It appears as though lots of study has been done on gender differences in learning, especially in math and science.
This This appears to be a good technical summary with lots of subsiduary references. Or try feeding "gender differences math" to the search engine of your choice.
One point must be made is that men and women are different. (and oh what a beautiful difference) This difference starts at a fundamental chemical level and is revealed in physical appearance and social behaviour.
One study which I saw some time ago and alas can no longer find study the way groups of high school math students solved problems. The females were happy to accept a solution, even a wrong one, that the majority of the group accepted. While individual males would support their solution against the majority if they considered it correct. (general disclaimer: whether other groups or individuals behave this way, who knows). What it does show is that social behaviours have a lot to with scientific investigation.
There was also that british study that showed that London taxi drivers grew their brains to better navigate the city. I am sure the amazing adaptable human body can make up for any basic gender differences if the appropriate training is provided.
The questions we should be asking are:
1) To what level should individuals be subjected to training that will change their natural gender tendancies.
2) What level of maturity is required before individuals are allowed to select such training for themselves or are others allowed to make against gender training decisions for them.
3) Is it desirable or detrimental to society as a whole to have the natural gender bias result in gender unbalanced professions. Or should some professions require that a reasonable balanced be maintained between the genders.
These are basic rights questions. We have the technology, should we and to what level be using it.
The hijack pointed to a web site owned by the hijackers. All the ISP traffic was directed to the ISP clients site at the specific direction of the ISP client.
The ISP should have no claim as their client generated all the demand for network services.
In this case the nike.com DNS entry was hijacked with the express pupose of directing traffic to the hijackers site. The ISP hosted the hijackers site. All this traffic was "correctly" routed to the hijackers site, at the hijackers expressed request. The hijackers were clients of the ISP. I say the ISP has no case.
Now a 3rd party redirecting something like.microsoft.com at.smallcompany.com in a destructive flooding attempt might be liable for an increase in traffic on a part of the net they are not associated with.
The best thing about Battlefield Earth is the lessons it teaches Hollywood.
There is not a legion of die hard Travolta fans. There is not a legion of die hard sci-fans. There is not a legion of die hard L.R.Hubbard fans.
You cannot make a "big name movie" on the actor alone. You cannot make a "big concept movie" on the genre alone. You cannot make a "big name movie" on the source material alone.
The value of a movie is grounded in the quality of the script. No matter how many "neato" concepts, ideas, or explosions are thrown in the mix it is the quality of the script that matters.
Beyond the script the production values that are simply making sure that the script is followed and presented clearly.
Every producer in Hollywood should be forced to watch Battlefield Earth until they swear never to make a movie without a good script.
Every director in Hollywood should be forced to watch Battlefield Earth until they swear never to make a movie without a good script, and not to mess with the script unless they make it better.
Every actor in Hollywood should be forced to watch Battlefield Earth until they swear never to make a movie without a good script, and not to mess with the script unless they make it better.
Unfortunately there are always those producers, directors and actors that will think, and state in public that scripts like those of Battlefield Earth are good.
The one lesson for Hollywood is that there is no accounting for taste. Especially the taste of those denizens of Hollywood who are wrapped deepest in the glow of the place.
I was at a seminar where a number of long time telephone people were being introduced to IP protocols.
Apparently in phone land every packet is sacred or something like that. They were having a real hard time understanding that IP protocol allows packets to be just dropped.
You mean real life orbit decay is not like the movies where as soon as the engines of an orbiting space ship fail they have something like 2 minutes to correct the problem or burn and crash.
Is there anyway we can convince the media to run with the story like disaster is imminent?
Pump the drama, run the news
"New international space station in failing orbit without engines"
"Umpteen billion dollar space station left without engines, already falling to earth"
"No Scotty on board to save international space station in decaying orbit"
Or is it just that real life is boring compared to the movies.
This is stupid as the linking site has no control over the content of the linked site. It might be ok when the link is created but not later.
Ok so if I find a japanese site linking to some legitimate stuff I have. All I have to do is move some stuff around stick in a how to make a bomb page and blamo the japanese site is now illegal.
So what should be done is create a site where people can register themselves. This site will generate a random number of reports to the Wave site of "bad" activity every day for every user registered with the Tidal Wave site.
This site would probably get blocked/detected by the Wave site pretty quickly. So you add a way for people to randomly report someone with a button push.
There can even be a "suggest a deviant activity" like being 15 and obsessed with Teletubies to generate new subjects for the report.
What is needed now is a *86 emulator to run under DOSEMU.
That way all the DOS application can instantly run on ANY linux system (with enough CPU power). A 300Mhz chip should be able to emulate a 30MHz processor no problem.
See the pretty MAC, see the pretty MAC run linux, see the pretty MAC run DOSEMU see the pretty MAC run Windows 3.1 see the pretty MAC run DukeNukem3d.
See the IBM iron run VM, see VM run linux see linx run dosemu on any86 see windows 3.1 run on IBM iron fall on the floor and laugh your guts out.
Time for government investigation/lawsuit against the DVD player manufactureres for illegal restraint of trade. Certainly the consumer reaction in this case clearly demonstrates the effect that the regional codes had on the marketplace.
Didn't we see a story last week requiring all people in England to provide police with decription information for any coded information on their computer if requested.
The simple fact that an owner of a monitor of this sort would not be in posession of the key for decrypting the video stream would make the owner instantly jailable. Thanks to the corporate push we will all end up going to jail!
Good points on the illegal product tying. Can the EFF get a counter suit of illegal market manipulation, conspiracy or whatever you call it against the DVD players manufacturers for closing the market against competitive products (that play DVDs) by encryption.
If DVD are themselves a separate product every company should have the right to freely make players. Attempting to lock the DVD under encription and restricting the market is illegal restraint of trade and definitly the list of key holders is list of companies who conspired to corner the market.
Or are there reasons I am missing that allow companies to restrict the market like this?
It looks, and sounds, like they gave major points for "ease of use" aka point and click configuration and wizards.
Does the fact that the only knowledge you need to operate a Win2K server is where to point and click the mouse not raise some warning flags in peoples heads. I know they like to scream "ease of use" but I think a sysadmin should know how the system works rather than "Its a server so you click the server button in system configuration."
No default system configuration is going to be the best for everyone. A good sysadmin needs to understand the needs of the computing environment the services provided by the OS, and be able to tailor the services provided by the OS specifically to supply exactly the needs of the computing environment. I don't see point and click interfaces and point and click administrators being able to achieve this.
I expect the intention is to make the resulting system open to the public.
1) Linux is becoming a big player in commercial network sites. 2) The government wants a secure national network. Including secure private sites. Part of the NSA mandate is to protect private citizens and companies. 3) The government is going Linux. Try estimating what the government would have to spend to "update" to Windows2000. 4) Linux is the ideal platform, with GPL released code, everybody (except those sending money to Redmond) are on an equal footing with the released code. There is no perceived government backing of private enterprise which would be the case if the NSA $ were going to Redmond.
I think a better open source project would be the open source user data base.
Here is your user profile: This is where you have browsed today:
This information was collected by an open source project with NO funding. A number of companies, like Microsoft, that have considerable resources and conections to the fundamental operating system of your computer are spending a lot of money on this. What do you think they know?
As those under 18 in Canada are legally unable to consent to the GPL restrictions. No one under 18 in Canada is allowed to copy the Linux code in any form, by the copyright consent part of the GPL. Thus we have the perfect reason for Corel to tag the code the way the did. Corel is simply clarifying the legal restrictions placed on distribution under copyright and the GPL by Canadian law. For Corel to tag the code otherwise would have been negligence.
Now say ARRRGGGHHH again.
Because of its end user license agreement, it sould be illegal to sell Microsoft software to anyone under 18 in Canada as they are legally unable to agree to the terms of the licensing agreement. The fact that this has not been done is probably another good argument for the total unenforceability of the license agreement.
This whole license agrement mess is stupid but points to some very interesting problems in the current structure of property laws.
The problem is that there are too many lawyers involved in this release.
The problem is that according to Canadian law someone under 18 cannot be bound to license restrictions. So someone under 18 is free to violate the GPL along with all the other Corel license stuff anyways. In placing the restrictions on the software Corel is actually protecting the GPL.
This is part of the stupidity of license restrictions in general.
Any under 18 Canadian wanting to go buy some copies of Microsoft Software and violate the license agreement is free to do so. Seems like a good time to contract qsome high school Canadians to set up a Microsoft Network, they could do it with only 1 purchased copy of the software.
Similarly under 18 Canadians are free to use Linux to make full commercial releases with private modified code. The GPL don't stick.
A computer: 1. A fabricated device based on a finite automaton with associated storage media for data. 2. The computer includes input and output apparatus for communicating between the storage media, the automaton, and the world. 3. This computer will be capable of performing any conceptual abstract process based on a descriptive algorithm. The method of describing abstract processes for processing by the automaton is called programming.
This revolutionary device will free our thoughts by making any conceivable process simple to capture and automate.
I was going to carry on with this but it just hit me how close all these software patents come to thought and expression control. UUGGHGHH. Especially so when you consider that the mind is a form of finite automaton.
What with companies getting patents for DNA, as soon as we get mind/computer interfaces are some forms of thought going to become illegal?
The more systems we have with unique user names and passwords the more likely we are to do things that weaken them.
One user name and password I can remember and even keep my password pretty random. If I have 15 to 30 user names and passwords I an going to have a hard time remembering them and am going to either start writing them down, start reusing them between systems or start making the password a simple function of the site/username. Another problem is the frequency of use a username/password is easily forgotton if not written down or used regularly.
To avoid some of these problems I make use once accounts on any sites that require the establishing of a user name and password (except slashdot, but my slashdot password is now my Novel network password (example of evil creep), and I allow the slashdot cookie to continue to exist).
As another example of evil creep I have two bank card passwords, one is the reverse of the other. Nothing is written down, the numbers are random and I can remember it but it does weaken the system.
Another source of weakening is that not all accounts need the same level of protection. I might feel like sharing my Gas card password with someone but not my banking password. If in the name of conveinience I have made the two passwords the same I could be in trouble.
The medical password system is a problem. I don't see it as an everyday use thing. Almost no one is going to remember a password they use every 2-6 months unless they either right it down or make it a very simple association.
Making medical records available is nice. I would prefer if they were only available at definite physical locations like doctors offices or hospitals where the information already must be made available. In these locations a staff person could authenticate the users identity using regular id and then grant access to the record.
Maybe secure record access could be extended to libraries. (libraries need to become more involved with the net) Rather than release information to the wilds of the net a library would allow a staff member check physical id. I see a two part access system, staff and user, with limited physical availability and of course a log file.
The desktop PC needs a standard API, both into and out of the operating system. Hardware vendors should be on the OS to hardware level and software vendores on the OS to application level.
With a standard OS interface anyone is free to develop the OS. Anyone is free to develop the applications and anyone is free to develop the hardware.
Establish a desktop PC API standard. Any Microsoft OS must conform to the API. All inter-application communication must be through the OS API or through open file or data formats.
Microsoft must get their OS and applications certified by the independent PC API standard body.
Microsoft is free to "innovate" applications but must publish all their file and data formats. Publication does not hurt innovation.
Microsoft is free to "innovate" with the OS but is required to be certified to the OS API standard. Thus any "innovations" must be made part of the OS API standard before they can be incorporated into the OS. (Come on Microsoft lets see your superior programming skills provide superior implementations of open standards.)
What made the PC so popular was the open hardware standard. Making the OS an open standard should lead to another boom in software (like before Microsoft started down the Windows one true way monopoly path).
In addition there can be no sales tying of hardware to OS or OS to application. Bundling of applications is allowed but any individually available part of a bundle must communicate with the rest using open standards.
What this does not fix is the possibility of a bare bones OS and a super desktop application incorporating everything from Windows, VB, Office, IE with nothing available separatly.
The whole reason the Judge said I will release the results on a Friday after the markets close. Was to reduce speculation.
There is going to be speculation that "THIS IS THE WEEK" every week until it happens. I have no idea how ready the judge is (anyone doing a pizza watch?) The whole point of this was to have the press and everybody speculate like mad for several weeks every friday. When we have all become quite bored with speculation that "THIS IS THE WEEK" it will be a good time release the judgment.
As that recent rant on Microsoft showed most IT companies that issue options packages instead of hard wages are dependent on a constant increase in stock value. Should that increase fail the options will be excercised and the company will feel an incredible cash drain further driving down the stock value. Thus IT stocks with a large amount of employee stock options are destined for a boom and bust life cycle. The only question is when the boom occurs.
There have been numerous reports of MS head honchos cashing out and a few leaks about possibly shady MS accounting practices to make sure the profit keeps rolling in. These prices look like a cash grab but with Linux and other options some of it is destined to slip through MS's fingers. It may not payout like MS expects.
MS, and many other option oriented IP stocks certainly look like pyramid schemes. The only question is how long until the pyramid realises it does not have a foundation and collapses. MS is feeling pressure on many fronts, DOJ, Linux, basic need for a constant cash flow, how long until the public stands up, points the finger and says Microsoft "has no clothes"?
Corel head Copeland is facing insider trading investigation for his actions around selling before bad earnings results. Could the MS boys face a similar investigtion for years of accounting slights to show profit while cashing out on their options?
Slashdot Mirror
This This appears to be a good technical summary with lots of subsiduary references. Or try feeding "gender differences math" to the search engine of your choice.
One point must be made is that men and women are different. (and oh what a beautiful difference) This difference starts at a fundamental chemical level and is revealed in physical appearance and social behaviour.
One study which I saw some time ago and alas can no longer find study the way groups of high school math students solved problems. The females were happy to accept a solution, even a wrong one, that the majority of the group accepted. While individual males would support their solution against the majority if they considered it correct. (general disclaimer: whether other groups or individuals behave this way, who knows). What it does show is that social behaviours have a lot to with scientific investigation.
There was also that british study that showed that London taxi drivers grew their brains to better navigate the city. I am sure the amazing adaptable human body can make up for any basic gender differences if the appropriate training is provided.
The questions we should be asking are:
1) To what level should individuals be subjected to training that will change their natural gender tendancies.
2) What level of maturity is required before individuals are allowed to select such training for themselves or are others allowed to make against gender training decisions for them.
3) Is it desirable or detrimental to society as a whole to have the natural gender bias result in gender unbalanced professions. Or should some professions require that a reasonable balanced be maintained between the genders.
These are basic rights questions. We have the technology, should we and to what level be using it.
The hijack pointed to a web site owned by the hijackers. All the ISP traffic was directed to the
.microsoft.com at .smallcompany.com in a destructive flooding attempt might be liable for an increase in traffic on a part of the net they are not associated with.
ISP clients site at the specific direction of the ISP client.
The ISP should have no claim as their client generated all the demand for network services.
In this case the nike.com DNS entry was hijacked with the express pupose of directing traffic to the hijackers site. The ISP hosted the hijackers site. All this traffic was "correctly" routed to the hijackers site, at the hijackers expressed request. The hijackers were clients of the ISP. I say the ISP has no case.
Now a 3rd party redirecting something like
The best thing about Battlefield Earth is the lessons it teaches Hollywood.
There is not a legion of die hard Travolta fans.
There is not a legion of die hard sci-fans.
There is not a legion of die hard L.R.Hubbard fans.
You cannot make a "big name movie" on the actor alone.
You cannot make a "big concept movie" on the genre alone.
You cannot make a "big name movie" on the source material alone.
The value of a movie is grounded in the quality of the script. No matter how many "neato" concepts, ideas, or explosions are thrown in the mix it is the quality of the script that matters.
Beyond the script the production values that are simply making sure that the script is followed and presented clearly.
Every producer in Hollywood should be forced to watch Battlefield Earth until they swear never to make a movie without a good script.
Every director in Hollywood should be forced to watch Battlefield Earth until they swear never to make a movie without a good script, and not to mess with the script unless they make it better.
Every actor in Hollywood should be forced to watch Battlefield Earth until they swear never to make a movie without a good script, and not to mess with the script unless they make it better.
Unfortunately there are always those producers, directors and actors that will think, and state in public that scripts like those of Battlefield Earth are good.
The one lesson for Hollywood is that there is no accounting for taste. Especially the taste of those denizens of Hollywood who are wrapped deepest in the glow of the place.
What Hollywood needs is more NO men.
Small tag to an article
Courtney Love, the singer and actress, says the real music pirates are not kids at their computers
companies that rip off artists.
cbc.ca article
"Working at 7 Eleven would have been a better deal," says Love.
Convert it to java and run it on the client end then the suits can't complain at all. It becomes just another rendering engine.
I was at a seminar where a number of long time telephone people were being introduced to IP protocols.
Apparently in phone land every packet is sacred or something like that. They were having a real hard time understanding that IP protocol allows packets to be just dropped.
You mean real life orbit decay is not like the movies where as soon as the engines of an orbiting space ship fail they have something like 2 minutes to correct the problem or burn and crash.
Is there anyway we can convince the media to run with the story like disaster is imminent?
Pump the drama, run the news
"New international space station in failing orbit without engines"
"Umpteen billion dollar space station left without engines, already falling to earth"
"No Scotty on board to save international space station in decaying orbit"
Or is it just that real life is boring compared to the movies.
This is stupid as the linking site has no control over the content of the linked site. It might be ok when the link is created but not later.
Ok so if I find a japanese site linking to some legitimate stuff I have. All I have to do is move some stuff around stick in a how to make a bomb page and blamo the japanese site is now illegal.
So what should be done is create a site where people can register themselves. This site will generate a random number of reports to the Wave site of "bad" activity every day for every user registered with the Tidal Wave site.
This site would probably get blocked/detected by the Wave site pretty quickly. So you add a way for people to randomly report someone with a button push.
There can even be a "suggest a deviant activity" like being 15 and obsessed with Teletubies to generate new subjects for the report.
What is needed now is a *86 emulator to run under DOSEMU.
That way all the DOS application can instantly run on ANY linux system (with enough CPU power). A 300Mhz chip should be able to emulate a 30MHz processor no problem.
See the pretty MAC,
see the pretty MAC run linux,
see the pretty MAC run DOSEMU
see the pretty MAC run Windows 3.1
see the pretty MAC run DukeNukem3d.
See the IBM iron run VM,
see VM run linux
see linx run dosemu on any86
see windows 3.1 run on IBM iron
fall on the floor and laugh your guts out.
Where would you take the muppets if you had control?
Muppets Theater 3000
Waldorf and Statler(?sp) do a MST2K/3K approach to modern entertainment shows.
Time for government investigation/lawsuit against the DVD player manufactureres for illegal restraint of trade. Certainly the consumer reaction in this case clearly demonstrates the effect that the regional codes had on the marketplace.
Didn't we see a story last week requiring all people in England to provide police with decription information for any coded information on their computer if requested.
The simple fact that an owner of a monitor of this sort would not be in posession of the key for decrypting the video stream would make the owner instantly jailable. Thanks to the corporate push we will all end up going to jail!
1984 eat your heart out, this is 2000
Good points on the illegal product tying. Can the EFF get a counter suit of illegal market manipulation, conspiracy or whatever you call it against the DVD players manufacturers for closing the market against competitive products (that play DVDs) by encryption.
If DVD are themselves a separate product every company should have the right to freely make players. Attempting to lock the DVD under encription and restricting the market is illegal restraint of trade and definitly the list of key holders is list of companies who conspired to corner the market.
Or are there reasons I am missing that allow companies to restrict the market like this?
It looks, and sounds, like they gave major points for "ease of use" aka point and click configuration and wizards.
Does the fact that the only knowledge you need to operate a Win2K server is where to point and click the mouse not raise some warning flags in peoples heads. I know they like to scream "ease of use" but I think a sysadmin should know how the system works rather than "Its a server so you click the server button in system configuration."
No default system configuration is going to be the best for everyone. A good sysadmin needs to understand the needs of the computing environment the services provided by the OS, and be able to tailor the services provided by the OS specifically to supply exactly the needs of the computing environment. I don't see point and click interfaces and point and click administrators being able to achieve this.
I expect the intention is to make the resulting system open to the public.
1) Linux is becoming a big player in commercial network sites.
2) The government wants a secure national network. Including secure private sites. Part of the NSA mandate is to protect private citizens and companies.
3) The government is going Linux. Try estimating what the government would have to spend to "update" to Windows2000.
4) Linux is the ideal platform, with GPL released code, everybody (except those sending money to Redmond) are on an equal footing with the released code. There is no perceived government backing of private enterprise which would be the case if the NSA $ were going to Redmond.
I think a better open source project would be the open source user data base.
Here is your user profile:
This is where you have browsed today:
This information was collected by an open source project with NO funding. A number of companies, like Microsoft, that have considerable resources and conections to the fundamental operating system of your computer are spending a lot of money on this. What do you think they know?
Links to privacy organizations.
As those under 18 in Canada are legally unable to consent to the GPL restrictions. No one under 18 in Canada is allowed to copy the Linux code in any form, by the copyright consent part of the GPL. Thus we have the perfect reason for Corel to tag the code the way the did. Corel is simply clarifying the legal restrictions placed on distribution under copyright and the GPL by Canadian law. For Corel to tag the code otherwise would have been negligence.
Now say ARRRGGGHHH again.
Because of its end user license agreement, it sould be illegal to sell Microsoft software to anyone under 18 in Canada as they are legally unable to agree to the terms of the licensing agreement. The fact that this has not been done is probably another good argument for the total unenforceability of the license agreement.
This whole license agrement mess is stupid but points to some very interesting problems in the current structure of property laws.
The problem is that there are too many lawyers involved in this release.
The problem is that according to Canadian law someone under 18 cannot be bound to license restrictions. So someone under 18 is free to violate the GPL along with all the other Corel license stuff anyways. In placing the restrictions on the software Corel is actually protecting the GPL.
This is part of the stupidity of license restrictions in general.
Any under 18 Canadian wanting to go buy some copies of Microsoft Software and violate the license agreement is free to do so. Seems like a good time to contract qsome high school Canadians to set up a Microsoft Network, they could do it with only 1 purchased copy of the software.
Similarly under 18 Canadians are free to use Linux to make full commercial releases with private modified code. The GPL don't stick.
Now say ARRRGGGHHHHHH!
Quick someone patent this idea:
A computer:
1. A fabricated device based on a finite automaton with associated storage media for data.
2. The computer includes input and output apparatus for communicating between the storage media, the automaton, and the world.
3. This computer will be capable of performing any conceptual abstract process based on a descriptive algorithm. The method of describing abstract processes for processing by the automaton is called programming.
This revolutionary device will free our thoughts by making any conceivable process simple to capture and automate.
I was going to carry on with this but it just hit me how close all these software patents come to thought and expression control. UUGGHGHH. Especially so when you consider that the mind is a form of finite automaton.
What with companies getting patents for DNA, as soon as we get mind/computer interfaces are some forms of thought going to become illegal?
The more systems we have with unique user names and passwords the more likely we are to do things that weaken them.
One user name and password I can remember and even keep my password pretty random. If I have 15 to 30 user names and passwords I an going to have a hard time remembering them and am going to either start writing them down, start reusing them between systems or start making the password a simple function of the site/username. Another problem is the frequency of use a username/password is easily forgotton if not written down or used regularly.
To avoid some of these problems I make use once accounts on any sites that require the establishing of a user name and password (except slashdot, but my slashdot password is now my Novel network password (example of evil creep), and I allow the slashdot cookie to continue to exist).
As another example of evil creep I have two bank card passwords, one is the reverse of the other. Nothing is written down, the numbers are random and I can remember it but it does weaken the system.
Another source of weakening is that not all accounts need the same level of protection. I might feel like sharing my Gas card password with someone but not my banking password. If in the name of conveinience I have made the two passwords the same I could be in trouble.
The medical password system is a problem. I don't see it as an everyday use thing. Almost no one is going to remember a password they use every 2-6 months unless they either right it down or make it a very simple association.
Making medical records available is nice. I would prefer if they were only available at definite physical locations like doctors offices or hospitals where the information already must be made available. In these locations a staff person could authenticate the users identity using regular id and then grant access to the record.
Maybe secure record access could be extended to libraries. (libraries need to become more involved with the net) Rather than release information to the wilds of the net a library would allow a staff member check physical id. I see a two part access system, staff and user, with limited physical availability and of course a log file.
Possible solution:
The desktop PC needs a standard API, both into and
out of the operating system. Hardware vendors should be on the OS to hardware level and software vendores on the OS to application level.
With a standard OS interface anyone is free to develop the OS. Anyone is free to develop the applications and anyone is free to develop the hardware.
Establish a desktop PC API standard. Any Microsoft OS must conform to the API. All inter-application communication must be through the OS API or through open file or data formats.
Microsoft must get their OS and applications certified by the independent PC API standard body.
Microsoft is free to "innovate" applications but must publish all their file and data formats. Publication does not hurt innovation.
Microsoft is free to "innovate" with the OS but is required to be certified to the OS API standard. Thus any "innovations" must be made part of the OS API standard before they can be incorporated into the OS. (Come on Microsoft lets see your superior programming skills provide superior implementations of open standards.)
What made the PC so popular was the open hardware standard. Making the OS an open standard should lead to another boom in software (like before Microsoft started down the Windows one true way monopoly path).
In addition there can be no sales tying of hardware to OS or OS to application.
Bundling of applications is allowed but any individually available part of a bundle must communicate with the rest using open standards.
What this does not fix is the possibility of a bare bones OS and a super desktop application incorporating everything from Windows, VB, Office, IE with nothing available separatly.
Anyone got ideas on how to fix it or is this ok.
The whole reason the Judge said I will release the results on a Friday after the markets close. Was to reduce speculation.
There is going to be speculation that "THIS IS THE WEEK" every week until it happens. I have no idea how ready the judge is (anyone doing a pizza watch?) The whole point of this was to have the press and everybody speculate like mad for several weeks every friday. When we have all become quite bored with speculation that "THIS IS THE WEEK" it will be a good time release the judgment.
As that recent rant on Microsoft showed most IT companies that issue options packages instead of hard wages are dependent on a constant increase in stock value. Should that increase fail the options will be excercised and the company will feel an incredible cash drain further driving down the stock value. Thus IT stocks with a large amount of employee stock options are destined for a boom and bust life cycle. The only question is when the boom occurs.
There have been numerous reports of MS head honchos cashing out and a few leaks about possibly shady MS accounting practices to make sure the profit keeps rolling in. These prices look like a cash grab but with Linux and other options some of it is destined to slip through MS's fingers. It may not payout like MS expects.
MS, and many other option oriented IP stocks certainly look like pyramid schemes. The only question is how long until the pyramid realises it does not have a foundation and collapses. MS is feeling pressure on many fronts, DOJ, Linux, basic need for a constant cash flow, how long until the public stands up, points the finger and says Microsoft "has no clothes"?
Corel head Copeland is facing insider trading investigation for his actions around selling before bad earnings results. Could the MS boys face a similar investigtion for years of accounting slights to show profit while cashing out on their options?
Microsoft is fighting,
doesn't that mean Linux winning is the next stage.