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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (22008)	12/8/1998 1:13:00 AM
From: Gerald R. Lampton	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24154

Here's Farber's written testimony: usdoj.gov Excuse my impertinence, but this guy seems to be testifying in an economic vacuum. To explain what I mean, let's compare a sample of Farber's testimony with what Hayek has to say about importance economics plays in determining what is most technically efficient. Farber says: 23. Inclusion of inappropriate functions at the level of what some software developers call an "operating system" is very likely to impose inefficiencies on application and other software developers, OEMs and retail end users. If the developers must use the particular functions, inappropriately placed in what I and others in the field refer to as "the operating system environment" (to distinguish it from what I consider to be an appropriate operating system), because of the manner in which that operating system environment is written or marketed, developers who need to write applications for that so-called "operating system" will, by definition, be forced to use that particular function regardless of whether that developer would prefer to use another software routine or develop a new one. Even if the structure and marketing of the operating system environment permits the addition of similar functions in addition to the functions provided by the operating system environment, the developer who wants or needs a different method of achieving a particular function must nevertheless write or buy often expensive, additional software. This duplication will likely: (1) increase storage requirements for different versions of software separately developed and included by the operating system vendor and application developer, (2) cause performance degradation from unused functions of the operating system and (3) increase risks of "bugs" (i.e., malfunctions) in software. Hayek says: "The second important point which is often not realized is that what is the best method of producing a given thing is not simply a technical fact. It depends on what amounts of the various skills, implements and materials happen to be available at a given time and place. There is no unique answer to the question: What is technically the best way of supplying the people of Oxford with boots or the people of Australia with cameras? There are any number of possible combinations of resources which might produce the desired result; and even if evidently wasteful ones are ruled out there remain a very large number of ways, each of which might be best in different circumstances." Socialism and War: Essays, Documents, Reviews (10 Collected WOrks of F.A. Hayek) 142 (1997). See also id. at 54-57 (discussing the difference between economic and technical problems). In other words, what technical solution is best for a particular problem is inherently an economic decision and the product of the economic environment (including the relative costs of factors of production, such as the time of software developers, the cost of disk space, etc.) in which the engineer is operating. This witness is trying to provide a technical solution to what is an economic problem. In order to accomplish this, he assumes the existence of some hypothetical, static economic environment, with God only knows what characteristics, thereby assuming away the fundamental economic problems (the relative costs of the various factors of production and the most efficient way for the economy to employ them) which it is the function of the market to solve.

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (22008)	12/8/1998 1:21:00 AM
From: Gerald R. Lampton	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 24154

. . . And I sure don't know what on Earth Farber means by the following: If the developers must use the particular functions, inappropriately placed in what I and others in the field refer to as "the operating system environment" (to distinguish it from what I consider to be an appropriate operating system), because of the manner in which that operating system environment is written or marketed, developers who need to write applications for that so-called "operating system" will, by definition, be forced to use that particular function regardless of whether that developer would prefer to use another software routine or develop a new one. As I read it, he's saying that, if a developer must use a particular function in the OS, then he must use a particular function in the OS. Aside from the fact that the sentence (as I understand it) is meaningless, what's to keep a developer from writing a separate function, regardless of what functions the underlying OS makes available? Please explain this.