* Posts by Robert Hollis

5 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Aug 2007

Vote now for your fave sci-fi movie quote

Robert Hollis
Thumb Up

Great Article!!

Most of the time, these lists are crap - they miss all the good ones and put on obscure personal favorites. Your list was very good - Kudos!

However, in the spirit of things, I have to add a few quotes:

"This...Is my BOOM STICK!" (Ash, Army of Darkness)

and

"Not an easy thing to meet your Maker" (Roy Batty, Blade Runner)

Computer system suspected in Heathrow 777 crash

Robert Hollis
Joke

Clearly it was Linux based...

Clearly it was Linux based, the problem was the voice recognition feature. Just review the cockpit voice recorder transcript:

Copilot: So do you Soduku?

Pilot: No way! I hate those puzzles. I tell people to Sudo Off!

Copilot:OH Crap! The engines failed........

Mozilla pulls offensive viral campaign

Robert Hollis
Coat

Marketing Genius

My question is what Marketing Guru thought to himself; "Cancer! Yeah, that's funny! And Heart Disease - they just crack me up!"

Next up from the same Marketing Maven: fake stats on how browsers affect a users use of racial slurs - with loud examples!

I'm sure it will be hilarious.

Why Microsoft vs Mankind still matters

Robert Hollis

Natural Monopoly

Nice article. The concept of a “natural monopoly” is new to me, but it does seem to fit in this case. Linux and Mac fans love to point out their favorite platforms perceived superiority, but they ignore the market realities.

Mac dictates the hardware. With a PC you can build a $300 web surfer or a $3000 gaming machine. The custom options are literally endless. Fact is, computer people often like to tinker with the hardware as much as the software, and PC lets their inner inventor free. This isn't a niche group either - even main stream (read -”unskilled”) users feel comfortable swapping cards, ram or even motherboards. Mac doesn't even try to compete in this market – because writing code that will work on any possible combination of hardware is DIFICULT. Much easier for them to spec the hardware and then crow about their OS's stability on their hand picked machines.

Linux et all require skill to use. My 80yr old grandmother uses a PC, with no problems. She doesn't even know what a command line is – and she doesn't have too. With Linux, you have to have a fundamental understanding of what the OS does and how it works. That way, when unexpected things happen, you know where to start. As for Linux's lack of viruses, it's simple statistics. Why write a virus that only affects 3% of all machines on the web – knowing that the users of those 3% of machines are some of the most sophisticated users today? Frankly, Linux will never compete with Windows, because building an excellent, intuitive interface is harder than building a stable OS. It takes too much money and time, and if someone did create a company to do it, they will discover that the very process of making it more accessible also destroys the features they loved the most.

Like it or not, Windows is here to stay. It will never be 'everything to everybody'. Instead, it will continue to be a natural monopoly by being 'everything needed for the majority'.

Kung fu monks battle gobby net ninja

Robert Hollis

Monks with to much time on thier hands

It's pretty pitiful that the monks got their robes in a wad over some Internet troll. As for who would win, I can state some things pretty clearly. In professional fighting, there are weight classes for a reason – in a fight between two skilled, in shape opponents – a guy who outweighs the other by 100lb will win every time. From the UFC, we have learned that wrestling/submission holds are critical – people who don't use them get them used against them (ironically, neither monks nor 'ninjas' wrestle). Lesson? Don't mess with big guys who can fight.

As for the use of weapons – Musashi (a big guy by all accounts) was credited with winning over 60 duels (many non fatal, because he used a boken). Audie Murphy (a tiny guy) had over 240 confirmed enemy kills, plus 6 tanks – all before he turned 21. Lesson? Gun beats a sword – every time.

Of course, we all know Chuck Norris once beat an entire Shaolin Temple and a flock of Ninjas, using only harsh language and his left pinky.......