[Ham-Computers] Frustration with MS

[Michael Cobb]

Duane, et al, next time you have political commentary NOT based on any facts
save it for
Comrades Bill and Hillary. Try appending a (D) after your name so we know
what side of the
aisle your on. Not that we didn't already know.

For those of you tired of rhetoric, I have stood up a brand new portal
simple aimed at
ham's and computers. We won't bore you with political garbage that has
nothing to do
with ham's and pc's. We will however bring a new user experience that will
allow ham's
to collaborate about all things PC's on a leading edge portal server
complete with a
files download, free e-mail, a new forums section and the tried and true
e-mail aliases.
We will be at www.hamcomputers.com. It's free even though it has .com domain
name. So stay
tuned as we are working hard on the code to get this up and running.

We are looking for some ham's to edit a monthly PC newsleter and some hams
to test various
pieces of code as well for submission into our product test section. If you
would like to
help drop me a line before I get moderated into Duanes spank room.

73's
Mike (KF6MPI)


-----Original Message-----
From: ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Duane
Fischer, W8DBF
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 6:25 PM
To: Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications, or
experimenting; 'Preston Graham '
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Frustration with MS


As a foot note:

AT&T battled the Justice Department in the Courts for nearly ten years
before
giving in due to battle fatigue. Now remember what the real issue was, it
was
'corporate monopoly'. It has come to be known as "deregulation". Look what
that
has done for us?

	1. The number of airlines has more than tripled, the prices are not better,
the
safety is worse, the on time is terrible and so forth. many airlines went
out of
business.

2. The cable industry went wild, need I say more about the quality and the
rates? Comcast had, and has, a virtual lock on many cities and counties.
They
have ten year agreements to be the only cable outlet there.

3. The savings and loans? Need I say more about failures and what it cost?

4. Banks. Look at your savings account interest? Check the CDS. On and on.

5. Everything that was deregulated went down the toilet and the consumers
lost.

This is exactly what the Justice Department accomplished when they attacked
AT&T
and created deregulation, and now they want to do it again, and again, and
again. It it is not MS, it will be someone else. But not the oil companies!

Speaking of monopoly, have you looked around at who owns what? We have more
monopoly issues now than before deregulation which was supposed to get rid
of
them!

I am 'not' defending MS, I am pointing out that the Justice Department is
killing we Americans by destroying our corporate structure. They make it
possible, in fact actually help, foreign companies move into our job
markets,
build factories here and the consumer loses every single time. Americans
lose
their jobs, prices go up and the foreign companies outsource for cheap
labor. I
liked it a heck of a lot better when MA Bell ran the phones and AT&T ran the
long distance and Western Electric made the phones and Bell Labs develped
technology!

I bought my Western Electric telephones, as opposed to leasing them from
AT&T.
They are now 29 years old and working perfectly. When the ring, they sound
like
a telephone, not some cricket with a sore throat!

And if this isn't enough to make you think, remember the post office who
raises
their rates constantly to defray the cost of their terrible management. Case
in
point. The recent contract with UPS to transport UPS items from point to
point.
The post office had to give UPS such a big discount that they lose money on
the
deal! So why sign such an agreement when you are losing money? Why not? The
post
office is a monopoly and knows it can simply pass the loss right onto the
public
who has no choice but to pay it. When the government ran the postal system
we
did not have this constant insanity and horrible decision making going on.
The
post office is accountable to nobody and they do whatever they please and we
citizens pick up the tab.

Every darn time the Justice Department breaks up a large company, to benefit
we
citizens, we lose! The jobs go overseas and the foreign business get a solid
gold invitation to move to America. At this rate English is soon to become
the
second language of the United States. The Free Trade Agreement lets them in,
but
keeps us out of their markets. Some deal!



----------
From: Karty, Steven <kartys at ncs.gov>
To: 'Duane Fischer, W8DBF ' <dfischer at usol.com>; 'Preston Graham '
<w4fda at pobox.com>; 'Computers (or other) used for amateur radio,
communications,
 or experimenting ' <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: RE: [Ham-Computers] Frustration with MS
Date: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 8:42 PM

I agree with Duane that both Microsoft and Bill Gates are good.  The US
Justice Department used to attack AT&T every ten years just for fun, until
AT&T got tired of playing that game and agreed to be dismembered.  That
resulted in higher residential telephone rates and poorer service for us
all.  AT&T used to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in
telecommunications services each year for free to the US Federal Government,
but that all ended with the breakup.  Bell Labs was a National asset that
used to do a lot of research for free for the US Federal Government, but all
that also ended with the breakup.  We are all paying much higher Federal
Income Taxes to compensate for these higher costs.  Western Electric used to
manufacture all of the telephone equipment for the Bell System in the US,
but now almost everything is imported from foreign countries.  Have you
bothered looking at the junk they call telephones now?  All of the phones
are imported and they break the first time you drop them more than one inch.
You could throw the old Western Electric phones out of a one story window
and they'd still work fine (and wouldn't even be scratched - if they fell in
the dirt).  The old Western Electric phones were virtually immune to high RF
fields, even at commercial 50 KW transmitter sites.  Do you think that the
new phones will work in the same area with just a 100-Watt transmitter?  Now
that there is no Bell System, the US Justice Department has turned its
attention to Microsoft.  But if they break up Microsoft, foreign firms will
come in and take Microsoft's place.  Does anyone really believe that that
will help the US?  If the US Justice Department doesn't like some feature in
some foreign software, or if they think that the foreign firms are being
anti-competitive, do you think that the foreign companies will care?  Why
would we want to hobble Microsoft and let their business be gobbled up by a
bunch of foreign companies?  Just how would that help any of us?

If we were really serious about stopping corruption, collusion, and
anti-competitiveness, we'd all ask the US Justice Department to get off of
Microsoft's back and thoroughly investigate the oil companies instead.

73, Steven - N5SK

-----Original Message-----
From: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
To: Preston Graham; Computers (or other) used for amateur radio,
communications,  or experimenting
Sent: 5/31/2004 7:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Frustration with MS

One thing all of us need to remember here. I get tired of people picking
on Mr.Bill Gates. Good, bad or otherwise, remember - He made it possible for
us to have home computers in many many ways. Had he not been there, what we
have today would very likely not exist.

We can no more fault him than we can the Japanese for killing us off in
the electronics market. After all, Bell Labs invented the transistor and we
let the Japanese have it! We invented the VCR and let them have it. So what
should we expect? We gave them the technology and they used it better than
we did! We have nobody to blame except ourselves.

Mr. Gates has done one heck of a lot of good things for the computer
industry, keep that in mind. He saw a market, he filled it and he made a lot
of money in doing so. Many others have done the same. Apple would have died
had Bill Gates not created competition for them, which made Apple better and
they survived. So whether you like Mr. Gates or not, get off his back. We
have all benefited because of him, even if we do not want to admit it.

Duane W8DBF

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