Re: Watercoloring metaphor (used to be Re: Antitrust Bill of Rights)

[Milton Ponson <level.seven@setarnet.aw>]

  Hans Reiser wrote:
  > 
  > May I quote you on my response to Microsoft's motion to dismiss?  (Which I will
  > post it to the list as soon as it is ready.)  You said it so much better than I
  > was planning to.  Beautiful metaphor, pun intended.
  > 
  > Hans
  > 
  > Robert Mark Waugh wrote:
  > 
  I like to use the metaphor of the artist.  There are a
  > > lot of artists, each of whom will say that for their goal, their > >medium is the ultimate medium for doing whatever it is that they want. > > The current situation for developers is as if a really aggressive art > > supply company that only produces water color supplies came into the > > market, and set about destroying all other mediums.  What's more, the > > art supply company, using it's ill gotten gains, floods the media > > with propaganda regarding the inferiority of the paintings done with > > oil, the validity of sculptures, even photography is portrayed as a > > secondary art form, not quite capable of being artistic.
  > > Seeing as most of the population is ignorant about art as is, people > > begin to buy it after 5 or 6 years of constant bombardment.
  > > There are still bastions of oil painters because they can still use
  > > the canvas that the only remaining canvas maker (the aggressive art > > supply company) produces.  The solution of course is to ensure that > > the canvases don't hold oil, and to package their water color with > > every canvas.
  > >
  > > In this scenerio, there is a whole culture of people that is affected
  > > tremendously by the monopoly's aggressive behaviour that isn't an end consumer
  > > or a business man or middle man (dealers, etc, in the art metaphor).  It's a
  > > group of people who are very passionate about their mediums, and many of whom
  > > are quite specialized in the medium they have adopted.  With the advent of a
  > > water-color only society, these artists are becoming more and more pressured
  > > out of their ability to work.  The business men can move on into dealing water
  > > color paintings, but not all of the painters can move on into the water color
  > > medium.
  > >
  > > I think that there is an inate prejudice towards developers, because people
  > > don't understand that it takes a tremendous amount of time and skill to become
  > > truely adept at systems of development.  The Microsoft development platform
  > > and development systems are sort of like water color: weak, transparent, and
  > > terribly inflexible.  You can make fine masterpieces with their systems, but
  > > you can't make everything.  To allow Microsoft to continue to destroy it's
  > > competition such as it did with borland is to invite a world of Microsoft only
  > > development tools on a Microsoft only development platform.
  > 
  > So well said.
  > > Microsoft made their near monopoly in development tools and word processors.
  > >
  > > Anyways... enough random thoughts... need more sleep... :)
  
  Funny you should mention the artist metaphor. I am the president to be
  of the Aruban Association of Visual Arts and could not agree more.
  
  One regrettable aspect of the modern information age is that
  professionals in all fields because of the information overload tend to
  stick to their professional and private interests.
  
  Has it gone unnoticed  that Bill Gates owns the intellectual property
  rights to the world's largest collection of photographs.?
  
  Makes the remark about water colors all the more accurate.
  
  Remember what the original profession of the the World War II German
  dictator was and his connection to artists and architects and how he
  stepped down hard on "deformed art forms"? I am not stating that Bill
  Gates should be put in the same category, but it makes you kind a
  wonder.
  
  Milton Ponson
  
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