I don't see why these types of articles have to focus on the notion of a 'victory' for either side. Microsoft isn't winning, but it's making a lot of money in various areas, so it's not losing either.
Microsoft probably is concerned about declining market share, but to suggest it was always targeting 100% of the market is misleading (there are people that have always and will always run Linux, and there are other people -- particularly large enterprises -- that they are much more focused on).
I don't agree with the interface comment. Facebook became popular in part because it had a much cleaner, more usable, interface than MySpace. I think the same is true of Flickr, though I'm not a heavy user.
It's probably true that other, newer companies have created better interfaces since then, but I'd argue that they became popular because their interfaces were superior at the time.
> I think the same is true of Flickr, though I'm not a heavy user.
Might have been true in the past, but I'll be damned if I don't just insta-close any flickr link I click by mistake these days. I just want to see a picture and half the time I get these two dots swirling around for what seems like half an hour, until it leads me to a half-broken interface with a tiny dot of a picture.
Non-EU students pay fees in Scotland, but these are often still cheaper than full fees for top US universities. I think in Scotland the fee is between £10,000-15,000 per year, whereas EU students don't pay anything (in an odd quirk English students still pay fees, but no more than £4,000).
I disagree that Java is inherently wrong for CS education. It ultimately depends on what you decide to teach using it (i.e. it's concepts that are being taught, the languages are only the carrier).
It's possible to teach courses in data structures, algorithms, and so on using Java, just as it's possible to use it as a gateway to other languages like Python and C.
Java puts boilerplate between the programmer and the algorithms and data structures without allowing direct control of the memory. Python, Scheme, Haskell and many others do it without the boilerplate, while C and any of many assembly languages require that the student learn what the hardware is actually doing.
The amount of data you have is really impressive, and it's displayed well. I liked being able to compare teams/players from the previous seasons, rather than just current trends.
It would be nice if you could compare players based on their career stats, rather than on a per-season basis. Some kind of text search would be good so that I could, for example, compare each of Aaron Rodgers' seasons against each other.
What's the target audience of the app? I watch the NFL each week but don't think I have any use for it (other than a general interest these kind of stats).
Microsoft probably is concerned about declining market share, but to suggest it was always targeting 100% of the market is misleading (there are people that have always and will always run Linux, and there are other people -- particularly large enterprises -- that they are much more focused on).