At that point in history, not giving IBM what it wanted was the same as saying “stuff it”. I was sad to hear of Gary’s suicide. I knew them slightly, as they were neighbors of one of my classmates while I was at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. They seem like nice people who weren’t put off by a group of Russian speaking spooks. He was teaching at the Naval Postgraduate School. [This may even have been before he created CP/M.] We ran into each other at micro events in San Diego years later. He was “good people”.

I had a version of CP/M-86 for the PC, that came in IBM style packaging, but I can’t remember if IBM actually sold it. It was available at the big corporate stores. It was faster than PC-DOS for WordStar and dBASE II, but then Lotus 1-2-3 came out and the PC took off.

The “good old days”?

Hey, Kryten, it’s like Robby Burns wrote in To A Mouse: sh*t happens. 😉

We once had 4 major parties, Labor, Liberals, Nationals and the Democrats. The Democrats self-imploded during *Howards Reign of Ignorance, Stupidity, Greed and Insanity* and are only a shadow now, and they side with Labor. The Nationals do what they are told by the Liberals. So we really only have two parties now.

You may recognize our new Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott (Liberals) and even be momentarily confused if you hear him speak, he sounds just like some of the most extreme GOP Bushevist Evangelist Politicians every time he opens his mouth. 🙂 He can’t utter a sentence without the word Christian, G*d, or some such in it. When Abbott won the Leadership contest from Malcolm Turnbull, it gave Rudd a breather and a stronger chance next election. Nobody in their right mind will vote for Abbott, but some would have voted for Turnbull (he’s far more moderate and sane). Rudd’s slowly falling popularity has slowed markedly simply because Abbott is now Leader of the Opposition and so there is very little choice unless Rudd goes completely off the rails (which wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened).

When I heard last year that Obama had the support of such people as Bill Frist, I gave up on Obama completely (these days, Frist appears to be a Dem more than a GOP, which is more to do with the Dem’s moving his way rather than he moving their way). 😉

Yeah… It’s an insane World. If anyone talks to me about the whole Cristian G*d vs Satan think, I’d comment that anyone with eyes would have to believe that Satan’s won and G*d has taken his marbles and gone off somewhere to try again! Of course, that’s if one believes that stuff. 😉 😈

The notion that property has its own individual rights, apart from the individual rights of its individual owners, is… bizarre. That’s all I’ll say on that. Only morons who live in cloud-cookoo land could ever claim that property should have the same rights as actual living human beings — or dishonest hacks paying back the people who put them into power, willing to make dishonest arguments in order to further the interests of their paymasters. Too much of that going around, alas.

BTW, Digital Research didn’t tell IBM to “stuff it”. They offered IBM their standard OEM deal for CP/M-86. IBM is the one who refused to accept DR’s standard OEM deal, instead demanding complete source code and the right to modify CP/M-86 to have their own custom incompatible version so that programs written to IBM’s CP/M-86 would not run on standard CP/M-86 machines. The Kildalls basically shook their heads and said it wasn’t in the best interests of consumers to have multiple incompatible versions of CP/M-86 around and refused to do it. Bill Gates, being Satan Incarnate, had no trouble at all saying “f**k consumers” and giving IBM whatever it wanted — with a few tiny-print little contractual snares here and there that ended up with IBM getting what it wanted, but not what it expected ;). Oddly enough, today it’s Microsoft saying “nyet!” to companies wanting to create custom versions of Windows.How things change!

– Badtux the Corporeal Penguin
.-= last blog ..Ah-choo! =-.

The M$-Gov incest is a product of the revolving door between government and business. IBM adopted MS-DOS after they were told to stuff it by Digital Research, and business followed IBM’s lead down the primrose path to purgatory [or Vista – YMMV]. Despite all of the standards in place, when the business clowns cycled into government, they brought the bane of M$ with them.

No one really concerned with security uses M$ software, even with encryption because it is such buggy garbage, but they have the money to buy impressive dog-and-pony shows that impress the small minds of political appointees, who view M$ as the “safe” choice for their careers.

Obama is a Republican in all but party identification, so, of course, he and Gates know each other. This administration isn’t going to do anything that is actually centrist, much less left of center, they are solidly on the right. Hell, Obama is probably to the right of Howard on most issues.

This is why I no longer identify with the Democratic Party – if I wanted to vote for a Republican, I would vote for a real Republican.

20 years ago The Dweeb had a desire. Now he has a great deal of control and influence. 🙂

Eg from Sept. ’09:

Summary: The incestuous relationship between Microsoft Corporation and the US government rears its ugly head again

Microsoft’s proximity to the government’s security bureaucrats is an issue we explored before, with obvious evidence such as Microsoft managers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [1, 2]. In general, Microsoft’s impact on current American politics is too easy to see (Obama and Silverlight, anyone?) and the back doors in Microsoft’s software [1, 2] may as well be token of that.

The following new press release is very funny. Microsoft is granted — wait for it — a “Freedom Award”.

Yes, Microsoft.

The “Freedom” company.

Who was this award given by? It’s the Office of Secretary of Defense. From the press release:

Microsoft Recognized by the Office of Secretary of Defense With Freedom Award

Joining 14 other companies from around the country, Microsoft Corp. is being honored in Washington this week by President Barack Obama and Secretary Robert Gates as a top supporter of the National Guard and Reserve. Today, the diverse set of companies, chosen from among a record 3,200 National Guard and Reserve member nominations of employers, will each receive a 2009 Employer Support Freedom Award from the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Robert Youngjohns, president of Microsoft North America, will accept the award for Microsoft during an award ceremony to be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS115227+17-Sep-2009+PRN20090917

Let us remember that Bill Gates and Obama are no strangers. In fact, Gates paid Obama and that’s just how politics work. The above “award” is something for Microsoft to brag about to clients, pretending it can deliver security. It’s like a publicity stunt that ignores reality.

To make matters worse, Microsoft now intervenes with government finances. It wants to manage the bailout money (public looting by banks), which is not particularly surprising [1, 2, 3, 4]. Here is the press release from Monday:

BNY Mellon and Microsoft Corp. Launch New Solution to State and Local Governments for Managing Stimulus Funds

BNY Mellon today announced it has executed an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to bring to market a solution for project fund administration, tracking and reporting to aid state and local governments with their requirements related to the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

There is some more coverage of this, but it all neglects to mention the irony of putting a convicted monopoly in such a position where it gets to converge with the government. Microsoft has already abused taxpayers’ money to build a bridge for itself, leading to great controversy.

Government Not Designed for Security

There are many other examples.

Now, you’ve gone and spoiled it, Kryten, you’ve mentioned unions, too.

Full disclosure, I was a member of two industrial unions, a faculty association, elected treasurer of a public employees union, and have been a member of several professional associations and guilds. Collective bargaining and a standard contract make job decisions a hell of lot easier for everyone.

When I was treasurer, I was an ex officio member of the political action committee that distributed campaign contributions, so I know how some US unions do it, and in our case, we voted after a discussion of the merits of individual candidates. I didn’t always agree with the choices, but it was a fair and open vote, so I signed the checks. In a couple of cases I had to defend the choices to the membership who were as unhappy as I was about them, but that’s democracy.

Oh, I’m sorry, Kryten, assumed knowledge. There on 535 total members of Congress, and I assume that 500 of them are either stupid or greedy. I also assume that the majority of the 35 fall into the “stay bought” camp, rather than being honest.

I don’t underestimate the desire of Gates to control things, but I question the ability. He makes too many enemies, many of them needlessly, and that is not the way to steal elections. He lacks the deft touch, because he has never needed it. He is too clever by half, and has shown too often that his word is worthless. There are some standards, even among criminals, and Gates doesn’t believe in standards other than of his own devising. The people who would go along with Gates are too stupid to be effective, and he doesn’t know who really needs to be bribed.

I believe this government cannot endure permenently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-
I do not expect the house to fall-
but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing,
or all the other.”

Excerpt from Lincoln’s famous speech, noted for the phrase “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” when accepting the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from Illinois (appropriately today) in June of 1858.

Maybe this will become a famous quote one day:

“Microsoft: it does politics… and some software too.”

😆

The Dweeb only cares about control! It’s all he’s ever wanted. M$ is simply a vehicle, a means to an end, it’s not the end itself for The Dweeb. M$ could die tomorrow, it would hardly make a dent in The Dweebs plans. He has several other ‘ways and means’ now. *shrug*

😆 I’m not worried. 😀 This is all part of an endless cycle that will be repeated until humans finally destroy ourselves. 🙂 I never *worry* about things I have no control over or little chance of influencing. 😉

The thing with M$ (and others like them) is that their products will always be *designed* to the minimum function and cost they can get away with because they know that the ignorant and stupid will buy them regardless. Corporates can afford to use the products because they can afford to pay to have them made to work by M$ (or whoever) and pass the costs on to the suckers. 🙂 M$ is only incompetent by design. 😉 I don’t underestimate The Dweeb and his family and powerful friends with vested interests in ensuring that The Dweebs plans succeed. As always… time will tell. *shrug* and as is usually the case, it will tell when it’s far too late to do anything about it. 🙂

“Way of the World^TM” 😉

There are many moronic Corporate lap-dogs that will happily parrot their propaganda for whatever they think they will gain from it (money, recognition, a pat on the head and *good boy*, whatever). Many of these parrots are the ones who cannot think for themselves. I used to pity them, now I just ignore them or use them as a reminder that I can thank the stars for people like my Grandfather that taught me how to think for myself and how the real World *actually* works.

The Unions today are mostly inconsequential. They have been sidelined by the greedy and the stupid. Ignoramuses like Duff who know as much about History as my dog are a major reason this World is in the state it’s in now. Maybe if these people had had to fight for their very existence in a couple of Wars, and then been dumped like garbage for their trouble at the end of it (assuming they survive, these types are generally too stupid to survive in my personal experience), they would have a clue and some understanding of the cost of being human.

Any intelligent human would have given up by now. But he serves to give us a chance to put things in their proper perspective for any visitors who might wander through, and who actually want to get a clue and some facts (provable facts, rather than the fiction the propaganda peddlers want everyone to believe is fact). 🙂

They want people to live in *Hope*. Because people can spend most of their lives *hoping things will get better one day*, until one day (if they are lucky), they finally realise they have wasted their lives for nothing and the greedy have taken everything and given them less and less each year. The truth of course is that the *hope peddlers* are worse than thieves. They steal peoples lives. And that is something that can never be recovered and no amount of insurance will get all that stolen time and life back. But hey… the wealthy will be more wealthy, and their ass-kissing propagandists will get another pat on the head and maybe even a bone to chew on! 😈

We had a cool banner on LM years ago that said “Don’t feed the Trolls!!” But I liked the Trolls, they served as an opportunity to educate the curious and those seeking some truth, or to learn how to separate the facts from the fiction and white noise. But perhaps more importantly these days, they serve as a source of constant amusement! And G*d knows we need something (or someone) to laugh at! 😆

Unions have restrictions imposed by the individual states on their political spending, and the political funds are not mixed with the general funds. This ruling may change that, but I doubt it, because the reasons behind the separation makes good sense to most unions, and their membership, and the rules are generally included in the union charters. We don’t actually have a Labour Party in the US, and there are unions that have voted Republican for extended periods. The AMA is a reliably Republican guild/union.

Just because you are the only one who sees any kind of threat from unions, doesn’t mean no one mentioned them.