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Wine is actually beta.
see for instance http://www.betanews.com/article/Wine_Reaches_Beta_ After_12_Years/1130338797

I guarantee BestBuy, Circuit City, and Comp USA had sold more XP systems from 2001 to 2003 many times over than all the Fortune 100 companies put together.

Andy Updegrove gave interesting link to article: Sun's McNealy Proposes Merging ODF with Chinese Counterpart .

The article goes into into technical side of merge highlighting technical differences between the two file formats. And from my reading it seems like UOF is superior to ODF in many aspects.

Outside of the U.S., MSN is overwhelmingly popular, with AIM sometimes not even in he #2 slot. MSN, worldwide, is the most used IM service.

I'm not sure exactly why this is. Since I have been to Europe and can attest to the fact that they're not all complete gibbering retards, as this evidence might cause you to suspect, one must consider alternate explanations.

The best explanation I've heard is that AOL took its terribly sweet time getting Unicode support into AIM, so that cost them a lot of users. Other theory is that the IM market in EMEA is somewhat newer than that in N. America, and while many of the critical "early adopter" users in the U.S. got onto IM systems like AIM before MS started pushing MSN through pre-installs, by the time people in other parts of the world started getting onto IM (which was later than in the U.S. -- there's a hilarious BBC article around somewhere asking "Is IM the new texting?" while in the U.S. you'd be better to ask "Are text messages the new IM?") Microsoft had already started to pre-install MSN on every PC, and captured the userbase before there was a critical mass of users on another network.

The article misses a pretty large point: the w3 has already decided to work on the next version of HTML. The post linked to is a recommendation that the HTML 5 spec be used as a starting point for that work.

Google Earth (and all similar satelite imagery tools) are just amazing... How long before, for instance, China bans its citizens from using it you think?

In a similar area, Slashdot posted before about maps overAmerican strip mining. Others have collected other links to deforestation, coral reefs, etc.

with a DVR's, skipping the commercials doesn't necessarily hurt advertisers since most DVR users don't skip commercials...they typically watch TV "live" and primarily use the DVR to "rewind" TV. Somewhat similar to that, not everyone surfing the internet, looking at ad-supported sites is using Firefox with Adblock. They could be using one or more other web browsers that don't block ads. It would have been nice to have a complete top ten list without idiotic stuff like that. How is Adblock (regular or plus) really bad?

Note that the injunction would just stop the sale of new accounts, not stop them from doing business. According to the end of this article, they already have a deal with VOIP, Inc. to utilize their network if the Vonage network gets shut down.

You may think your A52/AC3 5.1 dolby digital compressed surround sound is good, but uncompressed TrueHD/DTS HD BLOWS IT AWAY.

You're probably right about that, but honestly, how can a person possibly tell the difference unless they use a measuring device? I bet 99% of people out there won't be able to hear the difference between the two. Personally, if the number of speakers are the same, I can't tell the difference between CD audio and something of higher quality. Console manufacturers are really going overboard with all this HD crap. It increases the cost of the console tremendously without providing any serious benefit at all.

The real shame about the 360 Elite is that it will NOT use the cooler running 65nm processors (no 65nm, no 65nm). Having that would have been much more preferable than a DRM ladened a/v port.

Not only are their machines vulnerable (which is what gives them a bad name) they then exacerbate the situation with a ridiculous lawsuit like this? "We didn't win the contract and there is no evidence of wrongdoing but we either want the court to award us the contract or re-open the competition." It's even more absurd because the selection process in the public sector is very open and very documented. While 9 million is a lot of money, I don't think it's worth the rep hit they are going to take, yet again.

Looks like he's spitting the dummy now that he is out of the loop. MS are not a search company

http://www.live.com/?searchonly=true&mkt=en-US

MS dont want to be a search company

• The Battle For Better Search (April 2005)
• New Microsoft Browser Raises Google's Hackles (May 1 2006)
• Microsoft Wants More Search Share (October 27 2006)
• Microsoft puts Live services into the Labs (January 26 2006)

but as is the way when you are a perceived are the dominant IT player you must be seen to 'compete' with all the 'upstarts' to keep the share holders happy

• Online Search Hits All-Time High; Google Dominant
• (March 3 2006)
• Yahoo! gives up quest for search dominance (January 24 2006)
• Does search engine's power threaten Web's independence? (October 31 2002)

so your business heads gob off about how stupid the opposition business heads are.

Right. That's why google has to be "fucking kill"ed instead of just being allowed to die on its own.

I think most people are going to be very surprised when they realise where MS see their future and while they are currently getting slaughtered in many sections of the press over Vista they are quietly laying the ground work for the next phase, which is largely why there has been so little reaction from Redmond to the adverse press.

Vista IS the groundwork for the next phase. Everything Microsoft does is intended to extend their control over the market. Not a surprise, but still true.

Think about the volume of physically produced pirate media within a country compared to that shipped between countries, especially given technology improvements such as BitTorrent. Also, now you'll have two people and two dogs sniffing for CD/DVS's (and not even indiscriminately with respect to pressed vs. burnable), and presumably you still have to have another two people and two dogs checking for drugs, too.

BTW, this news originally came up 9-12 months ago:
http://www.betanews.com/article/MPAA_Employs_Pirac ySniffing_Dogs/1147373267

Based on the coverage, it seems that the industry associations might be going on another press rampage. If you read the various press articles these same two dogs are moved around different countries - they've already been in Malaysia and at Stanstead, near London. I wonder if in fact the plan is just to move them to various high-traffic airports around the globe and inform the populace "there are sniffer dogs here now!".

did not want to allow security and virus software makers to hook directly into the kernel, which is a completely different thing.

While Microsoft began releasing software patches that take account of the new, earlier shifts to Daylight Savings Time months ago, panic calls from admins everywhere suggest that businesses may be waiting until the last minute to install them. As a result, an Info-Tech Research Group bulletin this morning describes, Microsoft's technical support personnel only just this week discovered that its various patches for Windows, Exchange Server, Outlook, and other tools should be installed in a precise order, otherwise they may not actually be patching networks. According to an Info-Tech Advisor bulletin begun last Tuesday and updated since, in response to advice from Info-Tech and others, Microsoft updated its DST Knowledgebase bulletin to reflect a more proper order of installation for all the various patches the company has released. However, Info-Tech cautions, the older edition of Microsoft's instructions remain online, and is still being linked to by other documents. As a result, some of the consulting firm's business clients are reporting problems that may have been caused by separate divisions of their companies following two (or more) different sets of instructions.

The actual case is actually not half as interesting as Microsoft's and the Justice Department's arguments that source code isn't patentable. "I think the reason that's not relevant here is that the patented invention in this case is not software," [Assistant Solicitor General Daryl ] Joseffer said. "It's computer that has software loaded into it. And the components of a patented invention do not themselves have to be patented." Justice Alito's next question indicated his astonishment. "If these computers are built abroad and are sold with Windows installed, the component is the electrons on the hard drive? That's your position?" Joseffer responded yes, that's the US' position, but no, that's not AT&T's position. "It's the physical embodiment of the software which in some instances is manifested by -- by those electrons," said Joseffer, perhaps broaching for the first time in history the topic of whether electrons are patentable. "Now AT&T's contrary view is that the abstract code in the abstract is the component. The reason that can't be, is that object code in the abstract is just a series of 1's and 0's. In theory I could memorize in my head or write down on a piece of paper. But that's not going to combine with other, with other parts to make a patented invention."

Business Week magazine is looking at social networking sites opening their APIs to third-party developers to enable social applications not supported by the network itself.

You mean Myspace doesn't have enough third-party "applications"?

Jobs is an arrogant control-freak, and he often exaggerates when talking about the coolness of Apple products or their potential - but he doesn't strike me as a liar. In fact, he is quite earnest in his own way. Do you have any evidence of him lying?

No, but I read and watch almost nothing he says either. I bet I could find something if I tried.

I don't see what refusing to license Fairplay has to do with wanting to be DRM-free.

You said in your previous post "When [Gates] says he opposes DRM, he probably means he opposes DRM that Microsoft doesn't control." Again, how's that different from Jobs wanting to control FairPlay?

Licensing Fairplay would make the DRM even worse.

How? By not locking iTunes customers into iPods?

So, Jobs has to include DRM, as the deals with the RIAA and labels demanded it.

And the MPAA would have demanded some degree of DRM for next-gen DVDs to play on Windows.

It's strange that you say he "fought tooth and nail" to keep other people from licensing iTunes. Who was he fighting?

Hmm, Norway (which ruled FairPlay illegal in that country), France (including saying that a law that would require them to license FairPlay was "state-sponsored piracy"), The Netherlands, Germany, and increasingly others. (The first two are the best examples.)

From what I can see, Apple simply said "No, we aren't going to license iTunes. End of story." No fighting involved. After all, it's Apple's property, they have no obligation to license it to anybody. So, why would there be a tooth and nail fight?

Interesting that you don't have a problem with Apple trying to retain control of their DRM but you seem to have a problem with the words you put into Gates's mouth about not liking DRM MS doesn't control.

Zune software doesn't work on Vista, I suppose the one to blame here is quite obvious.

It does. They released an update supporting Vista back in December 2006.

Maybe 'standard' is the wrong word. Available and cheap, is what I mean. Not necessarily that the average person already has it.

Sweden was who I had in mind. Apparently the UK is very close to getting it as well.

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=32304
http://www.betanews.com/article/100Mbps_Cable_Inte rnet_by_2006/1121875198

The article linked above refers to "Halfnium", with is both an element that does not exist and a gross misspelling of Hafnium , which is the new High-K replacement for silicon dioxide. It's also worth pointing out that both IBM and Intel announced this breakthough almost simultaneously, and AMD will reap the windfall benefits through its own partnership with IBM (they will move to the 0.45 process some time in 2008). AMD has also announced a low-K breakthrough that they will be implementing in their 0.65 process as well.

To give Intel sole credit for this breakthrough might be a little inaccurate.

Apple was quoted by several sources yesterday as saying that since the Apple iPhone was a cell phone, and the Linksys iPhone was an Internet phone, that they didn't see it as being a trademark infringement.

I think you may need to investigate your facts. There are only two major GSM operators in the US. Cingular, and T-mobile.

"Cingular Wireless, LLC, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is an AT&T subsidiary." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cingular) So ATT is the biggest GSM operator. Thanks for playing.

There are other GSM providers as well: "Edge Wireless LLC is a Mobile phone provider founded in 1999, serving southern Oregon, northern California, southeastern Idaho and Jackson, Wyoming. The company is headquartered in Bend, Oregon, although they provide no coverage or services in that city." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_Wireless) Edge is my provider. They're putting up towers pretty quickly on my coast and they have quite a bit of capacity in the listed markets - that still makes them a niche player of course, I just want to mention them. Since many of the GSM providers in the US (if not all of them) cooperate, it's unimportant which of them are large players. For the purposes of deciding what is useful, only the total mass must be considered.

Alltel themselves provides significant GSM capacity, and the size of their network is defined by coverage, not their number of customers: "When Alltel acquired Western Wireless in 2005, it also gained a large GSM footprint as well. While it does not offer GSM service to its own customers, Alltel has indicated that it will continue to maintain the GSM footprint (and perhaps even expand it) to provide roaming service to GSM users of other wireless carriers. Alltel advertises itself as "owner and operator of the nation's largest wireless network"; this claim refers to geographical coverage of its network rather than number of Alltel customers or population covered." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alltel)

Meanwhile, while CDMA may be the leader in North America, it is overwhelmingly NOT the leader in the world, and I doubt Apple plans to sell their phone only in the US. According to this press release (linked from "GSM" on wikipedia) "Globally, there are 2.29 billion cellular users encompassing all technologies" and the press release itself is about the number of GSM users worldwide being expected to cross two billion that month - that month being June of 2006.

Thus, if the choice is between technologies, then GSM is the only logical choice; probably a large part of the decision was based on who was willing to partner with Apple and with what terms.

Finally, according to this article on BetaNews on August 31, 2006, "As of the end of the second quarter of 2006, GSM had added 100 million new customers over the past year to end the period with a 51 percent share." But it seems to be an error; GSM is simply the most common communications technology in The Americas. HOWEVER, if we look at a graph entitled "Market Share Comparison in the United States (Sept 2005 - Sept 2006)" (http://www.3gamericas.org/English/Statistics/11.c fm) we can see that in that timeframe TDMA became barely significant, GSM gained 4.3% of the market, and CDMA lost 0.9%.

Meanwhile, while CDMA does offer some advantages (notably higher rates of data transmission) GSM is coming along in that regard as well.

In other words, CDMA is falling, GSM is rising, and GSM is the uncontested ruler of cell service everywhere but North America. I'm not sure it's worth their while to make a CDMA phone - I think people will be more loath to purchase a $600 phone that only works with one provider (since most CDMA providers give you a really hard time about

And they're asking for $1.65 Trillion USD! http://www.betanews.com/article/US_Music_Publisher s_Sue_AllofMP3_for_165_Trillion_USD/1166739613

Haven't you heard about price fixing?

AllofMP3 was directly cited as an example of an issue that Russia has to address in order to join the WTO.

Where are you getting this 4.5 million number? That chart you link doesn't seem to have any listed sources. All the other online counters seem to have the 360s worldwide number at 6 or 7 million. In fact Microsoft announced 6 million 360's "sold" as of October, not 4.5. link The difference between 4.5 and 6 million is pretty huge.

Also if you want speed and features you can try Orca.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Orca_Browser/ 1128532815/1

It has better adblocking than Opera but still not as good as Firefox. But if you want lots of features and speed and not the IE engine then Orca is a good alternative.

There is something that's worse than the MPAA regulating home theaters. And that's Slashdot posting a link to an obvious satire piece and a great many of its readers (and possibly a certain editor) not having the intelligence to realize that its satire.

Is it not having the intelligence to realise that it is satire or that many people wouldn't be too surprised to see the MPAA actually trying to do something like this? After all when I heard that the RIAA was suing a dead grandmother ( http://www.betanews.com/article/RIAA_Sues_Deceased _Grandmother/1107532260 ) I thought it was a joke ...

The death toll is catastrophic!

On BetaNews, it turns out Allchin has lost some bravado and is now blogging about his new insight.

On BetaNews, it turns out Allchin has lost some bravado and is now blogging about his new insight.

Well, the main reason to switch to 1.6 is that earlier versions won't run under Vista. (Of course, that assumes you're running Vista in the first place...)

As for Java 1.5, the main reason to switch to it is for generics which are very useful server-side. Of course, there's no technical reason that generics couldn't be backported to 1.4, but Sun refuses to allow code with generics to generate Java 1.4-compatible bytecode, so if you want generics, you're stuck with 1.5. (Despite the fact that generics are implemented via what's effectively a compiler preprocessor.)

But other than supporting Vista, I know of no reason to upgrade to 1.6. As far as I can tell, it offers nothing that anyone would want. (The only major upgrade is the addition of various scripting libraries, in yet another Sun library-bloat move. There's no reason Java should require 500MB, but that's the size of my Java directory.)

See BetaNews for details: http://www.betanews.com/article/MS_IE7_Flaw_Really _in_Outlook_Express/1161290765

MS: IE7 Flaw Really in Outlook Express
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
October 19, 2006, 4:46 PM
Microsoft responded Thursday to reports of the first exploit affecting Internet Explorer 7, which cropped up less than 24 hours after the browser's official launch. Christopher Budd from Microsoft's Security Response Center says the flaw lies not in IE7, but in an Outlook Express component.

This fact could explain why the problem first surfaced back in November 2003 and was found to affect IE6 last April. "While these reports use Internet Explorer as a vector the vulnerability itself is in Outlook Express," Budd said. Microsoft notes it has received no reports of any attacks against customers, but is investigating the situation and may release a patch if necessary.

It used to be that if you wanted to play any game you merely had to purchase every console. Yes, it was expensive but we did it for the exclusive games that were only available on a single system.

Now they are trying to make it so that if you want to play every bit of a cross platform game you have to buy multiple copies? Screw that. When Soul Calibur II came out with exclusive characters on each system, I responded by not buying the damn game. Here it looks like Rockstar is trying to generate artificial demand for downloadable content; something else designed to extract money from gamers.

Yea, yea, feed me the line about games costing so much money to produce now. I don't care. Movies cost several million dollars to produce and you can buy the DVD for a single Andrew Jackson. Gamers are being charged three times that much for something that only cost a fraction of the price. Yes I understand that there are other factors here... I'm not that dense, it's just that they don't need to nickel-and-dime us afterwards.

I'm tired of companies raising prices and then charging more for the "privelidge" of playing online. I'm tired of companies cramming questionable tech down our throats that only raises cost and causes delays. I'm tired of games that are strictly service based even though you still have to pay full retail price. I'm tired of companies charging me yet again for games that I already own; I mean I already have two copies of Super Mario World, two copies of Super Mario 64, and three fricking copies of The Legend of Zelda and for only 23 more dollars, I can play them all on one console. Hooray for shovelware.

Yes I'm ranting. Sorry about that. The whole thing just makes me wonder why I play games anymore. Can I at least get an "amen"?

Can't say I'm particularly happy about this (breaking security in the name of security? Could even OneCare touch the kernel before this?),

Google just paid $900 million dollars to do their ads, i don't think even Google wants to kill MySpace (at least not immediately)

http://www.betanews.com/article/Sophos_on_Symantec s_Vista_Complaints/1159472882

Ron O'Brien, senior security consultant with Sophos, told BetaNews. "But from what we have learned in our dialog with Microsoft, which is ongoing, the objection on the part of some vendors is that PatchGuard will prevent access to the kernel, which is that very basic level of the operating system where people feel that they may need to go, in order to provide a total security solution."

Conceivably, if Sophos wanted to provide a "total security solution," given this new set of circumstances, wouldn't it need to understand some of PatchGuard's secrets? Surprisingly, O'Brien told us no. "At this point in time, Sophos does not see the need to be able to access the kernel within the Microsoft operating system," he said.

"If there is a point in time where the kernel becomes the subject of malware being written specifically to it, then I would expect that we would go back to Microsoft and tell them we need to be able to access the kernel. But at this point, it doesn't appear to be necessary."

Next to picture quality, interactivity has been touted as one of the key selling points of the next-gen disc formats -- unlike standard def DVD, both HD DVD and Blu-ray are both capable of delivering truly interactive experiences.

By "interactivity", I'm assuming they mean throwing the player out of a third-story window when it refuses to play a DRM'ed movie that you've paid for?

This video also came to my mind and I was very suprised when I have seen how Zune's box will look like. I thought "man, Microsoft finally learned something". The box looks very stylish to me.

In case you aren't joking/sarcasm, PS3 was pushed for Europe because of the BluRay lasers couldn't be produced in timely manner.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Bluray_Causes_PS3_ Delay_in_Europe/1157552739

That was why the electronics/optics industry warning them publicly, to end this HD-DVD and BluRay fight in rational way since those lasers are state of the art and not that easy to produce.

Well good thing it's shipping in January then! That gives them 2-3 more months to work on it!

Can you please show us all where Linux is eating Microsofts lunch? I have yet to see a report showing linux eating anything other than college hobbyists and a very small server markets left overs. At best Linux is eating into Unix market share, specifically the small scraps Windows doesn't consume as it grows.

Even OsX has over taken linux as a desktop OS.

As for there being more linux developers than windows... thats great, let me know when they write something other than yet another version of minesweeper (or some other crappy knockoff game), the 32nd chat client that sucks, the 200th+ text editor we don't need. Better yet, the 50th crappy desktop shell. Quality over quantity here. Sad to say, Microsoft has better quality (clearly not security, but in every other way, they have quality).

Before you bitch about bloat and blue screens (the common misinformed linux answer), lets look at KDE and emacs for bloat, and find me a knowledgeable computer person that ever gets blue screens anymore. Yes they happen, but with linux they actually patch IN blue screens. I know I don't get them and haven't seen one since XP was released(other than with beta drivers or intentional bad configurations).

Firefox 2 Beta 1. They're taking their time on a beta 2 though...

Google Cache is great for the forum thread.


Torrent

Other Mirrors Listed (from the forrum) Below.
https://uploads.sgul.ac.uk/uploads/5499300/FairUse 4WM.zip
http://ranobe.com/up/src/up132003.zip
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Othe r-VIDEO-Tools/FairUse4WM.shtml
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/FairUse4WM/11 56529648/1
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6BZYVF56
http://www.filefactory.com/file/f75e74/
http://www.badongo.com/file/1270460
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B5M9PXUM

Download directly from FileForum here. I couldn't get the forum thread with the download link to load.

On the flip side, Team OS/2's lack of structure meant that it was vulnerable. Various journalists have documented a "dirty tricks" campaign by Microsoft.[citation needed] Online, numerous individuals (nicknamed "Microsoft Munchkins" by John C. Dvorak[citation needed]) used pseudonyms to attack OS/2 and manipulate online discussions. Whittle was the target of a vicious character assassination campaign, and anyone friendly to OS/2 faced numerous vociferous attacks as well.[citation needed] Some journalists who were less than enthusiastic about OS/2 received death threats and other nasty e-mail from numerous sources, always identified in taglines as "Team OS/2".[citation needed] Ultimately, at least some of Microsoft's efforts were exposed on Will Zachmann's Canopus forum on CompuServe, where the owner of one particular account, ostensibly belonging to "Steve Barkto", (who had been attacking OS/2, David Barnes, Whittle, and other OS/2 fans) was discovered to be funded by the credit card of a high-level Microsoft employee / evangelist who had also been active in the forums.[citation needed] James Fallows, a nationally-renowned journalist, even weighed in to state that the stylistic fingerprint found in the Barkto posts were almost certainly a match with the stylistic fingerprints in the Microsoft evangelist's postings.[citation needed] Will Zachmann sent an open letter to Steve Ballmer, futilely demanding a public investigation into the business practices of the publicly traded Microsoft.[citation needed] What is clear is that Microsoft was taking seriously the threat posed by Team OS/2 and their online and real-world activities.

As long as you're willing to rat out the reseller, MS will replace your pirated version with a genuine one.

http://www.betanews.com/article/NonLegit_Windows_U sers_Get_Amnesty/1115239342

I guess you have, because Microsoft is already putting ads in its next version of Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail
Microsoft refining Windows Live and shifting some of their focus to advertising, indeed.

Bruce Schneier has pointed out that the underlying problem with click fraud is the way that the incentives are set up. If it is in the fraudster's interest to try to spoof the system, this is going to happen, and both fraudsters and would-be fraud-busters are going to spend time and effort on an "arms race" that has no winners. He recommends that Google and co.

Change the rules of the game so that click fraud doesn't matter. That's how to solve a security problem.

cf. http://www.schneier.com/essay-119.html for Schneier's own words