What to do about Palladium

[Catfish_Man]

I assume by now everyone has heard about Microsoft's new plot to take over the world called Palladium. If not, here are some places to look:

http://www.theregus.com
http://slashdot.org
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/news/webboard (go to the "just tech" forum and look for the Palladium thread

Since it obviously needs to dealt with, I'm open to suggestions on what to do about it. My current plan is to write a letter to Sen. Fritz Hollings (and Microsoft, perhaps) explaining why I think it's a horrible idea, but that plan kinda requires a lot of people.

[vitruvius]

Damn !!, now im sure Bill Gates has the 666 written in his head!!

[alex_ant]

I support you in spirit, Catfish Man, but I'm not sure we'd be able to remove the various media companies' knobs from Fritz Hollings' mouth even with the combined power of every single Macrumors member.

I think the most effective way to combat Palladium will be the education of the masses. This is how Hailstorm was defeated, and if Hailstorm is any indication, I see Palladium being swiftly crushed by consumer disdain. "This is your computer. This is your computer on Palladium. Any questions?"

Alex

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by alex_ant
I support you in spirit, Catfish Man, but I'm not sure we'd be able to remove the various media companies' knobs from Fritz Hollings' mouth even with the combined power of every single Macrumors member.

I think the most effective way to combat Palladium will be the education of the masses. This is how Hailstorm was defeated, and if Hailstorm is any indication, I see Palladium being swiftly crushed by consumer disdain. "This is your computer. This is your computer on Palladium. Any questions?"

Alex
... currently I'm working on macrumors and ambrosia software's webboards. I think arstechnica has enough people who *really* know what they're doing that they'll come up with something, so I'm not really bothering to point it out to them. I think slashdot will help too, they've got the numbers to make a difference and are heavily in favor of open source. Basically I'm looking for ideas right now, letters will help, but we really need a way of educating the masses as you said. The Newsweek article on it was a really rotten, it was basically advertising in disguise. Unfortunately, a lot of people read it, and a lot of people don't know much about computers.

[Durandal7]

I say we taunt it until it goes away.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by asurace
I say we taunt it until it goes away.
...not a terrible plan. btw, my login for {mac} seems to be broken. Any ideas?

[Durandal7]

Originally posted by Catfish_Man

...not a terrible plan. btw, my login for {mac} seems to be broken. Any ideas?
I'll take a look at it.

[Choppaface]

IMO its not worth waisting the energy on complaining until it directly effects you. i.e., I certainly wouldn't bother writing a letter, although I might sign some sort of petition since it's relatively easy. unless there's a very strong movement already established and ready to take on MS, I wouldn't see it as advantageous to start 'acting out' until my XP box stopped playing mp3s, or changed something without my approval. it's simply not worth getting angry over things in general...