E-Dribble

Thanks to the guys at the linux forum(note: I wouldn’t consider visiting linuxforums.org without adblock and noscript), I bring you the latest dipshit patent maneuver by Microft: Microsoft patents sudo.

I won’t bother regurgitating any of the links to prior art.  You can find hundreds of them over at the Groklaw site.  I just wanted to post for the people who don’t understand why it’s becoming increasingly hard to take Microsoft seriously as a software “developer”.

They came into existence riding on the coattails of other people’s work.  Over the years, you would have thought they could have hired enough competent developers to come up with something of their own to stand on.  It seems though that they are still trying their damnedest to keep and gain users by simply absorbing intellectual property they can buy and shutting down those they can’t through lawsuits.

I guess we’re supposed to be surprised.

I tend to get giddy when stories ridiculing various targets of opportunity overlap.  In a story that might leave me smiling for weeks, Techdirt has regaled us with the potential fantasticalness  of both “The Cloud” and Microsoft.

Microsoft bought out Danger, the maker of the Sidekick phone.  One of the phone’s main selling features was that your data was stored on remote servers.  I know, how fucking handy is that, right?

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If there was any part of your being, no matter how small, that thought the techs at BestBuy had any knowledge concerning computers, this should snuff that out.

Microsoft partnered with BestBuy to create a tutorial/exam designed to show the techs why Microsoft Windows 7 was a superior choice to linux.

I shit you not when I say that it’s a fantastic read.  The original post lost it’s images, but I’ve linked to a mirror, so hopefully you will get to witness exam in all it’s bullshit.

Steve Ballmer has always reminded me of that quintessential loudmouthed and obnoxious asshole that seemed to always be sitting on a successful person’s coattails.  The more obvious it becomes that he’s not a necessary part of the money making equation, the louder and more obnoxious he becomes.

Well, he’s still at it. For some reason, known only to God, Micrsoft feels he’s best suited to deal with public relations.

During the interview, he ridiculed Google for having two operating systems to market:

“I don’t know if Google can’t make up their mind or what the problem is over there…The last time I checked, you don’t need two client operating systems.”

Umm.  Yeah.

Because Microsoft never…

Umm.

Brainlessdipshitsaywhat?

I get it though.  He’s poking fun at Google because they’re coming in behind the curve, a little late to the game.  They’re not the innovators.  They can’t stand on their own two feet.

Not like Microsoft, that innovate and come up with fresh and hip new ideas.

I just read an incredibly interesting article on Gadgetell, titled “Microsoft Office comes to Linux – MS begrudgingly bends”.

The implications are huge!

Well, if it weren’t really about Office becoming web based, allowing anything with a popular browser to use it, it would be big news.  When you know what’s actually happening here, it seems they might have stretched the artistic license a little too thin.

As Demetri Martin has stated before, “sort of” is an innocuous filler with a few very important exceptions:

“You’re going to live…. sort of”
“It’s a boy…. sort of”

Microsoft is adding the following:

“We won’t sue open source developers that use C#…. sort of”

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Well, it seems some are curious as to whether the EU’s actions against Microsoft are relevant any longer, concerning the disassociation of IE with their operating system.

Which is kind of funny, because I was saying the same thing three years ago when other browser vendors started crying like little bitches about the unfair advantage.

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A /. user was testing the new Microsoft filter system.  Upon initial use and with the filter set to the lowest setting, the filter blocked Google.  Disabling the filter brought the Goog back.

The nerds are currently deciding via /.’s commenting system if it was intentional or not.  They’ll let you know what they decide.

As time passes, I grow as weary of Google’s tactics as I am of Microsoft.  I use both daily, so I can hardly say that I feel strongly enough to be rid of them, but I sometimes hate to think of my role in this as an enabler.

Just not quite enough to go without my OS and Google Maps.

Because they’re the leaders in standards compliance, they want to help you develop your web pages for those other browsers.  You know,  the ones that don’t render web pages correctly.

The guys in Redmond released the information on their latest web dev app: the Expression Web SuperPreview.  Before I go any further, I want to say that they should fire the 4 year old that names their applications.  I don’t care if they have to create a compensation package including “Wet Ones” and a transition day-care package, there has to be limits to how uninspired a name can be.

It’s truly comical that the company whose name web developers the world over curse while coding HTML is the very entity to help you view how poorly their browsers render code alongside browsers that render it correctly.

The next thing you know, they’ll be unveiling an open source code repository.

A while back, Steve Ballmer began telling everyone, most notably his corporate clients, that you will rue the day that you didn’t install Vista if you want Windows 7.  It’s just like the “rinse and repeat” portion of the instructions on your shampoo bottle.  They know that Vista was a stillborn, but still can’t help themselves from trying to sell some licenses.

Let’s move on though.  They have been assuring consumers that they needn’t worry about the hardware requirements for 7.  If your computer can run Vista, then you can run 7.

Umm, yeah.  About that.

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