Microsoft Has No Future

Look at this email Bill Gates sent in January 2003.

More than 5 years later, I still have these kinds of problems nearly daily at work. If the richest man in the world (who also runs the company that makes all of this garbage) can't get it to work right, what chance do normal people have?

Switch to Linux. Switch to Mac. Switch to Haiku or ReactOS (in a couple of years.) Just don't use Windows.

Just think about it: Vista sucks so bad that people want to continue using XP. XP sucks so bad I'd rather use just about anything else.

Five years after Bill sent that email, Windows just sucks more than ever.

Angry Atheists

Greta Christina has written a great post on her blog entitled "Atheists and Anger" with a good survey of the reasons why she (and many other atheists) are "so angry" and why that anger is justified.

I'm not going to add anything, other than: ditto.

You need to vote for Ron Paul!

Don't know who Ron Paul is? Check out this video: Ron Paul: A New Hope. Then take the time to look at his campaign site.

Quite simply, you need to vote for Ron Paul because he's a man of principle. He not only believes in our constitution and the ideals and principles which made America great but has spent a lifetime defending that constitution and living up to those ideals.

For that reason, I can say that Ron Paul is a true patriot and a model American. He is a standard which the American people should measure themselves against. In that way he demonstrates the most vital attribute of a leader.

Over the course of the 20th century America has forgotten its principles and betrayed its ideals. Now, the first decade of the 21st century finds us: invading sovereign nations without just cause; torturing POWs; imprisoning the largest percentage of our citizens of any first world nation; transforming our economy into one based entirely on debt; and trading our essential liberties for false safety, amongst many other shameful acts.

The year is 2007. This was supposed to be "The Future". Today, we find ourselves at the turning point. Next year's election may very well be our last chance to save our country, our beacon of hope on the hill, from ruin.

Please vote for Ron Paul. Vote for America. Vote for your children and grandchildren. Vote for yourself.

Stoopid Interweb Quiz Time

It's been a while, so here's another one of my results on another stupid internet quiz. This nerd test tells you what kind of nerd you are. I'm a "cool nerd king," which actually sounds really bad...

The Reason for Safari on Windows

So, Apple announced on Monday that their Safari web browser is now available on Windows. Of the many articles I've read about this so far, most of their authors assume that this is a move to get some kind of Safari-halo-effect where people love Safari so much that they buy macs. Those authors are smoking crack.

As many are finding out, Safari isn't the world's greatest browser. It's not the worst either but it's not the best. There are better browsers for both Windows and MacOS than safari. I refuse to believe that Apple is stupid enough to believe that there will be any significant halo-effect from Safari. There must be another reason for this release.

So why do I, the all-knowing super genius, think that Apple released Safari for Windows? What's Apple's top secret motive? Well, get this: Apple is trying to increase Safari's browser market share.

Shocking, isn't it?

"But, but, but the browser wars are over!" you scream.

Well, yes and no. During the browser wars Microsoft introduced a lot of non-standard crap to Internet Explorer, both in proprietary extra-features and non-standard rendering.

Because of this, many websites were designed for Internet Explorer and broke when viewed with other browsers. With the rise in popularity of Firefox, now many websites are designed for both Internet Explorer and Firefox and brake (mostly to a lesser degree) when viewed with other browsers.

Safari for Windows is meant to increase Safari's market share so that Safari doesn't get left out of the web-development model. Presumably, Apple wants to have some say in the future of the web.

When viewed this way, some amount of success is almost guaranteed. Most Mac users use Macs at home and Windows in their jobs. Now they can run the same browser at work that they do at home. Apple is probably figuring that 10% to 40% of Safari users will find a way to run it at work and their browser share will increase accordingly. If they get new users from windows only folks, even better.

Yet, for this answer to make sense, one question remains to be answered. Why does Apple still have its own browser anyway?

WebKit seems to be the answer to that one. WebKit, which is the brains that makes Safari go, is a browser engine and framework which allows you to plug the web into your programs. Examples of where Apple has done this are iTunes and MacOSX's Dashboard feature. It also powers the iPhone's web browser as well as Nokia's Web Browser for S60.

It seems that WebKit is critical to Apple's big-picture web strategy. But it will be substantially less useful for them if it can't view the world's most popular websites. Given the history of Apple's other browsers and engines, this makes even more sense. (e.g.Cyberdog)

So, Safari on Windows is a ploy to expand Safari's market share and thereby ensure WebKit's continued usefulness. Dare I say, Q.E.D.?