Re: [xml-dev] RE: Encoding charset of HTTP Basic Authentication

[James Fuller <james.fuller.2007@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 10:38 AM, Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> wrote:
> On 02/02/2012 22:16, cbullard@hiwaay.net wrote:
>>
>> Things changed because the market changed.  In the 1980s the markets for
>> software in Europe were to put it mildly, soft in comparison to the domestic
>> markets.
>
> I assume domestic should be read as "American" here?

its not like the UK helps itself by constantly defining itself in
terms of the special relationship is has with the US ... <flamebait>UK
is kind of like a domestic market for the US</flamebait>

> And I'm not sure what you mean by "soft". Less competitive? Less profitable?
> Smaller? Certainly in many areas of software, it's very hard to penetrate
> overseas markets because you need such a deep knowledge of local
> requirements, and that's true whether you're exporting from the US to Europe

living in the Czech Republic reminds me of how Europe used to be e.g.
much of the government software procurement is a locked up cabal ...
government entities across Europe were very closed and getting into
these markets was next to impossible. Most of Eastern Europe is still
privatising these institutions and getting their tendering procedures
more open ... these kind of activities takes decades to work out.

Also lets face it, doing business in Europe is difficult ... most
countries treat entrepreneurs terribly ... if Saxonica was in the
states you would get all lot more opportunity and benefits and more
chance for things like investment (which probably may not float your
boat, unsure).

> or vice versa. (Just look at the form I'm trying to complete for a current
> US government procurement, which demands to know stuff about my policy on
> employing disabled Vietnam-war veterans, and whether the University that I
> attended was "historically black". Some of the questions are so invasive I'm
> not allowed to answer them under UK privacy law).

sure, the odd thing about irrelevant questions like this is less about
the data they gather and analysis they will do on it (I don't put so
much faith in governments ability to do IT) but the sheer uselessness
of the activity ... btw this kind of 'jumping through hoops' activity
beats whatever happens in communist countries hands down (my wife
reminds me of the inanity of communist rules and I am certain most of
us would have been crushed by them).

as for the reasons why you get asked such questions ... I would try to
remind myself that these kind of laws were passed with a sense of
doing right in the world, well meaning but poorly executed.

invoking the UK privacy law as if its better is a bit of a red
herring, most of the UK privacy laws protect celebrities and
rich/ennobled folk and cost money to gain the benefit of ... its just
like in the states e.g. money talks.

>>
>> It took the consolidation of a lot of different companies around Microsoft
>> products to change the vertical stacks into horizontal ones.
>
> Actually, in Europe it was Unix that caused that change, not Microsoft. The
> trend (X/Open in particular) was in full swing in the early 1980s, long
> before Microsoft was a force to be reckoned with. The rise of the
> independent database companies (Oracle, Ingres, Informix) had nothing to do
> with Microsoft.

in Europe like anywhere if its free, this will get used first ...
especially new democracies.

>>  No one plays what's mine is mine and what's your's is mine as well as
>> Apple plays it and others such as Amazon and Facebook are shuttering the web
>> blinds to plays from companies that rely on openness such as Google even as
>> some free ride on Google openness and sharing in technologies such as
>> Android.
>>
> Yes, the ebb and flow between open and closed is fascinating to watch;
> depressing at times, but certainly interesting. Particularly depressing is
> that the regulators seem to be about 10 years behind, still fighting the
> browser wars. The way they are allowing Apple and Amazon to tie content to
> hardware amazes me: I thought that had all been made illegal 20 years ago.
>
> Not that I find the Google business model - pay for everything through
> advertising, and collect as much private data as you can in order to target
> the advertising - particularly appealing either.

Open Source continues to prove itself best for innovation (as well as
promoting sanity with developers) and I would say have a bit more
faith, the open source model is crawling the domain space for a
superior business model ... it eventually will discover something
better then 'advertising'.

Jim Fuller