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06.19.10

SUSE MeeGo is About Mono and OpenSUSE Makes Microsoft-taxed GNU/Linux

Posted in GNU/Linux, OpenSUSE, SLES/SLED at 2:16 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Peace of mind

Summary: A critical look at SUSE’s affair with MeeGo and the relationship between OpenSUSE and SLE*

SUSE MeeGo is not the same as MeeGo, but as we showed earlier this month [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], SUSE MeeGo is a path to promotion of Microsoft software such as Mono and Moonlight. Novell advertises SUSE MeeGo over at YouTube while its Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza brings Moonlight into better alignment with Microsoft.

“It’s not quite the image of this company which Novell wants the public to think about.”The following new video is a look at SLES 11 SP1, which is taxed by Microsoft (more from the same guy). OpenSUSE 11.3 is out and parties are planned for what would become the basis of SLE* 12, assuming that it ever gets released (Novell is up for sale).

Here is another new video involving Novell and IDG Spain (somewhat related to this new video). As we explained before, Novell is all about short-term profit and it focuses on Fog Computing, based on the pitch of its marketing people [1, 2] who also spread “case studies”.

In summary, Novell spreads Microsoft software, Microsoft-taxed versions of GNU/Linux, and additional lock-in. It’s not quite the image of this company which Novell wants the public to think about. █

Microsoft Markets Mobile Products That Don’t Exist

Posted in Deception, Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 1:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”

–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

Summary: Microsoft uses vapourware tactics in the mobile space, just as it did when it came to Vista 7

SEVERAL days ago we explained fragmentation in Microsoft's mobile business, having already remarked on fragmentation in general and shown that Apple, Microsoft, and Linux/Android all have some level of ‘fragmentation’ in their products/operating systems. Alastair Otter explains why another important factor among Microsoft’s mobile problems is the delay and vapourware tactics (Microsoft showing and bragging about products that don’t exist yet).

The long delay in releasing mobile phones running Windows Phone 7 is damaging Microsoft’s mobile opportunity.

It’s been six months since Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer officially announced Windows Mobile 7, now called Windows Phone 7. And now, well and truly into the second-half of the year, Microsoft’s answer to the iPhone and Google’s Android OS is still nowhere to be seen.

[...]

The HTC Photon, Trophy and Tera are expected to ship in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

That’s an awful lot of noise over something that’s not even in the market yet. Shades of Vista 7, right?

Microsoft mobile strategy is as “clear as mud,” argues Tim of OpenBytes.

So we’ve moved on from Windows Mobile and today we are consuming Apple and Android based phones with a veracious demand, equalled only by the amount of applications developed for the platforms. I think that the key to a successful mobile product it todays market is a diverse catalogue of 3rd party apps and (at least) perceived complete customization and personalization of the phone for the consumer. Todays world seems to have (in many cases) the mobile phone being a creative expression of its owner, be it ringtones, wallpapers or anything else. The article on the Kin posed the question that firstly a phone allegedly designed for a social generation seemed to lack some key features, but also to me the personalization of what was touted as being a “social phone” was not part of its feature. The Kin also brought up the issue that it was another OS that Microsoft had developed for the market and it doesn’t appear to offer support for either the upcoming new Windows mobile platform nor the older version either.

Microsoft has at least 6 operating systems (most of which descending from a common root) for mobile devices. It’s a mess. 6 different attempts don’t add up to one good effort. █

Prominent U.S. Government Figure Blames Microsoft for Security Problems, Dell Disagrees After Alleged Microsoft Pressure

Posted in Dell, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 1:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Richard Clarke

Summary: The problems associated with Windows are explained by another longtime professional in this area; Dell’s reversal regarding GNU/Linux security agitates GNU/Linux users who suspect that Microsoft is at least partly responsible for the change

MR. Richard A. Clarke is no person to be ignored. As Ars Technica recently revealed, Clarke blames Microsoft for many security problems that jeopardise national security and the Huffington Post has just written about this as well:

As Clarke reports, prior to the 1990s, the Pentagon made extensive use of specialized software designed by in-house programmers and a few defense contractors. But under pressure from libertarian ideologues and business lobbyists, the Pentagon began to use commercial software instead — in particular, Microsoft software. However, it turned out that Microsoft had built a low cost brand based on a principle of “one format for all” — rather than software that was tailored to special security needs. Problems soon arose, including, as Clarke recounts, a 1997 incident when the USS Yorktown, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser whose ship operations were administered on computers running Windows NT, was rendered inoperable after Windows crashed. “When the Windows system crashed, as Windows often does,” Clarke writes, “the cruiser became a floating i-brick, dead in the water.” After this and a “legion of other failures of Windows-based systems,” the Pentagon considered a shift to free, open-source operating systems like Linux. The code of open-source software can be altered by the user, and so the government would be free to change the software without interference from companies jealously guarding their design. It is also free.

Such a switch, though, would have been disastrous for Microsoft’s lucrative dealings with the government. The company was already fiercely opposed to regulation of its products’ security; it did not want the added delay and cost of improving its software in order to decrease its vulnerability. If the government switched to open-source software, it could make the improvements itself — but doing so would deal a major blow to Microsoft’s profits. So Microsoft moved to prevent the government from exploring any alternatives. It “went on the warpath,” writes Clarke, threatening to “stop cooperating” with the government if it adopted an open-source platform. It made major campaign contributions and hired a small army of lobbyists. Clarke outlines their purpose as: “don’t regulate security in the software industry, don’t let the Pentagon stop using our software no matter how many security flaws it has, and don’t say anything about software production overseas or deals with China.” (China, security experts feared, could plant logic bombs and malware into the software.)

Clarke reports that Microsoft insiders admitted that the company “really did not take security seriously,” because “there was no real alternative to its software, and they were swimming in money from their profits.”

For those who have not noticed, we updated twice each post about the Dell incident (it says “Updatedx2″) in order to show the response to what Dell had done [1, 2]. People alleged that Microsoft was responsible for changes in security advice and here is another new example of a rant:

Gosh, I wonder how many lawyers, and how many threats, it took to get that changed, and whose payroll the lawyers were on, and who was making the threats?

I think I’ll go over in the corner and hurl now. The whole situation, and the disgusting company behind it all, makes me ill.

We already possess undeniable evidence of Microsoft's retaliation threats against Dell. Microsoft will continue to produce fake security reports, bribe journalists, and harass those who expose Microsoft's security problems. Coercion is what Microsoft does best and if even giants like Dell are so spineless, shouldn’t there be room for an investigation? It’s an obstruction of truth. █

“Yes, Microsoft Basically Bribed the Press” – Newspaper Journalist

Posted in Hardware, Microsoft at 12:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sack racer

Summary: Former journalist explains why Microsoft’s gifts qualify as a bribe

SEVERAL days ago we showed separate arguments that accused Microsoft of bribery [1, 2]. Microsoft bribes in many situations and journalists know very well the meaning of it. Here is one person who openly speaks out about the intention.

“Yes, Microsoft basically bribed the press,” said the author (also here). “When I was a newspaper journalist working for a business publication, PR houses would send us free stuff all day, every day. The ethical line was a frequent consideration and lots (I mean LOTS) of gifts were returned to sender.

“…the way Microsoft went about their gifting today smacks of bribery and toe-sucking.”
      –Former newspaper journalist“I do not expect anyone in the gaming press will be refusing their free consoles … Even though virtually everyone already has an older 360 model.

“While there is a valid ethical response to accepting the thing — hardware reviews are a vital keystone in the gaming press — the way Microsoft went about their gifting today smacks of bribery and toe-sucking.”

This bribe won’t just affect coverage of the Xbox 360. Those journalists will think of Microsoft every time they play some game on this Xbox 360 Microsoft bought them. They’re indebted. It’s a bribe. █

“I’ve been thinking long and hard about this, and the only conclusion I can come to is that this is ethically indistinguishable from bribery. Even if no quid-pro-quo is formally required, the gift creates a social obligation of reciprocity. This is best explained in Cialdini’s book Influence (a summary is here). The blogger will feel some obligation to return the favor to Microsoft.”

–Former Microsoft manager

Related posts:

Links 19/6/2010: Zorin 3, Droid 2

Posted in News Roundup at 4:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Security/Aggression

    • Plastic bags to be put over Birmingham ‘terror cameras’

      A surveillance operation in parts of Birmingham with large Muslim populations has been halted after it was revealed the move was linked to counter terrorism.

    • CCTV agreement will boost council funds

      THE head of CCTV in Sevenoaks is set to take charge of cameras in Tunbridge Wells in order to boost council coffers.

      But council chiefs insist the move, which will earn them £20,000 a year, will not impact on security in the town.

    • Town administrator allegedly planted camera in women’s bathroom

      Town Administrator Kyle J. Keady allegedly planted a video camera in the ceiling of the women’s restroom in Town Hall, secretly recorded visitors to his office, and illicitly bugged his assistant and the town accountant, authorities said today.

    • Police in north Birmingham get electric Taser stun guns

      FRONTLINE bobbies in parts of Birmingham have been equipped with 50,000-volt electric stun guns, it has emerged.

      Selected officers across the north of the city have joined colleagues in other parts of the West Midlands to be allowed to carry the Taser on city streets.

  • Environment

    • Spinning the Barrel

      BP and the media express quantities of oil gushing from BP’s leak in the Gulf in different ways. The amount of oil coming out of the leak is most frequently expressed in barrels, but how much is that? Can people really relate to a barrel as a quantity? After all, we buy staples like gasoline, milk, and water by the gallon. To make it even more complicated for the public to understand the quantities being discussed, the amount of liquid in a barrel varies with what is being measured. Barrels of chemicals or food, for example, contain 55 gallons. A whiskey barrel is 40 gallons; a barrel of beer contains 36 gallons; a barrel of ale contains 34 gallons. (And the latter two are imperial gallons, which are two-tenths less than an American gallon.) All these variations in the barrel as a quantity of measure only further confuse the concept of what a barrel of oil looks like. Moreover, since oil companies started shipping oil in tankers they rarely actually ship oil in barrels anymore, so the barrel as a measurement has less practical use.

    • The Other Oil Giants? Just as Unready as BP
    • Cuba braces to contend with BP oil spill

      Havana calls in Venezuelan experts to combat potential environmental disaster as tarballs spotted off island’s coast

    • Read This Before You Volunteer to Clean Up the BP Oil Disaster

      Merle Savage has a wheezy, guttural smoker’s cough. But the 71-year-old former Alaska resident and author of Silence in the Sound never smoked a day in her life. She did, however, spend four months as a general foreman during the Exxon Valdez oil spill recovery project in 1989. And she has a message for anyone working at the BP oil disaster sites: “You’ve got to use your common sense. Breathing crude oil is toxic.”

    • Cutting greenhouse gases will be no quick fix for our weather, scientists say

      UK study predicts increased floods and droughts will continue for decades after global temperatures are stabilised

    • Coalition to announce support for new nuclear power
    • UN considers review of alleged carbon offset abuses

      The UN has confirmed that it is considering a formal review of its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) after a new report leveled fresh criticism at the high profile carbon offsetting scheme.

  • Finance

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Changes in cigarette pack colors called not so mild

      In anticipation of a ban against using words such as “light” or “mild” on cigarette labels and ads, tobacco companies have lightened package colors to convey the same message, a move the American Lung Association and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have attacked as disingenuous.

    • The Copyright Lobby’s Astroturf Campaign in Support of C-32

      The copyright lobby, almost certainly led by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, has launched a major astroturf campaign in which it hopes to enlist company employees to register their support for Bill C-32 and to criticize articles or comments that take issue with elements of the proposed legislation. The effort, which even includes paid placement of headlines on Bourque.com, is still shrouded in some secrecy. A member list, which featured many record company executives, has now disappeared from public view. Requests to identify who is behind the site have been stonewalled thus far, with both ACTRA and AFM Canada explicitly stating they are not part of the site (this is no surprise since most creator groups have been critical of C-32).

    • Copyright Lobby Astroturf Site Adds Mandatory, Uneditable Letter to MPs

      The copyright lobby’s BalancedCopyrightforCanada.ca astroturfing site has added a new mandatory requirement for all users that want to participate in the Take Action items. According to a site user, the site now requires users to send a form letter to their relevant Member of Parliament. There are two letter options – one letter for entertainment industry employees and one general letter.

  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • Italian MEP Wants To Eliminate Anonymity On the Internet
    • DOJ’s surveillance reporting failure

      In both 2004, and 2009, the US Department of Justice provided Congress with a “document dump”, covering 5 years of Pen Register and Trap & Trace surveillance reports. Although the law clearly requires the Attorney General to submit annual reports to Congress, DOJ has not done so, nor has it provided any reason for its repeated failure to submit the reports to Congress in a timely manner, as the law requires.

    • The End of Libel?
    • Pakistani lawyer petitions for death of Mark Zuckerberg

      Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is being investigated by Pakistani police under a section of the penal code that makes blasphemy against Muhammad punishable by death.

      BBC Urdu reports — according to a Google Translation — that Pakistan’s Deputy Attorney General has launched a criminal investigation against Zuckerberg and others in response to Facebook hosting a “Draw Muhammad” contest on its site late last month. On May 19, Pakistani authorities blocked access to Facebook over the contest, and this ban was lifted on May 31 after Facebook removed the page in Pakistan and other countries.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

    • Let’s subsidize open broadband, not journalists

      The FTC can’t do much on its own about making sure broadband works the right way. That’s partly the Federal Communication Commission’s job. But it’s really the job of Congress, which keeps failing so spectacularly at almost everything else it touches these days.

      But the FTC can offer policy recommendations, and sometimes Congress actually listens. So I hope the commission will push for the kind of progress the nation’s founders had the wisdom to see. Let’s create the conditions that help ensure a market of ideas and business models, based on one of the principle America stood on in its early days: widespread contributions and access to knowledge, as a foundation of the future.

    • Propaganda Masquerading As Academic Net Neutrality ‘Jobs’ Loss Assessment

      The writeup is done by Matthew Lasar, who’s usually pretty good to cut through ridiculous claims, but doesn’t seem to challenge this one at all. The report is officially from New York Law School’s Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute, but it was written by Bret Swanson. Remember him? He’s a well known propagandist for the telco industry. He’s not a “researcher.” He’s the guy who coined the concept of the “exaflood” and when that was totally debunked, renamed it the “exacloud.” He’s been AT&T’s go to guy for pure anti-net neutrality propaganda, and he seems to relish in totally making stuff up.

    • Industry Groups Offer Legislative Deal On Net Neutrality

      Under pressure from the FCC, the communications industry is lobbying Congress to pass narrowly focused legislation to blunt two contentious, game-changing proposals championed by Chairman Julius Genachowski, CongressDaily reported.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Stop Trying to Reinvent the Wheel

      Right now, in meetings at corporations around the world, the wise are suffering. They are trapped in rooms where debate rages over how to solve a problem. The rub is that the problem has already been solved, just not by someone in the room—and solutions from outside are ignored. This is the disease known as “NIH,” or “Not Invented Here” syndrome, and it’s alive and well in 2010. Despite our many technological advancements in communication, none have eliminated this perennial waste of time. Why is this problem so hard to shake? Will we always be confronted with people who insist on reinventing wheels?

    • Children’s Hospital ‘Allowed’ To Continue Research Using System It Developed After Patent Fight

      This is a point that we’ve raised before. So many reporters contribute to massive misconceptions about patents by writing sentences like the one above. It implies that patent lawsuits really are about one group “copying” an idea or technology from another, and that the patent holder “owns” the technology itself. This is blatantly untrue in most cases.

    • Palo Alto biotech company grants license to children’s hospital, allowing stem cell research to resume
    • 48 HR Magazine: “CBS Is Being Unreasonable”

      It had been exactly a month since CBS served 48 HR with a Cease & Desist letter for allegedly infringing on the trademark of the network’s long-running TV news magazine of the (almost) same name: “48 Hours.”

    • Copyrights

      • Gov’t Reminds Colleges They Need To Start Taking Money From Students And Sending It To The Entertainment Industry

        It was a clear case of the government creating subsidies for the entertainment industry, by taking money away from students and education. It’s difficult to see how anyone can defend such a law. Universities that fail to do this face the possibility of losing financial aid for students. Seriously.

      • LimeWire faces new copyright suit
      • The NYT doesn’t care about posting primary documents

        I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with Richard Samson, the NYT’s top copyright lawyer; you might remember him from his nastygram to the WSJ earlier this month, or his nastygram to Apple with respect to the Pulse RSS reader, which resulted in the app getting temporarily pulled from the iTunes app store. (He says he’s now “in conversations with the developers”, but that “the fact that they’re charging for it certainly is a concern”.) If you’re a restaurateur, say, who reproduces a NYT review on your website, he’s the person you’re likely to hear from.

      • French Data Regulator Green-Lights Three-Strikes

        The French three-strike ‘Hadopi’ law, which was passed in September 2009, has passed a major hurdle for its actual implementation.

        Data protection regulator CNIL has authorized music rights holders’ requests to automatically track IP addresses of illegal downloaders within the frame defined in the Hadopi law.

      • Documentary filmmakers hopeful for DMCA exemption

        Documentary filmmakers are hoping the U.S. Copyright Office will soon grant them a fair use exemption from a law that bans copying content from commercial DVDs.

        The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) makes it illegal for anyone to bypass the security measures on a commercial DVD to download or copy the content. That presents a problem for documentary filmmakers who want to make legal use of the content, according to entertainment attorney Michael Donaldson.

      • Is ‘Unthinkable’ the hottest new movie that you have never heard of?

        “I’ve been unbelievably torn over the whole thing,” says Chubb, best known for having produced such films as “Eve’s Bayou,” “Dark Blue” and “To Sleep with Anger.” “It’s tremendous to go on IMDB and see that our user rating is 7.3, which is the highest rating of any movies in the current Top 10 there — you have to go down to ‘Iron Man 2′ to find a higher rating. But on the other hand, while everyone is debating all these important moral questions, I want to ask them another important question — hey, guys, what about the morality of watching this movie on the Internet for free?”

      • Senate Oversight Of IP Czar… Only Involves Entertainment Industry Execs

        So, it’s unfortunate, but hardly a surprise that the Senate’s hearing on “oversight” of Espinel’s work involves only people on the entertainment industry’s side. The panel who will discuss Espinel’s performance includes the CEO of Warner Bros., the CEO of the “Global IP Center” of the Chamber of Commerce (whose views on IP are positively neanderthal, complete with some of the most ridiculous studies), the CEO of Carlin America (a music publisher) and the president of the AFL-CIO, who has already done some horse trading to be an official representative of the RIAA’s position.

      • Michael Robertson’s Crowdsourced List Of 1,400 Examples Of EMI Giving Away Free Music; EMI Denies All But 3

        But weren’t we just told by the head of PPL in the UK (home of EMI) that “there is no such thing” as “promotion” when it comes to music, and “for free” should be erased from our vocabulary. Perhaps that explains EMI’s actions. They no longer recognize the concept of free promotion as existing after listening to Fran Nevrkla’s speech.

      • When Recording Everything We See Is Standard, What Happens To Copyright?

        However, if such things become more common, laws are going to have to adjust — and copyright law is no exception. David Levine points us to a story about a guy who lost his eye in a hunting accident, and has replaced it with a prosthetic eye that doubles as a video camera, which can also broadcast what he’s seeing. Levine, in mentioning this, queries what happens when he goes to the movies? Or, what if he goes to a sporting event with an exclusive broadcast right? We recently wondered how long it would be until some enterprising team of folks all attends a sporting event with smartphones and broadcasts an “alternative” stream of the game.

Clip of the Day

CLUG Talk 14 October 2008 – Unison (2008)


Stephan Kinsella: The Case Against Intellectual Property Rights

Posted in Intellectual Monopoly, Videos at 2:52 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

[via Vimeo]

06.18.10

Who Are the Communists?

Posted in Bill Gates, Microsoft, Quote at 7:56 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Bill Gates cites copyright enforcement to justify Chinese censorship. Microsoft executives used to call us communists, but they are now clearly revealed as the ones who support communist-style dictatorship.”

–Richard Stallman

IRC Proceedings: June 18th, 2010

Posted in IRC Logs at 6:36 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

Read the log

Enter the IRC channel now

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