Will C++ destroy Microsoft Corp.?

The last 2 weeks of struggle to install my wife's "Simply Accounting 2008 Premium Student's Ed." (SA) by Sage, on Windows XP convinced me that the answer has to be positive.

Problem.

The package installer program would crash at the end of installation. Event Log showed that the crashes were due to a missing class, message issued by CLR module from the .NET2 framework. Turns out SA was compiled using Visual Studio 2005 and uses .NET2 but some changes after 2005 (most likely .NET3.5 or some service packs) broke the compatibility. It's not just one application problem. Apparently, the same happens to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on a fully upgraded and fully service-packed WinXP Pro. It hangs or crash on install, except when installed on a fresh un-upgraded WinXP.

Solution.

Think about Linux then uninstall in this order: .NET3.5, .NET3.0, then .net-sp2, then unistall .NET2 . If uninstallation fails at any of the stage use dotnetfx_cleanup_tool.zip (from Microsoft web site). Get rid of all .NET down to .Net1.1. Turn off automatic upgrades. Re-install .NET2 using dotnetfx_Net2.exe from Microsoft web site. Reboot. Reinstall application program. Think about Linux again.

Conclusions.

1. .NET framework issued with Visual Studio 2008 appears to break old applications that use .NET2.

2. With C++ being Microsoft's language of choice, .NET framework was introduced by Microsoft to overcome C++ inherent flaw - it's inter-modular binary incompatibility. Clearly that does not seem to be working very well. However C++ does work very well for Linux/Unix OS where applications are distributed as sources and binary incompatibility does not matter! In short: C++ + GPL = sucess, C++ + $$$ = failure!

3. Microsoft is probably not using .NET for it's own new applications, so shouldn't we either!

Microsoft used to tout like crazy ASP.NET and all .NETx.x plus a small herd of other impossible to remember acronyms like WPF etc, from every media outlet. I believe that they may have already quietly scrapped all that new Application Programming Interface garbage! Ever tried installing Internet Explorer 8 without the latest .NET3_3.5? It works like a charm, no problem! I wonder what was the truth behind the rumors of their Vista development "Reset" (code scrap & re-write) in 2005? Is that only my nagging heretical suspicion that it may have had something to do with a hypothetical major flaw in their .NET framework?

4. I have seen the future and it might just work... My view on Objective-C and C++

5. Think about Linux...

6. Why do I think that C++ is an upside-down language...
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Beware of Okinawa Diet scam!

I thought Okinawa Diet case has been rightfully forgotten a few years ago but a recent post on webmd Diet Debate board tries to revive it by linking this article , quote:

...Okinawa Centenarian Study. Okinawa, a chain of islands in southern Japan, has the highest concentration of centenarians. Uniformly these old folks have a vegetable-based, low-calorie, low-fat diet and exercise daily. They eat on average seven servings of vegetables and seven servings of grain per day, several servings of soy products, fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids, and little dairy or red meat.

My comment: I have come across Okinawa Study and the popular books by Willcox et al. a few years ago and came to a conclusion that it is totally bogus and a scam designed to sell their books, diet plans, supplements etc.

Here is what what do Okinawans probably eat, from WAPF web article :

And what do Okinawans eat? The main meat of the diet is pork, and not the lean cuts only. Okinawan cuisine, according to gerontologist Kazuhiko Taira, "is very healthy-and very, very greasy," in a 1996 article that appeared in Health Magazine.19 And the whole pig is eaten-everything from "tails to nails." Local menus offer boiled pigs feet, entrail soup and shredded ears. Pork is cooked in a mixture of soy sauce, ginger, kelp and small amounts of sugar, then sliced and chopped up for stir fry dishes. Okinawans eat about 100 grams of meat per day-compared to 70 in Japan and just over 20 in China-and at least an equal amount of fish, for a total of about 200 grams per day, compared to 280 grams per person per day of meat and fish in America. Lard-not vegetable oil-is used in cooking. Okinawans also eat plenty of fibrous root crops such as taro and sweet potatoes. They consume rice and noodles, but not as the main component of the diet. They eat a variety of vegetables such as carrots, white radish, cabbage and greens, both fresh and pickled. Bland tofu is part of the diet, consumed in traditional ways, but on the whole Okinawan cuisine is spicy. Pork dishes are flavored with a mixture of ginger and brown sugar, with chili oil and with "the wicked bite of bitter melon."
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19. Deborah Franklyn, "Take a Lesson from the
People of Okinawa," Health, September 1996, pp 57-63

I also found my old post containing some information from Barry Groves (private communication), see what he had to say:

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Okinawa (by Heretic on Aug-08-06, webmd)

I am trying to get hold of some papers on the subject. So far I found, surprisingly (or may be not...) that there is just as much confusion about it and contradictions in the literature, as about infamous "The China Study"(*). When I get the article text I will post some quotations. It will require a trip to the local uni library and paying some $$$. Let me quote after Barry Groves (private communication), the following citation:

In 1992 scientists at the Department of Community Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Japan published a paper which examined the relationship of nutritional status to further life expectancy and health status in the Japanese elderly[1]. It was based on three epidemiological studies. In the first, nutrient intakes in ninety-four Japanese centenarians investigated between 1972 and 1973 showed a higher proportion of animal protein to total proteins than in contemporary average Japanese. The second demonstrated that high intakes of milk and fats and oils had favourable effects on ten-year survivorship in 422 urban residents aged sixty-nine to seventy-one. The survivors revealed a longitudinal increase in intakes of animal foods such as eggs, milk, fish and meat over the ten years. In the third study, nutrient intakes were compared between a sample from Okinawa Prefecture where life expectancies at birth and sixty-five were the longest in Japan, and a sample from Akita Prefecture where the life expectancies were much shorter. It found that the proportion of energy from proteins and fats were significantly higher in the former than in the latter.


Reference
1. Shibata H., Nagai H., Haga H., Yasumura S., Suzuki T., Suyama Y. Nutrition for the Japanese elderly. Nutr & Health. 1992; 8(2-3): 165-75.

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Update 9-Nov-2009

Description of Okinawa food:

http://stanford.wellsphere.com/healthy-eating-article/hara-hachi-bu-lessons-from-okinawa/845480
Quote:

Animal Foods, Seafoods, Fat and Okinawa Cuisine
Traditional foods of Okinawa are extremely varied, remarkably nutrient-dense as are all traditional foods and strictly moderated with the philosophy of hara hachi bu. While the diet of Okinawa is, indeed, plant-based it is most certainly not “low fat” as has been posited by some writer-researchers about the native foods of Okinawa. Indeed, all those stirfries of bittermelon and fresh vegetables found in Okinawan bowls are fried in lard and seasoned with sesame oil. I remember fondly that a slab of salt pork graced every bowl of udon I slurped up while living on the island. Pig fat is not, as you can imagine, a low-fat food yet the Okinawans are fond of it. Much of the fat consumed is pastured as pigs are commonly raised at home in the gardens of Okinawan homes. Pork and lard, like avocado and olive oil, are a remarkably good source of monounsaturated fatty acid and, if that pig roots around on sunny days, it is also a remarkably source of vitamin D.
The diet of Okinawa also includes considerably more animal products and meat – usually in the form of pork – than that of the mainland Japanese or even the Chinese. Goat and chicken play a lesser, but still important, role in Okinawan cuisine. Okinawans average about 100 grams or one modest portion of meat per person per day. Animal foods are important on Okinawa and, like all food, play a role in the population’s general health, well-being and longevity.
Fish plays an important role in the cooking of Okinawa as well. Seafoods eaten are various and numerous – with Okinawans averaging about 200 grams of fish per day.

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More links (07/06/2010): Okinawa - The Island of Pork

Note (updated 18/12/2011):  Unfortunately the link above with its lovely photo of a market stall filled with pork to the roof, has gone kaput. Enjoy okinawa-information.com instead.   Quote:

 Pork is a very important ingredient, and every part of the pig is used, from pig's feet and pig's ears to pork tripe. Other ingredients include local seafood and native tropical vegetables and fruits.

Update 21-Oct-2010 (from Denise Minger comments on her blog)

Nutr Health. 1992;8(2-3):165-75. Nutrition for the Japanese elderly., Shibata H,et al.

Abstract quote:

The present paper examines the relationship of nutritional status to further life expectancy and health status in the Japanese elderly based on 3 epidemiological studies. 1. Nutrient intakes in 94 Japanese centenarians investigated between 1972 and 1973 showed a higher proportion of animal protein to total proteins than in contemporary average Japanese. 2. High intakes of milk and fats and oils had favorable effects on 10-year (1976-1986) survivorship in 422 urban residents aged 69-71. The survivors revealed a longitudinal increase in intakes of animal foods such as eggs, milk, fish and meat over the 10 years. 3. Nutrient intakes were compared, based on 24-hour dietary records, between a sample from Okinawa Prefecture where life expectancies at birth and 65 were the longest in Japan, and a sample from Akita Prefecture where the life expectancies were much shorter. Intakes of Ca, Fe, vitamins A, B1, B2, C, and the proportion of energy from proteins and fats were significantly higher in the former than in the latter. Intakes of carbohydrates and NaCl were lower.

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Added 24-Jan-2013 (thanks for the paper, Anonymous!):

More quotes from Shibata's paper:


Quotes:

The food intake pattern in Okinawa has been different from that in other regions  of  Japan.  The people  there  have  never  been  influenced  by Buddhism. Hence, there has been no taboo regarding eating habits. Eating meat was not  stygmatised, and consumption of pork and goat was historically high.  It was exceptional among Japanese food consumption.
The intake of meat was higher in  Okinawa... On the other hand, the intake of fish was lower... Intake of NaCl was lower... Deep colored vegetables were taken more in Okinawa... These characteristics of dietary status are thought to be among the crucial factors  which convey longevity and good health to the elderly in Okinawa Prefecture. ....

and the "kicker":

Unexpectedly, we  did not find any vegetarians among the centenarians.

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Food Choices and Coronary Heart Disease

Barry Groves published today a note on his blog about this new study. The most interesting are certain heretical conclusions such as, quote:

Daily intake of fruit and vegetables was associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease when combined with a high dairy fat consumption (odds ratio 0.39, 95% CI 0.21-0.73), but not when combined with a low dairy fat consumption (odds ratio 1.70, 95% CI 0.97-2.98).

It is noticeable that the odds ratios are highly significant, by a large factor, namely 61% lower risk for high fat and 70% higher for low fat consumption! By high/low fat the authors meant this:

Low consumption of dairy fat was defined as milk with 1.5 percent fat or less, no butter and seldom or never intake of cream. All others were denoted high consumption of dairy fat.

However, the real harbinger of low fat diet doom is table 4 (click on the picture to magnify):



I strongly suggest to print it out and stick it on a fridge!

Finally, the following heretical, no - an outright subversive paragraph found its way into the end section. Please understand that I am in a state of shock [aaaah] - you are looking at the paper published in the mainstream peer-reviewd scientific journal. Quote:

In the prospective population-based Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, total fat and saturated fat were not associated with cardiovascular events [14]. Evidence support harmful effects of trans-fatty acids on coronary heart disease, but there is insufficient evidence of associations between saturated fat and heart disease [3]. We lack a clear understanding of the complex effects on health of fats in relation to other components in dairy products [32,33]. A recent review and meta-analysis of 15 cohort studies of vascular disease and milk and dairy consumption found lower relative risks of stroke and/or heart disease in subjects with a high milk and dairy consumption relative to the risk in subjects with low consumption [34].