Gratitude, uh sure, got it right here on the end of my middle finger. Let's see, MS has repeatedly fscked Apple at every turn, stolen code from Apple, and used strong arm tactics to get their way. Does anyone out there think that $150M loan deal to Apple (which was a big profit for MS) did anything more than buy time for MS by propping up Apple? And we should believe that MS knows more about OSX than Apple? Pardon me while I gag on that nonsense. OSX comes out of the NextStep OS, BSD, and other Apple developed code. Where the heck was MS in any of that?
Ultimate gratitude: MS ought to be kissing Apple's ass for keeping the Feds off of them this long. Were it not for Apple's meager sales, the anti-trust case against MS would have been a done deal long ago.
Obviously you don't know jack about the cost of farming. Notice that there are a hell of a lot LESS farmers these days? Hmm... that wouldn't be because it's really hard to consistently break even (forget profit).
A 24x7 job, working regardless of the weather and trying to stay ahead of the bank. When you cite examples of subsidies, use your head and think of the COSTS involved: feed, fertilizer, equipment, farm loan, fuel, water, etc. How many farmers have you seen driving fancy cars and living in posh houses? None that I know of. Oh yeah, somebody is getting one heck of a free ride here...
Finally, I reiterate that many farmers have already taken your suggestion and left agribusiness. At what point will you ask "what happened to all the farms?"
Where in the world do you get off making suching an inflammatory and unsubstantiated statement as "they do absolutely no real mathematics research, so the don't know what mathematics is actually important and what isn't"?
What if I were to jump to similarly wild-assed assumptions that since you are posting anonymously: 1) You are not a Math Prof (let alone a PhD) 2) Your "small private college" doesn't have proper accreditation in mathematics.
Good grief. Check your institutional biases at the door next time.
But computers these days are almost a disposable item.
And therein lies the rub. Disposing of the better part of 1 billion computers. We need more ways of recylcing this stuff. The only thing that approaches continuing usability is the case (case, fans, PS). Everything else has a 2 year half-life and at 6 years seems incapable of running the vast majority of sofware available. Yes, I know that Linux works great on lesser machines. Most machines end up in a trash heap after 4-6 years rather than being reincarnated.
1) TCSEC (the "Orange" book) has been replaced by the Common Criteria as noted in NSTISSAM COMPUSEC/1-99, Sec II item 5. 2) CC has a much wider acceptance internationally. 3) Win2K HAS been undergoing CC evaluation (Evaluation Assurance Level 4).
Moderators: How in the heck did Dynamoo's post rate a 3?
So while we are thinking of solar and fuel cell based cars (trucks, tractors, generators, lawnmowers), we better come up with substitutes for the rest of life's little "necessities". Are we going to clear more forest and wear out more soil trying to produce biomass to make up for this? Obviously this is a non-trivial problem.
On the plus side, there would be much less smog in cities without infernal combustion engines.
1) Yes, the latest Star Wars is worst thing I've ever seen from Lucas. I can only hope that if there is another chapter, we can dispense with the love story for 80% of the movie and rely on action for 80%.
2) It is beyond disingenuous to cite the take from opening days of each movie without considering the number of screens involved. Spiderman was running on a many more screens than Star Wars: Attack of the Hormones.
The subsidy argument would be valid if this was a fair fight. It's not. We don't know if other companies are really able to compete with Microsoft or not, because the bastards keep cheating (monopoly practices).
When you can't reason with the schoolyard bully ("Now William, you mustn't do that any more"), get a bigger bully. Looks like IBM has been lifting weights again.
It's amazing to me that with all the design and features that went into this product, Sony left out wireless. Considering the advanced telco services in Japan, Sony's reputation for using the latest technology for their products, and the price of this puppy ($600), I expected that wireless would be a given. Check ZDnet for another review.
And you believe the MS saber rattling doesn't mean diddly, right? Just go put your noggin back in the sand.
In the not to distant future, MS WILL threaten the Samba team directly ("See, we told you that GNU was dangerous. Hey DMCA law enforcement, we're sure they're breaking some kind of law. Oh, it hurts. Make them stop!)
Who the heck says truth has a damn thing to do with it? You don't think that Microsoft is capable of pulling that kind of crap?
For every use you propose, there are already better and much cheaper solutions. ex 1: PocketPC with wireless ex 2: It's called a blueprint ex 3: tape, MD, DVD, wireless-enabled PDA. Take your pick.
This is an interesting idea, but at this price schedule it's going nowhere. In the same field, do you really expect this to compete with Xybernaut? They've got a head start and still aren't doing that great.
When you buy a lightbulb for you bathroom light, no one really cares.
In the US, there are indeed consumer safety entities (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and testing labs. Underwriters Labs (UL) would be the most well-known of the latter. I believe there are similar orgs elsewhere in the world. Canada for instance has their own version of UL (CSA?).
Understand you're point, consumer products are not a good example.
"You can install ONLY the Windows NT 4.0 operating system on a computer. You cannot include an additional operating system (such as Windows NT 3.51, windows 95 or Windows 3.1) unless you have a seperate legal agreement with Microsoft."
Okay, I think MS is a bunch of trolls too, but note that this statement does not specifically that you can't load OS2 or *nix. Its deliberately ambiguous. That's why MS has lawyers. So they can right agreements that feel one way to OEMs and are defended another way in court. "We never told them they couldn't load QNX, we just didn't want them to load a version of our OS that's nearing EOL like NT 3.51. We were really looking out for our consumers you see."
businesses are no longer around because MS broke the law (anti-trust violations) rather than because they simply didn't know how to compete?
Of course, in Be's case, what really is the point of filing now? Is someone going to do this work pro bono hoping (hah!) that they can afford to battle Microsoft in court and win?
Seems like they're too late, but then I come back to the first question: How many are there?
Too easy to do the Slashdot thing and somehow relate this to MS. So I won't. Obviously, you didn't get a lawyer to work up an NDA and EULA for the testers. Probably because you're small and didn't think is a big thing.
After you get a lawyer (like yesterday), make an honest appraisal of the impact of the tester's input to your design. Was it on the order of "change this color to..." or "change this functionality to provide...". It would seem that they might have made a suggestion, but your people implemented it. This one looks headed for court.
Its great that MIT is a bastion of engineering and research. Its also apparent that, like many other schools of this ilk, they neglect reality.
There is a budget. And its not infinite. A lesson that someone should have explained before we launched into the dot-com idiocy in the first place. I view the situation at the Media Lab as another opportunity to learn.
The Yahoo article says that the Segway patent mentions Yamafuji's patent. It does not make clear whether the note was made by the USPTO or Kamen. i.e., did Kamen come up with the same idea independently or based on advances over Yamafuji's work? There's also an aside in the article that casts further aspersions on Kamen's stair-climbing wheelchair. That too is patented in the US.
Quite true. How much of that do suppose they will devote to fighting MS and for how long? My point was that we've already seen one state do exactly this.
California doesn't have enough money to pay the electric bill. How much of the general population (outside of the Bay area) understands the importance of the States' battle?
"Why are they wasting my money on this Microsoft folderol? They could be spending that money on... " [insert education or social program of your choice].
...someone is caught breaking into your house (not to mention stealing the stereo, TV, and the money in the Cookie jar). Rather than go to jail, they offer to install their personal brand of home security system in you neighbor's homes. And they won't charge that much to do it either!
MS may have lost this one, but they are patient in seeking complete market domination. There are many palms to grease in DC. Eventually someone will rise up in Congress and ask that we brush aside this blight on the profits of such a fine company as Microsoft.
I'd like to believe that won't happen. But too many legislators have the techincal comprehension of a sea slug. Nothing substantive will ever happen to Microsoft at the behest of any branch of the US Government. Eventually the dissenting states will be forced to give up the fight because they simply can't afford the up-front cost of litigation.
Slashdot Mirror
Give me a freakin' break!
Gratitude, uh sure, got it right here on the end of my middle finger. Let's see, MS has repeatedly fscked Apple at every turn, stolen code from Apple, and used strong arm tactics to get their way. Does anyone out there think that $150M loan deal to Apple (which was a big profit for MS) did anything more than buy time for MS by propping up Apple? And we should believe that MS knows more about OSX than Apple? Pardon me while I gag on that nonsense. OSX comes out of the NextStep OS, BSD, and other Apple developed code. Where the heck was MS in any of that?
Ultimate gratitude: MS ought to be kissing Apple's ass for keeping the Feds off of them this long. Were it not for Apple's meager sales, the anti-trust case against MS would have been a done deal long ago.
Obviously you don't know jack about the cost of farming. Notice that there are a hell of a lot LESS farmers these days? Hmm... that wouldn't be because it's really hard to consistently break even (forget profit).
A 24x7 job, working regardless of the weather and trying to stay ahead of the bank. When you cite examples of subsidies, use your head and think of the COSTS involved: feed, fertilizer, equipment, farm loan, fuel, water, etc. How many farmers have you seen driving fancy cars and living in posh houses? None that I know of. Oh yeah, somebody is getting one heck of a free ride here...
Finally, I reiterate that many farmers have already taken your suggestion and left agribusiness. At what point will you ask "what happened to all the farms?"
Where in the world do you get off making suching an inflammatory and unsubstantiated statement as "they do absolutely no real mathematics research, so the don't know what mathematics is actually important and what isn't"?
What if I were to jump to similarly wild-assed assumptions that since you are posting anonymously:
1) You are not a Math Prof (let alone a PhD)
2) Your "small private college" doesn't have proper accreditation in mathematics.
Good grief. Check your institutional biases at the door next time.
And therein lies the rub. Disposing of the better part of 1 billion computers. We need more ways of recylcing this stuff. The only thing that approaches continuing usability is the case (case, fans, PS). Everything else has a 2 year half-life and at 6 years seems incapable of running the vast majority of sofware available. Yes, I know that Linux works great on lesser machines. Most machines end up in a trash heap after 4-6 years rather than being reincarnated.
Actually, the founding fathers would have been appalled at such a ruling. Perhaps you forgot a portion of the Declaration of Independence:
..."
"endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
Did you know that two of the signers were clergymen (Lyman Hall and John Witherspoon)?
Score: -1 Troll
Since when is a blatant "hook-line-and-sinker" troll rate a 3?
1) TCSEC (the "Orange" book) has been replaced by the Common Criteria as noted in NSTISSAM
COMPUSEC/1-99, Sec II item 5.
2) CC has a much wider acceptance internationally.
3) Win2K HAS been undergoing CC evaluation (Evaluation Assurance Level 4).
Moderators: How in the heck did Dynamoo's post rate a 3?
what about lubricants, paraffin, plastics, ...
FERTILIZER
So while we are thinking of solar and fuel cell based cars (trucks, tractors, generators, lawnmowers), we better come up with substitutes for the rest of life's little "necessities". Are we going to clear more forest and wear out more soil trying to produce biomass to make up for this? Obviously this is a non-trivial problem.
On the plus side, there would be much less smog in cities without infernal combustion engines.
1) Yes, the latest Star Wars is worst thing I've ever seen from Lucas. I can only hope that if there is another chapter, we can dispense with the love story for 80% of the movie and rely on action for 80%.
2) It is beyond disingenuous to cite the take from opening days of each movie without considering the number of screens involved. Spiderman was running on a many more screens than Star Wars: Attack of the Hormones.
The subsidy argument would be valid if this was a fair fight. It's not. We don't know if other companies are really able to compete with Microsoft or not, because the bastards keep cheating (monopoly practices).
When you can't reason with the schoolyard bully ("Now William, you mustn't do that any more"), get a bigger bully. Looks like IBM has been lifting weights again.
You're trolling Russ. If you want to try and read a Word doc on your iPaq go right ahead. Just gives me headaches.
There are two predominant PDA platforms for a reason: there is a significant split in the user community over the purpose of a PDA.
On the other hand, if you meant will it run DOS, please accept my apologies.
It's amazing to me that with all the design and features that went into this product, Sony left out wireless. Considering the advanced telco services in Japan, Sony's reputation for using the latest technology for their products, and the price of this puppy ($600), I expected that wireless would be a given. Check ZDnet for another review.
And you believe the MS saber rattling doesn't mean diddly, right? Just go put your noggin back in the sand.
In the not to distant future, MS WILL threaten the Samba team directly ("See, we told you that GNU was dangerous. Hey DMCA law enforcement, we're sure they're breaking some kind of law. Oh, it hurts. Make them stop!)
Who the heck says truth has a damn thing to do with it? You don't think that Microsoft is capable of pulling that kind of crap?
Unfortunately, I do.
Nope.
For every use you propose, there are already better and much cheaper solutions.
ex 1: PocketPC with wireless
ex 2: It's called a blueprint
ex 3: tape, MD, DVD, wireless-enabled PDA. Take your pick.
This is an interesting idea, but at this price schedule it's going nowhere. In the same field, do you really expect this to compete with Xybernaut? They've got a head start and still aren't doing that great.
In the US, there are indeed consumer safety entities (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and testing labs. Underwriters Labs (UL) would be the most well-known of the latter. I believe there are similar orgs elsewhere in the world. Canada for instance has their own version of UL (CSA?).
Understand you're point, consumer products are not a good example.
Okay, I think MS is a bunch of trolls too, but note that this statement does not specifically that you can't load OS2 or *nix. Its deliberately ambiguous. That's why MS has lawyers. So they can right agreements that feel one way to OEMs and are defended another way in court. "We never told them they couldn't load QNX, we just didn't want them to load a version of our OS that's nearing EOL like NT 3.51. We were really looking out for our consumers you see."
Of course, in Be's case, what really is the point of filing now? Is someone going to do this work pro bono hoping (hah!) that they can afford to battle Microsoft in court and win? Seems like they're too late, but then I come back to the first question: How many are there?
News for Nerds.
Nerds mate. Film at 11.
Stuff that matters.
And it's about frickin' time we had something here that matters. Congratulations to both of you.
Here in DC we just had several highway fatalities because someone was talking on her cell phone and crossed the median into the path of a minivan.
Obviously the answer is to use a phone that urges you to hold it in front of your face for even greater distraction.
Very bad idea.
Too easy to do the Slashdot thing and somehow relate this to MS. So I won't. Obviously, you didn't get a lawyer to work up an NDA and EULA for the testers. Probably because you're small and didn't think is a big thing.
After you get a lawyer (like yesterday), make an honest appraisal of the impact of the tester's input to your design. Was it on the order of "change this color to ..." or "change this functionality to provide ...". It would seem that they might have made a suggestion, but your people implemented it. This one looks headed for court.
Its great that MIT is a bastion of engineering and research. Its also apparent that, like many other schools of this ilk, they neglect reality.
There is a budget. And its not infinite. A lesson that someone should have explained before we launched into the dot-com idiocy in the first place. I view the situation at the Media Lab as another opportunity to learn.
The Yahoo article says that the Segway patent mentions Yamafuji's patent. It does not make clear whether the note was made by the USPTO or Kamen. i.e., did Kamen come up with the same idea independently or based on advances over Yamafuji's work? There's also an aside in the article that casts further aspersions on Kamen's stair-climbing wheelchair. That too is patented in the US.
Quite true. How much of that do suppose they will devote to fighting MS and for how long? My point was that we've already seen one state do exactly this.
... " [insert education or social program of your choice].
California doesn't have enough money to pay the electric bill. How much of the general population (outside of the Bay area) understands the importance of the States' battle?
"Why are they wasting my money on this Microsoft folderol? They could be spending that money on
Or perhaps...
...someone is caught breaking into your house (not to mention stealing the stereo, TV, and the money in the Cookie jar). Rather than go to jail, they offer to install their personal brand of home security system in you neighbor's homes. And they won't charge that much to do it either!
There now, don't you feel better?
MS may have lost this one, but they are patient in seeking complete market domination. There are many palms to grease in DC. Eventually someone will rise up in Congress and ask that we brush aside this blight on the profits of such a fine company as Microsoft.
I'd like to believe that won't happen. But too many legislators have the techincal comprehension of a sea slug. Nothing substantive will ever happen to Microsoft at the behest of any branch of the US Government. Eventually the dissenting states will be forced to give up the fight because they simply can't afford the up-front cost of litigation.