Slashdot Mirror

The iPod had an 82 percent share of the market in U.S. retail stores in the 12 months ended in August, up from 64 percent in the same period a year earlier, and 33 percent two years ago, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group Inc.

That's ccording to Bloomberg.

In fact, on the client side, Windows accounted for 87 percent of all sales in 1999, a figure that will decline to 85 percent by 2004.

That's ccording to CNET.

Both iTunes and IE are "bundled" products. Although you can get either by itself, the most common way to get them is to have them bundled with either your iPod or your Windows OS respectively. Neither IE or iTunes started out with commanding market share, but they both built share very quickly.

So now we have it on record: the music store is a loss leader. Jobs said Apple would pay its dues to the RIAA, then seek to make money where it could, from its line of hardware accessories. When the conversation turned to rivals such as eTunes and Napster, Jobs said: "They don't make iPods, so they don't have a related business where they do [make money]".

Really, the best way to think of it is as "The Xbox 360 OS." But if you really have to think of it in Windows terms, you could say it has roots in Windows 2000 by way of the original Xbox, albeit with sweeping changes along the way.
Wonder whether it will display 'blue screen of death' or the newly upgraded 'red screen of death'!!! http://news.com.com/2061-10805-5703006.html

You can't memorize good enough passwords any more, so don't bother. For high-security Web sites such as banks, create long random passwords and write them down. Guard them as you would your cash: i.e., store them in your wallet, etc. Never reuse a password for something you care about. (It's fine to have a single password for low-security sites, such as for newspaper archive access.) Assume that all PINs can be easily broken and plan accordingly. Never type a password you care about, such as for a bank account, into a non-SSL encrypted page. If your bank makes it possible to do that, complain to them. When they tell you that it is OK, don't believe them; they're wrong.

No, dammit! I was right, after all!

That geek card goes BACK ON THE TABLE...

Backticks are a MySQL extension... I did some more poking...

Here's a mention of it.

My preferred database, PostgreSQL, which is frequently considered closer to ANSI SQL does not support backticks and returns an error if you attempt to use them.

It's a MySQL thing only. Since /. is hosted on a MySQL server, I guess it's right...

But my head no longer hangs, and I've re-asserted my geek card...

Ajax is a trademark held by Colgate-Palmolive. Any use of it will probably provoke the giant.

It's ok that there's a new buzzword for everyone to use, but it's taken. Pick another! Perhaps Jesse Garrett should have used TESS the trademark search engine.

Here is the facts: "The Skills Shortage that Isn't". This article, by the reputable C|Net, does indicate that Microsoft hired only 1 of the 50 applicants from MIT.

Here is a better article from news.com

Exactly. Bottom line is that open architecture is superior to closed architecture. x86 is actually a shitty architecture when you get right down to it, but at least it is open.

Err... The x86 chip architecture is NOT open. If you want to produce a clone of the chip, you have to license the technology from Intel. For example, AMD has a license which allows it to produce microprocessors that are compatible with the Intel x86 CPUs.

PPC chips are at least as "open" as Intel's:

Apple, IBM, and Motorola collaborated in creating the PowerPC architecture. Apple was buying all its PowerPC parts from Motorola until they started having yield problems that prevented them from producing the high-performance parts that Apple required. freescale semiconductor/a?, Motorola's former chip division, was spun off from Motorola and is currently selling PowerPC processors for embedded applications.

Most notably, the XServe Raid runs on an Intel processor. There are tons of reasons Apple would be meeting with Intel. One day, perhaps "the news" will actually be news and not gossip based on "a friend-of-a-friend told me..."

Now, this Matlab contest is positioned to lead to the same silly cries. So, allow me to present a link to Professor Matloff's excellent article to head off any silly speculations about the decline of American technical prowess.

Now, this Matlab contest is positioned to lead to the same silly cries. So, allow me to present a link to Professor Matloff's excellent article to head off any silly speculations about the decline of American technical prowess.

Sorry, never checked back on this thread until now.
http://news.com.com/FCC+lets+TiVo+users+share+show s/2100-1041_3-5296756.html

I'm assuming Microsoft will "eventually" lower their prices enough that makes it pointless to actually check Linux out.

A few weeks ago I heard Microsoft is planning on doing that in Asia in part because of free OSes and in part because of piracy. Ah here's a CNet article about it in Thailand:

Microsoft offers cut-rate Windows
Published: February 9, 2004, 6:43 AM PST
By Matthew Broersma
Special to CNET News.com

Microsoft has provided a modified version of Windows XP with reduced features for use in the Thai government's low-cost PC program, and may make this software available to other governments, the company said.
...

Here's an article from Brazil, Microsoft faces challenge from Brazil
Developing nations are urged to switch to free software
By ELZIO BARRETO AND CARLOS CAMINADA BLOOMBERG NEWS

http://news.com.com/Johnny+can+so+program/2010-100 7_3-5700858.html?tag=nefd.ac

Lese selbst:
http://news.com.com/Gates+Information+overload+is+ overblown/2100-1022_3-5713665.html

Now, for a dose of reality, check out this opinion piece over at Ars Technica. It points to a study by a UC Davis professor (who wrote this op-ed piece over at News.com) found out that there was, in fact, no studies showing a shortage of IT workers. Why would both academics and indistry go off on such a chicken-little hissy fit? Money, of course.

What IBM and other tech companies really want is dirt cheap labor, not just sufficient labor. Hence their push to get H1B visas while there is still a fairly high unemployment rate among computer professionals (personally, I know of a *lot* of former colleagues who have left the industry because they couldn't find work). H1B workers have their hands tied, since the second they are no longer employed in the US, they get kicked out. That is a huge stick for a company to be able to use against an employee.

And how does academia benefit from the doom and gloom? Easy. More research grants. More money pumped into computer science departments to "attract new stidents." More territory for people who are more bureacratic empire builders than they are actual educators.

"The problem for Net phone operators, which lets Internet connections double as home phone lines, is mainly one of access to the nation's 911 infrastructure, which is owned by the four giant local phone companies known as the Bells. The situation appears to be quickly resolving itself, however, because the Bells have begun striking access deals with Vonage in the last few weeks."

America Online Buys MapQuest.com (December 1999)

Microsoft Buys Vicinity (October 2002) and announces plans to "phase out" MapBlast because it competes with Microsoft's own MapPoint.

Most of the map data is owned by companies like NavTech; even Google didn't go out and write maps from scratch. The major difference between all these products is in the front-end, and it is the front-end that really sets Google above the rest in terms of slickness.

Are you talking again? Dance for me, monkey boy. DANCE!

This has already been cracked... With gelatin!

I can see it now: Street corner DVD pirates will be providing gelatin finger-keys with each DVD they sell.

I thought Bill Gates was a communist. Now the communists are using Linux! I'm not sure what to make of this.

hmmmm...

Microsoft: No new versions of IE for Mac - June 2003

As far as Win95/98/Me/2k/XP support .. 7.0 (IIRC) will _ONLY_ be available for XP. So as far as I am concerned, Internet Explorer is NOT cross platform and not even cross-Windows version compatible.

I dunno if I agree, for two reasons. First, you'd be surprised what a sophisticated, determined and deep pocketed adversary can do (e.g., the smart card vulnerabilities that were uncovered a few years ago by analyzing the power consumption).

Or how about when they figured out that modems leaked data being sent through the status LEDS?

Blinking LEDs leak info

How about:

http://wiki.ffii.org/Navision050215En
http://www.acsblog.org/ip-and-tech-law-950-the-ope n-source-approach-to-patent-policy.html

and an aborted one:

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5392026.htm l

Wallace & Rines' revamped spambone was to do just that. It didn't pan out.

http://news.com.com/Sony+cuts+HD+camcorder+down+to +size/2100-1041_3-5710427.html?tag=nefd.top

$1700 is still spendy!

http://news.com.com/Sony+cuts+HD+camcorder+down+to +size/2100-1041_3-5710427.html?part=rss&tag=571042 7&subj=news

http://news.com.com/Sony+cuts+HD+camcorder+down+to +size/2100-1041_3-5710427.html?tag=nefd.top

http://news.com.com/Sony+cuts+HD+camcorder+down+to +size/2100-1041_3-5710427.html?part=rss&tag=571042 7&subj=news Fixed.

"I don't agree that just because a (competing) product has a feature that we don't have, that feature is important," he said. "It is not. It is only important if it is a feature the customer wants. There are plenty of products out there with features we don't have. We have plenty of features that our customers don't use.

"If there are features in our products that are subpar or need to be added, then I have great confidence that we are an organization that responds pretty quickly and effectively to that."

English reiterated that features such as tabbed browsing are not important to IE users. [emphasis mine]

"I don't believe it is a true statement that IE doesn't have the features that our customers want," he said. "We take user feedback very seriously. If you have that feedback, then you should feed it back to us because we will feed it to the product team."

quote from http://news.com.com/Microsoft+says+Firefox+not+a+t hreat+to+IE/2100-1032_3-5448719.html

I always thought that the reason why none of IE's customers asked for Tabbed Browsing was because once they used it in Firefox, they never went back to IE.

I doubt there are many people out there who are anally-retentive enough to keep track of and publish up-to-date data on this. One of the most recent articles on the matter from a reputable source that I found after a 2 minute Google search (which you are more than capable of performing yourself) states that, as of 2002, Microsoft is losing anywhere from $20 to $150 per unit. And this was for when the system cost $299. It currently retails for $149.

I hope CNet is reputable enough?

one which almost resulted in Apple going bankrupt during the 90's (or whenever it was that Gates had to pump in money to keep Apple afloat).

What do you doubt? That FireWire is suitable for a CPU bus? The rest of your post seems to dispute that "there's some talk that Apple will abandon FireWire for cabled peripherals". There's also lots of talk about its longevity - including my own post. Are you just looking for something to argue with, Anonymous Coward?

OK. Now will you contribute something useful to the discussion of whether FireWire is a good CPU bus, rather than inventing confrontations over tangential points with which you aren't even directly disagreeing? Or are you just trying to argue, Anonymous Coward?

That's not entirely clear. Recall that Sun (along with MS) put a lot of money into SCO: http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-1024633.html

This is still a point that is heavily contested. This is hardly "evidence" of a dishonorable act, especially since SCO really did have software that Sun needed for their x86 verison of Solaris. Sun has ALWAYS been very good about keeping their licenses in row.

And their behavior regarding Blackdown was less than honorable: http://archives.cnn.com/1999/TECH/computing/12/10/ sun.apology.idg/

You'll note that you linked to a public apology. Sun screwed up and then admitted their mistake. It happens. If they *hadn't* admitted their mistake and given Blackdown their proper acknowledgement, then you'd have a case. :-)

But their actions have ALWAYS been honorable.

And their behavior regarding Blackdown was less than honorable: http://archives.cnn.com/1999/TECH/computing/12/10/ sun.apology.idg/

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bash Sun. I like Java and I like Sun gear, but you're making Sun out to be victims ("stabs in the back") of the open source community and the truth is far more complex.

It's true that dinner between two important personalities can result in developments, but...

See http://news.com.com/A+Microsoft-Red+Hat+warming+tr end/2100-7344_3-5701700.html
"Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Red Hat's Matthew Szulik met for more than an hour at a McCormick & Schmick's restaurant in New York in late March"

In order to avoid $50 articles, I found this article which did talk about some potential security problems with greasemonkey. It seems hackers could make scripts that behave maliciously. According to the article, even the original greasemonkey developer has expressed concerns along those lines.

Growing trend, so there's probably more post-mortem analyses available from other nations' experiences.

http://news.com.com/Global+lessons+in+e-voting/200 9-7337_3-5387540.html

Of some tangential relevance, the Carter Center's report on the Venezuelan recall vote, which involved e-voting machines that produced paper receipts for verification:
http://cartercenter.org/doc1801.htm

http://news.com.com/You+Are+Jizzmopper+If+You+Stil l+Use+IE/2100-7344_3-5704750.html

Has anyone brought up the possibilty of this guy being a recently let go Apple employee?

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=924

and

http://news.com.com/Former+exec+sues+Apple+over+di smissal/2100-7341_3-5594797.html?tag=nefd.top

There are a few pictures out there, (http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2005/news/03 /09/allardkeynote_screen001.jpg)
That show Forza Motorsports in the new Xbox Live Marketplace. Now this is not definitive proof but it leads to some answers;
a) X360 is backwards compatible
or
b) A new version of Forza is coming for X360

Now I dont know which one to be true so I guess its wait and see.

And IBM is encouraging in-house employees to use Firefox.

There are still several "business" websites such as financial services, B2B and corporate intranets that rely on ActiveX and IE.

While Firefox's growth may be slowing, it is still growing -- just not as fast. When the IE-only sites start to get more complaints about usability from their customers, then you will start to see a steady stream of corporate support for Firefox.

-Charles

service providers want real operating systems on their hardware

Easy there tiger. Or were you thinking about service providers other than the three biggest in NA?

service providers want real operating systems on their hardware

Easy there tiger. Or were you thinking about service providers other than the three biggest in NA?

It was a 20% project.

The same Dawn Kawamoto who wrote about the vulernabilities on CNET on the 9th has now written about the new release.

What bugs me is the fact that there is no news about the fix coming out so soon. It seems that news agencies are just giving Firefox a bad image.

A previously secret licensee of SCO Group's Unix intellectual property has revealed its identity: Unix leader Sun Microsystems.

SCO's Unix licensing plan got a major boost of publicity in May when Microsoft announced its decision to license Unix from SCO, but Sun actually was the first company to sign on. SCO and Sun confirmed the licensing deal on Wednesday.
The pact, signed earlier this year, expanded the rights Sun acquired in 1994 to use Unix in its Solaris operating system. But there's more to the relationship: SCO also granted Sun a warrant to buy as many as 210,000 shares of SCO stock at $1.83 per share as part of the licensing deal, according to a regulatory document filed Tuesday.

This is one of several reasons why the people who have been following the whole SCO/IBM thing are so pissed at both Sun and Microsoft.

who has been sued and lost ?

Sitecom, in a German court.

But hey, if you don't think it's valid feel free to try it yourself.

you cant supress the truth forever.

The truth is that you'd have to be a fscking idiot to try and take on the GPL in court. That's obvious to anyone who's read it and has even a basic understanding of copyright law (clearly, this group does not include you).