...because of patent infringements. Patent infringements are like nukes in the IT world. Everyone has them, but no one will sue over them because, well, everyone has them. Also, given the number of patents out there, chances are every major company has inadvertently infringed on somebody else's patent. So here is how it goes down:
Linux adoption continues to increase.
Microsoft has a bad quarter.
Microsoft panics.
Microsoft digs through their 100s of patents, and find something that IBM unwittingly violated.
They sue IBM for say, 3 billion dollars.
IBM digs through its much larger patent portfolio and finds several that MS inadvertently vioplated.
I live in Dayton OH. It has plenty of tech companies plus an Air Force base. Also, because the town sort of follows the north/south Miami River, there is lots of open country (driving, not walking) twenty minutes east or west of here. So unless your wife needs to work in a specific part of the boonies (likely the case) you might check this out. Plus we have the largest electronic surplus store on the face of the planet, Computerfest, and Hamvention. Plenty to entertain a typical nerd.
It seems like Kodak is one of those formerly huge or historically significant companies that you just never hear about anymore. Then when you do hear about them, you are kind of surprised that they are still in business.
Kind of like the way NCR, The Hudson Bay Company, and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company all still exist as active corporations.
I wouldn't try to build social skills in these geeks. Some of our greatest minds in history had negligible social skills which contributed to the free time needed to achieve greatness. What if Linus Torvalds spent all his free time playing pool? Would we have the light bulb had Thomas Edison been a party animal? I think not.
Sure we can, its the WWW. That's how it works. I wonder if the story submitter got permission first? From the TOS page:
Linking to the Web Site.
You may provide links only to the homepage of this Web Site, provided (a) you do not remove or obscure, by framing or otherwise, advertisements, the copyright notice, or other notices on this Web Site, (b) you give Provider notice of such link by sending an email to support@doctorsknow.us, (c) you discontinue providing links to this Web Site if requested by Provider. #
There is the obligatory link to the MySQL user conference, the obligatory Chris Stone bio link, links to a few previous stories, but no new story. This is so surreal. Its like when I went into Subway with a friend who ordered a "six inch on wheat, with cheese". The girl behind the counter got out the bread, cut it in half, put the cheese on it, then kind of spaced out for a minute before asking him what kind of sandwich he wanted. Try it sometime.
Back in my day, we didn't have computers. We would see how long we could balance on a flagpole or we would see how many goldfish we could fit in a telephone booth. Hell, once I danced the Charleston on a flagpole for 12 hours. Won me a brand new LaSalle. Now, pranks and mischief are all electronic, done with them newfangled computers by them so called script-kiddies.
Takes the fun out of being a kid if you ask me. Hmmmpphh
telemarketer: Hi, I'm calling from ADC Home Security systems, how are you today, Mr. Hood?
me: Not to good.
telemarketer: Excellent, We are calling because we giving a way 20 free robotic house-gaurding dragons to people in your neighborhood and you have been selected to receive one. This dragon, an $18,000 value, will guard your home when your gone, perform CPR if you choke, or call the police if there's a fire. Plus, it comes in your choice of five colors. This is yours for free when you sign up for our $2995 a month service and monitoring plan for five years. That's less than a hundred dollars a day.
me: That's not free.
telemarketer: Yes, but surely you can't put a price on your family's safety.
me: I wouldn't have thought so either, but here we are.
telemarketer: But this robotic dragon is the greatest technological marvel since the beginning of time. It also can scorch intruders into charcoal and catch you if you fall down the stairs. Is there any reason you aren't interested?
me: I already have a security system, actually.
telemarketer: May I ask what brand?
me: It's a hedge maze in the front yard.
telemarketer: Really, does it work?
me: I haven't seen the mailman in a while, so I guess so.
Boy the way Steve Ballmer said, Unix now is finally dead, Windows was king they all said those were the days. Didn't need no business plan so said the investor man And now the stocks are in the can Those were the days. We all ran Windows 98 Blue screens that we had to hate Gee our Packard Bell ran great Those were the days Mr. we can use a man like Linus Torvalds again Those were the days!
Slashdot Mirror
...because of patent infringements. Patent infringements are like nukes in the IT world. Everyone has them, but no one will sue over them because, well, everyone has them. Also, given the number of patents out there, chances are every major company has inadvertently infringed on somebody else's patent. So here is how it goes down:
Linux adoption continues to increase.
Microsoft has a bad quarter.
Microsoft panics.
Microsoft digs through their 100s of patents, and find something that IBM unwittingly violated.
They sue IBM for say, 3 billion dollars.
IBM digs through its much larger patent portfolio and finds several that MS inadvertently vioplated.
IBM sues MS for 60 billion dollars.
MS wins its suit against IBM and nets 3 billion.
IBM wins its suit against MS and nets 60 billion.
And Microsoft is broke.
I wrote a little C program called FauxDOS and had it run from the autoexec.bat file on a cow-orker's MS-DOS PC. The source is below.
#include "stdio.h"
void main()
{
while(1)
{
char p[256];
printf("C:\\>");
fflush(stdout);
gets(p);
if(p[0])
printf("Bad command or file name\n\n");
}
}
Remember OSS coders: Be sure to gap all functions at .040" to ensure proper data ignition and to prevent code knocking.
I live in Dayton OH. It has plenty of tech companies plus an Air Force base. Also, because the town sort of follows the north/south Miami River, there is lots of open country (driving, not walking) twenty minutes east or west of here. So unless your wife needs to work in a specific part of the boonies (likely the case) you might check this out. Plus we have the largest electronic surplus store on the face of the planet, Computerfest, and Hamvention. Plenty to entertain a typical nerd.
There's WMP in Windows? Why hasn't Bush sent in the troops?
...therefore it is a planet.
Per Webster's:
moon, n. a natural satellite of a planet
So there.
... is to work smarter, not harder.
Then when I woke up, my pillow was gone.
It seems like Kodak is one of those formerly huge or historically significant companies that you just never hear about anymore. Then when you do hear about them, you are kind of surprised that they are still in business.
Kind of like the way NCR, The Hudson Bay Company, and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company all still exist as active corporations.
So class action suits don't work in reverse. A class can sue an entity, but not the other way around. That's likely a good thing.
I wouldn't try to build social skills in these geeks. Some of our greatest minds in history had negligible social skills which contributed to the free time needed to achieve greatness. What if Linus Torvalds spent all his free time playing pool? Would we have the light bulb had Thomas Edison been a party animal? I think not.
Sure we can, its the WWW. That's how it works. I wonder if the story submitter got permission first? From the TOS page:
Linking to the Web Site.
You may provide links only to the homepage of this Web Site, provided (a) you do not remove or obscure, by framing or otherwise, advertisements, the copyright notice, or other notices on this Web Site, (b) you give Provider notice of such link by sending an email to support@doctorsknow.us, (c) you discontinue providing links to this Web Site if requested by Provider.
#
TOS be damned, slashdot them anyway.
It wouldn't bump its asses when it hopped.
Wouldn't that be cool? Just stick it in your PCMCIA slot, then tilt the laptop so it points at the screen.
I went there, and it appears to be a legitimate protest site. See for yourself.
There is the obligatory link to the MySQL user conference, the obligatory Chris Stone bio link, links to a few previous stories, but no new story. This is so surreal. Its like when I went into Subway with a friend who ordered a "six inch on wheat, with cheese". The girl behind the counter got out the bread, cut it in half, put the cheese on it, then kind of spaced out for a minute before asking him what kind of sandwich he wanted. Try it sometime.
Back in my day, we didn't have computers. We would see how long we could balance on a flagpole or we would see how many goldfish we could fit in a telephone booth. Hell, once I danced the Charleston on a flagpole for 12 hours. Won me a brand new LaSalle. Now, pranks and mischief are all electronic, done with them newfangled computers by them so called script-kiddies.
Takes the fun out of being a kid if you ask me. Hmmmpphh
telemarketer: Hi, I'm calling from ADC Home Security systems, how are you today, Mr. Hood?
me: Not to good.
telemarketer: Excellent, We are calling because we giving a way 20 free robotic house-gaurding dragons to people in your neighborhood and you have been selected to receive one. This dragon, an $18,000 value, will guard your home when your gone, perform CPR if you choke, or call the police if there's a fire. Plus, it comes in your choice of five colors. This is yours for free when you sign up for our $2995 a month service and monitoring plan for five years. That's less than a hundred dollars a day.
me: That's not free.
telemarketer: Yes, but surely you can't put a price on your family's safety.
me: I wouldn't have thought so either, but here we are.
telemarketer: But this robotic dragon is the greatest technological marvel since the beginning of time. It also can scorch intruders into charcoal and catch you if you fall down the stairs. Is there any reason you aren't interested?
me: I already have a security system, actually.
telemarketer: May I ask what brand?
me: It's a hedge maze in the front yard.
telemarketer: Really, does it work?
me: I haven't seen the mailman in a while, so I guess so.
telemarketer: Hmmm. *click*
So Microsoft could open up a plant stamping out Office and Windows CDs in China and get around this technicality.
It's efficient.
So is this an XML based audio format? Wouldn't that waste a lot of bandwidth?
Boy the way Steve Ballmer said,
Unix now is finally dead,
Windows was king they all said
those were the days.
Didn't need no business plan
so said the investor man
And now the stocks are in the can
Those were the days.
We all ran Windows 98
Blue screens that we had to hate
Gee our Packard Bell ran great
Those were the days
Mr. we can use a man like Linus Torvalds again
Those were the days!
You mislead domain names.
Wait, that's not right.