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Sun's COs claim that they need to maintain tight control over the Java library source code and standards to insure Java cross vendor "write-once" portability. This was the main point for Sun's lawsuit against Microsoft. In fact, in the DOJ case the federal appeal court did find that Microsoft had deceived Java developers, which the court decided was in breach of the Sherman Antitust act.

For Sun to call their settlement anything but a sellout, Sun could at least persuaded Microsoft to create or adopt a modern release of Java to replace the 1997 eon MSJava JVM. Instead Microsoft gained the right to extends life of its Java Virtual Machine to December 31, 2007. Microsoft have stated that it will not be improving ( or updating ) the old JVM and Microsoft's J# "upgrade path" still uses non-standard interfaces for GUI's and .NET libraries. This leaves Microsoft free to play the old "standard" embrace, extend and enclose anti-competitive tactics.

Sun' s James Gosling claims, in response to this article and some "slashdot flamage" from the same author that though the new settlement, Sun has gained the right to selectively access Microsoft's Communications Protocol Program. This ablity to selectively pick and choose and other "flexabilities" was a detail left out of Sun's press release, and more interestingly, the recent joint status report on Microsoft's complicance with the US DOJ final antitrust judgement.

News.com.com reports that you are wrong. To quote:

In an unusual provision for a technology company, Google will create two classes of shares with different voting rights, a move that aims to guarantee founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will maintain decision-making authority...

"In our opinion, outside pressures too often tempt companies to sacrifice long-term opportunities to meet quarterly market expectations. Sometimes this pressure has caused companies to manipulate financial results in order to 'make their quarter.' In Warren Buffett's words, 'We won't smooth quarterly or annual results: If earnings figures are lumpy when they reach headquarters, they will be lumpy when they reach you."

The founders have also fought to maintain their control over the company even as it hired Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt in 2000. According to the document, Page and Brin said that they will run the company as a "triumvirate."

...try this one from the good old boys at .com.com.com.com.

I know this is far too late in the discussion to get this modded up, but Bill Gates is no longer the world's richest man.

The founder of IKEA has overtaken him.

Apple : iTunes 4.5 Authentication Cracked
Posted by michael in The Mysterious Future!
from the powered-by-mountain-dew dept.
fooishbar writes "Yesterday, Apple released iTunes 4.5, which deliberately broke the 4.2 authentication scheme, which had been successfully reverse-engineered. However, crazney has been at it again, and within 24 hours of downloading iTunes 4.5, has broken the new scheme, and added more features to this library along the way. If you want to incorporate iTMS support in your program, give libopendaap a go!" Reader ScottGant submits this story about the Pepsi/iTunes promotion: "News.com has this story about Pepsi's iTunes promotion give-away. The promotion,
This was automatically brought to you by Subscriber Ruiner 1.01

according to CNet, the 70 million songs in the first year included 5 million given away during the Pepsi 100 Million song give away, far feweer than the projected 1/3.

Caps may still be redeemed through April 30th.

RIAA sued under gang laws

Last modified: February 18, 2004, 1:39 PM PST
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

It's probably not the first time that record company executives have been likened to Al Capone, but this time a judge might have to agree or disagree.

A New Jersey woman, one of the hundreds of people accused of copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America, has countersued the big record labels, charging them with extortion and violations of the federal antiracketeering act.

Through her attorneys, Michele Scimeca contends that by suing file-swappers for copyright infringement, and then offering to settle instead of pursuing a case where liability could reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the RIAA is violating the same laws that are more typically applied to gangsters and organized crime.

"This scare tactic has caused a vast amount of settlements from individuals who feared fighting such a large institution and feel victim to these actions and felt forced to provide funds to settle these actions instead of fighting," Scimeca's attorney, Bart Lombardo, wrote in documents filed with a New Jersey federal court. "These types of scare tactics are not permissible and amount to extortion."

Scimeca is one of a growing number of people fighting the record industry's copyright infringement campaign against file-swappers, although few have used such creative legal strategies.

According to the RIAA, which filed its latest round of lawsuits against 531 as-yet-anonymous individuals on Tuesday, it has settled with 381 people, including some who had not yet actually had suits filed against them yet. A total of nearly 1,500 people have been sued so far.

The industry group says that "a handful" of people have countersued, using a variety of claims.

"If someone prefers not to settle, they of course have the opportunity to raise their objections in court," an RIAA representative said. "We stand by our claims."

Few if any of the cases appear to have progressed far, however. The first RIAA lawsuits against individuals were filed more than five months ago, although the majority of people targeted have been part of the "John Doe" campaigns against anonymous individuals this year.

Several individuals and companies have started by fighting the RIAA attempts to identify music swappers though their Internet service providers (ISPs).

The most prominent, known by the alleged file-swapper's screen name "Nycfashiongirl," resulted in at least a temporary victory for the computer user. A Washington, D.C., court ruled in December that the RIAA's initial legal process for subpoenaing ISP subscriber identities before filing lawsuits was illegal. Because "Nycfashiongirl" had been targeted under this process, the RIAA dropped its request for her identity.

However, that may have provided only a temporary reprieve. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group that is closely following the RIAA's campaign, the Internet address used by "Nycfashiongirl" was included in the batch of lawsuits filed on Tuesday against anonymous individuals, raising the likelihood that she will be drawn back into the courts.

Separate attempts to fight subpoenas are ongoing in North Carolina and St. Louis, where the American Civil Liberties Union and ISP Charter Communications are respectively challenging the RIAA's information requests.

In San Francisco, computer user Raymond Maalouf has taken the first steps toward fighting the RIAA's suits. His daughters were the ones that used Kazaa to download music, and one of them even wound up in last month's Super Bowl advertisement for Pepsi's iTunes promotion, which featured a handful of teens caught in the RIAA dragnet.

In documents filed with San Francisco courts, Maalouf's attorneys noted tha

So if 30% of the 100 million Pepsi promotional songs were redeemed then it's still possible that Apple has hit it's 100 million songs downloaded in the first year mark.

Yes, "if."

Apple Computer said Wednesday that about 5 million free songs have been given away through a Pepsi promotion, far fewer than the 100 million tracks that could have been redeemed.

So tell me again how Apple met its goal of 100,000,000 songs. Maybe someone will redeem twenty-five million songs between now and April 30, when the promotion ends.

I am sure that Linspire has a strong desire to correctly protect IP laws. And while I know I would be upset if someone misused my work, it was just a flash intro on the website. Honestly, it could have been much worse.

That's bullshit. HOW do you know that Linspire has a desire to protect IP laws? You don't. You want to believe that. You're an ostrich. Check out the link in my sig. Lindows is just as evil than Microsoft. They blatantly steal from the Open Source community. They tell half-truths or lies if they can get away with it. Remember "the first AOL PC?" An absolute LIE.

Check out the article in my sig. I've joined the Open Source Revolution! Information is the weapon we can crush evil corporations like Lindows, inc. and Microsoft with.

"What is up with Sun funding SCO?"

Sun did not "fund SCO". Having take the decision to continue selling Solaris x86, Sun needed to improve their lamentable driver support. In a straightforward "buy v/s build" decision, they chose to buy. SCO was simply the only vendor with SVR4 device drivers to sell (hundreds of them). This sale went down in Feb '03, before SCO started tossing lawsuits out like confetti.

IBM Timeline

Red Hat Timeline

Novell Timeline

Sun Driver purchase news item

There may be many reasons to dislike Sun, but in my personal opinion they are not sponsors of SCO, and PJ seems to letting emotion cloud reason when it comes to commentary concerning Sun. They're certainly no better or worse than (say) HP or Oracle.
Tony.

For Sale: Lycos.com

Posted by
timothy
in The Mysterious Future!

from the make-an-offer dept.

prostoalex writes "Terra Lycos is planning to sell Lycos.com. The price, quoted by News.com.com.com, is in the $200 mln range, while the original acquisition amounted to $12.5 bln. Lycos is currently re-inventing itself as a portal for the new generation with the link to Playboy affiliate placed right on the front page (click on "Adults 18+ only")."

TurboLinux, SCO/Caldera, SuSE, and Connectiva were once part of an alliance called UnitedLinux, intent on creating a united Linux distribution.

No member of UnitedLinux owned another. They put out one release, and once the litigation started, everything stalled. United is effectively no more--they still technically exist, but all operations are dead.

One thing interesting is that UnitedLinux had one member for each major geographic area except Africa. North America had SCO/Caldera, South America had Connectiva, Europe had SuSE, and Japan had TurboLinux.

Are people intentionally dense? What the hell do you think this was about? Two Executive VPs and Chief Marketing officer...gone or demoted.

If you're going to bitch about a company, at least pay attention to what's going on.

Concerning the lock-in, take Microsoft Word for an example. How many people can't use another word-processor because it doesn't read MS Word files correctly? That's an example of lock-in.

You mention support for Windows, note that Microsoft has extended its support for earlier versions of Windows mostly due to the fact that fact that users may defect to Linux.

Concerning upgrading or being left behind, lets take Microsoft Office again for an example:

When you're an MS Office user who doesn't have the latest version of MS Office, what happens when you need to read a file somebody has sent you in Word 2003 format? You have to upgrade your copy of MS Office, right? Maybe you don't, but many do.

To upgrade or get left behind isn't in itself a problem, it's when you have to pay for frequent upgrades where you have a problem. Needless 'superficial' upgrades to Microsoft's Office suite that cause incompatibility with older versions is different to incompatibilities due to a worthwhile overhaul of the application.

When you have to pay hundreds of dollars for something, you don't want to have to needlessly upgrade each year. Not for something like an Office suite. Just because Microsoft rakes in the majority of its cash from sales of MS Office, does this mean that Microsoft should try to force people to upgrade just to remain compatible with everybody else? Is this form of 'marketing' generous or thoughtful toward the end user? Or could this really be a way of forcing upgrades to maintain the cash flow?

Microsoft Office 2003 will not run on earlier versions of Windows. What about the people who will have to upgrade Windows to the latest version just to be able to run Office 2003? If you're desperate for compatibility then it could work out expensive.

Drop the attitude and find me an example of even one case of a virus that spread as a result of the fix being a forced upgrade.

What are you talking to me about that for? Go talk to Craig Mundie. Why? Read here . This is one of Microsoft's ways of marketing, making people feel guilt, making them believe that they should upgrade for the benefit of others.

Also, take a look at what Microsoft says of itself here . Read the bit at the end titled An "exclusive franchise".

Comparing your baker to a charitable foundation is comparing apples to oranges.

Compare your baker to Bill Gates. You can't have Bill without Microsoft. When Bill does something good, it reflects on Microsoft.

If your baker was known as a nasty guy, people would be less likely to want to buy from his bakery - regardless of how good his bread was. On the other hand, if people know he gives out free bread, they could buy from his bakery because of this, showing their support.

The thing is, your baker probably doesn't need to give out free bread in order to help sales, but Bill Gates needs to paint himself as a nice guy, especially in this day and age. What better way to do it?

I'm not questioning the reason for his giving, rather, I'm questioning the reason for his taking - which doesn't seem to fit in with his 'generous' side. The two are contrary to one another, and they remain that way regardless of how I feel about Bill Gates.

Microsoft is only entering the game as a software provider? No Microsoft music store? Did you think Microsoft could really resist leaving any pie untouched?

http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5176411.html

Microsoft said Friday that the second half of the year will see the launch of its online music store, a long-expected entry into an increasingly crowded business dominated by Apple Computer's iTunes.

The software giant this week began offering sneak peaks of the service to independent record labels at the South by Southwest trade show in Austin, Texas. Though Microsoft remains mum about specific details, this week's dog and pony show signals the company's heightened ambitions to enter the world of online music sales with a bang.

Linux advocates might be amazed to learn that many people use Open Source tools in Windows.I am actually typing this in Mozilla in Windows 2000

You might be suprised to learn that Windows 2000 is also open source.

is here

See Google's chastity belt too tight (PartsExpress.com listing removed via SafeSearch because "sex" in domain name) and Google In Controversy Over Top-Ranking For Anti-Jewish Site (Google picking out Googlebombed results) for recent examples.

Would you want to help the BSA, or whoever, crack down on software piracy here if it forces people to seek out alternatives?

One of the earliest cases of a company in the U.S. switching entirely away from MS was Ernie Ball. The BSA raided them, and discovered that they did not wipe the drives when moving engineering PCs to secretarial work, so there was much loaded but unused and unlicensed software. Rather than giving the company notice and some time to clean up, the BSA handed them a very large bill, and talked to all the news outlets about it. Ernie Ball settled for $100,000, and then removed all MS software from the company.

The story is here. I like this part:
QUESTION: But there's a real argument now about total cost of ownership, once you start adding up service, support, etc.
ANSWER: What support? I'm not making calls to Red Hat; I don't need to. I think that's propaganda...What about the cost of dealing with a virus? We don't have 'em. How about when we do have a problem, you don't have to send some guy to a corner of the building to find out what's going on--he never leaves his desk, because everything's server-based. There's no doubt that what I'm doing is cheaper to operate.

The BSA is our friend. They make businesses think of MS as the enemy.

there's also that old german stuff, what's it called? I believe it's non-addictive, if anything. Yeah.

The powdered Kola nut, however, is dangerous unless you dose it properly. Apart from that, it's completely legal (at least in DK) and harmless. I can really recommend trying to look it up on the net. If you really want what you describe, you will take the time to find out what it is, what it does, and where you can buy it - for yourself.
Remember, dose low.

Tivo Basic

It's even been out for almost a year.

Here's an article that appears to say they're related: http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-5198047.html?tag=n efd.top

From the article:
"The actual threat to the Internet is really small right now," Watson said on Wednesday. "You could have isolated attacks against small networks, but they would most likely be able to recover quickly."

"... our lack of a sexy version at times..." Mmm...sexy indeed.

... can turn up some more information about this

This isn't new. It doesn't look like Microsoft was ever in talks with these people. I'd guess they didn't sue them because they didn't want to get their butt handed to them by a company that gives out 1.9 billion like candy.

Try this link.

Mr Consumer, you are out of line!

Don't you realize that you're not supposed to desire or legally need more than 1000 songs!

...the report states. "Hard drive players with such large capacity for content go above and beyond not only the music that most consumers want on their portable music player, but also beyond the digital music that they own."

I'm sure you'll come around real soon and agree with us on this. Our good friends at RIAA heartily endorse this point of view for Responsible Hardware Manufacturers United Against Piracy, Pedophaelia and Terrorism. You're not a pedophile, are you?

Besides, why do you think popular radio stations play from a repertoire not to exceed 1000 songs? Like, duh!

Sincerely,
The Man

P.S. Don't be thinking about becoming too attached to non-DRM formats and interfaces like USB 2.0, Ethernet, neither. It upsets us.

Back in December 2001, it seemed like a similar operation might have significantly hindered warez and piracy. It seems to be essentially the same operation, although with international cooperation this time. The impact of that operation is essentially null today. It could seem that this type of crackdown is inherently ineffective in making a long-term difference. However, I believe that if the FBI et al. keep doing so often enough the size of the warez scene will be severely diminished.

Dear Slashbots

It's only me, fully hetero Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda, main admin 'dude' *high 5!!* at Slashdot.org [slashdort.org] [slashdot.org]: News for Nerds, Stuff that matters. And once more, I'm here to keep you abreast of the work that most of us (excl. Michael) get up to "behind the green curtain" in the backroom of Slashdot. All work to make your browsing experience as hassle free and easy as possible.

Now you may have read recently about radical changes I aim to make to the karma system in my fantastic journal. I said I was thinking of scrapping the whole -1 to +5 karma score system in favour of a vaguely defined alternative. I couldn't give more details then and there, because I was making it up as I go along, but at last I can finally unveil the basics of the new system, the better system to replace karma.

It was while I was recieving a soothing massage from my Shorinji Kempo partner (In case you're interested, it's a type of martial arts that focuses on massage as well as fighting. It's surprisingly good at toning and building muscles - my partner Curt is a particularly muscular and well developed and oiled man.) that I first came up with the idea I'm about to relate.

My aim in all of this would be to take the aggro out of the system. At the moment, people are always whining about this karma loss, or this unfair moderation, or this persons smoking crack, or this person needs more crack that I'm totally sick of the lot of you.

OK, from now on, instead of assigning a bullshit phrase that is poorly understood like "Insightful", Slashdot will let mods say "I don't like this" or "I like this". Simple is good. And so there's no abuse, you will be able to see on each comment who modded you down so you can discuss amicably where or why your post was unlikable.

This is obviously a recipe for good success and cheer! Everyone will be happy to see why they are modded down, and will probably remember next time they post or get mod points who it was who did so. The last thing we want is the status quo, with the vicious backbiting, infighting and stupid cliques.

Anyway, let me know what you think. We really value your feedback. The new system starts next Tuesday though, so make sure your messages are short and to the point. You can feedback in my fantastic journal, as long as you are on my friend list i.e. one of the other admin staff. (Michael, I'll put you back on friend when you put my stapler back. I *bought* that stapler with *my* money.)

Til next Tuesday: Taco out!!

Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda. (Right click and select "Save Image". Then right click on your desktop, and select "properties". In the "background" tab select "browse", find the file and click OK, then "Tile" in the dialog box, then OK again.)


Addendum:
Owing to unforeseen difficulties, we are forced to withdraw our Open Source Slashdot Google Alternative. Sadly, users looking for pages on aardvark were directed to an all to familiar gaping rectal cavity. Ironically the "Arsehole" term was stuffed with URLs of aardvark pictures. Curse you trolls. Is nothing sacred? AND I AM NOT GAY.

P.P.S. Shorinji Kempo IN ACTION!!!

Here.
For the tinfoil hatters:

Perhaps Microsoft, secretly orchastrating these arrangements, felt the heat and did not like the way it was heading considering they have a track record with being associated with events like these; the results of which do not favor Microsofts image.
OR
This is Microsoft's way of getting rid of a business "ally" since it is becoming apparent to even mainstream media they have no future; which includes Microsofts primary interest in killing the FOSS movement and Unix server market mindshare.
OR ...

Sorry, just trying to get in character for the audience.

Rather than the article slashdot linked to, which only gives a second-hand summary of the interview someone else did with Baystar, try reading this article with direct quotes from Baystar's Bob McGrath.

I'll quote the most important statements for you....

"We think they need to strengthen the senior team to get people with experience and background in the legal issues," McGrath said.

....

BayStar asserts SCO's Unix products business doesn't hold long-term value for shareholders, McGrath said. SCO reported $9.7 million in Unix products revenue and $1.6 million in Unix services revenue in its quarter ended Jan. 31.

"We think there are limited prospects of that business ever generating growing and significant revenue," McGrath said. "And we believe it is diverting resources from going where they would have the most value--the intellectual property process."

Now that they've got a disgruntled former employee, the CyberSecurity corps of Homeland Security will turn their eyes on all unpatriotic Americans who can get TV time. And the rest of us will drown in emailed PIF viruses.

More interesting is the article over at ZDNet. In that article, Baystar contends that Darl should step down, and that SCO is wasting it's time with the Unix business. Baystar suggests that SCO make litigation its only business.

over the years, SCO is the first that they've asked for the money back from. If that isn't a tell, I don't know what is.

As for the new direction for netscape, there's a news article here.

My guess is that Netscape is going to be a service from AOL that gives users a new version of the (Mozilla based) Netscape browser, centered around Netscape.com. I guess they don't want to let go off a brand name that was once so recognised.

Was thinking the other day, what if Mozilla.org got the rights to use the Netscape brand? There are plenty of people who haven't heard of Mozilla, but know Netscape very well. There are so many who know of Netscape 6 and 7, but know nothing of its association with Mozilla.

Anyway, lets hope the world gets a better mozilla based Netscape browser. If Netscape doesn't screw it up this time (by just taking the apparently non end-user Mozilla, adding a few more features and AOL bloatware), and comes up with a really good browser. If this happens we really can expect IE's dominance to be challenged. I've been using Mozilla exclusively for about 4 years, but I now feel that the single biggest hurdle it faces is that so few people have even heard of it.

Probably the same way Real responded to Streambox VCR.

How's that for a zigzag strategy? They used to have the inventor of IMAP, actively working on Mozilla Mail. No longer it seems? his bugzilla address isn't netscape.com or aol.net anymore.

From the C|Net article, dateline May 7, 1997:

Yocam maintains that Microsoft is luring personnel away with huge signing bonuses, some in excess of $1 million. "They have the audacity to send limos to Borland's headquarters to take Borland employees out to lunch. I mean, this has got to stop."

Ah, the good old days. Million-dollar signing bonuses. Limos for job prospects. Corvettes for hot programmers fresh out of college. Penthouse suites with the company logo in genuine Italian marble.

Why did it ever have to end?

Oh, wait, don't answer that...

Uh huh.

Tell me, which part of this sentence don't you understand:

Two-thirds of the unclaimed money will go to California public schools in a mix of donated Microsoft software and cash grants ...

Weren't these guys going to make it easier?

Okay if I compare the Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix versions of All along the Watchtower, yes you get two different sounding songs. However, the analogy isn't about the songs. Your analogy was comparing the act of covering a song to creating an application that works similarily to another one.

I disagree with your suggestion that there is more innovation involved in Hendrix's reworking of Dylan's track than the build of LPhoto for various reasons. Innovation, possibly in the design interface, is not apparent. Though there are differences in the interface, the similarities are easier to see than the differences. However we can't see the code. I don't think reworking is a good approximation of what Linspire have done, they don't have access to the Apple source, so they can't 'rework' it, the only thing they can do is copy the 'look and feel'. Even should they want to copy iPhoto's exactly, they'd have to start from scratch. Since iPhoto and LPhoto really don't do much, I don't really think there is too much room for variation anyway.

With regards to Bob Dylans 'All along the Watchtower', the look and feel is the music. The 'sourcecode' is the sheet music, which would be easily available and many (good) musicians can wing it and produce a good version of a seemingly bad song (just my opinion on those).

Programming isn't the same as writing music and even creating an exact replica of iPhoto from scratch, with no source, wouldn't be as easy as creating a cover of an existing song. Some things may be done in a better/faster or even worse way. I suppose we shouldn't just judge books by their covers.

Anyway, take a look. Here's iPhoto

LPhoto

I should really have put them with the titles the other way around just to be confusing :)

Sure. Now, the documentation is available.

However, on the day that the UltraSPARC III was released to the market, the documentation was not available. What was finally released as documentation was a hurriedly upgraded version of a set of micro-architecture notes that had been out of date by 4 years.

The compiler folks at Sun had a hell of a time in writing the optimizations because there was no current micro-architecture documentation. Just ask the 500 engineers who were laid off from the Sun processor group. They will tell you about the sorry state of processor development at Sun.

The motivation for the non-disclosure had little to do with protecting company secrets. The documentation that was released to the Linux folks was flawed and missing key information becuase the documentation was a rush job. Making such documentation public would have been a public-relations disaster.

Let's not mince words here. McNealy deliberately reached outside of the company to develop the next-generation processor, the Niagara based on the Hydra (that was developed at Stanford University), because the in-house processor groups just sucked. To be fair, I must say that McNealy's server engineers are decent and kick-ass. Their systems were ready, on schedule, to accept the UltraSPARC III, but sat idle for 2 years because UltraSPARC III was behind schedule by more than 2 years.

Exactly.

So the recent concerns about the slow pace at which the consent decree's prescribed API licensing and documentation are having any effect on bringing about new competition in the server space are zero surprise to anyone in this forum.

As mentioned in an earlier /. story, Microsoft is making a very pragmatic push to buy legal settlements as part of a business strategy.

How much will it cost them to settle with Massachusetts? I'm sure MS can afford it.

In the longer term, the company has only to worry whether a lid can be kept on the cost of legal settlements. Since they're not in a line of business that creates human health problems (the cost of which is rising at a terrific rate) like tobacco or asbestos (or possibly even fastfood, MS will probably be able to play this strategy out for some time.

But what happens if the innovating companies go away? What happens if nobody bothers with R&D? Who will Linspire rip off then?

But what happens if the innovating companies go away? What happens if nobody bothers with R&D? Who will Linspire rip off then?

Us Brits will also willingly cough them up for a cheap pen. Every man has his price, you know.

At least according to Rocky Anderson, major of Salt Lake City.

"I just don't see the social good in using taxpayer money to fund a network that provides more television and bandwidth for illegally downloading files," he said. "We should spend money on getting people fit, rather than deteriorating their quality of life with higher bandwidth to surf the Net."

Story is here

Here's a nice link showing iMacs being EOL'ed in March 2003... We bought these in 2001-2002 I believe...which hardly makes them old. I can say that I have proper controls in place, and have no problems WHATSOEVER with "viruses, spyware, OS troubles, or security updates", as you put it. You are making too many assumptions about problems with PC's...when it is probably YOUR "piddly" experience that is leading you to believe that. I have a sample size of over 500 machines, well, I don't run the IT department of some fictional Fortune 500 company that is all Mac, so I guess I don't have a 100,000-machine sample. All I know is that Apple hardware today is no better than the cheap PC's I buy, and the difference in price makes it worth it to me to buy the latter.

CNET coverage of one incident.

I wonder how many man-years of outsourcing it will take to make back that 100 mil AT&T lost?

I see your point, but I'd like to remind you that $100M is not as much as you think it is. Another proponent of outsourcing - Carly Fiorina of HP - nearly got a $115M bonus deal (to have been shared with Michael Cappelas of Compaq) for the HP-Compaq merger.

My point is that if some companies are prepared to throw money like this at their CEOs, they probably don't really care about losing some customers.

Then again, I could be wrong. In this particular case, AT&T Wireless lost customer goodwill more than money.