Microsoft Calls Today Global Anti-Piracy Day 500
arcticstoat points out an article at Custom PC, according to which: "Microsoft has announced that today is Global Anti-Piracy Day. Launching several global initiatives, the aim is to raise awareness of the damage to software innovation that Microsoft says is caused by piracy. ... As well as educating people about piracy, Microsoft has also initiated a huge list of legal proceedings that it's taking out against pirates. Microsoft isn't messing about when it says 'global' either. The list of 49 countries that Microsoft is targeting spans six continents, and ranges from the UK and the US all the way through to Chile, Egypt, Kuwait, Indonesia and China." Interestingly enough, unauthorized copies of Vista might not be harming the company all that much: reader twitter was among several to contribute links to a related story at Computer World which highlights Microsoft attorney Bonnie MacNaughton's acknowledgement that pirates prefer Windows XP over Vista and Office 2003 over 2007.
Minor correction... (Score:4, Funny)
Fixed that for you...
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
Their newest product line is so sucky that no one wants to pirate it.
Now that's an innovative strategy!
Even pirates don't want Vista (Score:5, Insightful)
You know you have problems when even pirates don't want your software!
Re:Even pirates don't want Vista (Score:5, Funny)
You've got that wrong.
Clearly what's happening is that they made the DRM so good that it's reducing piracy. Right?
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You owe me a new keyboard asshole! I just blasted coffee all over this one.
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
2007 isn't that bad. The effing "x" formats are a P.I.T.A but as per usual, the next Office version is a decent incremental upgrade, which will, in due course, be adopted by the business community at large.
If they followed the same sort of incremental, professional design philosophy with Windows, they wouldn't spend so much time having their user base frothing in hatred and rage.
Re:Minor correction... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm still using Office 97. I'm just a little bit behind in the times. (Or too cheap to lay-down $200 on a pointless upgrade.)
>>>Microsoft Calls Today Global Anti-Piracy Day
Ironically, even as I read this article, I am downloading Stargate Atlantis season 4. What I've seen so far (401-410) was crap, so I'm glad I tried it before wasting money on the stupid DVD. I guess I'm not really feeling the "spirit" of this day.
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Re:Minor correction... (Score:4, Funny)
I've been putting Ubuntu on anyone's computer who asks me to "fix" it for quite some time now.
You must run into the occasional irate friend or family member, huh? "I wanted you to fix the margins on my word document you little shit--and here I come back an hour later and you've got this Ubuntu crap on my computer? How come I can't open my finances? Where's Microsoft Money? That's the last straw. I have no son!"
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, hopefully they are going to replace Paint with Paint.Net. That alone would be a huge step in the right direction.
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Note that the MIT license is permissive, which wouldn't require Microsoft to actually share the source upon distribution (also note that Microsoft used to include a BSD licensed networking stack).
However while looking at the exceptions noted on that licensing page [getpaint.net] it looks like Paint.NET's license isn't compatible with Section 6 from the Open Source definition.
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Right-click the title bar and click properties. Or, if you want it to persist, create a shortcut to cmd.exe and edit its properties.
"QuickEdit Mode" matches copy semantics to selection, and paste semantics to right-click. Without that, right-click has a context menu with paste anyway.
I also like to expand the command history buffer and in layout, change the screen buffer size (and you can dick with the colours and fonts too to get rid of the appalling raster font). All of the stupid defaults are backward
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Interesting)
Would this be a good place to mention that it took me at least ten minutes to figure out what they did with the File menu so that I could convert an OOXML document someone sent me into a different file format?
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Minor correction... (Score:4, Funny)
It took me a few minutes to get used to a mouse back in the 80s, too; now that I know how to use one, it's intuitive.
On the internet, nobody know that you are a kitten.
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with the ribbon is that it assumes that menus and toolbars are not a quick and easy way of finding what you want.
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Interesting)
As in I work in IT and it took me 10 minutes to find the Save As option the first time I used the beribboned Office ...
I use OpenOffice because I can find things on the Menus ....
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It's a different system. It doesn't work like the previous system. That means that, if you're familiar with the old system, you will have to learn the new system in order to use it -- just like you once had to learn the old system. This does not mean it's a bad system.
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This does not mean it's a bad system.
No, the fact that it violates Microsoft's own UI standards is what makes it a bad system.
When every program puts "Save" and "Save As" on the "File" menu, there is no "learning" involved. You know where to find all the common tasks, because they are in the same place on every application.
The Office 2007 ribbon makes this sort of UI consistency impossible.
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Insightful)
The story behind the ribbon:
After each version of Office ships, Microsoft asks a selection of users which features they would like to see in the next version of Office. When they did this after Office 2000, a large percentage of the features users suggested were already-implemented. When they did this for Office 2003, even more already-implemented features were suggested. The conclusion was that Office isn't lacking features, but the UI is so arcane that nobody could find which features it had, or how to use them.
That's the problem the Ribbon is intended to solve. In actuality, it removed a few features from Office (dealing with custom macro toolbars, IIRC.) I think that it's definitely a move in the right direction. It might not be right for every application, but for programs like Word and Excel that:
1) Are used by myriads of untrained people
2) Have craploads of features
I think it's the right move. For something like Photoshop, point 1 doesn't apply, and for something like Notepad point 2 doesn't apply, so it's not right for every application.
Ribbon not the solution wanted (Score:4, Insightful)
As nabsltd noted above [slashdot.org], menus are pretty standard for all other MS-based software -- except for this ribbon garbage in MSO 2007. Now, while I'm generally a fan of software companies listening to their users, the question MS asked and the answers they were given, funnily enough, had nothing to do with completely reworking the menu UI. So basically MS *wasn't* listening. Had they asked instead, "should we completely rework the menu UI?", I rather suspect that most existing users of pre-2007 MSO (i.e., the vast bulk of the potential market for MSO upgrades) would have replied with a resounding "hell, NO!" in consideration of all the time and energy *already* put into learning where the heck everything is. I mean, sheesh, with MSO 2007, they could have at least offered an easily-findable obvious option to toggle back into the older menu structure.
But, sadly, it is not the problem the users faced directly, nor is it the solution they wanted. Which is why so many folks are not a fan of paying through the nose for an "upgrade" that offers no appreciable new functionality while simultaneously guaranteeing hours of frustration as users try to find things again. Whee.
Cheers,
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the ribbon is -dare I say it?- a clever and even innovative UI approach
Yep, I must admit I've never seen a better way to hide options behind obscure icons that are difficult to find because they're so poorly placed on the various bars. In fact I'd go as far as saying I don't think I could make a more confusing, childish, unintuitive and frustrating menuing system if i tried. Kudos to MS.
Re:Minor correction... (Score:4, Interesting)
Once you get over the fact that a few things are in different places
That's one of my biggest gripes about Microsoft! Why in the hell do they DO that??? How stupid do they think we are?
Pretty stupid, I guess. They take the same damned program, move shit around, rename other shit, add fluff and eye candy and then expect us to buy the sam load of dingo kidneys all over again and...
Hell, I guess we ARE that stupid. I mean, I have XP on my box.
We have Offoce 2000 at work. Does Office 2007 do anything Office 2003 doesn't? Or even anything Office 2000 doesn't? What makes it worth the extra Five hundred dollars per license????
Could this be contributing to our global economic meltdown?
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Office (or at least Word) 2003 has ONE invaluable feature that Office 2000 doesn't. It actually understands its file format well enough to open and recover a corrupted file instead of having a corrupted word file (which large ones ALMOST ALWAYS get) cause random crashes and unexplained formatting behavior.
Now granted, you can't really sell a product on the fact that it knows how shitty its file format is and can compensate if you specifically tell it to do so, but at least I can write a test plan that doesn
Re:The question many ask... And more will ask. (Score:3, Interesting)
We have Offoce 2000 at work. Does Office 2007 do anything Office 2003 doesn't? Or even anything Office 2000 doesn't? What makes it worth the extra Five hundred dollars per license????
That is exactly why I switched from the Microsoft platform at home. I have my desktop, laptop, the wife the same, and had various foster kids circulate through. The product simply isn't priced for the home family. Old versions were simply installed on every machine in the house from the one purchased copy. New versions cost
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No, the housing crisis was largely the result of above the board legal activity, that was the problem. There plenty of blame to go around, let's assign it:
1) American People: those saints who decided it would be wonderful to flip houses, get second mortgages, get mortgages they couldn't afford, take the equity out their houses and piss it off.
2) The government: created Fannie Mae in the Depression as a response to the gutting of the housing markets. They created Freddie Mac in the 1970's. They also gave the
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You've bought into the greedster's lies. I was a victim.
I was paying $525 a month for a tiny two bedroom basement (yeah... ironic for a nerd) apartment. I bought a small two bedroom house (it really is a modest house) with mortgage payments of under $400 per month. A net gain of over a hundred bucks a month.
They adjusted my adjustable rate mortgage so it's now over $800 per month, PLUS a bunch of bullshit fees they're tacking on. It's as if they're in the business not of financing homes, but foreclosing on
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Then you should have read the contract back then. My mortgage company can't legally tack on a bunch of bullshit fees. And you should have realized that with interest rates at "historic lows" (as every newspaper business section proclaimed in the headlines), they were unlikely to go anywhere but up. E
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Informative)
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Major pointless UI changes = BAD! No cookie! (Score:3, Insightful)
I know you're just trying to troll the GP, but seriously -- who are these mythical "most other people"? The only folks I've run into that claim to like the MSO 2007 ribbon interface are posters here on Slashdot. My wife's previous school had MSO 2007 installed drive-by fashion unannounced and mid-year by their socially-clueless IT guy, and it caused no end of trouble. Suddenly teachers (and sometimes students) would take / email docs home and be unable to o
Re:Minor correction... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, the irony.
Re:Minor correction... (Score:4, Funny)
What irony? This person is clearly a poster child for Office 2007 being easy to use.
If it weren't for piracy (Score:5, Funny)
If it weren't for piracy, there'd be a sizable amount of people that would never even try Vista.
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Re:If it weren't for piracy (Score:5, Funny)
I find it funny that Microsoft feel they have to educate people about piracy. I'm already well aware of the many benefits thank you, Microsoft.
Re:If it weren't for piracy (Score:5, Funny)
I find it funny that Microsoft feel they have to educate people about piracy. I'm already well aware of the many benefits thank you, Microsoft.
Maybe this Microsoft's way of fighting global warming? By educating more pirates, we insure a healthy planet for our children's children.
Re:If it weren't for piracy (Score:5, Informative)
Re:If it weren't for piracy (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, if it weren't for piracy, Microsoft would never have dominated the market in the first place. People buy at work what they have used at home. I can't justify paying $500+ for software I use only when re-writing a resume every few years or so.
Is it September 19th? (Score:3, Funny)
Arrgg!
Re:Is it September 19th? (Score:4, Funny)
RRRRrraaaaa (Score:5, Funny)
Does that make it "Talk Like an Anti-Pirate Day?"
Re:RRRRrraaaaa (Score:4, Funny)
!!!!rrrray
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You should make an account, I was going to mod you up for that until I saw you were AC, but then, without an account, you won't be able to obsess over any replies you might get on your user page so you'll never see this reply anyways.
Re:RRRRrraaaaa (Score:5, Funny)
If you knew who he was, he wouldn't be much of a ninja.
Bill Gate's Pirate Name (Score:5, Funny)
Putting "Bill Gates" in the name field here [gangstaname.com] returns "Smugglin' Hubert Cutler" as the result, appropriately enough... :) Even better, though, "Steve Ballmer" becomes "Sea Monkey Baird"!
;)
Sea Monkey! lol
Hey! Is that a flying chai.. OOF...
For once I agree with MS (Score:5, Insightful)
Pirates seize Indian vessel with 13 crew members off Somalia [hindustantimes.com]
So I agree, piracy is a terrible problem. Our hearts go out to the families of the missing sailors.
However, I would think that Microsoft would be more concerned with copyright infringement that piracy. Are they planning an anti-copyright infringement day? September 19th [wikipedia.org] might be appropriate.
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Re:For once I agree with MS (Score:4, Insightful)
Damn you. You beat me to it [slashdot.org]!
To be serious for a moment, does anyone else feel that Microsoft's crusade on software piracy is simply insensitive in the recent wake of high seas piracy? A lot of good men and women are out there getting killed just so companies like Microsoft can deliver their product around the world. Rather than displaying their global conscience and supporting the cause of defeating real piracy, they're worried about a bunch of 12 year olds who harmlessly steal software for kicks! Meanwhile, the vast majority of consumers who use Windows have actually paid for Windows. Repeatedly.
But that's not good enough for Microsoft, is it? They want to squeeze blood from a stone. Get every last nickel out of those horrible people who miscounted their licenses by one, or the people who load Linux/BSD/Solaris/Plan9 on their machines. (Because, obviously, anyone using Linux is ACTUALLY pirating Windows!)
You know what? I can't bring myself to care, Microsoft. In fact, I hope your company BURNS for those practices.
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Piracy in Somalia has gotten really serious lately, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_in_Somalia [wikipedia.org]
18 pretty major events in the last year alone.
Re:For once I agree with MS (Score:4, Funny)
I think you got it wrong. They're talking about the idea of privateering. They're opposed to hiring pirates as mercenaries to fight other countries by proxy. I, for one, am glad to see Microsoft take a stand on this serious issue! In fact, I'm going to go give out duplicated copies of Windows XP to all my friends to show my support!
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So, as much as we like to bicker over this particular usage, there seems to be some [wikipedia.org] contention that this is a historically valid use of the term, and way predates computers.
From the wiki article, it sounds as if it has been used this way in law for a couple
How about Tax Anti-Piracy Day? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think someone needs to put together a special day (today would be good) called the Global Tax Anti-Piracy Day!
Tax Piracy is when you have a company in one country, but then setup a sham company in another country so you can avoid paying your fair share of taxes. These Pirate companies plunder the benefits of the real country of origin [finfacts.com], taking advantage of all the infrastructure benefits such as schools, roads, and police - but pay for very little or any of what they take by loopholes in their real country's tax system!
Just think of the billions of dollars lost by honest companies, and their lost innovation because of these Tax Pirate Companies [microsoft.com]. Think of the increased taxes that honest companies must pay. Think of the children who can't go to good schools because Pirate companies plundered the public coffers! This is a threat that must be stopped, and the pirate company's officers punished!
Ironically (Score:2)
Ironically, I'm downloading the latest release of TinyXP even as I type this.
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There is proof that Windows can be a decent OS, but they can't use it
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Takes about a hour to set up, you can integrate all your drivers and everything, and then install it on any computer you want.
I use it on my gaming machines and it simply flies. Far more to my taste than Tiny XP, because it comes with all my registry tweaks by default.
Software Innovation (Score:2)
What is this, some sort of Microsoft trademark? I don't see how it relates, unless "innovation" is the popular replace word for "profit", "monopoly", "greed", "lock-in", "control", etc.
Can they do that? (Score:2)
Re:Can they do that? (Score:5, Funny)
- "Think of the children"-day,
- "Bad car analogy"-day,
- "Robotic overlord"-day,
- "Natalie Portman"-day,
- "In Soviet russia"-day,
- "Insensitive clod"-day,
- "Goatse"-day,
etc...
The fact that nobody'll listen to you will just make you feel like MS today. But if they don't care - why should you?
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I must say that the sheer amount of American "special days" is ridiculous, and takes away any meaning they could ever have. A quick google on October:
# Adopt-a-Shelter-Animal Month
# Computer Learning Month
# Family History Month
# National Apple Month
# National Clock Month
# National Dessert Month
# National Pizza Month
# National Popcorn Popping Month (wtf!)
# National Roller Skating Month
# Polish American History Month (they need a whole month?)
# National Stamp Collecting Month (oh yeah)
The first week in Octobe
and... (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I'm glad to see Microsoft... (Score:5, Interesting)
...invest heavily in warships to help protect our shipping lanes. Nothing could be a better use of their money than helping stop the violence inherent in piracy on the high-seas. Already, many American warships are in stand-off confrontations with merchies taken over by pirates. I--
Sorry, what? This is about software? How Microsoft is concerned about companies who are missing one or two licenses out of 5,000 or 12 year old kids bragging that they got XP off of I13|<p1R4Cy.com? Pfff. In that case, screw 'em.
Working so far (for me). (Score:5, Funny)
I pledge I will not pirate anything... today
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well played, sir. I will pledge the same.
Re:Working so far (for me). (Score:5, Funny)
I pledge to pirate 3 times as much, to make up for you slackers.
sweet (Score:5, Funny)
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I think they did it this week to stop you giving disks of warez to trick or treaters next week. Hmmm...
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Yeah but today's parade are nothing compared to the old Anti-Piracy Day parades of the 1930s!
Re:sweet (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, I hear the '30s are coming back into fashion. There's a buzz on Wall Street.
Anti-piracy works! (Score:2, Funny)
Flying Spaghetti Monster is not amused (Score:2, Funny)
Fighting software piracy? Excellent idea! (Score:5, Funny)
Prevent Windows piracy: Use Linux instead!
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Man, I wish I didn't already post, I'd spend mod points on this.
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Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Open source games instead of Xbox? (Score:3, Insightful)
And I'd like to remind everyone that the easiest way to combat piracy is by using open source software instead of Microsoft/Apple products whenever possible.
That would appear to include replacing, say, Xbox 360 games with open source games. Which Free video games do you recommend for me to play while kicking back on the couch? Is there an open-source first-person shooter that's as polished as, say, Gears of War or the Halo series? Or could you suggest an open-source alternative to Smash Bros. or Animal Crossing?
Re:Open source games instead of Xbox? (Score:4, Insightful)
Really Sad (Score:4, Insightful)
pirates prefer Windows XP over Vista and Office 2003 over 2007
Its really sad when even Pirates don't like your crap. That's like making a movie which even the pirates don't pirate.
Think about it, people who can get it for free, don't want it, even as it is free. This is not boding well for Microsoft.
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Wasn't that the point of the Internet boom/bust last decade. People discovered that giving crap away for free didn't make money. Once again Microsoft is a decade behind. :)
(Actually, all of the anti-pirate stuff makes sense. Their main competitor is dodgy copies of their own stuff.)
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Jumping on the Bandwagon (Score:5, Funny)
After the success of last month's "Talk Like A Pirate Day", this is just Microsoft just trying to cash in on the whole pirate thing.
Parents can't be expected to shell out for every single pirate related holiday. Enough is enough.
Anyway, don't Microsoft already have April 1st.
my own press release (Score:2, Insightful)
I hereby declare today as Global Anti-Proprietary Software Day.
Corporations and computer users all over the world lose untold trillions of dollars dealing with the pain of using software that they cannot have full access to, or effectively move from one computer to another.
I pledge... (Score:5, Funny)
...that I will not pirate Vista. Ever.
Will hardware manufacturers fight back? (Score:2)
I wonder...
Duh. (Score:2)
Of course pirates prefer the older versions, they're a lot easier to keep running while cracked.
I just don't think it's worth it anymore to pirate newer MS software, you're constantly playing catch-up with their latest Windows Genuine Advantage stuff.
FTFAFY (Score:4, Funny)
Should read:
And i call today the Global Anti Monopoly day !! (Score:2)
tomorrow im thinking of creating a 'No Underpants Day' out of my butt. it should be easy, considering that it'll be a day with no underpants.
I hearby declare! (Score:2, Funny)
Arrrrrrrrr mateys! (Score:2, Funny)
Damage to software innovation caused by Microsoft. (Score:5, Insightful)
> raise awareness of the damage to software innovation that Microsoft says is caused by piracy.
Which fades into insignificance when compared to the damage to software innovation caused by Microsoft !
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you think that they are subtly hinting that downloading free software ("piracy, open source - it's all the same") is "damaging to software innovation"?
They are using the same language of "piracy" as they have done for Open Source and (especially) the GPL: it limits their ability to "innovate" (embrace, extend and extinguish). This is possibly setting the scene to link the two in the minds of ill-informed people like legislators, managers and the general public (in no particular order).
"Piracy" and FOSS a
Only one day? (Score:5, Funny)
In contrast, the rest of the world celebrates the remaining 364 piracy days.
Six continents? (Score:3, Funny)
Are they actively persuing pirates in Antarctica too? I thought the penguins ran linux
(and I am sure the government research stations at the south pole all have licensed copies of Windows and Office)
Microsoft calls Global Anti-Piracy Day (Score:4, Funny)
REDMOND, Indian Ocean, Monday - Microsoft has announced that today is "Global Anti-Piracy Day," [today.com] with the aim to raise awareness of the damage to software innovation caused by robbery and murder on the high seas.
"Robbery, rape and brutal murder on the high seas is just like people copying that floppy," sobbed billionaire Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "You wouldn't steal a patented software process, why would you steal a cargo ship?"
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has made these the most dangerous waters for software development in the world. The pirates use hacked zombie PCs, sometimes impounding codebases and programming staff at the point of their Heckler & Koch MP3s and demanding warez before they are released.
A famous attack late last year against one luxury system was foiled when the crew scared the pirates off with the Righteous Mathematical Stentor, an ear-splitting acoustic device developed in Massachusetts as a "non-lethal" free software advocacy weapon.
Somali clan leaders have agreed to end over two decades of Unix wars in the country and have made attempts to address the piracy problem. But the tremendous lawlessness off the long eastern Somali coastline reflects the difficulty of controlling the flow of information on the Internet.
In one breakthrough, pirate chiefs have resolved that they will never pirate Windows Vista or Office 2007. "Not even with your dick."