For FSM's sake, I hope the work is ending.... !!!!
Hear that? That sound like dominoes knocking one another over? With a huge pot of RIAA money precariously balanced on three dominoes at the edge of the table? YEAH, I heard it too
and the witted among us will be working to secure their systems from any botnet intrusion. Perhaps GNU/Linux has more going for it for the average joe bloggs than they previously thought. I truly wonder how this will work out if Linux distros started advertising how to secure against botnets from the NSA and airforce etc?
That is something that MS and Apple just can't say, a claim they can't make and back up by showing the code to the world. hmmmmmmm
It's not just you. A lot of American's think the neocons are out for world domination too.
BTW, The three sit down, Abraham asks the barkeep for a screamin BJ and Jesus starts giving him the sodam and gemhora story when Mohammed interrupts and says.....
I'd say this was as illegal an idea as malicious botnets. My computer cpu cycles are NOT for sale to the US Government, or any government. They can have them when they pry them from my dead cold pc case...
If SuSe is late, the cooperation still helped drive KDE being ready for the rest of the Linux world's releases. The bonus is that Linux distros would end up shipping nearly at the same time, and with the same versions of basic system apps. This means that GNU/Linux would be much the same for users by removing annoyances of version differences for downstream developers, and on the whole create a development environment that would compete aggressively with MS's development environment.
Why are they against excessive damages? They can easily afford going into revision again and again until a judge agrees with them..... IANAL but I'd think that if even one person gets something like 13000 times the actual value for damages, then everybody who wants to sue them will ask for it too. It sets a precedent that they don't want to have to pay for. In fact, I expect that any week now someone's lawyer will come up with the right defense or technical argument to leave the **AA's legal strategy in tatters and they will then be open for multiple suits if not class action suits. With the growing volumes of legal opinion against them, it is only a matter of time until all judges are aware that the **AA legal team is operating on very thin legal ice.
Yes, they have been successful thus far using very shaky technical experts and such, but that will fall apart quickly, and I'm betting that ISP cooperation with P2P makers and their arguments for throttling P2P traffic will remove all doubt as to the illegal nature of the **AA suits. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, so the saying goes. I believe a couple of really sound, well placed offensive legal suits will put the **AA on defense to the point that they will be spending hundreds of millions trying to cover their tracks, and slowly their legal team will be dismissed and forgotten.
Technically, Sony's rootkit should have brought entirely more damages. The school teacher in Russia that got sued for illegal copies of Windows is another example of wrong doing by well meaning laws, so the problem is not just the **AA. The DMCA and it's precedents seem to set the pace of wrong doing. We have seen the DMCA used against large corp. entities already, and in wrong ways. It is things like this that will lead to the halt of the **AA legal teams. As more technical knowledge is handed to the general public and, more importantly the legal system, their strategy will disappear.
We know that they basically have to flout the law to get your IP address/name connection and that will be shown. The legal system is slow and not all argument is germane to all cases, but it will happen. We need something like watergate to be uncovered so that their righteous position is removed, then all will sort itself out. They are a dying industry and are fighting death with all that they have. Even those resources are not inexhaustible. Several music groups are actually seeing no benefit in letting the RIAA continue their legal antics. Look at how much artists were paid from the Napster winnings.... zero! The cost of those legal teams is quite high, and they really aren't seeing anything from it. Every time they do anything it hits the news and more people see what asshats they really are. Bad PR is costing them quite a bit of money and I expect that we'll see it mentioned in upcoming financial reports. Loss of revenues eventually has to be blamed on market forces and those market forces are affected by bad PR.
It's a slow process, but losing badly in court sets the precedent that will speed it up. This is what the death bed of the RIAA looks like. To see more Google for SCO or just pop on over to Groklaw.
Non-obligatory bashing: MS is in a similar position but trying hard not to bleed out before the doctor gets out to the house to see how bad it is.
This is the way of business. Some folks just make bad decisions and the company and consumers have to live with it until things change a little at a time. The mere fact that they believe the award to be too high is a signal that I'm right. Of course they have to say that to continue to bolster their own position. The trouble is that they are now looking at what the hard place and the rock to see what they actually look like from a short distance. I imagine it will get a bit messier before it starts looking better. It will take a few more awards against them first.
arghh, I forgot one idea/thought. Within a workgroup in a business, say you have 15 workstations/desktops, and all of them running with the Cell/x86 setup. The Cell sides are all networked (on a separate network) as a grid and each x86/UI portion as clients on that grid. Suddenly you have HUGE computing potential with a common UI for each workstation that seems transparent and is scalable by adding more workstations.
Additionally, with SaaS and GoogleApps et al, you can see the value of the mainframe/client approach. It's basically the mainframe sitting inside a thick client box. Separating user and system spaces would fall along the same lines... or so it occurs to me.
Even though this might make me sound a bit off, we already have co-processors for video, network, etc. Why not go a bit further and specialize the hardware just a bit more. Let the Cell do all the real work and sandbox the user on the x86 cpu in a way that allows the user to be rather free in operation while the real work is done on the Cell processor in protected manner. That "should" be enough processing power to isolate the user completely from the tasks of the computer itself. The idea would be to sort-of create a mainframe/client environment where it would be nearly impossible for the user to accidentally introduce viri to the system.
The UI and i/o shelled through the x86 system. There are examples of this in some smaller embedded systems where system memory is separate from user memory etc. The details of this seem sketchy as I have not worked them out to any degree that would make the proposal sound workable thus far. I do know of examples where techniques like this are used to protect the 'system' while 'user agents' do what they want without the intrusion of security software at every turn. When the system is turned off, the user space is cleared. The protected system space is always protected.
Yes, that leaves room for infections on the Cell side to act like root kits as there is always some spot that is vulnerable, but it does offer a much more bullet resistant setup. The effects are not too different from working from a live CD all the time. Reboot and all is clean again, but with a more permanent and less inconvenient process. If you run some version of Linux/Unix on the client side, and strictly control the communications to the Cell side it becomes a much tighter box to try to squeeze a virus into. It may provide opportunity for the Cell side to monitor processes in the client/UI side meaning that keyloggers and such wou9ld become a thing of the past. In general, I mean to add horsepower by splitting system tasks from UI tasks and add a much stronger sandbox for the client to operate in, rather than continue lumping all the work on one cpu and letting security run in the same sandbox as the questionable software.
It's an idea... obviously I do not design motherboards or OSes for a living (IANACSPHD ??)
Actually, the Cell processor is a rocking piece of hardware. I'd like to see something like it added to motherboards as an optional coprocessor arrangement. Yes, I realize that the code/compilers would have to be redone, but I think that this is something that would make a huge difference in performance with little actual hardware/cost increase. It's a thought anyway.
Seriously, even if it was donated to the public domain and free as in beer/speech, the value is tarnished when the people they claim to want to help would rather spend the money for the OS/pc ($400 bucks or whatever it is now) on something for their hobby... like telescopes, cameras, tracking equipment etc. These hobby markets are full of people that do NOT have money laying around like businesses often do.
MS did the same with robotics... no matter how noble the gesture, they COMPLETELY missed the mark with their targeted market.
Seriously, why would I begin to believe that MS is out for anything other than fucking over the consumers they pretend to want as customers?
To quote CSMATT above:
Yes, it is partially Microsoft's fault for not warning users on Automatic Updates that SP3 is still brand new and could potentially cause problems, but unless you never had problems with SP2 or were not in charge of a Windows XP machine during that time, this should have been seen from a mile away.
You and many in similar situations are well positioned to help the world understand how best we can continue to push information out there for the Chinese people and to help erode the bonds placed on them by their government. Perhaps you will find such information and blogg about it so that all of/. can read more?
The spirit of my post is not completely in disagreement with your feelings, however there is not much that can be said in reply to your post due to your lack of solutions that avoid the issues I tried to highlight.
Basically, the two schools of thought there seem to be 'take it up the ass' to support the Chinese people or directly confront the Chinese government in some fashion. I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that we not use the same diplomacy with China that the USA did with Iraq.
So, for all your compassion, what are your suggestions for this situation?
Except, there is possibly different ways to say 'Fuck China':
1) Publish and push data all the way into their living rooms until they cut off the Internet for their people completely.
2) Publish in a flippant way: publish maps but when it comes to China put a graphic that says sensored by assholes in China.
3) Publish a website that shows ALL the stuff that China does not want their citizens to see/read/hear so that the entire rest of the world can see/read/hear it and know what Chinese government types have censored from their own people.
4) invite the Chinese government to come make the rest of the world sensor material for their benefit. I'm not saying war is good, but if you intend to tell them to fuck off they will either hide behind the wall or respond to that message.
Personally, I believe that no one should be buying ANYTHING made in China. Yes, I know it's next to impossible but I would spend an extra 10% to support companies from my country that make competing products to Chinese products.
The entire China issue is completely out of hand, and the best way IMO to stop it is to stop dealing with them. Stop buying from them. Stop selling to them. Do not go to the Olympics either. Don't watch the Olympics. In fact, I say we censor China altogether from the world's information, business dealings etc. Don't let them invest in anything anywhere else in the world. Lock up their assets that reside outside of China, close their Embassies... everything.
Yes, that will eventually hurt their people but it is their people that must overthrow the government in charge at this point.
China has more problems than you mentioned. Aside from the deceit with the IOC, The just had a huge earthquake, still need to save face over the Tibet issues, and in general terms have to maintain face or risk losing sales of Chinese made products worldwide.
If the 'Great Firewall' turns the Olympics into a fiasco, or the Chinese themselves do so, if even half it's trading partners boycott, it would seriously dampen China's fiscal ardor. They have gotten themselves into a 'put up or shut up' position. Lets just see how far the athletes and journalists will push the boundaries.
Yes, using the word source makes it sound the same, but the options for other words are rather limited. Shared Code? MS LBDTL (look but don't touch license)... really, pretty limited. Think about it, MS has not been all that inventive when it comes to product names.
On the other hand how is anyone supposed to feel empathy for a Gorilla who has been throwing (chairs) excrement through the bars at customers for years?
At this point, Vista nearly finished swirling down the drain, XP SP3 going over like a lead balloon, now this? The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and I guess in this case it's going to take quite a while for the falling part to finish. Falling? Failing? hmmmmm
Yes, MS fanboi, before you finish off that cup of coolaid and reply to my post, think about the marketing blunders, product disappointments, and plain bad business moves made by MS THIS YEAR ALONE and tell me you still love the company that is MS?
I'm guessing that you missed the news that if you are top dog, you can't afford to mess up?
It was not JUST tablet users. Read some news would you! IE8 beta users were screwed too. MS has had decades at working with EVERY kind of hardware. It's fscking lame to call that bluff now. F/OSS software might be able to still do that, but MS has NO excuse. period. for any reason. They have been working with this hardware FOR_EVER! I don't know how to say that strongly enough. Fuck! The hardware has been designed around the GD software. There is NO excuse. Business is business. Get it right or fail... this look like one more fail in the bag of fail that MS is filling up fairly fast. From a pure business pundit prospective, MS failed here. Keep drinking the coolaid!
what to do with the box of floppy disks I found when cleaning the garage this weekend... hmmmmm
There seems to be no video evidence of it's efficacy against marauding home invading Homeland Security driven police.. but it looks like it might be some sort of deterrent to unwanted guests who are unarmed.... hmmmm
That long forgotten subscription to PC World and all the free disks will come in handy after all:-)
Seriously, does anyone know of a website with plans for a gun like this that shoots tennis balls? My pit bull is waiting tirelessly for a machine to play fetch with. It seems the basic parts are similar here.
Shame they offered no officially sanctioned Hasbro scoring method!
Quite simply, if MS wanted to keep customers they would create a product with zero problems (or as close as they can get) and push it out at a VERY competitive price. That is how the marketplace is supposed to work. When your namebrand is trashed, you have to compete extra hard. MS seems unwilling to do this, or at least has failed to show that they are trying to do so.
That might just be bad business decisions on their part, but whether it was malicious or stupidity does not matter. In either case the end result is that MS loses more customers. Nobody wanted to hear that MS was losing or soon to be dead a year ago when predictions were rife, but here it is, in your face. MS is consistently failing to either impress or produce quality product. The dragon^H^H^H^H^Hcathedral is near death... is it time for the penny market to celebrate?
Not on your life, it will be time to celebrate when the dried bones of the dragon are used up as party favors. Until then, it is time to keep competing aggressively, and nothing short of that will do. Competition, not patents, drives innovation. Innovation will bring us secure computing at home. A kind of secure that behaves friendly to the end user.
Now, am I bashing MS for pleasure? No, it is because MS products are in their deathbed and nothing short of a complete restart will get them out of it. It does not appear that MS will do that. There is nothing in current or near future activity that shows MS will do anything different from what got them in the death bed to start with. The beast is dieing. There is nothing more to say.
Call that a troll if you will, but the truth hurts sometimes. Do I want it to die? NO! Emphatically NO!!!! Without competition, quality dies. Would I like to see MS slide into a comfortable second place? Yes.... and the reasons are simple, just ask any Linux fanboi for them.
SP3 failed utterly in the face of the current market that MS faces. There is NO excuse for that in business. If you believe the art of war extends to business, MS deserves to be beheaded ungracefully. That is how business goes, so don't bother telling me that I'm a troll.
Well, yes young man, there is a reason for MS to block an entire website. We should remember the chair throwing that must have taken place when Google sort of White-knighted Yahoo recently. I'm reasonably sure that there are *SOME* MS employees who did not appreciate it.
Of course, it could also (put your hat on) be someone related to Yahoo! who decided to make MS look bad? Not sure how, but it's the other side of the conspiracy coin.
It's hardly good business to do this on purpose, and if it's an accident... Well, now why would you have any reason to build faith in MS?
I Have not changed my mind. I may use one, but I will always...... Okay, here we stop our agreement. I have not seen one yet in the wild... so to speak. If they work well when I see one, I'll change my mind
I was thinking the same thing. The fact that Linux is now touted as the 'easy' OS to use is rather insulting to Redmond I would think.
I am concerned that those unfamiliar with Linux will see this and conclude that Linux is expensive rather than....er... FREE.
MS has done a good job of making Windows look like the best choice, and IMO this should be investigated using lawyers and stuff as it makes no sense whatsoever if you look at it from the point of view that MS would never stoop to any dirty tricks. Of course, if you are even a tiny bit cynical you can't help but see that this is obviously a questionable business deal that needs to be investigated by those that would destroy monopolies.
Slashdot Mirror
Not only that, but you might check http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=QQO&q=homeschool+grants+law+illinois+%2Bcomputers&btnG=Search to see if there is methods/processes for donating such 'tossed out' equipment to be provided to home schools under federal guidelines.
For FSM's sake, I hope the work is ending.... !!!!
Hear that? That sound like dominoes knocking one another over? With a huge pot of RIAA money precariously balanced on three dominoes at the edge of the table? YEAH, I heard it too
Very good news. Almost seems like Friday now.
and the witted among us will be working to secure their systems from any botnet intrusion. Perhaps GNU/Linux has more going for it for the average joe bloggs than they previously thought. I truly wonder how this will work out if Linux distros started advertising how to secure against botnets from the NSA and airforce etc?
That is something that MS and Apple just can't say, a claim they can't make and back up by showing the code to the world. hmmmmmmm
I wonder...
It's not just you. A lot of American's think the neocons are out for world domination too.
BTW,
The three sit down, Abraham asks the barkeep for a screamin BJ and Jesus starts giving him the sodam and gemhora story when Mohammed interrupts and says.....
??
I'd say this was as illegal an idea as malicious botnets. My computer cpu cycles are NOT for sale to the US Government, or any government. They can have them when they pry them from my dead cold pc case...
If SuSe is late, the cooperation still helped drive KDE being ready for the rest of the Linux world's releases. The bonus is that Linux distros would end up shipping nearly at the same time, and with the same versions of basic system apps. This means that GNU/Linux would be much the same for users by removing annoyances of version differences for downstream developers, and on the whole create a development environment that would compete aggressively with MS's development environment.
Yes, they have been successful thus far using very shaky technical experts and such, but that will fall apart quickly, and I'm betting that ISP cooperation with P2P makers and their arguments for throttling P2P traffic will remove all doubt as to the illegal nature of the **AA suits. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, so the saying goes. I believe a couple of really sound, well placed offensive legal suits will put the **AA on defense to the point that they will be spending hundreds of millions trying to cover their tracks, and slowly their legal team will be dismissed and forgotten.
Technically, Sony's rootkit should have brought entirely more damages. The school teacher in Russia that got sued for illegal copies of Windows is another example of wrong doing by well meaning laws, so the problem is not just the **AA. The DMCA and it's precedents seem to set the pace of wrong doing. We have seen the DMCA used against large corp. entities already, and in wrong ways. It is things like this that will lead to the halt of the **AA legal teams. As more technical knowledge is handed to the general public and, more importantly the legal system, their strategy will disappear.
We know that they basically have to flout the law to get your IP address/name connection and that will be shown. The legal system is slow and not all argument is germane to all cases, but it will happen. We need something like watergate to be uncovered so that their righteous position is removed, then all will sort itself out. They are a dying industry and are fighting death with all that they have. Even those resources are not inexhaustible. Several music groups are actually seeing no benefit in letting the RIAA continue their legal antics. Look at how much artists were paid from the Napster winnings.... zero! The cost of those legal teams is quite high, and they really aren't seeing anything from it. Every time they do anything it hits the news and more people see what asshats they really are. Bad PR is costing them quite a bit of money and I expect that we'll see it mentioned in upcoming financial reports. Loss of revenues eventually has to be blamed on market forces and those market forces are affected by bad PR.
It's a slow process, but losing badly in court sets the precedent that will speed it up. This is what the death bed of the RIAA looks like. To see more Google for SCO or just pop on over to Groklaw.
Non-obligatory bashing: MS is in a similar position but trying hard not to bleed out before the doctor gets out to the house to see how bad it is.
This is the way of business. Some folks just make bad decisions and the company and consumers have to live with it until things change a little at a time. The mere fact that they believe the award to be too high is a signal that I'm right. Of course they have to say that to continue to bolster their own position. The trouble is that they are now looking at what the hard place and the rock to see what they actually look like from a short distance. I imagine it will get a bit messier before it starts looking better. It will take a few more awards against them first.
arghh, I forgot one idea/thought. Within a workgroup in a business, say you have 15 workstations/desktops, and all of them running with the Cell/x86 setup. The Cell sides are all networked (on a separate network) as a grid and each x86/UI portion as clients on that grid. Suddenly you have HUGE computing potential with a common UI for each workstation that seems transparent and is scalable by adding more workstations.
Additionally, with SaaS and GoogleApps et al, you can see the value of the mainframe/client approach. It's basically the mainframe sitting inside a thick client box. Separating user and system spaces would fall along the same lines... or so it occurs to me.
Even though this might make me sound a bit off, we already have co-processors for video, network, etc. Why not go a bit further and specialize the hardware just a bit more. Let the Cell do all the real work and sandbox the user on the x86 cpu in a way that allows the user to be rather free in operation while the real work is done on the Cell processor in protected manner. That "should" be enough processing power to isolate the user completely from the tasks of the computer itself. The idea would be to sort-of create a mainframe/client environment where it would be nearly impossible for the user to accidentally introduce viri to the system.
The UI and i/o shelled through the x86 system. There are examples of this in some smaller embedded systems where system memory is separate from user memory etc. The details of this seem sketchy as I have not worked them out to any degree that would make the proposal sound workable thus far. I do know of examples where techniques like this are used to protect the 'system' while 'user agents' do what they want without the intrusion of security software at every turn. When the system is turned off, the user space is cleared. The protected system space is always protected.
Yes, that leaves room for infections on the Cell side to act like root kits as there is always some spot that is vulnerable, but it does offer a much more bullet resistant setup. The effects are not too different from working from a live CD all the time. Reboot and all is clean again, but with a more permanent and less inconvenient process. If you run some version of Linux/Unix on the client side, and strictly control the communications to the Cell side it becomes a much tighter box to try to squeeze a virus into. It may provide opportunity for the Cell side to monitor processes in the client/UI side meaning that keyloggers and such wou9ld become a thing of the past. In general, I mean to add horsepower by splitting system tasks from UI tasks and add a much stronger sandbox for the client to operate in, rather than continue lumping all the work on one cpu and letting security run in the same sandbox as the questionable software.
It's an idea... obviously I do not design motherboards or OSes for a living (IANACSPHD ??)
Actually, the Cell processor is a rocking piece of hardware. I'd like to see something like it added to motherboards as an optional coprocessor arrangement. Yes, I realize that the code/compilers would have to be redone, but I think that this is something that would make a huge difference in performance with little actual hardware/cost increase. It's a thought anyway.
Yes, time for a Mac only version??? right?
Seriously, even if it was donated to the public domain and free as in beer/speech, the value is tarnished when the people they claim to want to help would rather spend the money for the OS/pc ($400 bucks or whatever it is now) on something for their hobby... like telescopes, cameras, tracking equipment etc. These hobby markets are full of people that do NOT have money laying around like businesses often do.
MS did the same with robotics... no matter how noble the gesture, they COMPLETELY missed the mark with their targeted market.
Seriously, why would I begin to believe that MS is out for anything other than fucking over the consumers they pretend to want as customers?
You and many in similar situations are well positioned to help the world understand how best we can continue to push information out there for the Chinese people and to help erode the bonds placed on them by their government. Perhaps you will find such information and blogg about it so that all of /. can read more?
The spirit of my post is not completely in disagreement with your feelings, however there is not much that can be said in reply to your post due to your lack of solutions that avoid the issues I tried to highlight.
Basically, the two schools of thought there seem to be 'take it up the ass' to support the Chinese people or directly confront the Chinese government in some fashion. I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that we not use the same diplomacy with China that the USA did with Iraq.
So, for all your compassion, what are your suggestions for this situation?
Except, there is possibly different ways to say 'Fuck China':
1) Publish and push data all the way into their living rooms until they cut off the Internet for their people completely.
2) Publish in a flippant way: publish maps but when it comes to China put a graphic that says sensored by assholes in China.
3) Publish a website that shows ALL the stuff that China does not want their citizens to see/read/hear so that the entire rest of the world can see/read/hear it and know what Chinese government types have censored from their own people.
4) invite the Chinese government to come make the rest of the world sensor material for their benefit. I'm not saying war is good, but if you intend to tell them to fuck off they will either hide behind the wall or respond to that message.
Personally, I believe that no one should be buying ANYTHING made in China. Yes, I know it's next to impossible but I would spend an extra 10% to support companies from my country that make competing products to Chinese products.
The entire China issue is completely out of hand, and the best way IMO to stop it is to stop dealing with them. Stop buying from them. Stop selling to them. Do not go to the Olympics either. Don't watch the Olympics. In fact, I say we censor China altogether from the world's information, business dealings etc. Don't let them invest in anything anywhere else in the world. Lock up their assets that reside outside of China, close their Embassies... everything.
Yes, that will eventually hurt their people but it is their people that must overthrow the government in charge at this point.
China has more problems than you mentioned. Aside from the deceit with the IOC, The just had a huge earthquake, still need to save face over the Tibet issues, and in general terms have to maintain face or risk losing sales of Chinese made products worldwide.
If the 'Great Firewall' turns the Olympics into a fiasco, or the Chinese themselves do so, if even half it's trading partners boycott, it would seriously dampen China's fiscal ardor. They have gotten themselves into a 'put up or shut up' position. Lets just see how far the athletes and journalists will push the boundaries.
Yes, using the word source makes it sound the same, but the options for other words are rather limited. Shared Code? MS LBDTL (look but don't touch license)... really, pretty limited. Think about it, MS has not been all that inventive when it comes to product names.
On the other hand how is anyone supposed to feel empathy for a Gorilla who has been throwing (chairs) excrement through the bars at customers for years?
Can you say Lindow? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&output=googleabout&btnG=Search+our+site&q=microsoft%20lindows
and can you say Mike Rowe?
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&output=googleabout&btnG=Search+our+site&q=microsoft%20mike%20rowe%20soft
Do I need to mention more?
At this point, Vista nearly finished swirling down the drain, XP SP3 going over like a lead balloon, now this? The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and I guess in this case it's going to take quite a while for the falling part to finish. Falling? Failing? hmmmmm
Yes, MS fanboi, before you finish off that cup of coolaid and reply to my post, think about the marketing blunders, product disappointments, and plain bad business moves made by MS THIS YEAR ALONE and tell me you still love the company that is MS?
I'm guessing that you missed the news that if you are top dog, you can't afford to mess up?
It was not JUST tablet users. Read some news would you! IE8 beta users were screwed too. MS has had decades at working with EVERY kind of hardware. It's fscking lame to call that bluff now. F/OSS software might be able to still do that, but MS has NO excuse. period. for any reason. They have been working with this hardware FOR_EVER! I don't know how to say that strongly enough. Fuck! The hardware has been designed around the GD software. There is NO excuse. Business is business. Get it right or fail... this look like one more fail in the bag of fail that MS is filling up fairly fast. From a pure business pundit prospective, MS failed here. Keep drinking the coolaid!
what to do with the box of floppy disks I found when cleaning the garage this weekend... hmmmmm
:-)
There seems to be no video evidence of it's efficacy against marauding home invading Homeland Security driven police.. but it looks like it might be some sort of deterrent to unwanted guests who are unarmed.... hmmmm
That long forgotten subscription to PC World and all the free disks will come in handy after all
Seriously, does anyone know of a website with plans for a gun like this that shoots tennis balls? My pit bull is waiting tirelessly for a machine to play fetch with. It seems the basic parts are similar here.
Shame they offered no officially sanctioned Hasbro scoring method!
Quite simply, if MS wanted to keep customers they would create a product with zero problems (or as close as they can get) and push it out at a VERY competitive price. That is how the marketplace is supposed to work. When your namebrand is trashed, you have to compete extra hard. MS seems unwilling to do this, or at least has failed to show that they are trying to do so.
That might just be bad business decisions on their part, but whether it was malicious or stupidity does not matter. In either case the end result is that MS loses more customers. Nobody wanted to hear that MS was losing or soon to be dead a year ago when predictions were rife, but here it is, in your face. MS is consistently failing to either impress or produce quality product. The dragon^H^H^H^H^Hcathedral is near death... is it time for the penny market to celebrate?
Not on your life, it will be time to celebrate when the dried bones of the dragon are used up as party favors. Until then, it is time to keep competing aggressively, and nothing short of that will do. Competition, not patents, drives innovation. Innovation will bring us secure computing at home. A kind of secure that behaves friendly to the end user.
Now, am I bashing MS for pleasure? No, it is because MS products are in their deathbed and nothing short of a complete restart will get them out of it. It does not appear that MS will do that. There is nothing in current or near future activity that shows MS will do anything different from what got them in the death bed to start with. The beast is dieing. There is nothing more to say.
Call that a troll if you will, but the truth hurts sometimes. Do I want it to die? NO! Emphatically NO!!!! Without competition, quality dies. Would I like to see MS slide into a comfortable second place? Yes.... and the reasons are simple, just ask any Linux fanboi for them.
SP3 failed utterly in the face of the current market that MS faces. There is NO excuse for that in business. If you believe the art of war extends to business, MS deserves to be beheaded ungracefully. That is how business goes, so don't bother telling me that I'm a troll.
Well, yes young man, there is a reason for MS to block an entire website. We should remember the chair throwing that must have taken place when Google sort of White-knighted Yahoo recently. I'm reasonably sure that there are *SOME* MS employees who did not appreciate it.
Of course, it could also (put your hat on) be someone related to Yahoo! who decided to make MS look bad? Not sure how, but it's the other side of the conspiracy coin.
It's hardly good business to do this on purpose, and if it's an accident... Well, now why would you have any reason to build faith in MS?
because it was uploaded via freenet?
I was thinking the same thing. The fact that Linux is now touted as the 'easy' OS to use is rather insulting to Redmond I would think.
... .er... FREE.
I am concerned that those unfamiliar with Linux will see this and conclude that Linux is expensive rather than
MS has done a good job of making Windows look like the best choice, and IMO this should be investigated using lawyers and stuff as it makes no sense whatsoever if you look at it from the point of view that MS would never stoop to any dirty tricks. Of course, if you are even a tiny bit cynical you can't help but see that this is obviously a questionable business deal that needs to be investigated by those that would destroy monopolies.
Guess it's time for the IANAC moniker? I am not a chemist?
Either way, if someone can find something useful to do with CO2 it would dull the pains we currently are having with it, and that was my point.