Disclaimer: I'm just spouting numbers--I'm not really a programmer, nor do I have any directly familiarity with Microsofts codebase... but:
Play with the numbers on this a little bit:
Generously, they might have 10,000 programmers working for 20 of the 28 days, working 10 hour shifts to 'clean out the garage'. That's 2 million man-hours.
Now Microsoft has what, conservatively, 800 software titles that it currently produces and supports. Given a mean average of, what? 500 thousand lines of code per title... this means that each line gets 15 minutes of 'debugging time' (2 mil man-hours by 400 million lines =.005 hours)...
Anyway... you get my point... there's no way they could even come close to looking at all the lines of code they maintain in a month, much less fixing them...
Once sentence says 'received 100 hits' and likely applies to simple viewing of site contents.
The 'intercepted all packets' from his dsl line is where it becomes suspect. My question is really in regard to that 'monitoring'. Was there a warrant or is this some kind of untested police privilege?
Since 1999, raisethefist.com has been under extensive government monitering. At times, Raisethefist.com has recieved over 100 hits from the U.S Department of Defense in a single day. The FBI, police department, NSA (and who else) continuesly monitered the site on a daily basis. Even government's from the UK, Canada, Lavtia, Belgium, Egypt, Finland, and Australia monitered the site continuesly. The FBI had also previously intercepted all packets going through the DSL line hosting the site, and have seized additional accounts being used by the site.
This is verging on redundant, but was any of this monitoring done with a warrant? Is the US Government allowed unfettered ability to monitor (or intercept!) network traffic? This doesn't seem right.
This is a great idea if you are a studio executive or shareholder. It's called planned obsolescense: sell a product that will wear out after a certain period of time so that the consumer will have to repurchase it.
It's an underhanded, but unmistakably capitalist, tactic. Leaving you the only option in a market driven society: vote with your dollars and they'll soon leave this intentionally crummy product for dead.
While your observation that Americans are anti-social couch potatoes is probably fairly accurate, your extension of this premise to include 'all things internet' is not only silly, it's so 1996.
Some people sit and home and watch TV all the time. Some people now sit at home, watch TV, and buy the things they see on commercials off the internet. Other people go outside and do things. Now, these other people can check the balance of their checking account before they buy their friends a beer at the bar.
My point is, the "internet" has little, if anything, to do with the dominant social trends that make the consumerist American culture lazy, fat, and content.
ECMAscript and the DOM only have serious value for distributed applications. Anyone who makes an ordinary document that can't survive their absence needs a boot to the head.
So you're saying a web page isn't a distributed application?
Not only do I question the "Site Review" category as "Stuff that matters," but the article seems overly nitpicky to me.
Come on folks, Frames are not only accepted and common, but part of the w3 spec since 1997. JavaScript? The DOM has been standardized for at least as long and JavaScript support has been available (funky, but basically available) since 2.0 browsers... PDF? Well, a fine solution for encapsulated, printable documents (like maps?!!)
I'm all for accessibilty, but this site doesn't seem to be unfairly limiting to me... unless you're using lynx...
Interesting that legit companies are using the kind of tactics once reserved for the more 'underground' elements... and that they're using p2p (read: illegal file sharing, regardless of the flame war that it might start) all that much moreso.
...people in those regions simply wouldn't use that software at all if they couldn't get it without paying for it.
This should be figured in to the question of software piracy in general: Would those using illegal software ever use that software in the first place were it not free? In most cases, likely not.
What I find interesting here is that while the total dollar losses are the highest in North America, the 'Piracy Rate' is the lowest. That means that the large majority of software users in the U.S. and Canada are properly licensed, law-abiding citizens.
Further, these stats say that piracy has gone down not up.
I've never personally had a trouble with PayPal's service, though my business account is quite low volume. They seem to make good security assurances, process payments quickly, and allow me to deal with credit cards without a full blown merchant account. Not too bad a deal...
This will never last. Microsoft will immediately sick their fleet of lawyers on anyone trying to resell their bundled copy of XP on ebay. And they'll win. Remember that our justice system is bought and sold just like all good capitalist institutions.
Already websites exist which list the wireless networks in major cities. Many of those listed are doing nothing to stop people using them.
I read this as saying that the network owners are leaving their networks open on purpose. And really, why not? This is the way I have mine configured... Wireless Freenets anyone? If my machines are secure, why shouldn't I let the neighbor piggyback?
The numbers corroborate this statement. According to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), Linux owns 24 percent of the server market, whereas Windows own about 38 percent of the server market. And Linux will continue in the number-two position at least through 2005
2005?! Like, in 3 years, right? This is said as if it's bad. Linux overtaking NT in the server market by 2005 sounds like one of the first realistic goals I've heard for the OS community.
At least it's much more realistic than the standard"Tonight? Tonight we take over the world" refrain.
But Animal Planet isn't enough to make me buy cable.
Something I've often thought cable providers should offer is channel-by-channel packages... I'd like to have only Cartoon Network, Discovery, and Animal Planet please. A few dollars a month would be a fair price for those select channels that I might actually watch.
Slashdot Mirror
Disclaimer: I'm just spouting numbers--I'm not really a programmer, nor do I have any directly familiarity with Microsofts codebase... but:
.005 hours)...
Play with the numbers on this a little bit:
Generously, they might have 10,000 programmers working for 20 of the 28 days, working 10 hour shifts to 'clean out the garage'. That's 2 million man-hours.
Now Microsoft has what, conservatively, 800 software titles that it currently produces and supports. Given a mean average of, what? 500 thousand lines of code per title... this means that each line gets 15 minutes of 'debugging time' (2 mil man-hours by 400 million lines =
Anyway... you get my point... there's no way they could even come close to looking at all the lines of code they maintain in a month, much less fixing them...
oops... forgot the link:
Implant Technology
This is old tech (circa 1997)...
Once sentence says 'received 100 hits' and likely applies to simple viewing of site contents.
The 'intercepted all packets' from his dsl line is where it becomes suspect. My question is really in regard to that 'monitoring'. Was there a warrant or is this some kind of untested police privilege?
This is verging on redundant, but was any of this monitoring done with a warrant? Is the US Government allowed unfettered ability to monitor (or intercept!) network traffic? This doesn't seem right.
It's an underhanded, but unmistakably capitalist, tactic. Leaving you the only option in a market driven society: vote with your dollars and they'll soon leave this intentionally crummy product for dead.
A good article regarding the concept of planned obsolescence.
Does anybody else have flashbacks to high-school research reports when reading Katz articles? I'd give this one a C minus: valid theme, no thesis.
Not likely: I think I've heard the Steves are friendly, but not overly so. I can't find a reference right now, but here's a good Woz Interview.
While your observation that Americans are anti-social couch potatoes is probably fairly accurate, your extension of this premise to include 'all things internet' is not only silly, it's so 1996.
Some people sit and home and watch TV all the time. Some people now sit at home, watch TV, and buy the things they see on commercials off the internet. Other people go outside and do things. Now, these other people can check the balance of their checking account before they buy their friends a beer at the bar.
My point is, the "internet" has little, if anything, to do with the dominant social trends that make the consumerist American culture lazy, fat, and content.
So you're saying a web page isn't a distributed application?
Not only do I question the "Site Review" category as "Stuff that matters," but the article seems overly nitpicky to me.
Come on folks, Frames are not only accepted and common, but part of the w3 spec since 1997. JavaScript? The DOM has been standardized for at least as long and JavaScript support has been available (funky, but basically available) since 2.0 browsers... PDF? Well, a fine solution for encapsulated, printable documents (like maps?!!)
I'm all for accessibilty, but this site doesn't seem to be unfairly limiting to me... unless you're using lynx...
-1, Flamebait
You're right on here. The new cmmercial is directed by Pixar creative chief John Lasseter
Interesting that legit companies are using the kind of tactics once reserved for the more 'underground' elements... and that they're using p2p (read: illegal file sharing, regardless of the flame war that it might start) all that much moreso.
Why would you want this job?
This should be figured in to the question of software piracy in general: Would those using illegal software ever use that software in the first place were it not free? In most cases, likely not.
Bad form replying to my own post... whatever...
Here's the current global study.
Here are some stats from the Business Software Alliance.
What I find interesting here is that while the total dollar losses are the highest in North America, the 'Piracy Rate' is the lowest. That means that the large majority of software users in the U.S. and Canada are properly licensed, law-abiding citizens.
Further, these stats say that piracy has gone down not up.
( Here's a current study with information by US region. )
PayPal says each account is insured for up to $100,000 by Travelers Insurance.
I've never personally had a trouble with PayPal's service, though my business account is quite low volume. They seem to make good security assurances, process payments quickly, and allow me to deal with credit cards without a full blown merchant account. Not too bad a deal...
including a grain that was nearly made extinct by the Spaniards
You mean Amaranth? Not extinct; I like to eat it like popcorn.
Not entirely true. TiVos have been hacked to support ISA ethernet cards... making it possible to move, edit, burn, etc. your recorded TV.
This will never last. Microsoft will immediately sick their fleet of lawyers on anyone trying to resell their bundled copy of XP on ebay. And they'll win. Remember that our justice system is bought and sold just like all good capitalist institutions.
I read this as saying that the network owners are leaving their networks open on purpose. And really, why not? This is the way I have mine configured... Wireless Freenets anyone? If my machines are secure, why shouldn't I let the neighbor piggyback?
2005?! Like, in 3 years, right? This is said as if it's bad. Linux overtaking NT in the server market by 2005 sounds like one of the first realistic goals I've heard for the OS community.
At least it's much more realistic than the standard"Tonight? Tonight we take over the world" refrain.
Something I've often thought cable providers should offer is channel-by-channel packages... I'd like to have only Cartoon Network, Discovery, and Animal Planet please. A few dollars a month would be a fair price for those select channels that I might actually watch.