Guest #1 November 2, 2005 Well, it's finally happened: The long-awaited On-Line version of Windows has been announced. A few weeks ago I quoted an Open-Source author/analyst as saying that "Bill Gates wants to make it so that anyone who uses a computer has to pay Microsoft." (paraphrased)...that day is now not far away. "Microsoft also plans to charge monthly fees for some of the Live Office features aimed primarily at small businesses". What this means is that the online services that M$FT provides for free (such as MapPoint) will become fee-for-service, as Gates & Co attempt to do that same thing the cable television companies are doing: move their worthwhile content up into the higher range, where each and every service must be paid for via increased subscription fees. Get ready to bend over. And don't give me crap about alternatives. Until Apple switches to Intel processors next year and GETS SERIOUS about wresting market share away from Redmond, M$FT will continue to be a monopoly. Let's all hope that the guys in Cupertino don't drop the ball this time. ********** eBay Scammer Sentenced: A court in the UK has sentenced a man there to 4 years in jail for a Phishing scheme that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars from suckers. Score one for the good guys. However, if I were King, this scumbag would be frozen up to his neck in a hockey rink and run over by a Zamboni. Eventually, we'll all have crypto keys that change our online passwords every minute or so. Such devices are already in use in some areas of enterprise computing, and on-line stock market playsite e-Trade is now making such keys available to its clients. Think of it as a kind of dongle for your online banking. Dongles have been used for years to stymie bootlegging in high-end software applications, such as 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, and others. No technology is immune from countermeasures, and there's no guard against stupidity, but it'll make it a whole hell of a lot harder for those Hemorrhoid-sucking squid's pricks in Romania and other Eastern Europe dungheaps to crack, so much so that they might try alternatives, like say, earning an honest living. But I doubt it. ********* Oracle giving it away?! Well, not really. In this PC World story, the database maker has released "Oracle Light". Crippleware by any other name. The idea here is to compete against Open Source products like MySQL and others, but is ignoring the real competition. You guessed it - Microsoft. The Evil Empire's tentacles stretch far, and a lot of the advanced code and specialized functions in Microsoft's version of SQL can't be converted to any other type of database system without a line-by-line rewrite, because they simply don't exist elsewhere, at least yet. A new version of MySQL is due out soon that will have Open-Source versions of some of the advanced functions that M$FT SQL has a corner on, but in the meantime, the Evil Empire (tm) marches on (the Darth Vader March is playing in the background of this story - heh). *************** SCO Continues to Slide: Two years after filing suit against IBM over what it claimed were infringements of its intellectual property rights, SCO has STILL not proved it. If the current pace of things is any foretaste, we'll all be playing shuffleboard in Ft Lauderdale decades from now and will still be waiting for SCO to put up or shut up. It was also revealed this Summer that SCO's CSO (Chief Scam Officer) Darl McBride Knew in advance that there was no SCO-owned code in the Linux kernel, but filed suit anyway. If I were King, that schmuck would be forced to be an ejection seat test pilot. The fact is that SCO's shakedown had some initial victims, as several corporations rolled over and played dead. However, the game isn't over yet, despite IBM's dropping of its countersuit against SCO. ************** Steve "Monkey Boy" Ballmer is at it again. Yup, that wacky guy just keeps on truckin', this time with a two month-old story about a tirade involving an act of physical intimidation focused against an underling who was leaving the Evil Empire to work for Google. See also this blog. There's just no excuse for this kind of behavior, but then, Steve Ballmer isn't called "Monkey Boy" for nothing. See also this page. *********** mh ."The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EricTheRed 0 #2 November 2, 2005 Thanks, Ever think about getting your own blog, and just linking to that? From whot I've heard out of MSFT people I know, they are looking forward to AAPL moving to INTC chipsets. They are betting that all the current MACheads will end up buying Windows and running as a dual boot system. Thereby giving them nearly total market saturation illegible usually Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
livendive 8 #3 November 2, 2005 Help me out here Mark. You either used to work for Microsoft and got laid-off/fired, used to work for a company that Microsoft ran out of business, or want to work for Microsoft but can't find a way in. Which is it? Blues, Dave"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AlexCrowley 0 #4 November 2, 2005 you missed the Sony root-kit installer included on every protected CD TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest #5 November 2, 2005 QuoteThanks, Ever think about getting your own blog, and just linking to that? You know, as I was writing that stuff, the same thought occured to me. But I like a captive audience. Quote From whot I've heard out of MSFT people I know, they are looking forward to AAPL moving to INTC chipsets. They are betting that all the current MACheads will end up buying Windows and running as a dual boot system. Thereby giving them nearly total market saturation What makes them think the MacHeads will switch to The Win OS? If OSX is doing it for them, what would they gain by going dual? But you make a valid point about other things, like MS Office (which is already on Mac). If there were more Mac OS buyers as a result of the MacTel conversion, there would be more market share for the Empire. mh ."The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest #6 November 2, 2005 QuoteHelp me out here Mark. You either used to work for Microsoft and got laid-off/fired, used to work for a company that Microsoft ran out of business, or want to work for Microsoft but can't find a way in. Which is it? Blues, Dave Dave, I'll leave it to you to guess. Suffice it to say that with blogs like this one where g*d and Bill Gates can see them, I probably won't be working for them in the future. It's my understanding that some M$FT managers make deep searches of the Internet to find out if potential hires have made disparaging remarks about the company. I wouldn't want to work for people who do that, but at the same time do not have drug-testing of employees. Wonder what they'd find in Ballmer's piss? mh ."The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SudsyFist 0 #7 November 2, 2005 QuoteWonder what they'd find in Ballmer's piss? DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Amazon 7 #8 November 2, 2005 oooh oooh ohhh ( raising hand.... )I know... I know Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
