XyWrite: Laudatur et alget (again)

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

http://www.nydailynews.com/2000-04-05-old/News_and_Views/Opinion/a-62298.as
p>

Lars Erik-Nelson
New York Daily News
Wednesday, April 05, 2000

It's About Time Law
Came Down on Microsoft

WASHINGTON
For some unexplained reason,
Every time I start a new Line, this
Microsoft Word Program wants to use a
Capital letter. I try the Help menu, but it has no
Entry under "capitaliza-
Tion."

As a longtime computer
User, I know that it is only
Of marginal use to stare at
The screen and yell, "Die!"

We once used a wonderful program (Hey, screaming "Die!" seems to have fixed
the capitalization problem) called XyWrite. But it could not produce a
version fully compatible with Microsoft's Windows, so it went under. Now
I'm stuck with this bloatware, Word 97, that does things I neither need nor
want. It indents some paragraphs for no apparent reason. It gives me
cutesy-pie popup windows with unhelpful hints.

But this has been the history of much computer innovation: Get along with
Microsoft and learn to use its products _ or else. You have no choice. It
is the biggest and the richest and the most powerful software company on
the planet. But even that was not enough; it also had to cheat.

It tried to crush the excellent Netscape Internet browser by giving away
its own browser as an integral part of its Windows monopoly on desktop
operating systems. If it had succeeded, it would have controlled most
access to the Internet; it's as if to use any highway, you had to buy a Ford.

But now, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has found Microsoft in violation of
the Sherman Antitrust Act, and it may be broken up. It's about time these
highfliers were held to the laws that govern the country.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has argued that his company is being
penalized merely for being such a successful innovator. Not true. He has
been nailed because he is trying to prevent anybody else from being a
successful innovator in competition with him.

Even while he was in court on charges of trying to undermine Netscape, his
company was giving away a free media program in hopes of crushing its
entrepreneurial rival, RealPlayer.

But now that Microsoft has been bagged for anti-trust violations, perhaps
it's time to enforce other laws on the computer industry as well.

First and foremost, there is age discrimination. It is the disgrace of the
computer industry that programmers are considered obsolete and unemployable
once they get much past 40.

Instead of trying to educate their employees, the computer moguls cast them
aside _ and then complain that there is a shortage of programmers that can
be met only by bringing in foreign programmers on temporary visas.

This H-1B visa program is the second national disgrace. It guarantees
computer companies a docile, cheap workforce that has no real claim to a
permanent job and holds wages down for American computer graduates.

The H-1B program also cushions the industry against a third national
disgrace, the lack of adequate investment in technical education. Why worry
about the state of our schools if, whenever you need an educated young
worker, you can import one from overseas? Training American young people in
tomorrow's technology should be a vital national objective, not a problem
that can be evaded by lifting the immigration quotas.

Maybe it's the nature of the job _ sitting alone at a desktop computer for
hours on end, typing in lines of code, playing sadistic killer video games,
depositing multimillion-dollar checks when your company goes public _ that
makes these folks so anti-social.

Hats off to Judge Jackson for taking the first step in reminding them they
are subject to the law.


-------------------------------------------------------
Norman Bauman
411 W. 54 St. Apt. 2D
New York, NY 10019
(212) 977-3223
http://www.nasw.org/users/nbauman
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