Actually, I find your posts very interesting. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cecil H. Whitley" <cwhitley@xxxxxxxxx> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 9:10 AM Subject: Re: I swear to tell the truth, > Okay, my blood pressure is back down and my brain has re-engaged. If you > will bear with me for one more post I will let the subject go. I feel it > necessary to clear up the record and post what M.S. has done for me. > > 1. Active-x > With this lovely extension to web content M.S. has made it possible for me > to spread viruses simply by having preview message turned on in outlook > (shouldn't that be look out?). Simply by cursoring down or up to an > specially constructed email it will automatically launch it's code and > possibly send to all entries in my addressbook. > > 2. M.S. java vm > No swing library. No true accessibility. Most of the "text" applets > somehow write directly to the screen and "clickable" areas are not reported > any differently than just plain text, if it can be called that. > 3. M.S. proxy > Where do I start in describing this wonderfull product? GUI based > configuration and control. It's MICROSOFT which means you get all the > support you buy. Lots of third-party stuff you can buy to address it's > limitations. Contrast with squid, free and persons who make their living > selling support take the time to answer your questions at no charge, it's > configured with a text file and reports it's health through a webpage that > uses very standard html. > 4. Policy editor > CPU goes critical (or something) acts as if I poured concrete into the case. > Makes one very good boat anchor. > 5. MMC (Microsoft management console) > Not too bad, makes heavy use of msaa (sure it does), uses standard controls > (sure it does). It is usable, but that doesn't make it pleasant. > 6. Undocumented interfaces, standards and other misc. > For years M.S. used undocumented interfaces in order to implement fancier > appearance for it's products than was available to other companies through > the "standard" interfaces. The most notable effect of this was to make > developers use to making "custom" methods of presentation so that they could > compete appearance wise with M.S. products. In fact, for many years the > only thing standard about M.S. standards was that M.S. did not use them. > This practice appears to be continuing. > 7. M.S. TTS > Awesome! They certainly broke the budget on this one! It has speech > quality almost as good as my old echo pc. Did they find a copy of monologue > (no offense to monologue's programmer intended) on a 5 1/4" diskette > somewhere and dust it off and include it? > 8. Business practices > In a word, monopolistic. If the screen reader market was worth their notice > freedom scientific and others would be singing a lot different tune. > Remember Netscape? Soon it will be remember Real Networks? Driving your > competition out of business really spurs inovation, they have to inovatively > create new employment for themselves. If you're in a market segment that > isn't really profitable, such as access technology they'll let you continue > doing business unharrassed, as long as you sing their tune. Why should they > spend their resources if they can throw an api or two your way and have you > run with it from there so that they can claim compliance with laws such as > section 508? Well, we developed MSAA, it's not our fault that it hasn't > caught on..... Oh, and one question, if you're doing things just like other > access developers, where's the inovation, where's the potential for growth > and improvement, and finally what truly distinguishes your product from your > competition's? The keys you press to get a particular result? > > I would like to thank the list for allowing me this opportunity to rant. I > do apologize, I realize this post has nothing to do with either speakup or > linux in general and is therefore a waste of resources better spent for > their original purpose. > > Once again, Thanks. > > Cecil H. Whitley > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
