Does everyone out there get it yet? Monopolies=bad.

The rules that applied in the late 80s don’t apply in the late 90s because Microsoft has a near-monopoly position in the operating system and application businesses, and it uses those positions to further cement the strength of each of them. Over time the lock-in increases.

The lock-in process has nothing to do with the quality of product or the economic cost to users and computer vendors. It’s a philosophic challenge our country has dealt with before, and in the past we decided that it’s not in our interest to allow this kind of lock-in to happen.

Sometimes Dave Winer gets it just right.

I think, in some ways programmers, who live the scientific method, are better prepared for life than non-programmers, but the opposite is often assumed. We all have a visual image of the programmer, but this is just the outer package. A great programmer is a seeker of truth and beauty. Successful programmers know how to ask questions, and they know how to ask the **right** question. You can’t go forward until that happens. A programmer is a rigorous scientist determined to coax the truth out of the ones and zeros. There’s the beauty.

I haven’t been a programmer as long as Dave (it’s been 15 years or so for me), but this piece captures for me exactly how I feel about the work I do.

When a programmer catches fire it’s because he or she groks the system, its underlying truth has been revealed. I’ve seen this happen many times, a programmer languishes for months, chipping at the edges of a problem. Then all of a sudden, a breakthrough happens, the pieces start fitting together. A few months later the software works, and you go forward.

***YES!*** I believe that programming is much more art than engineering, and that a good programmer has the soul of an artist. This is the way an artist works… when meaning is found, inspiration ensues.

Moriarty from [[Ain’t It Cool News]] hits the nail right on the head.

And like many movie fans my age, I grew up with Siskel & Ebert as a natural part of my unnaturally voracious movie appetite. Even when I didn’t agree with one or the other or both of them, the thing their show imparted to me, loud and clear, was the idea that it was okay to feel passionately about films, and that discussion of them could lead you to all sorts of unexpected pleasures.

EXACTLY!