FurryGoat: This might seem like a silly question, but for the life of me I can’t find the answer anywhere. Does anyone know if you can search USENET via MSN Search?
It’s a simple question and a valid one… having seen the comments posted, well, um… I wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘Goat turns off commenting.
I’ve considered it every now and again, usually after getting a bombardment of comment SPAM… but then I look at the posts that have grown to close to 100 comments and I get all warm and gooey about it, and leave’m on. I mean the iTunes one has come in handy… the Boston Sucks ones are always good for a laugh… it’s all good, I guess, but jeez.
Maybe it’s just that I’m biased, having used Microsoft products for almost 20 years now. Old habits die hard, and all that. When I hear that people have gone out of their way to avoid Microsoft products, I get excited – maybe there’s something new to the market that is kicking ass or something… and so I’m compelled to ask them why. Found something better? Did you have a bad experience with an existing product? Why work so hard to avoid a company?
The inevitable response is “I hate’m!” which simply confuses me. The same people that fall into this mindset are the people that boycotted foreign car companies a few years ago. Drove me absolutely nuts. Why? Because their actions were completely misguided. Take Honda as an example. They build the majority of their cars here, in America. Their dealerships are owned by Americans. The salespeople and mechanics that work there: American. So… to avoid paying the Japanese designers, you’ve hurt three different working class American groups? I don’t get it. Got a problem with the merchandise? Fine, then it makes sense, but for this? I don’t get it.
The same thing is happening in software now, and again: I don’t get it. If I found a better product, I’d use it, no matter who made it. That’s what led me to unload my Powerbook: I spent more time working to get stuff done, when a PC would have done it easier and faster. And this is also why I don’t get the people that avoid one company for non-technical reasons. You’re working harder with what might be inferior products, and for what? Pride? I hope it’s pride – if you think that working harder is smarter, yer not so smart.
Steve asks a simple question: is there an MSN Search alternative to Google to search Usenet groups? The response isn’t so simple. The first response was “you can’t use a web search engine to search Usenet”. I can’t figure out what to make of that… I have to believe it was an “HE SAID MSN – SIC’M!” reaction and the question wasn’t read properly. Ya know, blind Penguin Rage or some shit. Another comment in the list was “isn’t Google good enough?” which has just irked me into post my own post. Good enough? What the fuck is Good Enough?
If someone asks this question of MSN Search – is there an alternative – they’d get a diatribe on why they shouldn’t use Microsoft’s products and that everyone should just use Google because “Google isn’t evil”. Hell, if I posted it here, I might even get Slashdotted. But if someone ask the same question of a Google product, they get a flurry of “what’s wrong with you?” responses… does this mean that all search engines should be Google? What about all of that “we need choices” and “we need innovation” shit that people throw in the air all the time?
Ridiculous, people. This is the same type of bullshit that has spawned religious wars for generations: blind faith in anything is no reason to act! Explore the options, find the best in the field and enjoy it. And then, after a while, poke your head up again and take a look around: you might find something better to use. Start walking erect for feck’s sake; you should have evolved enough to do so!
Treat technology like a salad bar: take what works for you and do not head butt the sneeze shield.
Randy…
I do think you may be biased, but, I’m biased as well.
From my viewpoint, there are things Microsoft has attempted to do to stifle competition..
From all that I’ve been able to gather as an outsider, Microsoft’s corporate culture is that of “Business is War”. Look at what happened to Novell, Wordperfect, the frontpage competitors, dbase, lotus.. The list goes on and on. While at a Comdex, I heard a person say “If you are a startup in a new emerging tech area, you want Microsoft to buy you, because if you are a competitor, you are toast”.
Is that illegal? No. Do I need to pour my money into a company like that? No.
At the end of the day, it’s all about choice, which is something I like. I can go my way, and you can go yours, and no one is forced to adopt one position or another.
I was in four startups. We wanted Microsoft to buy us because they represented stability and deep pockets. If people were scared of being crushed by Microsft, why are there still thousands of ISV’s writing software?
Your opinion is based on the “morality” of how you think a company is behaving, rather than what the software can do; this is exactly what happened in the car example above… lack of forest for the trees, IMHO, but it takes all types in the world. I just don’t agree with it – I’m always going to go where the action is: whoever is doing it best gets my cash. I used Netscape until IE kicked the crap outta it. I used iTunes until I got annoyed by their “smart” shuffle and switched to WinAMP b/c they have a plug in for disc swapping. Went from Toshiba to Sony to Apple to Sony to IBM for notebook From Acura to VW. Hell, even from hosting my own server with MT to TypePad b/c Six Apart put together an easier way to run MT.
Simply put: I’m not going to work harder to get something done if a tool exists to make it easier…