Re: The American Dream

Quirk wrote:

Les Cargill wrote:

Quirk wrote:

Les Cargill wrote:
Interesting, I'd like to see you demonstrate accessing the "information
superhighway" byway of a Cisco router, without employing a desktop
computer.


I do it daily. 


Great! There is a senior citizens center nextdoor, I would love to
instruct them in the use of the "information super highway" without a
Desktop computer, primarily they would be interested in email (easy to
use and spam filtered, of course), online shoping and banking, travel
sites and viewing pictures and videos on various Baby and Wedding Blogs
put up members of their families. Do you have some step-by-step
instructions I could share with them on how they might do this without
a Desktop computer? Or are you just taking nonsense?


The lack of a monitor is going to be a serious limitation
for 'em. I work on Internet Protocol enabled embedded
products that lack a graphics capability. They generally
support ping, ftp, a few other protocols.

They also usually cost 100 times what a desktop would.

I suppose they could make do with ASCII art... there are
drivers, these days...

I have to protest that you're efforts may result in depriving
the elderly of one of the few truly great pleasures in life -
complaining about progress.



And not all desktops run Doze. 


You should have read a line two further:


And please don't tell me you do not have to run Windows on your desktop
computer. I know, I am a long-time Linux user, developer, and advocate,
the fact is that millions of computers had the Windows Rent included in
their purchace price wether or not they actually ran Windows of because
of the structure of the licencing deals Microsoft had with the PC
Manufacturers.


So don't buy from those vendors. It's not like
computers aren't ridiculously cheap, anyway.



Irrelevent, Bill Gates still recieved money every time one was sold by
one of venders with "preloading agreements" wether or not they actually
ran Windows. And, for over a decade, it was virtually impossible to buy
a PC that didn't have the Windows Rent built into it's cost, especially
if you needed an enterprise level volume retailer.



And that was hugely irrelevant prior to Linux. You're calling it
"Windows Rent" when it's trivially circumvented.

Bill Gates was able to arrange contracts with computer vendors.
What a concept!

> 
I write programs which run on Windows (among
other O/S-ii ) all the time that use no Microsoft tools
at all.



By writing tools for Windows, you still increase the Rent Micros~1 is
able to collect, wether or not you use their tools.


These are tools for computers, which in this case happen
to be Windows. I don't care if they increase
anybody's Evil Empire; I just wann'em to work.



Bill Gates's Bank account is an account of one of the biggest market
failures in history.


It could easily have been Gary Kildall. 


What I've read indicates he'd have rather flown his
airplane.



Yeah, I've been hearing (and telling) that story for years too,
according to Wikipedia some say it's a myth, but they don't offer any
real proof of that, so I'm sticking to it ;)


Real pioneers get arrows in their backs. It's the
carpetbaggers after that clean up. Why should computers
be any different from, say, TV?

The market "wants" a defacto standard, and some
hegemonist will give it to 'em.



Very good evidence exactly why M$ earned the bucks. They
saw it - no wonder; Gates' mom being on the board and all.



Interesting! I've always heard she was their legal council, not on the
board, where did you here that?


Hmmm.... probably Cringely. Actually, I heard it first around 1984 from a professor .

In anycase, there you have it, securing Rent collecting from a position
of privilege. Pretty typical.



This example is pretty much why I remain skeptical. I think
rent it actually a tradeoff. It happened with Sarnoff/RCA,
Edison, Gates, Bell, Stanford....

It's pretty simple to extend R&D rent being "payment"
for innovation to land rent being payment for ducal
protection or pioneering. That the payment is out of
proportion is another matter - such is our tradition.

In a perfect world, it would not be necessary. However....


Ballmer: "We had to protect the langauge ( interpeters
& compilers ) business. "



Indeed, "protect" says it all.


Naw. The IBM/DOS deal fell in their lap, while
Kildall apprently hid.

Rent-seekers don't "compete" they "protect."


Indeed; Bill Gates greatest "innovation" is his
letter to Byte asserting IP rights over M$ code.

Cheers.

--
Les Cargill
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: reuse Windows XP w/SP2
    ... Windows XP on it. ... CD on my desktop computer? ... You don't install XP2 by "running many separate little .exe files from Microsoft". ... Download Windows Service Pack 2 Standalone Version ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Synchronization problems
    ... Were you logged in as a local Administrator account when you performed the ... > I have reinstalled my computer - I have installed Windows Server 2003> instead of previous Windows XP. ... Restart this desktop computer and synchronize> again. ... > If the problem persists and this desktop computer is running Microsoft> Outlook 2000, open Outlook 2000, click Help, and then click Detect and> Repair. ...
    (microsoft.public.pocketpc.activesync)
  • Re: need help choosing appropriate BSD distro
    ... if she needed to use my laptop if the desktop computer were broken. ... To get away form Windows on the laptop, I might have to give up on ... Note that setting up remote X, while not particularly difficult, is not ...
    (comp.unix.bsd.openbsd.misc)
  • Problem copying long filenames to another Windows computer
    ... I can map a drive letter on my Windows XP laptop to the C$ drive on my Win ... 2000 desktop computer. ... I can drag files across computers using Windows Explorer. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Cannot export registry file
    ... I have a desktop computer with the following software. ... Windows XP Home Edition ... 2- Click on Registry/Export Registry File (or in WindowsXP click ... (Registry Editor) ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)