Stop Microsoft

All Things Microsoft => Microsoft as a Company => Topic started by: jtpenrod on 5 February 2002, 02:34

Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: jtpenrod on 5 February 2002, 02:34
You've got to see this to believe it: web page (http://www.vnunet.com/News/1128920/)
 
quote:
The BBC is to ban all staff from using handheld devices if they are not running Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 operating system, amid fears for the security of its data


Then, again, what can you expect? These people also drive on the wrong side of the road.  :D    :D    :D    :D    :D    :D    :D    :D
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Calum on 5 February 2002, 13:25
What, the BBC drive on the wrong side of the road? how come there's not more accidents then?
 
quote:
The BBC has described its decision to outlaw all other personal digital assistants (PDAs) as "purely preventative", and denies that it has experienced security problems with devices in the past.
It claims that uncontrolled PDAs are putting the organisation at risk of virus attacks and infringement of its data.

This is pretty odd, how can viruses spread more easily, if all the pocket computers are running different OSs? You'd think it would be much easier to attack a system that was all running the same thing... Here comes the funny bit though:
 
quote:
Simon Moores, chairman of the Windows NT Forum, has mixed views. "I'm in favour of the consistency, I'm in favour of the security policy," he said, "but I'm not sure I grasp why they're committing to Pocket PC.
"If you're going to have one [a PDA] it doesn't make any difference [in terms of security] because you're still synchronising with Outlook. In fact, I'm not sure that Palm wouldn't be more secure because it is hacked less."

Nuff said...
It'll all blow over.
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Calum on 27 March 2002, 18:08
interestingly enough, i have just come across this article (http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/1176/1/) which implies that the BBC use linux for many workstations.  
quote:
Damion Yates said:
My team is responsible for the support of the BBC's Unix systems, used for serving web pages, realmedia and now this new digital text service.  We all use Linux at home when on  call at night (to some degree) to support this. I personally have FreeBSD, Solaris-x86 and Linux, but rarely leave Linux....

....Never in a million years had we expected the actual author of the C driver code for the operating system we were using to reply back with such great detail so promptly. I don't think you could _EVER_ get support like that from anywhere else.  Due to  it being Open source, I'd already been able to vastly surpass any possibility, had it been any other vendor OS, of examining the situation myself.

he sounds like a smart cookie, i bet he avoids road accidents!   :D

[ March 27, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Centurian on 27 March 2002, 19:27
Hey,

 
quote:
Originally posted by jtpenrod:
You've got to see this to believe it: web page (http://www.vnunet.com/News/1128920/)
 

Then, again, what can you expect? These people also drive on the wrong side of the road.   :D      :D      :D      :D      :D      :D      :D      :D  


There is a certain amount of logic to this. An organization can easily write protective software  for 1 OS but it becomes much more difficult to support a variety of different OS's.

Why they chose MS as the "software of choice"?

Maybe it is easier to write software for MS.

Maybe there were ulterior motives.

We can make all the assumptions we want but who really knows?
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Gooseberry Clock on 27 March 2002, 23:12
The BBC are the Microsoft of the UK.
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: psyjax on 27 March 2002, 23:13
quote:
Originally posted by Gooseberry Clock:
The BBC are the Microsoft of the UK.


Perhapse the AOL/Time/warner
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Calum on 28 March 2002, 15:27
oh piffle, they're not even a commercial company!
get rid of them and there's only private stations left (which pander to the advertisers by only televising lowest common denominator type shows)!

(actually i think that's how it is in the good old capitalist us of a, isn't it? do you guys have nationally funded broadcasting there?)
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: iancom on 29 March 2002, 05:09
I have to agree with Calum there. The BBC do produce some of the best television available in the UK. Being completely free from having to provide airspace attractive to advertisers they are able to show a good mix of popular television and also programmes of some actual merit - even during prime viewing hours.

Having said that, Channel Four also do a sterling job of programming some excellent television even though they do have commercial sponsors to suck up to. They even make their own (almost invariably excellent) films.

Compare these to the channels that wholly rely on advertising and you get:

Channel 5 - nauseating game shows of no intellectual merit whatsoever and made-for-tv films (eeek!).

Sky One - Star Trek, Buffy and the Simpsons? All the time? Hardly varied... sometimes entertaining but not really worth much.

Of course there are more, but they're mostly terrible.

There are some issues at the moment with the BBC trying to muscle in on markets that are not really part of its remit as a broadcasting entity - educacation markets for example. I think the press in this case has been a little alarmist. They are not using any really unfair means (with the possible exception of advertising such services on their own channels to the exclusion of all others) to do this, and they do still provide those services at a level unrivalled by most other commercial companies.

Oh yeah, and... we don't drive on the wrong side of the road, we drive on a DIFFERENT side of the road. Or sometimes the middle if we want. That's when we're not drinking Martini's on the banks of the Thames, of course.
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: jtpenrod on 29 March 2002, 07:56
quote:
(actually i think that's how it is in the good old capitalist us of a, isn't it? do you guys have nationally funded broadcasting there?)

We have the PBS, and it gets the lion's share of its really high quality programming from the BBC  ;)  
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Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Calum on 1 April 2002, 15:37
re: driving on the wrong side of the road, historically the Brits drive on the correct side of the road.
As i heard it, the Brits invented the driving on one side of the road instead of the other concept, so the side that they chose to drive on first, is the correct side, that being the left side. Other former Brit empire countries such as Australuia and India also drive on the correct side of the road.
I suspect that the left/right thing would have come into being due to some import/export political thing between the Brits and somebody else, possibly the US, but equally conceivably the French or the Germans.

That driving on the left side thing is about the only thing i agree with the British empire about.
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Brent on 1 April 2002, 22:14
We have a satirical political party here in Canada that says one of the first things they will do is change driving from the right side of the road to the left.
Trucks and busses first, cars 6 months later....
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Master of Reality on 1 April 2002, 22:23
quote:
Originally posted by average user:
We have a satirical political party here in Canada that says one of the first things they will do is change driving from the right side of the road to the left.
Trucks and busses first, cars 6 months later....


what party would that be?
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Brent on 1 April 2002, 22:50
Rhinocoris (spelling) party.. You must have heard of them.. They were planning a major ski resort in saskatchewan also.
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Gooseberry Clock on 1 April 2002, 22:54
quote:
Originally posted by IanC:
a lot of things
You forgot two things:That's my 2p.
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Calum on 2 April 2002, 14:28
clock, here's two pence, go and put a down payment on a life.

as for that party in Canada!
i reckon that if a country already drives on one side, what's the point in changing?!?!?  :confused:
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: foobar on 2 April 2002, 23:03
quote:
Originally posted by Gooseberry Clock:
The BBC are the Microsoft of the UK.



  :confused:
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: Calum on 3 April 2002, 02:16
foobar, he's just shite stirring. i think he thinks that any publicity is good publicity. he thinks we will all get curious and go and use his bulleting board and visit his site so he can sell high price adverts thereon to Microsoft and similar companies whom he loves...
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: grif_mcrenolds on 8 April 2002, 21:21
quote:
Originally posted by jtpenrod:

We have the PBS, and it gets the lion's share of its really high quality programming from the BBC   ;)


That's because ALL of the good stuff comes from BBC.  PBS shows all of the great British comedies like Blackadder, Mr. Bean, and Red Dwarf.  but all of PBS's original stuff is either retarded baby shows or communist documentaries about "save the earth" and all that bullshit.  In America, the good stuff either comes from BBC, FOX, ABC, or NBC.  But not CBS - they're for undead.  And damn ABC for canceling Clerks!
Title: How About THIS?(!)
Post by: foobar on 8 April 2002, 15:19
aha calum, it's an enlightment for me.

thank you.