"You probably would not even appreciate the fact that the ISS would be a failure if the Russians were not involved."
You do appear to be forgetting that the ISS would not have ever made it up there in the first place without the Americans. Just because the Americans are not perfect, that does not imply that others are better.
Thank you for articulating that. I have been trying to put words to certain things for a long time and you just successfully did so. Well done. You deserve a +7 insightful.:)
I read your links and found them interesting. I had never heard of the Electric Universe "theory" before; however, I do have an open mind. I would not be at all surprised to find out that electricity plays more of a role in our universe than currently (pun actually not intended) expected. This is especially true since the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and electricity still need to be combined with gravity in some subtle way.
Regardless though, the writing that I witnessed in those links seemed to have many of the hallmarks of Crank Science in them. A touch of persecution, nobody believes, experts ignore the facts, etc. All of this makes me wonder how objectively the proponents of EU are examining their own data.
The idea is that you immediately give full disclosure to the vendor and partial disclosure with a mitigation strategy to the public. Once the bug has been fixed, full disclosure is given to the public so that they can oooh and aahhh about how clever you were. Anything less (or more) is putting people at unnecessary risk.
So once Marvel opened their drivers, was there anything in them that represented a valid reason to keep them proprietary? Would the driver code give any advantage to other companies? Were any real secrets revealed?
I find these questions interesting because I always wonder why companies are so keen on secrecy for their drivers.
Except that it IS a warmed over version of XP. Many of the same dialogs are there and without the aero coating either. But then, I have not used it since beta 2...
I think you have read more into my comment than was there. I was merely pointing out that relatively speaking, we are responsible for very few extinctions. I did not say nor directly imply that I find human caused mass extinctions to be acceptable. (although killing off a few species of mosquito might be pleasurable)
I have read through all of the comments so far and most of them do not reflect my position. I agree with the contempt that most folks have for the lying, cheating, dirty tricks, etc that Microsoft has pulled throughout their history. Just those are enough, however, here is my list:
EULA: I may have seen a EULA or two before Microsoft came on the scene but Microsoft pretty much standardized the EULA and lead the entire industry towards using them all of the time. I do not respect EULAs at all. The software is mine once I purchase it and they have no control over what I do with it afterwards.
Reliability: While their operating systems have greatly improved over time, even XP64 (their most stable OS yet) has crashed on me a couple of times. Linux on the same hardware (dual boot laptop) has never crashed. MS Access crashes on me all of the time without error messages.
Performance: I have 2 gigs of ram on my laptops. Why do I need to have 200 megs swapped out? Why does a newly loading program need to write out to swap as it is loading? Since the first version of windows, there has been a starfield screensaver. When it runs, every few seconds or so, you can see it hiccup. All of the stars stop momentarily. What is going on that prevents the computer from running so smoothly even decades later with incredibly more powerful processors?
Control: This a a big one. Why can't I easily turn off the netbios port on my home computer? Why does my computer fail to function without an externally listening RPC port? It is clear that the operating system was designed so that someone other than the person sitting at the keyboard would be in control of the computer. Why can't I tell my computer to stop talking to microsoft.com all of the time? Why are there a dozen ways to start a program running with most of those ways not being easily accessible to me? I own the computer and I own the software. Microsoft only owns the rights to copy it. Stop changing how my computer works when I am supposedly "patching" against vulnerabilities. I can no longer get patches from Microsoft because I know for a fact that Microsoft will change the way my computer works, possibly even shutting it down.
Security: Microsoft sees security as an added cost and therefore will never produce secure software. Microsoft does not even seem to understand security at all. How does clicking on that godawful popup thing in Vista increase security at all? Applications should only be able to write to their own directories and nowhere else. There should not be a need to grant privileges all the time to every program.
Quality: Portions of Microsofts software are written really well. All of those portions seem to be put together in a crappy manner.
Bleh, never mind. This is getting way to long and drawn out. Microsoft sucks and there is no hope for them. They have billions of dollars in reinforcement for their bad behaviours.
"Hunters aren't sadists. But people who eat meat and wear leather without every personally doing the work of producing it are: cowards (and usually shrill, hypocritical asses, as well)."
Damn dude. I was with you until this last ignorant sentence where you commit the same crime that the person you are replying to committed. I am a coward because I pay someone to kill an animal and cure its hide rather than do it myself? I could make my own leather shoes, jackets, etc but really, that is not how modern society works. I fix someones network and they make my shoes and jackets for me.
I am thinking you just got too carried away in your argument since you normally post rationally.
We may be responsible for lots of species going extinct, however, compared to all of the extinctions that have occurred (he did say throughout history right?), we have been responsible for very few. Consider how many species of dinosaurs there were. How many of those did we kill off? How many species died out so that dinosaurs could become the dominant form of life? Really, you have got your panties in a twist over nothing.
Bureaucracy? I have heard this comment before, but, to be honest, I don't see it. Microsoft has much less red tape than other companies I have worked for. That's one of the things I love about working here as an engineer - we just do our job and build cool stuff. It's almost like the rest of the company just exists to make that easier.
I am not taking an antognistic tone here. Where is this cool stuff that you guys are building? I really really love Windows Explorer in file manager mode. The thing is highly configurable, it allows me to use it in the way that seems most natural to me (drives/folders on the left. subfolders/files on the right). There are endless keyboard shortcuts for it that make sense. It is a great piece of software and the epitome of coolness... however, there is nothing else that I like or think is cool coming from you guys. Anything that looks like it might be cool seems to be tainted with/by the need to lock people in or limit interoperability with other pieces of software.
If you would point out some of the things that you guys are releasing that are cool, I will gladly take a look with an open mind. I love cool software that does neat things.
Well, to be honest, controlling outbound traffic is important; although you are correct in that it won't/can't really help with truly malicious software. For example:
I had DSL service from PacBell. The software that they gave me to create PPOE connections had a cute little feature that they neglected to tell me about. It created outbound connections to some site that was monitoring every web page that I went to. Very nice. Would I have caught such improper behavior from "legit" software if I had not had an outbound protecting firewall?
The idea behind outbound firewalls is to inform you of "bad" behavior from supposedly legit software. It has no chance against truly malicious software. In other words, it gives control of your computer back to you.
Your cynicism is well earned I am sure... However, there are real men (women too?) in this world who deserve your loyalty and return it in spades. (Yes, you deserve an overrated mod point. No, I will not give it to you. I only mod positively.)
Seriously, apple announces multiple desktops and have this site has a heart attack.... then praises Steve Jobs for being an inventor, a genius, etc. Meanwhile Windows has had those features for years, hell, Unix has for decades!
It seems that you must be a shill since even a fanboi would not make such an outrageous claim. MS Windows has _never_ had multiple desktops. They released a crappy powertoy for XP that supposedly emulates multiple desktops but the apps never play along nicely since MS Windows was _never_ designed with multiple desktops in mind.
Damn! I just gave away my last mod point and your post actually deserved a +1 insightful instead of the +4 funny it now sits at.
*sigh* It always happens. I always reserve my mod points for positive moderations but as soon as I run across a post that desperately needs a positive mod, I have run out of points.
Yes, I know you were striving for a funny, but if you listen to your argument, it has the ring of Truth(TM) to it.
Ok. Your point is valid. What is the solution to the asshole serenely cruising slowly along in the fast lane blocking anyone from passing?
There was a video of some guys up near Seattle, IIRC, who were all going the speed limit, but driving next to each other to purposefully create an impassable wall. The traffic that built up behind them was incredible to watch. Do you think that this situation is acceptable?
In Germany, the person in the left lane would be ticketed. The left lane is for passing, not watching the scenery go by. If the police will not enforce this rule, it is left to the citizens to do so. Arguments about safety and legality are not germane (get it? germane, germany, hahaha, nevermind) to the subject once the police abdicate their responsiblity to enforce the rules.
*sigh* Yet another post (about once or twice a year) that should be at +6 or higher. Sane. Rational. Reasonable. (choose any two? (sorry, couldn't resist) )
If people are reading the articles (which they must be if they are arguing against its deletion), then why bother deleting it? It is useful to someone and that should be all that really matters. What is an extra 15k in space when someone is actually finding the article useful?
Ah well, I guess I am just validating your arguments.
Slashdot Mirror
"You probably would not even appreciate the fact that the ISS would be a failure if the Russians were not involved."
You do appear to be forgetting that the ISS would not have ever made it up there in the first place without the Americans. Just because the Americans are not perfect, that does not imply that others are better.
strike
"You'll be able to do all your work AND get laid more."
:P
Yeah, but you only get laid by people of the same gender.
(it's a joke, laugh. I have a MBP)
strike
You know, I keep modding you down and you STILL haven't introduced your sister to me. :)
strike
That was a fascinating post. It was very difficult to read without the use of paragraphs though.
strike
Thank you for articulating that. I have been trying to put words to certain things for a long time and you just successfully did so. Well done. You deserve a +7 insightful. :)
strike
I read your links and found them interesting. I had never heard of the Electric Universe "theory" before; however, I do have an open mind. I would not be at all surprised to find out that electricity plays more of a role in our universe than currently (pun actually not intended) expected. This is especially true since the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, and electricity still need to be combined with gravity in some subtle way.
Regardless though, the writing that I witnessed in those links seemed to have many of the hallmarks of Crank Science in them. A touch of persecution, nobody believes, experts ignore the facts, etc. All of this makes me wonder how objectively the proponents of EU are examining their own data.
Interesting stuff. Thank you for the links.
strike
The idea is that you immediately give full disclosure to the vendor and partial disclosure with a mitigation strategy to the public. Once the bug has been fixed, full disclosure is given to the public so that they can oooh and aahhh about how clever you were. Anything less (or more) is putting people at unnecessary risk.
strike
So once Marvel opened their drivers, was there anything in them that represented a valid reason to keep them proprietary? Would the driver code give any advantage to other companies? Were any real secrets revealed?
I find these questions interesting because I always wonder why companies are so keen on secrecy for their drivers.
strike
Except that it IS a warmed over version of XP. Many of the same dialogs are there and without the aero coating either. But then, I have not used it since beta 2...
strike
If Mr. Waxman could do anything, he would find himself very dead... he would likely pull a Vince Foster.
strike
I think you have read more into my comment than was there. I was merely pointing out that relatively speaking, we are responsible for very few extinctions. I did not say nor directly imply that I find human caused mass extinctions to be acceptable. (although killing off a few species of mosquito might be pleasurable)
strike
"I actually do pay great attention to human interface and utility when I design something."
:)
I kind of wish you had taken such consideration when writing your post. Paragraphs please.
strike
I have read through all of the comments so far and most of them do not reflect my position. I agree with the contempt that most folks have for the lying, cheating, dirty tricks, etc that Microsoft has pulled throughout their history. Just those are enough, however, here is my list:
EULA: I may have seen a EULA or two before Microsoft came on the scene but Microsoft pretty much standardized the EULA and lead the entire industry towards using them all of the time. I do not respect EULAs at all. The software is mine once I purchase it and they have no control over what I do with it afterwards.
Reliability: While their operating systems have greatly improved over time, even XP64 (their most stable OS yet) has crashed on me a couple of times. Linux on the same hardware (dual boot laptop) has never crashed. MS Access crashes on me all of the time without error messages.
Performance: I have 2 gigs of ram on my laptops. Why do I need to have 200 megs swapped out? Why does a newly loading program need to write out to swap as it is loading? Since the first version of windows, there has been a starfield screensaver. When it runs, every few seconds or so, you can see it hiccup. All of the stars stop momentarily. What is going on that prevents the computer from running so smoothly even decades later with incredibly more powerful processors?
Control: This a a big one. Why can't I easily turn off the netbios port on my home computer? Why does my computer fail to function without an externally listening RPC port? It is clear that the operating system was designed so that someone other than the person sitting at the keyboard would be in control of the computer. Why can't I tell my computer to stop talking to microsoft.com all of the time? Why are there a dozen ways to start a program running with most of those ways not being easily accessible to me? I own the computer and I own the software. Microsoft only owns the rights to copy it. Stop changing how my computer works when I am supposedly "patching" against vulnerabilities. I can no longer get patches from Microsoft because I know for a fact that Microsoft will change the way my computer works, possibly even shutting it down.
Security: Microsoft sees security as an added cost and therefore will never produce secure software. Microsoft does not even seem to understand security at all. How does clicking on that godawful popup thing in Vista increase security at all? Applications should only be able to write to their own directories and nowhere else. There should not be a need to grant privileges all the time to every program.
Quality: Portions of Microsofts software are written really well. All of those portions seem to be put together in a crappy manner.
Bleh, never mind. This is getting way to long and drawn out. Microsoft sucks and there is no hope for them. They have billions of dollars in reinforcement for their bad behaviours.
strike
"Hunters aren't sadists. But people who eat meat and wear leather without every personally doing the work of producing it are: cowards (and usually shrill, hypocritical asses, as well)."
Damn dude. I was with you until this last ignorant sentence where you commit the same crime that the person you are replying to committed. I am a coward because I pay someone to kill an animal and cure its hide rather than do it myself? I could make my own leather shoes, jackets, etc but really, that is not how modern society works. I fix someones network and they make my shoes and jackets for me.
I am thinking you just got too carried away in your argument since you normally post rationally.
strike
"Try pulling the stick out of your ass before you go judging others."
Hey! Have you ever had a stick in your ass before? Don't knock it until you try it.
strike
We may be responsible for lots of species going extinct, however, compared to all of the extinctions that have occurred (he did say throughout history right?), we have been responsible for very few. Consider how many species of dinosaurs there were. How many of those did we kill off? How many species died out so that dinosaurs could become the dominant form of life? Really, you have got your panties in a twist over nothing.
strike
Bureaucracy? I have heard this comment before, but, to be honest, I don't see it. Microsoft has much less red tape than other companies I have worked for. That's one of the things I love about working here as an engineer - we just do our job and build cool stuff. It's almost like the rest of the company just exists to make that easier.
I am not taking an antognistic tone here. Where is this cool stuff that you guys are building? I really really love Windows Explorer in file manager mode. The thing is highly configurable, it allows me to use it in the way that seems most natural to me (drives/folders on the left. subfolders/files on the right). There are endless keyboard shortcuts for it that make sense. It is a great piece of software and the epitome of coolness... however, there is nothing else that I like or think is cool coming from you guys. Anything that looks like it might be cool seems to be tainted with/by the need to lock people in or limit interoperability with other pieces of software.
If you would point out some of the things that you guys are releasing that are cool, I will gladly take a look with an open mind. I love cool software that does neat things.
Respectfully,
strike
Well, to be honest, controlling outbound traffic is important; although you are correct in that it won't/can't really help with truly malicious software. For example:
I had DSL service from PacBell. The software that they gave me to create PPOE connections had a cute little feature that they neglected to tell me about. It created outbound connections to some site that was monitoring every web page that I went to. Very nice. Would I have caught such improper behavior from "legit" software if I had not had an outbound protecting firewall?
The idea behind outbound firewalls is to inform you of "bad" behavior from supposedly legit software. It has no chance against truly malicious software. In other words, it gives control of your computer back to you.
strike
Your cynicism is well earned I am sure... However, there are real men (women too?) in this world who deserve your loyalty and return it in spades. (Yes, you deserve an overrated mod point. No, I will not give it to you. I only mod positively.)
strike
Seriously, apple announces multiple desktops and have this site has a heart attack.... then praises Steve Jobs for being an inventor, a genius, etc. Meanwhile Windows has had those features for years, hell, Unix has for decades!
It seems that you must be a shill since even a fanboi would not make such an outrageous claim. MS Windows has _never_ had multiple desktops. They released a crappy powertoy for XP that supposedly emulates multiple desktops but the apps never play along nicely since MS Windows was _never_ designed with multiple desktops in mind.
strike
Damn! I just gave away my last mod point and your post actually deserved a +1 insightful instead of the +4 funny it now sits at.
*sigh* It always happens. I always reserve my mod points for positive moderations but as soon as I run across a post that desperately needs a positive mod, I have run out of points.
Yes, I know you were striving for a funny, but if you listen to your argument, it has the ring of Truth(TM) to it.
strike
$1,500 for a 42 inch computer monitor with a native resolution of 1920x1080 is an outstanding bargain. Who cares about the TV aspects to it?
strike
Ok. Your point is valid. What is the solution to the asshole serenely cruising slowly along in the fast lane blocking anyone from passing?
There was a video of some guys up near Seattle, IIRC, who were all going the speed limit, but driving next to each other to purposefully create an impassable wall. The traffic that built up behind them was incredible to watch. Do you think that this situation is acceptable?
In Germany, the person in the left lane would be ticketed. The left lane is for passing, not watching the scenery go by. If the police will not enforce this rule, it is left to the citizens to do so. Arguments about safety and legality are not germane (get it? germane, germany, hahaha, nevermind) to the subject once the police abdicate their responsiblity to enforce the rules.
strike
*sigh* Yet another post (about once or twice a year) that should be at +6 or higher. Sane. Rational. Reasonable. (choose any two? (sorry, couldn't resist) )
strike
If people are reading the articles (which they must be if they are arguing against its deletion), then why bother deleting it? It is useful to someone and that should be all that really matters. What is an extra 15k in space when someone is actually finding the article useful?
Ah well, I guess I am just validating your arguments.
strike