The problem being that most industrialized nations support, if not outright underwrite industrial espionage. I get that everyone is pissed off at the USA today, but seriously, do you really think that Japan's, China's or Britain's security services aren't passing on foreign commercial tidbits they've picked up to domestic commercial interests? What this looks like to me isn't so much a trojan, but as a way to create a network of necessity. Once companies get used to the NSA "helping" them, they're much more likely to push Congress to maintain the methods and extent of spying the NSA is doing. It's sort of a "join us on the dark side."
Indeed. The whole idea of IP defies basic notions of cultural inheritance and evolution. I get that it might be useful for a limited time, but any extended period of time begins to subvert the very processes that lead to innovation.
But this is what you get when you let sociopaths run the economy. The kinds of people who reaches the upper tiers of governance and corporate power are the kinds of people we should be locking away.
It certainly supports older hardware a lot better. Scanners are my biggest beef in Windows. You buy a scanner, and almost guaranteed they won't work at all due to a lack of a new driver, or if you do manage to get an older version of the driver working it's an iffy affair. I can plug in a ten year old UMAX SCSI scanner into my Linux box and she still runs.
You know, when I think back on my first Linux install way back in 1993 or so with Slackware, who would have thought that Linus's project would end up on hundreds of millions of servers, smartphones, tablets, game systems, embedded hardware and the like. I find the whole thing rather breathtaking. Linux really is one of the great successes of the computer age.
When MS was any kind of notable player in the smartphone/smart device marketplace, it was an incredibly small marketplace. Honestly, other than perhaps acting as some sort of inspiration for Apple, I don't think it had substantial influence on what came later. And frankly, I think the Blackberry was probably a much larger inspiration.
Ultimately, Apple learned a lot of useful lessons from the monster success that was the original iPod, and then saw how those lessons could be applied to a smartphone. RIM and Microsoft released mobile offerings that were functional, could run a wide variety of software, and certainly had some penetration in the enterprise, but Apple made sure iOS wasn't just a business workhorse (in fact, I see little evidence that it gave a damn about the enterprise at all), but rather a very consumer friendly device and then marketed it with astonishing brilliance. But at the end of the day, Apple's success with iOS is down to the original iPod. It gained its killer product, and built the iPhone and the iPad on the same premise.
The XBox division is only profitable in the sense that it no longer needs massive cash injections to keep it alive. It is a long ways from paying off the huge outlay of cash that Microsoft made to push it into the market.
You're not serious, right? The overwhelming majority of the market has completely ignored it, and from what I can tell, most of its alleged users are paid shills.
It makes sense if that market is at least partially responsible for eroding one of their key markets. While iOS and Android are not completely responsible for the substantial drop in PC sales, the rise of the smart device has played a substantial role. If Microsoft cannot find a way to insert itself into this market, then its long term outlook on the consumer end of the business is cast in substantial doubt.
It's clear by the introduction of a (heavily crippled) Office variant for Android and iOS that they are ultimately willing to surrender to the temptation to once again put a version of Office on a platform it does not control. It did so with Mac, but Macs have always been bit players so I don't think that represents the kind of shift MS is prepared to pursue now. It's the first sign that the company is prepared to cede market dominance to Android and iOS, and get its piece of the pie by releasing some variant of Office, which is the company's backbone.
It's still just dipping its toe in the water, but I suspect over the next couple of years you're going to see major shifts in how MS views its consumer offerings. From what I can tell, there is a growing ill sentiment among shareholders to Microsoft just endlessly throwing money at consumer markets and not getting any kind of return. Even the XBox, while it has been in the black on a quarterly basis for the last few quarters, still is years away from paying back the vast investment in capital and R&D that Redmond threw at it.
The guinea pig/sacrifical lamb in our organization who has been testing Windows 8 for the last four months still absolutely loathes it, and has requested she be returned to Windows 7. Her most frequent complaints surround the jarring context switch between the desktop and metro.
They think Gore is a fraudster because most of them are too pig-ignorant to realize all Gore is is a populizer. I get hit with "Yeah well, Al Gore!" all the bloody time, and ironically, I only watched about fifteen minutes of Inconvenient Truth. I frankly don't give a fuck what Al Gore says, any more than I give a fuck what the Koch Brothers and the endless parade of shills they employ have to say.
Yes, but I'll just cherry pick some date, oh I dunno, say January 2013 and say "See look at all that ice, global warming is a communist lie to make us give up our livers!!!!"
Give them time. Soon it will join the 4th in applying only to you in your home... with the door closed... and the curtains drawn... in your basement.. by yourself... sometimes.
I don't think it's a matter of ignorance alone. It's ignorance and callousness. There's a certain breed of conservative who doesn't even try to had their underlying pathology. They're damned proud of it. They're the kinds of guys who buy small arsenals and fortresses in the hills and masturbate to the idea of an apocalypse where they get to shoot anybody in sight and declare themselves king of their domain.
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The problem being that most industrialized nations support, if not outright underwrite industrial espionage. I get that everyone is pissed off at the USA today, but seriously, do you really think that Japan's, China's or Britain's security services aren't passing on foreign commercial tidbits they've picked up to domestic commercial interests? What this looks like to me isn't so much a trojan, but as a way to create a network of necessity. Once companies get used to the NSA "helping" them, they're much more likely to push Congress to maintain the methods and extent of spying the NSA is doing. It's sort of a "join us on the dark side."
Indeed. The whole idea of IP defies basic notions of cultural inheritance and evolution. I get that it might be useful for a limited time, but any extended period of time begins to subvert the very processes that lead to innovation.
But this is what you get when you let sociopaths run the economy. The kinds of people who reaches the upper tiers of governance and corporate power are the kinds of people we should be locking away.
Where is this business, in the Land of Nod? I've seen exactly one Surface out in the field.
It certainly supports older hardware a lot better. Scanners are my biggest beef in Windows. You buy a scanner, and almost guaranteed they won't work at all due to a lack of a new driver, or if you do manage to get an older version of the driver working it's an iffy affair. I can plug in a ten year old UMAX SCSI scanner into my Linux box and she still runs.
Because nothing at all broke from NT 3.5 to NT 4, and nothing broke from NT 4 to W2K, ad nauseum.
You know, when I think back on my first Linux install way back in 1993 or so with Slackware, who would have thought that Linus's project would end up on hundreds of millions of servers, smartphones, tablets, game systems, embedded hardware and the like. I find the whole thing rather breathtaking. Linux really is one of the great successes of the computer age.
When MS was any kind of notable player in the smartphone/smart device marketplace, it was an incredibly small marketplace. Honestly, other than perhaps acting as some sort of inspiration for Apple, I don't think it had substantial influence on what came later. And frankly, I think the Blackberry was probably a much larger inspiration.
Ultimately, Apple learned a lot of useful lessons from the monster success that was the original iPod, and then saw how those lessons could be applied to a smartphone. RIM and Microsoft released mobile offerings that were functional, could run a wide variety of software, and certainly had some penetration in the enterprise, but Apple made sure iOS wasn't just a business workhorse (in fact, I see little evidence that it gave a damn about the enterprise at all), but rather a very consumer friendly device and then marketed it with astonishing brilliance. But at the end of the day, Apple's success with iOS is down to the original iPod. It gained its killer product, and built the iPhone and the iPad on the same premise.
The XBox division is only profitable in the sense that it no longer needs massive cash injections to keep it alive. It is a long ways from paying off the huge outlay of cash that Microsoft made to push it into the market.
You're not serious, right? The overwhelming majority of the market has completely ignored it, and from what I can tell, most of its alleged users are paid shills.
It makes sense if that market is at least partially responsible for eroding one of their key markets. While iOS and Android are not completely responsible for the substantial drop in PC sales, the rise of the smart device has played a substantial role. If Microsoft cannot find a way to insert itself into this market, then its long term outlook on the consumer end of the business is cast in substantial doubt.
It's clear by the introduction of a (heavily crippled) Office variant for Android and iOS that they are ultimately willing to surrender to the temptation to once again put a version of Office on a platform it does not control. It did so with Mac, but Macs have always been bit players so I don't think that represents the kind of shift MS is prepared to pursue now. It's the first sign that the company is prepared to cede market dominance to Android and iOS, and get its piece of the pie by releasing some variant of Office, which is the company's backbone.
It's still just dipping its toe in the water, but I suspect over the next couple of years you're going to see major shifts in how MS views its consumer offerings. From what I can tell, there is a growing ill sentiment among shareholders to Microsoft just endlessly throwing money at consumer markets and not getting any kind of return. Even the XBox, while it has been in the black on a quarterly basis for the last few quarters, still is years away from paying back the vast investment in capital and R&D that Redmond threw at it.
Just a minute. I'll use VisualBasic to make a GUI.
Better than having it somewhere else...
You're technobabble sucks. You neglected to invoke neutrinos or tachyons.
Me, myself and I all met and agreed what we're doing is just fine.
Except of course it isn't, save in the minds of the ideologically deranged.
I'm not clear. How does this disprove climate change?
The guinea pig/sacrifical lamb in our organization who has been testing Windows 8 for the last four months still absolutely loathes it, and has requested she be returned to Windows 7. Her most frequent complaints surround the jarring context switch between the desktop and metro.
Judging by the way Android devices are nailing PC sales, I'd say yeah, Linux has become a threat to the Windows desktop.
They think Gore is a fraudster because most of them are too pig-ignorant to realize all Gore is is a populizer. I get hit with "Yeah well, Al Gore!" all the bloody time, and ironically, I only watched about fifteen minutes of Inconvenient Truth. I frankly don't give a fuck what Al Gore says, any more than I give a fuck what the Koch Brothers and the endless parade of shills they employ have to say.
Yes, but I'll just cherry pick some date, oh I dunno, say January 2013 and say "See look at all that ice, global warming is a communist lie to make us give up our livers!!!!"
I've had the feeling that's been in the cards for a decade now. Migration would take a long time, but IBM is a long-view kind of company.
And doubtless when you're proven wrong you'll be back with more fabrications.
Give them time. Soon it will join the 4th in applying only to you in your home... with the door closed... and the curtains drawn... in your basement.. by yourself... sometimes.
It's amazing listening to people who think the only humans on the planet that count are the ones they can see from their front door.
I don't think it's a matter of ignorance alone. It's ignorance and callousness. There's a certain breed of conservative who doesn't even try to had their underlying pathology. They're damned proud of it. They're the kinds of guys who buy small arsenals and fortresses in the hills and masturbate to the idea of an apocalypse where they get to shoot anybody in sight and declare themselves king of their domain.