The World According to Marc

Just when I think I've seen the craziest post ever, I find I spoke too soon.

Some other enlightened should posted over a Joel's board today (quite a day at Joel's a guess). It seems that Macromedia Flash cannot handle Right-to-Left text processing. Technical problem? Poor design? Nah, it is because they are racists.

I need some Tequila.

I've heard some rather specious arguments defending the GPL and it's followers. But this one over at Joel's message board takes them to an entirely new low. The gist of his argument is that the GPL is Marxist and this is a good thing.

My favorite part? It is where he claims he supports the GPL and Free Software Foundation "because essentially, they proved that a socialist society is possible".

Yet more proof that if geeks ran the world we would be dead in a week.

UPDATE: Sorry, wrong URL there. This is the correct one.

Joel made some interesting comments about Linux and the German government migration to the platform. It spawned an even more interesting thread in his forums.

The best post was from Philo:

Why does Linux *have* to be a market success? The market has Windows, and that seems to be satisfying most people just fine.
Is there a need for Linux somewhere?

I'm not sure I agree with the implication, but it is an interesting question. 10 points for being gutsy at least.

Personally I think there is a need for Open Source products. Not because they add value (some do, most don't) but because they keep the big boys honest. They are the software world's equivalent to a "running game"; it may not always produce good results, but that doesn't diminish its role.

Chris seems concerned about higher primates programming. He shouldn't, lower primates have been doing so for years. ;-)

Roy started a stir last week when he brought up the every thorny topic of C# Case Sensitivity. I've not seen so many people take sides on such a ridiculous issue since the great debate over Pamela Anderson's breasts (were that better before, after, or after-after?).

What most VB developers miss with C# isn't really Case Insensitivity, it is Case Correction. When you define a variable in VB with the name sOmEvAr, VB will automatically correct future references as your type. So if you accidentally enter SoMeVaR, it fixes it for you right then, preventing an inevitable compiler error. This is something that could be added to the IDE without adversely impacting developers who don't want the feature (just turn it off). And if the implementation worked similar to Word's auto-correct feature, you could undo the IDE's correction by pressing CTRL-Z (any auto-correction is considered an undoable step).

So lets all just cool our heads for a bit and remember that just because you develop one way, doesn't make you any more correct than the next guy. And for the record, they were better before.

Joel is talking about Vault and CitiDesk today. I feel it is the most brilliant post he has ever made. The fact that it includes a quote from me has nothing whatsoever to do with it... ok, that's a lie. ;-)

My only experience with CitiDesk has been from toying around with it. I've not had a need for any serious use yet. But as I said last week, this will not stop me from checking out every new release. I'm hoping 3.0 has something in it that I can really use over here.

And winner for bizarre conspiracy theory of the year, Andrew C. Oliver thinks I'm really Marc Fleury of JBoss Group. Let me assure you, I'm not. 

It also seems that Mr. Oliver has generated more hits on my blog than I've ever seen (three times the norm). Thanks dude.