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Message started by NovaZyg on 06/06/07 at 08:32:29

Title: Microsoft
Post by NovaZyg on 06/06/07 at 08:32:29

Now this is cool!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid932579976/bclid932553050/bctid933742930

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by gtladmin on 06/07/07 at 09:11:38

yeah, it's totally awesome. If I had $5-10K to drop on a computer, I'd go for it.. 8-)

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by GasGiant on 06/08/07 at 05:15:42

Hmmm... perhaps I'll write a program for it that reads the bar codes on your food as you lay it on the surface. The program would tell you how hideous your food choices are and which disease is going to get you (cancer, heart attack, stroke) then make suggestions for improving your diet. If nothing else it will keep people from putting their Coke and Twinkees on your expensive computer screen :P

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by gtladmin on 06/11/07 at 13:51:40

Hey man, whatever it takes. Actually I read the article about Jeff Han on the FastCompany website (http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/112/open_features-canttouchthis.html). Nice how M$ sucks up all the credit in that earlier video as if it's THEIR technology. The article, though long, is pretty good, with several other links to the technology (http://multi-touchscreen.com). It is really super cool technology.

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by kkmfg on 06/12/07 at 04:56:01

Yes, MS has a tendency to buy up technologies and then hawk them like they thought up of it. It's not surprising, their first really big break was DOS. Which, of course, was a straight rip off of CP/M. Then there is the large string of "Microsoft" games that they didn't write. Also, they purchased the initial Visual Basic from someone else. All in all, it's good though because they can't make anything right themselves so it's good when they purchase things from others. And it's good (usually) for the other companies involved because it gives their product much more exposure than it would have gotten before thus they found the second step:

1. Make a killer app
2. ???
3. Profit!

;-)

gtladmin wrote:

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by GasGiant on 06/12/07 at 05:13:43

kkmfg wrote:

I believe DOS was already written, but IBM (in yet another classic blunder) didn't want to do software. MS just took over an operating system core and ran with it. With MS it has never been about having the best software. If you read their history you'll see that the key is always having the best contract negotiation skills.

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by kkmfg on 06/12/07 at 09:26:51

Yeah, it was already written... And it was called CP/M. They bought the rights to the source code and then modified from there. MS, as you said, has always been about screwing over every else in contract negotiations and underhanded deals. They've rarely ever had the best software.

That having been said, IBM could have crushed MS at many points in history and hasn't... That is probably their biggest mistake.

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by gtladmin on 06/12/07 at 09:29:09

Quote:

With MS it has never been about having the best software. If you read their history you'll see that the key is always having the best contract negotiation skills.

Oh so true....... ::)

Val

Title: Re: Microsoft
Post by GasGiant on 06/12/07 at 09:58:20

kkmfg wrote:

Yeah, it was already written... And it was called CP/M. They bought the rights to the source code and then modified from there.

MS didn't even port it, they took it over after it was ported for use with the IBM 8086/88 processor by the maker of the 8086 board. The original clone of C/PM was QDOS. I don't think Digital Research (DR, the C/PM people) got anything out of the deal, either. MS took over QDOS, from which was born both MS-DOS and PC-DOS (the IBM version). DR did a much better job of converting C/PM later and called that DR-DOS. There were a number of legal hassles between MS and DR, and MS came out on top, even though DR-DOS was the better operating system.

Okay, enough strolling down memory lane. Sorry for the detour.