Connectix Flattens Sony… This Time, It's Legal.

alternateorg on June 30, 2000

Despite the fact that Connectix Vitrual GameStation is buggy, plays nothing like a PlayStation, and requires getting used to using the keyboard to control games, Sony has been fighting Connectix tooth and nail to get Virtual GameStation off of store shelves. And Sony is losing. They’ve lost in two hearings already, and today they “voluntarily withdrew” the case that alleges that Connectix is violating eleven copyrights.

Honestly, I’m very surprised by all this. I knew (and was right) that days after Connectix introduced this product in early 1999, Sony would be all over them like stink on a monkey. I just didn’t think that Connectix would win. Well good for them. Apparently justice does tend to prevail. Now if we could just fix that Microsoft thing any time soon.

More MS and Virus Ranting….

alternateorg on May 9, 2000

Bill Gates warns of global email armegeddon if Microsoft is split in an
upcoming TIME article as described in The Register.
“It’s simple, really, as Bill, or whoever knee-jerked the piece out so
swiftly, explains. The front line defense
against viruses is apparently a “continually evolving” computer operating
system that encourages large
numbers of software developers to write for it. But if Microsoft is split
into two, there would be less innovation
in the software, hence fewer developers, and ultimately less defence
against viruses. ” This illogic should be used to support the hastened
division of Microsoft; competition fosters innovation. The current spate of
worms and virii are a direct result of Microsofts arrogant abuse of their
monopoly; giving customers buggy software that they have no choice but to
buy. If our only defense against global meltdown is to rely on the good
intentions of one corporation then we really have a problem.

Splitting the big Apple

alternateorg on April 20, 2000

While announcing $1.94 BILLION in earnings from this quarter, Apple also announced a 2-for-1 stock split effective June 21 for shareholders on record by May 19.

Meanwhile, Microsoft anticipates a different kind of split. 🙂

Awesome.

[update] Correction: $1.94 billion in revenues, according to an article on TheStreet.com.

Engineers are smart…

alternateorg on April 14, 2000

Aparently the crack programming staff at Microsoft embedded some “renegade” code into an unnamed 3-year-old server software that allows you access to the admin stuff on the server. Their “we didn’t do it on purpose” defense went out the window when a comment was found in the midst of the rebel code that reads, “Netscape engineers are weenies!”

No, I’m not making this up.

[updated by trk]

… in some software [the passphrase] could be used to
gain illicit access to hundreds of thousands of Internet sites worldwide,
according to reports.

It goes on to say that it works through FrontPage Extensions!

YeeeHaw… what a bunch of name calling children.

Wait a minute…

alternateorg on April 10, 2000

Do you mean to tell me that Microsoft DOESN’T adhere to STANDARDS put together by someone else? Wow.

This press release by The Web Standards Project states that MS is a bad, bad boy. Whaddayaknow.

Apparently, IE5.5 for Winblows is simply ignoring W3C standards and adhering to its own set of “innovated” technologies.

But Bill Gates told me just yesterday on the telly that the best is yet to come! These W3C people must not know what they’re talking about.

Microsoft finally gets a well deserved smack.

alternateorg on April 4, 2000

So if anyone was totally asleep at the wheel yesterday, Microsoft was found guilty of everything we know they already do. Now they will be streching out this verdict over the next few years through appeals. Anyone else bummed about how long this is taking besides me??


Oh yeah… thanks to the stock market, the companies overall value droped 15% last night. I think it’s wonderful Apple is kicking the shit out of everthing on the stock markets.

Microsoft to get bitch slapped…

alternateorg on April 3, 2000

Today Microsoft failed to come up with an acceptable settlement in its landmark case against the DOJ and because of that the judge is going to be offering up his own verdict by 5PM (EST) today… I personally think he is going to lay down the law and slap MS with some hefty shit… which will probably only help to encourage Microsofts appeals.

MS writes…. a good… software…. program? Whatthe…?

alternateorg on March 30, 2000

Okay. So Hotline provided me with Internet Explorer 5b1 long before it was released to the general Mac-using webpublic. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t surprised with the final release. From what I can tell so far this MS product is actually a worthwhile download. Just a few of its high and low points:
Good:
1. At only around 8MB is size, it’s even possible for the average 56k modem user to download within a reasonable time.
2. It seems that that pesky memory leak in the beta versions has mercifully vanished.
3. The fact that the Address Autocomplete is finally up to par with what Windows users have had for ages (and it’s even translucent! Wow! Just like Windows 2000 menus! Where do you suppose they got that idea?
4. That page holder is nifty for the intranet I use every day but don’t want as my start page.
5. The interface is all Aquafied and lined like an iMac. It’s actually a pretty good looking browser. You can even change the color. I don’t know why you would, though, because….
6. It autoselects its color to reflect the color of the computer it’s installed on… (I’ve only seen it automatically be blue on a blue and white G3 and graphite on a G4… If it can select the interface color to match the iMac it’s installed on, that would be interesting).
7. Again something Windows users have had: you can now have folders of links on your toolbar now, not just links. This is actually really handy… assuming you spend your time organizing your bookmarks.. which would, let’s face it, be more than a little pathetic.
8. For all you Flash developers out there, it seems that IE5 now FINALLY understands Javascript passed from within a .swf file. You have no idea how long I spent trying (and failing) to get standard popup windows to work in IE4.5.

Bad:
1. While it has a tighter rendering engine than any other Mac browser, I have had some problems with it selectively ignoring top and left margin=0 commands in my body tag. You hit reload, and it obeys, reload again, and it’s back to faulty code rendering.. not something I’m too happy about.
2. It has a fondness for ignoring the bold tag… That’s not too cool either.

That’s about it. Only a couple problems.. (although it’s taken my system down a couple of times… might be an extension thing.. I’m still figuring that out. And I’ve had a few suspicious Error Type 11 failures with not IE, but other applications that NEVEr crash. Like SimpleText.). Those problem are pretty annoying, though. We’ll see if MS can get a patch out relatively quickly (ha!).

Microsoft gets it right?

alternateorg on March 26, 2000

I’ve been using the beta version of the new Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 for Macintosh over the last few months and I have been extremely satisfied with its performance and stability. I think for once it might be possible that the folks over at Microsoft are actually thinking straight… or maybe they are just scared of the competition and its keeping them on their toes. Anyhow, I think the things people want in a browser are a decent looking customizable interface, fast rendering times, a small file size, a free download, and fairly standard HTML rendering. I think it might just be available for download right here a day before its actual announced release.

[ tell me how wrong I am in the forum ]