I must sincerely admit that my initial reaction was very cynical, and that some of the thoughts in my head mirrored many of the unkind comments posted thus far.
However, I will wait and see what happens before I decide that it is all a ploy/head fake/Bad Thing(TM). I love my country, and respect its systems, but sometimes, things get a little scary.
Honestly, dinosaurs are great stuff for the imagination and for science. I think funding for physical sciences benefits from stories about MassiveTeethOSaurus. I agree that many conjectures, assumptions, and claims (in articles like these) tend to be very imaginative compared to the hard facts known.
With all that said, dinosaurs have always been really interesting to me. (Often) big, different, not around any more, lack of details (the mystery), (did I mention many of the cool ones were BIG? Well, maybe compys are pretty cool, too...) - all good ingredients for imaginative fuel. I digress. Sorry...
I always take news releases and articles like these with a grain of salt. Much of the publicized (read: made more interesting and made less dry) aspects of dig findings are generally lots of intelligent conjecture. That's OK with me, provided that folks don't assign the gloss (of the articles) to be factual. Did they hunt in packs? Did they hunt or scavenge? Were they gray or were they colorful? Some things we may never know... but for now, discoveries like these are just like candy - lots of fun.
First and foremost, it is a game controller, not a gig guitar... so I think it is important to separate two different "threads" of thought here...
As a guitar, well, it's not like a real guitar. That's OK, because if you'd like to learn guitar, you can get yourself an inexpensive set up like this or this, or for left-handed folks, this. I don't think comparing the controller to a real guitar or learning to a real guitar is relevant. Not everyone that has dreams of wailin' on a guitar or spankin' the plank with some down-home (your favorite kind of music here), but lots of folks would enjoy the fun of playing guitar without the trappings of learning two hands, many strings, and 18-24 frets.
Games are supposed to be entertaining - I don't think that the comparison to real-world instruments is relevant (beyond their entertainment value).
So far as the hack... It seems pretty neat to me. Doing hardware hacks is a lot like candy - it doesn't have to have a point - it's just fun.
When something bad happens to your stuff, it sucks... no doubt. I feel bad for them.
However, experience and tech folks both indicate the same thing time and again, ad nauseum: backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, still reading?, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, rinse-lather-repeat.
Had I tried this type of thing on any, computer:
1) Back up important/family docs to universal media;
2) Back up settings that are important to apps (apps that are used every day);
3) Back up my music library.
Then, cool dual-booting, neon-light-oscillating, or infra-friga-ultra-hertz-speed processor overclocking type stuff can be attempted (ESPECIALLY if the software mods the ROM/BIOS). If all else fails, treat yourself to a nice, clean install: wipe the drive and install the original stuff.
In summary, if one trashes one's data with ANY software (beta or otherwise), it is best if one has backed up one's stuff. I don't see this as Apple's fault (maybe they'll have to deal with the impact and PR, though).
Some of the thoughts in the (teeny) article-let are interesting...
For example, lots of comments talk about the "math skills" statement. Indeed, actual math is uncommon in my daily software engineering, but being able to discover algorithms, utilize patterns and algebraic problem solving do go easily from math to software engineering.
Back, neck and eye problems? Check...
Long hours (at release time)? Check...
Fear of outsourcing? Check...
Telecommuting? Check (but I like the people interaction I get when I'm on-site)...
Youth-oriented? Sure... young minds are great things to behold and are always interesting to me... It keeps my perspective fresh, especially since there are fewer ivory-tower guys around (now that there the Red-Sea-of-layoffs closed in on my geographic area)...
Beyond my music, I really enjoy software as a career - and I get to work for a pretty great company, too.
My Pavlovian reaction was, "OhhhhhhhhNNNNNNNNNNNNNNooooooooooooooooo!"
Now that the bell has rung, my kibbles are ingested, and I feel better...
If you were a state agency and needed security expertise, where would you go to get the information you need (to write a law/rule/proposition/etc. that is based on highly technical stuff)? Would you go to a security firm? Would you go to the local IT management firm? Would you go to a support shop like Geeks 'r' Us?
A little voice inside my head (yes, I have those sometimes - be afraid) says that something inside the law may be done to tilt things Microsoft's way - but I don't know that Microsoft would be such a bad partner (all feelings of MSHatred(tm) aside - just looking at it as a business).
Interestingly enough, I don't think I'd be able to go to an Intel Mac for quite some time. Please see the last line of this comment for the "point" of my post.
Adobe image software isn't going to be available for a while, runs slow in emulation... (inconvenience)
Line6 will not have its Intel/Mac version of its drivers and Gear software until at least September 2006... (show-stopper)
The basic ProTools stuff and many other critical audio editing tools I need will not be ready for Intel/Mac for quite a while... (show-stopper)
However, all of the above are available for XP right now, rumour has it that they will run on Intel/Mac/XP with BootCamp... Whether or not this is the best option, it is a better option - the Line6 stuff will not even run in emulation on the Intel/Mac.
If called upon, I will undoubtedly help to reduce emissions and make an environmental difference. Actually, my family does already. We carpool, telecommute (when possible), walk when we can, recycle everything we can, and use gas-powered tools as little as possible (I love power tools, though).
I have to say that the whole media/government FUD over whether or not global warming actually exists really rings a bell with me. The dis-information campaign (about emissions and pollution) reminds me very much of the decades of time when industry and government were disseminating information that smoking hadn't been proven to cause cancers. Decades of mis-information about nicotine addiction and cancer risks was backed up by industry-paid doctors and lawyers who lulled us to sleep on the issue. The same thing has been going on WRT pollution and global warming.
Humans accelerate climate change - whether it is clear-cutting ancient forests, industrial pollution, wasteful production, or emissions... To me, the real question is, "When will we take a responsible stance/take action on helping the Earth begin to heal?"
I agree with nearly everything you've said here - you've made some good points... especially the last sentence...
I think the recording and movie industries are afraid of something more (now than they did years ago), though... if you made massive tape recording copies, quality would usually go downhill - especially those pirates too cheap not to do the copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy thing... But in the digital age, you can get an exact copy of the first digital copy over and over again without serious or virtually any degradation.
I'm not arguing that the recording/movie industries should feel differently now than as before, I'm just saying that they are more nervous about digital copies than they were of mechanical copies.
Email is like a habit-worn old friend to many people. Email is in the computer-public consciousness... People who would go into convulsions if asked to FTP something - can still understand (basically) and can use email.
Collaboration systems are often really cool, and are often loaded with lots of features - but at the end of the day, are also often cumbersome (from a work-flow perspective, ironically) and are often proprietary.
(MOST) people are generally procrastinators or are at least I'll-get-it-done-when-I'm-good-and-ready-or-can-fi nd-the-time types of folks. People can organize their emails in a fashion with which they are comfortable, when they're ready to do it. How often do people see letters from friends or co-workers at all hours of the night and weekends - because the sender has just gotten back from a trip/just got caught up with their day/just found the time to go through their mail and get it handled?
PTB Email: click send and the ball is in someone else's court... This is hugely common... It is pseudo-interactive at best, but gives the sender control over when things will occur, and gives the receiver control over when reaction will take place. Control of work flow/interaction is a huge issue for a large majority of folks I know.
Besides, you can do email from almost any networked (and user-compatible) computer on the planet, on almost any operating system, on almost any CPU... ubiquity is hard to beat.
For perspective, I use and enjoy my Macintoshes, but I also really dig my white-box PC I built with a Linux distro on it, and I also enjoy my Sun Ultra 5. My Windows machine is OK, and has some great uses when I need it.
Customer service? In the 16 years that I've owned Macintoshes, I've used customer service *once*. I found the Apple reps to be pretty good folks when it comes to supporting development and deployment software.
I don't know that the service is the main selling point. I think the "totem" idea is much more accurate. If you can leave the "I like this system because {personal reasons here}" stuff aside for a moment, look at it this way: Do people buy Tommy Hilfiger or Abercrombie and Fitch clothes because they're all that great? Or do they buy them because they're cool or they're what others are wearing? (I know, A&F is so 2 minutes ago, just using them as a comparison. I'm not very much a slave to style.)
I think Apple has a combination of coolness, perceived ease of use, innovation, and (in general) well-made products.
The anti-malware/anti-spyware/anti-virus/anti-badstuff war is extremely similar to insurgencies against governments (even historically, not just now).
There are two aspects to this situation:
1) How can these companies staunch the ever-widening, ever-innovative flow of assaults on the Internet?
2) What will Microsoft's product do to the businesses who make much of their living from anti-badstuff software?
For the first item, one can only hope to lessen the impact and severity of assaults. One cannot hope that massive counter-counter assaults and all-comprehensive-in-one approaches will work - as they do not when used against governmental insurgents. The more flailing and posturing on the part of the defender, the harder the black hats fight back. It (IMHO) is better to do your best, stay on top of things, and keep the users/public educated and intelligent about their computer use.
For the second item, It is my sincere hope that Vista (or whatever it becomes) will not stamp out the small-and-medium size after-marketeers. Innovation is often fueled by people who are not working in a cubicle box for a giant company - but by a small- or medium-sized company that has its focus razor sharp. A similar thing was that IE did crush most competition for browsers for many years (and is still a huge installed base), but other companies and browsers have slowly crept back - perhaps because the shiny ball got dropped at Goliath's shop and picked up by an interested David's shop. I get the feeling that the anti-badstuff software market will probably cycle in a very similar fashion.
There have been many attempts (during human history) to legislate the buying, entertaining, and personal preferences of the people. (In my opinion) there haven't been any successful governmental squeezes on consumers (except for things that have to do with REAL safety, etc.).
There HAS to be a way for the courts to define and address the difference between WELL DUH! lawsuits (like "patenting" an immediate purchase button, or cross-category searches) and important lawsuits that protect folks that have invested years and years of work and research (and perhaps tons of money) in creating a complex drug or product.
THERE HAS to be a way to define this and adjudicate accordingly. I'm fully aware that there are gray-area patents, but some things just shouldn't be patented.
I don't work for Microsoft, so I don't have an internalized, first-hand perspective. I am not a Microsoft Hater(tm) - I am (largely)platform-agnostic.
With that disclaimer said...
The Windows Vista message is garbled, when seen from the perspective of people who just "use the OS." They are saying, "Windows what?" In addition to the marketing vision dilution, I have strong feelings that all the many versions will be inappropriate to the market's needs - AND will cause Microsoft major headaches for at least a decade in the future. Imagine, if you will, supporting seven versions of a named OS. Imagine being at Microsoft, trying to manage the (already way overblown) code base. Imagine the long period of time it will take large corporations to test and migrate to such a complex matrix of an OS stream.
My question to those who are much smarter and more experienced than me - how could Microsoft not have known that this slip was coming? How could such a massive, publicly scrutinized, hugely funded project not have had more oversight for its milestones? Is this really feature-creep, is it the "moving goalpost", or is it just bad management?
Look at it this way: It takes major cojones to admit to a huge re-write (especially if the re-writes involve core bits and pieces). This is particularly true when you're talking about a system of software that literally affects many tens of millions of computers worldwide.
Looking at it another way. If I'm going to have to use it (at work, that is), I'd rather it be very stable and transparent to my work. If it takes them five more years, that's fine with me. XP spanks the 9x Windows clan, and seems more stable than the Win2000 desktop versions I had to use at work.
The good news is that Vista's delay won't effect my music, my personal computer musings, or personal software development - I'm perfectly happy with various Linux distros, Solaris, and OSX... Windows is fine, my family does use it from time to time, and I'd like to see if Vista can maybe fuel some future competition for better OS software.
[deep operator recorded voice]We're sorry... the publicly-recognized essential service is no longer in service or has been disc...[/deep operator recorded voice]
In any event, all humor aside - wouldn't it feel pretty bad to have a *real* emergency and be put on hold? Perhaps there are holes in the story, and maybe it is even a bit blown out of proportion. However, if someone I love was in real danger, or if my home was on fire, I'd call 911. I haven't waded through the 50+ "green" pages in the phone book to find all the important direct-dial emergency numbers.
Call centers (including 911 dispatch) are woefully understaffed because of economics (public or private).
The CIA, FBI, and any other governmental agency should have efficient, extremely-monitored, very safe email and email systems. It is very important that modern communications are fostered and maintained in governmental activities.
I know from personal experience that government-funded/government-used technical systems are generally either:
1)Ultra-over-engineered to be sure that the system/thing is ultra-safe or ultra-reliable or ultra-accountable
2)Woefully inadequate because the person(s) in the bureaucracy don't have the tech expertise to foster the effort correctly - and yet place massive, uninformed, and inappropriate amounts of pressure on the worker bees to get the job done as per the way the non-tech person thinks it needs to go.
3)Many projects die on the vine because mis-direction (and management that honestly doesn't have the knowledge they need to lead the effort) makes the project wander in the desert for huge periods of time.
4)I could go on...
But in all fairness, governmental technical efforts have many different and sometimes unique pressures on them. The government literally has to have permission from someone to do anything with public systems. The public (rightfully) wants as much transparency and accountability as possible in governmental efforts - which means everything is debated, re-documented, justified, cleared, reviewed, managed, re-managed, scrutinized, over-then-under-funded, micro-managed, and finally finger-pointed-to-somebody-else'd when the project doesn't go right.
Our government cannot (or doesn't know how to) operate as smaller, more agile private businesses work. The pressure and accountability of every move has created a monster of over-administered and over-micro-managed web of forms, functions, procedures, and other things...
What's the solution? Frankly, I don't know. I want my government to be accountable, and I want the government to be "of the people, by the people", but I also want it to be intelligent, well-led, and a great deal less dysfunctional. If only governmental technical tasks could be more agile...
Websites that offer something interesting or of quickly-absorbed value are sites that are successful. Whether or not a site is ugly is not always relevant to its success. I've seen very many beautiful and well-programmed sites that don't "get off the ground." Sites that get good "forward mojo" or have something funny or valuable do the best.
Some sites are both ugly and ineffective (like my website) - but the reason is not because of their attractiveness... it is the subject matter, the ease-of-use, or a combination of both...
If they pull it off in a way that the worldwide public will really like it, then it can be a good thing if it provides decent competition... (without monopolization, of course).
But seriously, my only worry is how the portable's over-heating-giant-power-dongle-on-a-cord (borrowed from the 360) will fit in my iPod wristband...
Slashdot Mirror
It is a twisting of the original ideas of what patents are about.
There are always entrepreneurs who figure out and take advantage of things in this sort of way - or at least so it seems to me.
If you'd like some humor on the subject, Google Patent Trolls Got No Souls.
I'm with geniusj on this one.
I must sincerely admit that my initial reaction was very cynical, and that some of the thoughts in my head mirrored many of the unkind comments posted thus far.
However, I will wait and see what happens before I decide that it is all a ploy/head fake/Bad Thing(TM). I love my country, and respect its systems, but sometimes, things get a little scary.
Honestly, dinosaurs are great stuff for the imagination and for science. I think funding for physical sciences benefits from stories about MassiveTeethOSaurus. I agree that many conjectures, assumptions, and claims (in articles like these) tend to be very imaginative compared to the hard facts known.
With all that said, dinosaurs have always been really interesting to me. (Often) big, different, not around any more, lack of details (the mystery), (did I mention many of the cool ones were BIG? Well, maybe compys are pretty cool, too...) - all good ingredients for imaginative fuel. I digress. Sorry...
I always take news releases and articles like these with a grain of salt. Much of the publicized (read: made more interesting and made less dry) aspects of dig findings are generally lots of intelligent conjecture. That's OK with me, provided that folks don't assign the gloss (of the articles) to be factual. Did they hunt in packs? Did they hunt or scavenge? Were they gray or were they colorful? Some things we may never know... but for now, discoveries like these are just like candy - lots of fun.
First and foremost, it is a game controller, not a gig guitar... so I think it is important to separate two different "threads" of thought here...
As a guitar, well, it's not like a real guitar. That's OK, because if you'd like to learn guitar, you can get yourself an inexpensive set up like this or this, or for left-handed folks, this. I don't think comparing the controller to a real guitar or learning to a real guitar is relevant. Not everyone that has dreams of wailin' on a guitar or spankin' the plank with some down-home (your favorite kind of music here), but lots of folks would enjoy the fun of playing guitar without the trappings of learning two hands, many strings, and 18-24 frets.
Games are supposed to be entertaining - I don't think that the comparison to real-world instruments is relevant (beyond their entertainment value).
So far as the hack... It seems pretty neat to me. Doing hardware hacks is a lot like candy - it doesn't have to have a point - it's just fun.
I think the pictures are awesome. I've always enjoyed space sciences, and all the neat stuff coming from long-distance probes and satellites is great.
Kinda puts things in perspective when you see a vortex that appears to be covering half a planet...
P.S.
The B in Beta stands for buggy, not benchmark.
When something bad happens to your stuff, it sucks... no doubt. I feel bad for them.
However, experience and tech folks both indicate the same thing time and again, ad nauseum: backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, still reading?, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, backup up your stuff, rinse-lather-repeat.
Had I tried this type of thing on any, computer:
1) Back up important/family docs to universal media;
2) Back up settings that are important to apps (apps that are used every day);
3) Back up my music library.
Then, cool dual-booting, neon-light-oscillating, or infra-friga-ultra-hertz-speed processor overclocking type stuff can be attempted (ESPECIALLY if the software mods the ROM/BIOS). If all else fails, treat yourself to a nice, clean install: wipe the drive and install the original stuff.
In summary, if one trashes one's data with ANY software (beta or otherwise), it is best if one has backed up one's stuff. I don't see this as Apple's fault (maybe they'll have to deal with the impact and PR, though).
Some of the thoughts in the (teeny) article-let are interesting...
For example, lots of comments talk about the "math skills" statement. Indeed, actual math is uncommon in my daily software engineering, but being able to discover algorithms, utilize patterns and algebraic problem solving do go easily from math to software engineering.
Back, neck and eye problems? Check...
Long hours (at release time)? Check...
Fear of outsourcing? Check...
Telecommuting? Check (but I like the people interaction I get when I'm on-site)...
Youth-oriented? Sure... young minds are great things to behold and are always interesting to me... It keeps my perspective fresh, especially since there are fewer ivory-tower guys around (now that there the Red-Sea-of-layoffs closed in on my geographic area)...
Beyond my music, I really enjoy software as a career - and I get to work for a pretty great company, too.
My Pavlovian reaction was, "OhhhhhhhhNNNNNNNNNNNNNNooooooooooooooooo!"
Now that the bell has rung, my kibbles are ingested, and I feel better...
If you were a state agency and needed security expertise, where would you go to get the information you need (to write a law/rule/proposition/etc. that is based on highly technical stuff)? Would you go to a security firm? Would you go to the local IT management firm? Would you go to a support shop like Geeks 'r' Us?
A little voice inside my head (yes, I have those sometimes - be afraid) says that something inside the law may be done to tilt things Microsoft's way - but I don't know that Microsoft would be such a bad partner (all feelings of MSHatred(tm) aside - just looking at it as a business).
Interestingly enough, I don't think I'd be able to go to an Intel Mac for quite some time. Please see the last line of this comment for the "point" of my post.
Adobe image software isn't going to be available for a while, runs slow in emulation... (inconvenience)
Line6 will not have its Intel/Mac version of its drivers and Gear software until at least September 2006... (show-stopper)
The basic ProTools stuff and many other critical audio editing tools I need will not be ready for Intel/Mac for quite a while... (show-stopper)
However, all of the above are available for XP right now, rumour has it that they will run on Intel/Mac/XP with BootCamp... Whether or not this is the best option, it is a better option - the Line6 stuff will not even run in emulation on the Intel/Mac.
If called upon, I will undoubtedly help to reduce emissions and make an environmental difference. Actually, my family does already. We carpool, telecommute (when possible), walk when we can, recycle everything we can, and use gas-powered tools as little as possible (I love power tools, though).
I have to say that the whole media/government FUD over whether or not global warming actually exists really rings a bell with me. The dis-information campaign (about emissions and pollution) reminds me very much of the decades of time when industry and government were disseminating information that smoking hadn't been proven to cause cancers. Decades of mis-information about nicotine addiction and cancer risks was backed up by industry-paid doctors and lawyers who lulled us to sleep on the issue. The same thing has been going on WRT pollution and global warming.
Humans accelerate climate change - whether it is clear-cutting ancient forests, industrial pollution, wasteful production, or emissions... To me, the real question is, "When will we take a responsible stance/take action on helping the Earth begin to heal?"
I agree with nearly everything you've said here - you've made some good points... especially the last sentence...
I think the recording and movie industries are afraid of something more (now than they did years ago), though... if you made massive tape recording copies, quality would usually go downhill - especially those pirates too cheap not to do the copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy thing... But in the digital age, you can get an exact copy of the first digital copy over and over again without serious or virtually any degradation.
I'm not arguing that the recording/movie industries should feel differently now than as before, I'm just saying that they are more nervous about digital copies than they were of mechanical copies.
Email is like a habit-worn old friend to many people. Email is in the computer-public consciousness... People who would go into convulsions if asked to FTP something - can still understand (basically) and can use email.
i nd-the-time types of folks. People can organize their emails in a fashion with which they are comfortable, when they're ready to do it. How often do people see letters from friends or co-workers at all hours of the night and weekends - because the sender has just gotten back from a trip/just got caught up with their day/just found the time to go through their mail and get it handled?
Collaboration systems are often really cool, and are often loaded with lots of features - but at the end of the day, are also often cumbersome (from a work-flow perspective, ironically) and are often proprietary.
(MOST) people are generally procrastinators or are at least I'll-get-it-done-when-I'm-good-and-ready-or-can-f
PTB Email: click send and the ball is in someone else's court... This is hugely common... It is pseudo-interactive at best, but gives the sender control over when things will occur, and gives the receiver control over when reaction will take place. Control of work flow/interaction is a huge issue for a large majority of folks I know.
Besides, you can do email from almost any networked (and user-compatible) computer on the planet, on almost any operating system, on almost any CPU... ubiquity is hard to beat.
It's all PINK on the INSIDE!
For perspective, I use and enjoy my Macintoshes, but I also really dig my white-box PC I built with a Linux distro on it, and I also enjoy my Sun Ultra 5. My Windows machine is OK, and has some great uses when I need it.
Customer service? In the 16 years that I've owned Macintoshes, I've used customer service *once*. I found the Apple reps to be pretty good folks when it comes to supporting development and deployment software.
I don't know that the service is the main selling point. I think the "totem" idea is much more accurate. If you can leave the "I like this system because {personal reasons here}" stuff aside for a moment, look at it this way: Do people buy Tommy Hilfiger or Abercrombie and Fitch clothes because they're all that great? Or do they buy them because they're cool or they're what others are wearing? (I know, A&F is so 2 minutes ago, just using them as a comparison. I'm not very much a slave to style.)
I think Apple has a combination of coolness, perceived ease of use, innovation, and (in general) well-made products.
Besides, I LOVE GarageBand!
The anti-malware/anti-spyware/anti-virus/anti-badstuff war is extremely similar to insurgencies against governments (even historically, not just now).
There are two aspects to this situation:
1) How can these companies staunch the ever-widening, ever-innovative flow of assaults on the Internet?
2) What will Microsoft's product do to the businesses who make much of their living from anti-badstuff software?
For the first item, one can only hope to lessen the impact and severity of assaults. One cannot hope that massive counter-counter assaults and all-comprehensive-in-one approaches will work - as they do not when used against governmental insurgents. The more flailing and posturing on the part of the defender, the harder the black hats fight back. It (IMHO) is better to do your best, stay on top of things, and keep the users/public educated and intelligent about their computer use.
For the second item, It is my sincere hope that Vista (or whatever it becomes) will not stamp out the small-and-medium size after-marketeers. Innovation is often fueled by people who are not working in a cubicle box for a giant company - but by a small- or medium-sized company that has its focus razor sharp.
A similar thing was that IE did crush most competition for browsers for many years (and is still a huge installed base), but other companies and browsers have slowly crept back - perhaps because the shiny ball got dropped at Goliath's shop and picked up by an interested David's shop. I get the feeling that the anti-badstuff software market will probably cycle in a very similar fashion.
I don't think Apple will let this anniversary go by without something or some event.
I believe they will introduce either:
1) Something nifty
2) A limited edition of something
My vote would be for a colored-shell iMac... Or maybe colored, translucent iPods in the original six Apple colors...
There have been many attempts (during human history) to legislate the buying, entertaining, and personal preferences of the people. (In my opinion) there haven't been any successful governmental squeezes on consumers (except for things that have to do with REAL safety, etc.).
There HAS to be a way for the courts to define and address the difference between WELL DUH! lawsuits (like "patenting" an immediate purchase button, or cross-category searches) and important lawsuits that protect folks that have invested years and years of work and research (and perhaps tons of money) in creating a complex drug or product.
THERE HAS to be a way to define this and adjudicate accordingly. I'm fully aware that there are gray-area patents, but some things just shouldn't be patented.
I don't work for Microsoft, so I don't have an internalized, first-hand perspective. I am not a Microsoft Hater(tm) - I am (largely)platform-agnostic.
With that disclaimer said...
The Windows Vista message is garbled, when seen from the perspective of people who just "use the OS." They are saying, "Windows what?" In addition to the marketing vision dilution, I have strong feelings that all the many versions will be inappropriate to the market's needs - AND will cause Microsoft major headaches for at least a decade in the future. Imagine, if you will, supporting seven versions of a named OS. Imagine being at Microsoft, trying to manage the (already way overblown) code base. Imagine the long period of time it will take large corporations to test and migrate to such a complex matrix of an OS stream.
My question to those who are much smarter and more experienced than me - how could Microsoft not have known that this slip was coming? How could such a massive, publicly scrutinized, hugely funded project not have had more oversight for its milestones? Is this really feature-creep, is it the "moving goalpost", or is it just bad management?
Folks,
Look at it this way: It takes major cojones to admit to a huge re-write (especially if the re-writes involve core bits and pieces). This is particularly true when you're talking about a system of software that literally affects many tens of millions of computers worldwide.
Looking at it another way. If I'm going to have to use it (at work, that is), I'd rather it be very stable and transparent to my work. If it takes them five more years, that's fine with me. XP spanks the 9x Windows clan, and seems more stable than the Win2000 desktop versions I had to use at work.
The good news is that Vista's delay won't effect my music, my personal computer musings, or personal software development - I'm perfectly happy with various Linux distros, Solaris, and OSX... Windows is fine, my family does use it from time to time, and I'd like to see if Vista can maybe fuel some future competition for better OS software.
[deep operator recorded voice]We're sorry... the publicly-recognized essential service is no longer in service or has been disc...[/deep operator recorded voice]
In any event, all humor aside - wouldn't it feel pretty bad to have a *real* emergency and be put on hold? Perhaps there are holes in the story, and maybe it is even a bit blown out of proportion. However, if someone I love was in real danger, or if my home was on fire, I'd call 911. I haven't waded through the 50+ "green" pages in the phone book to find all the important direct-dial emergency numbers.
Call centers (including 911 dispatch) are woefully understaffed because of economics (public or private).
The CIA, FBI, and any other governmental agency should have efficient, extremely-monitored, very safe email and email systems. It is very important that modern communications are fostered and maintained in governmental activities.
I know from personal experience that government-funded/government-used technical systems are generally either:
1)Ultra-over-engineered to be sure that the system/thing is ultra-safe or ultra-reliable or ultra-accountable
2)Woefully inadequate because the person(s) in the bureaucracy don't have the tech expertise to foster the effort correctly - and yet place massive, uninformed, and inappropriate amounts of pressure on the worker bees to get the job done as per the way the non-tech person thinks it needs to go.
3)Many projects die on the vine because mis-direction (and management that honestly doesn't have the knowledge they need to lead the effort) makes the project wander in the desert for huge periods of time.
4)I could go on...
But in all fairness, governmental technical efforts have many different and sometimes unique pressures on them. The government literally has to have permission from someone to do anything with public systems. The public (rightfully) wants as much transparency and accountability as possible in governmental efforts - which means everything is debated, re-documented, justified, cleared, reviewed, managed, re-managed, scrutinized, over-then-under-funded, micro-managed, and finally finger-pointed-to-somebody-else'd when the project doesn't go right.
Our government cannot (or doesn't know how to) operate as smaller, more agile private businesses work. The pressure and accountability of every move has created a monster of over-administered and over-micro-managed web of forms, functions, procedures, and other things...
What's the solution? Frankly, I don't know. I want my government to be accountable, and I want the government to be "of the people, by the people", but I also want it to be intelligent, well-led, and a great deal less dysfunctional. If only governmental technical tasks could be more agile...
Websites that offer something interesting or of quickly-absorbed value are sites that are successful. Whether or not a site is ugly is not always relevant to its success. I've seen very many beautiful and well-programmed sites that don't "get off the ground." Sites that get good "forward mojo" or have something funny or valuable do the best.
Some sites are both ugly and ineffective (like my website) - but the reason is not because of their attractiveness... it is the subject matter, the ease-of-use, or a combination of both...
If they pull it off in a way that the worldwide public will really like it, then it can be a good thing if it provides decent competition... (without monopolization, of course).
But seriously, my only worry is how the portable's over-heating-giant-power-dongle-on-a-cord (borrowed from the 360) will fit in my iPod wristband...