French Response to Google is Microsoft 530
efp writes "Mark Liberman posted over in the Language Log that, in considering alternatives to Google's library initiative in Europe, French President Jacques Chirac would consider a partnership with Microsoft 'since he has so many views in common with its president, Bill Gates'. This comes out of talks between the French president, the head of the French National Library and the Minister of Culture, in in part 'building an alter ego to the American project, before thinking of an eventual collaboration with Google, so as not to negotiate from a position of weakness' as they plan to digitize their cultural resources."
What I see (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yup, lots of similarities (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not because he don't like what's being done by google/gutemberg/whatever that he should pledge alliance to the evil empire. What's the point of going with Microsoft?
Forget negociations! This is *wrong*, period. Nothing can justify it.
What's next? An alliance with McDonalds if Jojo [allinfo.net] decides to open restaurants in France ?
No-France is intent on its opinion of being French (Score:1, Interesting)
It is no big deal because digitization of French language works will only hasten their translation to other languages.
I would welcome being able to read some of the specialized French language scientific journals in my native language.
Re:Yup, lots of similarities (Score:4, Interesting)
basically there's enough blame to go around I guess.
Dying super powers of the world unite! (Score:2, Interesting)
France is part of the past. Their role in the future will likely can be compared to the foodcourt in the mall except with a heavier emphasis on Middle Eastern cuisine. They're a dying nation who gave up their chance to be relevant when they started stumbling down the misguided road of nationalist socialism. The only thing France is known for anymore is a ramshackle economy, industrial goods no one else in the world would ever buy and opposing US imperialist foreign policy while simultaneously attempting to imperialistically control as much of EU and UN policy as is absolutely possible (and pissing on their own colonies for decades before finally losing them all).
MS is falling behind technologically when compared to the rest of the industry. Their upcoming OS "update" is a hodgepodge collection of features and patches that should've made it into Windows 98. They're renowned for border-line illegal business tactics, shoddy engineering and the some of the most idiotic and backwards arguments ever heard in the debates over intellectual property rights.
This is like the T-Rex and the Stegosaurus agreeing to unite in an effort to stop the meteor. It's downright comical.
Re:He, you Anglosaxons might have a point :-) (Score:5, Interesting)
Chirac to my (typically uninformed American) eye seems to be in the mold of de Gaulle, and I'd guess that part of his popularity is from him "standing up" to the US.
England, otoh, does have a looooong history of conflict with France. The English version of the finger is two fingers held defiantly (with the palm inwards, as opposed to peace or victory, where the palm is outward), from the days when the French would cut off the fingers of any English longbow troops they captured.
Re:Dying super powers of the world unite! (Score:3, Interesting)
From my travels in France, I've found the people to be as forward-thinking (and well-informed) politically as they are conformist and sycophantic technologically. Chirac's cluelessness doesn't suprise me in this regard.
The French government has a reputation for opportunism when it come to matters such as peddling arms to all comers, but, at the same time, it's a government much more likely to be reigned in by an engaged populus -- as opposed to the U.S. where folks rely on pseudo news organizations such as Fox News.
It's strange how France's romance for American culture has been contorted into a self-abasing worship of one America's largest coporate leech.
Here is an absolutely fantasic fact. Must read. (Score:1, Interesting)
Vichy France in North Africa.
I am not making this up. Not Germany. Not Italy. France.
And strangely enough, when the Americans finally beat the French, Petain perversely would *NOT* surrender because he had pledged support to Nazi Germany.
This is all in "An Army At Dawn" by Rick Atkinson, which I found to be a compelling read.
But gawdamn FRANCE was sticking by the Nazi's. To Fight Americans and British. Cripes. And then we saved their gaulic asses. I don't get it.
Re:Here is an absolutely fantasic fact. Must read. (Score:4, Interesting)
You might note that the Free French 19th Corps participated in Operation Torch. And it's been said that the fight was easier because many Vichy soldiers went over to the Free French side, rather than fight the Allies.
Still, one of the funnier Churchill quotes is, "The heaviest cross I had to bear during the war was the Cross of Lorraine." The Cross of Lorraine was the symbol of Free France, and de Gaulle was Free France.
Re:Yup, lots of similarities (Score:3, Interesting)
My guess is that it must be some ego problem for some politician who feel bad his/her pet project is so lame when compared with google's one.
Re:Two obvious Microsoft questions spring to mind (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yup, lots of similarities (Score:1, Interesting)
In a way, I admire the pompous gasbag, but I would never trust him.