So, Steve Ballmer has been quoted as saying that "We (Microsoft) have been denied our basic human rights," in regards to the decision. Basic Human Rights? What planet is this guy from? Let me have an hour with this yutz in a small, dimly-lit room with water on the floor, plus some linseed oil, dental floss, and a basket of mice, and I'll show him about being denied your "basic human rights".

nobody should feel sorry for microsoft, metallica, netscape, whatever. they are not victims, despite what their lawyer's rhetoric tells you. they have more than you and i will ever, ever have and they owe it all to the consumers so they need to just step the fuck back.

the break up of microsoft will have a negative effect on consumers. this is a corporate sham perpetuated by netscape, sun, etc. the only ones who will benefit from the break up of microsoft are the competitors of microsoft. this is not the purpose of the anti-trust laws. the anti-trust laws are to protect the consumers. we are the consumers. this will hurt every one of us who uses a computer. barring those of us who steal software. not that anyone here does. of course. that would be wrong.

everything's gonna be just fine. at least as fine as it's ever been. probably better. maybe not. i'm sure i'm too stupid to be affected by any of the repercussions. as long as it doesn't affect alt.binaries.cd.image.highspeed and alt.binaries.warez.ibm-pc.os i could care less.

all the sherman anti-trust act/microsoft blather any p&c wanker could ever want

I see where Bill Gates wonders whether his testimony before Judge Jackson would have helped Microsoft's cause. Judging from his unresponsive testimony in the depositions, and even from his unresponsiveness the other night with Ted Koppel, he need not wonder. Judges get real pissed with witnesses like him. At least he can afford counsel who were able to temporarily convince him to stay off the stand and not to make their job any tougher. There's nothing wrong with being a successful monopolist, but there's a ton wrong with being a predatory monopolist. We seem to lose sight of the fact the Microsoft has been found guilty of some egregious predatory practices. If Gates were truly concerned with innovation, he would have never engaged in such practices in the first place. Microsoft has done plenty of innovation but who's kidding who, they intended and succeeded in destroying innovation by other firms.

I'm with Nate. I'm also pissed. Just 'cause Netscape is a big baby...For some sick reason, I like the OS. I think breaking it up is silly. Why don't we go break up all the other little monopolies we've got going too, hmm...?

yeah, why not? i could care less. but then again, i'm not holding an assload of over-valued tech stocks. my point is, don't waste energy worrying about any of them. they couldn't give a 2 lb. shit about you.

fuck you all. bill is my hero. and microsoft, if split, will just be a pair of monopolies.

the judge should have forced microsoft to make win2000 open source. the expression on bill's face would've been classic.

Nice idea, Swine...all this aside, I think it should stay the way it is. Yes, it chokes out competition. That's what capitalism is about! I mean, truly...it is. Don't try to claim that if you made something better and cheaper than that of your opponent, and more people bought it, that you wouldn't be happy.

bill's perfectly ok in my book, too. i bet linus could kick his monkey ass up and down the block. at least until ballmer showed up. that's what really matters. did i mention i could care less?

Nate, you're usually so lucid. Microsoft crows about wanting to have the freedom to innovate while blithely taking that freedom from the rest of the industry. I worked for Microsoft from late 94 to late 95 when they were just noticing the internet. Their plan was literally to control the entire thing. They planned on first flooding the browser market, then taking over the server market. That way they could dictate the communication protocol. (Imagine NetBUI over ine entire internet. The horror!) Would you want one company, especially one with such a totalitarian reputation, controlling the entire internet? As for the Microsoft split creating two monopolies, that may be true. However, if either of them are predatory, you can bet your ass that there'll be more trials. The problem with the existing trial is that the punishment has to fit the crime: the leveraging of Microsoft's OS monopoly into another market. To prevent that from happening the OS division must be split off from the apps. More action can be taken later when necessary.

You don't see them splitting up Coca Cola. But I personally (love using those two words together!), believe unless they split Microsoft...one day Bill's going to be looking for Microsoft to have it's own seat in the UN. Besides, Bill is too much of a geek to know how to really have a good time with all that money. Or maybe he isn't...we don't speak much anymore.

since when does coca cola have a monopoly? I prefer pepsi. Specifically, american pepsi because it's less airy.

"Bill is too much of a geek to know how to really have a good time with all that money. " jesus, his house has a fucking TRAMBAMPOLINE room. the man knows what to do with his money. antigone: your eyes are red, you been smoking linux or something? i personally don't think microsoft could ever take over the internet. but beyond that, the whole split issue is kind of moot. the apps part of microsoft is where it's at. the browser not the OS is the next big thing. browsers on smart phones. i'm mostly pissed because the government has started mucking around with things it doesn't understand. crashing NASDAQ, fucking with innovation. yes, i believe in innovation. only when you are a giant company secure from competition that you can fund "blue sky" research. if AT&T was never a monopoly, would we have gotten UNIX? C? C++?

Gee, travel to atlanta and try and find a pepsi....i am not saying they have a monopoly.....but they are a little scary with the level of influence....The Big Red Empire see how many schools get money from them but are forced to sell coke at the games and have machines in the cafeteria...public schools mind you.....coke could be considered worse than the tobacco companies as far as youth/marketing/customer-for-life manipulation goes. Coke sponsored a school....the senior class was assembled on the football field in cock er Coke shirts, and formed a giant human "Coke" sign....one student wore a pepsi shirt. He was expelled....get it? grandpa did retire from coke and i was glad to get those season passes to six flags......every summer

True. Maybe the DOJ should hire us as consultants or something. "the big red empire..." that's cute. I've been calling it Cock since high school. Actually, I don't really like soda, so it's not a big issue for me. I don't see tea manufacturers holding monopolies.

most of the public universities in california are monopolized by pepsi. i recall a lot of clubs at cal poly were pissed off because over the summer there was a little hush hush deal with pepsico and then suddenly these clubs were not allowed to maintain their coke vending machines. which happens to be a good source for revenue for a club on campus.

Microsoft can't take over the internet...now. Five years ago, I wouldn't have been so certain. And ya can't have apps without an OS... Although it would be nice if the OS was commodotized. That's what Java tried (and is still trying) to do.

is java still worth learning? i can teach myself java in 21 days but what the hell am i gonna DO with it. if i knew that, i'd be elsewhere, doing other things.

There was an investigation here into Coca Cola's marketing practices. They owned slices of fast food companies, which of course were forced to serve only Coke. But then Pepsi went ahead and bought out a few food chains themselves. When a company has a monopoly, do they necessarily spend "blue sky" money on research? I'm thinking of IBM here and the way they missed the whole personal computer revolution because they were too busy holding onto their virtual monopoly on mainframes. Bill Gates has always maintained that there's some kid working in a garage right now on something that will blow Microsoft away in 10 years. What's my point? I don't know, feeling very indecisive today.

the future is nanotech and wetware. and flying cars. and 3-eyed little green people. big fucking deal. ya got linux, macOS, beOS. let's say microsoft went tits up tomorrow: shit would still get done and it would give entrepreneurs something interesting to work with. 'cos, let's face it. b2b is so fucking boring. I so completely do not know what the fuck i'm trying to say here on a friday night in olympia wa usa. wtf? ftw.

What can you DO? Java skils are in demand these days. (I've quadrupled my income in the last two years... And in a year it'll probably double again!) If you're already a programmer you can probably teach yourself the language basics in 21 days... Concentrate on server side stuff: servlets, RMI, and enterprise Java beans. That's where most of the demand is now. If you need any help, feel free to e-mail me.

i suppose if i got hired, somebody would tell me what to type? i have a creativity quotient of 0 poor, poor, pitiful me.

I just got a job at one of those big internet companies in seattle. I'm moving up there in a week. it will be my first grownup job in america. I'm really happy just a little and relieved and terrified. I'm afraid I'll giving up the dream that I'll ever do anything interesting my whole life. but at least I'll have this grownup job.

I can recommend a great tattoo artist up there. And I have another friend whom you should either stay away from or seek out, but I can't decide which. I guess this means I shouldn't try to hook up with you when I'm in Portland, huh? I wanted to see how tall you were. I could give a shit about how you look otherwise.

i'm looking to do the same thing. maybe with the same company. even though i already have a more or less grown up job, the compensation sucks and i just don't care in any way about the product. it's a big, global, old-school corporation that's trying to be "with it" but just can't seem to pull it off. they did just give me 100 shares of stock. when i vest, i'll be $2,500 richer. maybe i should stick around for that.

hey, agatha, are dave and I going to be coworkers? you should still tell me when you're going to be in portland, semillama, even if you're only interested in seeing what a freak I am. I'll be spending some weekends here this summer, I'm sure. I found out about the job yesterday. I'm moving up there on thursday. for so long nothing was happening, and now everything is happening very, very fast. it didn't even occur to me to ask for a signing bonus. but they offered me one. they're paying for all my moving expenses. they're going to put me up in a downtown apartment for a month or so -- until I can find my own place to live. stock options for way more shares than I had imagined. work that I know I'll love. work I'm uniquely qualified to do. and I really liked all the people I interviewed with. my future coworkers. I'm going to be working with lots of smart, interesting, literate people my own age. after my interviews some cute guy chatted me up in the elevator. this, this is what it's going to be like if I get the job, I thought. I can find an appropriate boyfriend. I can get married to some smart, nice guy who has a good job, and we can spend way too much on a house, and we can lead our complacent little seattle lives and maybe raise some healthy little children who will ride really expensive bicycles and get super cute haircuts and maybe have a nanny with a nose ring and a social conscience. I mean, christ, now I'm paying my own fucking health insurance. part of my job is making spreadsheets. now this. I never want to open another excel file again. way more money, of course. (but also more hours.) flexible schedule. credibility. I won't be ashamed to tell people what I do to earn my paycheck. last night I got to celebrate my not having to take a pre-employment drug test. that was very fun. I'll live in the same city as the man I'm obsessed with. that, of course, had nothing to do with my applying for the job. same city as rich guy. as kitty rama. I have never, ever had a grownup job before. I mean, yeah, I was pretty grownup in kiev, but I was paid in wads of $20 bills. this is legit. it's not like I'm going to be rich or anything. I'm not a programmer. but it's a real job! this week I grow up. it's been such a ridiculously long time in coming. I'm settling. I'm rushing into the endless grind (move to another state in five days, sure, I can do that!). my life is over. at least it was pretty fun. I did some neat things. now I'm doing the appropriate thing. I've made my parents very proud and happy. next up, family and house. can't fucking wait.

You don't sound utterly delighted about this...

I was going to have a really hard time if they rejected me, so this is good. I just can't help feeling like a sellout, even though I'm not about to get a bunch of money and I wasn't going to do anything worthwhile anyway. woo-hoo, real life, grownupdom, respectability, adulthood, salary, benefits. it is a really good thing. I'm just weary and wary. it's a really good job and I'm lucky to have gotten it and they're lucky to have me. it's so good that I won't be able to say hey, this sucks, and save up for a couple months and quit and run off to go live in central america or eastern europe or somewhere. that is the scary thing. that it is good. it needed to happen and it did. I always have mixed feelings about everything.

dave is not applying there, cyst. he is going for the software side of things.

Cyst,way to go,I am so proud of you,I hope you were kidding about having kids though.I had a very wierd day revolving around my dysfunctional family and I have to sort this out before I post about it.I hope your mom appreciates you. Dave,I,m proud of you too.

What's the company? Maybe I'll apply and move out to Portland.

Oops. Seattle. Actually I have a friend up there.

For some reason Antigone,I thought you were from England.You have a friend? Just kidding:)

oh shit! i probably made the worst mistake of my life a few hours ago, but fuck it. just the idea of you and dave working side by side makes it all OK. cuz when the mob breaks through my front door and puts that bullet in the back of my head, at least i'll die laughing.

Toop! Toopie toooo!

we aren't working side by side. sorry.

i'm not dead yet, either. sorry.

I be in PDX from the 30th to the 4th.

swine, are you beating up mobsters again? i'm actually applying to tech support. totally unglamorous but it's a foot in the door and it'll look good on a resume. the downside is that i'll have a hellatious commute and my take home will stay about the same but there are other perks. i don't know why i even bring this up since i haven't been called back. forget i said anything.

thanks, momma j.

I hate that time between when you apply and when you hear back. I was excited about sending in my resume, but I pretty much wrote the company off during the three weeks it took to get a call. but then the interviews went so well (I had FUN), I got my hopes up, but I still didn't know if I should tell anyone. it's nice to talk about how you might be getting a new job, but it's not so much fun to then have to spread the news that you got rejected. I'm actually really happy about getting this job. I'm going to be a copy editor again. I love correcting other people's errors. it's the perfect job for me.

Ya, dave, tech support is unglamorous, but it's a great way to start. If done properly it can really hone your logical problem solving skills. But when you get to the point where you can recite the solutions to the 20 problems that consume 99% of your calls, it's time to leave. If you have all of the screens memorized and you can walk a customer through the software without ever turning on your own machine, then it's REALLY time to leave. At that point you're ready to become a software tester...

I'm a software tester. I applied to be a support person, and they decided they wanted me to test instead. What's that say?

Either you're good or they're desperate. Or both.

i prefer tech support to development.

Well, Dave, if you and the family are willing to relocate I'd be willing to get your foot in the door where I work, Agatha's too. Unfortunately, the pay is for shit. But there're benefits. The people with children have a nanny. They co-pay on the nannies (there're two now), but they're going to have a daycare like setup when we move into the new building.

i could probably get you a job too. the pay would be better, and we'd force feed the world of fuck until you could do the job of 10 men.

i have a friend inside whispering in the recruiter's ears. he tells me there is a backlog in recruiting and that the position really hasn't opened up yet, but it will soon. i honestly don't know why anybody would need tech support for this product. it's a real no-brainer. especially if that somebody were a network admin but i guess that title doesn't mean so much anymore with all the cert boot camps out there. i actually look forward to delving into the *nix side of things. i'm getting kind of bored with windows even though that's where all the killer apps are. i really need to stop talking about this. it's bad juju. thanks for the offers. nate, if i'm doing the job of 10 men i want the pay of at least 20 men. margret, what's the quality of life like there. better than phoenix? it's times like this that i regret being such a shiftless, partying fuck-up in my younger days because now that i have a pretty damn good idea what i want to be doing when i grow up, there aren't enough hours in the day, days in the year, to really study/play with this stuff, run on sentence. not after all the other responsibilities are attended to. kids, listen to your elders. (except for the ones who tried to grope you.) they're right about pretty much everything.

last night I had a sort of going-away party. I invited whoever could come over on half a day's notice, six bottles of wine and a half-rack of henry's. we sat among my moving boxes and talked and drank and ate pizza and listened to music. we talked about my new job. my guests' jobs: 1. associate lawyer at litigation firm 2. new law school grad about to take a state job defending children against their parents 3. film shop worker 4. non-programmer but some ok little salary job at internet startup 5. psychology doctorate student, soon to be a counselor 6. plant nursery worker 7. newsstand cashier 8. secretary 9. autocad geek 10. homeless shelter worker I really started to understand the divisions that come between people as they get older. it's been sort of awkward telling my friends about my new job. not that it's that lucrative, but still, it's a good job. my friends who work in service-industry or clerical jobs have repeatedly said the word "yuppie" to me. jesus. one of my oldest friends started making me feel very defensive. she's an admin at a dentist's office. she kept telling me what a flake I am, how I'm always hopping around from job to job. how I'm always looking for something better, never content with what I'm doing. I told her that that's totally normal now. that companies don't expect to see resumes with five years at each job. that a lot of companies weren't even around five years ago. anyway, yesterday she told me that I had hurt her feelings because everything I told her that was good about my new job was everything that her job isn't. it's weird that I have no problem being the lowest-paid person in a group of people. I am totally used to that. I don't resent my millionaire friends at all, as long as they don't expect us to go to morton's for dinner (unless they're paying). but now that I'm going to be making a little bit more than a lot of my other friends, suddenly everything is out of whack. it kind of sucks.

ahhh. the burden of wealth. i will miss all those shut-off notices and overdraft fees. farewell, moldy toyota fx. et cetera.

Take some fear of being left behind, mix it up with a bit of self doubt, stir in a whole shitload of jealousy and you have what your friend is going through. You won't change because your bank balance does...though your taste in shoes might.