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Windows Is So Slow, but Why?
By STEVE LOHR and JOHN MARKOFF
Published: March 27, 2006
Back in 1998, the federal government declared that its landmark antitrust suit against the Microsoft Corporation was not merely a matter of law enforcement, but a defense of innovation. The concern was that the company was wielding its market power and its strategy of bundling more and more features into its dominant Windows desktop operating system to thwart competition and stifle innovation.
Windows 95 had 15 million lines of code. That grew to 18 million lines by the time Windows 98 launched, above. Windows XP, released in 2001, has 35 million lines of code.
Eight years later, long after Microsoft lost and then settled the antitrust case, it turns out that Windows is indeed stifling innovation -- at Microsoft.
The company's marathon effort to come up with the a new version of its desktop operating system, called Windows Vista, has repeatedly stalled. Last week, in the latest setback, Microsoft conceded that Vista would not be ready for consumers until January, missing the holiday sales season, to the chagrin of personal computer makers and electronics retailers -- and those computer users eager to move up from Windows XP, a five-year-old product.
In those five years, Apple Computer has turned out four new versions of its Macintosh operating system, beating Microsoft to market with features that will be in Vista, like desktop search, advanced 3-D graphics and "widgets," an array of small, single-purpose programs like news tickers, traffic reports and weather maps.
So what's wrong with Microsoft? There is, after all, no shortage of smart software engineers working at the corporate campus in Redmond, Wash. The problem, it seems, is largely that Microsoft's past success and its bundling strategy have become a weakness.
Windows runs on 330 million personal computers worldwide. Three hundred PC manufacturers around the world install Windows on their machines; thousands of devices like printers, scanners and music players plug into Windows computers; and tens of thousands of third-party software applications run on Windows. And a crucial reason Microsoft holds more than 90 percent of the PC operating system market is that the company strains to make sure software and hardware that ran on previous versions of Windows will also work on the new one -- compatibility, in computing terms.
As a result, each new version of Windows carries the baggage of its past. As Windows has grown, the technical challenge has become increasingly daunting. Several thousand engineers have labored to build and test Windows Vista, a sprawling, complex software construction project with 50 million lines of code, or more than 40 percent larger than Windows XP.
"Windows is now so big and onerous because of the size of its code base, the size of its ecosystem and its insistence on compatibility with the legacy hardware and software, that it just slows everything down," observed David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. "That's why a company like Apple has such an easier time of innovation."
Microsoft certainly understands the problem, the need to change and the potential long-term threat to its business from rivals like Apple, the free Linux operating system, and from companies like Google that distribute software as a service over the Internet.
In an internal memo last October, Ray Ozzie, chief technical officer, who joined Microsoft last year, wrote, "Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges and it causes end-user and administrator frustration."
Setting: Two men in suits with charts stand before an Icelandic government committee.
Pitch Guy 1: "Boy it sure is cold out today! Now, I know this sounds a little far out there, but we've been studying the volcano over there and we predict that it has energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT. Now that energy is, by our god given right, ours. It's just as valuable as the oil underneath the Middle East. So, we induce an eruption."
Pitch Guy 2: "It's that simple. But John, won't the people be mad that the government is getting all this free energy?"
Pitch Guy 1: "No, no, here's the best part. That energy will be distributed... equally."
Pitch Guy 2: "Gentlemen, I think the real question here today is, 'How can we afford not to induce an eruption?'"
When will people learn that there is no safe form of energy?!
The volcano gods are gonna be so angered when they find out Iceland is mooching the heat. If I know my mythology, nothing (and I mean nothing) pisses a god off like free stuff for humans. We should just rename Iceland to New Pompeii right now.
I know it sounds ridiculous. But this suit will probably hold up. Even though they settled before.
The fact of the matter is that Apple Ltd. became Apple Corps which had many components. One of which was Apple Electronics. Then Apple (Macs) were made and it's clear that this could be an infringement on the products that Apple Electronics makes (if any).
Now that Apple's Ipod is so involved in music, I'm certain the other divisions of Apple Corps would like to have a go at the computer maker since their pockets are so deep. Please don't think this is The Beatles at work, it's just people working for a company based off a band that's now broken up. Hell, Michael Jackson has The Beatles' catalog, the only thing Apple Corps has is its name.
Another legal battle plays out. A lot of money re-allocated. How does this affect me? It doesn't.
Ah, I see our time is up. You can leave your chargeplate with my receptionist.
Noooooo! No! You haven't answered anything!
I have so many questions! Why can't I hold a stable relationship with a female?! Why do I organize my compact discs by increasing Fourier coefficients modeled from their music? Why do I wake up crying every night? Why do people call me "an engineer" and how can I cure myself of this horrible affliction?
Help me doc, you've got to help me! My life (or lack thereof) is falling apart!
I keep having this dream where I'm standing up and towering over Redmond, WA and I'm just... just... urinating all over it. I know it sounds gross and I don't know why it's happening, I just keep going and laughing the whole time.
Maybe you can help me with this, it gets really confusing now. My sisters are seated at computers. And when they touch them, they turn into toilets full of excrement--not working at all. But as I walk down the line, my mere touch turns them into golden Alienware desktops running at the speed of light. They get on their knees and start to worship me and again I'm laughing maniacly.
I know this sounds kind of gross and I have issues, but what does it all mean, doc?
Ok, we all know how the majority of Slashdot feels about Microsoft. It's not a positive feeling. I myself don't like them.
But please don't use this 60% figure as proof that Vista will suck. Because it doesn't necessarily mean that.
Once again, we have the Slashdot spin to deal with:
Up to 60% of the code in the new consumer version of Microsoft new Vista operating system is set to be rewritten as the Company "scrambles" to fix internal problems, according to this report.
Scrambling to fix problems? If they're saying their release date is sometime in 2007, I don't think they need to scramble. They actually seem pretty lax about when this is going to be released. Hell, I heard about Longhorn years ago and they sure haven't been "scrambling" to do anything with that. Stop making it sound like Microsoft is running around with their heads cut off. Because I highly doubt it.
I interpret this to mean that Microsoft is stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility. They have identified so many problems that it needs major revision and good for them.
Do you remember Windows 98, first edition? Do remember how much better second edition was? I do. Why the hell they didn't just wait on the release is simple. Money.
They could release Vista prematurely but now we wait until 2007. And if you hate Windows, like I do, why do you care? We're still going to be using Linux anyways.
So please, look at this move as a gesture to try and release a quality product and not slop out some POS OS that they are only releasing for the sake of income.
Surprise surprise, people are predicting that Microsoft's Vista may not be 'people ready.'
Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.
I've gotten phone calls from them about the behavior of Windows XP on multiple occasions. Once they thought all their windows kept closing if they opened too many. As it turns out, they had the "grouping" feature enabled for windows of the same type on the toolbar.
*sigh*
Now Vista will have a new 3D effect to window grouping. Sweet Jesus, I am turning my cell phone off. I can imagine it now, "All my windows are turning sideways! Make it stop!"
Aside from "Ease of Use," I don't think any of the advertised features are going to meld well with any of my sisters. The new 'Aero' technology is no match for my sisters' Airhead logic.
I plan to make up some story for them about how Vista is the devil and if you install it, it will slowly begin to ruin your computer. Oh, and if you try to save your biology notes, it especially hates the medical sciences so it will delete them instantly. Not to mention that its new 'AI' abilities allow it to call you names if it perceives you to be an unqualified user. That should stop them from buying it.
The worst part is that Microsoft can smell this potential market in young people who don't know what they need:
Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People," then they dragged out fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who seemed very "impacted" as he sang praise for Microsoft programs. Actually, he was reading meaningless statements from a TelePrompTer. Here is one of his quotes, verbatim: "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination."
That's exactly the kind of publicity stunt that would cause all three of my sisters to run out and buy Vista. *shudders* He's an fucking fashion designer! What the fuck would he know about computer software?!?!
And what is with this part of the article:
Why not at least switch to an Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL) Mac? Apple's new operating system is stable, reliable and easy to use. The applications are simple, gorgeous and work well together. And they're here. Today. Steve Jobs must be waking up a happy man this morning.
This article brought to you by Forbes Magazine's Daniel Lyons, owner of stock in AAPL.
Thanks, Dan, I was with you there until that last paragraph where your Apple sales pitch kicked in.
The author's e-mail address is rkeller@legoebay.com (Legoe Bay Wireless, LLC) which is actually a domain for a wireless internet provider for San Juan Islands near Bellingham, Washington.
In other news, R. Keller of Legoe Bay communications was fired today after he ran through his office complex preaching the horrors of wireless devices.
His manager later commented that his "Continuous Partial Attention" campaign wasn't very good for business.
FCC Chief Kevin Martin yesterday gave his support to AT&T and other telcos who want to be able to limit bandwidth to sites like Google, unless those sites pay extortion fees.
From Webster's Dictionary:
extortion: to obtain from a person by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal power
So, by what part of extortion are you describing the FCC's actions? Sounds like you're just choosing a word to evoke hate and unrest to me. Remember, bandwidth is not free nor is it a god given right.
FYI: GDC = Game Developers Conference
on
GDC - BANG! Howdy
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I don't think it was mentioned in the review, but if you're wondering what GDC is (like I was), it's the Game Developers Conference.
It has come to our attention that you have a surplus of books stored at your residence.
We have already dispatched firemen to alleviate you of this horrible affliction--fire trucks will be there within the hour. For you see, special-interest groups and other "minorities" objected to books that offended them. As a result, books all began to look the same, as writers tried to avoid offending anybody. This isn't enough, however, and society as a whole decided to simply burn books rather than permit conflicting opinions.
There are other unpleasantries that books cause but there is no need for me to go that far into detail.
As you can see, your search for a digital Dewey decimal system is unneeded. And it is quite peculiar that anyone should have as many books as you do. Do not worry, though, we are a free public service!
Thank you again in your cooperation and trust that our services will be a valuable solution to your growing literary problem.
Sincerely,
Karl Rove
Senior Advisor & Chief Political Advisor
The Bush Administration
He's hosed. A M$ man talking about how good Linux is and how much M$ can learn from the FOSS community instead of calling it a "cancer" or "communist" is obviously off message. In a company that fires employees for mentioning Apples computers in a personal blog, breaking groupthink is a bad idea. Not so bad an idea as working for said company or using it's products, but a bad idea. The "internal meeting" is probably going to consist of chair throwing and statements like, "we hired you to understand how we can break this communist shit, not to issue PR statements or set company policy."
Man, where did you come from? People change. Companies change... believe it or not, sometimes for the better.
This guy isn't an idiot or a grunt. Hilf knows a thing or two about Linux and OSS. The fact that Microsoft hired him and he has an (albeit small) team working on this stuff should be at least a sign of goodwill. How can you call him "off message?" I think this guy is right on the fucking money and Microsoft is finally pulling their heads out of their asses. Sure this is optimistic hope for the future of companies working hand in hand with OSS development projects but we have to believe it's going to happen or it won't!
But then people like yourself hop all over it and stomp down anything that might be construed as an olive branch.
Congratulations, they call you a communist and you call them fascists. Let's all call names then, shall we? You'll probably find some names for me also. Where does that get us?
The cold hard truth is that you're just as closed minded as they are about working together and you're only screwing over the user when you do that. I don't know what they did to you or what happened to you in a previous life but please get over it.
Hilf vaguely responds with some comment about using the lab as a testbed for OSS within a mixed network ecosystem, but surely there's got to be more than that!
Well, considering Hilf said:
We recently embarked on interoperability projects with SugarCRM and Jboss, open source vendors you normally wouldn't associate with Microsoft. The reason we pursued these relationships is because in both cases nearly half of their customer base is running Windows Server.
I would say that their primary interest is support for OSS (with little to do with Linux).
Considering that the interveiw mentions that an estimated half of these two open source software programs are running on the Windows platform, I think they have a lot of research to do regarding that. I mean, if you are one of the largest operating systems in the world, wouldn't you be interested in the software that a massive amount of users are running on it?
Personally, I think you're digging for some conspiracy that isn't there but you're free to speculate (as that's what makes things interesting!).
Alright, this is the worst relaying of an interview I have ever seen posted on Slashdot. And here's why...
Microsoft's Linux-pro, Bill Hilf pulled out of the Linux World conference in Australia, but speaks with Computerworld anyway about what exactly his team gets up to.
Read the article, it was due to scheduling conflicts. Don't make it sound like he's blowing it off:
There has been plenty of speculation as to why you have pulled out of the conference - but what is the real reason?
I had a scheduling conflict for an internal meeting that could not be moved. Believe me, I would much rather be at LinuxWorld in Sydney.
Yes, LinuxWorld is a big thing that he should be making but he doesn't work for Linux. Linux doesn't cut his paychecks, Microsoft does. And if he's got something to do internally, leave it at that.
Furthermore, inkslinger77 goes on to say:
He talks about how Microsoft plans to make money from Linux...
No he doesn't.
As you can see from TFI:
How does Microsoft plan to make money from open source and Linux?
Microsoft recognizes the benefits as well as the drawbacks of the OSS development model. We are incorporating its most positive elements into our development practices. Our top priority is to produce great software that meets the needs of our customers, partners, and other constituent communities. We recently embarked on interoperability projects with SugarCRM and Jboss, open source vendors you normally wouldn't associate with Microsoft. The reason we pursued these relationships is because in both cases nearly half of their customer base is running Windows Server. By working with these companies, we can help our joint customers ease interoperability issues. The deals are also a prime example of the success partners are finding on the Windows platform regardless of the development model they employ.
Did he say anything about Linux in there? I don't even see him using the word. He talks about how Microsoft can better themselves by learning from the open source software out there.
According to Hilf, hey're not "making money from Linux." Instead they're learning from the OSS development model and I think it's about time Microsoft starts to realize that they can learning a thing or two about how bug identification (among other things) is supposed to be done.
Jesus, the title of this article--"Linux: Hilf Speaks About Linux Through Microsoft Eyes"--belies its true nature, most of the interview is spent discussing OSS, understanding it, the sociological aspects of it and its development process.
When it comes to Microsoft, I'm one of the first people to throw stones (and hard!). But this review of this interview is ridiculous! I don't know if inkslinger77 didn't even read the article or if this is a classic case of 'spin.'
I'm going to send inkslinger77 and ScuttleMonkey a big "Read the Fucking Interview" on this one.
Good ole Kevin J. invented the super-weapon of the week club. The Deathstar 3, the Sun blaster who whatever that little twit jedi character he wrote used to blow up a star. It was just lame.
Yeah, I sure did enjoy it when I was an grade school farm hand. I liked the part where stuff 'sploded! I didn't have the luxery of owning the movies but I had seen them and the books were freely available at the library.
You (and a number of other posters) seem to be highly critical of my grade school interests. Isn't it amazing that low grade science fiction is entertaining to someone who has to geld piglets and pick rock? Hell, Kilgore Trout would have satisfied me then. Now I read James Joyce, Herman Hesse or any number of various real authors. That's not to say I fail to recognize my roots in reading.
Do I feel like a smarter person now? Do I reject reading and liking Star Wars paperbacks on the grounds that they're literary trash? Not at all. I remember them. I remember liking them. And I always will. Laugh and jeer all you want, I'll defend Anderson because he gave me something to enjoy as a kid.
Call me crazy but I'll also always find the original Tetris to be more sacred than any religious work due to the amount of time I invested in stacking bricks. It was like... virtual hay bailing... with rockets! Far out!
So go ahead and trounce Kevin J. Anderson and Stephen King and Michael Chrichton and a number of other authors I read in grade school. I'm not really concerned about what literary snobs have to say about them. I don't care if you think Madeline L'Engle, Ray Bradbury, Brian Jacques or Laura Ingals Wilder suck as authors, I still love them--even though I've met people here and there that have a good time picking them apart and laughing at their simple plot lines.
Oh no, my information is going to be sold and the government is going to allow tax preparers to sell it!
*gasp*
Let's narrow our fears on something a little more worrisome regarding privacy and the United States Government.
Ever filled out census information? Because, if you have, your information is available to anyone via anumberofsites. That's right, for as cheap as an $8-$10 fee, people can find out what income range you are in along with a variety of other facts about you. They can also find out where you live for free!
I would normally thank god that I have a very non-unique name but if I enter my hometown and state, there I am listed five times with my address and parent's phone number. I was just a kid when I lived there! The best part is that if you click my name, they take the liberty to plug my address into Mapquest and Google Map bars in case you don't have the time to copy and paste it in there!
Go ahead, now try your name.
*cups his hand to his ear listening for the sound of a million nerds enshrouding themselves in tin foil*
I'm not worried about my personal information being sold to marketers... you can send me all the marketing offers and SPAM you want. I am worried about someone with my same name trying to pass their credit card debt off on me. And I'm also worried about anyone I know who might have a problem with a stalker.
Do you know what your government is doing with your census data?
In my youth (prior to eighth grade), I read every Star Wars book out there. I think it was half way through the Young Jedi Academy series when I lost interest (Episode One was the final nail on the coffin of my fondness for Star Wars).
Now breathe and get everything out of your system about me being a nerd without a life. I was, in fact, a farmboy without a permit or vehicle... although I'm prepared for some colorful replies in response to this post.
Kevin J. Anderson & Timothy Zahn could write a story. In their books, they expanded on what Lucas first saw. I read everything and loved the rich histories and futures laid out in the books for characters in the Star Wars universe. Sadly, none of these characters were in the new movies. None of the Jedi were cloned. Everything alluded to in the Thrawn (Zahn) Trilogy was omitted from episodes one through three. There was no talk of Spaarti cloning cylinders or Joruus C'Boath being cloned from Jorus C'Boath.
Why? Because although these books were licensed by Lucas, they were not official parts of the story. These works became known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe meaning characters not in the movies. This material expands and continues the stories told in the films, taking place anywhere from 4,968 years before The Phantom Menace to about 130 years after Return of the Jedi. In fact, some of the works (like the Dark Empire comics and Zahn's Trilogy) conflict directly with other works.
Don't be deceived, some of these works (like Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly) sucked. But I heavily suggest the Thrawn and Jedi Academy Trilogy if you want to read some of the better stories from the Expanded Universe.
I would like to say that I remain optimistic about what Lucas can still do with the Star Wars Universe. I believe that he has made mistakes in giving himself supreme veto power over what is shown or added in the movies and I think this attitude has ruined Star Wars for me somewhat. I wish that Lucas would open his mind to other ideas as some of these books have proven that there are other people out there capable of helping Lucas create story lines. I shudder to think that he might attempt to write all 100 episodes without the help of coauthors. It has been my experience that television shows with multiple authors are less likely to grow old. I also hope that Lucas has finally realized that his fans don't want hilarious/annoying Jar Jar Binks but instead want the drama and emotion of Episodes Three and Five.
Episode One left me disinterested. Star Wars Galaxies left me angry. Hopefully this series will win me back although I think a lot of us will have a hard time adapting to the new actors in old parts. I hope a large part of Luke's Youth is omitted as I cannot think of one young child actor I have liked.
Not a sound engineer, but a bassist. And I think I can provide the answer.
The solution we seek is what's known in the guitar world as a "compressor" or "limiter."
Fortunately, they are cheap and easy to build. What they do is put a ceiling on a range or ranges of frequency. I use it when I want punch in my high end but I don't want the thump in my low end to get out of control.
Hire a mechanical engineer and have them make the encasings. Oh, most importantly, make sure the encasings are iPod white in color.
Your design should have a 1/8" audio jack in and a 1/8" audio jack out with a 3" length of audio cable. It's plugged into any media device and then your headphones plug into it.
The beautiful thing about compressors is that they stop you from producing obvious sounds you don't want but they don't simply reduce all sounds produced by your device.
What's so hard about this? And why in the hell are we calling this a "new tech?!" How about calling it "common sense?" If I ever designed a media player, this would be implemented regardless. The end user could look to find an amplifier if they want to blow their ears out, Apple has faced lawsuits and they will face even more as the millions who purchased their products use them and then deafly eye Jobs' deep pockets.
So, this "Billy West" is the actual Billy West who did the voices of Philip J. Fry/Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth/Dr. Zoidberg/Zapp Brannigan/Leo Wong/Smitty/President Richard Nixon's Head in the Futurama series.
Now, why in the hell is he saying that another season was in the works if he didn't have a contract signed for it? One would muse that the lead voice actor for a television show would wait until the ink has at least dried on his contract before announcing his next venture.
I'm going to hereby label any "news" posted on Slashdot from the billywest.com forums to be speculation or an overzealous announcement. Didn't you read his latest post about Rupert Murdoch promising him a Futurama channel syndicating all Futurama all the time? That's right, and there aren't going to be any commercials either. I think he later apologized and told his fans that he was on an opium bender when that meeting "happened."
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The article in its entirety if you want to read it here:
Windows Is So Slow, but Why?
By STEVE LOHR and JOHN MARKOFF
Published: March 27, 2006
Back in 1998, the federal government declared that its landmark antitrust suit against the Microsoft Corporation was not merely a matter of law enforcement, but a defense of innovation. The concern was that the company was wielding its market power and its strategy of bundling more and more features into its dominant Windows desktop operating system to thwart competition and stifle innovation.
Windows 95 had 15 million lines of code. That grew to 18 million lines by the time Windows 98 launched, above. Windows XP, released in 2001, has 35 million lines of code.
Eight years later, long after Microsoft lost and then settled the antitrust case, it turns out that Windows is indeed stifling innovation -- at Microsoft.
The company's marathon effort to come up with the a new version of its desktop operating system, called Windows Vista, has repeatedly stalled. Last week, in the latest setback, Microsoft conceded that Vista would not be ready for consumers until January, missing the holiday sales season, to the chagrin of personal computer makers and electronics retailers -- and those computer users eager to move up from Windows XP, a five-year-old product.
In those five years, Apple Computer has turned out four new versions of its Macintosh operating system, beating Microsoft to market with features that will be in Vista, like desktop search, advanced 3-D graphics and "widgets," an array of small, single-purpose programs like news tickers, traffic reports and weather maps.
So what's wrong with Microsoft? There is, after all, no shortage of smart software engineers working at the corporate campus in Redmond, Wash. The problem, it seems, is largely that Microsoft's past success and its bundling strategy have become a weakness. Windows runs on 330 million personal computers worldwide. Three hundred PC manufacturers around the world install Windows on their machines; thousands of devices like printers, scanners and music players plug into Windows computers; and tens of thousands of third-party software applications run on Windows. And a crucial reason Microsoft holds more than 90 percent of the PC operating system market is that the company strains to make sure software and hardware that ran on previous versions of Windows will also work on the new one -- compatibility, in computing terms.
As a result, each new version of Windows carries the baggage of its past. As Windows has grown, the technical challenge has become increasingly daunting. Several thousand engineers have labored to build and test Windows Vista, a sprawling, complex software construction project with 50 million lines of code, or more than 40 percent larger than Windows XP.
"Windows is now so big and onerous because of the size of its code base, the size of its ecosystem and its insistence on compatibility with the legacy hardware and software, that it just slows everything down," observed David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. "That's why a company like Apple has such an easier time of innovation."
Microsoft certainly understands the problem, the need to change and the potential long-term threat to its business from rivals like Apple, the free Linux operating system, and from companies like Google that distribute software as a service over the Internet. In an internal memo last October, Ray Ozzie, chief technical officer, who joined Microsoft last year, wrote, "Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges and it causes end-user and administrator frustration."
Last Mon
Setting: Two men in suits with charts stand before an Icelandic government committee.
... equally."
Pitch Guy 1: "Boy it sure is cold out today! Now, I know this sounds a little far out there, but we've been studying the volcano over there and we predict that it has energy equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT. Now that energy is, by our god given right, ours. It's just as valuable as the oil underneath the Middle East. So, we induce an eruption."
Pitch Guy 2: "It's that simple. But John, won't the people be mad that the government is getting all this free energy?"
Pitch Guy 1: "No, no, here's the best part. That energy will be distributed
Pitch Guy 2: "Gentlemen, I think the real question here today is, 'How can we afford not to induce an eruption?'"
Don't they realize that Volcanic Energy has directly caused more deaths than Nuclear Energy?
When will people learn that there is no safe form of energy?!
The volcano gods are gonna be so angered when they find out Iceland is mooching the heat. If I know my mythology, nothing (and I mean nothing) pisses a god off like free stuff for humans. We should just rename Iceland to New Pompeii right now.
I know it sounds ridiculous. But this suit will probably hold up. Even though they settled before.
The fact of the matter is that Apple Ltd. became Apple Corps which had many components. One of which was Apple Electronics. Then Apple (Macs) were made and it's clear that this could be an infringement on the products that Apple Electronics makes (if any).
Now that Apple's Ipod is so involved in music, I'm certain the other divisions of Apple Corps would like to have a go at the computer maker since their pockets are so deep. Please don't think this is The Beatles at work, it's just people working for a company based off a band that's now broken up. Hell, Michael Jackson has The Beatles' catalog, the only thing Apple Corps has is its name.
Another legal battle plays out. A lot of money re-allocated. How does this affect me? It doesn't.
Like ICANT.
I have so many questions! Why can't I hold a stable relationship with a female?! Why do I organize my compact discs by increasing Fourier coefficients modeled from their music? Why do I wake up crying every night? Why do people call me "an engineer" and how can I cure myself of this horrible affliction?
Help me doc, you've got to help me! My life (or lack thereof) is falling apart!
Dumb it down for me, doc, I'm a freaking Slashdot poster for Christ's sake!
*lays on the long sofa and closes his eyes*
... just ... urinating all over it. I know it sounds gross and I don't know why it's happening, I just keep going and laughing the whole time.
I keep having this dream where I'm standing up and towering over Redmond, WA and I'm just
Maybe you can help me with this, it gets really confusing now. My sisters are seated at computers. And when they touch them, they turn into toilets full of excrement--not working at all. But as I walk down the line, my mere touch turns them into golden Alienware desktops running at the speed of light. They get on their knees and start to worship me and again I'm laughing maniacly.
I know this sounds kind of gross and I have issues, but what does it all mean, doc?
But please don't use this 60% figure as proof that Vista will suck. Because it doesn't necessarily mean that.
Once again, we have the Slashdot spin to deal with: Scrambling to fix problems? If they're saying their release date is sometime in 2007, I don't think they need to scramble. They actually seem pretty lax about when this is going to be released. Hell, I heard about Longhorn years ago and they sure haven't been "scrambling" to do anything with that. Stop making it sound like Microsoft is running around with their heads cut off. Because I highly doubt it.
I interpret this to mean that Microsoft is stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility. They have identified so many problems that it needs major revision and good for them.
Do you remember Windows 98, first edition? Do remember how much better second edition was? I do. Why the hell they didn't just wait on the release is simple. Money.
They could release Vista prematurely but now we wait until 2007. And if you hate Windows, like I do, why do you care? We're still going to be using Linux anyways.
So please, look at this move as a gesture to try and release a quality product and not slop out some POS OS that they are only releasing for the sake of income.
Wait a minute, are you from West Virginia?
Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.
I've gotten phone calls from them about the behavior of Windows XP on multiple occasions. Once they thought all their windows kept closing if they opened too many. As it turns out, they had the "grouping" feature enabled for windows of the same type on the toolbar.
*sigh*
Now Vista will have a new 3D effect to window grouping. Sweet Jesus, I am turning my cell phone off. I can imagine it now, "All my windows are turning sideways! Make it stop!"
Aside from "Ease of Use," I don't think any of the advertised features are going to meld well with any of my sisters. The new 'Aero' technology is no match for my sisters' Airhead logic.
I plan to make up some story for them about how Vista is the devil and if you install it, it will slowly begin to ruin your computer. Oh, and if you try to save your biology notes, it especially hates the medical sciences so it will delete them instantly. Not to mention that its new 'AI' abilities allow it to call you names if it perceives you to be an unqualified user. That should stop them from buying it.
The worst part is that Microsoft can smell this potential market in young people who don't know what they need: That's exactly the kind of publicity stunt that would cause all three of my sisters to run out and buy Vista. *shudders* He's an fucking fashion designer! What the fuck would he know about computer software?!?!
And what is with this part of the article: This article brought to you by Forbes Magazine's Daniel Lyons, owner of stock in AAPL.
Thanks, Dan, I was with you there until that last paragraph where your Apple sales pitch kicked in.
The author's e-mail address is rkeller@legoebay.com (Legoe Bay Wireless, LLC) which is actually a domain for a wireless internet provider for San Juan Islands near Bellingham, Washington.
In other news, R. Keller of Legoe Bay communications was fired today after he ran through his office complex preaching the horrors of wireless devices.
His manager later commented that his "Continuous Partial Attention" campaign wasn't very good for business.
I don't think it was mentioned in the review, but if you're wondering what GDC is (like I was), it's the Game Developers Conference.
It boggles my mind why the wouldn't have links to BANG! Howdy! or reviews of it.
Articles of the genre 'World's blankiest blank' are not news.
They're the basis of a bad Fox special but they certainly aren't newsworthy.
And to make this post even more Futurama oriented:
Leela: What's wrong Amy? Did you swallow your cell phone again?
You may laugh but I think we're coming up on that being a lawsuit waiting to happen.
We're consumers; we like our cars huge, our service fast and our cell phones microscopic.
Dear Mr. Guy Montag,
It has come to our attention that you have a surplus of books stored at your residence.
We have already dispatched firemen to alleviate you of this horrible affliction--fire trucks will be there within the hour. For you see, special-interest groups and other "minorities" objected to books that offended them. As a result, books all began to look the same, as writers tried to avoid offending anybody. This isn't enough, however, and society as a whole decided to simply burn books rather than permit conflicting opinions.
There are other unpleasantries that books cause but there is no need for me to go that far into detail.
As you can see, your search for a digital Dewey decimal system is unneeded. And it is quite peculiar that anyone should have as many books as you do. Do not worry, though, we are a free public service!
Thank you again in your cooperation and trust that our services will be a valuable solution to your growing literary problem.
Sincerely,
Karl Rove Senior Advisor & Chief Political Advisor The Bush Administration
This guy isn't an idiot or a grunt. Hilf knows a thing or two about Linux and OSS. The fact that Microsoft hired him and he has an (albeit small) team working on this stuff should be at least a sign of goodwill. How can you call him "off message?" I think this guy is right on the fucking money and Microsoft is finally pulling their heads out of their asses. Sure this is optimistic hope for the future of companies working hand in hand with OSS development projects but we have to believe it's going to happen or it won't!
But then people like yourself hop all over it and stomp down anything that might be construed as an olive branch.
Congratulations, they call you a communist and you call them fascists. Let's all call names then, shall we? You'll probably find some names for me also. Where does that get us?
The cold hard truth is that you're just as closed minded as they are about working together and you're only screwing over the user when you do that. I don't know what they did to you or what happened to you in a previous life but please get over it.
Considering that the interveiw mentions that an estimated half of these two open source software programs are running on the Windows platform, I think they have a lot of research to do regarding that. I mean, if you are one of the largest operating systems in the world, wouldn't you be interested in the software that a massive amount of users are running on it?
Personally, I think you're digging for some conspiracy that isn't there but you're free to speculate (as that's what makes things interesting!).
Furthermore, inkslinger77 goes on to say: No he doesn't.
As you can see from TFI: Did he say anything about Linux in there? I don't even see him using the word. He talks about how Microsoft can better themselves by learning from the open source software out there.
According to Hilf, hey're not "making money from Linux." Instead they're learning from the OSS development model and I think it's about time Microsoft starts to realize that they can learning a thing or two about how bug identification (among other things) is supposed to be done.
Jesus, the title of this article--"Linux: Hilf Speaks About Linux Through Microsoft Eyes"--belies its true nature, most of the interview is spent discussing OSS, understanding it, the sociological aspects of it and its development process.
When it comes to Microsoft, I'm one of the first people to throw stones (and hard!). But this review of this interview is ridiculous! I don't know if inkslinger77 didn't even read the article or if this is a classic case of 'spin.'
I'm going to send inkslinger77 and ScuttleMonkey a big " Read the Fucking Interview " on this one.
You (and a number of other posters) seem to be highly critical of my grade school interests. Isn't it amazing that low grade science fiction is entertaining to someone who has to geld piglets and pick rock? Hell, Kilgore Trout would have satisfied me then. Now I read James Joyce, Herman Hesse or any number of various real authors. That's not to say I fail to recognize my roots in reading.
Do I feel like a smarter person now? Do I reject reading and liking Star Wars paperbacks on the grounds that they're literary trash? Not at all. I remember them. I remember liking them. And I always will. Laugh and jeer all you want, I'll defend Anderson because he gave me something to enjoy as a kid.
Call me crazy but I'll also always find the original Tetris to be more sacred than any religious work due to the amount of time I invested in stacking bricks. It was like
So go ahead and trounce Kevin J. Anderson and Stephen King and Michael Chrichton and a number of other authors I read in grade school. I'm not really concerned about what literary snobs have to say about them. I don't care if you think Madeline L'Engle, Ray Bradbury, Brian Jacques or Laura Ingals Wilder suck as authors, I still love them--even though I've met people here and there that have a good time picking them apart and laughing at their simple plot lines.
Oh no, my information is going to be sold and the government is going to allow tax preparers to sell it!
... you can send me all the marketing offers and SPAM you want. I am worried about someone with my same name trying to pass their credit card debt off on me. And I'm also worried about anyone I know who might have a problem with a stalker.
*gasp*
Let's narrow our fears on something a little more worrisome regarding privacy and the United States Government.
Ever filled out census information? Because, if you have, your information is available to anyone via a number of sites. That's right, for as cheap as an $8-$10 fee, people can find out what income range you are in along with a variety of other facts about you. They can also find out where you live for free!
I would normally thank god that I have a very non-unique name but if I enter my hometown and state, there I am listed five times with my address and parent's phone number. I was just a kid when I lived there! The best part is that if you click my name, they take the liberty to plug my address into Mapquest and Google Map bars in case you don't have the time to copy and paste it in there!
Go ahead, now try your name.
*cups his hand to his ear listening for the sound of a million nerds enshrouding themselves in tin foil*
I'm not worried about my personal information being sold to marketers
Do you know what your government is doing with your census data?
In my youth (prior to eighth grade), I read every Star Wars book out there. I think it was half way through the Young Jedi Academy series when I lost interest (Episode One was the final nail on the coffin of my fondness for Star Wars).
... although I'm prepared for some colorful replies in response to this post.
Now breathe and get everything out of your system about me being a nerd without a life. I was, in fact, a farmboy without a permit or vehicle
Kevin J. Anderson & Timothy Zahn could write a story. In their books, they expanded on what Lucas first saw. I read everything and loved the rich histories and futures laid out in the books for characters in the Star Wars universe. Sadly, none of these characters were in the new movies. None of the Jedi were cloned. Everything alluded to in the Thrawn (Zahn) Trilogy was omitted from episodes one through three. There was no talk of Spaarti cloning cylinders or Joruus C'Boath being cloned from Jorus C'Boath.
Why? Because although these books were licensed by Lucas, they were not official parts of the story. These works became known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe meaning characters not in the movies. This material expands and continues the stories told in the films, taking place anywhere from 4,968 years before The Phantom Menace to about 130 years after Return of the Jedi. In fact, some of the works (like the Dark Empire comics and Zahn's Trilogy) conflict directly with other works.
Don't be deceived, some of these works (like Children of the Jedi by Barbara Hambly) sucked. But I heavily suggest the Thrawn and Jedi Academy Trilogy if you want to read some of the better stories from the Expanded Universe.
I would like to say that I remain optimistic about what Lucas can still do with the Star Wars Universe. I believe that he has made mistakes in giving himself supreme veto power over what is shown or added in the movies and I think this attitude has ruined Star Wars for me somewhat. I wish that Lucas would open his mind to other ideas as some of these books have proven that there are other people out there capable of helping Lucas create story lines. I shudder to think that he might attempt to write all 100 episodes without the help of coauthors. It has been my experience that television shows with multiple authors are less likely to grow old. I also hope that Lucas has finally realized that his fans don't want hilarious/annoying Jar Jar Binks but instead want the drama and emotion of Episodes Three and Five.
Episode One left me disinterested. Star Wars Galaxies left me angry. Hopefully this series will win me back although I think a lot of us will have a hard time adapting to the new actors in old parts. I hope a large part of Luke's Youth is omitted as I cannot think of one young child actor I have liked.
Not a sound engineer, but a bassist. And I think I can provide the answer.
The solution we seek is what's known in the guitar world as a "compressor" or "limiter."
Fortunately, they are cheap and easy to build. What they do is put a ceiling on a range or ranges of frequency. I use it when I want punch in my high end but I don't want the thump in my low end to get out of control.
You can build the compressor to kick in and level anything (on all ranges) that exceeds the normal medically accepted maximum amplitude for human hearing.
The beautiful thing about compressors is that they stop you from producing obvious sounds you don't want but they don't simply reduce all sounds produced by your device.
What's so hard about this? And why in the hell are we calling this a "new tech?!" How about calling it "common sense?" If I ever designed a media player, this would be implemented regardless. The end user could look to find an amplifier if they want to blow their ears out, Apple has faced lawsuits and they will face even more as the millions who purchased their products use them and then deafly eye Jobs' deep pockets.
So, this "Billy West" is the actual Billy West who did the voices of Philip J. Fry/Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth/Dr. Zoidberg/Zapp Brannigan/Leo Wong/Smitty/President Richard Nixon's Head in the Futurama series.
Now, why in the hell is he saying that another season was in the works if he didn't have a contract signed for it? One would muse that the lead voice actor for a television show would wait until the ink has at least dried on his contract before announcing his next venture.
I'm going to hereby label any "news" posted on Slashdot from the billywest.com forums to be speculation or an overzealous announcement. Didn't you read his latest post about Rupert Murdoch promising him a Futurama channel syndicating all Futurama all the time? That's right, and there aren't going to be any commercials either. I think he later apologized and told his fans that he was on an opium bender when that meeting "happened."