Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Today, I'd like to postulate a set of common assumptions underlying many tech news articles:
1. Anything Microsoft does is evil and monopolistic and anyone who says otherwise is a corporate sellout;
2. Anything any other large software company does is mostly fine, even when it is exactly the same as was done in (1);
3. Anything Apple does is pretty and groundbreaking (even if the same as was done in (1)), although Apple people can be a bit much sometimes; and
4. Open Source is either a 'growing force' or 'about to take over the world' but we wouldn't let our daughters anywhere near Linux people.
By way of illustration, this article in the New York Times about NBC's use of Silverlight to provide online Olympics coverage. The observant reader will note that Silverlight is described as 'proprietary' technology while Flash is not. I bet Adobe are going to be surprised to hear they don't own Flash anymore.
Note to the author: if you feel you have to use pejorative adjectives like that (a need I'd question) at least use them consistently - otherwise you're just being being needlessly subjective.
Next, the article outlines Microsoft's monopolistic tendencies and then goes on to describe the advantages of the 99% penetration enjoyed by Flash, without obvious irony.
Those of you who have a copy of Flash might like to compare the ActionScript it uses with the AJAX used by Silverlight. If you don't have the Flash software, you won't be able to make such a comparison because you can't do anything with Flash content without purchasing it. Yet Silverlight is singled out in the article by a tame professor as "...a way to lock up the content, and it’s not enabling as much innovation as we would like to see." Perhaps the Professor also has a better grasp of irony than I give him credit for.
Geekier readers, meanwhile, will know that ActionScript is proprietary to Adobe while AJAX is a W3C standard - exactly the kind of standard described glowingly in the article as 'a growing economic force'.
By now you've probably decided I'm either a Microsoft stooge (see point 1 above) or something of a pedant - after all, most web users aren't geeks and don't care how the content they access is coded. On the latter I fully agree. I prefer to follow my Father's advice and choose the right tool for the right job and get on with things (though it has to be said he's had less luck with some of his other advice).
Which is why I'm frequently surprised by some of my correspondents when they present their views on such geek esoterica with the kind of blood-shot, spittle-flecked vehemence traditionally reserved for Spanish Inquisitors and Salem Witch-Hunters.
Neither of whom were known for their grasp of irony either.
1. Anything Microsoft does is evil and monopolistic and anyone who says otherwise is a corporate sellout;
2. Anything any other large software company does is mostly fine, even when it is exactly the same as was done in (1);
3. Anything Apple does is pretty and groundbreaking (even if the same as was done in (1)), although Apple people can be a bit much sometimes; and
4. Open Source is either a 'growing force' or 'about to take over the world' but we wouldn't let our daughters anywhere near Linux people.
By way of illustration, this article in the New York Times about NBC's use of Silverlight to provide online Olympics coverage. The observant reader will note that Silverlight is described as 'proprietary' technology while Flash is not. I bet Adobe are going to be surprised to hear they don't own Flash anymore.
Note to the author: if you feel you have to use pejorative adjectives like that (a need I'd question) at least use them consistently - otherwise you're just being being needlessly subjective.
Next, the article outlines Microsoft's monopolistic tendencies and then goes on to describe the advantages of the 99% penetration enjoyed by Flash, without obvious irony.
Those of you who have a copy of Flash might like to compare the ActionScript it uses with the AJAX used by Silverlight. If you don't have the Flash software, you won't be able to make such a comparison because you can't do anything with Flash content without purchasing it. Yet Silverlight is singled out in the article by a tame professor as "...a way to lock up the content, and it’s not enabling as much innovation as we would like to see." Perhaps the Professor also has a better grasp of irony than I give him credit for.
Geekier readers, meanwhile, will know that ActionScript is proprietary to Adobe while AJAX is a W3C standard - exactly the kind of standard described glowingly in the article as 'a growing economic force'.
By now you've probably decided I'm either a Microsoft stooge (see point 1 above) or something of a pedant - after all, most web users aren't geeks and don't care how the content they access is coded. On the latter I fully agree. I prefer to follow my Father's advice and choose the right tool for the right job and get on with things (though it has to be said he's had less luck with some of his other advice).
Which is why I'm frequently surprised by some of my correspondents when they present their views on such geek esoterica with the kind of blood-shot, spittle-flecked vehemence traditionally reserved for Spanish Inquisitors and Salem Witch-Hunters.
Neither of whom were known for their grasp of irony either.
posted by matt at
14:00
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