One of my colleague told me about a printer that started printing page after page of funny characters. It seems there was a virus in the network, trying to write himself on all shares - of which the printer had one.
How much is able one of those printers to do? Printers dedicated to big offices have a pretty powerful processor, lots of RAM, hard drive. Taking control of such a printer could be just as useful for a black-hat cracker as taking control of a computer there, with the bonus that printers aren't usual suspects for infections
The European Union idea - to fine up to the total profits - could be a solution to this. While I don't know how much a profit is Microsoft making in EU, the fine was much lower than that (a tenth? a third?).
However, there were companies (based in Europe) which were fined to that extent
Maybe during the discovery, they had to access some documents that are internal and private to the company (*cough* copyrighted *cough*). As such, any use of those documents outside of the court (the very reason for which they were dug up) would be illegal.
For example, a judge can request you your hand-written journal if you are prosecuted for something, and he thinks this will help to reach a correct verdict. However, the content of your journal can not be used by anybody else, even if it was made public in court.
Also, there are some things (client data by example) which a corporation is forbidden to publish (but all of those are just some hand-waving examples)
Lots of software written for Linux is able to be run on OpenBSD - by using the so-called ports. Also, for the same architecture, you could run the so-called "binary emulation" with near native efficiency.
NetBSD (just the operating system) runs on tons of computer architectures. As such, having multiple architectures is certainly possible.
Games are written for all the three major consoles - and there aren't many similarities between each other.
Other things - the AMD connection from microprocessor to chipset is derivated from Alpha architecture. Inside, the Intel processors are about as much RISC as their old competitors (Alpha, MIPS). x86 - however good it is - don't have anything in the very low power arena (even the very low power Via processors can't run without a heat sink).
Having a different server architecture (while running software compatible to Intel microarchitecture) helped AMD from about 0% market share in server processors to some 20% (I think). Having Transmeta Crusoe as a competitor maybe motivated Intel to go for a low power, high performance laptop processor (the Pentium M).
Interoperability and standards... POSIX seem to work some (even Windows NT was marketed as having POSIX compliance). OpenGL works again. Binary compatibility between operating systems works too (Linux compatibility exists in OpenBSD, Sun,...). The X Windowing system seems a standard in Unix world.
Yes, that would be the best course of action - however, the essence of a monopoly is that you have little other choices.
Would this be possible? Yes, the Munich city is moving to something else than Windows (details not so important), and is converting from a couple of years, and the complete conversion will take another couple of years maybe
Welcome to Windows.
Well, this was made (I suppose) in order to accelerate the graphic operations (which will run in kernel space, not user space). Or I might be wrong, but Microsoft in known for many places where, between speed and modularity/security/... choose the former.
I remember I've read about some Microsoft employee bragging (sometime in the 1999-2000) about the way some small function, dependent on lots of things, was implemented: its code was written by hand on the stack, and the program then ran it from there. No wonder that the "run protection" for memory segments (NX for processors) didn't appeared until a couple of years ago, and was implemented no sooner than XP SP2
The right to vote can be revoked by a court (outside of any other punishment); it can be revoked automatically in some cases, as a bonus to a conviction; or it can be revoked for medical reasons.
However, the right to vote and a parking ticket you get in a foreign country have as much in common as a patent and the API for an operating system (not much).
An economic embargo of USA against China would be much less catastrophic than an economic embargo of China against USA.
Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization would probably act against this - at least with a very angry letter.
As for dirty tricks, it's fully possible to see some.
OK, Kuwait was not really invaded - the government of Kuwait (in exile at that date) requested help from United Nations (and possibly USA). The UN mandated the liberation of Kuwait, and for the moment the only US troops that might be in Kuwait are observers.
Don't know about Grenada, Vietnam is free of american troops, South Korea WANTS american troops inside.
Cuba has a small US garrison inside, in what seem to be not US soil, but more US army and CIA soil.
Some people in Iraq are happy for the US actions, some are not.
On the other side of the comparation, China invaded Tibet, and chinese army is everything there - police, occupation force, government. I don't think there are many tibetan people happy about that.
So, with all my anti-USA attitude, I think China here is having an even lower moral stance than US of A
A punishment must fit the crime is applied to. While the punishment applied by US Justice system might seem unfit for the wrongs of Microsoft before the verdict, revocation of patents is a totally unfit punishment for not publishing an API.
It is like taking you (assuming you are from USA) the right to vote for a parking ticket in Mexico
There are some graphic capabilities (in gdi.exe) that exist only in newer operating systems. Not using them would force one to use (supposedly slower) hand-written functions (by example, filling application areas with a gradient is not available in Windows NT, but is in Windows XP).
If those functions would really exist, but could be only interfaced to using an "internal" API, then Microsoft products could have faster "on screen" viewing compared to the competition.
I don't know, but I suppose if this is found to be true, then some of the antitrust measures could be "resurfaced". It all depends on how the verdict was formulated.
A business this big doesn't need time to change - it needs desire to change. With all its (possible) evil implications, European Union seems to give Microsoft a desire to change.
A Navy gun (the 5" variety I suppose) has around 10 MJ of launch energy. One destroyer (using a single gun) can fire about 20 rounds per minute (5 Inch/54-caliber (Mk 45) lightweight gun)
Now, one Arleigh Burke destroyer has some 75MW of shaft power (4 gas turbines). Assuming it can direct a third of this power to projectiles (considering all the losses), one ends up with enough power to launch more than one projectile a second.
Assuming the launch power (to the projectiles) is at around 10% of total engine power, one can have about the same rate of fire.
Now, where there is energy lost? Well, conversion to electricity (let's say for our purposes, conversion to electricity is as good as conversion to shaft horsepower); electricity storage; energy lost in capacitors; gun efficiency.
Let's say electricity storage (energy lost as it is stored) is of little concern. The capacitors have (if I remember) at most 50% efficiency (you must supply double the energy as compared to what you get out of them). Gun efficiency is unknown (not mentioned in the article).
So, what one ends up? For every launched ordnance, the ship must cool the electric components, for an effect equal to the launch energy. Thanks God for all the cool seawater around!
I think the "I have canceled the security risks" was modded funny.
I'm not sure I would like the "create new tab" tab of IE7 - however, it is a smart idea
I too have used Netscape 4.72, Netscape 6 and 7 (the suite), and then I moved to Firefox and Thunderbird. I haven't installed Mozilla on a single PC (and only seen it on one).
Go Firefox!
"That's poorly worded at best. Firefox has pushed all the innovation in web browsers"
What should I say? Some inovations of Firefox were present in Netscape Navigator 6 and 7. Also, Firefox (ex Firebird) was split from the Mozilla suite.
You should replace Firefox at least with Mozilla in your argument
Why did they mod you funny?
While using an antivirus and a spyware program is good (along with a firewall and so on), you should take into account that antivirus programs offer their security with delays. Between the start of an attack until the moment all the updates are on the system, usually more than a day occurs.
And you should take into account that IE has open holes (Firefox probably has some too) that can be attacked by any totally new virus
They are keeping some projects alive by pumping into them billions of dollars from the Office/Windows monopoly (XBox division didn't have a profitable quarter from their launch, I think, and Zune seems to have the same goal).
Also, consider that Microsoft is using its stack of software (if partial) to force the rest of the stack on the consumer (incompatibility with other applications, forced obsolescence)
Hmmm, I wonder if one would need to force IE7 to present itself as IE6, so it will work on some sites "optimized" for IE6. After all these years of Netscape Navigator, Opera, Firefox, Mozilla masquerading as IE6.
Ohhh, the irony...
Or you install it, and find out that for some reason or another, it won't work with one of your sites (Sharepoint Portal, configuration site for Virtual Server, just to put two examples from Microsoft).
Also, take into account that IE7 is automatic update (from Automatic updates in Windows XP)
The longbows recovered from Mary Rose had a pull strength in the 90-100 pounds range. However, identical replicas made now have the pull strength in the 150+ lbs.
"Considerable practice was required to produce the swift and effective combat fire required. Skeletons of longbow archers are recognizably deformed, with enlarged left arms, and often bone spurs on left wrists, left shoulders and right fingers."
Slashdot Mirror
One of my colleague told me about a printer that started printing page after page of funny characters. It seems there was a virus in the network, trying to write himself on all shares - of which the printer had one.
How much is able one of those printers to do? Printers dedicated to big offices have a pretty powerful processor, lots of RAM, hard drive. Taking control of such a printer could be just as useful for a black-hat cracker as taking control of a computer there, with the bonus that printers aren't usual suspects for infections
The European Union idea - to fine up to the total profits - could be a solution to this. While I don't know how much a profit is Microsoft making in EU, the fine was much lower than that (a tenth? a third?).
However, there were companies (based in Europe) which were fined to that extent
Maybe during the discovery, they had to access some documents that are internal and private to the company (*cough* copyrighted *cough*). As such, any use of those documents outside of the court (the very reason for which they were dug up) would be illegal.
For example, a judge can request you your hand-written journal if you are prosecuted for something, and he thinks this will help to reach a correct verdict. However, the content of your journal can not be used by anybody else, even if it was made public in court.
Also, there are some things (client data by example) which a corporation is forbidden to publish
(but all of those are just some hand-waving examples)
Good thing I am not a judge, and must not decide what punishment is fit for what crime.
Lots of software written for Linux is able to be run on OpenBSD - by using the so-called ports. Also, for the same architecture, you could run the so-called "binary emulation" with near native efficiency.
...). The X Windowing system seems a standard in Unix world.
NetBSD (just the operating system) runs on tons of computer architectures. As such, having multiple architectures is certainly possible.
Games are written for all the three major consoles - and there aren't many similarities between each other.
Other things - the AMD connection from microprocessor to chipset is derivated from Alpha architecture. Inside, the Intel processors are about as much RISC as their old competitors (Alpha, MIPS). x86 - however good it is - don't have anything in the very low power arena (even the very low power Via processors can't run without a heat sink).
Having a different server architecture (while running software compatible to Intel microarchitecture) helped AMD from about 0% market share in server processors to some 20% (I think). Having Transmeta Crusoe as a competitor maybe motivated Intel to go for a low power, high performance laptop processor (the Pentium M).
Interoperability and standards... POSIX seem to work some (even Windows NT was marketed as having POSIX compliance). OpenGL works again. Binary compatibility between operating systems works too (Linux compatibility exists in OpenBSD, Sun,
Yes, that would be the best course of action - however, the essence of a monopoly is that you have little other choices.
Would this be possible? Yes, the Munich city is moving to something else than Windows (details not so important), and is converting from a couple of years, and the complete conversion will take another couple of years maybe
Welcome to Windows.
Well, this was made (I suppose) in order to accelerate the graphic operations (which will run in kernel space, not user space). Or I might be wrong, but Microsoft in known for many places where, between speed and modularity/security/... choose the former.
I remember I've read about some Microsoft employee bragging (sometime in the 1999-2000) about the way some small function, dependent on lots of things, was implemented: its code was written by hand on the stack, and the program then ran it from there. No wonder that the "run protection" for memory segments (NX for processors) didn't appeared until a couple of years ago, and was implemented no sooner than XP SP2
The right to vote can be revoked by a court (outside of any other punishment); it can be revoked automatically in some cases, as a bonus to a conviction; or it can be revoked for medical reasons.
However, the right to vote and a parking ticket you get in a foreign country have as much in common as a patent and the API for an operating system (not much).
An economic embargo of USA against China would be much less catastrophic than an economic embargo of China against USA.
Meanwhile, the World Trade Organization would probably act against this - at least with a very angry letter.
As for dirty tricks, it's fully possible to see some.
OK, Kuwait was not really invaded - the government of Kuwait (in exile at that date) requested help from United Nations (and possibly USA). The UN mandated the liberation of Kuwait, and for the moment the only US troops that might be in Kuwait are observers.
Don't know about Grenada, Vietnam is free of american troops, South Korea WANTS american troops inside.
Cuba has a small US garrison inside, in what seem to be not US soil, but more US army and CIA soil.
Some people in Iraq are happy for the US actions, some are not.
On the other side of the comparation, China invaded Tibet, and chinese army is everything there - police, occupation force, government. I don't think there are many tibetan people happy about that.
So, with all my anti-USA attitude, I think China here is having an even lower moral stance than US of A
This patent revocation business might put the spotlight on whether patents (and their current life) are so good.
A punishment must fit the crime is applied to. While the punishment applied by US Justice system might seem unfit for the wrongs of Microsoft before the verdict, revocation of patents is a totally unfit punishment for not publishing an API.
It is like taking you (assuming you are from USA) the right to vote for a parking ticket in Mexico
There are some graphic capabilities (in gdi.exe) that exist only in newer operating systems. Not using them would force one to use (supposedly slower) hand-written functions (by example, filling application areas with a gradient is not available in Windows NT, but is in Windows XP).
If those functions would really exist, but could be only interfaced to using an "internal" API, then Microsoft products could have faster "on screen" viewing compared to the competition.
I don't know, but I suppose if this is found to be true, then some of the antitrust measures could be "resurfaced". It all depends on how the verdict was formulated.
A business this big doesn't need time to change - it needs desire to change. With all its (possible) evil implications, European Union seems to give Microsoft a desire to change.
A Navy gun (the 5" variety I suppose) has around 10 MJ of launch energy. One destroyer (using a single gun) can fire about 20 rounds per minute (5 Inch/54-caliber (Mk 45) lightweight gun)
Now, one Arleigh Burke destroyer has some 75MW of shaft power (4 gas turbines). Assuming it can direct a third of this power to projectiles (considering all the losses), one ends up with enough power to launch more than one projectile a second.
Assuming the launch power (to the projectiles) is at around 10% of total engine power, one can have about the same rate of fire.
Now, where there is energy lost? Well, conversion to electricity (let's say for our purposes, conversion to electricity is as good as conversion to shaft horsepower); electricity storage; energy lost in capacitors; gun efficiency.
Let's say electricity storage (energy lost as it is stored) is of little concern. The capacitors have (if I remember) at most 50% efficiency (you must supply double the energy as compared to what you get out of them). Gun efficiency is unknown (not mentioned in the article).
So, what one ends up? For every launched ordnance, the ship must cool the electric components, for an effect equal to the launch energy. Thanks God for all the cool seawater around!
I think the "I have canceled the security risks" was modded funny.
I'm not sure I would like the "create new tab" tab of IE7 - however, it is a smart idea
I too have used Netscape 4.72, Netscape 6 and 7 (the suite), and then I moved to Firefox and Thunderbird. I haven't installed Mozilla on a single PC (and only seen it on one).
Go Firefox!
"That's poorly worded at best. Firefox has pushed all the innovation in web browsers"
What should I say? Some inovations of Firefox were present in Netscape Navigator 6 and 7. Also, Firefox (ex Firebird) was split from the Mozilla suite.
You should replace Firefox at least with Mozilla in your argument
Why did they mod you funny?
While using an antivirus and a spyware program is good (along with a firewall and so on), you should take into account that antivirus programs offer their security with delays. Between the start of an attack until the moment all the updates are on the system, usually more than a day occurs.
And you should take into account that IE has open holes (Firefox probably has some too) that can be attacked by any totally new virus
They are keeping some projects alive by pumping into them billions of dollars from the Office/Windows monopoly (XBox division didn't have a profitable quarter from their launch, I think, and Zune seems to have the same goal).
Also, consider that Microsoft is using its stack of software (if partial) to force the rest of the stack on the consumer (incompatibility with other applications, forced obsolescence)
Hmmm, I wonder if one would need to force IE7 to present itself as IE6, so it will work on some sites "optimized" for IE6.
After all these years of Netscape Navigator, Opera, Firefox, Mozilla masquerading as IE6.
Ohhh, the irony...
Or you install it, and find out that for some reason or another, it won't work with one of your sites (Sharepoint Portal, configuration site for Virtual Server, just to put two examples from Microsoft).
Also, take into account that IE7 is automatic update (from Automatic updates in Windows XP)
Plants and algaes are pretty efficient at mining carbon out of the atmosphere. However, the deforestation trends are worry me greatly
The longbows recovered from Mary Rose had a pull strength in the 90-100 pounds range. However, identical replicas made now have the pull strength in the 150+ lbs.
"Considerable practice was required to produce the swift and effective combat fire required. Skeletons of longbow archers are recognizably deformed, with enlarged left arms, and often bone spurs on left wrists, left shoulders and right fingers."