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Comment Well, it's NOT that great (Score 3, Interesting) 113

I was a software engineer at one of the 16-bit microcomputer companies that licensed DOS 1, 2 and 3 before and contemporary to the IBM PC, so I've seen the (assembler) source for DOS. It was impenetrable rubbish, even then, mostly due to the different groups using different sets of macros to "streamline" their work (MASM, you know!). Turned out the easiest way to figure out what it was trying to do was to run the output through a disassembler and crossref back to the source so you could see what all those stupid macros were actually doing. The different ways DOS could be configured were also a nightmare (we used to load COMMAND.COM in high memory for example, instead of just above the DOS core like everyone else). On the plus side, letting everybody finally see all the undocumented stuff like the "inDos" flag in its original incarnation would be fun.

Comment Re:"shake like a polaroid" ? (Score 1) 195

Well, the funny thing is, I owned a "Swinger" as a boy (turn the knob, it says "yes", take the shot, count it down, zip it off) and I guess I did wave the pix around to dry them. But when Ed Land came out with the fold up unit in the early seventies that spit out the card -- well, that's what polaroid meant to me -- so I didn't even think about shaking.

Comment The Song Remains The Same (Score 1) 67

I used to work at VeriSign and Balogh would regularly make all kinds of meaningless corporate noises that were impossible to parse. But somehow he is considered one of the best CTOs out there -- go figure.

This Yahoo fiction is a bit better, but the notion that there is a coherent platform there that can be "opened" is laughable. Balogh is just spinning a pleasant new fantasy to slot him up for a nice position of money and power when Microsoft owns the store.

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