Someone I was talking to was talking about seeing the .net framework demonstrations and how amazed he was by the integration Microsoft is able to achieve across products. In other words, their monopoly is a value add for consumers.

However, where would C# be without Java? I've seen the bytecode and the two sure look similar. Of course, the lecturer who made the slides admitted that he chose an example where the similiarities would be highlighted."Microsoft is nothing if not a great rabbit chaser," the same person I was talking to said. But then where is the economic incentive to push the envelope, if the profit and sustainability are in being the follower. Can we sustain innovation if introducing a first-generation technology to the world only paves the way for MS (or whoever) to refine and re-market it? There seems to be a disconnect between the kind of behavior we'd like to encourage in society and the way the behavior currently rewarded in the market.

I don't have thoughts on how to fix it. I have to worry about singleton classes and GPUs right now. :) I just wrote it here so I don't forget. And if anyone cares, drop me a line.
- posted by gleemie @ 5:28 PM