Bonum Certa Men Certa

Digest: Standards, Junk Patents, and Some More FUD

New Bill-busting Target for Microsoft



The State of New York will evaluate the use of truly open standards in order to preserve and disseminate its vital information. Reporters seem pessimistic because, having looked at past stories, it is clear that Microsoft is above the American law. It will continue to fight for lockin and a monoculture.

A bill introduced in the New York state legislature on Wednesday would require the state government's IT director to study the issue of using open document formats within agencies, although the proposal doesn't seek to mandate an immediate or long-term move to such formats.

[...]

Microsoft also is seeking the ISO stamp of approval for Office Open XML, the default file format in its Office 2007 software. But the software vendor has fought the open formats bills in every state as part of an effort to protect its Office franchise.


On so-called 'Junk Patents'



Lock your doors and then hide your spouses and children. The infamous monster is back...

USPTO Increases Scope Of Amazon's 1-Click Patent

It apparently found its way into the hands of a sympathetic (and impatient) USPTO Examiner who had earlier defended his friends for approving 1-Click in the first place and referred 1-Click naysayers to a letter to the WSJ penned by the ex-Commissioner for Patents.


For those who do not know, this patent exemplifies the sad state of the USPTO. It's a classic. There has never been a better opportunity to shout out in favour of a reform.

Fear and Loathing in Asia



We have some news coming from Asia/Singapore (ComputerWorld to be precise). In a new series of articles, there is evidence to suggest that we must put an end to the FUD once and for all, sooner rather than later.

One article suggests that Microsoft's FUD tactics are working in Asia, despite the fact that they seem to backfire (i.e. do more harm than good) elsewhere in the world. In another article, a rhetorical question, Who’s afraid of whom?", is being asked. As we attempted to clarify before, the fragile side is Microsoft, but it hides this fear using projection. It 's what psychologists have come to know as 'the bully complex'. There appears to be another article, which talks about the GPL. It is critical, but its speaks on behalf on industry, not developers.

Novell's Enemy or Novell's Sugar Daddy?



It is disappointing to see that while Novell does everything is can to please Microsoft (it must), Novell's struggles in its 'fight' against Microsoft, which has lust for a greater share of the pie.

The Redmond giant's latest iteration of its e-mail platform is expected to win a great many customers — mainly at the expense of IBM's Domino and Novell's GroupWise.


Novell's CEO said that Novell would fight Microsoft, but are we not seeing them just forming an axis against other smaller rivals? Novell seems to have lost focus completely.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

More Information About Public Talks That Richard Stallman Gave This Week in Europe
Two talks in Switzerland
SoylentNews Grows Up, Registers as a Business, Site Traffic Reportedly Grows
More people realise that social control media may in fact be a passing fad
 
Links 29/03/2024: Fentanylware (TikTok) Fines and UK High Court Makes It Seem OK to Assassinate People Wrongly (Falsely) Associated With "Russia"
Links for the day
Garden Season Starts Today
Outdoor time, officially...
Engadget is Still a Spamfarm, It's Just an Amazon Catalogue (SPAM/SEO), a Sea of Junk Disguised as "Articles" With Few 'Fillers' (Real Articles) in Between
Engadget writes for bots now, not for humans
Richard Stallman's Talks in Switzerland This Week
We need to put an end to 'cancer culture'; it's trying to kill people and it is even swatting people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 28, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, March 28, 2024
[Meme] EPO's New Ways of Working (NWoW), a.k.a. You Don't Even Get a Desk at Work and Cannot be Near Known Colleagues
Seems more like union-busting (divide and rule)
Hiding Microsoft's Culpability in Security Breaches and Other Major Blunders (in the United Kingdom, This May Mean You Can't Get Food)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is vast
Giving back to the community
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 28/03/2024: Sega, Nintendo, and Bell Layoffs
Links for the day
Open letter to the ACM regarding Codes of Conduct impersonating the Code of Ethics
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
With 9 Mentions of Azure In Its Latest Blog Post, Canonical is Again Promoting Microsoft and Intel Vendor Lock-in, Surveillance, Back Doors, Considerable Power Waste, and Defects That Cannot be Fixed
Microsoft did not even have to buy Canonical (for Canonical to act like it happened)
Links 28/03/2024: GAFAM Replacing Full-Time Workers With Interns Now
Links for the day
Consent & Debian's illegitimate constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Time Our Server Host Died in a Car Accident
If Debian has internal problems, then they need to be illuminated and then tackled, at the very least in order to ensure we do not end up with "Deadian"
China's New 'IT' Rules Are a Massive Headache for Microsoft
On the issue of China we're neutral except when it comes to human rights issues
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 27, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 27, 2024
WeMakeFedora.org: harassment decision, victory for volunteers and Fedora Foundations
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 27/03/2024: Terrorism Grows in Africa, Unemployment in Finland Rose Sharply in a Year, Chinese Aggression Escalates
Links for the day
Links 27/03/2024: Ericsson and Tencent Layoffs
Links for the day
Amid Online Reports of XBox Sales Collapsing, Mass Layoffs in More Teams, and Windows Making Things Worse (Admission of Losses, Rumours About XBox Canceled as a Hardware Unit)...
Windows has loads of issues, also as a gaming platform
Links 27/03/2024: BBC Resorts to CG Cruft, Akamai Blocking Blunders in Piracy Shield
Links for the day
Android Approaches 90% of the Operating Systems Market in Chad (Windows Down From 99.5% 15 Years Ago to Just 2.5% Right Now)
Windows is down to about 2% on the Web-connected client side as measured by statCounter
Sainsbury's: Let Them Eat Yoghurts (and Microsoft Downtimes When They Need Proper Food)
a social control media 'scandal' this week
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 26, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
Windows/Client at Microsoft Falling Sharply (Well Over 10% Decline Every Quarter), So For His Next Trick the Ponzi in Chief Merges Units, Spices Everything Up With "AI"
Hiding the steep decline of Windows/Client at Microsoft?
Free technology in housing and construction
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
We Need Open Standards With Free Software Implementations, Not "Interoperability" Alone
Sadly we're confronting misguided managers and a bunch of clowns trying to herd us all - sometimes without consent - into "clown computing"
Microsoft's Collapse in the Web Server Space Continued This Month
Microsoft is the "2%", just like Windows in some countries