"It's the guys who can touch us in multiple places that are Microsoft's top competitors rather than the guys who can touch us in any one place." -- Ballmer
"I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's a software experience." -- Ballmer
You call the MS activation # and tell them you moved it to a new computer
If I have a unique, legitimate key, that should be enough for Microsoft. If the cost of using MS software is now to be tracked by Redmond, the cost is too high.
Also, upgrading just one component - such as adding more memory or a new graphics card - will not trigger a reactivation. A whole new computer will of course, and extreme changes, such as a new motherboard, will, but minor changes rarely ever require a call.
[buzzer] If I buy a legitimate piece of software, I expect to use it on the computer of my choice. My computers are *my* business.
Never mind the additional cost of licensing and installation. I simply do not understand how they can possibly think Windows 7 will be successful.
I recommend to everyone I know not to buy Vista -- and I'll likely do the same for Windows 7. This is not because Vista is bad, or too different, or hard to use. Apple's commercials are manipulative (albeit effective) and Microsoft's inept responses (Seinfeld and Gates, I'm A PC with posterchild for Uncool, Steve Ballmer, screaming like an enraged ape) are embarrassing. But Vista is an adequate improvement in appearance and seems stable enough, despite needing just as much critical patching every week as Windows XP.
My objection to Vista -- and to Windows 7 -- is the licensing strategy.
With MS Windows XP and all preceding versions of Windows, I have been able to install the OS on each new computer that I purchased as I upgraded my hardware. I always purchase and register my commercial software.
When I buy OS X, I can install it on my Apple computer and ever future Apple computer that I will buy. I don't even need a key. I can upgrade my hardware without having to pay Apple again, or to call them and advise them that I am upgrading my computer. This makes my life easy.
One can of course install a Linux distribution anywhere, anytime. OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, and others are very easy to install and to use.
But when you buy Vista, you buy a registration key only. This key cannot be re-used more than twice. (OEM Vista cannot be re-used at all, I understand.) I am not going to pay for MS Windows Vista every time I upgrade my computer. I'm not going to telephone Mr Ballmer and asking for permission to put his product on my computer. And since I do not intend to use Vista or Windows 7 illegally, I will simply have to stop using it.
Fortunately, for me, there are better alternatives to MS Windows today. I feel sorry for the users who are locked into the Microsoft Cycle Of Misery and can't -- or won't -- escape.
A $10 notebook is yet more proof that free markets, competition and Globalization will ensure the future strength prosperity of Western Civilization!
But can we get that price lower? I think we *can*!
1.) First, we have to trim the lowest 10% of performers from every organization. (Pay bonuses to executives for doing this effectively.) Tip: trim Human Resources last -- we need them to do the hatchet work while senior management strokes the shareholders and analysts.
2.) Repeat 1.) a few times and what will remain is a lean and absolutely *amazing* company of workers who do more error-free work with a facial muscle spasm than other schmucks do in 6 months with both hands and 20/20 vision!
3.) Next, we find cheaper workers. India's labour costs are a big part of that $10. Whom will we get to do the work? EASY... we train bonobos. We don't even have to feed them much -- those suckers are pretty lean.
4.) Sack all Testing and Quality Assurance people. With our lean, superproductive staff and well-trained bonobos, we won't need to test. And if there's a problem, we'll silence talk of it with legal threats and "promise" to fix the bug(s) in a future release. (Ha ha!)
5.) Squeeze as much free money as we can out of the government. If the government is Pro-Business, say we're creating new jobs in a cutting-edge market. If the government is Green, say we're saving the bonobos. If it's a coalition, say whatever you have to say no matter how self-contradictory or idiotic.
6.) Spend cash from 5.) on bribes to steal someone else's technology. R&D is for losers.
7.) Throw the product over the wall and pump up the advertising! If it fails, lock the workers out and give senior management a round of bonuses. But it won't fail, because using the above strategy, I think we have the $10 notebook down to $2.35.
Linus has plenty of other things to say in this interview. Why focus on this less important aspect of the discussion?
Because LT doesn't like how KDE is right now? That's his choice, just as it was to like KDE more than Gnome before.
Software is not perfect and it only achieves usefulness by stages, as LT himself mentions in discussing Git. A living project is a changing project. Not everyone is going to like the changes.
*ALL* operating systems much be constantly patched to protect against the "latest" threats.
Not if the threat is in the Windows Ecosystem. All OSs are updated, but how many OSs are used to form Botnets based on OS-specific technology?
Ok, they are *usually* less serious than this particular vulnerability, but my Ubuntu box downloads "critical" updates at least once a week on average.
My Ubuntu box and my OS X box receive updates, sure. But, for example, I am unaware of any Linux-based or OS X-based Botnets. They will not be updated for this Botnet. The easiest target is the target of choice.
Microsoft have made a lot of bad design decisions in their products, often in order to thwart competition, but them actually being incompetent or negligent, especially in recent years, is a lot harder to prove.
The only reason why there hasn't been a class action lawsuit against Microsoft for their incompetence is that many misguided people STILL think that every 20 minutes of MS Word is worth 1 week of their time spent Patching and Praying and trying to recover data.
The argument that the vast Windows Ecosystem (700 m computers) is itself an argument for using Windows has been disproven by the Internet. If you have a network or connect to the Internet, Windows is a significant risk. And don't blame the users. That's as arrogant as the US makers of the cars that Nader condemned in 1965. Windows is "Unsafe At Internet Speed".
The Windows operating system, which is a liability on any network, must be constantly patched to protect against the "latest" threats. Microsoft's only constructive answers to these exploits are "patch and pray" and also to cripple connectivity (Windows XP SP2).
There will always be smart Bad Guys. The Bad Guys who excel at being bad are MUCH more creative than Microsoft and they have clearly put Generalissimo Ballmero and his regiments to flight. If you have the worst possible defences, you can't expect to be left in peace. Using Windows today is like sending your cavalry to engage hostile tanks. You *will* get slaughtered at some point and if it doesn't happen immediately, it's because the tank crews took pity.
Last year, I completed two important Perl-based projects for my employer. I also use Perl at least once a week to run analyses of my Web server logs. I prototype Web applications in Perl and often just put the prototype into production because it works well. I'm still using Perl that I wrote over 10 years ago, with NO changes, on several OSs. And I use Ubuntu Debian, of which Perl is an integral component.
Perl is great. If I want what it doesn't have, I use a different language. But when I want regular expressions, CPAN, quick and secure CGI, analysis of large data sets and general parsing, easy database integration, and efficient portability from server all the way down to embedded systems, Perl is the first language I consider. Ruby might be ready for the real world one day. And Python is good for other things, but it is not a replacement for Perl.
- Que Publishing is a publisher of computer books - Q was an arrogant but powerful character in ST:TNG who liked to annoy the crew of the Enterprise because they didn't copulate anywhere near as much as James... T... Kirk. - queue, noun, a line or series of people or things; verb, to form a line or series. - cul, noun, French, the buttocks - cue, noun, a signal or indication; verb, to signal, to indicate, to move to position.
2009: The Year Of The Truly Helpful Slashdot Grammar Nazi
There are fake ergonomic keyboards, such as the ones made by Microsoft that have a "wrist support" but keep the keys in straight line. These are not ergonomic at all.
The original Microsoft Natural keyboard, with its "split" or "wave" key formation, is a good one. Adesso still makes a real ergonomic keyboard too. If you want to save money, you can grab an older Adesso Nu-Form USB ergonomic keyboard for a good price at EBay.
But the best ergonomic keyboard of all must be the Keyovation Goldtouch. The left-right split is fully adjustable; there is no number pad, so the user will always center the keyboard by the center of the space bar.
Notebooks have wretched ergonomics. People are asking for pain if they are going to spend all their computing time typing on a small, straight keyboard, clumsily pointing and clicking with a TouchPad or a TrackPoint, and looking downward at a small screen.
To make a notebook ergonomically humane, the user must also purchase a docking station and connect a GoldTouch keyboard (for example), a monitor, and a humane pointing device. And a multi-port USB hub. He or she has to spend more than what would have been spent to build an mATX-based system (or buy new for $300 at current prices)... that would have been expandable, performed much better, and encouraged healthy posture and habits.
But yes, I know that we don't really care about people's health.
If manufacturers are going to treat customers as beta testers, and hide from them when the product fails, there are only two recourses, and I recommend both: stop buying the company's product, and file a class-action lawsuit.
Even if it is fashionable to claim it, Capitalism does not mean "cheat the people".
The article is slashdotted but it is possible that when this happened there was no solid surface yet to leave traces of this.
No, I think the article was slashdotted today.
The server in flames may leave traces on the floor and walls of the server room, but we'll have to wait for a "Best Way For Bright Child To Clean Server Room?" post to Ask Slashdot to confirm.
How is fact not the opposite of "not real or true"? Opinion is not knowledge, therefore it is not fact. "Fact" excerpted from the OED:
1. A thing done or performed.
2. The making, doing, or performing.
3. Math. = FACTUM
4. a. Something that has really occurred or is actually the case; something certainly known to be of this character; hence, a particular truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as opposed to what is merely inferred, or to a conjecture or fiction; a datum of experience, as distinguished from the conclusions that may be based upon it.
5. Often loosely used for: Something that is alleged to be, or conceivably might be, a âfactâ(TM).
6. a. (Without a and pl.) That which is of the nature of a fact; what has actually happened or is the case; truth attested by direct observation or authentic testimony; reality. matter of fact: a subject of discussion belonging to the domain of fact, as distinguished from matter of inference, of opinion, of law, etc.
b. in fact: in reality (cf. sense 1 and indeed). Now often used parenthetically in an epexegetical statement, or when a more comprehensive assertion is substituted for that which has just been made. in point of fact: with regard to matters of fact; also (and now usually) = in fact.
c. the fact (of the matter): the truth with regard to the subject under discussion.
7. Law. In sing. and pl. The circumstances and incidents of a case, looked at apart from their legal bearing. attorney in fact: see ATTORNEY.
8. attrib. and Comb., as fact-fetishism, -fetishist ns.; fact-bound, -crammed adjs.; fact-collecting, -cramming vbl. ns.; fact-gathering vbl. n. and ppl. adj.; fact-finding ppl. a., that finds out facts; esp. descriptive of a committee, commission, etc., set up to discover and establish the facts of any matter; also as vbl. n., the work involved in such a process; hence (as a back-formation) fact-find v. intr.; also fact-finder; fact-proof a., impervious to facts; fact-sheet, a paper on which facts relevant to a particular issue are set out briefly and clearly.
Slashdot Mirror
but they know their business better than I do
Let's see...
"It's the guys who can touch us in multiple places that are Microsoft's top competitors rather than the guys who can touch us in any one place." -- Ballmer
"I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's a software experience." -- Ballmer
"I'm going to f****** kill Google." -- Ballmer
Er... maybe you actually DO know better.
You call the MS activation # and tell them you moved it to a new computer
If I have a unique, legitimate key, that should be enough for Microsoft. If the cost of using MS software is now to be tracked by Redmond, the cost is too high.
Also, upgrading just one component - such as adding more memory or a new graphics card - will not trigger a reactivation. A whole new computer will of course, and extreme changes, such as a new motherboard, will, but minor changes rarely ever require a call.
[buzzer] If I buy a legitimate piece of software, I expect to use it on the computer of my choice. My computers are *my* business.
Thanks for correcting me about the number of activations.
I don't want to have to call for approval to use software, at any point, whether you think it's "hard" or not.
Microsoft will be the platform of choice for DRM and policing. It won't be my platform.
Never mind the additional cost of licensing and installation. I simply do not understand how they can possibly think Windows 7 will be successful.
I recommend to everyone I know not to buy Vista -- and I'll likely do the same for Windows 7. This is not because Vista is bad, or too different, or hard to use. Apple's commercials are manipulative (albeit effective) and Microsoft's inept responses (Seinfeld and Gates, I'm A PC with posterchild for Uncool, Steve Ballmer, screaming like an enraged ape) are embarrassing. But Vista is an adequate improvement in appearance and seems stable enough, despite needing just as much critical patching every week as Windows XP.
My objection to Vista -- and to Windows 7 -- is the licensing strategy.
With MS Windows XP and all preceding versions of Windows, I have been able to install the OS on each new computer that I purchased as I upgraded my hardware. I always purchase and register my commercial software.
When I buy OS X, I can install it on my Apple computer and ever future Apple computer that I will buy. I don't even need a key. I can upgrade my hardware without having to pay Apple again, or to call them and advise them that I am upgrading my computer. This makes my life easy.
One can of course install a Linux distribution anywhere, anytime. OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, and others are very easy to install and to use.
But when you buy Vista, you buy a registration key only. This key cannot be re-used more than twice. (OEM Vista cannot be re-used at all, I understand.) I am not going to pay for MS Windows Vista every time I upgrade my computer. I'm not going to telephone Mr Ballmer and asking for permission to put his product on my computer. And since I do not intend to use Vista or Windows 7 illegally, I will simply have to stop using it.
Fortunately, for me, there are better alternatives to MS Windows today. I feel sorry for the users who are locked into the Microsoft Cycle Of Misery and can't -- or won't -- escape.
Volcano God unhappy! Bind and gag Sarah Palin and throw her in, then everything will be OK! ..seriously, it's a win-win situation for everyone. ;-)
I believe it is also the plot of the sequel to "Nalin Palin".
King James Bible:
"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."
You betcha! (winks)
A $10 notebook is yet more proof that free markets, competition and Globalization will ensure the future strength prosperity of Western Civilization!
But can we get that price lower? I think we *can*!
1.) First, we have to trim the lowest 10% of performers from every organization. (Pay bonuses to executives for doing this effectively.) Tip: trim Human Resources last -- we need them to do the hatchet work while senior management strokes the shareholders and analysts.
2.) Repeat 1.) a few times and what will remain is a lean and absolutely *amazing* company of workers who do more error-free work with a facial muscle spasm than other schmucks do in 6 months with both hands and 20/20 vision!
3.) Next, we find cheaper workers. India's labour costs are a big part of that $10. Whom will we get to do the work? EASY... we train bonobos. We don't even have to feed them much -- those suckers are pretty lean.
4.) Sack all Testing and Quality Assurance people. With our lean, superproductive staff and well-trained bonobos, we won't need to test. And if there's a problem, we'll silence talk of it with legal threats and "promise" to fix the bug(s) in a future release. (Ha ha!)
5.) Squeeze as much free money as we can out of the government. If the government is Pro-Business, say we're creating new jobs in a cutting-edge market. If the government is Green, say we're saving the bonobos. If it's a coalition, say whatever you have to say no matter how self-contradictory or idiotic.
6.) Spend cash from 5.) on bribes to steal someone else's technology. R&D is for losers.
7.) Throw the product over the wall and pump up the advertising! If it fails, lock the workers out and give senior management a round of bonuses. But it won't fail, because using the above strategy, I think we have the $10 notebook down to $2.35.
Unless of course "$10" is a typo.
Look, it's hard work building botnets. After all these years Linux *still* can't get it right.
"Gee, gone so zune?"
Linus has plenty of other things to say in this interview. Why focus on this less important aspect of the discussion?
Because LT doesn't like how KDE is right now? That's his choice, just as it was to like KDE more than Gnome before.
Software is not perfect and it only achieves usefulness by stages, as LT himself mentions in discussing Git. A living project is a changing project. Not everyone is going to like the changes.
No, the most common target is the target of choice. No one is going to bother writing a worm for Ubuntu or OS X because it's not worth the effort.
The botnets all use Microsoft exploits. A botnet is agnostic about the host OS -- the zombie is controlled remotely to coordinate an attack.
The size of the zombie platform's market is unimportant to a botnet. The ease of subjugation is very important.
Congress overseas ALL of what is going on.
Sending Congress overseas could SAVE AMERICA.
*ALL* operating systems much be constantly patched to protect against the "latest" threats.
Not if the threat is in the Windows Ecosystem. All OSs are updated, but how many OSs are used to form Botnets based on OS-specific technology?
Ok, they are *usually* less serious than this particular vulnerability, but my Ubuntu box downloads "critical" updates at least once a week on average.
My Ubuntu box and my OS X box receive updates, sure. But, for example, I am unaware of any Linux-based or OS X-based Botnets. They will not be updated for this Botnet. The easiest target is the target of choice.
Microsoft have made a lot of bad design decisions in their products, often in order to thwart competition, but them actually being incompetent or negligent, especially in recent years, is a lot harder to prove.
Exhibit A - the invention of the Botnet.
The only reason why there hasn't been a class action lawsuit against Microsoft for their incompetence is that many misguided people STILL think that every 20 minutes of MS Word is worth 1 week of their time spent Patching and Praying and trying to recover data.
The argument that the vast Windows Ecosystem (700 m computers) is itself an argument for using Windows has been disproven by the Internet. If you have a network or connect to the Internet, Windows is a significant risk. And don't blame the users. That's as arrogant as the US makers of the cars that Nader condemned in 1965. Windows is "Unsafe At Internet Speed".
The Windows operating system, which is a liability on any network, must be constantly patched to protect against the "latest" threats. Microsoft's only constructive answers to these exploits are "patch and pray" and also to cripple connectivity (Windows XP SP2).
There will always be smart Bad Guys. The Bad Guys who excel at being bad are MUCH more creative than Microsoft and they have clearly put Generalissimo Ballmero and his regiments to flight. If you have the worst possible defences, you can't expect to be left in peace. Using Windows today is like sending your cavalry to engage hostile tanks. You *will* get slaughtered at some point and if it doesn't happen immediately, it's because the tank crews took pity.
Fixed the subject line for you.
Last year, I completed two important Perl-based projects for my employer. I also use Perl at least once a week to run analyses of my Web server logs. I prototype Web applications in Perl and often just put the prototype into production because it works well. I'm still using Perl that I wrote over 10 years ago, with NO changes, on several OSs. And I use Ubuntu Debian, of which Perl is an integral component.
Perl is great. If I want what it doesn't have, I use a different language. But when I want regular expressions, CPAN, quick and secure CGI, analysis of large data sets and general parsing, easy database integration, and efficient portability from server all the way down to embedded systems, Perl is the first language I consider. Ruby might be ready for the real world one day. And Python is good for other things, but it is not a replacement for Perl.
Dear Perl Monger,
TMTOWTDI in Perl. However, in English spelling:
- Que Publishing is a publisher of computer books
- Q was an arrogant but powerful character in ST:TNG who liked to annoy the crew of the Enterprise because they didn't copulate anywhere near as much as James... T... Kirk.
- queue, noun, a line or series of people or things; verb, to form a line or series.
- cul, noun, French, the buttocks
- cue, noun, a signal or indication; verb, to signal, to indicate, to move to position.
2009: The Year Of The Truly Helpful Slashdot Grammar Nazi
In celebration of the end of 2008, let me take a bullet for all /. Grammar Nazis by condemning The F******* Summary for this linguistic turd:
particularly egregious
There are fake ergonomic keyboards, such as the ones made by Microsoft that have a "wrist support" but keep the keys in straight line. These are not ergonomic at all.
The original Microsoft Natural keyboard, with its "split" or "wave" key formation, is a good one. Adesso still makes a real ergonomic keyboard too. If you want to save money, you can grab an older Adesso Nu-Form USB ergonomic keyboard for a good price at EBay.
But the best ergonomic keyboard of all must be the Keyovation Goldtouch. The left-right split is fully adjustable; there is no number pad, so the user will always center the keyboard by the center of the space bar.
Notebooks have wretched ergonomics. People are asking for pain if they are going to spend all their computing time typing on a small, straight keyboard, clumsily pointing and clicking with a TouchPad or a TrackPoint, and looking downward at a small screen.
To make a notebook ergonomically humane, the user must also purchase a docking station and connect a GoldTouch keyboard (for example), a monitor, and a humane pointing device. And a multi-port USB hub. He or she has to spend more than what would have been spent to build an mATX-based system (or buy new for $300 at current prices)... that would have been expandable, performed much better, and encouraged healthy posture and habits.
But yes, I know that we don't really care about people's health.
If manufacturers are going to treat customers as beta testers, and hide from them when the product fails, there are only two recourses, and I recommend both: stop buying the company's product, and file a class-action lawsuit.
Even if it is fashionable to claim it, Capitalism does not mean "cheat the people".
The article is slashdotted but it is possible that when this happened there was no solid surface yet to leave traces of this.
No, I think the article was slashdotted today.
The server in flames may leave traces on the floor and walls of the server room, but we'll have to wait for a "Best Way For Bright Child To Clean Server Room?" post to Ask Slashdot to confirm.
There is much more to the beauty of this planet than humans and their "civilizations".
How is fact not the opposite of "not real or true"? Opinion is not knowledge, therefore it is not fact. "Fact" excerpted from the OED:
1. A thing done or performed.
2. The making, doing, or performing.
3. Math. = FACTUM
4. a. Something that has really occurred or is actually the case; something certainly known to be of this character; hence, a particular truth known by actual observation or authentic testimony, as opposed to what is merely inferred, or to a conjecture or fiction; a datum of experience, as distinguished from the conclusions that may be based upon it.
5. Often loosely used for: Something that is alleged to be, or conceivably might be, a âfactâ(TM).
6. a. (Without a and pl.) That which is of the nature of a fact; what has actually happened or is the case; truth attested by direct observation or authentic testimony; reality. matter of fact: a subject of discussion belonging to the domain of fact, as distinguished from matter of inference, of opinion, of law, etc.
b. in fact: in reality (cf. sense 1 and indeed). Now often used parenthetically in an epexegetical statement, or when a more comprehensive assertion is substituted for that which has just been made. in point of fact: with regard to matters of fact; also (and now usually) = in fact.
c. the fact (of the matter): the truth with regard to the subject under discussion.
7. Law. In sing. and pl. The circumstances and incidents of a case, looked at apart from their legal bearing. attorney in fact: see ATTORNEY.
8. attrib. and Comb., as fact-fetishism, -fetishist ns.; fact-bound, -crammed adjs.; fact-collecting, -cramming vbl. ns.; fact-gathering vbl. n. and ppl. adj.; fact-finding ppl. a., that finds out facts; esp. descriptive of a committee, commission, etc., set up to discover and establish the facts of any matter; also as vbl. n., the work involved in such a process; hence (as a back-formation) fact-find v. intr.; also fact-finder; fact-proof a., impervious to facts; fact-sheet, a paper on which facts relevant to a particular issue are set out briefly and clearly.
which system gives you the most e-penis for your buck
I believe you are referring to the Apple iPenis.
This forthcoming product from Apple is very fashionable but it does dick-all.