On Fri, Jan 05, 2007 at 02:11:33PM -0500, J Forster wrote:
Geoff Blake wrote:
[snip]
I find it strange that any successful non-microsoft product, like
Opera, Word Perfect, Samba, etc. is strangely broken by an
'improvement' to Windows....
Geoff
This is not a new thing. In the 1970s, Data General introduced a Nova 2
mini with a potted power fail module that PURPOSELY caused random memory
failures if you did not use DG memory, then spread rumors that second
source memory was no good. I eventually unpotted one of the modules.
They CLEARLY engineered it in. There was no other POSSIBLE use for the
circuit.
-John
I worked at DG for the engineer who devised this circuit (when I
worked for him he was then a division VP of R&D and it was some years
after the circuit was implemented) and can confirm it was real and
deliberate and conscious and sanctioned at the highest levels of the
company. It was part of a rich folklore of similar stories about DG's
competitive practices in the very early days that allegedly included
kerosene cans...
It is interesting that two of the folks who are taking over for
Mr. Gates at the helm of Microsoft also worked with me in the same R&D
group under the same boss (who designed this circuit). I'm not sure
whether either of them ever heard this story from the horse's mouth so
to speak, but they might have.
--
Dave Emery N1PRE, die@... DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
"An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten
'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in
celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either."
