Ok, I have gotta dive into this. You are correct that Gore did not claim to have "invented" the internet. However, he tried, in his statement, to take credit for it's invention as a political grand stand. He "acted stupidly". :) It was like me taking credit for paving the roads. Yes, my money payed for some infinitely small piece of highway somewhere, but it would be ridiculous for me to make a claim (especially for political gain) that I was responsible for creating the interstate system (or even the road outside my house). Yes, it is overplayed, but it was a really funny political mistake. Both sides make them (remember potatoe?). Frankly, they are all well intentioned and accomplish very little that actually is useful in my life (except asking for bigger checks to increase the size of my contribution to the interstate system :)). Such is the nature of government. I digress....
Microsoft has earned an industry reputation over the years for being ruthless in business. They have a long history of business moves that are considered unethical. They practically invented the practice of entering into legal agreements with no intention to fulfill their obligations (the so sue me style :)). However, that is not unique to them. Most large businesses look to the bottom line and not toward the "right thing". So, when people say they are evil. Many times they are right. However, most don't know the details of why. The problem is with anyone that expects a company to act in anything other than self interest. To expect anything different is foolish. Frankly, what Microsoft did with ooxml is only evil if you are not a Microsoft shareholder. :) It's all perspective. I always felt Sun was a breath of fresh air. I hoped they could make it work. However, it appears that their approach to business was not sustainable. It will be interesting to see if google is able to survive and still be seen as a good guy. Ok, enough stirring of the pot. I appreciate your work and your willingness to engage in a little constructive dialog. LES On Jul 27, 4:10 pm, TorNorbye <[email protected]> wrote: > On Jul 27, 12:29 pm, Ryan Waterer <[email protected]> wrote: > > > What Tor is saying that it is quite silly to think that Al Gore actually > > created/invented the internet. > > No, that's not what I was trying to say -- I was saying it was silly > to repeat the meme that Al Gore -claimed- to have invented it. > > It was used (successfully) in a political campaign against him, but > that's in the past now and we can get back to facts. Yes, it was > clumsily worded (as is true for a lot of statements by politicians) > but no reasonable person would look at the complete statement and > believe he was claiming to have invented it. > > By the way, here's what Vince Cerf ("father of the internet") wrote > about this > story:http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200009/... > > -- Tor --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
