I do regret flaming like a troll. I post so rarely on Slashdot these days that I lost that discipline that made me stop and slow down and think a bit before I post. I do feel the same, however, but I should be able to give a more reasoned response now that I am calmed down.

What you give as your thesis, I see as simply the party line. Microsoft knows that it cannot erase or change the indelible history of its past, so they have gone off on a different tangent. That strategy is to try to say that they are no worse than anybody else, and pointing fingers at everybody around them. Then the next step, as you have taken, is to say, well gee, in comparison, Microsoft isn't so bad, then finally, turn it all around and say hey, Microsoft is really one of the good guys.

I see this repeated in comments all over the internet. It is called "establishing a meme." I am not saying you personally are a shill, but I am suggesting you have bought into this propaganda, perhaps without even realizing it. Hence my question "What cool aid are you drinking?".

Your original comment asks "Which is worse, anti-competitive behavior or driving around capturing everyone's network traffic...?" I would respond with a resounding: Anticompetitive behaviour! What Google did was inadvertent and they did nothing with the data they collected. In the end, it did no harm. Come on now, if people leave their routers unsecured, they are broadcasting their data to the world. I think every router on the market encourages the user to set up a secure connection, and people ignore that. They obviously are not too concerned about it.

Anticompetitive behaviour, however, is much more sinister, because by definition, it hurts the competitors. To this day we don't have a bustling market in Linux netbooks, and it appears we will not have Android netbooks either because of Microsoft's anticompetitive behaviour. Ever since this propaganda began to be distributed about the "new, kinder, gentler, more open Microsoft", there have been incidents from time to time that completely negated any such statements. Why do I get riled up about this? After all, it is a tough world out there, with many big multinationals playing hard ball all the time. What upsets me, however, is that Microsoft is still a monopoly. They still control some 94% of the desktop market, and that is a very frightening thought. No matter how much Microsoft and their supporters cast dispersions at Google, for me that only serves to contrast the behaviour between the two companies. Google really tries to "do no Evil" whereas Microsoft really tries to do evil. They can't help it - it is in their DNA.

Now I have gone to a lot of effort here to give a reasoned reply, because you spoke reasonably with me. However, I most likely will not discuss this further with you. I see so many comments like yours on Slashdot and on the Internet at large everyday, it is really hard for me to believe that I am really even speaking to a individual like myself, as opposed to some automated bot working out of Microsoft psy-ops bunker. Besides, nobody will likely ever see this comment anyhow, so what is the point?

Finally I would like to apologize to Slashdot staff for shooting my mouth off at them. I believe them to be a group dedicated to providing the very best forum for technical discussion on the web, and over the years have seen every evidence of their caring about the participants on their site. However, I am at loss to explain how what I refer to as the "Microsoft shills" came to dominate this site over the past couple of years, when this site had such a solid history of a place where a guy could go whenever he wanted to take a good bashing at Microsoft. I think they were pressured by Microsoft to allow their shills to operate unhindered. "Nice forum you have here - it would be a pity if someone broke it." I used to enjoy participating on this site immensely for many years, but when I see these kinds comments I get too upset. I still drop in regularly to read the FAs, but do my best to avoid reading the comments, because invariably, there will be a hundred all spouting the latest party line by Microsoft. For me, it was the greatest site on the internet there for several years, and I will never forget the richness of my experience here. However, after this I will try harder than ever to avoid reading the comments. I don't particulary enjoring spouting off half-cocked like I did yesterday. Good night.

Yes actually, Microsoft are actually one of the good guys these days.

What kind of cool aid have you been drinking? Note to Slashdot staff - this kind of comment is exactly why I haven't posted on Slashdot for the past year. There has been no change in Microsoft's behaviour whatsoever. They are the same old evil company they always were, only now, they have shills posting this kind of nauseating drivel on Slashdot every day, and that is why I don't post here any more. Slashdot has been bought out by the Vole. Now watch my karma evaporate in 1, 2, 3...

Perhaps this is why we have never seen any Neptunians?

A Space Shuttle analogy - I like that. Sure beats a car analogy. Slashdot has entered the Space Age with its analogies now.

I recall said contract's second amendment* said something about selling the copyrights to SCO if they could show a reason that they would need them during the course of administering the UNIX license program.

It said nothing of the sort. What it did say was...

All copyrights and trademarks ... required for SCO to exercise its rights with respect to the acquisition of UNIX and UnixWare technologies.

with respect to the acquisition of UNIX and UnixWare technologies... These technologies were acquired a long time ago, and this amendment is dead.

Wouldn't it be simpler just to use a different browser? geez - they could have pointed that out in the FA. I was about to add a comment to that effect there - then I saw, written above the comment box "Sponsored by Microsoft". I guess that's why they didn't recommend trying a different browser...

Flash supports DRM out of the box, and Silverlight has several features that make it better than Flash. Even its open-source implementation [mono-project.com] is better.

I develop in Flash Builder with Eclipse using AS3, and I can testify that is a very powerful tool set. Try creating a Photoshop replacement like Aviary's Phoenix and related tools that runs in your browser of choice or a full featured audio editor RIA with your platform. You won't find anything today that can touch these applications in Silverlight. [Disclosure - I worked on Myna].

I followed your link to take a look at Silverlight 3. As far as DRM goes, the site you link to states "Silverlight DRM, Powered by PlayReady Content Protection enables protected in-browser experiences using AES encryption or Windows Media DRM." I must admit though that Silverlight 3 is starting to look like a very capable platform. I am not going to dispute that with you. Obviously, if it is not there yet it will soon be, because it can leverage the world of Net development. However, I would ask why anyone would want to support Silverlight, which represents Microsoft's ambition to extend its dominance on the desktop to the internet. Haven't we all had quite enough of this company? They are not good corporate citizens. Being more like a mafia than a corporation, Microsoft has maintained a strangle hold on the market for many years, impeding a healthy ecosystem from flourishing. It is because of the Monoculture that the internet has become a murky virus infested swamp where vast botnets flourish. Why would you want to promote this company? Recently, I have returned to Java for a new project. Java is very powerful and very fast for the thing like audio and image processing, and I would like to see it continue to evolve. Promoting open standards via HTML 5 and future versions that would allow us to create rich internet applications with non-proprietary tools should be our goal.

Out of curiosity, I tried your experiment, though I don't think I followed your instructions exactly. I installed the latest VLC and allowed it to have all the file extensions that would normally belong to Windows Media Player. Then I inserted a DVD, and up popped a window with two options - "Play with VLC", or "Play with Windows Media Player" - in that order. I chose Play with VLC, and VLC played it. At no point did Windows Media Player ever pop up. Now this was on Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit version.

I had an experience many years ago that made me never trust Windows Media Player ever since. This was way back in the days before Lame and FFMPG when everybody used the Fraunhoffer mp3 codec. It shipped with many different things, and once it was installed by some software you bought, that codec remained available to you for the use of other software ever after. Then for a time, you could buy the codec pretty cheap directly from the Fraunhoffer site for a couple of dollars. I think then everybody was using this codec, perhaps without even knowing it. It was ubiquitous. Then one fine day Microsoft bought the rights to that codec from Fraunhoffer, and created a special version that would only run under the control of Microsoft software. Now shortly after, when you got an automatic update for the Windows Media Player version that installed and used their new Fraunhoffer mp3 codec, it would uninstall your codec. Next time you went to run some software that depended on that, it simply would no longer be able to decode mp3. If you had an installer for your old Fraunhoffer codec, you could simply reinstall it, but every new update for the Windows Media Player would uninstall it again. There was no technical reason or justification for Windows Media Player needing to uninstall that codec. It was simply a grab by Microsoft to try to gain control over mp3. I don't know why they never got sanctioned or sued over that. They certainly had no business uninstalling a user's personal software. However, they never did succeed in gaining control over mp3.

It's easy to forget, but around five or so years ago there used to be a *very* fanboyish and indulgent attitude towards Google on Slashdot. That's very much changed now...

Google is a truly innovative company that have done great things for open source and standards, not to mention how useful they are becoming at keeping Microsoft in check. Their Android operating system and the upcoming Chrome OS will transform the landscape. Between Google and Apple, Microsoft is backed into a corner. Now with Symbian gone open source as the last straw, we may see Microsoft withdraw from the mobile market by year's end. I have not seen any change in attitudes towards Google. What I have seen is a concerted campaign by Microsoft shills on Slashdot and elsewhere to demonize Google. Microsoft has realized that it simply cannot keep up with Google in terms of innovation, since they are not innovators. Their search bling is only growing via buying clients. Their browser is dying. The only way Microsoft knows how to compete is via under-handed attacks on the competition.

I get: "Your browser fingerprint appears to be unique among the 17,127 tested so far." Gee - sure glad they don't know my URL. Anyhow - that was using Chrome. Then tried the same test in Chrome's incognito mode, and the number of identifying bits went down by a whole point, to 1 in 9000 or so.

Even in a stationary state, Spirit continues scientific research...

The biggest experiment it is going to do now is seeing how fast it will die when the martian winter arrives without the northerly tilt it needs to fully illuminate its solar panels.

Collapsing bubbles are very powerful...

Bubble fusion, also known as sonofusion, is the non-technical name for a nuclear fusion reaction hypothesized to occur during a high-pressure version of sonoluminescence, an extreme form of acoustic cavitation. Officially, this reaction is termed acoustic inertial confinement fusion since the inertia of the collapsing bubble wall confines the energy, causing an extreme rise in temperature. The high temperatures that sonoluminescence can produce raise the possibility that it might be a means to achieve thermonuclear fusion.

No wonder the air is expelled at supersonic speeds.

I've heard that PDFs were used

What a droll thing to say! Would you mind sharing with us where exactly you heard that? The FA just ruled Adobe out on this occasion. What is your motivation for pointing the finger at Adobe? The FA says IE is to blame. Somehow you know more than Google about this? Your conclusion, "Keeping Acrobat Reader fully patched and keeping your users alert and well-trained would probably stop a lot of it, but not all." completely misses the point. The problem was IE. I would like to know what idiot modded you insightful. The most obvious conclusion we could draw is to stay away from IE - at least until it is fixed.