posted 10-02- 12:01 PM               

An interesting question on contemporary priorities:

Two men, both billionaires.

One develops relatively cheap software and gives millions of dollars to
charity.

The other sponsors terrorism.

posted 10-02- 01:42 PM               

I could buy a new vid card for that, a 40 gig hard drive, an athlon 1.4 gig.

As for why they act like they do.

Keeping businesses in check is their job.

And they needed a real good reason to go full force after OBL, something that would get the rest of the world ralleyed around them.

posted 10-02- 01:53 PM            

"One develops relatively cheap software"

posted 10-02- 08:07 PM               

I'll pay anyone here $500 (!!!) if they can come with some software as good as Win2k.

Let's see here, I know of at least one company that made well over $1M profit last year using Win2k (and its wonderful IIS web server)... was it worth the $200 investment?

posted 10-02- 08:17 PM               

They are going after microsoft.

The goverment thought they were doing something wrong and investigated it.

Would you rather they not follow up on stuff?

As long as a company is making money leave it alone?

Jesus.

Who cares about justice, we're making money.

posted 10-02- 08:37 PM               

Healthy business, wealth, and high standard of living are like a healthy natural habitat. It is a miracle, like the miracle of life in the oasis that is earth... stranded in a sea of lifelessness that is the universe. No one knows how this miracle came to be, but it is here, and we enjoy its fruits in our quality of life and our freedom. In other parts of the world it has gone, and it may never come back, like a rain forest claimed by the dry hot dead desert.

Go ahead and keep making it harder for business to succeed... we are in a recession now, this could become depression - and worse. Like burning the rainforest.

You have no idea how delicate business is... even MS. In fact MS is on its death bed now. They are moving to subscription based software licensing because there is no bottom line in the future for them. MS has created TOO GOOD of a product, and so no one needs to upgrade now... they are running out of revenue.

I know, because I make these decisions... and I do not upgrade anymore - the current stuff just works great and does what it needs to do - and is DIRT cheap, why upgrade?

I will not upgrade in the future... and if MS goes to subscription, I will go to their competitor if times come when I need some new functionality.

When companies start going down, and business conglomerates again... and then even these big inefficient globs are put under government control... then America will gasp its last breath of the good life... and we too will learn to enjoy the bleak outlook that the majority of our world shares today. Cold, dark, and cynical.

posted 10-02- 09:12 PM            

ROFLMAO!!!

posted 10-02- 10:33 PM            

Why is a person a tree hugging liberal for wanting to see a company get punished that has been found guilty of breaking the law?

There are a lot of big conglomerates that are not being targeted by the states and DOJ. Nobody is asking for them to be broken up.

posted 10-02- 11:14 PM               

Microsoft did nothing (maybe a little bitty something if you push it) wrong... adn their punishment is to be destroyed (well it was the goal of the intended punishment)

Kinda like giving you the electric chair for a speeding ticket.

All MS did wrong was not be liked by the public, and their poor victim-crying so-called competitors. They were an easy target, not a bad company.

You might just as well take BMW to task on not allowing a Ford engine option... how dare Ford only push Ford engines? What a fucking monopoly.

And if a healthy honest private business based economy is so easy for you to create, maybe you can help out Rusia, I hear they are having a bit of a hard go at it - and even Japan is wandering around a little dazed. And if we get as bad as them, they they will be a thousand times worse off.

For every "over" successful business you point a finger at, there are hundreds of failed attempts with tons and tons of money lost and tossed back into the system. People work decades of their life and fail completely only to try again. And ONLY because the pay-off of success is worth the huge effort and risk.

I guess you have to have tried and failed to ever really appreciate this... all the blood sweat and tears - and honest hope to change the world and make it a better place. So what if your vision of a better world includes slightyl better customer service or a new gadget that lets you communicate easier, or heaven forbid something as petty as a new game or something. All these little things add up to the make up the wonderful world we are blessed to live in.

Why give it up for a false dream of complete personal equity? No such thing could be possible, nor should be possible. Total equity requires total loss of freedom.

The taliban has much more equity among their people, all they have is their religion. They are very close to the "imagine" song, all they have left to give up is religion... they should be the happiest most fufilled people in the world. And yet they lie awake at night jealous of everything we have and everything we stand for. Jealousy is their only motive... people hate - more than anything - to shun certain pleasures and freedoms in life only to see happy people flaunt those things and not seem to suffer any consequence.

Well one attack was not enough, unfortunatly - but after the next attack, then they will feel the full power of our resolve. Then people will remember what freedom is and relize that we have so much - and they will remember. They will remember that America DOES have a culture, we ARE a people, we are the SAME person as George Washington who attacked the English on Christmas day. This was a terrible thing to do, but we did it becuase we wanted to win.

So we are yankee bastards, yes we are! We can and will fight HARDER than any bastard terrorist... those who want to preserve life also triumph over those who do not value their own life, for ours is a mighty defence and theirs is a thin offence.

posted 10-02- 11:48 PM               

Even before the latest attacks bin Laden was charged with the 1st WTC bombings, the African embassy bombings and the USS Cole attack. And you get worked up and can only comment on MS breaking some anti-trust laws. How many people did MS kill? Like the post says, where are your priorities?

posted 10-03- 10:33 AM            

Their recent pricing changes require large organizations to upgrade every 2 years, or lose thier discount pricing and pay full retail price. This has resulted in effective price increases of 50%-90% for average large companies.

With all the large companies using newer versions, small companies will be forced to upgrade as well to maintain compatibility. This trickles down to the home users. I'm still using Word97 (because so far I can), although I intalled Office2000 recently because of compatibility problems with a client.

posted 10-03- 01:53 PM               

"Imagine" evisions a world with "nothing to kill or die for... and no religion too." The Taliban, on the other hand, wants nothing but religion and they are willing to kill and die for it. "Imagine" envisions a future where "the world will be as one". The Taliban, on the other hand, wants the Muslim world to be separate from the rest of the world. It wants all non-Islamic people and culture to be completely extricated from the Middle East. I'm not a big fan of Lennon, but it seems to me that the world envisioned in "Imagine" is the exact opposite of what Islamic extremists like the Taliban want.

posted 10-03- 02:35 PM               

I see the taliban wanting the world as one, all muslim extreamists with everyone else dead. Then there would be nothing to kill or die for.

The big parelell I see is that the imagine song demands that there be nothing... and the taliban alows nothing but religious study. If you consider the imagine doctrine as a religion - a way of being, then there is nothing but religion as well. Although the imagine song also bans religion...

I think Lennon is cool and stuff, but the imagine song has always made me sick. I's sure he did not mean the same thing by it that I get from it... guess that's art for ya.

posted 10-03- 03:10 PM               

Like MS aurgued, where is the damage? What competitor is being hurt?

It's like saying that Burger King has a monopoly on the Whopper, and it is putting MacDonald's out of business, it is JUST like that - it is THAT insane.

The Whopper belongs to Buger King, and MacDonalds is doing just fine thank you very much.

posted 10-03- 05:05 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sv:
Like MS aurgued, where is the damage? What competitor is being hurt?

---

Seen any Geos operating systems around lately????

However, I am in agreement that breaking up MS was too severe an action to attempt. Once they go to subscription OS they will be dumped by almost any company doing industrial controls.

Boss: "Why are we shut down, losing $30 Mil a day and being fined $50K a day?"

Worker: "Accounting forgot to pay the subscription to $Soft...."

The numbers I quoted are valid for some of our customers.... (The fine comes because they must report their emissions to the local air district, but if the PC is down, it can't happen....)

posted 10-03- 05:27 PM            

For someone that thinks he has a good business sense, you aren't very bright.

Ford makes engines, for Ford, BMW makes engines for BMW....Where is your monopoly? There is no ONE engine supplier. That is a very stupid argument.

HOWEVER.....

If company A makes 90% of ALL the engines the car comapanies put in their cars and says 'If you offer any other engine but mine, I will raise the price of the engine.' So the car companies are being strong armed by the engine monopoly knowing that if they piss the engine monopoly off, they will have to pay more for the engine, thus losing profits or having to raise the price of the car to maintian profit ration. Either way they lose. So does the little guy that is trying to sell his engine.

THAT is harmful to business, not your silly Ford/BMW comparison.

I suggest you actually read your business books instead of placing them on the bookshelf so your visiting company will think you are some kind of business guru. Cause, if you really do think some of the shit you type, then you really are in serious trouble.

You should read the findings of facts in the MS/DOJ case that were UPHELD by a conservative appeals court. Then dream up some new poems and dreams of Bill Gates and the evil Taliban.

Either way, Bill's days are numbered. They have a monopoly and still can't make enough money. Their subscription service will eventually drive big customers away. Average Joes will either pay the ridiculous cost of a bloated OS, pirate it off of the internet, or learn what

chown -R danw wns /your/mom

means.

posted 10-03- 09:59 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jerry:
Why is this conversation so hell bent on discussing the evilness of MS and not the evilness of bin Laden? Everyone wants to discuss why the govt. went after MS but no one wants to discuss why we didn't do more about bin Laden/terrorism?

Could it be that bin Laden was running wild on Clinton's watch and you liberals don't want to face the truth? Or is it that in your world being rich and successful is the greater evil and needs to be stamped out while terrorism, as long it only kills a few hundred at a time, can be overlooked?

---

posted 10-04- 03:41 PM               

As a matter of fact Clinton did at least make
an attempt. He fired a rocket at him and he
had Pakastani hit men trained to go after
bin ladin. They lost track of him before they
got a chance to wax the bastard.