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Xbox is the #3 system.

Sony Playstation: 50 million units
Nintendo GameCube: 16 million (or 10-12 million depending on who you believe)
Microsoft Xbox: 8-9 million

Microsoft is not doing so well. Microsoft says sales of Xbox are on track. Yet what did Microsoft project they would sell? 9 million to 11 million. How many did they sell? 8 million, and they hope to sell 1 million more by June 30. Therefore Microsoft might possibly meet the low end of their projections.

Sources...
CNet: PlayStation 2 shipments top 50 million

CNet: Microsoft says Xbox sales on track ("We expect to finish our fiscal year with just over 9 million units sold worldwide," Koch said.)

And finally, for the Microsoft shills that think Xbox will take the world by storm...
Suppliers dim Xbox sales picture

Do you really think that the XBox was just to play games? Comeon, between XP Media Center and a $300 price tag, the XBox was aiming to be "the" box in your living room for both gaming and digital media, especially for homes without a PC already. IIRC, there were originally rumors of an add-on to the XBox for precisely that, although I haven't seen anything about that piece for a while. This would have pushed the MS DRM agenda nicely down the path. Unfortunately, their loss leader doesn't appear to be panning out quite as they'd like.
A quick googling yeilds several results:
here's a good one
here's another
and another

I'm sure MS has patents and copyrights up the wazoo on Windows NT, and is not afraid to take advantage of them.

Microsoft isn't the nicest company on Earth, but they don't really have a history of using lawsuits to try to squash competition. I doubt the ReactOS guys need to fear this.

Remember how they arrogantly sued the company they bought MS-DOS from out of existence because they were worried they would add multitasking to it?

Actually, no, I don't remember this at all. Could you point me to a newspaper article or something?

I did a web search, and all I could find was that Seattle Computer Products sued Microsoft (in 1986), not the other way around!

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-502830.html

If Microsoft ever arrogantly sued Seattle Computer Products, I'd like to know more about it.

steveha

It is.

who can't afford 50 bucks on a virus scanner or decent firewall software

Then don't pay 50 bucks.

I saw Nimda infections up until the end of last year

Norton and McAfee both provided free available Nimda removal tools. Besides, if you can afford IIS, you can afford a virus scanner.

http://news.com.com/2100-1017-983033.html?tag=fd_t op

good to see you yankee bastards are enjoying the fireworks

Enjoy now cos Saddam and Bin Laden will have their day soon

http://news.com.com/2100-1017-983033.html?tag=fd_t op

you fucking Americans deserve all you get, i really hope you get whats coming

The error here, believe it or not, isn't all upon Microsoft

No, but most of it is.

First off, they didn't patch. Microsoft had the patch available since June

Yes, this is true, but ignores the fact that Microsoft themselves were hit.

If the people who wrote the damn thing in the first place can't keep up with their own patches, why do you expect everybody else to be able to?

Microsoft explicitly warns users of SQL databases to not put them openly on the internet, for obvious reasons.

And again, MS is guilty of doing exactly what they tell others not to do... why?

And what exactly are those obvious reasons? Could one of them be "the software has too damn many holes"?

You can blame Microsoft for this if you want, but it isn't car companies' fault that people get killed because they can't drive.

No, but it is the car company's fault if thier car blows up in a minor collision. (Which is a much more fitting analogy, although still flawed.)

DES hasn't been cracked per-se but the 40bit keyspace can be scanned very efficiently now with distributed computing and specialized hardware.

• Distributed.net (40 days)
• Deep Crack(56 hrs)
• EFF(22 hrs)

Thank god for public libraries. No, wait, they are working on that one[zdnet].

Not sure if it counts, but there was also the Indrema thing.

Funny you should use that example. A friend and I have recently been playing through old RPGs online via ZSNES. We just finished up FFVI, and Secret of Mana before that. You know what? I still prefer those games to most anything coming out these days, and remain every bit as engrossed as the first time I played it.

Companies are putting a LOT more emphasis on plot nowadays (heh, in fact, Squaresoft is basically putting ALL the emphasis on plot! (see FFX)).

What A terrible example. Not to argue that FFX was lacking in the story department, but all of the post-SNES Final Fantasies seem to flaunt style over substance (with the possible exception being VII). Proof of this lies no further than the upcoming FFX-2, a sequel to FFX staring a John Woo-style gun toting Yuna wearing hot pants with two scantilly clad female companions. What's this about Square still pushing story in the FF series?

Since /. won't accept my submission, I had to post it here.

The next version of Divx (Divx 5.0.3) is out. You can read more about it on Divx Website

ZDnet is also carrying a story about the new version of Divx.

The San Diego-based company on Wednesday released DivX 5.03, technology that helps deliver full-motion video over IP (Internet Protocol) networks and now also onto DivX-compatible consumer electronics, including DVD players and handheld devices. The code, popular for encoding video files on the PC, is compatible with MPEG-4, an emerging standard for multimedia delivery on applications ranging from downloadable Internet video to satellite radio.

"DivX users can now encode content once using the appropriate profile and be assured that their video will play back on their DivX certified DVD player or portable device at the highest possible quality level," Kevin Hell, the company's managing director, said in a statement.

The article points out that AIX is handled by the Server group at IBM, not the software group. So while this Mills guy says exciting things, he isn't necessarily the guy to make that decision.

Excellent point. Anybody who actually read the article (and it's been up on News.com's website for a couple of days now) knows that IBM's AIX folks are surprised to hear that AIX's days are apparently numbered.

Basically, the article quotes one guy from IBM as saying that he foresees the day when Linux will replace AIX in IBM's lineup. The odds are that he's right simply because it costs so much to develop a Unix and keep it current, and IBM wants to be able to have you scale up from a low-end Intel box to a Z-series mainframe with any stop in between and take your software with you. Linux is the one OS that runs on all of IBM's hardware.

But that said, it'll be awhile and the AIX guys won't go quietly. They'll probably have some kind of AIX-compatibility libraries that they'll license to their customers the way SCO is planning to do with their libraries. IBM may also port their AIX management tools to Linux and license those separately, as well. Who knows what the future will hold, but it's likely that Linux will simply absorb AIX's capabilities in IBM's product lineup at some point. This means that even if AIX goes away, it won't really go away--it'll just change shape.

One last point. As someone pointed out in the article, "IBM has never decommissioned an operating system, and they're not about to start now."

You can forcefully uninstall any IE toolbar using Advanced Uninstaller from Innovative Technologies.

It also works on IE plug-ins and BHOs (browser helper objects).

You can download it from here (CNET).

...or perhaps more accurately, worthwhile story suggestions that no doubt would have been rejected, had they been so foolishly submitted to ./ for review..."

Sun blasts Microsoft's Java appeal A court order forcing Microsoft to distribute its rival's Java software is necessary to preserve competition, Sun tells a federal appeals court

Standard could boost chip bandwidth A key industry group is aiming to come out with a new specification for a high-speed chip connection technology that could more than triple the bandwidth for data.

IBM throwing its weight behind Linux The day is approaching when Linux will likely replace IBM's version of Unix, says the company's top software executive, another indication that the upstart's stature is rising. MS losing developers to Linux Siebel to create apps for IBM

Experts: Internet attack hunt difficult WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leading experts on Internet security are skeptical that the FBI and other investigators will be able to track down the person responsible for last weekend's attack on the Internet.

Samsung's audio player takes on iPod

And remember....mod early....mod often. Waste those points, matey...

...or perhaps more accurately, worthwhile story suggestions that no doubt would have been rejected, had they been so foolishly submitted to ./ for review..."

Sun blasts Microsoft's Java appeal A court order forcing Microsoft to distribute its rival's Java software is necessary to preserve competition, Sun tells a federal appeals court

Standard could boost chip bandwidth A key industry group is aiming to come out with a new specification for a high-speed chip connection technology that could more than triple the bandwidth for data.

IBM throwing its weight behind Linux The day is approaching when Linux will likely replace IBM's version of Unix, says the company's top software executive, another indication that the upstart's stature is rising. MS losing developers to Linux Siebel to create apps for IBM

Experts: Internet attack hunt difficult WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leading experts on Internet security are skeptical that the FBI and other investigators will be able to track down the person responsible for last weekend's attack on the Internet.

Samsung's audio player takes on iPod

And remember....mod early....mod often. Waste those points, matey...

...or perhaps more accurately, worthwhile story suggestions that no doubt would have been rejected, had they been so foolishly submitted to ./ for review..."

Sun blasts Microsoft's Java appeal A court order forcing Microsoft to distribute its rival's Java software is necessary to preserve competition, Sun tells a federal appeals court

Standard could boost chip bandwidth A key industry group is aiming to come out with a new specification for a high-speed chip connection technology that could more than triple the bandwidth for data.

IBM throwing its weight behind Linux The day is approaching when Linux will likely replace IBM's version of Unix, says the company's top software executive, another indication that the upstart's stature is rising. MS losing developers to Linux Siebel to create apps for IBM

Experts: Internet attack hunt difficult WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leading experts on Internet security are skeptical that the FBI and other investigators will be able to track down the person responsible for last weekend's attack on the Internet.

Samsung's audio player takes on iPod

And remember....mod early....mod often. Waste those points, matey...

...or perhaps more accurately, worthwhile story suggestions that no doubt would have been rejected, had they been so foolishly submitted to ./ for review..."

Sun blasts Microsoft's Java appeal A court order forcing Microsoft to distribute its rival's Java software is necessary to preserve competition, Sun tells a federal appeals court

Standard could boost chip bandwidth A key industry group is aiming to come out with a new specification for a high-speed chip connection technology that could more than triple the bandwidth for data.

IBM throwing its weight behind Linux The day is approaching when Linux will likely replace IBM's version of Unix, says the company's top software executive, another indication that the upstart's stature is rising. MS losing developers to Linux Siebel to create apps for IBM

Experts: Internet attack hunt difficult WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leading experts on Internet security are skeptical that the FBI and other investigators will be able to track down the person responsible for last weekend's attack on the Internet.

Samsung's audio player takes on iPod

And remember....mod early....mod often. Waste those points, matey...

...or perhaps more accurately, worthwhile story suggestions that no doubt would have been rejected, had they been so foolishly submitted to ./ for review..."

Sun blasts Microsoft's Java appeal A court order forcing Microsoft to distribute its rival's Java software is necessary to preserve competition, Sun tells a federal appeals court

Standard could boost chip bandwidth A key industry group is aiming to come out with a new specification for a high-speed chip connection technology that could more than triple the bandwidth for data.

IBM throwing its weight behind Linux The day is approaching when Linux will likely replace IBM's version of Unix, says the company's top software executive, another indication that the upstart's stature is rising. MS losing developers to Linux Siebel to create apps for IBM

Experts: Internet attack hunt difficult WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leading experts on Internet security are skeptical that the FBI and other investigators will be able to track down the person responsible for last weekend's attack on the Internet.

Samsung's audio player takes on iPod

And remember....mod early....mod often. Waste those points, matey...

...or perhaps more accurately, worthwhile story suggestions that no doubt would have been rejected, had they been so foolishly submitted to ./ for review..."

Sun blasts Microsoft's Java appeal A court order forcing Microsoft to distribute its rival's Java software is necessary to preserve competition, Sun tells a federal appeals court

Standard could boost chip bandwidth A key industry group is aiming to come out with a new specification for a high-speed chip connection technology that could more than triple the bandwidth for data.

IBM throwing its weight behind Linux The day is approaching when Linux will likely replace IBM's version of Unix, says the company's top software executive, another indication that the upstart's stature is rising. MS losing developers to Linux Siebel to create apps for IBM

Experts: Internet attack hunt difficult WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leading experts on Internet security are skeptical that the FBI and other investigators will be able to track down the person responsible for last weekend's attack on the Internet.

Samsung's audio player takes on iPod

And remember....mod early....mod often. Waste those points, matey...

Certain devices using Memory Stick cards will be compatible with Memory Stick Pro cards natively and others through an upgrade, but some older devices will not. The company will maintain a list on the Memory Stick site that says which devices will be compatible.

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Google community when IDC confirmed that Google market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all web searches. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Google has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Google is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by Yahoo's failure to renew its exclusive deal with Google.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Google's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Google faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Google because Google is dying. Things are looking very bad for Google. As many of us are already aware, Google continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Google search is the most endangered of them all, having lost most of its core affiliates. The sudden and unpleasant departures of Yahoo and AOL only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Google is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Google.com founder Sergey Brin states that there are 7000 users of Google. How many users of Verity are there? Let's see. The number of Google versus Verity posts on USENET is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Verity users. AskJeeves posts on USENET are about half of the volume of Verity posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of Inktomi. A recent article put Teoma at about 80 percent of the search engine market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 Google users. This is consistent with the number of Google USENET posts.

Due to the troubles of Google News, abysmal sales and so on, Google is going out of business and will probably be taken over by idealab! who operate another troubled search engine. Now Inktomi is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

All major surveys show that Google has steadily declined in market share. Google is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Google is to survive at all it will be among search engine dilettante dabblers. Google continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Google is dead.

Fact: Google is dying

How about the time (older stuff seems to be down so settle for a cnet link) Microsoft forgot to renew a domain name, which lead to the disabling if hotmail, leaving some kindhearted linux user to buy it and give it back to them. No, certainly not the paragon of much.

From CNET

Since you own this IP address, we request that you immediately do the following:
1) Disable access to the individual who has engaged in the conduct described above; and 2) Terminate any and all accounts that this individual has through you.

Why do so many Apple dorks think of themselves as "alpha-geeks"?

I don't know any Apple dorks, so I can't provide any insight into that particular question. However, I can explain that my choice of "alpha-geek" was influenced by O'Reilly's attempts to explain the Mac OS X attraction.

Using BBEdit is not macho, and being attracted to shiny objects is not a sign of intellegence...

Right, because Slashdotters are sooooo macho to begin with :) Intelligent perhaps. But (couldn't resist the self-description as a "Windows dork" just for counterpoint) then again . . .

I can't see how it's even "quietly". Red Hat has had this info on their website for a while now (can't recall exactly when I saw it and submitted it to slashdot, but it was before last December). As for "microsoftish"? Well, you get what you pay for. Most of the apps I personally run are patchable from sources outside RH. At work, we tend to get patches from the "vendor": ssh from openssh.org, apache from httpd.apache.org, PHP from php.net, etc. in addition to ones from redhat.com/errata/. Likely, we'll shift that balance even more.

I guess Red Hat is being microsoftish by trying to make a profit (maybe someday), ... or maybe it's the windowsupdate.com like ability to patch over the web.

They already do make a profit. Not a large one, but they are profitable. Is this move intended to generate more revenue? You bet. I can imagine them saying "Well, if you want/need guaranteed errata, then buy Advanced Server. If all you need is Linux, download an ISO and then after a year patch yourself for free." That's fine.

This also certainly ties into their Red Hat Update service, which already does network patching, same as Windows Update. (Forgive me if you were making that point; I missed the meaning of "from the web", and am construing "web" to mean "network".)

I think they're more Microsoftish than you may think, and I say 'right on!'.

As long as I have source, and they don't force me to deal with choices they've made, I'm with you. As soon as Red Hat starts trying to remove my liberties by trying to think for me, like MS has made a mint doing, I'm switching. But dump them for trying to make money selling services to those who need/want them? What could be wrong with that? I'd rather download free ISO from a company that only supports it for one year than have to pay up PBS style.

-B

Man dies after gaming marathon:


http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-961731.html

The Real CNET Article Is Here

Maybe I'm a bit off-topic, but why do people DDOS RIAA.org? Hacking it is all good, but who actually needs to go to RIAA.org? What's the point in having it down?

I think people would be better off DOSing warner.com, columbia.com, sonymusic.com, emi.com, etc. By attacking the RIAA, it's showing the record labels they really can hide behind a nameless entity. Show them that what they spend money on to limit freedom really does come back to haunt them personally, and news stories will start focusing more on RIAA members and not a meaningless acronym.

The final release of Opera 7 will be on Tuesday.

CNET News has the story here

In today's NY Times article "6 Retailers Plan Venture to Sell Music on the Web" Laura M. Holson writes, "a proliferation of free music-swapping services on the Internet has led to a decline in CD sales."

Ms. Holmes has either succumbed to the incessant propaganda of the big music labels or has an insight into global economic causal relations that would make even Chairman Greenspan envious.

During the same time period that peer-to-peer file-sharing networks have been active, several other factors have existed that seem as likely or more likely to explain the recent decline in CD sales.

1. The music industry has consolidated to such an extent that many radio stations sound exactly alike, reducing consumer choice and interest.

2. The music industry focuses almost all its promotional efforts on a few super-artists who have a chance to sell millions of records (Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Boy Bands, etc.) and so non-mainstream or non-teen-pop artists that would interest people over age 25 (with purchasing power) do not get the exposure necessary to attract new fans.

3. Consumers have more products competing for their limited dollars than ever before. DVDs, wireless phones, digital cable, broadband internet, PDAs and a host of other things soak up time and money that used to be spent listening to music and buying CDs.

4. The music labels over-charge for their products (and were even recently convicted of illegal price-fixing and they have not offered a reasonably priced alternative to file-sharing networks that does not cripple the downloads in some way (limited playbacks, unable to burn to CD, expires after a set time, etc.) It's not surprising then that when consumers don't get what they want, they don't shell out their hard-earned cash.

5. There is an overall slowdown in the economy, if no one has noticed.

In response, consider instead that:

1. Jupiter Communications did a study in 2000 at the height of Napster usage that showed Napster users bought MORE not FEWER CDs.

2. Actual artists claim that file-sharing increases their sales.

I would have hoped that a reporter for The New York Times would be more careful about so casually asigning a single cause to such a complex effect.

[snip personal info]

If published, please print name and city/state only.

Nobody talks about this, so I just thought that I'd point out the rats nest that is publishing rights. For an online service to be legal, one needs both copyrights and publishing rights. Copyright for most works is held by the members of the RIAA. The similar organization for publishing rights is called Harry Fox Agency. However, Harry Fox has thousands of members and they are all very small. If you want to make a legal online service, you have to get written authorization from these Harry Fox members. However, the lack of coordination and technology at Harry Fox makes this almost impossible. It is extremely diffucult to get this permission because they don't know who owns the publishing rights, or are unable to contact the owners for many songs.

This is why even services like pressplay and musicnet do not have a very good selection. For background, see this article where Universal lost a lawsuit when it was sued by the publishers when they attempted to put music that they owned the copyright for online.

From the editorial: The NET Act works in two ways: In general, violations are punishable by one year in prison, if the total value of the files exceeds $1,000; or, if the value tops $2,500, not more than five years in prison. Also, if someone logs on to a file-trading network and shares even one MP3 file without permission in "expectation" that others will do the same, full criminal penalties kick in automatically.

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Google community when IDC confirmed that Google market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all web searches. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Google has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Google is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by Yahoo's failure to renew its exclusive deal with Google.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Google's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Google faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Google because Google is dying. Things are looking very bad for Google. As many of us are already aware, Google continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Google search is the most endangered of them all, having lost most of its core affiliates. The sudden and unpleasant departures of Yahoo and AOL only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Google is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Google.com founder Sergey Brin states that there are 7000 users of Google. How many users of Verity are there? Let's see. The number of Google versus Verity posts on USENET is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Verity users. AskJeeves posts on USENET are about half of the volume of Verity posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of Inktomi. A recent article put Teoma at about 80 percent of the search engine market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 Google users. This is consistent with the number of Google USENET posts.

Due to the troubles of Google News, abysmal sales and so on, Google is going out of business and will probably be taken over by idealab! who operate another troubled search engine. Now Inktomi is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

All major surveys show that Google has steadily declined in market share. Google is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Google is to survive at all it will be among search engine dilettante dabblers. Google continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Google is dead.

Fact: Google is dying

good to see IBM on-board. They've already written GPL drivers for Linux, and are showing massive support from the very beginning -- something you rarely see with *any* new specification or proposed standards. Any Linux user should be glad IBM is on-board as well.

Damn right. I assume you saw the articles earlier this week that IBM is claiming I think $1.5 billion in Linux based revenue, and HP is claiming $2.0 billion? Linux Brings In Big Bucks That kind of money can support some pretty serious development. It's not hard to imagine that Linux will end up with the premier set of software tools which does useful things with TCPA. Sure, maybe RedHat isn't bringing in the revenue they might like, but it sounds like free software as a whole is doing pretty damn well.

Why Microsoft was right about Linux

" Linux on Intel-based computers is now likely to become the dominant platform in corporate data centers, according to a recent report from investment bank Goldman Sachs. That puts even more pressure on Microsoft to persuade Unix users to stick with its Windows operating system on Intel systems rather than move to Linux. (That's no easy feat these days.) Indeed, if it fails to stop the groundswell, Microsoft may be forced to radically rethink its strategy as none of the company's server platform products now run on Linux. One scenario offered by analysts at First Boston has Microsoft switching gears and supporting Linux on key subsystems like Exchange and SQL Server and the .Net framework. And then there's the IBM factor to consider." Not much new there, but some details in the article ARE new and interesting.

Computerized text bullying opening new chapter in student harassment Weird News

"No one ever got fired for selecting Oracle, so we asked ourselves, Do we take that option?" he said.

Not true! I know someone who got fired for choosing oracle, then being unable to properly implement it.

Someone who worked for the State of California, perhaps? There were a bunch of people who lost their jobs over that debacle.... See here for more info.<wry grin>

1. Industry leaders perform autopsy on dot-com bustola ( March 11, 2001)

   "... "Sony CEO Howard Stringer, who kept the audience laughing throughout the night with a battery of quips, said, "Right now it would be possible for us, and I've often thought it would cheer me up to do it, you could dispatch a virus to anybody whose files contain us or Columbia records, and make them listen to four hours of Yanni ... but in the end we're going to have to get serious about encryption and digital-rights management and watermarking." ..."

Mac users find Keynote out of tune

Of course, /. isn't going to post an article telling about a serious hole in CVS. Expecially considering their own Sourceforge, according to the article, is hostnig 55,000 projects with CVS. So here it is. Read up. Very serious news. Make sure to check *every* line of every bit of your source in a CVS repository to make sure it hasn't been altered. Well, I guess that this gives new meanign to "open source", huh?

I read an article at Cnet that had an interview Peter Houston, one of the directors charged with leading the new strategy, shortly before he got on a plane to attend the opening of LinuxWorld.

Speaking of which, over at CNET.com, there's an article about Linux revenues: " "Three and a half billion dollars in revenue--not bad for a free operating system," said James Governor, an analyst at research firm Redmonk. "It is clear that there are real, high-dollar Linux transformations going on" as companies switch from more expensive technology to Linux systems."

Man Gets 70mpg in Homemade Car-Made from a Mainframe Computer

Not worth the effort for a whole new story, but MS is appealling the judge's decision in the MS vs Sun case, reported by Cnet. MS claims that the injuction (Remember, the case has yet to be settled; the judge, though, deemed that Sun may be victorious in the case, and thus ordered the inclusion of Java as part of the injunction for Sun) would "inflict serious harm" in the various Windows products it would need to include Java in.

What if a pro-life librarian doesn't want to grant access to sites about abortion? What if a fundamentalist librarian doesn't want to grant access to sites about birth control or gay issues? What if a librarian doesn't want to grant access to a site he finds politically offensive? You would hope that personal beliefs wouldn't influence these decisions, but you can never be sure.

Two points before anyone flames me: (1) I gave examples of "liberal" sites that were blocked because those are the sites I personally wouldn't want to see blocked from my (future) children. I'm sure the tables could be turned, too, with a liberal librarian overruling a conservative site. [However, my example appears to be more common.] (2) I really respect professional librarians and think they are doing a great job promoting first amendment rights and fighting censorship. I'm sure most librarians would use their discretionary powers appropriately, but I think it is dangerous to let a small group of people decide what information can and cannot be accessed.

Four out of the Top 5 PC Vendors are on the list (HP, Dell, Gateway, IBM).

Only Apple is missing. I guess they'll stick to "Don't Steal Music".

It is official; Netcraft confirms: Google is dying.

One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Google community when IDC confirmed that Google market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all web searches. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Google has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Google is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by Yahoo's failure to renew its exclusive deal with Google.

You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Google's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Google faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Google because Google is dying. Things are looking very bad for Google. As many of us are already aware, Google continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

Google search is the most endangered of them all, having lost most of its core affiliates. The sudden and unpleasant departures of Yahoo and AOL only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Google is dying.

Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

Google.com founder Sergey Brin states that there are 7000 users of Google. How many users of Verity are there? Let's see. The number of Google versus Verity posts on USENET is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 Verity users. AskJeeves posts on USENET are about half of the volume of Verity posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of Inktomi. A recent article put Teoma at about 80 percent of the search engine market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 Google users. This is consistent with the number of Google USENET posts.

Due to the troubles of Google News, abysmal sales and so on, Google is going out of business and will probably be taken over by idealab! who operate another troubled search engine. Now Inktomi is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

All major surveys show that Google has steadily declined in market share. Google is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Google is to survive at all it will be among search engine dilettante dabblers. Google continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Google is dead.

Fact: Google is dying

I'm interested by the cluelessness of the Microsoft guy's assertions about IBM's relationship to open source and Linux. (Disclaimer: Yeah, I work for IBM, but I'm gonna try not to make this a sales pitch. Obviously this isn't an official statement, it's my opinion, errors are mine, blah blah.)

He says that IBM is relying on proprietary, closed software. He seems to think that you won't see an open source equivalent of WebSphere.

Well, WebSphere is based on Apache Tomcat. The IBM HTTP server bundled with WebSphere is a version of Apache. IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer is based on Eclipse, another open source project.

I don't know what he means by "integration", but IBM has disk images for internal use that have a complete Linux, DB2 and WebSphere install, ready to run. They're used for demos; customers typically have very specific requirements, and want something that's custom integrated with their existing infrastructure. (Contrast with Microsoft's approach, where it's integrated only so long as everything else you own is Microsoft.)

Peter Houston asserts that IBM is pushing for a world of commodity Intel hardware running Linux. Well, not really--IBM has Linux running on iSeries (AS/400), pSeries (PowerPC) and zSeries (OS/390) as well as xSeries (Intel). (Yes, you can run Linux on your IBM mainframe.)

IBM is more than happy to sell you Linux solutions based on any of those hardware platforms, depending on how heavyweight your requirements are. I very much doubt that anyone is being encouraged to move from iSeries or zSeries to Intel; in fact, one recent ad campaign has been selling the benefits of consolidating hundreds of Intel boxes into one iSeries server.

He says that Linux open source makes it very difficult to have a revenue-generating business. Well, IBM generated over a billion dollars of revenue from Linux sales last year, in the middle of a recession. Not so difficult after all?

Single sign-on? Yeah, we do that, with Kerberos, LDAP, JAAS, or Tivoli products on Linux.

IBM a services company, not a software company? That's a surprise to those of us who work in the $12 billion+ IBM Software Group.

And of course, if you really want a slick UNIX OS that's fully integrated and never needs you to touch a command line, and you don't care about how proprietary it is, you could buy an Apple Xserve... Seems to me Microsoft loses that battle too.

There's nothing borderline about it.

Back in 1999, it was discovered that Real were assigning unique IDs to RealJukebox users and profiling them without their knowledge. Real were subjected to a federal probe and slapped with two lawsuits. Even then, were Real compelled to stop what they were doing? Nah, they just issued a patch that maybe 10% of all users even knew existed.

Real have cleaned up their act since then, but clearly their past arrogance has left a bad taste in the mouths of many users.

There's nothing borderline about it.

Back in 1999, it was discovered that Real were assigning unique IDs to RealJukebox users and profiling them without their knowledge. Real were subjected to a federal probe and slapped with two lawsuits. Even then, were Real compelled to stop what they were doing? Nah, they just issued a patch that maybe 10% of all users even knew existed.

Real have cleaned up their act since then, but clearly their past arrogance has left a bad taste in the mouths of many users.

There's nothing borderline about it.

Back in 1999, it was discovered that Real were assigning unique IDs to RealJukebox users and profiling them without their knowledge. Real were subjected to a federal probe and slapped with two lawsuits. Even then, were Real compelled to stop what they were doing? Nah, they just issued a patch that maybe 10% of all users even knew existed.

Real have cleaned up their act since then, but clearly their past arrogance has left a bad taste in the mouths of many users.