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

["Pete Cordell" <petexmldev@codalogic.com>]

Welcome to XML Celebrity Slamdown!

I'm giving the contestants 1 point each.

One to Michael for mentioning American purchasing systems.  I'm amazed that 
very large American companies' purchasing systems still require you to enter 
a US State and a phone number in the North American numbering plan format. 
Lack of international awareness (or lack of international concerns) is not a 
20 year-old historical artefact.

One to Len because I don't believe Unix would have got us to where we are 
today.  Really, neither the European computer industry won, nor the American 
computer industry won.  It was the American hobbyists that won, as 
exemplified by Gates and Jobs.  Europe's focus was largely on satisfying the 
needs of large corporations.  If you wanted a computer you had the choice of 
one that required its own air conditioned room and only did payroll, or one 
that you could put in a corner and also played Pacman!  With hindsight, no 
contest!

Pete Cordell
Codalogic Ltd
Interface XML to C++ the easy way using C++ XML
data binding to convert XSD schemas to C++ classes.
Visit http://codalogic.com/lmx/ or http://www.xml2cpp.com
for more info
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>
To: <cbullard@hiwaay.net>
Cc: <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 9:38 AM
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] RE: Encoding charset of HTTP Basic Authentication


> 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?
>
> 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 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).
>>
>>
>> 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.
>>   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.
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica
>
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