[KLUG Members] The *FOUR* Best Things From Redmond (Postponed)

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> > Due to circumstances Mr. Brown will not be able to present "The *FOUR*
> > Best Things From Redmond" this week.  
> Maybe Mr. Brown couldn't come with with FOUR good things that ever came
> out of Redmond?  ;-)

I don't know what his four were/are - but I can think of three:

(1) ODBC - Wonderful but terribly under-utilized in the Open Source
world.  How many database abstraction layers for Perl, PHP, Python,
etc... exist on Freshmeat?  Answer: A bajillion.  Number that are total
crap: (bagillion - (very small percentage of bajillion)).  Number that
are a waste of time because ODBC already does this (and in C!): A
bajillion.

(2) The .NET CLI and base class libraries.  THANK YOU MICROSOFT!  For
the VERY FIRST actually *USEFUL* R.A.D. system for developing desktop
application on LINUX that doesn't totally blow chunks.  Previously Open
Source has proposed what exactly as competition.... Tcl/Tk??  Writing
GUI event driven apps in PHP using PHP-GTK?  Gack!  Python (the
programming language for masochists... WHITESPACE as delimiters for
function blocks??? Are your *^*@&^&*R^8 &*^%@*%^&@ insane!  Please,
please, give me my Ryan McFarland COBOL.)?  And the Linux Journal
Editor's agree with me!  See the 2005 Editor's choice awards.

(3) M$-Flight Simulator.  Hey, it was very cool in it's day.  And
probably the first real graphics 'application' other than AutoCAD.  My
second job involved an 80386 with an EGA (so very cool!) graphics card
with three programs installed: AutoCAD 2.62, Lotus 1-2-3, and M$-Flight
Simulator.  I never did anything with M$-FS but run the demo (Lotus and
AutoCAD were way more intriguing) but it was really cool - especially
with that propeller whirring sound they managed to make with just the PC
speaker. :)

> > At this point we do not know if we
> > will be able to find a replacement speaker in time.  If you would like
> > to volunteer or have any suggestions please e-mail me at
> > programdirector at kalamazoolinux.org
> ******************************************************************
> This is a REALLY GOOD TIME for anyone wishing to see a repeat of a
> previous presentation (maybe one they missed) to SPEAK UP, *SOON*.
> ******************************************************************

Yep - *SOON*