend of mine who sells these things has a picture of one of these that stopped a bullet in Iraq! The bullet was still lodged in it and it booted!
Recently, I needed 3rd level support for an IBM product. I was told I would have to wait 24 - 48 hours for them to set up a meeting with the 3rd tier support half-way around the world! When I got the inevitable call to ask my opinion about how the issue was resolved, I told them I was very displeased with their service and that they should have someone available here!
If the market demands that vendors provide people in a way that only local people can provide, then businesses will provide that (and the jobs that go along with it). Demand personal visits on issues. Demand 24x7 availability. Eventually, it will be cheaper to have workers residing in the local economy.