mersenneforum.org  

Go Back   mersenneforum.org > Fun Stuff > Lounge

Reply
Thread Tools
Old 2015-03-23, 02:42   #2542
kladner
 
kladner's Avatar
 
"Kieren"
Jul 2011
In My Own Galaxy!

100111101011102 Posts
Default Netscape: the web browser that came back to haunt Microsoft

Netscape: the web browser that came back to haunt Microsoft bite Microsoft in the Ass

Quote:
So let’s spool back a bit – to 1993. By then, the internet was roughly 10 years old, but for its first decade had been largely unknown to anyone other than geeks and computer science researchers. Two years earlier, Tim Berners-Lee had created and released the world wide web onto the internet, but initially no one noticed. Then in the spring of 1993, Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina released Mosaic – the first graphical browser – and suddenly the “real world” realised what the internet was for, and clamoured to get aboard.


But here’s the strange thing: Microsoft – by then the overwhelmingly dominant force in the computing world – failed to notice the internet. One of Bill Gates’s biographers, James Wallace, claimed that Microsoft didn’t even have an internet server until early in 1993, and that the only reason the company set one up was because Steve Ballmer, Gates’s second-in-command, had discovered on a sales trip that most of his big corporate customers were complaining that Windows didn’t have a “TCP/IP stack” – ie, a way of connecting to the internet. Ballmer had never heard of TCP/IP. “I don’t know what it is,” he shouted at subordinates on his return to Seattle. “I don’t want to know what it is. But my customers are screaming about it. Make the pain go away.”


But even when Microsoft engineers built a TCP/IP stack into Windows, the pain continued. Andreessen and his colleagues left university to found Netscape, wrote a new browser from scratch and released it as Netscape Navigator. This spread like wildfire and led Netscape’s founders to speculate (hubristically) that the browser would eventually become the only piece of software that computer users really needed – thereby relegating the operating system to a mere life-support system for the browser.

Now that got Microsoft’s attention.
kladner is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-23, 04:27   #2543
Dubslow
Basketry That Evening!
 
Dubslow's Avatar
 
"Bunslow the Bold"
Jun 2011
40<A<43 -89<O<-88

3·29·83 Posts
Default

ChromeOS, anyone...?

The future isn't so bright in a number of ways that very few people seem to recognize...
Dubslow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-23, 07:17   #2544
LaurV
Romulan Interpreter
 
LaurV's Avatar
 
Jun 2011
Thailand

25BF16 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dubslow View Post
ChromeOS, anyone...?

The future isn't so bright in a number of ways that very few people seem to recognize...
Tried both Chrome OS and "cros linux" (the "reloaded" version of the former), ended up totally disappointed. The experience reinforced my pro-Firefox paranoia even more...
LaurV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-23, 14:36   #2545
Dubslow
Basketry That Evening!
 
Dubslow's Avatar
 
"Bunslow the Bold"
Jun 2011
40<A<43 -89<O<-88

160658 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by LaurV View Post
Tried both Chrome OS and "cros linux" (the "reloaded" version of the former), ended up totally disappointed. The experience reinforced my pro-Firefox paranoia even more...
Oh god, you even bothered to try it? I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. (That said, there are many other things I wouldn't touch with a 39 1/2 foot pole.)
Dubslow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-23, 20:54   #2546
kladner
 
kladner's Avatar
 
"Kieren"
Jul 2011
In My Own Galaxy!

2×3×1,693 Posts
Default

Quote:
I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
How about with an eight foot Swede?
kladner is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-24, 08:34   #2547
Jayder
 
Jayder's Avatar
 
Dec 2012

2×139 Posts
Default

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system

Not sure if this fits here. I was working on a problem and I stumbled into using a factorial number system. I was pleasantly surprised to see a long wiki article and not just a stub. I don't think I had ever heard of it before.
Jayder is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-24, 10:08   #2548
Nick
 
Nick's Avatar
 
Dec 2012
The Netherlands

6AE16 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jayder View Post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system

Not sure if this fits here. I was working on a problem and I stumbled into using a factorial number system. I was pleasantly surprised to see a long wiki article and not just a stub. I don't think I had ever heard of it before.
This system is also used by Hendrik Lenstra in his article on profinite Fibonacci numbers, which is fun to read:
https://math.berkeley.edu/~hwl/papers/fibo.pdf
Nick is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-24, 23:42   #2549
retina
Undefined
 
retina's Avatar
 
"The unspeakable one"
Jun 2006
My evil lair

2·11·283 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by BudgieJane View Post
You were referring to stage left there, I assume.
Does that mean they are all just actors and not actual employees? They should be sued them for false advertising. Getting my hopes up like that for no good reason.
retina is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-25, 00:48   #2550
retina
Undefined
 
retina's Avatar
 
"The unspeakable one"
Jun 2006
My evil lair

2·11·283 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Uncwilly View Post
LaurV already is married. If you want to be a 'sister wife', you all will have to move to Utah.
People can be divorced. Anyhow, there are more places than Utah where such things are allowed. But it seems to all be mute moot since they are only actors. I feel cheated; bait and switch in action.
retina is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-25, 02:25   #2551
LaurV
Romulan Interpreter
 
LaurV's Avatar
 
Jun 2011
Thailand

3×3,221 Posts
Default

Haha, I missed initial post. No, I am not in the photo, but if you want I give you my mobile number anyhow. It is an old Gigabyte Gsmart Windows Phone (older than the pictures), its number is 356557000199108.
LaurV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2015-03-25, 02:47   #2552
retina
Undefined
 
retina's Avatar
 
"The unspeakable one"
Jun 2006
My evil lair

2·11·283 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by LaurV View Post
No, I am not in the photo, ...
Story of my life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LaurV View Post
... but if you want I give you my mobile number anyhow. It is an old Gigabyte Gsmart Windows Phone (older than the pictures), its number is 356557000199108.
Okay, so now all I need is the resources of the NSA and then I can track you.
retina is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Some things Une Personne Information & Answers 8 2012-06-12 18:10
All things Firefox JuanTutors Lounge 31 2005-12-15 03:35
A couple things PHinker Software 3 2004-12-18 17:08
Two Amazing Things clowns789 Hardware 1 2003-12-27 16:57
How things are set up... Xyzzy Lounge 22 2003-08-10 14:36

All times are UTC. The time now is 05:05.


Fri Aug 6 05:05:04 UTC 2021 up 13 days, 23:34, 1 user, load averages: 2.58, 2.51, 2.63

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

This forum has received and complied with 0 (zero) government requests for information.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.
A copy of the license is included in the FAQ.