Avinash Meetoo: Blog

The European Union has fined Microsoft a record 497.2 million euros (Rs. 15,500,000,000 !!!) for abusing its near monopoly with Windoze and for having an illegal behaviour which is still ongoing.

Technically, the EU wants Microsoft to :

(1) Take out Windows Media Player from Windows so that competitors in the multimedia sector can sell their own “media player”

RealPlayer for instance, or WinAmp, are bound to die if such measures are not taken. Microsoft cannot force unto someone buying its operating system its own media player, its own web browser (viz. Antitrust case in the US) and, in Longhorn, its own virus killer (isn’t it Norton ?)

(2) Give access to detailed information (including part of the source code) of the Windows kernel and tools to software vendors building tools for the server market so that their tools can work optimally with Windows.

Oracle for instance is bound to work better with Linux now than Windows because Oracle Corp. has full access to the Linux source code and can optimise its database. But with Windows, Oracle cannot do that for the time being while Microsoft has full access to Windows source code (of course) to optimise SQL Server. This is clearly detrimental to those who have bought Windows but want to run a software which isn’t from Microsoft.

En résumé, Microsoft’s guys are bad guys, they stiffle competitors and they sell crap products.

Message to the Mauritian Government: “Paul, ouvert to lizié…”

Linux rules

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written by avinash

Avinash has already announced the news of the second baby who is “en route”. I’d just like to share some views with you, which would tend to debunk some of the myths surrounding maternity.

First of all, if there is such a thing as “maternal love”, there is also “paternal love” and people don’t seem to be talking enough about it. IMHO, it’s talking about things which gives things value. In other words, this is all CULTURAL, not to say CULTUAL! In fact, we have a very nice example of such paternal love at home, n’est-ce pas Avi?

Second, pregnancy is NOT a rosy period in the woman’s life. Believe me, it’s rather a difficult period. You feel nauseated, you get back pain, you are easily tired, and giving birth is painful. Fortunately, the result is positive (a nice cute baby like Anya
Other points to come…

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written by avinash

I’ve just bought a new Philips DVD-727K (K is for Karaoke by the way and, no, I don’t ever plan to use that feature

It’s really a magnificent DVD player. The feature set is quite phenomenal : Progressive scan, Component video output, 54Mhz/12bit video DAC, 192kHz/24 bit audio DAC and DVD rewritable compatibility. Furthermore it plays everything : DVD, SVCD, CVD, VCD and even plain MPG files on a CD !

In one word, it’s great !

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written by avinash