In order to pass the last exam left and graduate from the University of Plovdiv I had to create a small program that draws some splines. I picked Bézier curves as they seemed to be one of the simplest kind of parametric curves...

   Some of you probably know that the minority browser makers worried by the fact that people do not give a fuck about their crappy software and the useless web "standards" went to the EU Commission and asked it to make Microsoft bundle their browsers with Windows because according to them Microsoft abused their OS market share by bundling Internet Explorer. Of course Microsoft had no intention to bundle alternative browsers with their OS. At the very least Microsoft do not want to answer support calls for browsers they did not make. So what did Microsoft do. They said "FUCK YOU" to the EU Commission and they will ship Windows 7 in Europe without any browser. There will be a separate CD with IE for OEMs. Of course all OEMs will just install IE because none of them will want to take all the support calls complaining that "The Internet is missing". Most of them probably will not bundle alternative browsers because this means they will have to support it. Basically IE will be bundled with as many Windows installations as it is bundled with now - all of them. The only people who will be affected are the 10% of the users that I (and most probably you) belong to who install Windows on their own. Now the installation will require two discs - one for Windows and one for the browser (be it IE or a minority one). How is that any other OS can ship with a browser but Windows cannot? The funny part is that IE has less than 50% usage share in Europe. Good job protecting the consumers EU Commission. FUCK YOU!


Update 03.08.2009

   Microsoft has decided to include ballot screen in Windows 7 if the default browser is IE. The solution is quite interesting since the ballot screen will be presented in IE itself. It will be a web page with an option to download browsers ordered by market share. Even more interesting is the fact that the ballot screen will be pushed through Windows Update to XP and Vista machines. It will be displayed only to users that have IE set as the default browser so this can lead to users moving away from IE but not the other way around. Microsoft will be promoting direct competitors. It is not yet sure if the EU Commission will accept this offer.

   One thing that is really good about this decision is that 5 years from now Windows 7 will not be shipping with 5 years old Firefox.

Q: What is worse than 8 years old browser shipping with the most popular OS?
A: Five 8 years old browsers shipping with the most popular OS.

You can read more and see a screenshot of the ballot screen here.

   We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.

   Being a Bulgarian, I decided to dedicate the second part of the series to John Atanasoff. In Bulgaria he is known as the creator of the computer. I want to make it clear that I do not think that he was the creator of the computer. The computer did not have a single creator so no giant can bear this title alone. John Atanasoff however is certainly one of the giants, who carried on their shoulders the machine we call computer during the times when it was really heavy. In his case, it was 320 kg. One way or another, shedding light on his work should be interesting even if you are one of the people who choose to believe that this particular giant invented the computer on his own...

   I have been playing with ASP.NET MVC these days and I am ready to share my impressions with the countless readers of this no-blog. I have seen several presentations comparing ASP.NET Web Forms with ASP.NET MVC and they inevitably start with the presenter slipping out of any responsibility and telling the audience that he cannot tell them what to use. Well, these presenters are pussies. While I will not take any responsibility when your project fails I can tell you which one you should choose. Just take this simple quiz...

   There is still some slight probability that even after reading The Broken Web and The Broken Web 2 there are still optimists about the future of the web among the throng of readers of this no-blog. After all with so many readers chances are that some of them will be in severe error. Of course I am here to help them get rid of their illusions because the sooner they see the truth the lesser the pain will be. Today I will tell you about the company that has thrown the greatest amount of shit in the fan of absurdity that we call World Wide Web, but before that let me point once again some random thing that went very wrong with the so called "web standards"...