As a teenager in 1984, I worked in the shipping department of a rebate mailing house. One promotion was overwhelming the mailing department, because they had to manually calculate a complex rebate for many thousands of people.
I had a VIC-20 at home that I had programmed before, and there was a C-64 collecting dust on the shelf at the office. So, I grabbed it and programmed a graphic representation of the rebate form. The mail room staff had only to tell the C-64 which combination of the 16 bar codes the customer had submitted, and the refund amount was calculated for them.
When management heard how I dramatically sped up mailroom processing on their most important promotion, they gave me an entry-level position in their IT department, and offered all the training I would need.
I then decided to forego my plan to get a CS degree, and launched what is now a nearly 20 year career in IT. I've never been a day out of work, and have picked up various *nix and networking certifications along the way.
This goes to show how young people make use of what they know, and the value of keeping free development tools in their hands.
IMO, forget the technology. Anyone who has seen the kind of life students have in the inner city can appreciate that a top notch new facility is a blessing, Microsoft or not.
Now, if they were plunking a school in a suburb that was doing just fine without them, I'd question their motives. But, in this case, I'd have to think this is at best, altruism on Microsoft's part, or at worst, advertising money well spent.
Actually, extending this, maybe the way to fight open machines is to cause the open machines to send themselves excessive traffic, rendering them fairly useless until their operators fix them, but not negatively impacting the rest of the net.
No, they'll patch their server and leave the relay open. We're talking about morons here.
From the article: Big Blue's Skip McGaughey, who has worked on making QNX the software behind IBM's new automotive computer systems, says the company chose QNX because it represents the "very best" of real-time operating system technology. "The typical automotive end user would have no patience with a unit that freezes up or experiences systems errors," he says. Wonder which archrival company's software he's thinking of.
This reminds me of the time when at COMDEX, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.
In response to Gates' comments, General Motors issued the following press release (by Mr. Welch himself, the GM CEO). If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, restart and drive on.
3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too.
4. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. Amiga would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
6. Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
7. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
9. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.
10. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
11. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
12. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
13. They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.
14. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
15. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes. Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
16. Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!
17. If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!
18. If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friends, and then copy it.
19. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganise the ignition for a few days before it worked.
20. You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.
I've noticed my high-school kids have no cursive skills to speak of. Furthermore, they don't really see any importance to it. I have been unsure whether to encourage them to develop the skill, in case they need it one day (I can imagine the office getting a good laugh out of their handwritten memos), or not (perhaps it will become a lost art for good reason).
Did people panic when riding horseback became a generally lost art?
The UnitedLinux code base -- jointly designed and developed by SuSE Linux, Turbolinux, Conectiva and SCO -- will continue to be supported unconditionally by SuSE Linux. We will honor all UnitedLinux commitments to customers and partners, regardless of any actions that SCO may take or even allegations they may make.
SCO's actions are again indeed curious. We have asked SCO for clarification of their public statements, SCO has declined. We are not aware, nor has SCO made any attempt to make us aware, of any specific unauthorized code in any SuSE Linux product. As a matter of policy, we have diligent processes for ensuring that appropriate licensing arrangements (open source or otherwise) are in place for all code used in our products.
I redirected the IIS site (which still must briefly handle the redirects) to an apache server, and it seems to be holding up...I grossly underestimated the slashdot effect.
Thanks. I grossly underestimated the slashdot effect. I have since redirected my weak IIS server to a more tolerant Linux-hosted site, and it seems to be handling the load.
Lindows needs to be careful. Confucius say: "Man who stick tongue between bars of wolf cage, will receive more than bargained for."
In other words, even if Mike Robertson wins the trademark battle, Microsoft's lawyers can begin scrounging up ways to pile frivolous lawsuits on him. For example, browsing around the lindows.com web site, I notice the use of the phrase "Microsoft Windows", without any mention of trademark of the word "Microsoft" (much less Windows).
From the article (including a quote from Michael Robertson of Lindows.com):
People, he said, are always complaining about Microsoft. "But if you want to do something about Microsoft, go give them some competition," he said. "I'm young, I'm rich and I can do it."
I think I like his attitude. He seems to be doing what many of us dream of doing in his position. Namely, using his money to challenge a purportedly evil empire.
How about we start keeping track of how many dupes each editor posts...this one counts for Timothy. Senor Taco gets a tally for the AOL post yesterday.
Or, how about a new topic: "Duplicate Stories". This way, if we enjoy dupes, we can read them. Otherwise, we can exclude the Dupe topic.
Oh, wait, what if we get dupes in the "Duplicate Stories" category?
In case of slashdotting, here is a comment from the petswarehouse.com website that I saved:
Here's a nice story found at www.libn.com about the owner of petswarehouse.com (Robert Novak). If you're one of his customers, you might be interested to hear how he deals with complaints:
Begin quote:
PetsWarehouse.com founder dries out aquarists in courts by KEN SCHACHTER This is a tale of underwater gardeners (also known as aquarists), a Copiague businessman, the Internet, a $15 million libel suit and a long and twisting path through the justice system.
At issue: What are the limits of free speech on the Internet?
Think you can castigate a company online with impunity? Think again. You could find yourself on the receiving end of a heavy lawsuit.
The first shot in what has become an epic legal battle was fired last May 15. That's when Dan Resler, a professor in the mathematical sciences department of Virginia Commonwealth University, posted a notice on an online bulletin board of aquatic plant hobbyists.
"Thinking of buying plants from Pet Warehouse[sic]? Don't. What is crappy is their service! And they're maybe even a bit dishonest."
That comment came after Resler bought a plant and felt he was overcharged for shipping.
Resler's online comments triggered an outpouring from others on the bulletin board. Many chimed in with comments like: "Remember petSWEARhouse, buy their plants and you'll be swearing!"
The businessman in question is Robert Novak, who does business as PetsWarehouse.com (www.petswarehouse.com). The online pet shop shares space at his son's store, Pets Warehouse, in Copiague, he said.
Within weeks of the postings, Novak was in court. In a lawsuit dated May 30, 2001, and filed in federal eastern district court, Novak named Resler, several other bulletin board participants and Active Window Publications Inc., which hosts the bulletin board.
The old saw says that an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer. Whoever made that up didn't envisage Novak, who is serving as his own lawyer. Novak doesn't have a law degree, but he is an old hand at legal wranglings. Talk to him and he cites case law, chapter and verse.
On the site, some people have been posting negative comments on the web site's forum, and are visible on the main page. Check this out.
In case it gets slashdotted, here's how it appeared a few minutes ago:
posted 10-03-02 12:32 PM 10-03-02 12:32 PM
Here's a nice story found at www.libn.com about the owner of petswarehouse.com (Robert Novak). If you're one of his customers, you might be interested to hear how he deals with complaints:
Begin quote:
PetsWarehouse.com founder dries out aquarists in courts by KEN SCHACHTER This is a tale of underwater gardeners (also known as aquarists), a Copiague businessman, the Internet, a $15 million libel suit and a long and twisting path through the justice system.
At issue: What are the limits of free speech on the Internet?
Think you can castigate a company online with impunity? Think again. You could find yourself on the receiving end of a heavy lawsuit.
The first shot in what has become an epic legal battle was fired last May 15. That's when Dan Resler, a professor in the mathematical sciences department of Virginia Commonwealth University, posted a notice on an online bulletin board of aquatic plant hobbyists.
"Thinking of buying plants from Pet Warehouse[sic]? Don't. What is crappy is their service! And they're maybe even a bit dishonest."
That comment came after Resler bought a plant and felt he was overcharged for shipping.
Resler's online comments triggered an outpouring from others on the bulletin board. Many chimed in with comments like: "Remember petSWEARhouse, buy their plants and you'll be swearing!"
The businessman in question is Robert Novak, who does business as PetsWarehouse.com (www.petswarehouse.com). The online pet shop shares space at his son's store, Pets Warehouse, in Copiague, he said.
Within weeks of the postings, Novak was in court. In a lawsuit dated May 30, 2001, and filed in federal eastern district court, Novak named Resler, several other bulletin board participants and Active Window Publications Inc., which hosts the bulletin board.
The old saw says that an attorney who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer. Whoever made that up didn't envisage Novak, who is serving as his own lawyer. Novak doesn't have a law degree, but he is an old hand at legal wranglings. Talk to him and he cites case law, chapter and verse.
I think I'd like to get my hands on one of these to get my hands on the perfect Newbie installation setup. Burn it to CD(s) and be ready to load it anywhere that interest can be found.
Slashdot Mirror
I had a VIC-20 at home that I had programmed before, and there was a C-64 collecting dust on the shelf at the office. So, I grabbed it and programmed a graphic representation of the rebate form. The mail room staff had only to tell the C-64 which combination of the 16 bar codes the customer had submitted, and the refund amount was calculated for them.
When management heard how I dramatically sped up mailroom processing on their most important promotion, they gave me an entry-level position in their IT department, and offered all the training I would need.
I then decided to forego my plan to get a CS degree, and launched what is now a nearly 20 year career in IT. I've never been a day out of work, and have picked up various *nix and networking certifications along the way.
This goes to show how young people make use of what they know, and the value of keeping free development tools in their hands.
Now, if they were plunking a school in a suburb that was doing just fine without them, I'd question their motives. But, in this case, I'd have to think this is at best, altruism on Microsoft's part, or at worst, advertising money well spent.
No, they'll patch their server and leave the relay open. We're talking about morons here.
Dilbert's meeting with pointy haired boss:
PHB: We have a gigantic database full of customer behavior information.
DILBERT: Excellent. We can use non-linear math and data mining technology to optimize our retail channels!
PHB: If that's the same thing as spam, we're having a good meeting here.
See the cartoon here.
This reminds me of the time when at COMDEX, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.
In response to Gates' comments, General Motors issued the following press release (by Mr. Welch himself, the GM CEO).
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. Every time they repainted the lines on the road, you'd have to buy a new car.
2. Occasionally your car would just die on the motorway for no reason, and you'd have to restart it. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this, restart and drive on.
3. Occasionally, executing a manoeuvre would cause your car to stop and fail to restart and you'd have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you'd just accept this too.
4. You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought a "Car 95" or a "Car NT". But then you'd have to buy more seats.
5. Amiga would make a car that was powered by the sun, was twice as reliable, five times as fast, twice as easy to drive - but it would only run on five percent of the roads.
6. Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their cars which would make their cars go much slower.
7. The oil, engine, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced with a single "General Car Fault" warning light.
8. People would get excited about the "new" features in Microsoft cars, forgetting completely that they had been available in other cars for many years.
9. We'd all have to switch to Microsoft gas and all auto fluids but the packaging would be superb.
10. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
11. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
12. If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
13. They wouldn't build their own engines, but form a cartel with their engine suppliers. The latest engine would have 16 cylinders, multi-point fuel injection and 4 turbos, but it would be a side-valve design so you could use Model-T Ford parts on it.
14. There would be an "Engium Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be slower on most existing roads.
15. Microsoft cars would have a special radio/cassette player which would only be able to listen to Microsoft FM, and play Microsoft Cassettes. Unless of course, you buy the upgrade to use existing stuff.
16. Microsoft would do so well, because even though they don't own any roads, all of the road manufacturers would give away Microsoft cars free, including IBM!
17. If you still ran old versions of car (ie. CarDOS 6.22/CarWIN 3.11), then you would be called old fashioned, but you would be able to drive much faster, and on more roads!
18. If you couldn't afford to buy a new car, then you could just borrow your friends, and then copy it.
19. Whenever you bought a car, you would have to reorganise the ignition for a few days before it worked.
20. You would need to buy an upgrade to run cars on a motorway next to each other.
Did people panic when riding horseback became a generally lost art?
You guessed it - Stupid SCO tricks!
It's worked with Mozilla as long as I can remember.
Or, here's a quick link to a Google search of Slashdot Google coverage.
Seriously, I like Mandrake...a lot.
In other words, even if Mike Robertson wins the trademark battle, Microsoft's lawyers can begin scrounging up ways to pile frivolous lawsuits on him. For example, browsing around the lindows.com web site, I notice the use of the phrase "Microsoft Windows", without any mention of trademark of the word "Microsoft" (much less Windows).
Well....he should make sure he wins the lawsuit first. Otherwise, he's just stuck with a stupid name.
Or, how about a new topic: "Duplicate Stories". This way, if we enjoy dupes, we can read them. Otherwise, we can exclude the Dupe topic.
Oh, wait, what if we get dupes in the "Duplicate Stories" category?
Apparently, Windows itself is a legacy application.
In case of slashdotting, here is a comment from the petswarehouse.com website that I saved:
I failed to mention that the comment forum was on the petswarehouse.com website. Incidentally, petswarehouse.com is currently down or slashdotted.
In case it gets slashdotted, here's how it appeared a few minutes ago:
I think I'd like to get my hands on one of these to get my hands on the perfect Newbie installation setup. Burn it to CD(s) and be ready to load it anywhere that interest can be found.
A media hack replied: "But, do we really want these things in the hands of idiots?"