File Formats.

Did you follow how DOCX came to be "standardized"? Specifically the scandalous way they manipulated the ISO standards process?

How about the parts of the standard that say things like "Do it like Office 9x does" without defining how that is? A "standard" that is not fully defined and which Microsoft itself has yet to fully and compliantly implement.

Then there are other things like MS coming up with their own way to define leap years which results in disagreement with the existing international standards for what and when a leap year is.

That is two of us.

DC has two good options. Number one have the statue made and donate it. Two Have the statue made and sell it to them. Both protect their trademark.

I up graded my Win7 Netbook to Linux and during the install used the netbook to view a Youtube video and post on a discussion forum. Lets see Windows do that.

So who wants a Boskonian running their company?

And there are multiple appeals at the PTO. As I recall on the FAT patent MS was finally confirmed by the PTO and the final level of appeal took place behind closed doors with only the Patent Office people and Microsoft representatives, the people opposing it were not allowed to take part or review what happened. So even the PTO level appeals can go on and on and on.

That is right. They tried to do it with Sun Microsystems Java. Where is Sun now?

They tried to do it with the Browser and Web server to get Netscape. Where is Netscape now?

They tried it with Stacker. Where is Stac Electronics now?

I know what MS is up to. they sell software and I'm their customer.

You are not and never were Microsofts customer. You are at most the customer of Microsofts customer.

We the end users were not clamoring for DRM, but we are stuck with it. If we were the customer DRM would not exist as we don't want it (especially when it bites us on the ass for being honest). We didn't clamor for a Phone UI on a desktop computer. Neither did we ask for an online store that is locked to Microsoft. So why is Microsoft shoving all this down our throats if we are the customer?

He should just name it Language.

What was the fine they had to pay in the U.S. over a patent that was found invalid? $600,000,000 or so wasn't it? That couldn't possibly have acted to slow them down and screw them up in their biggest market now could it? Not to mention the money and effort wasted there not available for actual work.

Document formats. If you change suppliers later can you use all the files you created or are they locked in to your current supplier? Also are you dictating that those you send documents use the same software to read it that you used to create it thereby as government giving a defacto monopoly to your supplier?

apply it to a suspected terrorist with a dirty bomb.

So close yet so far. The word suspected is part of the key. Remember the guy who was accused by the government of having a "dirty bomb" plot? Arrested, held for years without trial or charge and then charged with something else as there was no dirty bomb plot. Killing based on suspicion alone and without due process is unconstitutional.

The prior poster was referring to the fictional Librarian of the Unseen University in Ankh Mor-pork on the Discworld in novels written by Terry Pratchett. People don't criticize him as he tends to rip off their arms and or head.

The difference is that if you have a peanut allergy your doctor will readily diagnose it. People who have caffeine problems mostly end up finding out that they do by accident after years (or decades in my case) of misdiagnosis by doctors.