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About
I'm Ryan Lowe, a Software Engineering graduate living in Ottawa, Canada. I like agile software development and Ruby on Rails.
I write this blog in Canadian English and don't use a spell checker. Typos happen.
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» Full-time Ruby on Rails freelancer
» Full-time with Rails since May 2005 » Former committer for RadRails (now Aptana) » I also have a few Rails side-projects in development: 1. wheretogoinTO.com Toronto nightlife 2. Hey Heads Up! TODO list and sharing 3. Layered Genealogy family history research 4. foos for foosball scoring 5. fanconcert for music fans (on hold) Hiring Rails developers? I can telecommute by the hour from Ottawa, Canada »» Email: rails AT ryanlowe DOT ca
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Derek Lowe's (Ryan's older brother) words at Ryan's funeral
blog@ryanlowe.ca no more Forging Email Headers: Good, Bad or Ugly? Sarcastic Dictionary (Part 1 of Many) Tags Hierarchies Twisting Rails is Risky Business Risky Business? My Take on Early Alphas Whoa, it's August 2007 Closing Comments A Postscript to "Growth at the grassroots" »» All Blog Posts
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What Do You Want Us To Do Today?
Robert Scoble asks "What do you want Microsoft to do?". How about what I don't want Microsoft to do? Two off the top of my head: 1. Don't allow restrictive DRM policies in your future operating systems. When I buy digital music in the future I don't want to have to worry about how many more times I can listen to it before it expires. Same goes with digital TV, movies, games, software, articles or books. I want to be empowered, not controlled -- not treated like I might be a criminal. That, my dear Microsoft, is trustworthy computing. 2. Don't use your file formats or protocols as a way to control market share. When a company makes a document using your software it should be able to open it however it wants in the future. The company shouldn't have to worry about being able to read its own documents as a reason to extend their contracts with you. And protocols - don't take an existing open protocol (Kerberos), programming language (Java) or markup language (HTML) and extend it in a way that serves your business interests. You're not contributing to the technology community, you are dividing it and giving people no choice but to resent you for it. Posted at February 23, 2003 at 08:34 PM ESTLast updated February 23, 2003 at 08:34 PM EST Comments
Well, there is always Linux. ;) Seriously though, there's no way in hell that you'd ever have to worry about something like that happening from a non-microsoft company. That being said, I am actually somewhat of an MS corporate whore. :) [url=http://www.provance.com]Provance[/url] is a complete Microsoft shop (ie MS Solutions Partner), and seeing firsthand just how nicely all of MS's stuff integrates made me seriously re-evaluate the whole "M$ is EVIL!" tirade. They make good stuff, it works, and it's easy to use. Yes, it costs a fortune, but if thats the price that it costs to do business, then maybe that's what people are willing to pay.. (hmm... think I kinda got side-tracked there...) » Posted by: Peter at February 23, 2003 10:34 PMDon't get me wrong, I'm not "M$ is EVIL!" or anything -- I just disagree with some of their philosophies and actions. They do have some good products - MSN Messenger and Hotmail being two that I use all of the time. » Posted by: Ryan at February 23, 2003 11:35 PMI am a Linux/OpenBSD/FreeBSD/Solaris/Windows User. Linux is a piece of shit when it comes to the desktop. DRM! Hah! That technology does not exist! Show me one company that can even define that term. Nobody knows what that is, and the ones that say they do are full of shit. Nobody, and I mean nobody in this present time is going to actually pay $$ to have DRM media. If M$ says yes, then they're bluffing. As for extending formats to suite their own needs...shame on them. It's like taking Java and adding classes that suite their needs and not releasing the source code. Fuck you is all I have to say. btw, I'm presently somewhat drunk :-P heheheheh |
