Over here in Germany, it is highly illegal to excert de-facto power of this kind. You can't just disable software "because you can" just like you can't just fire someone "because you can". The courts have a very dim view on what is, essentially vigilante "justice", because this kind of action directly undermines the power of the state.
I certainly hope that some big company gets its IT systems disabled by a bug in the restriction management and sues MS to hell and back. I know a few companies who'll suffer tremendous losses if their entire IT is down for a day or two.
Maybe if Bush wasn't so close with the rest of his family we'd be able to find him:
Bingo. Both the Bush and the bin Laden clan are influential big shots in their respective country. The private planes of the bin Laden family were the only ones allowed to take off when all other international air traffic was still grounded after 9/11. Not necessarily a conspiracy option, could also be explained simply as a good decision to bring them to safety before a mob lynches them - but it shows that they have good connections to your top administration levels - the only guys who could give the necessary clearance.
Big Money Clans are like the nobles of the middle ages - they fight each other all the time, but they leave the ugly dying to the peasants. Behind the scenes, they are more in-bred and closer connected than you'd imagine.
Good for the EU on protecting the privacy of their citizens? Or are they hindering the War on Terror?
There's a difference? I thought the whole point of the "War on Terror" was to introduce a fascist surveilance state. Jews aren't kosher as the black sheep anymore, so we're taking arabs this time, but it really doesn't matter because the real war is fought at home.
Well, perhaps not a true Internet meme, but a gaming-oriented one. You might be a tech enthusiast, but are you a gaming one?
Not as much as I used to be. That might explain it. Once "corporate merger" and "meeting" are more common terms for you than "professor" and "spring break", the time that's left is better stand actually playing the games than thinking about them.:-)
My guess is that the success of the "Zune" (can someone come up with a funny wordplay on this, please?) depends mainly on how quickly the public learns that the much-hyped "wireless sharing" is in fact so crippled that it's almost worthless.
You see, the whole "storm" and "viral marketing" thing is dead in the waters already because a song received wireless can't be retransmitted. In other words: Actual exchanges will be very limited to single songs and local-only. No "spreading". Well, not for songs. I'd be very surprised if it takes more than a month for the first wireless Zune virus to appear.
I own their other two titles, but the site is down and I can't check - does anyone know if there's an OSX version? Or a Linux? Who'd want to have their armageddon interrupted by a blue screen?:)
I'm not convinced. I practically live on the Internet, the two times during the day where I'm not near a computer that's online is during lunch and when I sleep.
I've never heard this outside of MS or MS-sponsored channels. None of the people I work with (all tech enthusiasts) have mentioned it. None of the people I mail with have. Maybe it was short-lived, maybe you and I have different circles, maybe it's a US-only phenomenon - but there's no "movement" visible from over here.
Like most things Microsoft, even this imaginary movement is total vaporware. Nobody outside of Peter's head has seen a "Wii-60 movement" so far.
Nor does it make any sense. People are waiting eagerly for the Wii. The fact that some of them already bought an Xbox doesn't make them into some sort of longing-for-the-combined-power freak, and there's as much of a "Wii-60" movement as there's a "Wii-Ford" movement because some people who'll buy a Wii happen to own a Ford car.
Aside from the fact that the guy is working for MS, and as such his words aren't speculations but marketing - why would anyone be so stupid? The Wii is the platform for the living room and looking at the list of games it'll be more than enough in that capacity. What is needed to complete the picture is not another console with the same type of games (just prettier. oh, shiney!) - but instead a proper computer for the non-console games.
Wii60, yeah right. Good thing they asked marketing first so the initial idea of "WiiX" could be discarded.(*):-)
(*) same pronounciation as a rude term for masturbation in german...
So if the/. article is a proper summary of the MS advertising, then they're competing on what - price? They're a few cents cheaper and that's it?
Sorry, I didn't buy my Mac because it was cheaper than a PC, and I don't think many iPod users had price as their primary factor, either.
Maybe once they start including a "free" Zune with every new computer sold - you know, the same way that MS Windos is "free" on all OEM machines - that might work.
Not so sure on this. I've finally done the switch (though from Linux, not windos) with the new MacBook Pro. Intel was a reason, because I still keep a windos partition for Games until the Wii launches. I might not have switched if Mac had stayed with PPC.
Here's how I see it: Let people buy the new Macs because they can run Windos. Once they've seen the two in a direct comparison (running on the same machine), they'll appreciate OSX. Then they'll love it. Then they'll start to worship it. Then they'll wipe the windos partition in a night of frenzy and drunken fanatism just before they realize that they should've petitioned the makers of their favourite software before doing that...
Interesting tech demo. Maybe they should make a 10-key version next, to corner the game market.
I know I'd buy something that gives me the Guild Wars skill bar in a hardware version. I'm sure many other players of other MMORPGs would like to have actual keys to press that show the skills currently in the quickbar.
You people really should be happy we haven't killed you yet.
Which is precisely why some people like Osama and his friends have decided that it's in their best interest to kill you first, before you change your mind.
Because in this case the support of the government was for a convicted criminal. In fact, one convicted in the US for pretty much the very same crime. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my government to support criminals.
True for some, false for the majority of lawyers. While I'm last in line for "friends of lawyers", I do know that many of them make much less than I do. Unfortunately, the honest and ethical ones are most probably among those.
Repeat after me: Raw numbers do not statistics make.
Where's the impact analysis? Where's the clustering or at least categorisation? 38 remote-root exploits certainly are "more" than 47 minor-nuissance bugs in any sense except pure quantity.
Then there's the multi-platform thing and all the other fine details these paid-for "statistics" regularily ignore.
Oh yes, and that Firefox has actually got some new features (which are prone to contain bugs) during the past 2 years while IE has been stagnant.
And you know what? Even if after considering everything Firefox were to turn out more buggy than IE, I'd still prefer it.
"Windows" is a general term for a windowing system, used by many of them, and was in use by X Windows long before MS trademarked the term. Much like "Word" had been the or part of the name of many word processors long before MS ever came up with one. I simply don't support their hostile takeover of common terms, that's all. So the options are writing "MS Windows(tm)" or something else, and I've been using "Windos" ever since it actually was a windowing-system-add-on to plain old DOS. You don't have to like it, but instead of speculating on my reasons, you could've simply asked.
XP is not a bad OS when you tally up the features vs. problems.
I returned to windos with XP because I needed it for games after the Linux gaming market essentially died. That was after several years of Linux-only. I've since moved on to Mac and OSX.
These are the two times in my life where I've seriously asked myself why I have ever put up with the abomination that is windos. Do yourself a favour and buy a Mac. Your appreciation of windos will drop to sub-zero within a week. It's hard to explain because there are so many details that windos gets wrong and that result in it always working just a bit different than you'd expect it to. Linux isn't intuitive, but windos is counter-intuitive in so many places, it hurts.
And that's just the GUI. You did a good job listing some of the worst under-the-hood problems. Add DLL hell and installer mess (some other comment wrote extensively about that). Add the fact that after 5 years they still need to fix major problems.
No, the two and only reason XP is running at all, anywhere, is that most software is windos-only and XP is the OS that's on pretty much every PC sold. If we'd somehow, magically, level the playing field for both of these problems for just one year, people would know windos only from computing history class.
Windows PCs. It just seems that people can't get their mind out of the one maximized window mindset
Bingo. One thing that I've always wondered about. Why is this unique to the windos world? Every Mac and Unix user I know has their windows scattered around the screen in whatever way makes sense to them, while windos users work with maximized windows all the time. What's a windowing system for if you don't use it? And why is it that only windos people work this way?
I happen to be a hardcore gamer, and I've been for 15 years. And I'll be buying a Wii this year. Wouldn't touch an Xbox if I was paid for it. I already have a PC, why get a dumbed-down second one? (all the Xbox games are ported to the PC anyways). PS3? What exactly does it bring that I should get excited about? 12 somethingillion more pixels than the PS2?
The Wii tries to break the pattern that the gaming industry has been frozen in. They're trying something new and different. Why could that possibly not appeal to a hardcore gamer?
Funny thing is, Mac market share isn't so important, because it's "felt" market share is much higher anyways.
I switched to a Mac in August. I'll never look back, I don't even know why the fuck I even put up with Windos at all, ever. And mind you, I was using mainly Linux anyways when I made the switch (and darn, is Linux behind OSX in comfort and usability!).
A colleague did the same. Another one as well. Two others are seriously considering. And that's the general picture. Market share isn't slipping from my "small random sample", which is probably just as valid as that from the article.
Slashdot Mirror
Over here in Germany, it is highly illegal to excert de-facto power of this kind. You can't just disable software "because you can" just like you can't just fire someone "because you can". The courts have a very dim view on what is, essentially vigilante "justice", because this kind of action directly undermines the power of the state.
I certainly hope that some big company gets its IT systems disabled by a bug in the restriction management and sues MS to hell and back. I know a few companies who'll suffer tremendous losses if their entire IT is down for a day or two.
And I don't think these kids are going to spend much time stripping DRM from their music or exploiting the analog hole or anything like that.
What's easier for a kid to get its hands on? $12 for an album on some download service, or a torrent of the same album?
iTunes works because it's cheap and easy. Zunes adds hassle (in marketing speak: "incentive") to the process, and thus will fail.
Maybe if Bush wasn't so close with the rest of his family we'd be able to find him:
Bingo. Both the Bush and the bin Laden clan are influential big shots in their respective country. The private planes of the bin Laden family were the only ones allowed to take off when all other international air traffic was still grounded after 9/11. Not necessarily a conspiracy option, could also be explained simply as a good decision to bring them to safety before a mob lynches them - but it shows that they have good connections to your top administration levels - the only guys who could give the necessary clearance.
Big Money Clans are like the nobles of the middle ages - they fight each other all the time, but they leave the ugly dying to the peasants. Behind the scenes, they are more in-bred and closer connected than you'd imagine.
the CIA (whom Bush, Jr., has always publicly kept at arm's length or further)
Bush, Jr. is too stupid to pull this stunt, but his father used to be Director of the CIA...
Good for the EU on protecting the privacy of their citizens? Or are they hindering the War on Terror?
There's a difference? I thought the whole point of the "War on Terror" was to introduce a fascist surveilance state. Jews aren't kosher as the black sheep anymore, so we're taking arabs this time, but it really doesn't matter because the real war is fought at home.
Windows Vista will be out real Zune now.
:-)
I'll take that one until someone comes up with a better one.
Well, perhaps not a true Internet meme, but a gaming-oriented one. You might be a tech enthusiast, but are you a gaming one?
:-)
Not as much as I used to be. That might explain it. Once "corporate merger" and "meeting" are more common terms for you than "professor" and "spring break", the time that's left is better stand actually playing the games than thinking about them.
Hints for the hinters.
My guess is that the success of the "Zune" (can someone come up with a funny wordplay on this, please?) depends mainly on how quickly the public learns that the much-hyped "wireless sharing" is in fact so crippled that it's almost worthless.
You see, the whole "storm" and "viral marketing" thing is dead in the waters already because a song received wireless can't be retransmitted. In other words: Actual exchanges will be very limited to single songs and local-only. No "spreading". Well, not for songs. I'd be very surprised if it takes more than a month for the first wireless Zune virus to appear.
I own their other two titles, but the site is down and I can't check - does anyone know if there's an OSX version? Or a Linux? Who'd want to have their armageddon interrupted by a blue screen? :)
a new Internet meme was born.
I'm not convinced. I practically live on the Internet, the two times during the day where I'm not near a computer that's online is during lunch and when I sleep.
I've never heard this outside of MS or MS-sponsored channels. None of the people I work with (all tech enthusiasts) have mentioned it. None of the people I mail with have. Maybe it was short-lived, maybe you and I have different circles, maybe it's a US-only phenomenon - but there's no "movement" visible from over here.
the Wii-60 movement
Like most things Microsoft, even this imaginary movement is total vaporware. Nobody outside of Peter's head has seen a "Wii-60 movement" so far.
Nor does it make any sense. People are waiting eagerly for the Wii. The fact that some of them already bought an Xbox doesn't make them into some sort of longing-for-the-combined-power freak, and there's as much of a "Wii-60" movement as there's a "Wii-Ford" movement because some people who'll buy a Wii happen to own a Ford car.
Aside from the fact that the guy is working for MS, and as such his words aren't speculations but marketing - why would anyone be so stupid? The Wii is the platform for the living room and looking at the list of games it'll be more than enough in that capacity. What is needed to complete the picture is not another console with the same type of games (just prettier. oh, shiney!) - but instead a proper computer for the non-console games.
:-)
Wii60, yeah right. Good thing they asked marketing first so the initial idea of "WiiX" could be discarded.(*)
(*) same pronounciation as a rude term for masturbation in german...
So if the /. article is a proper summary of the MS advertising, then they're competing on what - price? They're a few cents cheaper and that's it?
Sorry, I didn't buy my Mac because it was cheaper than a PC, and I don't think many iPod users had price as their primary factor, either.
Maybe once they start including a "free" Zune with every new computer sold - you know, the same way that MS Windos is "free" on all OEM machines - that might work.
Not so sure on this. I've finally done the switch (though from Linux, not windos) with the new MacBook Pro. Intel was a reason, because I still keep a windos partition for Games until the Wii launches. I might not have switched if Mac had stayed with PPC.
Here's how I see it: Let people buy the new Macs because they can run Windos. Once they've seen the two in a direct comparison (running on the same machine), they'll appreciate OSX. Then they'll love it. Then they'll start to worship it. Then they'll wipe the windos partition in a night of frenzy and drunken fanatism just before they realize that they should've petitioned the makers of their favourite software before doing that...
Yes I know that the glass color can be changed, but no matter what it is still dark and depressing.
:-)
It's just there to get you in the mood. You know, if you're already depressed, then the first crash or 0day won't hurt so much.
Interesting tech demo. Maybe they should make a 10-key version next, to corner the game market.
I know I'd buy something that gives me the Guild Wars skill bar in a hardware version. I'm sure many other players of other MMORPGs would like to have actual keys to press that show the skills currently in the quickbar.
You people really should be happy we haven't killed you yet.
Which is precisely why some people like Osama and his friends have decided that it's in their best interest to kill you first, before you change your mind.
why should anyone complain
Because in this case the support of the government was for a convicted criminal. In fact, one convicted in the US for pretty much the very same crime. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my government to support criminals.
True for some, false for the majority of lawyers. While I'm last in line for "friends of lawyers", I do know that many of them make much less than I do. Unfortunately, the honest and ethical ones are most probably among those.
Repeat after me: Raw numbers do not statistics make.
Where's the impact analysis? Where's the clustering or at least categorisation? 38 remote-root exploits certainly are "more" than 47 minor-nuissance bugs in any sense except pure quantity.
Then there's the multi-platform thing and all the other fine details these paid-for "statistics" regularily ignore.
Oh yes, and that Firefox has actually got some new features (which are prone to contain bugs) during the past 2 years while IE has been stagnant.
And you know what? Even if after considering everything Firefox were to turn out more buggy than IE, I'd still prefer it.
"Windows" is a general term for a windowing system, used by many of them, and was in use by X Windows long before MS trademarked the term. Much like "Word" had been the or part of the name of many word processors long before MS ever came up with one.
I simply don't support their hostile takeover of common terms, that's all. So the options are writing "MS Windows(tm)" or something else, and I've been using "Windos" ever since it actually was a windowing-system-add-on to plain old DOS. You don't have to like it, but instead of speculating on my reasons, you could've simply asked.
XP is not a bad OS when you tally up the features vs. problems.
I returned to windos with XP because I needed it for games after the Linux gaming market essentially died. That was after several years of Linux-only. I've since moved on to Mac and OSX.
These are the two times in my life where I've seriously asked myself why I have ever put up with the abomination that is windos. Do yourself a favour and buy a Mac. Your appreciation of windos will drop to sub-zero within a week. It's hard to explain because there are so many details that windos gets wrong and that result in it always working just a bit different than you'd expect it to. Linux isn't intuitive, but windos is counter-intuitive in so many places, it hurts.
And that's just the GUI. You did a good job listing some of the worst under-the-hood problems. Add DLL hell and installer mess (some other comment wrote extensively about that). Add the fact that after 5 years they still need to fix major problems.
No, the two and only reason XP is running at all, anywhere, is that most software is windos-only and XP is the OS that's on pretty much every PC sold. If we'd somehow, magically, level the playing field for both of these problems for just one year, people would know windos only from computing history class.
Windows PCs. It just seems that people can't get their mind out of the one maximized window mindset
Bingo. One thing that I've always wondered about. Why is this unique to the windos world? Every Mac and Unix user I know has their windows scattered around the screen in whatever way makes sense to them, while windos users work with maximized windows all the time. What's a windowing system for if you don't use it? And why is it that only windos people work this way?
What are they smoking?
I happen to be a hardcore gamer, and I've been for 15 years. And I'll be buying a Wii this year.
Wouldn't touch an Xbox if I was paid for it. I already have a PC, why get a dumbed-down second one? (all the Xbox games are ported to the PC anyways).
PS3? What exactly does it bring that I should get excited about? 12 somethingillion more pixels than the PS2?
The Wii tries to break the pattern that the gaming industry has been frozen in. They're trying something new and different. Why could that possibly not appeal to a hardcore gamer?
Funny thing is, Mac market share isn't so important, because it's "felt" market share is much higher anyways.
I switched to a Mac in August. I'll never look back, I don't even know why the fuck I even put up with Windos at all, ever. And mind you, I was using mainly Linux anyways when I made the switch (and darn, is Linux behind OSX in comfort and usability!).
A colleague did the same. Another one as well. Two others are seriously considering. And that's the general picture. Market share isn't slipping from my "small random sample", which is probably just as valid as that from the article.