Jesse Ezell Blog
<i>.NET and Other Interesting Stuff</i> <div id="ad"><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-1219444915196145"; /* 468x60, created 1/25/10 */ google_ad_slot = "1898962835"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </div>
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Why is Windows Priced So Low
I found this article quite interesting:
“At the time of the Justice Department's landmark antitrust case against Microsoft, the software maker was selling its Windows operating system to computer manufacturers for an extremely low price given the company's dominance in the market.
At the same time, it was charging significantly more for its Microsoft Office application suite. Given that both products had comparable market shares, why did Microsoft charge only about $60 for Windows--its "base" product--instead of the $1,800 that many estimate it could have demanded, and why did it choose to price Office--the "complementary" good--at nearly four times as much?
The question was key during the trial for understanding Microsoft's competitive position. Never answered to the satisfaction of many observers, the query launched Brian Viard, assistant professor of strategic management at Stanford, and Nicholas Economides, professor of economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and executive director of the Net Institute, to look for an answer. ” [1]
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Great Opensource Photo Shop Alternative
GIMP 2.0 is about to be released. You can download a windows installer here. I've been using GIMP for ages now and I have to say it is very cool. I see little reason to spend $700 per dev on a copy of Photoshop for misc. icon editing / image conversion, etc. GIMP beats the hell out of Paint for that type of thing (it can actually do just about everything Photoshop can) and the zero dollar price tag sure is nice.
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Java Guys Can't Beat VS.NET
I was listening to a panel discussion entitled “The Future of J2EE Panel, from TheServerSide Java Symposium 2003“ over on www.theserverside.com in which some big Java players (guys from Sun and BEA for example) were discussing the state of the industry and where they saw J2EE heading. What I found extremely suprising was the universal acceptance of defeat versus VS.NET. The belief across the board was that there is no way any J2EE tool vender could ever provide the same quality in their development environments that Microsoft has provided with VS.NET.
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Toward a Generic XML Content Indexing System
While building our CMS, one of the challenges we faced was indexing XML content. The content input into the CMS can be in any arbitrary XML format, such as:
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Miguel (Mono Fame) On MS and Sun Patent Issues
Responding to concerns raised by Havoc's article, Miguel posts on the Ximian forums (emphasis mine):
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The Linux Mucky Mucks are Crapping Their Pants
Rick Kitts points to this amazing article by Havoc Pennington (a big GNOME hot shot who works for Red Hat). Looks like a lot of issues are finally starting to rear their ugly heads, and it has a lot of people worried. Rick's summary:
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.NET Weblogs Archive Goes Mobile!
When working away from my internet connection, or sitting around in the airport somwhere, one of the things I miss most is my daily blog dose. I got tired of having to miss out on all the action when I am away (or having to pay $15 just to log on to the wireless network at the airport just to read some blog posts while I am waiting for my flight), so last night I whipped up a mobile edition of the .NET weblogs archive. Add this baby to the favorites on your cell and you can get your daily blog dose from anywhere:
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Should MS Include the Longhorn SDK with the OS?
Lorie Pearce wants to know if Microsoft should include the massive Longhorn SDK with the OS. My answer: “Forget bundling it. This is Longhorn. Make a freakin smart client app.” Seriously, why the hell would I want 2 GB of docs that will soon be out of date and whose search capabilities blow. Who even uses search on the current SDK docs? About all I use is F1 if I want to look up method docs real quick, but the vast majority of the time I use Google for answers.
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Fixing Microsoft's Bugs: Url Rewriting
Yet another day, yet another ASP.NET flaw to work around. If you've ever attempted url rewriting with the .NET framework, two things will quickly become apparent:
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Whidbey Slips, Falls, and Breaks a Hip
Great post from Christian Romney: