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03.28.13

Windows Commits Suicide With Blue, Old Interface to be Deprecated, Then Buried

Posted in Microsoft, Vista 8, Windows at 8:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Microsoft takes the blue pill

BSOD

Summary: Microsoft is exiting the desktop market by abandoning the old platform which in turn can’t be replaced by a new one (Android/Linux already dominant)

MICROSOFT is in serious trouble and it knows it. One site asks if Windows Blue Microsoft’s next step in killing the desktop, joking in a sense that Vista 8 no longer targets the desktop. SJVN suspects that Microsoft will dump the desktop metaphor completely, for the first time in decades. He writes:

The early look at Blue have some Windows experts thinking that Microsoft is getting ready to dump Windows 8′s desktop mode once and for all in favor of Metro. No!

John Dvorak adds to this debate by warning about Blue:

Apparently at least one person prefers the dumb Metro interface over what is possibly the most popular metaphor—the desktop. The desktop metaphor began with the Xerox Star and ran through the Lisa, Macintosh, and Windows for decades to become the most popular product in history until the mobile phone appeared. But screw that, let’s do this instead. If it ain’t broken, let’s fix it with something dumbed-down.

Everyone knows I think it stinks. My Windows 8 has long-since been patched to push the tiles off to oblivion. I’m happy with the results. I boot straight to the desktop and there I stay.

So now Microsoft is pushing the dreadful Blue. Who wants more and smaller tiles? As I explained back in September 2011, tiles simply slow you down.

Microsoft used to be accused of producing sluggish bloatware because the CPU was too slow. Today it’s showing over and over that the software itself is slowing down productivity in new ways; the ribbon interface is said to knock down productivity by as much as 35 percent. You can’t help but wonder: does this company hate productivity?

And now, after everyone has groused about the advisability and usability of full-screen apps, especially on huge monitors, the Snap View feature allows up to four full-screen programs to equally share a screen. Wow! Innovation! Hey, I could do that before—and it was easier to accomplish.

Luckily, there are various third-party patches that make this dysfunctional program useful. But how long will they work if Microsoft makes Windows 8 worse with every new idea?

It is not as though Microsoft is gaining a foothold in portable devices. Developers too continue to ignore Windows in devices. As a new article put it:

Beyond supporting OpenGL, Microsoft needs to make itself a priority for game developers. It can’t always play catch up. It must convince game developers that they should build for Windows Phone within months, if not weeks, of a game launch. We can’t expect them to develop for Windows Phone first, but neither should they be doing so a year or more later. Instead of trying to wow us with yesterday’s hits, Windows Phone needs today’s hits today.

The Windows franchise is dying [1, 2], rapidly alienating developers, too. We need to protect Linux-based platforms from the inevitable patent assaults, which are worse than FUD; they’re legal threats. They are signs of desperation. █

Pro-Microsoft Rag ReadWrite is Losing the Microsoft Booster Who Ran It, HubSpot Infected Though

Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Marketing, Microsoft at 8:22 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Daniel Lyons
Original photo by Mark Coggins

Summary: It turns out that Dan Lyons, longtime foe of GNU/Linux, was the editor-in-chief at ReadWrite

We and many others in the FOSS world have complained about pro-Microsoft spin in ReadWrite, not knowing that its editor in chief was Lyons [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], whose anti-Linux history is long and well known (notorious even). He promoted the bogus case of SCO, among other things. Earlier this month when Richard Stallman turned 60 Lyons published a personal attack on him (on his birthday!). I wrote that I was shocked that the editors let him do this, not realising that the editor in chief was Lyons himself (it was not widely advertised or known). He attacked other FOSS proponents personally, including SJVN and PJ (very personal attacks, not professional ones). Even Boycott Novell was mentioned by him in Forbes. This is not journalism and this article helps explain why ReadWrite was so pro-Microsoft all these years.

Dan Lyons, the editor-in-chief at tech blog ReadWrite, is leaving for a position at marketing software company HubSpot. We heard the news from knowledgeable sources, and the part about Lyons’ departure for HubSpot was confirmed…

Marketing, eh? Well, he was never a journalist, just a lobbyist/personal attacks specialist. He was using personal attacks for advancement of Microsoft agenda. We might as well assume that HubSpot will join the list of Microsoft PR agencies now. █

“There is nothing so bad but it can masquerade as moral”

–Walter Lippmann (American Journalist, 1889-1974)

Sony’s Patent Attacks on Android/Linux Expand

Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Patents at 8:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sony cellphone

Summary: Sony Ericsson is striking a blow against an effort which brings Linux to many people in the world’s second-biggest population, namely India

Some months ago we saw Sony pulling a SCO. While pretending to be Android/Linux backer it sued other companies over the use of the platform. As if Sony ‘owns’ Android…

According to this report from India, Sony is mercilessly suing a small player for making Android phones/tablets more easily accessible to many in the country. To quote:

Ericsson, the world’s largest mobile network infrastructure player, has sued homegrown handset major Micromax for patent infringement, marking the arrival of bigticket technology patent litigation to Indian shores.

The Swedish network equipment maker has moved the Delhi High Court claiming about Rs 100 crore in damages, saying it was taking legal action after three years of negotiations failed to yield a licence agreement on ‘standards-essential’ patents.

This was highlighted by Pamela Jones, who wrote: “This is an Android case, of course, where the whole point of the group effort seems to be to make Android cost more. Remember SCO? That was the goal there too, to make Linux something you had to pay a lot for so others could compete against it more easily.”

Sony Ericsson phones — even if they run Android — are not worth buying when the company carries on along this path. Being some kind of SCO or a Oracle does nothing except ruin the brand. Oracle’s financial performance was exceptionally poor lately and its image in the eyes of FOSS enthusiasts, i.e. many systems administrators, was seriously tarnished. Both Sony and Oracle have been doing other things which are damaging to Linux.

Cisco’s strong brand is also being damaged right now due to a fraud patent case which it will pay $70 million for:

Cisco Systems Inc must pay $70 million in damages to patent licenser XpertUniverse Inc for fraudulently obtaining technology developed by the New York company, a jury found on Friday, according to court filings.

Patents are an ugly business. They’re not even a real business, they’re dirty business, an act of extortion which presumes people can ‘own’ ideas. █

03.27.13

Links 27/3/2013: Document Freedom Day!

Posted in News Roundup at 10:45 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Prime Minister Stephen Harper faces revolt as Conservative backbenchers complain of muzzlings

    Conservative MP Mark Warawa (pictured) asked the Speaker of the House to intervene Tuesday after party whip Gordon O’Connor struck him from the list of backbenchers who were scheduled to deliver a member’s statement last Thursday.

  • Google pressured Sweden to drop the word ungoogleable [Updated]

  • Security

    • Can the Lords salvage something from the Justice and Security Bill?

      Today Andrew Tyrie MP and Anthony Peto QC have published their follow-up paper on the Justice and Security Bill for the Centre for Policy Studies. It makes for harrowing reading.

      The Bill now heads back to the Lords today, where it started. The House of Lords voted for major amendments, introducing more discretion for judges and making the use of CMPs a last resort. The Government removed most of these amendments during Committee stage, in most cases by a single vote, despite repeated warnings that the Bill’s proposals constitute a radical departure from fundamental constitutional principles.

      As Andrew Tyrie MP says: “The Lords did good repair work on the Bill, but the Government has undone much of it. The Lords now have a final chance to restore their original sensible amendments and further improve the Bill. I very much hope that they will do take it.”

    • What is the Network Control Point for Security? [VIDEO]

      Martin Roesch, founder of IPS vendor SourceFIRE, discusses the need for network visibility, web application firewalls and what it should all be called.

  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

    • The Media Didn’t Fail on Iraq; Iraq Just Showed We Have a Failed Media

      You know what, Paul Farhi? Skeptics are aware that it was possible to “connect the dots,” because they did so, in real time–citing the same exceptional journalists whom you now cite to prove that the media as a whole were doing their job.

      But the real job of the media is not to sprinkle 1 percent truth amidst 99 percent bullshit, so that diligent researchers can search it out like Easter eggs. The job of the media is to present information so that when when its audience consumes it in the usual manner, that audience can get some sense of what reality is like. By this basic standard, the corporate media failed.

    • Long-lost Nazi submarine U-486 found off coast of Norway

      The wreck of a long-lost Nazi submarine, the U-486, has been found off the west coast of Norway, more than 60 years after it was sunk.

      The remains were first spotted north of the port of Bergen last year but have only now been confirmed as the missing U-boat, the Bergen Maritime Museum announced today.

      The U-486 last sailed on April 12, 1945, when she came under attack from a British submarine. A torpedo broke the German vessel in two, sending her and all 48 crew onboard to the bottom of the seabed.

    • THE SPY WHO SAID TOO MUCH

      In 2007, John Kiriakou was settling into a lucrative life as a former spy. His fourteen-year career as a C.I.A. officer had included thrilling, if occasionally hazardous, tours as a specialist in counterterrorism. In Athens, in 1999 and 2000, he recruited several foreign agents to spy for the United States, and at one point was nearly assassinated by leftists. In Pakistan, in 2002, he chased Al Qaeda members, and when Abu Zubaydah, an Al Qaeda logistics leader, was wounded and captured, Kiriakou guarded his bedside. (Kiriakou recounted many of his exploits in a colorful memoir, “The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the C.I.A.’s War on Terror.”) In 2004, he retired, and soon took a job with the accounting and consulting firm DeLoitte. He worked in the field of corporate intelligence and advised Hollywood filmmakers on the side.

    • CIA Chief advises you to ask: What are your rights? Who owns your data?

      The cloud is old news, it’s “so three years ago,” and Big Data “was so last year,” but according to the CIA’s Chief Technology Officer, Ira “Gus” Hunt, this year is about “how to get value” from Big Data. At the GigaOM Structure Data conference, Hunt presented, “The CIA’s ‘Grand Challenges” with Big Data” and I highly recommend that you take about 30 minutes to personally listen to it.

    • DOD Urged to Cut Ties with Russian Enabler of Syrian Atrocities

      Human Rights First today joined with Representatives Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Kay Granger (R-TX) to call on the Department of Defense to uphold its legal responsibility to end its business relationship with Russian-state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, an enabler of the mass atrocities in Syria. Russia, through Rosoboronexport, has served as the chief arms supplier of weapons to the Bashar al-Assad regime since the beginning of the two-year Syrian conflict that has left more than 70,000 dead.

    • Man Speaks of Escape From Nazi Rule at Holocaust Remembrance Service

      Guest speaker Josef Korngruen will tell his story of escape from Nazi rule as a child. Korngruen was born in Austria to Polish parents. It was only after his parents renounced their Polish citizenship and became stateless that they were issued papers that allowed his sisters and him to travel—one sister to Israel, one to America and Josef to England on the Kindertransport.

    • Delays in Poland’s CIA jails case “endangering evidence”

      Delays in Poland’s investigation into whether the CIA ran secret jails on its soil could have caused evidence to be lost and given security services time to cover their tracks, according to a submission to the European Court of Human Rights.

    • Obama’s drone killing program slowly emerges from the secret state shadows

      How much difference does it make for a Pentagon finger to fire a Hellfire missile, rather than the CIA’s? Some, but not enough

    • President Obama: The drones don’t work, they just make it worse

      As the Obama Administration looks to reform its drone program, it should focus on assessing its actual success rate.

    • Woman who helped run CIA torture may get major promotion
    • First female CIA director appointed
    • Obama Appoints First Female Secret Service (Not CIA) Director
    • CIA’s interrogation program deserves public airing

      Americans should assess whether Langley engaged in torture in its war against al-Qaida. The country’s honor is at stake, not just the competence of its primary intelligence service. Neither the CIA nor national security is likely to be harmed if the behemoth were released with the necessary camouflage for operatives, tradecraft and foreign intelligence services.

    • US drones kill 4 in NWA

      The number of drone strikes has decreased dramatically in recent months. The last drone strike took place on March 10. Drone strikes by the United States are deeply resented in the country and considered a violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

    • Commission says no to drones

      County commissioners made it loud and clear Tuesday they want no part of drone testing at the airport.

    • The More Americans Know About Drones, the Less They Like Them

      The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza gave his most recent “Worst Week in Washington Award” to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whose assault weapons ban got stripped from a Democratic gun control package last Tuesday for lack of support. Fair enough, but if nonhumanoids can be eligible for the award (and why discriminate?), I’d say that drones had the “worst week in Washington” last week.

    • Game of drones

      Federal regulators still have until 2015 to come up with drone rules, but some local and state governments don’t want to wait that long. In February, Charlottesville in Virginia, became the first US city to ban drones for two years.
      While these bans are mostly symbolic and would be overruled by a federal drone law, they highlight the anxiety that surrounds drones and doubts whether the FAA – an agency much more experienced in dealing with safety than privacy issues – can produce drone legislation that addresses privacy concerns.
      Those concerns are real, agrees Joanne Gabrynowicz, director of the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law at the University of Mississippi. “But we can come up with a regulatory system. If we did it for satellites I am confident we can do it for drones. But it will be difficult and there a lot of interests involved.”

    • Mayor Bloomberg admits police drones may be coming to NYC

      New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s been on a roll lately. First he announced he wanted to ban super-size sodas, then it was ear-buds and cigarettes. Now the mayor has announced he may actually allow something. Look up; the Big Apple may soon be called the big brother.

      “What’s the difference whether the drone is up in the air or on the building?” Bloomberg asked when comparing aerial drones to the thousands of security cameras already placed around New York City.

    • A 50-Point Swing Against Targeted Drone Killings of U.S. Citizens

      A year ago, as the presidential race was taking shape, The Washington Post’s pollster asked voters whether they favored the use of drones to kill terrorists or terror suspects if they were “American citizens living in other countries.” The net rating at the time was positive: 65 percent for, 26 percent against.
      Today, after a month of Rand Paul-driven discussion of drone warfare, Gallup asks basically the same question: Should the U.S. “use drones to launch airstrikes in other countries against U.S. citizens living abroad who are suspected terrorists?” The new numbers: 41 percent for, 52 percent against.

  • Cablegate

    • Of Wikileaks, Wikitreats, invisibility and Jack the Giant Slayer
    • Julian Assange’s mother to speak at Murwillumbah
    • WikiLeaks reveals how West’s Iran war drive was undermined

      Former chairperson of the US National Intelligence Council, Thomas Fingar, received the 2013 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence on January 23 for his role overseeing the 2007 US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran.

      The NIE report’s finding that Iran had no active nuclear weapons program gave lie to years of US-Israeli anti-Iran rhetoric, and has been credited with preventing a pre-emptive war against Iran.

      US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks show that the NIE also hampered Western efforts to pass a fourth United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution against Iran.

    • WikiLeaks trial criticized as opaque and “chilling” to freedom of speech

      New York Times media critic David Carr blasted the United States military’s “eyedropper” approach to releasing information about Pfc. Bradley Manning’s public pretrial in a column on Sunday, March 24. Chronicling the hurdles reporters have faced covering the trial, Carr observed, “A public trial over state secrets was itself becoming a state secret in plain sight.”

      According to Carr, the military has released only 84 documents out of nearly 400 requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents released were so redacted the critic wrote they were “mystifying at best and at times almost comic.” Carr also noted that the court did not provide written transcripts from the proceedings.

    • Whistle blowers guard democracy

      The late I. F. “Iffy” Stone was a talented and insightful columnist whose beat was the Washington political arena, and he operated on a premise that every investigative reporter would do well to emulate.

    • ‘Pentagon Papers’ whistleblower defends WikiLeaks ‘hero’ Manning
    • Vietnam War whistleblower defends WikiLeaks ‘hero’

      Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg waited decades for someone like Bradley Manning to follow in his footsteps.

      He hails the US Army private accused of spilling secrets to website WikiLeaks as a champion of truth and not a betrayer of his country

    • Wikileaks, free speech and Assange’s message to Australia

      Wikileaks has had a transformative effect on global politics and our attitudes to government power and responsibility.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Finance

    • Corporate Land Grabs Reveal a Hidden Agenda: Controlling the Water

      Reports on land grabbing reveal that investors target control of both the land and the water beneath. Today’s “water barons”- multi-billionaires, financial institutions and corporate multinationals- are increasingly investing in water resources globally. Over-extraction and large land purchases in the Ogallala Aquifer and Great Lakes region in the US are proof that water scarcity is a growing problem not just in the Global South. Furthermore, efforts to track the water footprint of companies and other water-related risks, such as the “water disclosure project,” could actually backfire by providing information to investors interested in water-grabbing. Thus, regulatory mechanisms at the national and international level are needed to control large-scale land (and water) investments threatening the lives and livelihoods of local communities dependent on these resources.

    • IT’S OFFICIAL: Banks In Europe May Now Seize Deposits To Cover Their Gambling Losses

      Although deposits under 100,000 euros will be spared, deposits over 100,000 euros will be seized and subjected to an as-yet undetermined haircut–with the confiscated money going to bail out the gambling losses of the aforementioned reckless idiots who run some of Cyprus’s banks.
      This seizure, needless to say, will dampen the enthusiasm of rich depositors for keeping money in banks that get themselves into financial trouble.
      And because many, many banks in Europe have gotten themselves into financial trouble, this will create a general state of unease among rich depositors throughout the Eurozone.
      And it should wig out some bank lenders, as well.
      After all, never before in the history of this global financial crisis has a major banking system allowed depositors to lose money, no matter how reckless and stupid and greedy their bank managers have been. And only rarely have bank lenders–those who hold bank bonds–been asked to pony up.

    • CYPRUS’ BANKS TO REMAIN CLOSED UNTIL THURSDAY
    • Detroit’s First Day Under an Emergency Financial Manager

      As of today, Detroit is under the control of a governor-appointed Emergency Financial Manager (EFM). The Motor City is the largest district in the nation to have its voters and elected officials sidelined by this new experiment in “crisis management.”

    • JP Morgan Gets an Award for London Whale Fiasco, Will Schneiderman Harpoon the Corruption?

      A JPMorgan Chase employee stepped onstage at a black-tie gala on Wall Street last week to accept a “best crisis management” award given by an investor relations magazine. The bank, which was recently the subject of a U.S. Senate investigative hearing and an ongoing FBI probe into $6.2 billion in trading losses known as the “London Whale” fiasco, is not the subject of ridicule — but praise – from its cronies on Wall Street.

    • WORLD’S FIRST BITCOIN ATM IS ANNOUNCED – FIRST LOCATION: CYPRUS
    • Goldman Rejects Proposal That Firm Run for Elected Office

      Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), the investment bank nicknamed “Government Sachs” because of senior executives who have moved into public posts, won’t be entering politics itself.

      A shareholder proposal that the New York-based company run for office instead of funding political campaigns was discarded, according to a letter last month from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which agreed the firm can exclude the measure from its annual meeting.

    • Bill O’Reilly Gets Smacked By Economics Professor – Nanny States Actually Do Better (VIDEO)

      Fox News can afford to have economists to give its opinion masters factual information. It is obvious they have no interest in that. O’Reilly could not possibly believe what he is saying. Not only is there evidence from Europe as was stated by Professor Wolff, but it was true here in America.

    • Russian Leader Warns, “Get All Money Out Of Western Banks Now!”

      A Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) “urgent bulletin” being sent to Embassies around the world today is advising both Russian citizens and companies to begin divesting their assets from Western banking and financial institutions “immediately” as Kremlin fears grow that both the European Union and United States are preparing for the largest theft of private wealth in modern history.
      According to this “urgent bulletin,” this warning is being made at the behest of Prime Minister Medvedev who earlier today warned against the Western banking systems actions against EU Member Cyprus by stating:

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • As Supreme Court Hears Challenge to ALEC Voting Bill, Two More States Introduce It

      Within days of the U.S. Supreme Court hearing a challenge to an Arizona voting registration law that had been adopted as a “model” by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), two more states advanced bills that appear to track the ALEC/Arizona template.

      On March 18, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (ITCA), which will decide whether Arizona’s refusal to register voters that do not provide proof of citizenship is in conflict with federal law.

    • Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has political ambitions

      PEOPLE WATCHER Mark Zuckerberg has political ambitions to shake up the US immigration system.
      Zuckerberg is rallying a posse of technology politicos to help him create a lobbying group that will campaign – that is, throw money at – liberalising the US immigration and visa system.

    • Journalist claims Washington Post killed article on Iraq war media failures

      The Washington Post has been accused by a journalist of spiking a piece he was commissioned to write about the US media’s failures in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

      Greg Mitchell, a veteran journalist and author (see here), claims his assigned piece for the Post was killed and replaced by an article that defended the media’s coverage.

  • Censorship

    • Will bloggers be protected? Maybe – if your blog is “small”
    • State Investigates Complaint about Dietrich Science Teacher’s Human Reproduction Lesson

      A Dietrich science teacher is being investigated by the state’s professional standards commission after a complaint from parents over his teaching methods.

      Tim McDaniel is being investigated after a complaint was filed by a handful of parents who objected to how McDaniel taught the reproductive system, Dietrich Superintendent Neil Hollingshead said.

      “It is highly unlikely it would end with his dismissal,” Hollingshead said. “Maybe a letter of reprimand from the school board.”

      According to McDaniel, four parents were offended that he explained the biology of an orgasm and included the word “vagina” during his lesson on the human reproductive system in a tenth-grade biology course.

      “I teach straight out of the textbook, I don’t include anything that the textbook doesn’t mention,” McDaniel said. “But I give every student the option not attend this class when I teach on the reproductive system if they don’t feel comfortable with the material.”

  • Privacy

    • Microsoft discloses online data to the police

      Microsoft handed over online user account details of 2000 Australians to law enforcement agencies last year. Google and other software companies do the same thing.

    • Under CISPA, Who Can Get Your Data?

      Under CISPA, companies can collect your information in order to “protect the rights and property” of the company, and then share that information with third parties, including the government, so long as it is for “cybersecurity purposes.” Companies aren’t required to strip out personally identifiable information from the data they give to the government, and the government can then use the information for purposes wholly unrelated to cybersecurity – such as “national security,” a term the bill leaves undefined.

    • Privacy groups urge Baroness Ludford to support stronger data rights

      In response to her letter to the Financial Times, ORG and Privacy International have written to Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford urging her to support stronger privacy rights in the upcoming and crucial LIBE Committee vote.

    • NSA Facility In Utah To Help Fight Against Cyber-Attacks
    • US Government To Scan Private Firms’ Emails And Web Use

      The US government is planning to scan private firms’ web use and email communications, as part of a bid to prevent cyber-attacks which has been requested by President Obama.

      The government is proposing to extend existing powers, so it can analyse the communications of organisations such as banks, utility providers and transport companies, to prevent online attacks on the country’s infrastructure, according to US security officials.

      The move is in response to an executive order signed by President Obama in February that calls upon the owners and operators of critical US infrastructure to “improve cyber-security information sharing and collaboratively develop and implement risk-based standards”.

    • The Department of Homeland Security Would Like to Talk to Your Hacker Teens

      It’s hard being the Department of Homeland Security. Foreign agents are constantly trying to slip inside the D.H.S.’s computer systems. But America’s hotshot hackers either go for the private sector ($$$) or somewhere you can go on the offensive, like the N.S.A. (which, let’s face it, sounds super-badass).

      So, according to the New York Times, the agency, desperate for recruits, is now making like a college football program and hunting for recruits at high school hacking competitions

    • Calling All High School Hackers
    • To Combat China’s Hacker Army, the U.S. Is Copying Its Methods
    • Government uses video games to recruit teen hackers
    • U.S. government steps up hacker recruiting

  • Civil Rights

    • 102 Years After Triangle Fire, Media Still Wonder How Workers Keep Dying
    • Conscript facing jail again for refusing to go against his conscience

      A handful of Israeli teenagers go to prison every year because they refuse to serve in their country’s army on grounds of conscience.

      Nineteen-year old Natan Blanc from Haifa has been through this seven times in four months.

    • NYC Mayor Bloomberg: Government has right to ‘infringe on your freedom’

      New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Sunday: Sometimes government does know best. And in those cases, Americans should just cede their rights.

    • “Congress has the gall to discretely slip another clause into the #NDAA 2013 that repeals the World War II-era legislation”

      Congress has the gall to discretely slip another clause into the #NDAA 2013 that repeals the World War II-era legislation…

    • Las Vegas City Council Passes NDAA Nullification Resolution

      The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will not be enforced in Las Vegas. Rejection of the unconstitutional provisions of that controversial federal act was the purpose of a resolution passed by the city council just after noon on March 20.

      By a vote of 5-2, the council passed R-18-2013. The resolution, offered by Ward 2 Councilman Bob Beers, will now be presented to the Clark County (Nevada) Commission.

    • Turns Out The One ‘Good’ Change In CFAA Reform… May Actually Be Bad Too

      So yesterday we broke the news about a proposed CFAA reform bill that, rather than fix the problems of the CFAA made the law much, much worse. It added computer crimes as a racketeering issue, increased sentences and made just talking about a potential CFAA violation the equivalent of having committed it. Bad stuff all around. There was one section, however, that we said was slightly good. We noted that they ever so slightly rolled back what would constitute a crime for “exceeding authorized access” listing out a few qualifications that needed to be met — including that the information obtained was valued over $5,000, that you had to be targeting private information and that the access was done in furtherance of a crime. Based on the bill as written, I had assumed that all of those elements needed to be present to qualify.

    • From the Left: The American Republic has become the American Empire

      The USA Patriot Act codified many of the wishes of statists into law. Whether it is the act’s regulation of bank accounts, the broadening of the government’s authority to deport citizens, or the authorization of roving wiretaps and non-consenting business record searches, the act is only the first brick in the construction of the modern police state. We have also had the unfortunate passage of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which appropriates and divides up defense and war spending, but contains a blatantly unconstitutional clause that gives the government the authority to indefinitely detain American citizens. And now – even after the intense political backlash against the NDAA 2012 – our Congress has the gall to discretely slip another clause into the NDAA 2013 that repeals the World War II-era legislation that prevents the government from using state-approved propaganda, and would make Washington immune to any court cases challenging them.

    • Obama rape and plunder of America

      All that Americans have held on to and relied on is being assaulted. Obama won’t stop until America is forced into submission to his dictatorship plans and the rest of us locked up or killed. What survives the Obama battering rams will be taxed and redistributed to his seduced worshipers. They will be slaves and controlled like mutant little toys, but they will thank Obama and give him their worship.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

03.26.13

Opposition to Nokia is Building Up as Anti-Android/Linux Patent Agenda Gets More Pronounced

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Patents at 6:53 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Patent stooges

Summary: Android, Google, and various related patent-centric news as seen by bloggers and reporters

Nokia has been attacking Linux-powered platforms after Microsoft took over, making it evident that patents were on the table. It is becoming more transparent now. Amid patent stacking with FRAND by the likes of Microsoft/Nokia and Apple we also see a lot of Galaxy S4 FUD (targeting by far the best selling Android phones series). Pranesh Prakash says “Samsung might be violating the GPL with it’s Galaxy 4″ based on this report, but it seems like an angle previously played up by Microsoft lobbyists. Now that Nokia won a patent case against Android we also see Microsoft allies acting lustily and trying to bring Google down, not just on the search front (a lot of the heat Google gets over privacy recently comes after orchestration by Microsoft allies).

Using the British equivalent of “jerkoffs”, Alan Lord slams Nokia when he writes: “#Nokia playing nasty with #swpats to try & invalidate the #Google / #MPEG-LA deal: Wankers… ”

Well, more people are calling for a Nokia boycott and some look for ways to defang Nokia:

It’s time to do a little prior art searching, don’t you think? Can you help?

Nokia just disclosed a list of patents that it claims VP8, the video compression format used by the WebM Project, infringes, and the way they filled in the form, the list looks as long and scary as it could possibly look, and just as the IETF was trying to reach consensus on VP8. But when you break the Nokia list down, country by country and then by patent, it’s not so impressive after all. As it turns out, there are just a few patents repeated over and over. I think it’s short enough that we can sensibly try to find prior art.

By the way, did you know that anyone, individual people I mean, can join the IETF mailing list and participate in the conversation? It’s free, and while individuals may have affiliations and most do, it’s not the kind of thing where companies or countries can dominate the way we watched happen in the OOXML affair, because unlike ISO or ITU, there are no national bodies to bribe influence, just individuals expressing their own opinions. The IETF is a completely open standards body. If you’d like to and feel you understand the technology, you can join the mailing list and contribute to the decision-making process. It works by consensus. No need to bring your wallet.

Don’t read on unless you are free to read patents, as usual.

Google said at an IETF conference the other day that sublicenses will be royalty-free, thanks to the agreement it just signed with MPEG LA, when up stands a Nokia representative to say MPEG LA isn’t the whole story and Nokia isn’t a member. Nokia believes it has patents that are infringed by VP8, and it’s not in the mood to license them. Here’s the video of the event. And here’s another talk at the same IETF conference, a slide talk on VP8-MTI by a Google guy. Notice the rude interruptions, by the way, if you are one of those who think Google is the evil one.

Here is one news report that we found about it:

Nokia said on Monday it is not prepared to license any of its patented technologies that might be essential to the VP8 video codec that is backed by Google.

Here is the latest Slashdot discussion about it. The discussion is titled “Free Software Camps Wading Into VP8 Patent Fight” and here is a notable essay. There’s more coming on this subject for sure.

Microsoft is meanwhile pushing pro-Microsoft and Android-hostile points of view in biased media circles. It’s more anti-Google FUD regarding codecs. Microsoft sued Motorola and sought action in the ITC, exploiting a Seattle court stacked with Microsoft boosters. Microsoft’s booster at the ‘Microsoft press’ (Kurt Mackie) covers the good news for Microsoft while — as usual — ignoring the rest. He says:

The case involves U.S. Patent No. 6,069,896, held by Motorola Mobility, a company that Google acquired in May. The patent specifies a peer-to-peer wireless invention, and it was the sole remaining complaint of five alleged infringements. The “final initial remand determination” by David P. Shaw, an administrative law judge acting on behalf of the ITC, was the result of an appeal.

We wrote about this case before. Microsoft is desperate,y trying to tax Google’s Android devices, using patents. MPEG has been one track. Motorola is merely defending itself by deterrence.

For those of us who just want to develop and buy products in peace without patent fees, here is an event to attend in the US:

If You’re An App Developer And Concerned About Patents (You Should Be), Here’s An Event For You

There are tons of app developers out there who are quickly discovering that there’s a major risk they face today: if your app gets even remotely popular, you’re a likely target for a bunch of patent trolls who are feeding off of the greater app developer ecosystem with incredibly broad patents for obvious concepts (even things like charging for your app). There’s a relatively new group called the App Developers Alliance that is putting on a series of patent summits across the US to discuss issues related to patents and app developers. I’ve had a few conversations with the folks putting these events together, and they look like they should be fantastic resources for those who can attend.

The Android ‘ecosystem’ of development has been hit hard by patent aggressors, not just trolls*. But some thing, such as de facto multimedia codecs, are universal and we must fight the likes of Nokia for trying to make life very expensive for everyone, even those just wishing to watch family videos. █
___
* Not much of that receives press coverage. Some apps just die or settle quietly.

Carl Icahn Shows Up in Dell’s Microsoft Takeover Allowance

Posted in Dell, Microsoft at 6:03 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Carl Icahn

Summary: Microsoft’s ruthless proxy fighter seems to be doing to Michael Dell what he already did to Yang

We recently called for a Dell boycott because the company was becoming a Microsoft pawn, just like Yahoo after Icahn got involved and let Microsoft abduct it from the inside (Yahoo is no longer independent).

According to some reports, Microsoft’s pals show up on the scene again:

Blackstone Group LP (BX) and activist investor Carl Icahn submitted proposals to buy Dell Inc. (DELL) that would rival a $24.4 billion buyout offer from Silver Lake Management LLC and company founder Michael Dell, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Blackstone, the world’s biggest private-equity firm, outlined an offer valued at $13.65 to $14.50 a share, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the process is private. Icahn said he’d pay $15 a share, with a cap on the amount of cash used in the deal, two people said.

As one site put it, “Carl Icahn Poses Serious Problem for Michael Dell”. This is like Jerry Yang all over again.

Short-suffering Dell (DELL) shareholder Carl Icahn is not going to take this lying down — this being what he says is a weak, unacceptable bid for the Round Rock, Texas, computer maker.

Where did he come from, you might ask? It turns out he now owns a large stake in Dell, and he’s telling founder Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners, who are trying to lead a buyout of the company, that it won’t be happening the way they expect if he has anything to say about it.

Here is more:

There has been another twist in the story of Dell CEO Michael Dell’s quest to take the company he founded private. Already facing a backlash from Dell’s biggest stockholders over the terms of the bid that he and private equity firm Silver Lake have made for the company, there are now two rival bids to contend with. The first comes from a group led by infamous corporate raider Carl Icahn with another led by asset management company Blackstone Group. And both, at least on the surface, appear to be better deals for Dell shareholders—-especially those who want to bet long on the company and keep their stake.

In a press release issued this morning, the “special committee” formed by Dell Inc.’s board to handle negotiations for the company’s sale acknowledged the offers from the Blackstone and Icahn groups. “Both proposals could reasonably be expected to result in superior proposals” to the Michael Dell/Silver Lake offer, the committee said in its written statement on the offers. The committee will now enter into further negotiations with both to hash out the details of each offer and weigh them against the plan to go private.

If Mr. Dell wants to save the company he should escape Microsoft and not become the next Nokia. It’s not too late; not yet. █

European Commission Finally Receives Complaint About Microsoft’s UEFI Restricted Boot Scheme

Posted in Antitrust, GNU/Linux at 5:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

The ludicrous notion of “Windows 8 PCs” to be peeled off like a sticker

Wall

Summary: UEFI antitrust action is on its way if a group gets its way

The Web abuses of Microsoft got Microsoft fined in Europe very recently. In fact, a Microsoft fan site tells us that Microsoft’s Web abuses are causing trouble to Microsoft itself and Mr. Pogson says that Microsoft hacks the Web again. Internet Explorer pretends to be Firefox now, so Pogson writes:

I think this is tantamount to false advertising or besmirching the brands of the competition. It’s just another dirty trick of M$, the purveyor of the worst malware on Earth.

Internet Explorer, which Microsoft illegally embedded in Windows, is malware on top of malware. And now there is another layer of malware being put at the bottom of Windows, specifically Vista 8 with perpetually garbage interface that nobody needs, wants, or likes (the Microsoft boosters try to do it PR). The latest malware is Restricted Boot. It kicks in when a machine is powered on.

Short of the possibility of banning Restricted Boot in Europe or the requirement that it must always be switched off by default (hence enabled only by those who drink the Microsoft Kool-Aid) OEMs may be required to explicitly state the existence of Vista 8 malware on the hardware (Microsoft control) or provide clear instructions on a leaflet to show how this can be disabled (an option they would have to facilitate and test).

Here is then latest news about action against what Microsoft is doing:

Spanish Linux group Hispalinux has filed a competition complaint with the European Commission over the implementation of UEFI Secure Boot for Windows 8.

IDG, with its promotional, pro-UEFI tone all along, continues to describe Restricted Boot UEFI as a feature, even in Linux (Torvalds would beg to differ). “Hackers can easily ‘brick’ computers with malicious firmware. UEFI effectively blocks that attack vector and costs nothing,” Roger A. Grimes writes. That’s overrated. Germany banned this in government because it is actually a national security threat. At IDG, Microsoft’s more shameless boosters come out from the woodwork (evoking ridiculous notions such as “Windows 8 PCs” as if the hardware is part of the software). IDG also gave a platform to UEFI officials. For shame.

Here what seems to be the original report. Here is another report about the latest news:

A Spanish association representing open-source software users has filed a complaint against Microsoft Corp to the European Commission, in a new challenge to the Windows developer following a hefty fine earlier this month.

The 8,000 member-strong Hispalinux, which represents users and developers of the Linux operating system in Spain, said Microsoft had made it difficult for users of computers sold with its Windows 8 platform to switch to Linux and other operating systems.

This looks serious; they have got lawyers and everything, as stated here:

A Spanish association representing open-source software users has filed a complaint against Microsoft Corp to the European Commission, in a new challenge to the Windows developer following a hefty fine earlier this month.

The 8,000 member-strong Hispalinux, which represents users and developers of the Linux operating system in Spain, said Microsoft had made it difficult for users of computers sold with its Windows 8 platform to switch to Linux and other operating systems.

Lawyer and Hispalinux head Jose Maria Lancho said he delivered the complaint to the Madrid office of the European Commission at 0900 GMT on Tuesday.

Red Hat and Canonical with their cowardly complicity will stand in the way of this action and potential lawsuit. SUSE. which is more or less just a Microsoft-funded proxy now, clearly played a role too, including a role of implementation (former Novell staff). █

Microsoft Terminates Free/Open Source Software in South Africa, Tries to Portray Itself as “Open” in Poor Countries

Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 4:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

House

Summary: Microsoft is insulting the intelligence of people who live near the equator and are inarguably vulnerable or disenfranchised due to former colonialism

THERE is almost nothing nastier than exploitation of the innocence of people. It is commonly done for money or at least power. Occupied lands were casually greeted by people who held gifts in one hand and a whip (or equivalent) in the other. Software companies and their ringleaders work similarly, especially those to whom lock-in with proprietary software is the core business model. Monsanto does this in agriculture using patents and marketing organisations like the Gates Foundation and Rockefeller.

Microsoft has some Orwellian marketing whitewash at the top of this corporate site/blog (see head banner), passing off a criminal company as some kind of charity. Mr. Pogson called Microsoft “cancer” over it and it says quite blatantly in the article: “However, this solution with little education relevance (all 20 student laptops as well as the teacher one) was a complete Linex solution at the time of launch. Working together with Reza Bardien, our Education Lead, we managed to turn this into an end to end Windows solution by the end of the week, including the PIL Learning Suite and the Windows-based NETOP Classroom Management solution.”

Pogson’s response to this greenwashing and whitewashing piece does not cite EDGI tactics but instead chastises Microsoft’s partner, Samsung. The EDGI strategy came under fire from European regulators. It is like a bribe essentially. We saw a lot of this done by Microsoft in the Philippines, where under some ‘Openness Night’ PR the monopolist is now trying to openwash itself in the most despicable way. Here is just a portion from the puff piece in the Manila Standard:

Local open source communities, together with Microsoft Philippines, recently held their first monthly meet up to facilitate discussions on emerging technologies with the end goal of giving back to the public. Dubbed as Openness Nights, the regular forum aims to push for the development of local projects on Microsoft plus open source technologies, enabling developers to contribute back to their communities.

Who are those so-called ‘open source communities’? Microsoft boosters masquerading as FOSS? The article does not say, but many times before we saw Microsoft bribing to infiltrate FOSS events where it then whitewashed/openwashed itself to the press. Microsoft even hired some journalists to achieve this deceptive propaganda (after yet more ODF FUD). The article above is just repeating Microsoft talking points to deceive the population in one of the nation’s most read newspapers. FOSS is clearly still facing a long battle against a propaganda machine. And it loses this battle when it stays silent. █

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