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Apple has already stated this as their intention:

'Stunned' Apple rails against Real's iPod move

Apple threatened to block access to the iPod using Harmony the next time it updates the software used to run the device. The company last week unveiled the fourth generation of the trend-setting music player.

"It is highly likely that Real's Harmony technology will cease to work with current and future iPods," the company said in its statement.

If you have a bogus patent, sue one of

• EV1
• Sun, or
• microsoft

If your claims are bogus, never even think of suing IBM.

I few weeks ago I saw that Verizon is starting with some 15mbps lines in Kellar, Texas.

http://news.com.com/Verizon's+fiber+race+is+on/210 0-1034_3-5275171.html

I heard the price was going to be only 44.95 a month. With this kind of speed VoIP and Video communication, as well as video on demand, finally seem pretty feasible.

• EV1
• Sun, or
• microsoft

If you have a bogus patent, sue one of

• EV1
• Sun, or
• microsoft

If your claims are bogus, never even think of suing IBM.

... they are not putting cameras in our houses...wait, are they?

Fast-forward a decade. Every cell phone has a camera, and they decide to turn it on and see what you are doing without you knowing.

Here's a related article. Me thinks this is a good thing!!

It looks like Google's IPO would be great for deal for investors

According to News.com

However, if our involvement were held by a court to be in violation of the Securities Act of 1933, we could be required to repurchase the shares sold to purchasers in this offering at the original purchase price for a period of one year following the date of the violation,

If I was one of Google's competitors (with deep pockets cough Microsoft) I would bid up the price of the IPO and then dump the stock right after if they get convicted. It would be a good way to deplete their cash reserves from the IPO.

..most governments over the world have realized the benefits of OSS.

To have a glimpse of OSS and governments all over the world, just use good ol' google

Interesting to read is CNET on Governments push open-source software

There's even a Getting Open Source Logic INto Governments (GOSLING) Community

If you look at the situation a little more closely, I think you'll see that IBM isn't really giving us much of a net gain in jobs here. IBM has been moving more and more into the services business.

From a previous news.com article:

"[IBM's service offerings include] providing support, helping companies migrate from one system to another, running customers' entire computing infrastructure and translating software so it runs on Linux.

In other words, all of the things that most companies hired IT workers to do in-house can now be outsourced to IBM. IBM is also offering companies the opportunity to outsource other types of busniess services. By way of example, Williams, one of the largest companies in my city (Tulsa, OK) recently outsourced many of their accounting, finance, human resources, and IT functions to IBM.

I think that many of these "new jobs" that IBM has created are actually old jobs that have been moved from one company to another.

Eclipse is great, but no thanks to Sun. IBM went ahead and developed their own native widget because it was painfully obvious to everyone with eyes in their heads that both AWT and Swing were crap. Sun's been bitching and moaning ever since and they still don't get it.

With the exception of Eclipse and Azureus (both using SWT) Java on the desktop has been an abysmal failure. If it was up to Sun it would have been dead and buried a long time ago. There are however a few things that could revive the Java desktop platform:

1. Open Source Java, allowing it to be distributed with Linux.

2. Allowing bundling of the JRE with end user applications, you just can't expect users to download it themselves. If you believe that you just haven't spent enough time with end users.

3. Be ready to make some hard decisions or watch Java rot from the inside. What the hell is up with the ridiculous "generics" implementation, now we're stuck with this autocasting-lite crap for the foreseeable future because Sun didn't want to modify the VM even a little. Very shortsighted of them.

However Sun won't do it, because there's no profit in it for them. However that's nothing new, it seems like everyone else is making money with Java except for Sun. I predict that in a few years IBM will be the defacto Java driver.

A lot of those jobs will be leveraged through their new contract with the Dow Chemical Company. see the following: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5294986.html

Kudos to the Mono developers, what they have accomplished is no easy feat!

I just wonder when Microsoft will try to say, "See? We are the innovators. Look at mono! They followed our .NET framework in a desperate attempt to copy it!"

While it may be true that Mono was released after .NET, there is ample evidence that open source software is far more innovative than anything Microsoft has put out (with the possible exception of this useless piece of trash.

The point is that no matter what massive strides are made here (and they are great, and we are better off for having them), we must remain vigilant against people that would rather dominate the world than contribute to humanity.

Also you are about to be able to run 10 Sunray clients off of one dual opteron box and run Linux programs on top of Solaris if you want...
Cheaper, more flexible and still managed at one point. If you want fail-over, buy two servers and configure them for high availability. And you can't beat Sun Support, nohow.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5108158.html

Disclaimer: I work for Sun

It's more than just coincidence that SCO and Hatch seem to have similar agendas. Hatch's son is actually SCO's lead attorney in the state courts.

Point 1: Apple's support lists the highest in the Consumer Report Index. Below are more example from PC Magazine survey

Desktop survey

Laptop survey

Please note PC Magazine Reader's choice

Point 2: Many companies are looking to Apple Xserve as a competive equivalent. Just as other goverments are looking at Linux as an alternative to Windows.

Apple sells supercomputer sequel
Scientists: The Latest Mac Converts
The "Big Mac" Supercomputer Biz

Your evaluation of Apple is clearly uninformed.

Perhaps the warning bells for proprietary solutions/OS began to ring for MS at least, when the Indian government made public its affection for OSS.

#1The Department of Information Technology has already devised a strategy to introduce Linux and open source software as a de-facto standard in academic institutions, especially in engineering colleges through course work that encourages use of such systems.
#2: Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, met on Thursday with Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to discuss "the ethical issues related to the use of proprietary software," according to the Free Software Foundation of India. Stallman also met officials in the state of Kerala to discuss the use of nonproprietary software in government initiatives. Last year, Kalam spoke out in favor of open-source software following a meeting with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

So, there is ample reason to worry. Now wonder why they'd have a strangulated version of OS as a low-cost option?

Click Here

If they dont want to be in the soon-to-be greatest video game ever then tell them they can't be in it anyway...because I am going to be in it. I mean c'mon, who wouldn't mind being this guy:
True Gangsta

"Basically, Microsoft is going to use the legal system to shut down open-source software," said Gary Campbell, then vice president of strategic architecture in HP's office of the chief technology officer, in a memo to several HP executives. "Microsoft could attack open-source software for patent infringements against (computer makers), Linux distributors, and, least likely, open-source developers."
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5276901.html

Lets make sure that all searches for BSA pull in the Ernie Ball story as the #1 link, just like the "litigious bastards" campagne against The SCO Group.

Put these links in every post and web page that you can!

BSA

or

BSA

or

BSA

Cheers

Reminds me of the ernie ball Vs BSA episode and we all know how well it turned out.

"The first malware capable of infecting smartphones" is a different program, Cabir.

Going on down the spectrum, there is bush2004.com, which satires Bush. Could Bush trademark his own name so as to shut this site down? At this particular moment of eroding free speech, probably not yet. Criticism of the president holds a special place when it comes to the First Amendment.

Now we step down spectrum another notch to fallwell.com. Jerry Falwell is a prominent religious and political figure -- perhaps not #1 like Bush, but certainly in the top thousand. He is able to squelch criticsm because he trademarked his name.

Falwell has intentionally blurred politics, religion, and business. Trademark was meant to protect consumers from sham products, not restrict discussion of politics and religion.

Here we have trademark law in conflict with the First Amendment regarding politics and religion. Trademark law was already being applied to block criticism of a business. Now it's being extended into politics and religion, the heart of the First Amendment.

Going further on down the spectrum, Robin Ficker, a political candidate of much less stature than Falwell, was unable to shut down robinficker.com. Why? Because he didn't trademark his name.

In the realm of criticizing Falwell, today it's domain names. Will it be blog content tomorrow, like the Ford case?

Yes, because we all know that, historically, whenever Apple has created a dominantly superior product they have always managed to keep their market lead.
cough--Mac--cough--Newtown--cough--iPod
The online music industry is just in its infancy. With several other recognizable names including MTV looking to drop into this scene in the next year, the market may swing as fast as it started.

Legal battles are still pending in federal court over whether investors who backed the original Napster sustained the service and helped it cost the music industry a purported $17 billion in lost sales.

Really?

• If somebody decides to sue Linux for copyright infringement, who defends it?

Borland claims that in the past 30 months, Microsoft has hired 34 of the ailing software developer's key employees by offering "large signing bonuses of several millions of dollars and other incentives," according to the suit.

Back in those days, Borland went after Microsoft, not the little guy.

Is this a differce in the times, or are the specifics of the situations different?

When was the last time an operating system update actually made headlines? All I was doing was pointing out that so many people claim that Windows is perfectly fine as is, and yet there's an awful lot of hoopla for just an OS update. Am I mistaken in noting that? Am I trying to cause problems by pointing that out? I've been on Slashdot for several years and this phenomenon of being modded flamebait or troll because someone disagrees has increased fairly dramatically.

Some folks around here are wound a little too tight, IMO.

(Waiting for this one to be modded off-topic.)

The irony is, is that you say American's don't think science is sexy on an American site loaded with geeks (very many of which are American) who do.

And for that matter, how do you know who covered this first? You haven't backed that up with anything other than seeing a link to it from Slashdot first. (That's kinda weak as the standards here are...well...lax.) The earliest coverage I found (at a glance) is this Scroll down and look for it. It's dated July 27, 2004. It's not the only mention of it in the American media anyways. Check out that other American science hating website called Google News and give it a search. (They are nice there...they even include foriegn news sources dontchaknow.) Sorry Beeb....knew about it for weeks before ya.. Thanks for playing.

Taking a jab at America is fine...you have the right. But consider being correct first.

This is the stuff that gets modded highly insightful...I'm laughing on the inside.

hmm... ibm disagrees with the "no known major issues" and says there are some issues with incompatibilities between sp2 and some of their business software... read here.

IBM goes slow on XP update

Tim

I don't really know, AMD management tends to discuss server share. Here's a c|net article claiming 15.8% in the fourth quarter of 2003. Just from the Google results It seems to wander between 10% and 20%. Still, I think AMD would be really pleased with 20% of new shipments.

TechRepublic had an article about this a while back, you can find it here: http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6264_11-5222856.h tml?tag=sc. This isn't such a problem in my opinion. You can't stay backwards compatible forever. I doubt the developers of applications like the one you describe, won't be able to "fix" this on their own.

You've gotta give Intel credit for having the guts to go all the way with the clock speed thing, though. But then I also applaud them for their daring design with Itanium, even though we all know how that has worked out for them.

does apple have one of these?

I haven't heard any Apple connections yet. On one hand Steve Jobs has made public statements on the stupidity of attempts at DRM enforcement systems, on the other hand I don't see how they can just ignore this Trusted crap. And they *did* bow to RIAA pressure to implement DRM in their music store. If they don't comply, they just won't be able to work with anything.

SGI

Not sure if if they have stuffed Trusted Computing in their CPU's yet, but they are definitely working on Trusted Computing operating systems, and I've seen a paper by them about a super-trusted CPU design.

VIA

VIA Technologies has their Padlock program first appearing in their C3 CPU. I'm not sure if Padlock is a full implementation of Trusted Computing or not, but if it isn't already I'm sure it will *become* trusted compliant.

there's all the current hardware that has none of this "trusted computing" junk, so we're good for quite some time.

One importany aspect of Trusted Computing - having current hardware doesn't help. It just means you get locked out of everything unless you get a new compliant computer and submit. None of the new software will install, none of the new music or video files or even photos will work. You'll get locked out of more and more websites. And ultimately when Cisco's Trusted routers get installed by your ISP you will be denied any internet access at all.

The only thing that can save us from simply having it IMPOSED on us will be a massive public backlash.
-

I've been aggregating news headlines and links on the Net for longer than I care to remember (I'm in my tenth year) and I can tell you that this is nothing new.

Way back in 1998 I had a battle with The Nando Times when I was running 7am.com which was one of the most successful aggregators of all time.

Nando said "pay us $100 per month for the right to link or we'll sue"

I said "bring it on"

They said "um, err, well okay we won't" and then attributed their back-down to the fact that I was in New Zealand and they were in the USA so such a legal battle would be too hard to wage.

The reality was that I formed an informal group of other online publishers and aggregators who simply stood up to these ridiculous tactics. Seeing they were outnumbered and copping a heap of flack in the media, they gave up their ill-conceived efforts.

When I asked the head of Nando.Net why they were averse to me effectively extending their reach and delivering huge numbers of eager-eyes to their ad-laden pages I was told that their ad revenues weren't enough to cover the cost of serving up those pages so more traffic meant more cost.

Someone ought to have taught those guys how to run an online publishing business!

I've also had similar battles with other publishers such as Television New Zealand here in NZ who simlarly threatened me with all manner of dire consequences if I didn't stop linking to them.

Once again I invited them to do their worst and they backed down.

At one stage I was involved in (and winning) so many battles over the issue of hypertext linking and the intellectual property rights associated with such things that I regularly was invited to talk to the legal profession (some of my stuff even scoring a mention in the US Bar Association's Journal) and other online publishers.

I should point out that at all times I linked ethically -- this meant no framing, full attributions and only ever using the headline and sometimes the first line of the article.

One thing *all* publishers should do is publish a linking policy on their website so as to let other sites know what they consider to be fair and reasonable. I do this on my Aardvark daily internet commentary and I also continue to aggregate headlines (including some from eWeek when they're running something worth a mention). The funny thing is that these days, nobody tries to pick a fight with me :-)

But, if Ziff Davis/eWeek are thinking about doing so, I once again say "Bring it on! And let the good times roll (again :-)

In a C|Net article from May 31, 2003, a Microsoft rep said, "Legacy OSes have reached their zenith with the addition of IE 6 SP1. Further improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS."

Cut to a year and change later, Longhorn is taking too long to arrive and people are getting sick/scared enough of all the security deficiencies in IE to actually look for a better browser. Because informed consumers are their worst enemy, Microsoft gets a little nervous that their lock on the browser market might be in jeopardy, and POW! Miracle of miracles, it is suddenly possible to further improve standalone versions of IE on non-Longhorn versions of Windows! Whoda thunk it?

Technically such an improved beast should be called IE 6.5. If they actually do call it 7, it's purely for marketing reasons-- they'll launch some flashy commercials to try to snow people into thinking this is some totally reworked wonder that fixes everything they didn't like about IE 6, when in reality it will just be IE 6 with some bugs fixed and some extra shit grafted on. Too bad their campaign will probably work on the uninformed.

Don't roll over and take this, people! Keep informing your friends/family/clients that there are better browsers out there, and install your alternative browser of choice wherever possible. Don't let them listen to whatever sunshine Microsoft will be blowing up their asses about the "new, improved" IE.

~Philly

like this? http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5300317.html

Jeroen

Microsoft needs 7000 resumes.

http://marketwatch-cnet.com.com/Microsoft+needs+7, 000+resumes/2100-7343_3-5281874.html/

Of course you can bet that they are mostly looking for very hard-working, youngish, low paid, highly-qualified people, so in the end they won't actually hire that many, same as every year...

Actually, in the last quarter, the iTMS did post a small profit.

Also, the point isn't that FairPlay is driving sales of the iPod, but that Apple controls the total user experience of the iPod. It controls:

1) The UI & hardware of the iPod
2) The loading of music, playlist creation, etc. on the computer you use to interface with the iPod via iTunes
3) The online purchasing of music for use on your iPod

Apple, as they usually do, wants to have total control over all of those factors. It's the same damned thing they do with their OS & Hardware combo and their retail experience. They want to control everything, not because they're control freaks, but because "if you want it done right, do it yourself".

According to this article on CNET, Apple looses money on iTunes store, and makes money on iPods.

"... the music store is close to profitability but is still losing money. Apple doesn't see the business as having much long-term profit potential either."

I tunes was just a facilitator for iPod sales.

I foresee Apple allowing others onto iPod eventually. I always took the "hardware" route under Jobs.

News.com.com link c/o your local /. lurker

that smartphones were hit by a worm before windows CE, anyone wondering the same thing?

"AMD welcomes Intel to the world of AMD64, said Ben Williams, director of server and workstation marketing at AMD.

It's kind of funny to watch. Intel is choosing their words very carefully. They're saying things like, the new chip "will run programs currently being developed for AMD's 64-bit processors with very little modification." They absolutely refuse to call the new chip "AMD compatible" even though that's exactly what it is. Intel is having a lot of trouble facing the facts: they poured zillions of dollars and years of R&D into an architecture that nobody wants (Itanium), meanwhile AMD got it right (Opteron) and now they're playing catch-up.

You'd think that Intel, moreso than anyone else, would know that you just can't kill x86.

Google link 124 other sources also covering this same story. Will slashdot _please_ stop linking NY Times articles becasue they keep deleting all the community acounts I use. Try maybe ZDNet

But I don't think that it's going to be very successful. If only because of how it looks. If given a choice, I think that most kids would go for an iMac. And I doubt that parents will buy such an ugly box just for very young children. After all, computers generally hang around for a few years. What happens when the kids grow up?

Non-subscription article is Here

Mattel has tried this trick before by licensing their Barbie and Hot Wheels brands to a small PC maker known as Patriot Computers back in 1999.

However, parents who paid $699 for the units just before Christmas Y2K got seriously burned when Patriot Computers went bankrupt. Nearly 1100 customers ended up out their money and getting only a $100 coupon for Matel products. For families that only had $700 to spend on toys for the kids, this was a fiasco.

Mattel has tried this trick before by licensing their Barbie and Hot Wheels brands to a small PC maker known as Patriot Computers back in 1999.

However, parents who paid $699 for the units just before Christmas Y2K got seriously burned when Patriot Computers went bankrupt. Nearly 1100 customers ended up out their money and getting only a $100 coupon for Matel products. For families that only had $700 to spend on toys for the kids, this was a fiasco.