12.24.08

IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: December 23rd, 2008

Posted in IRC Logs at 5:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Enter the IRC channel now

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Links Xmas Eve: Red Hat Leaps, Garmin Picks Android

Posted in News Roundup at 5:15 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• Red Hat Profit Rises on Sales to Budget-Minded Buyers
• Free software Operating System for engineering students
• Linux Isn’t Just Good Ideology — It’s Better Computing
  

  There’s no way around it: the longer you run a Windows installation, the slower and less responsive it gets. On my year-old dual-boot laptop, I wait longer and longer for Windows to boot, and longer and longer for programs to do what I ask. Meanwhile, my Ubuntu Linux installation, on exactly the same hardware, installed almost as long ago, is as snappy as the day I set it up— faster, in fact, as I’ve tweaked it and geeked it.

• Humor: Clean up your computer
• Open source software cheaper option for government bodies
  

  Linux Professional Association on Kenya, a group of local software developers, has embarked on a sensitisation programme among government bodies with the aim of wooing them to use Free Open Source Software (FOSS).

• The innovations of Linux 2.6.28
• Report: The Amazon UK Mp3 Store On Linux… Actually a postive experience :O
• The Win, Fail and Meh of Open Source in 2008

• 64-Bit

  • 64-Bit Computing Has Finally Arrived
    

    Linux has been 64-bit for eight years, and Apple’s operating system for five. But compatibility problems have dogged the 64-bit versions of Windows since its introduction in Windows XP.

  • Hotrod Your Asus Laptop With 64-bit Kubuntu

• Linux Magazine

  • Top 10 Articles of 2008
  • Michelson Award for Writer Neil J. Gunther

• Graphics

  • 2008 Linux Graphics Survey Results
    

    Last week our annual Linux Graphics Survey ended. There were over 14,000 submissions this year to the eleven questions we asked pertaining to X.Org, Linux desktop usage, and graphics hardware. In this article are all of the results from this year’s survey.

  • They say when you start something….
    

    I’ve implemented a sort of Mac OS X ’sheets’ animation in the simple-animations plugin. It is designed to work with dialog boxes so that they appear to ‘roll out’ of the top of the window. The animation is there, I just haven’t got parent window detection to work with dialogs yet and haven’t put window placement code in. Once that is done it should look (somewhat) realistic without violating the hidden patent I probably don’t know about.

  • Video

    • VLC Media Player To Receive VDPAU Support
    • Return of the Xvid: check your outputs!

• Gifts

  • The Top 11 Reasons To Give (Or Get) Linux For Christmas!
  • Last-Minute Gifts for the Linuxy at Heart
  • Linux – the OS that keeps on giving
  • Christmas… Linux… Wallpapers…

• Desktop Environments

  • Sugar Labs gets sweet with the GNOME Foundation
  • GNOME 2.25.3 released !
    

    Wow we are so late this time — probably some Debian blood is still flowing through my veins — but this is really worth it, 2.25.3 is here and there is goodness overflowing.

  • KWin visual effects get way better in KDE 4.2

• Distributions

  • Best Linux releases of 2008
  • AntiX 8.0 Test1
  • Revised Slackware keeps it simple
  • sidux 2008-04

  • Ubuntu

    • Talking Switched from Windows to Ubuntu – wish I had done this before
      

      This is my first post on these forums. It’s going to be a happy one. For happy is the state I ended up in tonight. Because, you see, I made “The Switch”. Bye Windows, hello Linux-world. Ubuntu. I am amazed. I am astonished. I feel like a total idiot for not having done this transfer before.

    • Ubuntu Enrolls At Cornell College
      

      No doubt, Ubuntu will spill over from college IT departments out to student populations as more and more Netbooks (preloaded with Ubuntu) arrive on college campuses.

    • Ubuntu Review: One Year In
    • Thoughts on Ubuntu 8.10.
    • Linux Mint Raises the User-Friendliness Bar

• Devices

  • Palm Gets $100 Million Cash Infusion
    

    Palm will reportedly introduce new smartphones and a new Linux-based operating system for mobile devices, code-named Nova, next year.

  • N810-ish, Linux-based MID pops up overseas, brings hope to at least one reviewer

  • Android

    • Multiple Android Phones Expected In 2009
    • Android G2 Has Rumor Mill Buzzing
    • Samsung Might Release Android-Powered Phone in Q2 2009
    • Garmin Confirms Android Handset
      

      Garmin’s first cellphone, the nüvifone, has yet to see the light of the day. But the personal navigation devices maker is already working on its second handset–a Google Android mobile operating system-powered device.

    • Garmin Readying Android Phone For 2009?

F/OSS

• Open source: getting started
• FLOSS Manuals sprints to build quality free documentation
• 10 Firefox Extensions For Better Tab Management
• Online Journalism Scandinavia: Mecom’s Danish arm will cut costs with open-source CMS
• Perl 5 completes move to Git
• Talking with Pactolus’ Ken Osowski
• OpenVAS Charts Its Own Forked Course

• Server-based

  • JumpBox: Open Source Meets SaaS Again
  • Cash-strapped companies head for the clouds

• Graphics

  • An Easy Way to Introduce Inkscape Drawing Program to Youth and Adults
  • 10 more ways to spend less, give more!
    

    OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE: Tux Paint is a computer drawing program that is great for kids. You can give open-source software for adults, such as Linux operating system or Gimp, an image-manipulation program.

Leftovers

• IBM reneges on Solaris GPFS promise
• In Praise of Whingeing
• Governments Increasingly Turn to OpenDocument Format as ODF Alliance Marks Unprecedented 2008
• Some ISPs Push Back On RIAA Plan

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Markos Moulitsas, creator of the Daily Kos on-line political magazine 04 (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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12.23.08

Why is the Gates Foundation Investing in Governments?

Posted in Bill Gates, Finance, Microsoft at 12:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Following money

IN THIS CONTINUED EXPLORATION of influence for sale and various means like pet charities (or charities for business agenda [1, 2]) and lobbyists, we are coming across more evidence that may come handy in the future.

Thanks to the failure of the media, there is a lot of disinformation out there about the Gates Foundation and its actual function (articles are being planted to glorify this foundation). We wrote about it before, so we won’t repeat old facts but summarise a few instead. Apart from a haven that shelters against tax, this money vehicle enables many investments and interests to be carried under an innocent umbrella of philanthropy.

Gates’ proximity to the US government is a subject that we continued exploring yesterday, but this leads to other fascinating areas. We have also just found the following disclosure about Gates’ personal investments, which are made through a philanthropic entity. These investments include oil companies, but more interestingly, there are actual payments made to governments.

Foundation’s investments

A sampling of the Gates Foundation’s largest investments:

Above $1.5 billion

* Berkshire Hathaway**
* Canadian government

Between $1 billion and $1.5 billion

* Fannie Mae
* German government

Between $100 million and $1 billion

* Abbott Laboratories
* Archer Daniels Midland
* British Petroleum
* Canadian National Railway
* Exxon Mobil
* Freddie Mac
* French government
* Japanese government
* Merck
* Schering Plough
* Tyco International
* Waste Management

*Might include stocks, bonds and other securities
**Warren Buffett committed his first installment of Berkshire Hathaway stock in June.

Sources: Gates tax and Securities and Exchange Commission filings— Los Angeles Times

Who is pocketing this money and what would be the impact? Why are wealthy governments being paid by the Gates Foundation and what are the returns? The Norway story, for example, sure was interesting and it was not an isolated case. █

The Canadian Parliament receives over $1,500,000,000
in ‘charity’ money from Microsoft’s Bill Gates

___
August 2008: Quebec government sued for buying Microsoft software

Quebec’s open-source software association is suing the provincial government, saying it is giving preferential treatment to Microsoft Corp. by buying the company’s products rather than using free alternatives.

The lawsuit by Facil was lodged with the Quebec Superior Court on July 15 and made public on Wednesday. In it, the group says the provincial government has refused to entertain competing bids from all software providers, opting instead to supply public-sector departments with products bought from proprietary vendors such as Microsoft and Oracle Corp.

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Mono a Second-Class Citizen Even on GNU/Linux

Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, OpenSUSE at 12:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Is it moving forward or going backwards for Microsoft/Novell gains?

THE LATEST VERSION of OpenSUSE makes it increasingly difficult to get rid of Mono, which is property of Novell and ‘intellectual’ property of its ally, Microsoft. This is problematic for a wide variety of reasons and issues that we covered here before.

Defenders of Mono routinely claim that Mono is a wonderful environment for developers, but what happens when its very ‘source’, Novell SUSE, fails to make it work? This appears to be the case, at least based on one personal experience.

I won’t bore you with screen shots of creating a simple ‘Hello world’ application. I will say that monodevelop is crashy. For example, without having created anything, I attempted to see what the Classes tab on the left side of the IDE would produce if opened. Normally it should be blank; that’s what every other IDE in the known universe shows. Instead MonoDevelop crashed and exited. Hmmm…

That being the case, why should GNU/Linux developers embrace .NET? It makes GNU/Linux seem like a cheap Windows wannabe with an IDE that’s years behind Visual Studio and strives to replicate its functionality. It’s like opting for OpenOffice.org with OOXML (as default format), which is exactly what Microsoft wants. It makes Microsoft a leader and rule maker.

For what it’s worth, here is a new article from Richard Hillesley. It’s about the history of SUSE, which culminates in Novell but doesn’t delve into the uglier details.

Just as surprising as the agreement itself was the enthusiastic participation and defence of the agreement by the developers Novell inherited from Ximian. This enthusiasm was not unconnected to Ximian’s committment to Mono, its own free software implementation of the .Net framework, (which is heavily implicated in future GNOME development), and the fear of many that parts of the Mono implementation may turn out to be patent encumbered, or that support will be compromised in other ways. The participation of Novell’s corporate wonks in such an agreement could feasibly be excused on the grounds of ignorance or indifference. It is perhaps less easy to understand the enthusiasm of the participating free software developers.

Novell claims that the agreement has brought significant advantages to Linux and Novell, which is beginning to show healthy returns on its Linux business. It may also have brought significant damage to SUSE’s long term place in the affections of the community…

This author also wrote the article “Embracing the .Beast,” where he is referring to Mono. █

“Whoa! It’s crashing”

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Pyramid 101 (Video)

Posted in Finance, Videos at 8:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

THE PREVIOUS post had a little video about pyramid schemes, but this one is better for those who are not familiar with imaginary assets, much like software/BM patents and bad mortgages, even 401(k).

A Ponzi scheme is different, but the overall effect is similar and a subject of much discussion at the moment.

Apologies for steering a little off topic. A detailed analysis worth reading, especially to those who have not read it yet, seems almost prophetic these days. It related to topics that we cover.

This situation is not about stock valuation, product quality or whether or not Microsoft has monopoly power in its markets. Nor is it part of a pro or anti-Microsoft movement. This situation is instead a shining example of financial fraud and corruption enabled by bad government policy. If not quickly and aggressively addressed, we will all be losers as credibility in our financial markets is destroyed.

The more things change, the more they may stay the same. █

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On Being Rich… On Paper

Posted in Finance, Microsoft, Videos at 8:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“There is such an overvaluation of technology stocks that it is absurd. I would include our stock in that category. It is bad for the long-term worth of the economy.”

–Steve Ballmer

There are several different types of pyramid schemes, so people are often deceived by the use of this term. Here is a humorous example of the more classical form.

Whether Microsoft can implode or not, we do not know for sure yet, but as we noted yesterday, layoffs have already begun and the company is headed towards debt [1, 2].

Regarding the latest layoff rumours, a Microsoft ‘fanalyst’ believes this to be true.

When Mini Speaks Layoffs, I Believe

News Analysis. Blogger Mini-Microsoft says signs show layoffs coming to the software giant. The prediction: Jan. 15.

According to Todd Bishop, “A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment [on layoffs].” Analysts are not positive at the moment and answers may soon arrive. █

Related posts:

• Charles Pancerzewski and Microsoft Fraud Revisited (Updated)
• Financial Fraud Claimed at Microsoft; Microsoft Paid Microsoft Witness to Shut Up
• Microsoft Claimed to Have Lost $18,000,000,000 in 1998
• References Roundup: Microsoft’s Financial Situation
• Quote of the Day: Speaking of Ponzi/Pyramid Schemes

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IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: December 22nd, 2008

Posted in IRC Logs at 4:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Enter the IRC channel now

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12.22.08

Microsoft Sells Windows for Just $5 Sometimes — Claim

Posted in Audio/Video, GNU/Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Novell, Windows at 10:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Sub-notebooks dumping strategy against GNU/Linux

According to this new audiocast [OGG] from Dave Rosenberg, Matt Asay, and an unnamed guest, Microsoft is allegedly giving Windows for just $5 to be put on sub-notebooks where/if they are assembled in China (listen to it starting at the 20^th minute). We previously heard about no-cost Windows and also suspected a $19-29 price tag. The pricing of ASUS products raised suspicions yesterday, but finally we receive some answers through the grapevine. Microsoft’s margins are shrinking very fast thanks to competition and it is not quite so sustainable.

Also mentioned in this audio (17^th minute onwards) is something that wasn’t exactly intended to be published, much like those financial games. Novell’s marketing director does not like BrainShare and cost-saving is a factor that effected his decision to cancel it, not just the poor demand. █

The real value of Microsoft Windows: $5, not $500

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