08.14.09
Posted in Courtroom, Europe, Free/Libre Software, FUD, Microsoft, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, Patents at 10:07 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Contrary to abundant FUD out there, ODF is not at risk due to the i4i lawsuit
OUR PREVIOUS posts covering i4i vs Microsoft [1, 2, 3] have concentrated solely on OOXML/Office simply because there is unique history to this case. i4i did not specifically target OOXML (or document formats in general) as some people wish for this to seem. For details, have a look at older posts such as:
- Microsoft Accused of “Willful and Deliberate” infringement and “Discovery Misconduct” in Another Patent Case
- XML Patents, Microsoft Aggression, and ODF Hostility
- Microsoft is Again Paying the Huge Price for Wanting Anti-Free Software Laws
- Reader Explains “Microsoft Innovation”
Microsoft is now ordered to pay $300 million and the lesson to be learned can also be attributed to Mahatma Gandhi.
So, is someone playing tit-for-tat or an-eye-for-an-eye? Mahatma Gandhi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” In the weird, wonderful world of digital technology where greedy corporations can convert standards (that should rightfully belong in the commons) into private property, anything can happen.
As BNET points out, this dispute is not over ODF and other writers agree. This never prevented the Microsoft-funded ‘analysts’ from suggesting otherwise in order to cast a shadow on ODF.
ODF Not Implicated In i4i Suit
[...]
That contradicts assertions by Burton Group analyst Guy Creese, who told Visual Studio Magazine that the patent could spell trouble for the next version of ODF because “ODF 1.2 will move to a similar custom schema that OOXML has.”
Likewise, Gartner analyst Brian Prentice told CNET that the fallout from the lawsuit may “also impact ODF.”
Need it be said that the Burton Group is in Microsoft's pocket and also a prominent opposer of ODF for years? As for the latter, Gartner’s Brian Prentice is a big lobbyist for software patents and apparent promoter of Microsoft, based on his writing history that we documented in recent months [1, 2, 3, 4]. That’s not even to mention Garner in general [1, 2, 3, 4]. Here is the source of the FUD and here is IDG linking to Ziff Davis (eWeek), both of which have business relationships with Microsoft [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Here is Kolakowski fueling Gartner’s FUD:
“If the validity of the patent is upheld then the immediate question is whether this will also impact ODF [OpenDocument Format],” Brian Prentice, an analyst with Gartner, wrote in an Aug. 12 blog posting. “If so, then this turns out to be a significantly more important issue and one which will crystallize the fury of the anti-patentistas.”
What may not be known to most readers is that the author, Nick Kolakowski, is also running eWeek’s Microsoft site, where almost every post is an advert for Microsoft, so it’s essentially part of that large network in the mainstream media whose only purpose it to create buzz and increase presence of Microsoft, a marketing company to a great degree. IDG did the same thing in other languages and Matt Asay, who is not too familiar with the matters at hand, took the bait and passed it on via CNET’s wires. He was soon corrected (with the correction appearing only at the bottom).
Update: See Sean Michael Kerner’s post, suggesting that two particulars (i4i is not a patent troll and i4i and Microsoft had a business relationship) suggest that the open-source world has little to fear from this suit.
Why is CNET passing misguided blog opinions as news, even though the writer is hardly familiar with the document formats debate? There is also a good deal of anti-GNU/Linux passing via CNET/Gartner [1, 2]. Then, like in a broken telephone effect, Lora Bentley parroted Asay (before his correction was made). Sooner or later, the whole Web got saturated with disinformation, creating an atmosphere of fear of OpenOffice.org and ODF (one person says: “Indeed, but it makes me worry about ODF and OO.org”).
The fear is substanceless in this case as the real issue is Microsoft’s patent aggression and XML patents. i4i sued Microsoft because Microsoft stabbed them in the back (see links at the top) and in a similar vein, it is Microsoft which suffers from ODF the most, so to grind an axe with ODF is only expected from Microsoft, whose XML patents we wrote about in:
In better news today, OpenOffice 3.1 gets a pretty decent review from PC Pro while OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 Release Candidate 1 is announced.
OpenOffice 3.1 brings some welcome new features and some much needed polish, says Simon Jones
OpenOffice.org has recently released version 3.1 of its eponymous software suite, a minor upgrade that brings some welcome features and some much needed polish to the nearest thing Microsoft Office has to a competitor.
The document debate in Denmark is also heating up (mostly articles in Danish), but Leif Lodahl drops some information in English by stating that the “Danish Competition Authority; Public purchase of office software should also in the future support either OOXML or ODF”
“How does making several mutually-incompatible formats actually beneficial through competition?”Also he added (his English is not so strong): “Danish Competition Authority; to select ODF as the one standard will not increase competition”
There is another conversation there where Christian Lanng is corresponding with a proven Microsoft proponent about the subject. He argues that “The Danish Competition Authority rule that choosing ODF or OOXML alone would be limiting for competition” and that “only by choosing both formats can we INCREASE competition.”
This makes no sense. How does making several mutually-incompatible formats actually beneficial through competition? We saw the same pattern of deception earlier this month in India and last year in Malaysia. It is classic spin where competition between office suites is suddenly recast as a preferred competition between formats, which would be destructive to people’s data and work flow. Here is the article in Danish. One has to wonder whose strings are bring pulled and by whom? █
“37 letters with exactly the same words. Some of the senders didn’t even care to remove the ‘Type company name here’ text.
Simular letters has been circulating in Denmark as an e-mail from the Danish MD Jørgen Bardenfleth to customers and business partners.
I call it fraud, cheating and disgusting. If I wasn’t anti-Microsoft before, I am now. Disgusting !”
–Leif Lodahl
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Posted in Microsoft, Review, Vista 7, Windows at 8:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Months before the release of Vista 7 and Windows Mobile 6.5 there are troubling signs
PARTICIPANTS of this Web site occasionally offer a story about their experiences with Vista 7, which is all about marketing. There is an example from April and also from earlier this month. Another short review comes from a reader whose experiences are reproduced verbatim below:
I installed Vistas 7 RC1 on my Acer Aspire 7220, with these isues:
- 1400×900 flatscreen was recognized as a 800×600 CRT;
- Nvidia Geoforce 7000M GPU was recognized as a standard VGA adapter;
- Nvidia nForce Ethetnet adapter was not recognized at all;
- Atheros PCI WLAN adapter was not recognized at all.
I downloaded the Vista drivers from the Acer website on my Fedora 10 machine (Pleunix) and copied them to a USB thumbdrive. Installed them on Vista 7. However I was still unable to make any connection (neither wired nor wireless) to “the Internet”.
Vista 7 didn’t understood that my Sitecom (Linux) wireless router/firewall/switch/nat only serves as a access point and switch behind another router. That is obviously too complicated for Vista 7.
After 12 hours I gave up and re-installed Ubuntu 9.04 on that machine.
My final conclusion: Vista 7 is even worst that Vista if it’s not preinstalled.
I am wondering if people are stupid enough to pay for that piece of junkware.
The point about poor hardware support is also emphasised in this brand new blog post which starts as follows:
5 Things Microsoft does not want you to know about Windows.
Truth no 1
You are paying way more than you are getting. This is a simple truth that most users of Windows do not seem to appreciate. Why do you have to pay as much as $100 to get a license to use an OS which is bare to the bones? An installation of Windows is just the first in a series of long processes to make your computer useful. Your computer can in virtually all cases not be used to do anything meaningful after a Windows installation until you have installed numerous third party drivers and other utilities most of which you would have to pay for separately. That is very much being short changed to me.
Truth no 2
You are never safe with Windows. The recent DDOS attacks on Twitter and Facebook makes it very clear that if anything at all, Windows is a very big threat to the future of the internet and computing in general.
This second point was also addressed here before [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
It is interesting to note that the “mobile” version of Windows seems to be on its death throes and this is even covered by a news Web site right now.
Did Microsoft Just Throw WinMo Under A Bus?
[...]
Just don’t act surprised when the next version of Windows Mobile turns out to be the last.
Microsoft bought Danger for a large sum of money and some say that Microsoft was pressured to buy RIM (for BlackBerry). There are still many writeups about Microsoft’s prospects with Palm, but that would be Linux based. Either way, Windows Mobile has been a great financial failure for Microsoft and there is no sign of this trend reversing. Microsoft is now trying to get Symbian (Nokia) to help out. One reader, Patrick McFarland, argues that both Windows and Windows Mobile will be replaced by Microsoft, but we cannot confirm such a claim. █
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Posted in News Roundup at 8:07 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
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It’s obviously working — and working well. The Linux Box is currently at work supporting companies, educational institutions and non-profits in industries ranging from engineering to horticulture. It has survived (and grown) in what’s been a tumultuous decade for the economy — and technology. It’s not just because it works with open source software — it’s because it can bring something more to its clients, and the projects its clients use.
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For some, however, the ultimate fun is simply the joy of spreading Linux love to others.
“I have spent the last few years of my life fighting obsolete software and hardware on computer systems in schools,” Pogson said. “I am too tired to have any fun but the next installation of GNU/Linux and the smiles on a user’s face when they find there are better ways to do things with a PC.”
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Desktop
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Perhaps it is an unintended side effect of the Windows-esque desktop I use these days, but I noticed something the other day — a behavior that seems to have changed since the days when I was actually using Windows.
I was having difficulty connecting two machines — my trusty Thinkpad and a relative’s Windows machine on the other side of the planet — and when it became clear that the two things were not going to behave as planned, I did something that I now take for granted: I dove in and tried adjusting things on my side of the fence.
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Others stay because they feel welcome to the Linux community. As some people say, who your friends are make a big difference in staying within any community or organization. Some people who aren’t really into Linux except for work might not feel that the community is an important aspect. But for others, it is. Aside from the fact the community is a rich source of information for sharing and studying, the community is also the place where one can share his/her ideas about the Linux distro he/she uses. It matters especially you’re someone who loves participating in your hobbies then this is something that will encourage you to stay within the community of Linux users.
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That’s the main concern most folks have when they contemplate switching over to Linux. They wonder if things are going to work the same way as in Windows. The answer is, “Yes!” If you can run Windows, you can run Linux. In fact, in many ways, Linux is even easier to run than Windows. And you won’t have to worry about Windows viruses, trojans and spyware. Linux is immune. So say goodbye to the additional cost of Anti-virus software and other programs that are constantly running in the background slowing down your computer’s (Windows) performance.
Linux is fast, familiar, friendly, and easy to use.
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Server
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Despite all the hype associated with a never-ending Linux versus Windows battle, it’s Unix, and specifically Sun Solaris that has felt the most pressure in the server operating system landscape.
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Kernel Space
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Lots of small fixes all over, spread out fairly evenly (50% drivers, and roughly 10% each in arch, fs, kernel, tools/perf, “rest”). And things do seem to be calming down, because outside of some further i915 displayport patches and a couple of perf-counter patches, almost all of them are pretty dang small.
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I expect LinuxCon to turn the page for industry conferences – moving away from “show-n-tell” formats of the past, and towards real technical and business collaboration. I also expect it to represent a time of amazing growth and maturity of Linux and open source software.
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Well, the area where SELinux / Audit and the debugging-enabled kernel really impacted the performance was with the disk and database tests (along with Apache). In the other Linux desktop benchmarks, there was a smaller margin, with some being more noticeable than the others. Disabling SELinux and Audit will certainly improve the performance of Fedora, while running a kernel with all of the debugging code enabled will cost you quite a bit in the way of performance. For developers, having this kernel debugging support is important, while for security-oriented users, having Security Enhanced Linux and system-call auditing support is important and worth the low cost, even with Intel Atom hardware.
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In an interview with the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM), Google’s Sean Quinlan says that nearly a decade after its arrival, the original Google File System (GFS) has done things he never thought it would do.
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Applications
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Linux has a cool list of applications. Today, I will talk about the most widely used application, the terminal. The terminal is always required whenever we move out of the premises of inbuilt applications and installed softwares. These three terminals have one thing in common. They can be launched with a single click, and they fly-roll out of the top panel just like in Quake, or UT.
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Games
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During the QuakeCon 2009 press conference, id President Todd Hollenshead announced what many non-Windows computer users had been asking about for months. Quake Live, id software’s browser based shooter, would be adding support for Linux and Macintosh operating system users.
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Grid Wars 2 is a clone of the popular Xbox 360 game, Geometry Wars. It’s an awesome game that plays extremely well on the Mini 9.
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Desktop Environments
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Before we go on it would be best to point out a couple of outstanding locations to find themes. There are two sites that house plenty of E17 eye candy (there used to be three main sites until Freshmeat dumped themes – BOO HISS!). Those sites are: Get-E and E17 Stuff. The latter has far more themes, but the former’s themes are much more interesting.
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KDE
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This time I decided to reveal some of my favorite KDE tricks.
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Qt, and therefore KDE, deals with 3 predominant ways of rendering graphics. I don’t feel like bothering with transitions today, so find your own way from beards and dwarfs to Qt/KDE graphics. Those three ways are:
* On the CPU with no help from the GPU using the raster engine
* Using X11/Xrender with the X11 engine
* Using OpenGL with the OpenGL engine
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Recently Aurelien Gateau of the Canonical Desktop Experience team implemented the Message Indicator for KDE and Konversation. Now if you get messages when you’re away from your computer or not looking at IRC it’ll put them into the message indicator when you can happily not get distracted by them (unlike popup notifications) but can easily find them when you want to.
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KDE 4 is definitively my daily desktop environment, although it’s not yet mature like the 3.5.x branch i consider it enough stable and usable, but sometime the default settings and the few time available, don’t help us to appreciate it, so let’s resume some little tip for beginners that feel lost with everything new and don’t want waste their time.
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On Magnatune.com, we have recently added a number of features to make the memberships more attractive. One of these features (which has actually been around for a while now) is a personal list of favorite albums for each member. On each album page, there is a small button that adds the album to the list of favorites
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Patrick Verner announced the release of Parted Magic 4.4, a Linux distribution that aids users in hard drive partitioning and data rescue. This version features a special program for dial-up networking, sound support through ALSA, Unionfs compression to reduce RAM usage, SSH server initialization upon boot and, last but not least, Super Grub Disk to take care of bootloader problems.
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Pardus is a Linux, desktop-oriented distro that was just reviewed here. This post is to help you configure some very important aspects of the operating system that should have been enabled out of the box. Expert knowledge is not required to make these configuration changes, just the ability to point and click.
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What I liked the most in PCLinuxOS 2009.2?
1.Cosmetics: This point release sports a better look-n-feel than 2009.1.
2.Updates: It endows tons of updates over 2009.1, making it a must for anyone doing a fresh install.
3.Stability: I don’t much of the linux internals but this release seems well tested and polished.
4.CPU management: This release does a great job managing your CPU and power. After installation of 2009.2 when I set out to configure cpu-scaling, I was really surprised to see that pclos had already set proper cpu-scaling for my celeron chip.
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Red Hat Family
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One big investor snapped up a boatload of puts on Red Hat today, positioning for a decline in the shares or increased volatility.
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Debian Family
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Welcome to Karmic Koala Alpha 4, which will in time become Ubuntu 9.10.
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Summary: A great choice for those using older hardware or those who simply prefer a more minimalistic desktop environment.
Rating: 4/5
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It looks just like it was never broken. The display panel is undamaged. The only physical complaint I have about the machine is that they left a little smudge of some sort of goo at the top of the screen, but that wiped off easily.
And it did not come back with Vista. My Linux installation was untouched. Yay Dell!
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Contrary to most of the open-source hardware projects I’ve mentioned on Maximum PC, the Chumby is ready for your attention the moment you pop it out of the box. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t tweak and tinker beyond its simplistic exterior. Although cracking open the soft, loveable digital toy will violate your warranty, the official Chumby site is more than happy to give you a listing of the device’s full hardware and accompanying schematics. From there, only your conscience toward ripping open friendly, plush, communication devices stands in your way of complete hardware transcendence.
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It’s official. ZaReason is launching an Ubuntu Linux netbook called the Terra A20, confirms CTO Earl Malmrose.
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“Going the open source way can address [these] concerns and using the open source development model, it is possible to develop this software at a much reduced cost compared to pure commercial development models. Thus if there was a small team which was driving such a project ensuring the quality of the product, then it is possible to get a lot of assistance from the global IT community to make those systems truly exceptional.
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RoboCar. ZMP, a Tokyo-based company is working on a Linux-based automotive robotics platform that it says “provides the required tools to study various subjects such as applied robotic technology, autonomous movement, communication between vehicles or interaction between cars and humans.” The model shown at left is built at 1/10th scale, and is intended for researchers to study in preparation for experiments with car robotics.
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Web Browsers
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Starting a little later tonight, users with the latest version of Firefox 3 will be getting an offer to update to Firefox 3.5.
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I used to be something of a Web browser junkie. Over the years, I tried just about every new browser that came out. Up until last year, I had five or six browsers installed on my laptop. A bit of overkill, as I came to realize. While I’ve trimmed down my browser consumption, I still check out the occasional one that piques my interest.
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Business
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Fenton tells the WSJ that the real advantage of open source is the distribution model. “Rather than ‘expensive sales efforts and negotiations with the upper management to get the most money possible,’ the people that will be using the software can easily download and try the product,” notes the WSJ.
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Boxee raised its series A round, to the tune of $4 million, last November. With the new financing the company hopes to ink more deals with media companies and set-top box manufacturers, as well as hire more employees to keep building out its technology (which includes a developer platform). Currently in an alpha test phase, Boxee hopes to expand to a beta test in October.
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The Photographer Not a Terrorist campaign is a new British organisation devoted to helping photographers whom the authorities have busted or harassed for being potential terrorists, kidnapping innocent photons with deadly light-sensors.
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Rather than merely dismissing the case, Schwartz found the motorists involved not guilty. The constitutional protection against double jeopardy prohibits the city from appealing the verdict. It is assumed that the court will continue throwing out every photo ticket filed until the city complies with the law. Baylis is now looking to file challenges on behalf of any motorist who has received and paid a ticket in the past.
“As a matter of public policy, I think the public is not in favor of this use of technology,” Baylis said. “I think at some point people are going to become tired of the government intrusion in their lives.”
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But the danger is there, now that e-books are gaining popularity. The Wall Street Journal’s Brett Arends even goes so far as to compare Kindle to Betamax, the Sony-developed videotape format that despite a brief spell of popularity in the ’70s faded into kitschy obscurity when VHS tape became the standard. New consumer technology always means format wars; look at what happened to HD DVD, the would-be competitor to Blu-ray.
The challenge then, is for Amazon’s Kindle competitors to not only embrace ePub but to figure out how to convince would be e-readers that being locked into Amazon — device, format, exclusivity, the whole works — is not what they want.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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I have not bought any of these because they were copyrighted; indeed most of the sheet music is in the public domain but I am still happy to pay good money for a nice edition. The most respect that we can pay to copyright industries is to think only about buying such products and not copyright. The music industry forgot this.
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Google is now offering a way for authors and publishers to offer content for free under the Creative Commons license on Google Books. Rightsholders who want to distribute their books can let users download, use, and share them.
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Canada is planning to reform its copyright law and if the entertainment industries have their way, the rights and privacy of consumers will be thrown overboard. It’s time for all Canadian BitTorrent users to stand up against the increasing power of the anti-piracy lobby, before it’s too late.
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The motion-picture industry has spoken out against a New Zealand proposal to allow them to disconnect entire households from the Internet if one member is accused of copyright infringement; they want to be able to disconnect your Internet connection without giving you a chance to defend yourself in front of a judge because that would be “time consuming.” Instead, they would like to be lord high executioner for your network connection, with the power to shut you out of the benefits of the network (freedom of speech, assembly and the press; access to school, health, family, work and government) without having to prove it in a real court of law.
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“Stringent intellectual property rules could hamper the spread of technology needed to fight climate change.” Paul David, professor of economics at Stanford University, California
“If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas, what would they look like? This is pretty close.” David Fewer, staff counsel at the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, University of Ottawa, after looking at leaked ACTA documents.
Behind closed doors, the U.S., EU, Japan, Canada and some other countries are negotiating ACTA. No drafts are published. ACTA will contain new rules for the enforcement of copyrights, trade mark rights, patents and other exclusive rights. ACTA will also contain a chapter on “Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement in the Digital Environment”. Other countries will be forced to join later.
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The BMO’s motives here may be more laudable than those of the paranoid doctors. But the collateral damage to our free speech is unacceptable. Using take-it-or-leave-it fine print to assert veto rights over online expression is no way to promote a “society that connects each individual to his or her creative powers.” Burning Man strives to celebrate our individuality, creativity and free spirit. Unfortunately, the fine print on the tickets doesn’t live up to that aspiration.
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Now the retired teacher’s company is being sued by ICBC for what it claims is copyright infringement — a claim that she finds way off base.
“I’m not selling auto insurance,” she told The Province Thursday.
“They’re going after me because I get thousands of visits a month.
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Effective immediately, all PDF books purchased through our site will be free of password protection..
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Back in June, we wrote about how cab drivers in Tampa Bay were trying to get the city council to outlaw new competitors in the form of free ad-supported transportation from some owners of electric vehicles.
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However, what’s fascinating is what happened after that. Scott received an angry email from RSA, the well-known security company, who apparently built the NFCU website, claiming trademark infringement and demanding that he take down the post. RSA was upset with the implication that the site was insecure, but rather than either fixing the problem or explaining why the site is actually safe (which they insist), they threaten Scott with a trademark claim because he has a small screenshot of the NFCU website.
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Gucci America sued several credit card processing companies for trademark infringement on Thursday on grounds those companies facilitated the sale of counterfeit Gucci bags on the Internet.
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A California appeals court on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that had paved the way for a $10,000 DVD copying system called Kaleidescape and other products from the company with the same name.
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Open source is the same. Customers subscribe to a series of improvements and services around the software, rather than buying into a big licensing event. The emphasis is on what comes after the initial adoption of the software, not a bunch of marketing and hype to get people to use the software in the first place. The software largely sells itself.
Thomas Bartol, computational neuroscientist for the Salk Institute 03 (2005)
Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.
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Posted in GPL, Microsoft, Patents at 2:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.”
–Abraham Lincoln
Summary: Internal E-mails reveal Microsoft snubbing software patents
PREVIOUS posts on the subject [1, 2] showed that Microsoft would appeal to overrule the verdict which put a ban on Microsoft Word (not effective immediately and only applicable in the United States).
As evidence shows, Microsoft not only resorted to arrogance but it also engaged in a form of civil disobedience.
Microsoft officials developing versions of Word that will be banned for sale in sixty days unless the company settles a patent lawsuit or wins an appeal were aware of the plaintiff’s product and threatened to make it “obsolete,” e-mail records connected to the case reveal.
Also see the following posts about i4i and Microsoft:
- Microsoft Accused of “Willful and Deliberate” infringement and “Discovery Misconduct” in Another Patent Case
- Reader Explains “Microsoft Innovation”
So Microsoft does not exactly respect software patents when they are used against Microsoft. Dana Blankenhorn asks, “when will Microsoft admit the truth about software patents?”
Copyright is the best protection for software. It lasts longer, you don’t have to make a big filing on it, you don’t have to open the kimono to win in court.
Just file a case to overturn State Street, or limit your lobbying to a call for an end to software patents.
Here is another new opinion:
So, apparently Microsoft isn’t allowed to use the docx format. Another company has patent on using XML for documents.
So, when it does not suit Microsoft, then software patents should not be respected. Similarly, Microsoft thinks the GPL does not apply to it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], but risk of lawsuits led it to complying, which makes the GPL victorious.
So Linux users can thank the GPL for not allowing Novell-Microsoft pact to turn into the MicroNovellix distro *now with 10% more proprietary fork goodness*. 
Microsoft may learn the value of pragmatism, but their compliance with the GPL license with regards to Linux is much like forcing oneself to go to the dentist to have a cavity filled, or the State of Alabama or Texas being compelled not to violate human rights by court order. Necessity and desire are two totally different things.
The necessity of obeying a court order can’t force stupid hicks to cease being stupid hicks, the desire to wish your tooth didn’t ache won’t make it so, and the GPL can’t force Microsoft to stop being a proprietary software-foisting patent troll. Take the code contribution for what it is.
Is it not funny that Microsoft eventually complied with the GPL while it still refuses to accept the rules of software patents? What does it say about Microsoft? And more importantly, what does it say about software patents? █
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08.13.09
Posted in IRC Logs at 6:43 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Read the log
Enter the IRC channel now
To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.
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Posted in Deception, FUD, Marketing, Microsoft, Security, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 6:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Failures and cover-ups (sponsored by Microsoft)
• Security is a process
I often point out that Windows is insecure. It’s so insecure, in fact, that I, in all seriousness, propose that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) should start forcing users to secure Windows-since neither users or Microsoft will do the job, Windows PCs should be banned from the Internet. That said, nothing, and I mean nothing is really secure.
[...]
It doesn’t work that way. Security is a process, it’s not a product. Some systems are more secure than others. Linux, as anyone who pays any attention to security news knows, is a lot more secure than Windows. If we were talking cars, Linux would be an Audi A4, the Mac, BMW 330 and Windows would be a mid-70s Ford “Hit here to blow up” Pinto.
• Microsoft: 2 year response to critical 0-day hole (Vista 7 too is suffering from the same symptoms)
It turns out Microsoft has known about the critical security vulnerability in its Office Web Components (OWC), which was fixed last patch day, for more than two years. Only since it has been actively exploited has the behemoth sprung into life and, within a month, released a patch.
• Microsoft IE 8 shines in Web browser security test (emphasis in red is ours)
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 rated tops among five browsers tested by NSS Labs for effectiveness in protecting against malware and phishing attacks—though NSS Labs acknowledges Microsoft paid for the tests.
• Virus arms race primes malware numbers surge
The amount of catalogued malware by Panda was 18 million in the 20 years from the firm’s foundation until the end of 2008. This figure increased 60 per cent in just seven months to reach 30 million by 31 July 2009.
• Twitter briefly knocked offline by hackers (again) (Microsoft Windows is a culprit [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6])
Twitter suffered from yet more security jitters on Tuesday night, after another attack left the site briefly unavailable.
• Aussie arrested in botnet allegation (74,000 down, ~319,926,000 to go)
Inspector Blue Knacker of the Adelaide Yard claims that the 20 year old is also suspected of having developed software capable of launching virus attacks on 74,000 computers worldwide.
• [Microsoft Wordpad is Vulnerable, Exploit Available]
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Posted in DRM, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Office Suites, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 6:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.”
–Bill Gates
Summary: The experience of vending or using Windows is still marginalising and demeaning
SEVERAL days ago we gave an example of a seller who was tricked by Microsoft to offer copies of its software under conditions which were not legal. As we pointed out at the time, this is part of a trend [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] because Microsoft is feeling the pinch. Here in the United Kingdom Microsoft is getting busy as well. From the news:
Microsoft catches 11 UK pirate retailers
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Computer Clinic, Bolton ; Computer Port, Walsall; Eazy PC, Redcar; Goldcast Computers, Stockton-on-Tees; Matrix Computers, Stockton-on-Tees; PC Assist, Oldham; Personal Touch Computers Ltd, Portsmouth; Platinum Computers, Hartlepool; Spacebar Computers, Litherland, Liverpool, and The Little Computer Shop, Griffithstown, Pontypool.
Those retailers will not be huge fans of Microsoft after the crackdown, so GNU/Linux and Free software might be offered as an option on their PCs in the future. There is no revenge sweeter than this and as the quote at the top ought to remind people, for many years Microsoft has permitted shops to distribute Windows and Office against the rules. As long as Microsoft benefited from freely spreading its software and making it a de facto standard, it was all fine.
Another area where Microsoft is criminalising not retailers but actual customers is Vista and Vista 7. For those who remember what a DRM mess Vista was, it is worth reminding that Vista 7 is just the same.
Microsoft, Windows 7, cable television, and the so-called “PlayReady” DRM scam
[...]
What I’m about to show is Windows 7 artificially crippling an otherwise normal, uncrippled cable television channel. PlayReady DRM hooks into Windows Media Center and artificially degrades your standard cable TV service provided that the channel involved has paid Microsoft a lot of money.
Vista 7: limiting one’s experience artificially because everyone (including paying customers) is assumed to be a “criminal”. Very poor diplomatic skills from Microsoft and yet another reason to find permanent comfort in GNU/Linux. █
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Posted in News Roundup at 5:29 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
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But Google’s biggest asset is not its search techology per se, but the database of the web which is a by-product of its primary activity and is stored on the proprietary file system that it runs on countless thousands of cheap and cheerful Linux servers, estimated at 650,000 as far back as 2006, and growing by the day.
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Unwin says replacing Windows with Linux would help (80% of viruses are written in China, where Windows dominates). The Ethiopian government has, in fact, made open source software central to its IT plans. Khokhar says it’s no magic solution.
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We’re all familiar with open-source software, such as the Apache webserver or the Linux OS, but in the last few years, open-source hardware projects have risen in popularity, including the open-source electronics platform Arduino.
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Desktop
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If you want to become a Linux Luminary and sponsor the install of a computer to a disadvantaged kid, you can do so by clicking here. The average install costs us 25.00
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But even after all that — and my willingness to sacrifice the contents of the built-in hard drive (all my data is always stored on an external USB hard drive) — I still can’t get Windows Vista or Windows 7 to install or run, even though the open source Ubuntu Linux operating system loads and runs right along without any problems.
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Kernel Space
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This morning Bruce has written on the dri-devel list that they should soon be releasing this new 2D driver. Bruce is hoping that this 2D driver’s source-code will be released in about two weeks. Right now the driver is in the hands of a few community testers for feedback, but they are hoping that the driver will be released very soon unless any new issues are found.
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Applications
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Lazarus may be the most native cross-platform development environment running on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. Use it to create native applications with platform-independent code.
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So, now what? What’s the advantage over a full-fledged word processor, aside from having multiple documents? The advantage is the hyperlinking, which we will soon see. Highlight each name you have entered. Then, press CTRL-L like you had done on the first page. Each name is now a hyperlink. From here, you can create a page for each character in your story, giving background information on them, along with personal notes about their history, personality, likes and dislikes, all of that. Then, you can do the same for places, giving as much information or as little as you want about the places and their history. What about events or objects unique or relevant to the story? You can make pages for them as well.
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Games
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Vulcando Games has released the game client for the Linux version of Hive Rise, an extremely fast running online real time strategy game which takes place on huge maps, each providing space for over 1000 human players.
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No release date or pricing information is available for the Linux version of Aquaria at this time.
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GNOME
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We are just a month out from the release of GNOME 2.28, which is the last major update before GNOME 3.0′s expected arrival in H1’2010. With development on GNOME 2.28 winding down, these desktop developers have announced the first beta release. GNOME 2.27.90 is this first 2.28 beta and it includes bug fixes and other work along with the usual variety of documentation and translation updates.
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The most beautiful part of being a linux user is the choice you have, whatever issue it is. Like any other Linux distro, Ubuntu is infinitely customisable with any number of themes and applications. This include login window themes or gdm themes as well. Major source for themes in ubuntu include www.gnome-look.org and www.deviantart.com. There, you could obtain literally thousands of good quality themes.
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The developers of SystemRescueCd have now released version 1.2.3 of the French mini–Linux distribution. The new SystemRescueCd release updates a range of tools and includes a firmware package missing from the previous version (sys-kernel/linux-firmware). The developer has updated the alternative kernels to Linux 2.6.27.29.
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Version 4.4 of Linux distribution Parted Magic was released yesterday (Wednesday). The system, which includes a range of hard drive partitioning and many other useful tools, contains updated software, such as kernel 2.6.30.4, new versions of hdparm, Clonezilla and GNU Parted and a whole range of new features.
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So, my HDD went bust. I have been using GoboLinux since its launch, and there has yet to be a new release since 014.01. Try as I might, I couldn’t switch distributions. So, I installed. This isn’t an easy task. The install CD is so old that you will have to do a lot of updating to install anything new. So where to start?
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Red Hat Family
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In the wake of its acquisition of Virtual Iron, and its hammering out of a converged roadmap for the Oracle VM Server variant of Xen hypervisor, Oracle’s techies are still at work, making tools that wrap around the existing Oracle VM Server hypervisor to make it more useful.
First up is a gadget called Oracle VM Template Builder. This is a graphical utility that allows software developers or in-house IT departments to create a JEOS skinnied down version of Oracle Enterprise Linux. They can then plunk it and a set of system and application software on top of that streamlined Linux inside of an Oracle VM image.
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Oracle has released new tools for building virtual appliances, the software maker’s first significant move in server virtualisation since its purchase of Virtual Iron.
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Debian Family
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Ever since the release team of the Debian GNU/Linux Project announced that it would be adopting a time-based freeze for future releases, there has been much debate about it on the project’s mailing lists.
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The Amahi Home Server, an open source system that handles a range of in-home applications, could soon run on the Ubuntu 9.04 desktop environment. Here’s the scoop and some thoughts about Ubuntu’s potential presence in the home server and media server markets.
According to the Amahi web site, the open source system is a “Home Digital Assistant” (HDA).
“We came up with the term HDA to describe what the Amahi Linux Home Server aims for. Something as simple to use as a PDA, for the home and home networking.”
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Ubuntu’s UNR is a customised version of the standard Linux desktop aimed at making the most of the smaller screen sizes typical in netbook PCs. With its first attempt at the UNR desktop, Ubuntu’s developers removed the obvious top and bottom panels of the standard interface and melded them into the overall appearance of the desktop to maximise onscreen space. They also replaced the bulky panel icons with streamlined tabs for managing open windows as well as making sure all application windows were maximised. By doing this UNR makes it easier to switch between applications and removes the need to drag application windows around.
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The second series, which uses the TI Zoom(TM) OMAP35x Development Kit from Logic, will introduce the use of Qt/Embedded for Linux framework, and will result in a demo-ready medical device.
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Called Facet, it is a hardware version of RealDVD which is Linux-based and has the capacity to hold around 70 DVDs digitally.
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Phones
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A report that O2 will launch the Palm Pré in the UK on 30 October is false, the network operator has told Register Hardware.
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The world’s largest mobile phone vendor will adopt Linux for its higher-end phones, a report claims. Instead of its Symbian-based S60 stack, Nokia will look to open source OS technology such as Maemo, in order to better compete with RIM and Apple, says the Financial Times, Germany.
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Sub-notebooks
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Melbourne-based boutique electronics company Kogan Technologies has reduced the price of its 10-inch Agora Netbook range with the basic model now $399, down from $499.
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Open source software company Inverse released the version 1.0.4 of Scalable OpenGroupware.org (SOGo). SOGo provides a rich AJAX-based Web interface and supports multiple native clients through the use of standard protocols such as CalDAV, CardDAV and GroupDAV. It features a very tight integration with Mozilla Thunderbird and Lightning and enable mobile devices synchronization through the use of the Funambol middleware. Version 1.0.4 provides new features such as Apple iPhone OS 3 support, better Apple iCal 3 support and memcached support for high-scalability. Moreover, Inverse releases Lightning “Inverse Edition” v0.9.6. This is a maintenance release of Mozilla Lightning based on our 0.9 release which focuses on stability and includes many bug fixes, several small enhancements and some new features of the upcoming Mozilla Lightning 1.0 extension.
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I’m spending the week at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara. Surprisingly, there were something like 1200 registrations and there’s a lively crowd at the Summit. Good news for the business climate, I think. The presentations have been excellent and I’ll be sharing several with you over the next few days. First off is a keynote presentation by Michael Cornwell, Lead Technologist for Flash Memory at Sun Microsystems. (By the way, all of Cornwell’s Flash-related projects have names associated with the fictitious superhero Flash Gordon, hence the map of the Planet Mongo over on the right, which I’ve cribbed from Cornwell’s title slide.)
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The application options available for the midmarket are many and varied. Two popular alternatives to the more traditional — and often more costly — route of on-premise applications are open source and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. Although both provide many benefits, including reduced capital costs and subscription-based pricing models, it’s the differences between the two models that may dictate which is best suited for your organization.
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Unicon, Inc., a leading provider of software consulting services and open source solutions for the education market, today announced new application hosting services for higher education institutions wanting to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of open source learning management systems Sakai and Moodle. Unicon’s hosting service fully supports the community source code versions of the open source software, and delivers a feature-rich, fully functional learning management solution based on the comprehensive out-of-the box product capabilities available in Sakai and Moodle.
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The past year’s economic slump has lead many application architects to explore open source components for their SOA middleware stack – even such complex components as the enterprise service bus (ESB). The decision to adopt an open or closed-source ESB can be tough. It requires a company to weigh cost against complexity and gauge its own programming savvy.
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Open Source’s Green Genes
Open source software negates the existence of software “piracy,” so if enough people began using open source, the industry surrounding the pursuit and prosecution of software “pirates” would go away. All that money and energy could be spend doing something more important. Do you know how many natural resources it takes to manufacture a three-piece suit like lawyers wear? Eliminate “piracy” and you eliminate the need for thousands of three-piece suits every year. Lawyers who work for open source projects don’t need to wear suits. And they probably don’t need to shower as often, either.
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Open source projects in software industry said the programs that the design and construction created for the purpose of free distribution under specific license. In addition to these projects, can participate voluntarily people with little or extensive experience in software issues.Good free open source software programs for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems with no adware and no spyware.
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Business
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Four open-source and proprietary vendors on Wednesday announced a new partnership resulting in a cloud-based BI (business intelligence) stack.
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We’ve reported a number of times before on Acquia, which offers a commercially supported version of the open source Drupal content management system. OStatic runs on Drupal, and Drupal version 6 is expected to soon run over 240,000 web sites, with many large media companies switching to it.
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SpringSource, a software company founded by Australian open source entrepreneur Rod Johnson, has been acquired by virtualisation kingpins VMware in a transaction valued at over US$420 million (AU$505 million).
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Others and I have made much of VMware’s acquisition of SpringSource for $420 million, but one crucial point has been overlooked: this is the first big acquisition of a company that depends on the Apache license.
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In the ideal world, open source software would be free of charges and its communities would operate on a Service Level Agreement (SLA) scale.
There would be virtually no expenses to acquire, use and maintain the software in enterprise IT production environments.
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Nearly three months ago, John Roberts, one of the founders of SugarCRM, a commercial open source CRM vendor, stepped down as CEO. Larry Augustin, a former venture capitalist and one of the driving forces behind SourceForge.net while he was chairman of VA Software, stepped in to replace him. SearchCRM.com sat down with Augustin to discuss his plans while he serves as interim CEO and to get his perspective (as a longtime open source evangelist) on the CRM market.
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FSF/GNU
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GNU Generation, says Shinn in a posting on the Open Source At Google blog, plans to provide a “very informal and relaxed environment”. Participants in the program will have a chance to win a T-Shirt if they are selected as a “contributor of the month” and a GNU/Linux powered netbook if selected as contributor of the year. Details of how to join are available on the GNU Generation wiki.
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Government
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There is one of its services that Google forgot to promote to councils that could save them a lot of money: Google Code. Local government in this country needs to share code as well as using open source software developed by other organisations.
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Local authorities in the UK are increasingly turning to open source software as a way to reduce IT costs, says new research..
Around half of councils surveyed by Public Sector Forums said they will increase use of open source by 2011.
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Licensing
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The second strategy pertains to open-source software.
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Openness
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Sony Electronics is to change the format of the ebooks it sells so that they will work on devices other than its own Sony Reader.
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Censorship/Web Abuse
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It’s not certain whether the Middle Kingdom’s U-turn was brought about by public pressure (incredibly unlikely), security fears (significantly more likely) or the impending threat of legal action over copyright infringement (ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!), but it seems that Green Dam will no longer be forcefully installed on every single computer manufactured in or imported to China.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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That’s one revelation from a document we obtained (labeled “AP CONFIDENTIAL — NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION”) that offers new insight into how the AP is planning to reinvent itself on the Internet.
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The link economy
Plenty of people have observed — and the AP surely understands — that the consortium’s 163-year-old, print-centric methods of syndication don’t really make sense online, where a link can do the work of distributing content. That sounds like the impetus for this rethinking, but it will surely raise hackles among AP members accustomed to publishing that wire content on their own sites (not to mention selling ads against it).
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The unwillingness to use streaming services is interesting, especially since I’ve seen every one of my son’s friends sign up to Spotify recently. While is is possible that kids really do value “ownership” of music, I suspect it has more to do with the limitations of their online lives.
Thomas Bartol, computational neuroscientist for the Salk Institute 02 (2005)
Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.
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