MS has made an offer and they have accepted it. Case closed.
Many state AG offices will deal with MS this way.
New Mexico's AG settled their part of the anti-trust trial for US$100K plus legal expenses; somewhat less than what MS makes in the way of profits in the state. Maybe they were giving Bill a pass because he spent some time in NM before moving back to Washington.
As far as most people are concerned, MS owns an essential facility for computers and the product vouchers are practically as good as cash.
It shows that most of the public, including those in state law enforcement offices, remain unaware of alternatives that are much better than they suspect (open source, MacOS...).
The blame rests with Microsoft's inability to provide a patch in time.
Considering that
Standard clueless users are getting hosed by using IE
They resist your well-intentioned efforts to provide them with a superior alternative like Mozilla/Firefox; instead prefering that you periodically help them out by removing malware they inevitably collect over time
They paid Microsoft for their product (or paid the OEM that preinstalled for them)
I would say it's time to throw up your hands, smile, and suggest they seek support from Microsoft.
Then say you have to go back to browsing the web; if they ask how you can do that, you can tell them that you use different software. Then it's their choice....
If you have some free time on your hand because you're not yet employed, then you have an opportunity to volunteer your IT expertise to a local charity.
This is good 3 ways:
Make you look good as a person (hey, it even feels good to do good, perception be damned).
Give you experience doing things like setting up a web server, database, maintaining hardware on a shoestring.
Give you contacts with people you might not otherwise meet. (Hint: many of the big philanthropists are local business owners and highly influential people. You can meet them incidentally as the charity does its work.)
Because Sun has had to hash out many of the issues of scalable vector drawings, gradients, etc. that would be very useful in an SVG implementation that could be incredibly powerful for resolution independent, dynamic web applications in an open standard, open source way (as opposed to Flash or PDF).
[I know that ghostscript has many of those issues worked out, too, but the code base was started back in the days of C and DOS and might not be as nice to work from as the Java 2D API. The Mozilla and KDE SVG efforts might benefit from an open source Java 2D.]
consider accurate weather forecasting to be critically important to business,
Absolutely.
I remember years ago visiting a private weather forecasting outfit in the central valley of California, probably one of the richest agricultural producing regions in the world.
They had very impressive facilities and were able to provide farmers with the detailed kinds of information about soil moisture, predicted rainfall, temperatures high and low, what the weather was forecast to be on a hourly basis, etc. This was many years ago when all you could get from the NWS was today's weather, tomorrows forecast for a region that was 100 km across.
I think the government should provide the free weather data to the taxpayers that support them. It's a public benefit that costs little to do. The right to make money based on artificial scarcity is not constitutionally protected.
There's still plenty of room in the marketplace for real value added services that the average taxpayer is not yet willing to pay for but which the farmer or marine navigator is very keen to know about.
Micheal Moore's film is entertaining, sensational, contains snippets of facts taken out of context that are artfully woven together to provoke an emotional response, convincing people of a position by means other than careful, rational analysis.
That is to say, his approach is the same abominable approach use by the right wring ideologues that dominate so much of popular media (talk radio, Newscorp).
I sympathisize with Moore's position, but decry the use of those tactics in his film. It is good that he will provoke debate; but it is bad that opponents, while mixing jibes about his weight problem and how he looks like a homeless person, will have an opportunity to counter his film by logical analysis.
If you want to see a more compelling and credible advocate than Micheal Moore, then I suggest you consider the Nobel laureates concerns about science policy of the current administration and the group of former ambassadors and high-ranking military officers (from both parties) concerns about what the current foreign policies are doing to the United States interests abroad, and not see F9/11. (Unless you won't take it seriously and consider rather as entertainment in the same vein as listening to Rush Limbaugh is entertaining).
...stock options. And that is they have no impact on the cash position of the company.
Ah, but they do.
Employees will take stock options in lieu of cash to some degree, so issuing stock options lowers the cost of paying employees wages here and now in this fiscal year.
Then, in later years when the employees exercise their options, the other stockholders take in the shorts as the pool of shares dilutes their worth.
In some ways, it's like issuing a bond but paid back in shares instead of cash when it finally comes due...
Steve Ballmer spoke at a recent Air Force conference that I attended. He let us know that the U.S. Air Force is the single largest customer of Microsoft. Do you really think we can "just switch the whole DOD" that easily? The military/DOD is a huge customer for Microsoft
Not just the Air Force, but all the other services in DoD, then start looking at other federal agencies like DOE, DoC, DoJ, HUD, etc. and you're talking about O(US$1e9) going to Microsoft.
Think for a minute about what that kind of money could buy besides Microsoft licenses!
It could turbocharge OpenOffice.org development.
Develop a panoply of high quality freely-redistributable outline fonts, including international glyphs.
Create a fanastic vector editor that would output SVG, PDF, etc.
Bring Mozilla/SVG rendering to the latest W3C standards and with the highest possible performance.
Push free OCR software quality to where scientific articles from decades past are made on-line and searchable from anyone who cared to start scanning in and contributing what they had.
Even more funding could be found if a governments from the EU, Japan and China decided that it were in their best long term interest to have free software available.
It really is this simple:
the global optimum IT solution is to develop and to use open source software because the overall costs of developing it are less than the overall benefits derived from using it.
One of the biggest reasons it doesn't just happen (apart from inertia and the politics of money), is that IT management is fragmented.
If you're the CIO in some mid-level capacity in the government then the local optimum solution is frequently to just "go with the flow" as you dump your excess budget dollars into securing a few more years of Software Assurance and wait until more evidence comes in before you make a brave and risky leap to open source (except in the server arena where it's already a no-brainer).
People in the DoD are already quite familiar with a similar issue where an overall optimum solution, one that is logically and technically obvious, is not the same as the union of local optimal solutions. Namely, the whole issue of Base Closure, aka BRAC.
IE's ways of interpreting HTML is a de-facto standard.
Some would say that MS is flouting standards because they're arrogant.
That's not a completely accurate picture, though.
If you were MS and getting ready to define new XML standards for IE 7 in Longhorn you'd like to know just how many sites out there are willing to kowtow to Your standards rather than community standards.
And you'd like to know the extent to which those sites will go in your direction or the extent to which they'll go to cross-platform compliant standards.
With the current mismatch between IE behavior and W3C standards, they can get a constant updated metrics about this standards compliance issue and better be able to judge the IE7 rollout success rate.
I'm thinking they're thinking they'll do pretty well, even if Mozilla grows 50% annually in usage until Longhorn comes out.
If you can locate that girl as a witness, have some patience you might have legal case.
Municipalities are constantly getting sued and settling lawsuits for the stupid actions of their employees.
It's sad, because most municipalities have budgets stretched thinner than the skin of a flint.
But, OTOH, there's nothing like a monetary judgement to change behavior and bring the issue up to where it is noticed by the people that matter. Otherwise, misuse of police power will be summarily ignored and the behavior will continue.
You do the math on how much that cost the company, nevermind the actual license cost.
You might think this would provide fodder for a logical argument in future IT decision making.
Maybe.
Equally probable is that anyone in a position of authority managing a fiasco process that is around for later decision-making processes will not bring up an embarrassing example like this.
They'll just generally become more cautious and conservative and less likely to want any kind of change whatsoever, even and especially if Microsoft advocates the change.
But, where is the OS developed from the start in Brazil?
Those metrics are immaterial at this point in time.
They might be a matter of national pride, but most users and developers of open source software are more than happy to make use of the best that exists already and not reinvent the wheel needlessly.
Brazil and other countries' success in open source need not be measured by old standards of how many operating systems and how many RISC chip they have created, how many computer languages do they create, etc..
Rather, their real successes will be measured in terms of how many applications did they contribute to, how much did they contribute to Portuguese localization as well as general purpose bug fixes to applications developed in other countries? And, most importantly, how much widespread deployment of open source in their countries has reduced costs to external suppliers outside the country and potentially improved the average standard of living for its citizens?
One small step forward for Microsoft, one giant leap backwards for mankind?"
Well, for anyone using Windows XP, the disadvantages of losing some backwards compatibility must be weighed against the advantages of being vulnerable to fewer exploits.
The advantage in time and energy savings for the user might be greater than the time and cost spent dealing with backward incompatibility.
ain't nuthin they can do other than try and get legislation passed to save them.
Perhaps something like an ISP compliance act for the prevention of spam, virus writers, terrorist and DRM circumvention that requires all computers connected to US based ISPs to run TCPA and be identifiable?
Who will argue that preventing spam, virus writers, pedophiles and terrorists is a Bad Thing?
Note that China, a very large and growing computer market, would probably jump at the chance to pass technologically equivalent legislation in order to keep a tight rein on dissidents - you know - people that disclose "state secrets".
Slashdot Mirror
MS has made an offer and they have accepted it. Case closed.
Many state AG offices will deal with MS this way.
New Mexico's AG settled their part of the anti-trust trial for US$100K plus legal expenses; somewhat less than what MS makes in the way of profits in the state. Maybe they were giving Bill a pass because he spent some time in NM before moving back to Washington.
As far as most people are concerned, MS owns an essential facility for computers and the product vouchers are practically as good as cash.
It shows that most of the public, including those in state law enforcement offices, remain unaware of alternatives that are much better than they suspect (open source, MacOS...) .
I saw a few weeks ago.
Nice patriotic-looking, wind-furled U.S. flag waving in the backdrop with the text, "Bush-Orwell `04"
Subject says it all.
Sometimes I get that error from Firefox, repeatedly, and have to kill it and restart it to make it go away.
Something to think about for those of us attending fireworks shows this weekend in the U.S.
So this brings up the question: where to see the best fireworks this weekend?
[Usually the best ones are over water because the added safety lets them use fireworks that are more dangerous over land, etc.]
Hey!
You reading /.!
Get back to work! You know we've got to ship version 2.0 by the end of next week come hell or high water!
You know the worst kind of charity call? Door to door collectors for the Police Benevolency Association.
They were really bad on the phone, too.
Years ago...
Phone: Ring...ring.Me: "Hello?"
Phone: "This is the police." [pause
Me: [pulse at 140] "Uhh, yes?"
Phone: [spiel begins]
After CallerID, any label like "Police Something" was immediately left to the answering machine.
Sex.
Food.
Lack of pain.
But most of us will settle for peer recognition of our prowess in lieu of the above in anticipation of eventually get them directly.
The blame rests with Microsoft's inability to provide a patch in time.
Considering that
- Standard clueless users are getting hosed by using IE
- They resist your well-intentioned efforts to provide them with a superior alternative like Mozilla/Firefox; instead prefering that you periodically help them out by removing malware they inevitably collect over time
- They paid Microsoft for their product (or paid the OEM that preinstalled for them)
I would say it's time to throw up your hands, smile, and suggest they seek support from Microsoft.Then say you have to go back to browsing the web; if they ask how you can do that, you can tell them that you use different software. Then it's their choice....
If you have some free time on your hand because you're not yet employed, then you have an opportunity to volunteer your IT expertise to a local charity.
This is good 3 ways:
Because Sun has had to hash out many of the issues of scalable vector drawings, gradients, etc. that would be very useful in an SVG implementation that could be incredibly powerful for resolution independent, dynamic web applications in an open standard, open source way (as opposed to Flash or PDF).
[I know that ghostscript has many of those issues worked out, too, but the code base was started back in the days of C and DOS and might not be as nice to work from as the Java 2D API. The Mozilla and KDE SVG efforts might benefit from an open source Java 2D.]
However, you won't find the words "scalable" and "robust" used much in the mulibillion dollar diet industry.
consider accurate weather forecasting to be critically important to business,
Absolutely.
I remember years ago visiting a private weather forecasting outfit in the central valley of California, probably one of the richest agricultural producing regions in the world.
They had very impressive facilities and were able to provide farmers with the detailed kinds of information about soil moisture, predicted rainfall, temperatures high and low, what the weather was forecast to be on a hourly basis, etc. This was many years ago when all you could get from the NWS was today's weather, tomorrows forecast for a region that was 100 km across.
I think the government should provide the free weather data to the taxpayers that support them. It's a public benefit that costs little to do. The right to make money based on artificial scarcity is not constitutionally protected.
There's still plenty of room in the marketplace for real value added services that the average taxpayer is not yet willing to pay for but which the farmer or marine navigator is very keen to know about.
If "too many" people can't think for themselves, too bad for them.
No, too bad for you and me, if we live in a democracy where the non-thinkers have equal rights to vote.
GFS software lets files be stored in a single file system shared by numerous servers.
How does the functionality offered by GFS overlap with, say, NFS, especially now that NFSv4 is coming out?
Micheal Moore's film is entertaining, sensational, contains snippets of facts taken out of context that are artfully woven together to provoke an emotional response, convincing people of a position by means other than careful, rational analysis.
That is to say, his approach is the same abominable approach use by the right wring ideologues that dominate so much of popular media (talk radio, Newscorp).
I sympathisize with Moore's position, but decry the use of those tactics in his film. It is good that he will provoke debate; but it is bad that opponents, while mixing jibes about his weight problem and how he looks like a homeless person, will have an opportunity to counter his film by logical analysis.
If you want to see a more compelling and credible advocate than Micheal Moore, then I suggest you consider the Nobel laureates concerns about science policy of the current administration and the group of former ambassadors and high-ranking military officers (from both parties) concerns about what the current foreign policies are doing to the United States interests abroad, and not see F9/11. (Unless you won't take it seriously and consider rather as entertainment in the same vein as listening to Rush Limbaugh is entertaining).
Ah, but they do.
Employees will take stock options in lieu of cash to some degree, so issuing stock options lowers the cost of paying employees wages here and now in this fiscal year.
Then, in later years when the employees exercise their options, the other stockholders take in the shorts as the pool of shares dilutes their worth.
In some ways, it's like issuing a bond but paid back in shares instead of cash when it finally comes due...
At least for an appropriate period of time, at least.
My sentiments exactly.
A 17 year term might have been appropriate back in the 1700s.
Now, I'm thinking 17 months would be better.
So how easy is it to use GMail to send encrypted email?
I'm guessing if you don't trust Google, then you have to encrypt locally and cut `n paste.
Steve Ballmer spoke at a recent Air Force conference that I attended. He let us know that the U.S. Air Force is the single largest customer of Microsoft. Do you really think we can "just switch the whole DOD" that easily? The military/DOD is a huge customer for Microsoft
Not just the Air Force, but all the other services in DoD, then start looking at other federal agencies like DOE, DoC, DoJ, HUD, etc. and you're talking about O(US$1e9) going to Microsoft.
Think for a minute about what that kind of money could buy besides Microsoft licenses!
Even more funding could be found if a governments from the EU, Japan and China decided that it were in their best long term interest to have free software available.
It really is this simple:
One of the biggest reasons it doesn't just happen (apart from inertia and the politics of money), is that IT management is fragmented.
If you're the CIO in some mid-level capacity in the government then the local optimum solution is frequently to just "go with the flow" as you dump your excess budget dollars into securing a few more years of Software Assurance and wait until more evidence comes in before you make a brave and risky leap to open source (except in the server arena where it's already a no-brainer).
People in the DoD are already quite familiar with a similar issue where an overall optimum solution, one that is logically and technically obvious, is not the same as the union of local optimal solutions. Namely, the whole issue of Base Closure, aka BRAC.
IE's ways of interpreting HTML is a de-facto standard.
Some would say that MS is flouting standards because they're arrogant.
That's not a completely accurate picture, though.
If you were MS and getting ready to define new XML standards for IE 7 in Longhorn you'd like to know just how many sites out there are willing to kowtow to Your standards rather than community standards.
And you'd like to know the extent to which those sites will go in your direction or the extent to which they'll go to cross-platform compliant standards.
With the current mismatch between IE behavior and W3C standards, they can get a constant updated metrics about this standards compliance issue and better be able to judge the IE7 rollout success rate.
I'm thinking they're thinking they'll do pretty well, even if Mozilla grows 50% annually in usage until Longhorn comes out.
If you can locate that girl as a witness, have some patience you might have legal case.
Municipalities are constantly getting sued and settling lawsuits for the stupid actions of their employees.
It's sad, because most municipalities have budgets stretched thinner than the skin of a flint.
But, OTOH, there's nothing like a monetary judgement to change behavior and bring the issue up to where it is noticed by the people that matter. Otherwise, misuse of police power will be summarily ignored and the behavior will continue.
You do the math on how much that cost the company, nevermind the actual license cost.
You might think this would provide fodder for a logical argument in future IT decision making.
Maybe.
Equally probable is that anyone in a position of authority managing a fiasco process that is around for later decision-making processes will not bring up an embarrassing example like this.
They'll just generally become more cautious and conservative and less likely to want any kind of change whatsoever, even and especially if Microsoft advocates the change.
But, where is the OS developed from the start in Brazil?
Those metrics are immaterial at this point in time.
They might be a matter of national pride, but most users and developers of open source software are more than happy to make use of the best that exists already and not reinvent the wheel needlessly.
Brazil and other countries' success in open source need not be measured by old standards of how many operating systems and how many RISC chip they have created, how many computer languages do they create, etc..
Rather, their real successes will be measured in terms of how many applications did they contribute to, how much did they contribute to Portuguese localization as well as general purpose bug fixes to applications developed in other countries? And, most importantly, how much widespread deployment of open source in their countries has reduced costs to external suppliers outside the country and potentially improved the average standard of living for its citizens?
One small step forward for Microsoft, one giant leap backwards for mankind?"
Well, for anyone using Windows XP, the disadvantages of losing some backwards compatibility must be weighed against the advantages of being vulnerable to fewer exploits.
The advantage in time and energy savings for the user might be greater than the time and cost spent dealing with backward incompatibility.
ain't nuthin they can do other than try and get legislation passed to save them.
Perhaps something like an ISP compliance act for the prevention of spam, virus writers, terrorist and DRM circumvention that requires all computers connected to US based ISPs to run TCPA and be identifiable?
Who will argue that preventing spam, virus writers, pedophiles and terrorists is a Bad Thing?
Note that China, a very large and growing computer market, would probably jump at the chance to pass technologically equivalent legislation in order to keep a tight rein on dissidents - you know - people that disclose "state secrets".