On Sat, 22 Sep 2001 14:00:28 +0200,
Thilo Manske <Thilo.Manske@HEH.Uni-Oldenburg.DE> wrote:
>On Fri, Sep 21 2001 at 20:59:27 -0700, Mike Cheponis wrote:
>> This paper is very interesting (mentioned on slashdot today) and is, I
>> hope, the direction that NetBSD will also go over this coming decade.  -Mike
>> 
>> http://research.microsoft.com/research/sn/Millennium/mgoals.html
>[under "Goals":]
>"New machines, network links, and resources should be automatically
>assimilated."
>Borg, Borg, Borg - I can't get it out of my head...

I find it adorable how Microsoft engineers continue to maintain the
naive belief in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that they can
invent the cutting edge of computer science, when they have trouble
making a stable OS based on last decade's technology.  Of all the "What
would such a system be like?" scenarios, they left out ones actually
likely to happen:

	Web Service

	A little-known web site suddenly achieves popularity, perhaps
	with a link from "Cool Site of the Day" or a mentioned in a
	prominent news story. Word of mouth spreads, and soon the web
	site's servers are overwhelmed. Or rather, would have been
	overwhelmed except that heuristics in the Millennium system had
	noticed the new link and already started replicating the site
	for increased availability.  Unfortunately, "Cool Site of the
	Day" was run by a 13-year old who also just finished writing the
	new Code Purple virus, and now every computer in the Borg
	collective is infected.


	Operating System Bug

	A computer tries to run the new WayCoolApp program and due to a
	bug in the gloriously well-designed Microsoft OS, immediately
	gets the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD).  However, other machines
	in the Borg Collective, obediently eager to rush to the aid of a
	fallen comrade, try to run the WayCoolApp and they all get
	BSODed too.  Soon the only machine left holding the company up
	is the NetBSD box in the sysadmin's office.

And so on.  I'm sure everyone can imagine other equally amusing ones.

--Mirian