Test Market Found for Pay-Per-Use System

Well we now know why Microsoft released their patent attempt (or Scroogian vision) on Christmas. We can now see where they want to do their market testing for their “pay-per-use” computer.

Actually I have to give them credit this time. China is an absolutely perfect place to test a product that nobody with brains in the free world would touch. You have a fairly tightly controlled market (compared to the EU and the Americas) where the production costs are de-facto controlled by the government. There is an untapped potential for “sales” or subscriptions driven by consumer and business need for computing power. You have a fairly tightly controlled network access. Subscriptions can be granted or removed by the government owned “vendor”. You don't toe the line defined by your local political boss, he gets your subscription yanked. Don't pay your taxes, the bosses will know it before you can say “1040 EZ”.

Yes a lovely system. The chains are clanking a lot louder now.