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"'Commonly available cyber defenses such as firewalls, antivirus and automatic updates for security patches can reduce risk, but they're not enough'" Charney said." - By Gregg Keizer October 7, 2010 06:49 AM ET http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9189838/Microsoft_pitches_PC_isolation_ward_to_defeat_botnets?taxonomyId=17&pageNumber=1

They're not as comprehensive as this guide is, this is certain:

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3511888-1.php

----

"And who exactly is going to pay for this? If your system is not infected can you be exempted from a "monthly fee" or is it punishing everyone when Windows is the majority of infections? Maybe Microsoft should pay for it all?" - by headkase (533448) on Thursday October 07, @08:12PM (#33831560)

Nobody has to PAY for it: CIS Tool, or MBSA, are 100% free, and they work (both are based on "industry best practices" for "layered security", & CIS Tool is also multi-platform (runs on Windows, Solaris, Linux, and BSD variants)).

Take 1-2 hours of your time and secure yourself with free reliable and highly respected/noted tools as your guides that use the concept of layered security practices.

Do it yourself, & for years to decades of uninfested/uninfected uptime.

E.G.-> It has worked for myself for years, and my customers, friends, and families (along with a LITTLE "user education" - "online behavioral modification" in "best practices online" etc./et al, too), simply by using the concepts of "layered security" noted in the guide's points/tips/tricks/techniques/toolsets.

APK

P.S.=> For testimonials of how WELL it's worked for others? See that at many of the places it is posted on forums worldwide which have DIRECT user feedback in them, and they are found via searching this on google:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=%22HOW+TO+SECURE+Windows+2000%2FXP%22&go=&form=QBRE

Many folks have experienced the same as I have (or Thronka & others at 3dguru.com & MANY other sites - no malware infestations for years after applying this guide and its concepts)... apk

So I built myself a new PC and thought that it's time to move on and bought the W7.

Largely disappointed.

Aero is nice and all, but the themes are generally unusable due to semi-transparent title bar. And it is noticeably slower compared to the basic theme and sometimes produces annoying flashing effects when restoring minimized window. Neither colors/fonts can be customized. Huh? Basic theme colors are hard coded - though even XP's Luna came with several color schemes (blue, silver, olive - now only the light blue). UI overall is a let down: Aero is fancy but unusable, Basic theme is too bright, Classic theme conflicts with bunch of applications since they assume "W7 == Aero/Basic." Heck, even Mac OS X has choice of blue vs. graphite themes and the default colors and effects aren't that eye irritating.

They have also f***ed up Control Panel. In XP/before I didn't need the search function there - now I have to use it all the time because CP was apparently designed by some clowns and finding there something is like looking for a tree in forest. The CP's applets also have the nasty habit to open to the whole screen: lots of white space for 2-3 options in the middle look ridiculous.

Explorer (file manager) finally caught up with Mac OS X's Finder - but lost many customizations and flexibility in the process. Folder properties are as buggy as ever and Windows oftentimes decides to forget my folder options and show that it knows better how the folder should be displayed. In XP I used both Explorer and alternative file manager - but in W7 there is little to no choice but to use an alternative file manager exclusively.

Desktop gadgets are great idea executed horribly. Standard gadgets are all show off (orange(!!! ) date gadget?? really???), uncustomizable and barely usable - unless you want to drill a hole in your eyes. Finding a decent unobtrusive gadget for a task is like digging see of sh*t with a tee spoon - hopeless. Gallery on Live is flooded with junk, lacking screenshots or even simple description what gadget actually does.

Keyboard shortcuts for the task bar probably the sole place which I would say has improved. But only because Windows lagged so much behind the Macs and Linux in the department. And Windows in the respect is still behind both Mac OS and Linux.

Looking back at the month I'm on the W7, I frankly can't get what the reviewers were so hyped about. Was Vista really that bad? Or could it be that the free laptop give away really helped??

P.S. And tray icons now rearranged in a confusing way...

XP is still available through downgrade rights for another decade. After your friends and family get a new PC there's no need for them to throw out all that expensive software they paid for that doesn't run in Windows 7.

Officials said the state did not seek bids, or requests for proposals, for a cloud computing system as Microsoft hosted suite was already a standard part of the earlier large licensing contract signed to consolidate the messaging systems.

Naysayers of the iPad miss the point? Huh, here I thought that all the hype about desktop, laptops and netbooks being killed off by iPads was created by Apple fans.

A small sample:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175600/The_iPad_is_the_future_for_home_computing
http://gizmodo.com/5506692/ipad-is-the-future
http://www.macworld.com/article/146038/2010/01/ipad_future_shock.html
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/ipad-future/
http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/27/ipad/

I'm well aware that correlation != causation, but...

I use win7 systems with UAC on full, firefox with noscript and adblock, and Microsoft Security Essentials. I install only software I require from trusted sources, tracking it back to the source page.
I keep a general eye on Task Scheduler, and on currently running things with Sysinternals Process Explorer, and AutoRuns to make sure I'm not running anything I don't wish to.

If I really want to check out something new and unproven it goes in a VM and gets scanned by 50 AV engines on virustotal.com, I know how to trace malware with Process Monitor and keep an eye on current events with regards to rootkit detection.

I've used googles SSL options since availability, and use SSL elsewhere whenever I can.

I laugh at phishing in general, do my best to educate others on it, and companies like my mobile provider's 3rd party contractors that call me from unknown numbers and ask me to confirm my pin before we can talk get politely explained the irony of their security protocol, and that they can let me call in to them on a number I trust instead.

I don't reuse my passwords. I don't ever discuss them with anyone, I don't let my browser store important passwords, I manually type in domains and occasionally double check my hosts file for redirects, I check the SSL cert is valid where applicable.

I manage the router in the home myself and use WPA2 with a strong key, and keep an eye on the connection logs in general, the systems consider it a public network (by win7 terms) so no access to other machines. Despite living in a 2 foot thick limestone wall farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.

I even had a good laugh when Google Maps android app was last updated and suddenly required pretty much every privilege on the phone, and seriously considered not updating (not that I think it was a Google App that leaked my info).

If I was any more paranoid I'd be a pure linux geek instead, there really isn't a great deal more a person can do.

No other account I have has been compromised, only the one that I really haven't been using lately other than that it's the one attached to the phone.

My email account is by no means a high profile name that would attract targeted hack attention.

I certainly didn't want to damage Android's rep with my post, I LOVE my phone otherwise, I just really do wish there were better post-install access controls, and I really don't see how my account info could have been leaked otherwise, it's not impossible it's just highly unlikely.

correlation != causation but it sure does cause for unwanted paranoia.

PS.
Googleing android malware certainly does comes up with a few stories, so it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility from my point of view.

eg. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180561/New_Android_malware_texts_premium_rate_numbers
http://venturebeat.com/2010/07/28/android-wallpaper-app-that-steals-your-data-was-downloaded-by-millions/

(It blows my mind people pay for wallpaper on phones with bluetooth/microusb)

Here's a classic old usenet post which pretty much sums up the state of things back then:

From: Steven W. Schuldt
Subject: Re: write once, run where?
Date: 1997/11/18
Message-ID:
X-Deja-AN: 290389819
References:
Organization: MediaOne -=- Northeast Region
Reply-To: sschu...@mediaone.net
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.advocacy

In article mmalcolm crawford
writes:
> "Ellison says Apple's NC will roll out in March"
> http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/All/971114ellison1A3DE
>
> OPENSTEP developers might be worried by Ellison assertion that 'Apple's
> future lies with the development of its Macintosh operating system. "What's
> important at Apple is the Mac OS. It doesn't have some of the multitasking,
> high-end features that Windows has, but it's the Mac OS that's strategic to
> Apple, not Rhapsody..."'
>
> Time, perhaps, for those with an interest in Rhapsody to remind Apple of the
> fact.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> mmalc.
>
This stuff absolutely gives me the heebee-jeebees. He has said a number of
these things over the last couple of weeks to the effect of, "forget Rhapsody,
Apple has Steve". You know, Larry, Steve, Cambell, York et al don't have to
go down into the mines and actually shovel code to make a living in this
world. It isn't as if Steve was there for me this afternoon, leaning over my
shoulder helping me code my gargantuan web app. What do they care how hard my
job is? Can you see the boardroom? "Sure, MacOS forever, great. Yeah, yeah,
Java blah blah blah. Love that webtop. Pass the bong..." Fellas, down here
in the trenches battling the Win32 hordes is no picnic, we'd like some real
help. For example, it would help to have a real weapon. It's like we're
yelling:

Developers: "They're flanking us, pass me that musket!"
Apple: "Here's your slingshot.",
Developers:"The musket, the MUSKET dammit!"
Apple: "Hey, how about these Chinese throwing stars!"
Developers: "Aaaaahhhh..."

I like Larry Ellison, and I believe in the vision of the NC (albeit a slightly
different one than Larry's), but is this just line-towing corporate-speak
while Rhapsody cooks or is the whole Rhap initiative being subtly shafted
behind the scenes to bail out Larry's disastrous NCI initiative?

Let me state for the record that I know people that have seen the movers and
technology at NCI up close and personal, and to be generous we are not talking
about anything proximate to Avie and NeXT-caliber. This stuff is crap and
ORACLE knows it, hence the recent folding of NCI and re-absorbtion into the
mothership. The MacOS, cute and spunky as it is (hopping around gamely on
it's spindly little legs), is out of it's depths as the '90s scream to a close
and Apple _ought_ to know it. NT, although awkward and unweildy, becomes less
crap with every passing quarter - and festooned with every advantage infinite
bushels of cash can buy will kick the living snot out of Allegro and that
scotch-tape and spit freeware abortion that is the NC server from ORACLE.
It'd be like sending your grandmother and Gomer Pyle into a room to battle
Dolph Lundgren to the death. NT will stomp on that combo so hard there will
be nothing but blood and broken teeth left on the pavement. QTML, Rhapsody
and the OpenStep frameworks are the only technologies Apple has that can
weather the coming NT 5 firestorm and come out alive. It will really frost my
ass if the Apple NC turns out to be merely a wedge to prop up ORACLE's shitty
NC server and cartoonish, scandalously lame Java webtop. ORACLE needs Apple's
technology and not the other way around. Here's hoping Larry figures that out
and learns to like the idea. He'd have a shot if he'd euthanize his sick pet
and leverage OpenStep. I could do in an aft

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16997/oracle_rips_red_hat_and_sort_of_launches_a_new_linux

Excellent post, you hit the nail on the head here..

The media played a large role in the perception of the project by eagerly latching on to every bit of bad news about the project Funded by Microsoft, no doubt. They wrecked the entire ISO organization for the sake of a file format they never intended to use themselves ... why not this?

I was trying to remember which organization that Microsoft actively infiltrated and "wrecking" but could not, it was that one. Anyone who doubts the efforts of Microsoft, to spend financially, to prevent Linux's adoption anywhere, especially here are quickly forgetting the last world stock exchange to migrate from Microsoft Windows IIs Server to Linux ( .NET and SQL Server failures happened as early as 2008 ) and Major League Baseballs dumping Silverlight. Two other recent blemish on the Microsoft rules the server world domination message...good luck with that.

The list is growing, migrating away from Microsoft, the world economy is just too bad right now for it to be any other way. So Microsoft spent billions to prevent this one...bully for them, but hardly a "win" in the technical sense of the transition.

Am I the only one who has noticed the paid Microsoft shills changing history via Wikipedia. The revisionist history executed by Microsoft surpasses even the Pro Corporate American political parties who are experts at this type of FUD.

And on this very site the exact article you linked to was dismissed as being pro-Microsoft FUD.

You are kidding, right? On this site everything remotely positive to Microsoft is routinely dismissed as pro-Microsoft FUD and paid astroturfing.

Not that it will matter, but here is another report, this time from Secunia: http://blogs.computerworld.com/report_firefox_is_the_worlds_most_vulnerable_browser

and a newer one from Secunia: http://www.infoworld.com/t/browsers/internet-explorer-deemed-least-vulnerable-browser-593

"Called Stuxnet, the worm was discovered in July when researchers at VirusBlokAda found it on computers in Iran. It is one of the most sophisticated and unusual pieces of malicious software ever created -- the worm leveraged a previously unknown Windows vulnerability (now patched) that allowed it to spread from computer to computer, typically via USB sticks" link

Just about a month ago, wasn't Microsoft loving open source?

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9185338/Internet_Explorer_9_beta_strips_down_for_speed?taxonomyName=Internet&taxonomyId=167

But I found anotherFA.

Lots of organizations and most governments have the source to windows, its not like its this closely guarded secret. Considering Stuxnet was found infecting Iranian systems more than anything else, its probably made in the good ol' USA. This thing has NSA written all over it. Its really well-done, I guess my tax dollars are at work.

I like this article even better: http://blogs.computerworld.com/16651/ubuntu_vs_red_hat_who_really_contributes_the_most_to_linux

To summarize:

Atari vs. Commodore!
ST vs. Amiga!
Nintendo vs. Sega!
Mac vs. PC!
PS3 vs. Xbox 360!
Ubuntu vs. Debian!

All stupid and silly arguments that serve no purpose. Especially when Debian and Ubuntu are both part of the same family. (Of course that didn't stop Catholics and protestants from fighting.)
.

"You'd think Intel would just accept they suck at GPUs and buy Nvidia already."

Should Intel buy nVidia? Jen-Hsun Huang, who averages about $23.02 million per year, is not the sort of person who would easily integrate into Intel, and he is important to the leadership of nVidia. Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini, makes about $14 million.

Soon Intel's integrated graphics will have mid-range speed, leaving only the high range for nVidia. The high range of video adapters is mostly bought by teenagers who want to practice being violent with video games, instead of practicing being involved with other people. That means nVidia will be dependent on buyers who are being self-defeating; eventually there may be a backlash against that.

The high range of video performance will always be needed for architectural drawing and machine design, for example, but the total demand will drop, as the nVidia stock price seems to indicate. So, maybe nVidia is not a good purchase for any company.

Should Intel CEO Paul Otellini be replaced? Another reason Intel should not buy nVidia is that Intel is generally a failure at anything besides making new CPUs and support chips. For the success of Intel and AMD in making CPUs, the world can be extremely thankful; that's enough success for any company.

But Intel in other areas seems amazingly badly managed. Intel marketing seems completely out of control. Is the product confusion at Intel a deliberate, sneaky way to sell slow processors to technically challenged customers, or just stupid?

Quote from the article linked just above: "Sandy Bridge PC processors will keep the CORE-i3, i5, and i7 designations and will be rebranded the "new CORE-i3..." That approach is likely to create confusion among customers about exactly what they're buying, given that the average user likely wouldn't be able to pick a Nehalem i7 from a Westmere i7 or Sandy Bridge i7."

Either Intel's purchase of the inferior security software maker McAfee for a "lofty 60% premium" is a HUGE mistake, or the reasons why it is not a mistake should be explained by Intel marketing. No explanation was given, apparently. McAfee has a 21.9% market share selling software often pre-loaded on a computer to technically challenged buyers.

Quote from the article: " 'We believe security will be most effective when enabled in hardware,' Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said in a conference call." That seems a particularly wacky statement. "Security software" is needed only because, in my opinion, Microsoft deliberately allows its software to be insecure. Insecure software makes Microsoft more money because people with infected computers often buy another computer. For example, see the New York Times article, Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster. The Apple Mac OS, Linux, and BSD operating systems do not require "security software" because they are made to be secure.

Intel CEO Otellini does not seem to have the social sophistication necessary to running a big company. When he made an announcement in 2006 about the Intel Eduwise laptop, he seemed to be intending to have Intel compete with MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) charity program. However, Intel's intention seems to be just to make a market fo

It's just a rip from the article, which is terribly written and fails to provide a lot of context. My initial opinion was this was a stitch up and the hacker was just against the war and people were stretching connections and definitions to make them sound like a security threat. This ComputerWorld article is way better at providing the details that link this worm to previous efforts by a Libyan hacker to create a politically motivated hacker group. To describe these guys as anti-US would be, I think, a simplification of the motivation of these groups. Jihadists (and here I also probably simplify) may be prepared to attack the States, but the motivation is not simply anti-US. I found this article on Eurozine to be really interesting on breaking down their attitudes.

Get Nokia. Marc Brown wasn't in phones either. Dominance of Nokia and Symbian would trump Android. Microsoft poaches two Symbian execs. Gates' retaliation plans.

Any other questions?

I haven't thought of PDF's as safe in a couple years now.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176117/PDF_exploits_explode_continue_climb_in_2010

There's a study out there that has proven that those security images don't work.

How can you compare desktop or UI software to stock exchange software ?

Ok, I suppose you are new here, so here is the whole story:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/did-microsoft-tech-play-a-part-in-london-stock-exchange-meltdown/1578
http://blogs.computerworld.com/london_stock_exchange_to_abandon_failed_windows_platform

When a program crashes and you cannot work for the next 7 hours, I bet that you'll be VERY pissed (especially when these 7 hours cost a lot more than choosing a better solution).
The development was done by Accenture and Microsoft, so it's difficult to find better developers for this kind software on .NET.
And Accenture is ex-Arthur Andersen, does Enron ring a bell ?

http://blogs.computerworld.com/london_stock_exchange_to_abandon_failed_windows_platform

That article has a rundown on the pedigree of the LSE's code.

I've done real-time on Windows platforms (well, pseudo-real-time; but I worked around the jitter and built robustness into the receiving end in case Windows did something unusual) and it's not impossible even at those speeds. From the sound of it, the people who implemented that system had it all balled up; typical of inexperienced people doing real-time without proper supervision. There's no indication there that .Net was the culprit, and that article's author is just being silly claiming that "linux" is the solution. The solution is proper coding and using a real-time OS, which most versions of linux aren't.

Hmm, that might seem silly, but the question is right. USB promised 480 mbit/seconds, but on very fast hardware i can only transfer data at 28Mbyte/second. that is less than 50% of the promised speed or 17 bits per byte. (at least i would not be suprised if the 480Mbit contains a stop bit and a start bit for each byte . USB3.0 in ealry test reaches Speeds 2 to 3 times as fast as usb 2.0 Not bad, but not exceeding Gbit lan or SATA.

An other advantage, greater power control, and allow more poer for devices is entirely missed in the article.

The ComputerWorld link reads 40 Microsoft apps contain the flaw. The only exposed Microsoft app is the shell, explorer.exe.

The ComputerWorld link reads 40 Microsoft apps contain the flaw. The only exposed Microsoft app is the shell, explorer.exe.

There are no reports of any Microsoft or default Windows applications containing the bug, so unless you have a specific third party app you're not vulnerable.

Ummmmmm; "According to Moore, at least one Microsoft executable -- "explorer.exe," the Windows shell -- includes the flaw."
I'm pretty sure your Windows machine has explorer.exe loaded by default.

... shitty programs like ITunes on windows ...

Its funny, out of the over 40 programs known to be affected, you call out by name the one that is known to have been patched four months ago.

This is actually faulty programming in applications, not Windows. Kind of like buffer overflows. It's what happens when you don't know what you're doing nor are you following secure coding standards.

Because application developers, not Windows, are to blame, Microsoft can't patch the operating system without crippling an unknown number of programs that run on the platform.

There are no reports of any Microsoft or default Windows applications containing the bug, so unless you have a specific third party app you're not vulnerable. Also, there is already a tool available from Microsoft you can use to block it from all applications, but some of the apps might obviously break.

To protect from stupid developers you would probably need something like selinux for Windows, but considering how much pain in the ass it is on Linux too, it wouldn't really work for all the casual people. However, moving applications from languages like C/C++ to languages like C# can help just like with buffer overflows. At least it provides extra layer of security against clueless programmers.

Yes, those markets have been completely decimated by other storage solutions. Sure some floppy disks are sold, but the number of disks has taken a drastic hit in recent years. I imagine the same is true for tapes. People will still buy hard drives for many years to come, but if the only thing you sell are spinning disk hard drives, like Western Digital and Seagate, then you should be really worried, because while the market won't dry up over night, over the next 5 years, the market is going to diminish.

1) http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2010/08/unpatched_vulnerability_in_all.php
2) http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/microsoft-warns-of-serious-unpatched-windows-7-flaw/6474
3) http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2010/08/unpatched_vulnerability_in_all.php
4) http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176944/Microsoft_warns_of_bug_in_64_bit_Windows_7?source=rss_security
5) http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=8023
6) http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10170962-83.html
7) http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/17-year-old-unpatched-windows-vulnerability-discovered-20100120/
8) http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/03/exploits-of-unpatched-ie6-ie7-flaw-on-the-rise.ars
9) http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/Several-known-vulnerabilities-to-remain-unpatched-on-forthcoming-Microsoft-patch-day-947191.html
10) http://www.myce.com/news/microsoft-confirms-windows-shortcut-zero-day-exploit-32107/?utm_source=myce&utm_medium=frontpage&utm_campaign=related_posts

There, 10 vulnerabilities, which either took Microsoft months after visibility to patch, or still aren't patched.

Now, STFU.

Well, since you ask, here's an account of the events, as Child's defense would have you believe them. Here's another article stating that Childs specifically said in court that his supervisor was not "qualified" to have the passwords. Also, every possible source I can find says specifically that Childs would only give the passwords to the mayor.

This whole thing was a big ego trip for him. There's really no way around it.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9180479/Stupid_data_center_tricks?taxonomyName=Data+Center&taxonomyId=154 ... You're welcome! :)

Let me help out a bit

Printable Version

Fair enough - sorry to have brought illegal aliens into the argument.

But - the fact remains that Indians coming to the US are being subsidized in part by the US government. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/72848/H_1B_Is_Just_Another_Gov_t._Subsidy

And, the fact remains that activists in Washington can afford to promote those special interests who will profit from the program, while ignoring the needs of American workers.

Ugh, too many links/pages to read. How about we do one page with its print page?

Google has denied these claims:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2367436,00.asp

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180192/Google_denies_talks_with_Verizon_to_end_Net_neutrality_

"The New York Times is quite simply wrong," wrote Mistique Cano, a Google spokesman, in an e-mail. "We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic. We remain as committed as we always have been to an open Internet."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/05/gogle-denies-verizon-deal-net-neutrality

A Google spokeswoman told the Guardian: "The New York Times is quite simply wrong. We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic. We remain as committed as we always have been to an open internet.

Verizon has also moved to dismiss the story. A company statement reads: "The NYT article regarding conversations between Google and Verizon is mistaken. It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose. As we said in our earlier FCC filing, our goal is an internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect."

Come on, how hard is it to look this stuff up.

Try here for starters:

Eventually we looked at it and we saw that in late June his manager had requested certain accounts to be created that would have access to certain routers and switches. And he did create those accounts, and he sent that back in an email with the user IDs and passwords, to which Richard Robinson was also copied. If his big concern was that Richard Robinson was not authorized to be a user, why -- just a week before -- did he copy him on an email that has user IDs and passwords?

Uber told Computer World that he decided to divulge his group's role in directing Lamo to turn into an informant because he thought that Lamo's patriotic act was being unfairly disparaged.

What planet are you on? .Net is big and getting bigger every year

in terms of 000,000's spent - J2EE massively outweighs .NET. I work in large enterprise systems delivery and the few financial orgs that went for .NET for truly resilient financial systems have moved away. .NET is used in places for presentation tier front end for web services but not a lot else.

The london stock exchange problems with tradelect (see article here) demonstrated that even a well funded and supported closely by top MS engineers and consultants - the system could not scale or perform to enterprise standards. This sent a real message across the financial industry (here in the UK) with many architects shunning MS. I also had to do the same when my client, a large life assurer, is having to spend over £10m to replace a perfectly functioning MS VB6/ASP sales platform because there is no upgrade path to .NET and the windows 2003 systems that it uses will go out of support soon. The last thing we're going to do is give more business to MS - so it is currently being replaced with services on an open source ESB platform (with paid support of course). The IT people here have a hard time explaining to the business why we need to spend so much money to get no new business functionality.

That is not true. Granted, they don't have many but they do offer ... three... but that includes a desktop system with Ubuntu 10.04. Which was released pretty recently. Which means they are still actively doing stuff with Ubuntu over there at Dell.

You mean like this

The CNN article only told half the story.

LoB

At a major Taiwanese PC tradeshow, the CEO of ASUS abruptly canceled his presentation about new Asus products. Asus immediately began towing the line regarding Microsoft products and co-promotion following that. Dell's recent promoting cohabitation with Ubuntu sounds like exactly the same thing.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/microsoft_strikes_back_at_linux_netbook_push

When I went to college in the late 1980's and early 1990's I learned as many programming langages as I could both in college and on my free time. Computer World thought I was notable enough to quote me as an expert on the subject based on a former Slashdot story.

Some argue that colleges should teach concepts and theories and choose the easiest language in which case BASIC (Classic Visual BASIC 6.0 and under) and Pascal (Turbo Pascal or Delphi) was used, then later as Java and C++ became popular because they can be cross platform.

Anyone remember growing up with 8 bit computers and using Pilot or Logo and giving commands to a turtle to draw stuff? It made programming fun.

But if anyone wants to do Modern Windows programing they'll need Visual BASIC 2008/2010, Visual C# 2008/2010 as that is what MS IT Shops run. You show them on your resume that you are a C++ and Java developer and they'll laugh at you and pass on you and hire someone with Visual Studio experience instead.

Don't forget Python/Jython, Ruby on Rails, and others.

I am trying to get off disability and do something as a hobby to help people. I want to write some beginner's eBooks on various programming languages as a cook book or step by step guide to learn how to program in Free Pascal, Free BASIC, ANSI C++, C#, Visual BASIC, Java, Python, and a few others. Make it the basics of the language from hello world to a program that maybe reads and writes records from a text file. Forget about the GUI and Objects and make it text based and cover those later. It will mostly be figuring out math problems and then maybe end up doing an employee payroll program that writes a report on salaries and checks. But will be under an OSS license so others can add to it and make it better later on. I'd also give source code with the PDF and consider putting it in RTF, ODF, and other formats so it can be read by almost anyone.

But my health and family come first.

Anyway the OSS versions if the OSS joins in we can turn into better eBooks. If not I will write intermediate and advanced versions of those books for sale for eBook readers and try to start up a small business as eBook readers and eBooks catch on.

All of this talk that "your language is too complex" is nonsense, look at how Complex the Modern English language is, so why don't we just drop English for Dutch/Flemish or German or French or Spanish? Hey learn the different dialects of Chinese as we owe their government a lot of money. BTW I am learning Thai, "Sawadee krup!" The r is usually silent and that is Thai for hello said by a male if a female says it then krup is replaced with ka. :) Yes I want to learn those languages as well but lack the time and money.

My resume was getting ridiculous as I had over 37+ programming languages I knew, most of them dead or dying or early being used. Maybe only 5+ are used in the modern world. So now if I rewrite it I will trim the number of languages to those still in use and say "and other programming languages not listed here, but ask for a separate sheet if interested."

"[CVD] is the same thing as responsible disclosure, just renamed," repeated Reavey. "When folks use charged words, a lot of the focus then is on the disclosure, and not on the problem at hand, which is to make sure customers are protected, and that attacks are not amplified."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179546/Drop_responsible_from_bug_disclosures_Microsoft_urges

First of all, WTF is it with the jack off font? You think you're hip making the thing look like a bad bash prompt? Second of all my money is not "tied into MSFT" as I give customers what they want instead of trying to force them to do things my way which is what Linux does. Here is my last conversation with a FLOSSie: "My customers do NOT WANT bash prompts and trawling forums! This is a problem!" /FLOSSie/"but CLI is powerful!/ "My customers DO NOT WANT and don't care! Make it simple and easy to fix problems!" /FLOSSie/"If they would only embrace the power of bash/ walks off in disgust at brainwashed FLOSSie

And here I am talking about desktops and the magic bullet problem, and you bring up...servers? Who gives a fuck? Symbian is number 1 on mobile phones! Yay! Doesn't have a damned thing to do with what we are talking about, which is why Linux is sucking on the desktop, how even machines built with Linux strengths in mind still won't sell with Linux, and how OEMs found out the hard way that Linux on the desktop is a deathtrap. I'm not the the only one saying these things by a long shot, yet we get ignored or ridiculed by a group that brags they got 1% while companies walk away in disgust.

It is a good thing the community "supports" Linux, because if it were a company it would be in chapter 11 right now. And don't waste your breath bringing up server companies because we are talking desktops, so stay on topic. You would think that after sitting in dead lasts for years someone would wake up and ask "what are we doing wrong?" but instead of finding out what the problems are and working to correct it we just see the same tired memes about Linux Security and how Linux is more usable and even you yourself trotted out the just use Wine and Linux supports more hardware along with hurling insults! You know why the call them trademarks? Because it is the same tired old shit we hear year after year AFTER YEAR. Nothing gets better, nothing ever changes, Linux still sits in the basement.

I am a businessman, I WANT to sell your product! I want and believe in free market competition! But instead of working to make a better product, we get instead 6 month release schedule (you HONESTLY think any real QA can get done in less than 6 months? Because I got some swamp land in Florida to sell you buddy!) and insults thrown whenever anyone points out the emperor has no clothes. But don't worry, you can keep your elitist attitude and insult throwing. Myself and every other business that has tried selling your product at retail have realized Linux is a dead end and walked away. Walmart, ASUS, Best Buy, Staples, nobody will carry your product. When no American retailers will touch your product, even for free, it is time to take a hard look and see what you are doing wrong. Will anyone do that? Nope they will delude themselves into thinking CLI is bet

http://blogs.computerworld.com/15254/sflc_hammers_gpl_violators

http://www.fsf.org/news/2008-12-cisco-suit

http://blogs.computerworld.com/15254/sflc_hammers_gpl_violators
http://www.fsf.org/news/2008-12-cisco-suit