Microsoft's withdrawal of support a Washington state bill aimed at outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation is utterly foul. Microsoft wants to charge for its software, it wants to dominate markets, it wants people to use a non-tabbed browser -- all things which some have labeled Evil and I said “eh“. But I am disgusted that a company that utterly relies on the contributions of Computer Science can claim that “the right balance to strike” on (at least) this particular “broad social issue,” is neutrality. Computer Science's greatest genius, Alan Turing, was a gay man who almost certainly committed suicide because of the associated social stigma. Hardly the first, hardly the last gay to be so harried by the righteous certainty of those who would deprive our society of the benefits of diversity.

According to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's neutral stance on this bill is the consequence of a decision to “focus on a limited number of issues that are more directly related to our business, such as computer privacy, education, and competitiveness.” The assault on rationality being waged by evangelical zealots strikes to each of these issues. Does Microsoft not recognize that anti-gay discrimination is a fundamental judgment on the private activities of consenting adults? Does the active suppression of evolutionary theory cut close enough to the bone to be recognized by Microsoft as a threat to education? And if this judgmental, willfully ignorant, hate-mongering power-grab succeeds, will Microsoft, or any American corporation, remain a place that calls to the best and the brightest? No.

For Microsoft, the corporation, to refuse to stand by the moral principles which, rightly, are shared by Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer (and, not that ethics are a matter of majorities, a vast number of Microsoft employees and shareholders) is foul. This is not a subject, nor even a bill, on which Microsoft has been silent in the pass.

To adopt silence in the face of hatred is not neutrality. It is acquiescence. If there is one thing that the 20th century should have taught society, it is that acquiescence to narrow-mindedness, to certitude, to discrimination and hate, does not lead to compromise, but to extremism and disaster. 

Subsequent to the exposure of this issue, the anti-discrimination bill was defeated by a single vote. Further, the purity of Microsoft's neutrality on "broader social issues" has been brought into question by the revelation that Microsoft has re-initiated a $20,000-per-month relationship with Ralph Reed's consulting group. Microsoft became silent on this bill because they wanted to avoid controversy. See how that didn't work?

Clearly, I speak and Microsoft responds. Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 just became available in MSDN subscriber downloads. You're welcome.

I discuss the VB6 / VB.NET petition in my latest column for SD Times.

Eric Rudder: “...even if it's March 38th or 43rd, we will deliver [Whidbey Beta 2] in March....”

I mean, here it is tax day and we're all filled with gloom. Can't anyone do anything to relieve my depression?

NTeam is a GotDotNet project that aims to integrate, for small- to medium-teals, Open Source alternatives to the features of Microsoft's VSTS. In an EWeek article discussing it, Eric Sink of SourceGear, says that “It is inconceivable that a community project could produce a Team System clone, which is truly suitable for enterprise use during this decade."

Highly unlikely, yes. Inconceivable, not at all. The myth that Open Source cannot produce enterprise-quality software has been totally discredited by several projects. The only question is whether a corporate sponsor willing to pay a handful of major contributors is necessary. I tend to think such sponsorship is necessary. Anyone at Borland or JetBrains paying attention?

“Sincerity is not enough.” We have heard from enough sincere people to last a lifetime already. Just because you believe it’s true doesn’t make it true.

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Nail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism.

Get yours.

This is a helpful image from Michael Russell. I don't like the fundamental concept of “role-based“ IDEs but it looks like that's what we're going to have:

The headline in this survey in Computerworld is that C# is the most-used corporate development language, but my eye caught on some other numbers:

22% of respondents said they were developing 64-bit applications. 24% said they were developing wireless applications. Both those numbers are total bull. Both those areas require specialized tools that have nothing like 1/5-1/4 market penetration. Last year I did some work for AMD explaining 64-bit development to game developers and those guys were skeptical. Probably these numbers come from people thinking “Well, our database is supposed to be 64-bits and we develop apps for that. People access their email on their Blackberries and we send email.”

In 16 years of reading such surveys, I've learned corporate development surveys always overstate heterogeneity (and, boy, do they overstate “purchasing influence”).

My notes on Bill Gates knighthood ceremony finally were posted on Friday.

In which I extoll the power of Agilix InfiNotes and show source code for note-taking applications on the Tablet PC.