Sometimes I just do not get it, therefore I wonder why Microsoft would want to replace it.
I've been thinking about this... and my personal conspiracy theory on the situation is that they want to change the look because other OS's imitate it. If people find themselves on a machine that looks and feels like their computer at work, they might like it. So MS changes the interface a bit here and there, rearranges options, fiddles with the look and the adapt people away from the commonality of the computer industry (PCs that look, act and feel like Windows XP.) Someone sits down at this alternative OS and they feel like it's old and slow because it reminds them of their old machine. I also think it has to do with Wine as well. If they keep a moving target on Wine, it can never catch up. If they do this enough, the alternatives will have a hard time keeping up with all the changing and will look old to the normal user.
You need a very bright light the shape of a camera with multi-color multi-spectrum(?: IR, visible, etc) lasers shooting out to alert them of the camera. In fact, we should just require that all cameras have a disco ball of lasers with a sound covering every possible tone of sound so those that are partially tone deaf can hear parts of the sound.
I think that covers, blind, deaf, and partially deaf individuals. If you are both blind and deaf, I don't know how to alert you of the impending doom of having your picture taken.
Not really. You don't have to reverse engineer Unix/Linux/Mac. The documentation is all there for free.
The problem is market share though. Let's say one of the car manufacturers obtained a near 90% market share and decided to create a car that needed to run on rails. These cars are the only ones available in dealers due to price brackets that prohibit the sale of non-railed cars without paying more. All common roads are slowly replaced by railed roads. Now the company patents the rail design and makes competitors pay for the right to build cars using this rail tech. All other cars you have to special order and are hard to find shops to repair them because all the shops use this rail. Is it the responsibility of the govt to make extra roads so that 2% of the vehicles using a non-railed system can get to work? Is it the responsibility of the repair shops to accommodate non-railed cars?
Wouldn't you just force the rail to become an open standard so that other brands can compete?
"In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos , alone or single + polein , to sell) exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.
The EULA? OEM Contracts?
Microsoft no longer has all that much control even on it's own platform, much less all desktop PCs, given Mac's rapidly increasing market share. Furthermore, if monopolies are characterized by a lack of competition for a good or service, then why is there a huge rise in the popularity of different web browsers.
With IE being integrated into the OS (as in it's used for file management and other things), they are dictating that everyone that uses Windows must also have IE. Period. You can't remove it entirely.
Microsoft has lost desktop PC marketshare, lost broswer share, lost laptop share. If they held a monopoly in the 90s, it's clear to me they no longer do.
The common consumer cannot buy a computer off the shelf that does not have Windows on it. That's a monopoly.
OTOH, as I posted above, Microsoft should be forced to include a standard library interface for all applications that when coded upon. Said application could be portable to all operating systems using such interface. They should be forced to release documentation for things like Win32/WPF/DirectX so other systems can implement them and allow "Made for Windows" applications run on any competitor OS.
On that same note... I can play any MP3 in an iPod just as easily as I can play it in another off-brand player. I cannot however play a Windows game or use a Windows Application in a generic off-brand operating system without reverse engineering Windows. There's no standard format and library for executable files. If they could force MS to follow a specific set of standard libraries and/or release the interface documentation for such libraries and files, then we'd have truer competition.
You'd also have to invalidate all patents related to them. Patents are good for start up companies and small inventors, but when they are used to "protect" a majority holder, they are abusive.
I was thinking about this. (Also, not being an electrical engineer by any means.) Could you place a relatively small capacitor on each LED to increase the burn time?
.NET still has the problem of having platform specific functionality. (AKA: the prior Microsoft.* and Mono.Unix namespace or the now System.Windows.Forms) They could have provided a little more generic platform allowing a developer to use something like System.Window (not Windows) that included a generic interface for building an interface window that could be easily integrated into other operating systems since they all use the same basic construct... then I'd give them some credit. (For citation, Microsoft defines that namespace: The System.Windows.Forms namespace contains classes for creating Windows-based applications that take full advantage of the rich user interface features available in the Microsoft Windows operating system.) As it is now, they still control the standard and it still has proprietary interfacing that people will use and create locked in apps. You'd have to create a whole new namespace for each OS implementation as opposed to offering one generic interface. If the time comes when I can create code in Windows with forms and compile it unchanged in Linux... then I'll dedicate more time to it.
I also do not know of any way for third parties to include changes to the standard not to mention the overhanging patents. Could Apple/Redhat/Joe Smith add functionality to.NET without going through Microsoft?
Yes, I have used both (albeit in the form of C# vs AS2/AS3.) If you were comparing.NET with AS2, then I agree, but AS3 is (in my mind) a very capable scripting language.
Mark my words..NET extensions are on their way placing Microsoft in the hot-seat of Web development technology standards. They integrate.NET into the most widely used Web Server software on the Internet and then Introduce Windows.NET "Cloud." It releases as the only fully compatible Web-OS that works with this server launching it into a premium spot.
Slashdot Mirror
Sometimes I just do not get it, therefore I wonder why Microsoft would want to replace it.
I've been thinking about this... and my personal conspiracy theory on the situation is that they want to change the look because other OS's imitate it. If people find themselves on a machine that looks and feels like their computer at work, they might like it. So MS changes the interface a bit here and there, rearranges options, fiddles with the look and the adapt people away from the commonality of the computer industry (PCs that look, act and feel like Windows XP.) Someone sits down at this alternative OS and they feel like it's old and slow because it reminds them of their old machine. I also think it has to do with Wine as well. If they keep a moving target on Wine, it can never catch up. If they do this enough, the alternatives will have a hard time keeping up with all the changing and will look old to the normal user.
if you want to sway the game companies, chuck your xbox.
Does that mean I have to buy one just to chuck it?
idiots, politicians
Dammit. Why do I never have mod points when something redundant is posted.
No, the ponies are working for you... keep it going. ;)
April 1st, 2006 tells us ponies are okay here.
Grammar Nazii?
So was that.
You need a very bright light the shape of a camera with multi-color multi-spectrum(?: IR, visible, etc) lasers shooting out to alert them of the camera. In fact, we should just require that all cameras have a disco ball of lasers with a sound covering every possible tone of sound so those that are partially tone deaf can hear parts of the sound.
I think that covers, blind, deaf, and partially deaf individuals. If you are both blind and deaf, I don't know how to alert you of the impending doom of having your picture taken.
Silencers require a special license.
why 50/50? Why not 10/10/10/10/... or how about no party at all?
Not really. You don't have to reverse engineer Unix/Linux/Mac. The documentation is all there for free.
The problem is market share though. Let's say one of the car manufacturers obtained a near 90% market share and decided to create a car that needed to run on rails. These cars are the only ones available in dealers due to price brackets that prohibit the sale of non-railed cars without paying more. All common roads are slowly replaced by railed roads. Now the company patents the rail design and makes competitors pay for the right to build cars using this rail tech. All other cars you have to special order and are hard to find shops to repair them because all the shops use this rail. Is it the responsibility of the govt to make extra roads so that 2% of the vehicles using a non-railed system can get to work? Is it the responsibility of the repair shops to accommodate non-railed cars?
Wouldn't you just force the rail to become an open standard so that other brands can compete?
It would be pretty hard to convince the bank as to why you put Jan 26, ~4543632795 on your mortgage check.
You have to account for people going rogue. Redundancy, verification and limited power are the way to security, not hiring a wizard.
Why not multiclass? You get the dex bonus to armor and all the other benefits of both classes!
"In economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos , alone or single + polein , to sell) exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it.
The EULA? OEM Contracts?
Microsoft no longer has all that much control even on it's own platform, much less all desktop PCs, given Mac's rapidly increasing market share. Furthermore, if monopolies are characterized by a lack of competition for a good or service, then why is there a huge rise in the popularity of different web browsers.
With IE being integrated into the OS (as in it's used for file management and other things), they are dictating that everyone that uses Windows must also have IE. Period. You can't remove it entirely.
Microsoft has lost desktop PC marketshare, lost broswer share, lost laptop share. If they held a monopoly in the 90s, it's clear to me they no longer do.
The common consumer cannot buy a computer off the shelf that does not have Windows on it. That's a monopoly.
OTOH, as I posted above, Microsoft should be forced to include a standard library interface for all applications that when coded upon. Said application could be portable to all operating systems using such interface. They should be forced to release documentation for things like Win32/WPF/DirectX so other systems can implement them and allow "Made for Windows" applications run on any competitor OS.
On that same note... I can play any MP3 in an iPod just as easily as I can play it in another off-brand player. I cannot however play a Windows game or use a Windows Application in a generic off-brand operating system without reverse engineering Windows. There's no standard format and library for executable files. If they could force MS to follow a specific set of standard libraries and/or release the interface documentation for such libraries and files, then we'd have truer competition.
You'd also have to invalidate all patents related to them. Patents are good for start up companies and small inventors, but when they are used to "protect" a majority holder, they are abusive.
I was thinking about this. (Also, not being an electrical engineer by any means.) Could you place a relatively small capacitor on each LED to increase the burn time?
running off a power inverter hacked into the vehicles 12-volt power
No need to hack. They already have DC Power Supplies just for this purpose:
http://www.powerstream.com/mini-itx.htm
http://www.short-circuit.com/
I only need a bumper sticker that says:
Pass or Move Right
I have thought about others but living in the "Bible Belt", I would have likely gotten my car keyed.
match up correctly with the other 19,975 pages the other 799 people are responsible for
I thought that's what templates were for...
If I picked up anything from Nintendo, UltraBar is the next logical step.
I don't know. Jim Carey got a lot of attention by talking out of his ass. I think he tried to make it part of his bit.
.NET still has the problem of having platform specific functionality. (AKA: the prior Microsoft.* and Mono.Unix namespace or the now System.Windows.Forms) They could have provided a little more generic platform allowing a developer to use something like System.Window (not Windows) that included a generic interface for building an interface window that could be easily integrated into other operating systems since they all use the same basic construct... then I'd give them some credit. (For citation, Microsoft defines that namespace: The System.Windows.Forms namespace contains classes for creating Windows-based applications that take full advantage of the rich user interface features available in the Microsoft Windows operating system.) As it is now, they still control the standard and it still has proprietary interfacing that people will use and create locked in apps. You'd have to create a whole new namespace for each OS implementation as opposed to offering one generic interface. If the time comes when I can create code in Windows with forms and compile it unchanged in Linux... then I'll dedicate more time to it.
I also do not know of any way for third parties to include changes to the standard not to mention the overhanging patents. Could Apple/Redhat/Joe Smith add functionality to .NET without going through Microsoft?
Yes, I have used both (albeit in the form of C# vs AS2/AS3.) If you were comparing .NET with AS2, then I agree, but AS3 is (in my mind) a very capable scripting language.
That's a matter of opinion if I ever saw one.
Two words: Dot NET.
Mark my words. .NET extensions are on their way placing Microsoft in the hot-seat of Web development technology standards. They integrate .NET into the most widely used Web Server software on the Internet and then Introduce Windows .NET "Cloud." It releases as the only fully compatible Web-OS that works with this server launching it into a premium spot.