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I would argue that it's common knowledge
that Firefox
doesn't have
anything like
50% of
the browser market,
with most estimates
coming in
at less than
25%.

it's surprising you haven't heard of this case.
it was quite a poster-story.
see http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html, for example

The people in that data set are candidates for public office, not just voters. As another poster pointed out, this is public information by law. As for how it wound up on Google Maps I don't know, but it's no secret that Google has been importing election data into Google Earth for awhile, so perhaps they're trying to do the same with Google Maps.

They'll paint it to look like a Dell or an Apple and start sticking pins into it, now that they have been prevented from engaging in their more conventional business practices.

Microsoft spends $6B annual on R&D. They own patents that currently aren't reasonable to move to production because of hardware and network limitations.

Microsoft is not able to innovate. They can't get an OS or a GUI framework right even though most of the concepts involved were invented decades ago, so I don't think they are able to implement the stuff their R&D department comes up with in a practical way.

Besides, Microsoft has an history of being followers, not leaders. They don't introduce new things until some competitors does it.
IE was a response to Netscape.
IE7 is a response to Firefox.
Vista is a response to osx, Linux, kde, gnome etc. (most of the big new features like the 3d hardware accelerated rendering framework are just response to similar things done before by competitors) .net is a response to Java.

I don't know if they introduced refactoring in visual 2005 for c#, but in any case it has been done before by eclipse and netbeans.

Funnily enough, last time I argued with Microsoft shills^H^H^H^H^H^Hapologists here, it ended up on a defensive tone: "me: visual c++ doesn't do refactoring. them: is there any ide that does c++ refactoring?", which is not the way of thinking I thought an innovator would have. But I can see it being Microsoft's position.

And indeed, it seems that Microsoft never takes the initiative of introducing something new that no competitor has, which is how I would define "innovating". They are reactionary.

All those patents they have is not for them to implement new stuff, it's to go after people who do. It's a way to stifle innovation from the competitor, rather than innovating themselves.
I have yet to hear of a software patent that wasn't complete bullshit anyway, like "patent on how to apply [widely known solution to solve problem of type X] to [obvious problem of type X]" (like, for instance, microsoft patent application on "using xml to store word processing documents", aka "using popular and widespread file storage specification to store a certain kind of files" )

You want municipal wireless? Fine, but understand that means you'll ONLY get whatever products and quality of service your town's government is capable of.

The current trend is for municipalities to take bids from private companies. It's the same way a lot of government services operate ... you don't think there's an office at city hall where a guy interviews ironworkers for jobs building bridges, do you? I have faith that at least some of the companies that are interested in building out and servicing municipal wireless networks have the wherewithal to do a good job.

...you forgot the infamous "Sony Rootkit."

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/14/sony_anticust omer_te.html
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,69601,00. html
http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-root kits-and-digital-rights.html
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+will+wipe+Sonys+root kit/2100-1002_3-5949041.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_CD_copy_pro tection_controversy

Intel is releasing open drivers with full graphics support, i don't know about the other games, but WoW runs just fine on my Laptop with an Intel 915GM.

First of all, Sun is no longer a server powerhouse.

they pay millions of dollars for critical applications. The last thing a large enterprise would want to depend on is some teenager providing free support on an IRC channel.

Microsoft's contractual obligation to develop Office for the Macintosh expired in 2002.

The legislation would immunize groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America from all state and federal laws if they disable, block or otherwise impair a "publicly accessible peer-to-peer network."

Anyone whose computer was damaged in the process must receive the permission of the U.S. attorney general before filing a lawsuit, and a suit could be filed only if the actual monetary loss was more than $250.

According to the draft, the attorney general must be given complete details about the "specific technologies the copyright holder intends to use to impair" the normal operation of the peer-to-peer network. Those details would remain secret and would not be divulged to the public.

The draft bill doesn't specify what techniques, such as viruses, worms, denial-of-service attacks, or domain name hijacking, would be permissible. It does say that a copyright-hacker should not delete files, but it limits the right of anyone subject to an intrusion to sue if files are accidentally erased.

The list of board members for the national Libertarian Party is no less geekish: a software engineer; a database consultant; an author of a book on Linux system administration; the CEO of a Web application company; and the creator of PocketMoney personal finance software for Palm handhelds. "Can you find another political party with a tech-savvy board like this?" said Cory, the Libertarians' national chairman. "I can tell you it's not going to happen."

CNET had a story about some of the worst politicians' web sites. Further demonstrates how many politicians are behind in technology.

I second that, SpamHaus is one of the worst offenders on the anti-spam scene, giving legitimate companies no recourse to defend their actions. Finding out the facts can never hurt you.

Here are a number of other articles related to SpamHaus's heavy handed tactics:

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/talkback/?PROCESS=show&ID=2 0080176&AT=39283978-39020375t-10000025c
http://news.com.com/5208-1030-0.html?forumID=1&thr eadID=6005&start=0

Between 1998 and now, SGI has had to rent space out to Google to stay afloat, has been delisted, gone through at least three separate downsizings (including several executive changes), and has filed for bankruptcy. The point is, SGI has tried the "sue to keep afloat" pattern before, and it didn't work then. I doubt very much it'll work now. SGI produces fast Linux boxes, for sure, but it competes in a very hard market.

Between 1998 and now, SGI has had to rent space out to Google to stay afloat, has been delisted, gone through at least three separate downsizings (including several executive changes), and has filed for bankruptcy. The point is, SGI has tried the "sue to keep afloat" pattern before, and it didn't work then. I doubt very much it'll work now. SGI produces fast Linux boxes, for sure, but it competes in a very hard market.

Between 1998 and now, SGI has had to rent space out to Google to stay afloat, has been delisted, gone through at least three separate downsizings (including several executive changes), and has filed for bankruptcy. The point is, SGI has tried the "sue to keep afloat" pattern before, and it didn't work then. I doubt very much it'll work now. SGI produces fast Linux boxes, for sure, but it competes in a very hard market.

In answer to your question a US judge ruled that US customs can search all contents of a laptop without a warrant and if you refuse to supply passwords to the information you go to jail.

All because of this case afaik.
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6098939.html

"If the only thing you're going to run on a computer is an Oracle database, you don't need an operating system," Ellison told reporters - November 16, 1998

Make the array bigger and put Tetris on that thing, kind of like these guys or even these guys.

Even during its darkest years in the nineties, Apple had a loyal fan base (probably in the 7 digits) who would buy an Apple branded commodity product over others. And since the return of Jobs to the mothership, that number has grown.

In addition, these days the iPod/IntelMacs/OSX halo is strong for Apple.

So I'd be really surprised if iPhone doesn't out-sell that just about every other cellphone model in the US market (RAZR is #1 in the US. Globally, three Sony Ericsson models supposedly rank #1, 2, and 4, while RAZR falls to 5th place.)

The author of TFA either knows diddly about the Apple fan base (wrt their buying Apple branded stuff), or knows the Apple fan base quite well (wrt their click-throughs to anti-Apple articles). Or he could just be a shareholder concerned about the future returns from his Moto shares.

Don't think that Linux isn't above ripping off OS X as well : http://chris.pirillo.com/2006/09/06/vistas-ui-is-b etter-than-this/

And even then, Apple weren't the ones doing the original thinking : http://news.com.com/2100-1045_3-5250692.html

The correct link to the article is http://news.com.com/HP+regains+spot+as+No.+1+PC+ma ker+worldwide/2100-1003_3-6127339.html.

So you are saying HP, Dell and the rest are are also not in the hardware business?

Well, one thing's for sure, they don't sell that thing called "design".

Also, I don't know about HP, but Dell still owns its own factories, which certainly qualifies it as a hardware manufacturer (or at least assembler). Dell *has* to be involved in manufacturing, it's a core part of their business model (zero-stock, allow you to configure your own PC, fast delivery).

Now compare with Apple's business model. Apple has closed down all its manufacturing facilities and is not involved into manufacturing anymore. Everything "physical" (manufacturing, assembly, handling, shipment) is subcontracted. The Apple added value is design and marketing. That new macpro you've received last week? No Apple employee has probably touched it or even seen it.

Not that one model is better than the other one. Those companies address different markets.

I thought that trash at the curb was considered as being out in public view. Someone can drive by and throw your trash into their truck for further inspection. After all, you were going to throw it away and it was going to end up in a landfill or incinerator.

Ah, here you go.

On the 16th, this story ran on cnet (and probably others). Notice that the single transfer rule not only includes transfers from a PC to a virtual PC, but also simply moving a virtual PC file from one host OS to another. It would appear they are hoping that more people will adopt their VS HD file format, which will in turn drive sales of Vista with its embedded single transfer. Suddenly MS's possible market has increased.

Dell sells in two weeks what Apple sells in a year.

I'm guessing by doing stuff like this http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-6127211.html?part= rss&tag=6127211&subj=news/ - Yahoo releases IE 7 before MS

"If I just distributed a device with a virus on it I would not be throwing stones at the security practices of another company."

Especially not when you live here...

I just checked out screenshots, and ... uck. I mean, seriously.

The graphics of 1996/1997 looked like this and this. The graphics of 2003-present look like this and this.

Which does Second life (this and this) look more like to you? :P Yes, user-created content adds additional optimization challenges. But this is just rather pathetic. All issues of models aside, their lighting and shading models are just crummy.

How is it that Linden Labs, raking in millions per year, can be outdone by open-source MMORPGs with a few hundred players on at a time, like Eternal Lands, in terms of graphics quality? And there's probably better examples than that, as EL doesn't even have normal maps yet, needs to lower their ambient levels, and ought to subdivide some polys that are closed to fixed light sources.

Copying for personal use is exempt from copyright infringement within Canada, this is true, but this exemption does not apply if one is sharing it with others

... for their network appliance systems.

And Larry mentioned NetBSD for an Oracle database appliance a long time ago.

But, with their recent Linux focus, any NetBSD bias probably evaporated long ago. Linux is flashy, and because of this it is easier to find admins and apps.

What about:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/14/132323 0

and

http://news.com.com/2300-1030_3-6089390-5.html

Seems like there is a lot of hydroelectric power in Oregon.

I would like to point out that Adobe didnot actually say anything to M$ at all about PDF in office. (M$ already has plenty of PDF support in the Mac version and why would Adobe have a problem with promotion of its own format?) but rather M$ just came up with a convenient excuse to trash PDF and claimed the possibility of a lawsuit as the reason for pulling PDF off.

This CNet article indicates otherwise:

Adobe wants the software giant to remove the PDF "save as" feature from its beta version of Office 2007 or to charge a fee for it, whereas Microsoft wants to offer that feature for free, said Dave Heiner, the deputy general counsel who oversees Microsoft's antitrust cases.

Adobe's response mentions fears of Microsoft "embracing and extending" PDF:

Microsoft has demonstrated a practice of using its monopoly power to undermine cross platform technologies and constrain innovation that threatens its monopolies. Microsoft's approach has been to "embrace and extend" standards that do not come from Microsoft. Adobe's concern is that Microsoft will fragment and possibly degrade existing and established standards, including PDF, while using its monopoly power to introduce Microsoft-controlled alternatives - such as XPS. The long-term impact of this kind of behavior is that consumers are ultimately left with fewer choices.

Microsoft employee Brian Jones has a blog response which claims that Microsoft works to honor PDF standards, including supporting ISO 19005-1 compliant PDF/A:

Remember we are only a producer of this stuff (not a consumer), and doing anything non-compliant would just mean that our output would be flawed and not look right. That would of course undermine all the work we've done to build this support in the first place... we want people to use it.

What's the truth behind it all? I personally agree with Brian Jones. Writing a half-baked implementation of PDF wouldn't do Microsoft any good; they'd get tons of negative publicity and no one would ever use the feature, even if it improved in the future.

Sirius just released its third-quarter subscriber data: more than 5.1 million subscribers. That more than doubles the 2.2 million subscribers Sirius reported a year ago. Sirius claims it's out-grown competitor XM Satellite Radio for four straight quarters.

It was about two years ago that Howard Stern and Sirius announced their deal. Recently I blogged about Stern's lower ad rates on sat radio compared with his old terrestrial radio net. As several readers pointed out, that's only part of the formula.

Sirius currently charges $12.95 a month for a subscription. So every thousand subs means another $155,400 in revenue for Sirius. As cable TV does, sat radio gets two major revenue streams: subs and ads.

So what's the magic number? When does Howard Stern become a profitmaker for Sirius? We may have passed that number some time ago. Stern and his production staff reportedly cost Sirius $100 million a year. That's roughly the income from 644,000 subs at the current monthly rate.

link

So, there you go. Assuming that # is correct, as long as around 650,000 people subscribe (and continue toi do so) expressly because of Stern, he is paying for himself.

I disagree that nuclear power is a necessary risk or evil.

We have alternative energy technologies that in the long run cost less to construct and maintain while offering a higher ROI or return on investment. Putting all of our eggs in one basket probably isn't the best idea, so I feel strongly that diversification of energy technologies is necessary. Does that make me irrational? I don't think this debate needs to involve calling one side rational and the other something less than. What I will say is that nuclear energy is short sighted. Until we are capable of managing and securing the waste present globally and domestically, we should not be producing more. If we take the cost of waste and mismanagement into account, nuclear energy has been incredibly costly, in some respects the ability to measure its economic impact isn't even possible.

Mistakes haven't just occured in the technology's early years. From a purely economic perspective, I don't see this tech as a sound or green investment. The risks are far too great and history has shown us that it is not profitable. In addition the question remains: who is going to profit from the coming wave of non-nuclear sustainable energy infrastructure. The US has not lost its opportunity to reignite its industrial base providing these services and equipment globally, but Europe will soon outpace us.

If we want to ween ourselves from fossil fuels, we can do it with sources that are proving themselves in Europe today.

http://news.com.com/Home+wind+turbines+turn+fashio nable+in+Britain/2100-11392_3-6124730.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3719868.stm

http://www.nrel.gov/

No subscription required to read the article here:

http://news.com.com/Wallflower+at+the+Web+party/21 00-1030_3-6125999.html

If you read the Grokster decision, you'll find a comprehensive discussion of copyright misuse, but as the PrawfsBlawg points out, for those who wish the short version, the penalty is not getting to enforce for as long as the misuse continues: "The effect isn't to invalidate the copyright, but rather to preclude its enforcement so long as the misuse is ongoing."

Larry Lessig has suggested it *ought* to be penalized with forfeiture, but that isn't the law. People who are not lawyers or in any way trained in the law should probably be careful not to assert things that they don't know or can't prove, and should put links to proofs others can check, so others are not misled. A little modesty goes a long way.

Unique as in :

Just like Wells Fargo Bank, Toyota, Coca-Cola, CNEt, Sun Microsystems and IBM, Intel are using Second Life to advertise their stuff.

TXU Electric Delivery, the largest electric company in Texas, plans on offering broadband over power lines to over 70% of its grid. TXU's partner in this venture is Current Communications Group...which has Google as an investor.

more info here

Service speeds and pricing details haven't been released, but Current said the network will have enough capacity to offer customers a "triple play" package, which would include telephony, TV service and high-speed Internet access. Users will be able to access the high-speed broadband network by plugging a device into an electrical outlet in the wall.

Transporter_ii

Depends if he got offered a job at that Google, doesn't it?

Still, location is still key. If it's the same location, well... why not Google? It will look cooler on your resume

If you get sick of it you can always move to Microsoft. I hear the other way around gets you sued :D

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+sues+over+Google+hir e/2100-1014_3-5795051.html

As probably most of you know, windows is _not the most used OS... Tron IS...

http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forum ID=89&threadID=178306&messageID=1831970

As for the quad-core thing, it's the same story all over again. Intel rush out a solder-together-two-chips job to beat the competition to market, and then the actual innovators come out with something coherent that works more efficiently etc.

I wouldn't describe it like that. Take a look at this: Intel Pledges 80 Cores in Five Years.

Apache isn't an OS, and last I checked all servers don't run Apache in the marketplace. Not to mention Apache also runs on Win32 as well.

Are you SERIOUSLY basing your Server numbers on Apache usage?

As for your thinking that XP was a slow seller:

I'll be using firefox as IE7 won't be released for windows 2000.

XP did not sell over 7 million copies

did Linux sell 7 million copies? I don't think so. Take a look at this article, a few years dated but shows a trend that has existed for years. Linux doesn't sell copies. So what metric do you want? Number of sold boxes? No, no, Windows wins that one. Market share? No, Windows wins that one too...

No, it doesn't. Hell, Apache still has twice as much market share as IIS.

Funny though, cause according to Netcraft IIS has been making solid gains since January. You will notice the GP says "continues to grow", as in a "rate of change" which is true according to Netcraft. You lied and said "Apache has twice the market share of IIS" which is barely true (won't be in a few months if the trends continue) but you ignored the valid point of the grandparent post. Fanboi.

Fact is Microsoft is the big gorilla in the OS business. And they haven't declined yet. Will Vista be the turning point? I don't know. But Windows is still **the** dominant OS. They are very relevant. Until computers make the transition to being completely OS-less, networked devices (a transition I hope they never make), operating systems will be a relevant point (web and digital media, sure, whatever... they are fun to watch videos at night but 98% of us don't make our money doing that, but a good chunk of us **do** make money writing software **locally**, recardless of OS. Microsoft is very relevant, you are very short sighted.

but Microsoft defenders are like young Republicans--strange, militant outcasts who never get invited to parties and never get laid.

Heh, half right, I am Republican, I use Linux and Windows (2 boxes at work, 2 boxes at home, 1 RH, 2 WinXP, 1 Slack), I have plenty of friends of all persuasions and I have a very attractive wife. Stop trolling.

"[Take open source.] Open source is not a new technology area. It was a new business model", SB

First RFC April 1969 for the ARPANET. The Open Source Initiative originated in Feb 1998.

"In the last three or four years, we have competed very well by extending our value", SB

"Microsoft has proposed a licencing agreement blatantly tailored to exclude free software from accessing it.", FSF Europe

" RealNetworks .. sued .. Microsoft on antitrust charges .. Our case is based on .. failure to disclose interface information and imposing restrictions on PC makers"

"Open source never goes away as a business model or competitor. We have learned how to compete with open source", SB

"Microsoft is claiming some form of IP rights over .. a total of 130 protocols which Microsoft is offering for license .. Many of the listed protocols are [IETF] RFC to the core TCP/IP v4 and TCP/IP v6 protocol specifications"

"competing with open source will have to be something that's burned bright on the foreheads of our senior people", SB

"OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects' entry into the market."

"In the case of open source, we couldn't adopt the business model. We adopted a competitive approach that so far has worked very well", SB

Under NO circumstances lose against Linux"

"Microsoft also indicated there was a lot more money out there and they would clearly rather use Baystar "like" entities to help us get signifigantly more money if we want to grow further or do acquisitions"

"Microsoft and Sun .. announced the antitrust settlement/technology pact between the two on Friday"

"Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) has signed a deal to license SCO Group's Unix intellectual property"

"Microsoft will license the rights to Unix technology from SCO"

"there are cases where software gets monetized through hardware", SB

Like years ago when you bought hardware and the software was included for free.

"[Take open source.] Open source is not a new technology area. It was a new business model", SB

First RFC April 1969 for the ARPANET. The Open Source Initiative originated in Feb 1998.

"In the last three or four years, we have competed very well by extending our value", SB

"Microsoft has proposed a licencing agreement blatantly tailored to exclude free software from accessing it.", FSF Europe

" RealNetworks .. sued .. Microsoft on antitrust charges .. Our case is based on .. failure to disclose interface information and imposing restrictions on PC makers"

"Open source never goes away as a business model or competitor. We have learned how to compete with open source", SB

"Microsoft is claiming some form of IP rights over .. a total of 130 protocols which Microsoft is offering for license .. Many of the listed protocols are [IETF] RFC to the core TCP/IP v4 and TCP/IP v6 protocol specifications"

"competing with open source will have to be something that's burned bright on the foreheads of our senior people", SB

"OSS projects have been able to gain a foothold in many server applications because of the wide utility of highly commoditized, simple protocols. By extending these protocols and developing new protocols, we can deny OSS projects' entry into the market."

"In the case of open source, we couldn't adopt the business model. We adopted a competitive approach that so far has worked very well", SB

Under NO circumstances lose against Linux"

"Microsoft also indicated there was a lot more money out there and they would clearly rather use Baystar "like" entities to help us get signifigantly more money if we want to grow further or do acquisitions"

"Microsoft and Sun .. announced the antitrust settlement/technology pact between the two on Friday"

"Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) has signed a deal to license SCO Group's Unix intellectual property"

"Microsoft will license the rights to Unix technology from SCO"

"there are cases where software gets monetized through hardware", SB

Like years ago when you bought hardware and the software was included for free.

Apparently, this guy already saw the TV in action and was pretty impressed:

The laser TV made the plasma look like an old console colour TV. It was so good, the only way i could describe it was that it looked like a wet photo in a developer tray - if you haven't done photography, that may not mean alot. But the colour depth and contrast, especially the space shuttle shots where space was REALLY black, and you could see the gold foil crinkles in the cargo bay, was amazing.

His post is a comment on another news story about the technology. Of course, take it with a grain of salt since nothing stops a company's marketing guy from posting as Joe Internet.