They are here! M$ and a new trick!

[mikeymike]

Yup M$ is at it again. From now on companies that make camera's have to pay M$ 25 dollar cents for each sold camera. The payment is for the FAT filesystem. Also the creators of memory cards have to pay. And you have some others products that use it and will be next up.

I thought it was hilarious, the article I read about it, where a supplier (who would be affected by the change) was saying it was a really good idea.  I wonder if MS waived the charge for him in exchange for his public comment.

It reminds me of a story I heard about the old days of IBM and mainframes, where they used to charge depending on how many CPU cycles were used by the customer.  Damn that would be expensive on Windows :-)

Another funny thing is that on the subject of the memory sticks - Sony have never shown any problem with ignoring a set standard if it isn't to their advantage.  They'll just create their own and carry on.  Who sells the most memory sticks?  Hmm, gee, let me think.  Sony's behaviour is obviously semi good and bad, but hey, if it screws MS I'm a fan.  :-)

[mikeymike]

MS-DOS compatible but with an incompatible filesystem? :roll:

Yes, think about it, there are wider-reaching implications in this.  Think operating system support.

[mikeymike]

1) The slip in the launch date for Longhorn is causing the Windows group trouble meeting internal profit quotas - this will easily solve that.

I reckon Longhorn will get shelved.  I think the featureset MS wanted to release with it is going to get broken down over a number of releases, as it has done with MS and "next gen OS's" for a long time.

[mikeymike]

I've just remembered that all PC BIOS chips use FAT to read the boot disk... this really is a bad bad thing...

It's not that bad.  For us anyway.  That'll get subsidised before our step in the food chain.

I'm more worried about operating system development.

[mikeymike]

Hmm, Microsoft and Phoenix... this trusted computer platform was brought to you by the letters D, R and M

I was thinking that as well.  Microsoft "expanding their relationship with a company" usually means "expanding that company's hole for fun, profit and The Microsoft Way".

[mikeymike]

So, does anyone know how long patents last then?

Does it matter after the whole Mickey Mouse trademark/copyright?

[mikeymike]

Hmm, okay, but it doesn't affect the Amiga much, because most users would already have CrossDOS or similar. Having said that, it would make things a teensy bit inconvenient for new users.

If a filesystem converter was written... a util that detects the FATxx filesystem, doesn't let the user read it, just ask if it wants to be converted to (whatever), including all the data.

Just a thought.

[mikeymike]

Pentium VI? Can I borrow your time machine?

LOL, I didn't even think of that (version jump).  I just ignored whoever said it originally because I was thinking that no successor to the P4 has been announced in any shape or form yet :-)

I wonder if AMD had continued primarily calling their CPUs K7, K8, etc, rather than Athlon..., whether Intel would have done what Netscape did in terms of version skipping.

[mikeymike]

must be a bob or two worth chasing M$ for !!

Would you still like Amiga/compatibles if their respective makers sunk as low as MS tactics?

[mikeymike]

Couldn't it be that longhorn is a bit resource-hungry

Since when has that stopped MS releasing new operating systems? (semiserious)

Intel has a few problems to deal with their P5 incarnation of the processor? Heat problems for instance? It is reported that the P5 already consumes about a 135 Watts while not significantly outperforming a top-notch P4. Which means that power consumption will be enormous when higher clockings ar reached.

The Prescott core (what a great name) hasn't been dubbed the P5 yet.  I don't think a CPU delay would affect MS in any way.  There's already the AMD64 which works, is currently available and MS have allegedly been writing a 64-bit version of XP.  You may be confusing the Intel heat stories between their Itanium processor range and the Prescott core.

Intel have said something amusing about 100W heat dissipation being perfectly acceptable, kind of reminds me of "640K should be enough for anyone" :-)  I think the feedback they received after that 100W comment forced them to rethink.  People don't like their PCs sounding like vacuum cleaners.

[mikeymike]

Ok, with assistance of dictionary here:

Obsolete: not in use any more, having been replaced by something newer and better or more fashionable.

Further computer-centric example:
As far as the average user is concerned, the 486 is obsolete.  You can't run anything remotely modern on it, you can't upgrade it, nobody (average users) uses them anymore.  Nothing is being written for it anymore.

Obsolescent: Becoming obsolete.

Further computer-centric example:
I think it's safe to say everything previous to the Pentium III is obsolescent.  Difficult to upgrade, but still possible, and usable by average modern computer standards.  New apps can still run on them.