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I made similar points to the ZDNet op-ed piece linked above in an op-ed of my own from March:

http://news.com.com/Is+identity+theft+inevitable/2 010-1029_3-5648740.html

Ah, I very much think I understand your position better now. My apologies.

I would still argue that we should, as a society, indeed "call for government legislation to point shotguns at people who break contracts and say 'do not break contracts or else'". Buying music under a contract that stipulates that you may not circumvent its copy protection is a contract like any other. If I offer to pay you $5000 for some podcast software and you accept, but your stipulation is that I cannot use the software for more than one podcast, but when I take delivery of the software, and pay you, I run a dozen podcasts with the single license that I purchased, shouldn't I be in trouble?

I do dislike the DMCA very, very much and it is a vast over-reach of simply enforcing contract law -- but that is its primary function. I do not think that the government should say "do not attempt to circumvent any copyright protection", it should more directly say "do not attempt to circumvent any copyright protection which you are contractually obligated not to circumvent", or, more simply, "do not break contracts". I believe contracts are more important than copyright and also more important than "fair use". You seem to believe that "fair use" is more important than contract law, and I would simply argue that a system where "fair use" has a higher precedence than contract law is a less free system than the inverse. That is my chief attempted "point" here: contracts should be enforced at a higher priority than "fair use", or else there are huge breakdowns in the entire system as people attempt to define "fair" differently.

As a point of commentary -- most "valid" DMCA cases of which I am aware attempts to prosecute folks who had already broken contract law or who were directly facilitating the breaking of contract law.

Jury Convicts Man in DMCA Case -- man was selling DirecTV cards for free TV access. Both the man and his customers were violating contract law already, regardless of copyright or the DMCA.

The problems with the DMCA are similar to those of any law -- the abuses of power and limitations of freedom that come with every single law that has ever been passed. They are exascerbated by the bizarre intermingling of copyright law, contract law, fair use, and technology, and the DMCA is a very, very bad law. But the principle of it being illegal to copy something you are contractually obligated not to copy is not a new principle to the DMCA or even copyright, it is a simple principle of contract law, which goes back to "I'll give you this sharp rock if you give me that apple."

Linspire people said they also were centrino certified, the even sell laptops with Linspire on in.

Another alternative to windows MCE is http://www.gbpvr.com/gb-pvr. It's free and it's on windows. My setup consist of Hauppauge 150 ($60) and a regular big huge pc (I really want a small one but they are relatively expensive). I think I'll wait for http://news.com.com/AOpen+box+inspired+by+Mac+Mini /2100-1042_3-5885697.html which will be $399 to be my next HTPC

The Library of Congress is soliciting feedback on the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions again. Without doubt, they have heard it all before, but with this particular piece of legislation, the complaints bear repeating. Since that time, the DMCA anti-circumvention clauses have been used against manufacturers of of printer cartridges and garage door openers, against owners of robot dogs and to stifle competition in the mobile phone service market just to name a few. You have until December 1, 2005 to submit your written comments, so hop to it.

. . . please stop spreading FUD.

Vista worms/virii were an example of a conceptual virus on a beta command shell for a beta OS.

The words potential, and beta strike me as interesting concepts.

The first worms were thought experiments on breaching computer security put into practice by Fred Cohen. You're confused with 'Animal' though. Scroll down to 2 thirds for a bit of backstory on that.

First, Sun's own executives are pretty clear that they are _NOT_ looking to put Star/OO.org on the web, as they already tried a java-based version with StarPortal and weren't happy.
Schwartz said he has no regrets: "Is AJAX or a browser an appropriate vehicle for heavyweight office productivity software? Absolutely not," he said. (Reference: Sun and Google shake hands.)

    Second, there already _ARE_ Companies bundling StarOffice right now! (Which, as has been mentioned, is what Sun offers, since they don't own OO.org)

    the \. community needs to work on not only RFTA'ing, but the articles referenced by the articles, and the commentary.. there's gold in them thar commentaries! (Biggest reason to read slashdot, since the editorial abilities are below par!)
Hasta luego,
        -Ajay

First, Sun's own executives are pretty clear that they are _NOT_ looking to put Star/OO.org on the web, as they already tried a java-based version with StarPortal and weren't happy.
Schwartz said he has no regrets: "Is AJAX or a browser an appropriate vehicle for heavyweight office productivity software? Absolutely not," he said. (Reference: Sun and Google shake hands.)

    Second, there already _ARE_ Companies bundling StarOffice right now! (Which, as has been mentioned, is what Sun offers, since they don't own OO.org)

    the \. community needs to work on not only RFTA'ing, but the articles referenced by the articles, and the commentary.. there's gold in them thar commentaries! (Biggest reason to read slashdot, since the editorial abilities are below par!)
Hasta luego,
        -Ajay

Actually Brazil fretted over the creation of a 'xxx' TLD. See here.

But the point is valid, especially because of this part:

A government report from a few years ago hints that the Bush administration could choose unilaterally to block .xxx from being added to the Internet's master database of domains. The report notes that the Commerce Department has "reserved final policy control over the authoritative root server."

Now that is scary.

That's the spirit! Remember when they canned their internet portapotty, the iLoo? Yeah, sure, that's a hoax. There's one born every minute.

Yes, we have been here before. Crippled DVDs have been tried and failed.

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/z/200506/pmurphy_hd.g if

How can you call anyone or anything else "stupid" when you look like that?

Forgot the IANAL disclaimer, and here are some links to the case against Dymtry Skylarov:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1454489.stm
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/02/17 47248&mode=flat&tid=103
http://www.freesklyarov.org/
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-270082.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-270440.html?legacy=c net

Forgot the IANAL disclaimer, and here are some links to the case against Dymtry Skylarov:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1454489.stm
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/02/17 47248&mode=flat&tid=103
http://www.freesklyarov.org/
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-270082.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-270440.html?legacy=c net

make that 780 million ARM processors, with 80% of cell phones using them. I belive they're on their way to 1 billion this year.

Sun Microsystems and Google plan to announce a collaborative effort that some analysts speculate could elevate the profile of the OpenOffice.org and Java software packages.

See http://news.com.com/2102-1012_3-5887923.html?tag=s t.util.print

"In 1999, Sun had plans for a Java-based version of StarOffice, called StarPortal, that could run on the network so that Java-enabled devices could access it. On Monday, though, Sun said, "there are currently no plans for a Java version of StarOffice."

"Microsoft chairman Bill Gates today said the goal of the plan is to connect every computing device, from desktop PCs to cell phones, and tie them to the Internet. In that scenario, all data will be synchronized, allowing consumers and workers to access the Internet, email, calendars and important files, regardless of what device they're using. The plan is to offer software over the Web as a service."

So what if Microsoft DOES buy AOL as has been rumored last month?

Once AMD gets serious they should be able to cut the price in half if not bring it down close to $100. If this happens, I'm thinking affordable education to the masses. And when we get ahold of one of these things and put linux on it then I'll throw down $100 for each of my grand parents and I'll run their systems for them.

Check out this comment:

"I am from India and I am sure that it will help a few million people additionally every year to get access to Internet. . .
. . . the growth will be exponential. The benefits of this effort will be definitely numerous not only to countries to India, but to the whole mankind.
G M Asirvatham" more:

To get an actual working version of this thing, you have to go to the beta news site and then click on any of the story headlines.

If they can get the network flying and working well, and can deploy 802.11n type wireless
nationwide they could theoretically offer WiFi phone service .

The can of worms and screaming this would cause would rocks the bells, the long distance ppl,
and prolly go to the supreme court before it was all said and done .

If they did WiFi phone service nationwide, they would dwarf the M$ we know today .

I doubt they are feelign this froggy, but the possibility does exist .

http://news.com.com/Wi-Fi+phones+make+a+splash/210 0-7351_3-5296745.html

Peace,
Ex-MislTech

more info: http://news.com.com/2100-1040-227194.html

They are on the way...
The contest made history this week, when Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne craft sped 100km above Earth'

See article. It probably didn't help things that companies stopped hiring and training younger workers in the "legacy" systems as a cost savings measure. They think they can just hire experienced workers when they need them. HR probably can't figure out why they can't find experienced younger workers now.

CNET reports that a new flaw in Internet Explorer could be exploited to launch spoof-based attacks, or access and change data on vulnerable PCs, security experts have warned.

The vulnerability could be exploited with specially crafted code. An attacker could spoof a legitimate Web site, access data from the Web browser's cache or stage a so-called man-in-the-middle attack, which taps into traffic between a user and another Web site, according to Klein's write-up.

Fully-patched computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Internet Explorer 6.0 are vulnerable to this issue, security monitoring company Secunia said in an advisory.

Zonk is a Microsoft's shill, I think.

CNET reports that a new flaw in Internet Explorer could be exploited to launch spoof-based attacks, or access and change data on vulnerable PCs, security experts have warned.

The vulnerability could be exploited with specially crafted code. An attacker could spoof a legitimate Web site, access data from the Web browser's cache or stage a so-called man-in-the-middle attack, which taps into traffic between a user and another Web site, according to Klein's write-up.

Fully-patched computers running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and Internet Explorer 6.0 are vulnerable to this issue, security monitoring company Secunia said in an advisory.

Somehow, this story never made it to the front page.

Firefox was supposed to be serious IE rival But Microsoft was never worried. And it turns out they didn't have anything to worry about. According to TFA, most of Firefox's market share came not from IE, but from other Mozilla browsers and Opera.

Firefox was supposed to be more secure than IE. But exploits for both browsers are close in numbers

All we have now is a new Mozilla browser. Nothing else has changed. As soon as the next third-party "IE-killer" browser comes out, Firefox will lose it's market share to the newcomer too.

Well not everyone realizes that the XBox bombed in Japan. All they see is it's relative success in the US and then wonder why Microsoft is taking a loss. I dunno if they would have been in the black by now if the XBox was a success over seas, but I am sure they hoped and expected it to do better than it did.

I don't really have any doubt that they would have been closer to their forecasts (and to predictions of a $2 billion loss rather than a $4 billion loss) if they'd done better in Japan. They seem to be pretty close to their sales forecasts for the US and Europe, but it is really hard to understate how badly they've done in Japan. They are not even considered a major player there - people talk about them there in the same way we talk about the Tiger Telematics Gizmondo here. I mean, what are you gonna buy, a PSP, a DS, or a Gizmondo? That's how the Japanese feel about the Xbox, and the sales pretty much show that. The system's basically a joke there. It's got less than 1% market share.

I think MS learned some things from this as they're at least paying lip service to the country now and promising to refocus. They put on a big, somewhat pushy show at TGS that I personally think was a bit too "in your face" for the Japanese (even forcing Xbox bags on people right as they got off the train in Makuhari), but that sort of illustrates their continuing problems there. I think they understand that Japan is tough and they understand that they need to do better there, but I don't think they really have any clue whatsoever how to go about doing that. It's amazing to me that such a large multi-national corporation could be so out of touch with such a major market. I mean, just head-hunt some of Apple's guys, or something - there are plenty of American corporations that do well over there. It just requires an understanding of Japanese tastes, which it still seems like MS doesn't have.

I seem to recall a news article back in the day that said that Microsoft was going to risk five billion dollars on it's entry into the marketplace, but I can't find it anymore.

Not sure what you were reading, but the figure I saw repeatedly was "as much as" $2 billion, such as in this article here.

$2 billion was already a chunk of change. Now it's double that, and they never did get into the black. Clearly something is not right at that division, and it really does make you wonder about the financial prospects of the Xbox 360. (Note that that's different from marketplace prospects; obviously, MS could keep this money-losing charade up basically forever, though at some point you'd think investors would expect some real returns.)

No doubt they learned some things from their Xbox experience, but we'll see if any of that actually translates to profits. Which is all that really matters in business, in the end.

I think that microsoft expects nintendo and sony to just disappear after they take over the marketplace. They are trying to apply the same PC monopoly idea. However, it's not like that, the market is entirely different. There's room for multiple platforms at the top. So it's going to be interesting. Short term, the consumer should win due to the price wars. But long term, we might end up losing if it's just one company there.

I think that microsoft expects nintendo and sony to just disappear after they take over the marketplace. They are trying to apply the same PC monopoly idea. However, it's not like that, the market is entirely different. There's room for multiple platforms at the top. So it's going to be interesting. Short term, the consumer should win due to the price wars. But long term, we might end up losing if it's just one company there.

I know it's supposed to be completely different, but I'm kinda wondering what 1337 group of h4x0r5 is going to be featured in this upcoming release - especially after seeing this article, "Windows uses pirated software?"

on beta.news.com Microsoft and JBoss said Tuesday they'll work to make JBoss' Java application server software work well with Microsoft's Windows and higher-level software.

Making Jboss more compatible with microsoft. Really, another time Microshit try to bypass industry standards.
Wake up JBoss people, are you guys on dope?

Then there's also the fact that Lloyds performed a survey that contradicts the findings - passwords are fine as long as there's proper education.

I stand corrected.

Using the numbers you provided for me regarding internet users we would be at roughly 43% of the population, not 70%. Incorrect, but still within the limits of what my argument was stating.

According to this, roughly 60% of Americans have a cell phone compared to the roughly33% predicted in China by 2007. I know these numbers are loose, but its what I could find.

This states that there were 2.1 cars in the US per person in 2000. So I'll stick with the 70% there.

These numbers support my underestimation of TV's in America, but I really don't think that was ever in question.

In summation, you are correct that I should have used the number of internet active people in the US instead.

One other area where Blu-Ray is taking hits is durability. Blu-Ray has a much thinner coating than HD-DVD and will therefor scratch much easier.

http://news.com.com/Try+scratching+this+DVD/2100-1 041_3-5455621.html

Speed to market: "Blu-ray is very robust, but it's also not here," said Richard Doherty, research director for the Envisioneering Group. "The PC industry has clearly backed the system that is weeks away from commercialization."

Hmm. I know that HP has most definitely backed Blu-Ray. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2004/04111 5c.html. So have Dell (http://news.com.com/HP%2C+Dell+back+Blu-ray+techn ology/2100-1041_3-5139694.html) I guess that they aren't part of the PC industry any more - just the two largest manufacturers of err... PCs.

And "Envisioneering?". Dear God...

--Ng

Umm, that's not a tail.

That reminds me. How come no one has mentioned how Google's search index was just expanded.

Google touts size of its search index

"We the consumers were told that the price would drop as the production costs of CDs came down."

Are you sure?

"Well, I can produce a CD for about 25 cents in my house now. So why am I paying at least 50 times the price that I could produce the thing for?"

You're confusing the act of duplicating a CD, with the process of recording, engineering, producing, marketing, and distributing an album. Nobody -- not the artist, the engineer, the person who ran the register at the record store, or the dozens of other people involved -- does this for free. Nobody.

"Where is the price reduction that was promised? It never came."

What, have you been living in a vast network of caves? When CDs came out in the mid-80's they were $18. That's about $32 in today's dollars. If your theory were correct, we'd be paying $32 for our CDs now. The reality is that CD prices are in freefall -- the average price of a new CD is down to $13 and change.

Really, I can't believe you wrote that. Don't they teach people about inflation in high school nowadays? This isn't even Econ 1A stuff, guys -- you really should be smarter than that.

"Get a clue. Reduce your prices."

Irony!

"Good luck with your business."

I don't think they need it -- Apple recently sold their 50 millionth track on the iTMS and the online music biz is still growing.

I'm sure this article was posted here, but remember also that IBM is sending employees back to school to learn how to become teachers. This program, from what I gathered, is aimed primarily at the 'older' workers, because they could afford a salary drop. Ironic?

To prove my point:
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-231478.html?legacy=c net

Even if "PalmSource sale won't kill Palm OS", that OS now has competition as Palm has a free choice. Maybe they couldn't wait for PalmSource/Access to finish its Linux-based project?

That Linux offering needs to be compelling since the low end of the market is coming out with more Linux-based devices, like the GP2x.

Here, read up on the GoogleFS and please link to where this was done beforehand, thanks in advance:

http://news.com.com/Googles+secret+of+success+Deal ing+with+failure/2100-1032_3-5596811.html?tag=nefd .ac

Here's a brief editorial by the FEC Commissioner explaining her stance. It's from March, but it still gives some perspective on ehat they're doing, and it seems like she is still saying that there will be no disclosure requirements on bloggers themselves.

How about freedom of press and free speech for bloggers right here in the US??

WASHINGTON--Political bloggers on Tuesday urged federal regulators to keep the Internet as free as possible from campaign finance laws.

At a public hearing convened by the Federal Election Commission, both liberal and conservative political commentators lauded the brand of freewheeling online politicking that has characterized recent elections. The FEC is under a court order to extend campaign finance rules to the Internet, and the Democratic commissioners voted not to appeal.

Online politicking should not be subject to onerous federal rules, Democratic FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said. "We're all agreed about that." But, Weintraub added, "What is the best way for us to regulate bloggers?"

Radio and TV stations generally are immune from campaign finance laws unless their "facilities" are controlled by a political party or candidate.

One option, suggested by Republican Commissioner Michael Toner, would be to extend the same logic to say the "facilities" of Web servers should immunize political speech online.

http://news.com.com/Bloggers+plead+for+freedom+fro m+election+laws/2100-1028_3-5767156.html/

it has been qutie a long time since Windows or IE had an exploit predating the the patch for it

A month is a long time?

If Microsoft distributed infected binaries, then it would be Microsoft distributing infected binaries.

Yoink! http://news.com.com/2100-1001-935994.html

Also

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/01/creative_m p3_player_virus_flap/

I'm starting to think that somewhere there is an angry group of Korean's deliberately trying to infect Windows machines.

This was linked to in TFA (http://news.com.com/Authors+Guild+sues+Google+ove r+library+project/2100-1030_3-5875384.html) from http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/21/04 4228&tid=217&tid=17

I guess the editors don't RTFA?