http://www.codemasterchallenge.com/Home.aspx

I'm sure we have plenty of good coders here who can take the prize

what is point of that? i don't want to register

M$ sux!
Now they want skilled programmers to work for free for them!

Microsoft is only as "bad" as its employees and its products. Same thing with XBox: it the games, not the machine that makes or breaks the product. If no one codes anything good for their OS, then it won't succeed. Same with any other OS. BTW, IOCCC (recently updated) doesn't give away prizes either, but people still enter every year.

contest for 2006? I thought Windows Vista wasn't going to be released to the masses until 2007? Has this changed? Or do you have to use there buggy beta 2 version!?

Not to mention Microsoft does alot of stuff only for money, their XBOX 360 is bugged as hell.

Microsoft presented the XBOX 360 at a big computer event in The Netherlands here, and many of the XBOX 360's crashed

if i didn't want windows bloatsta i would probably enter because $125,000 USD would be nice

Not to state the obvious, but ...

• Every program has bugs.
  
• Microsoft is a business: they work for money (surprise surprise).
  
• Microsoft has not patented bloat: I think GNU Emacs has.
  

P.S. The XBox 1's kernel is reportedly only 150kb.

oh i realize, i am an XP user, i was just refering to vista as bloatware

Microsoft use this challenge because their OS is almost useless compared to (for example) XP. It doesn't provide much noticeable benefits, especially the stuupid graphics which have no purpose for MOST users.

What? I am going nuts. I was talking like if Vista is not much more consumptive. So, their stupid-bloated and resource-destroyer OS is even more useless, in my opinion, it is less useful than XP, or even '98, because it has suuuuch bloated code which wastes 95% of resources.

The target of Microsoft is to have this program, and then say to the people: "Look what Vista can do...", like it's that super-bloated-consumptive Vista that does it, not the program. This 'trickery' will fool most clients, though.

Now, what happens if the Code Master gets his money, and then rewrites the program for Windows XP (or even '95). Now, that will change things. And if he/she will make it even more cool on XP than on Vista, that will destroy Microsoft's plans. I'm just hoping this will happen. That will prove to the fools that it's the program that does it, not stupid-Vista. and the crap-graphics of Vista make no effect.

even in games, I know most clients don't even care about the differences of 32-bit and 16-bit colors.. but, you will hear them saying nonsense (that they truly "see" much difference, wheras they will tell you only nonsense, which has nothing to do with colors, maybe with incorrect texture mapping, etc..). that's because big companies "control" mass-media, and that manipulates our minds (at least for those weak or who don't know much about computers). They only care about profit. eh, such is our capitalism-headed human race.

nice words brother

best way to market vista would be
1. gather lots of virus and vulnerabilities of winxp now.
2. fix the vista with current secretly gathered vulnerabilities.
3. write windows patches with more would-be vulnerabilities. (or just let some newly joined people in m$ write the patch)
4. expose all the vulnerabilities one time go in a month before the launching of vista.

so, people who don't know about security and etc would certainly dump xp by tat time and switch to vista.

Its it me or is there a trend on letting people do the programming and research work for free and then use their software to fill up CDs and make money. For some time I have seen this. Most related to GPL and how companies fill up CDs with others people work and charge for it without giving anything to the original author. O well, at least M$ gives you a bone, err price if you win.

On a side note, this is not happening only in software, I have a friend artitech that enter a design contest for a new Disney attraction. He did not won, but they use his design anyway without giving him credit. And all was legal, since the rules of the contest allowed them to do so. I always wonder how is that otherwise brilliant people can be so dumb.

Do you mean they screw up licenses? as if I'm surprised...

Billion Dollar Bill made his wodge from intellectual property theft.

Now it's your chance to add to his pile, the story about the architect sounds about right.