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I've got the hots for powerful women. My wet-dream would be to submit to Carly Fiorina, Madonna, Hillary C and now to Martha.

She's a hottie!

I know what I'm going to do tonight (with my penis, that is).

... quite the looker

Courtesy of the Rejected Post Machine

2003-11-17 08:56:08 Comdex 2003 Opens with Bill Gates Talking Security (articles,comdex) (rejected)

Bill Gates delivered a keynote speech on Sunday evening to open COMDEX, as he has done for the last 20 years. Interesting parts of his security-heavy speech include Microsoft's research budget, with Gates saying that this year Microsoft 'will spend $6.8 billion in R&D, that's double what we spent five years ago;' admitting that tools which scan for stack or buffer overruns and other security problems 'are tools that we're not applying in our development process;' that security is 'certainly the largest thing that we're doing;' but waffled on security/patch management with this statement: 'Now, to really provide security, the software has to be kept up to date and the software updates have to be clearly partitioned so that things that are just optional and new features are kept separate from the hopefully increasingly rare updates that relate to security issues that have really thoroughly been checked to make sure they won't cause any regression.' Gates continued on about Trustworthy Computing, security, spam, firewalls, policy controls, XML, 'Seamless Computing' and the long-delayed Longhorn. There was also a parody of the Matrix starring Bill Gates as Morpheus and Steve Ballmer as Neo, with the Matrix represented by Linux-selling IBM consultants and the Real World as Windows-based. You can read the full text of Bill Gates' speech from COMDEX (with demos from three other Microsofties) or view the entire presentation online (56kbps low | 100 kbps med | 300 kbps high) for the next week. A warning though: the speech is over an hour long.

What made me sad was that he was right about most of what he was saying (though I don't know if Jonathan Potter really is a troll or not). Luckily, most of the time, John Perry Barlow managed to communicate the same things that RMS was trying to say, but in a more reasonable style, that actually were very effective in countering the IP hogs on the panel.

RMS is a man with high ideals and a strong sense of right and wrong. That I commend. However, in this world, it isn't enough to be right. Most of us live in a grey world and have enough self-interest to demand that someone please us with their message before we accept it as right. I am not saying that RMS should compromise, but good politicians (i.e., good people who are political, if such a thing exists) are able to convince people of the rightness of their message without distorting it.

The exhibits themselves are always free. You just show up, and register, and you are in.

They charge the exhibitors, and they also charge for the tutorials, and conferences. You can buy a flex-pass for about $3000 and the tutorials are about $800 for a 1 day class.

The keynote speeches are all also free, but you have to collect tickets beforehand.

All of this information is available here.

Heh... you think renting out the entire McCormick Place (Chicago) for a week is cheap?

Wow, no wonder they lost money. They rented a convention hall in Chicago for a convention in Las Vegas!

If you want to go to comdex, first you have to register at Comdex's Website and use the priority code: LINUX (Cool, eh?!) This code will get you into "the exhibits, keynotes, and Millenium Perspectives; the SuperSession; and Sm@rt Solutions." for free... Still $595 for the Linux Business Solutions Expo, but, on Monday, Nov. 15, 6:30pm, Linus Torvalds is giving his keynote...

Warning, if you don't already have a hotel to stay, be forwarned, the prices around town skyrocket when comdex is in town. Get a hotel room off the strip, like at a Station Hotel/Casio, or a Boyd Hotel/Casino Good L

There is a lot of coverage about Linux there today.

More information available at: http://www.comdex.c om/comdex/owa/session_home?v_session_id=5228

Well, granted it is a big schmoozing event, but there are some really cool things to see and people to meet. And also, it's interesting to see who can carry out the most free stuff.

In addition, I think the nicest thing about Comdex this year is, naturally, Linux Summit. Although I'm just three hours from Chicago, I've made it to LE & ALS (and will be attending both this year too). However, many people in the midwest can't get to the East or West coast to visit the Linux Shows. This is a better chance to actually meet Linus, and Linux International, maddog, and meet with the Distributions as well.

You'll note those 10 passes got you into the conferences as well, not simply the exhibits. Any joe can get free exhibit passes.

If you haven't checked out what's available at Linux Summit / Comdex, check out this.

Kara Pritchard
kara@luci.org

What's the difference between this and the free pass you can get from comdex.com, except that you also have their email and mailing address?