Microsoft didn't turn out to be a multi-billion dollar worldwide company because nobody "got it". Not thinking like you slashbots and free software zealots is probably one reason.
There are various kinds of thinking. We, slashbots, hate the destructive ones. Please, forgive us for that!
Yes, he should have pointed out the Roman law principle: Innocent until proven guilty.
Something Valenti not-so-indirectly denies numerous times during the interview...
Three years ago I had to do something very simple with Microsoft's Crypto API. It has two layers: high and low. The high level functions did some common tasks, though totally non-customizable. So I had to use the low level ones. The documentation was vague. Only if they have published the high level functions source, me and the company I worked for would have saved a month.
Or maybe I'm mentally retarded. So here is another example: IFS kit. It costs $1000, and it comes with 0/zero/none/not a single line of documentation about writing network file system drivers! Don't get me wrong - I don't like reading Microsoft code (the MSDN "examples" are just enough!) but if I had the source code of the relevant parts of the IFS kit, I would have finished that stupid task a month ago. Now, we're waiting for some preliminary documentation which is to come after 2 months. And 6 years after the first version of the kit...
So, poorly documented open-source libraries may suck, but poorly-or-not-documented-at-all Microsoft libraries sick a lot more!
1. We keep 75% of the IPv4 address space while actually having 0.04% of the world's population. And use them "wisely". 2. We first accepted software patents and then lured some real democracies to fall in this trap, too. 3. We let Microsoft do whatever they want despite of our own laws and thus threatened the entire software industry. 4. We never contributed to open source projects. No need for examples, we didn't participate in any. 5. We hinted some previously-mentioned real democracies about stuff like Echelon and some previously-mentioned corporations about DRM. 6. Whatever you think is bad for the Internet. And the world at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft didn't turn out to be a multi-billion dollar worldwide company because nobody "got it". Not thinking like you slashbots and free software zealots is probably one reason.
There are various kinds of thinking. We, slashbots, hate the destructive ones. Please, forgive us for that!
this isn't as broad a patent
:-(
A patent is not required to be narrow. On the other hand, a patent is required to be non-obvious.
The fashion of excusing Microsoft, USPTO, etc. is getting more and more boring
Yes, he should have pointed out the Roman law principle:
Innocent until proven guilty.
Something Valenti not-so-indirectly denies numerous times during the interview...
> penguins swim and don't fly
Yes, they swim with their... wings.
The Greek shall inherit the Earth!
> Source code specifically, and software in general, are like food recipes.
I would say they are like theorems and mathematical problems solutions.
Has anybody ever heard of a mathematician patenting a theorem?
> The difference this time is the US has the potential to destroy the world before going.
What about the Third Reich and Europe (at least)?
> whatever else the roboticists did they NEVER EVER EVER broke the 3 laws.
:-)
R. Giskard broke the First law, even knowingly.
Oh, well, he was a robot
> I really would like to see the Foundation trillogy to be make into a movie.
Actually, it's a heptalogy.
> Unless you like your drink with heavy metals? :-)
I personally like it with punk rocks
Zealotry is not about doing stuff the easy way.
:-)
BTW, I'm a Slackware Linux zealot
> but I'm tired of being stuck with dead operating systems!
:-)
So you wouldn't try BSD?
Jim Stratton is the reporter.
This:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005256/
could not be Susan Calvin!
Guys at Hollywood, can't you bypass your stereotypes at least for Asimov? Please?
Three years ago I had to do something very simple with Microsoft's Crypto API. It has two layers: high and low. The high level functions did some common tasks, though totally non-customizable. So I had to use the low level ones. The documentation was vague. Only if they have published the high level functions source, me and the company I worked for would have saved a month. Or maybe I'm mentally retarded. So here is another example: IFS kit. It costs $1000, and it comes with 0/zero/none/not a single line of documentation about writing network file system drivers! Don't get me wrong - I don't like reading Microsoft code (the MSDN "examples" are just enough!) but if I had the source code of the relevant parts of the IFS kit, I would have finished that stupid task a month ago. Now, we're waiting for some preliminary documentation which is to come after 2 months. And 6 years after the first version of the kit... So, poorly documented open-source libraries may suck, but poorly-or-not-documented-at-all Microsoft libraries sick a lot more!
1. We keep 75% of the IPv4 address space while actually having 0.04% of the world's population. And use them "wisely".
2. We first accepted software patents and then lured some real democracies to fall in this trap, too.
3. We let Microsoft do whatever they want despite of our own laws and thus threatened the entire software industry.
4. We never contributed to open source projects. No need for examples, we didn't participate in any.
5. We hinted some previously-mentioned real democracies about stuff like Echelon and some previously-mentioned corporations about DRM.
6. Whatever you think is bad for the Internet. And the world at all.
Yeah... Sorry about that.