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Thank you for your uninformed rant.

AOL does have technical support in India, as well as Arizona, Florida, and New Mexico. I believe HP has tech support in india. http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/mana gement/helpdesk/story/0,10801,90085,00.html

AOL's Firewall is actually rebranded McAfee, which isn't bad at all, certainly better than the XP product. They also offer McAfee anti-virus. It's included with you AOL Broadband subscription. I won't say there motives aren't to make money, but I hardly think the negative spin is deserved.

Just remember that when you buy HP products this is the type of misinformed technical support you get. Please consider buying another product, or if you buy from HP pray you tech support calls go to india, cause this bigot won't help you.

This also, from a ComputerWorld interview with Darl McBride:

Q. In June, SCO reported that Unix licensing revenue through its SCOsource division totaled just $11,000 in the quarter that ended April 30 - a 99% drop-off from $8.25 million in the same quarter last year. What happened there?

A. In the day-to-day business, we have some speed bumps that come up from our [intellectual property] issues. In the previous quarter, we had several large licensing deals, but you can't repeat those every quarter. It's not really as brutal as people might expect.

**

This is pretty unlikely, as I would see Sun adopting Opteron before anything from IBM. More likely is they are either trying to become as platform-neutral as Linux or they are trying to be a thorn in IBM's side, somehow.

Power has the advantage of being an open architecture, as opposed to Opteron. If Sun were planning to do customized implementations of a processor for their hardware, Power would be the logical choice. They don't have the option of extending Optreron.

Even proprietary vendors make their source code available to important customers "to conduct security reviews of the products" - why shouldn't they do the same for Intellectual Property Rights?

And noone said it had to be a public audit. When auditors audit their finances, the details are never made public. That's the whole point to an audit.

Even proprietary vendors make their source code available to important customers "to conduct security reviews of the products" - why shouldn't they do the same for Intellectual Property Rights?

Furthermore, you could have third-party auditing companies provide that service in the same way they audit other confidential information such as company finances.

IBM is telling their customers NOT to deploy -- that it is unstable and can wreck systems. Computerworld Article

> PC's are just toys

Tell that to Google.

I would think that most of the general public who support e-voting would be democrats.

Based upon what evidence, pray tell?

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday asked a Florida court to overturn a rule imposed by Gov. Jeb Bush that bans manual recounts of direct recording equipment (DRE) touch-screen systems. The move comes amid revelations that nearly all of the electronic records from the touch-screen voting systems used in the 2002 gubernatorial primary in Miami-Dade County were lost last November after a computer crash.

One computerworld article

Although she isn't scheduled to speak at the convention, Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson will call on prominent Democrats to help raise voter awareness about the challenges facing the security, reliability and integrity of electronic voting systems, a spokesman for her office said.

[...]

However, speaking on condition of anonymity, an IT industry source who met last week with members of Sen. John Kerry's staff said the Kerry campaign is considering a move to pull back from the position taken by the Democratic National Committee and Howard Dean's Democracy for America organization. Dean and the DNC have endorsed the voter-verifiable paper ballot requirement for e-voting systems -- something that only the state of Nevada has planned for November. According to the official, the Kerry campaign is considering support for verification of the final vote tally through some form of encryption.

For many Democrats, however, the issue boils down to a Republican-controlled Congress that has refused to force voting-system vendors to open their software to inspection and verification.

"The Republicans have an interest in not doing anything about electronic voting security," said Townsend.

[....]

But the e-voting security debate may have already damaged the trust of some Americans who will vote electronically this November. One reason for that is the appearance of a possible conflict of interest stemming in part from a comment made publicly last August by Diebold Election Systems CEO Walden O'Dell that he was "committed" to delivering Ohio's electoral votes to President George W. Bush.

another Computerworld article

I would think that most of the general public who support e-voting would be democrats.

Based upon what evidence, pray tell?

The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday asked a Florida court to overturn a rule imposed by Gov. Jeb Bush that bans manual recounts of direct recording equipment (DRE) touch-screen systems. The move comes amid revelations that nearly all of the electronic records from the touch-screen voting systems used in the 2002 gubernatorial primary in Miami-Dade County were lost last November after a computer crash.

One computerworld article

Although she isn't scheduled to speak at the convention, Texas Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson will call on prominent Democrats to help raise voter awareness about the challenges facing the security, reliability and integrity of electronic voting systems, a spokesman for her office said.

[...]

However, speaking on condition of anonymity, an IT industry source who met last week with members of Sen. John Kerry's staff said the Kerry campaign is considering a move to pull back from the position taken by the Democratic National Committee and Howard Dean's Democracy for America organization. Dean and the DNC have endorsed the voter-verifiable paper ballot requirement for e-voting systems -- something that only the state of Nevada has planned for November. According to the official, the Kerry campaign is considering support for verification of the final vote tally through some form of encryption.

For many Democrats, however, the issue boils down to a Republican-controlled Congress that has refused to force voting-system vendors to open their software to inspection and verification.

"The Republicans have an interest in not doing anything about electronic voting security," said Townsend.

[....]

But the e-voting security debate may have already damaged the trust of some Americans who will vote electronically this November. One reason for that is the appearance of a possible conflict of interest stemming in part from a comment made publicly last August by Diebold Election Systems CEO Walden O'Dell that he was "committed" to delivering Ohio's electoral votes to President George W. Bush.

another Computerworld article

Google is probably the single largest program running on Linux; though the Saber system for airline reservations's $100 million migration to Linux is also notable.

... it's why windows and OSX are successful on the desktop and Linux is not.

Care to revise that in light of IDC's claim that Linux overtook Mac OS X in desktop market share in 2003?

HP said Tuesday it will be the first major PC maker to ship a business notebook computer pre-installed' with Linux.

Hardly. I owned an IBM T20 which qualifies as a business notebook computer and it shipped with Linux years ago. Here is the coverage from June 19/2000.

You probably guessed it already - according to this article EDS' systems run on MS Windows.

Firstly, it was a freaking wireless music player, not a router.

I stand corrected on that.

Secondly, even if it was, how does that give "Ukranian" hackers access to his personal network?

http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/securi ty/holes/story/0,10801,92015,00.html

I've never seen a hardware router that could sniff packets or would divulge any personal information, or connect to other computers on the network in file retreival mode (the closest thing to this is passive upload TFTP). The best they could do is shut the internet off.

[Sound of clue-stick whacking SinaSa on the head] If I had a backdoor password to your router that let me control it (as per the one described in the article above), I could turn on port forwarding such that I could send data to your machines. I could put them in a DMZ, effectively disabling the firewall. I could, depending on how open your network was, enable Windows file sharing between my network and yours. I could use the connection to send spam through your ISP. I could post kiddie porn to web sites and newsgroups over your connection. I could get on Kazaa and share gigabytes of copyrighted music. All of which you would be blamed for.

Scarafino compared it to eating one's seed corn.

Are You Annoying?
Irritating behaviors not only annoy your co-workers, but they can also compromise your effectiveness and even derail your career.

News Story by Alan S. Horowitz

JULY 23, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Do you tell IT insider jokes that users don't understand? Do you sprinkle technical jargon through discussions with business people? Do you find that you've usually got the right answer to any problem and you let everyone know it? If so, you may be something you didn't think you were: annoying.

Everyone's annoying some of the time, says Kimberly Alyn, a corporate trainer and co-author of Annoying People and Why You're One of Them (Llumina Press, 2003). But annoying behavior can have serious consequences in IT, where it can compromise your effectiveness, wreak havoc with projects and even derail your career.

Annoying behaviors are tricky because what annoys one person may sail by another. "You can say the same thing the same way to two people, and one person will say, 'Damn, that's annoying,' and the other person will not think anything of it," says Dan Bent, CIO at Benefit Systems Inc. in Indianapolis, an administrative services provider to health care plans.

But annoying behavior in IT sends ripples through the whole business. Gary Langer, associate vice president for academic technology at Chicago's Roosevelt University, explains that when IT support people are annoying, "people lose confidence, and they just give up. They stop asking questions."

Bent concurs. "You're always communicating with other people, and if you're annoying them, it reduces the likelihood your message will get across," he says.

Projects may also suffer. Jackie Palmer, a senior product manager at CRM software maker E.piphany Inc. in San Mateo, Calif., tells of participating at a meeting for a large insurance company that involved implementing process change. "The only way to do it is get [users] to buy in themselves," says Palmer. But a consultant at the meeting began to dictate what would happen. "The users became very combative," she recalls. It took several weeks of meetings to resolve the issues, and the project fell behind schedule.

If you think that you can't be annoying because you often work alone, think again. You still deal with people for support, advice and information, as well as to get a promotion, notes Gini Graham Scott, author of A Survival Guide for Working With Humans (Amacom, 2004).

For the worst offenders, the consequences of being annoying are potentially dire.

"Say someone comes to you and asks you a question today, and they find you annoying," says Bent. "Maybe the next time, they'll ask someone else. Soon people stop coming to you and asking you things, and you end up without a job."

The IT Niche

IT has its own annoying quirks. Langer says some IT people label users as neophytes and then blame them for any difficulties. "The user insists their e-mail doesn't work, and the IT person says, 'My e-mail works perfectly,' and assumes the user is the problem. Users really find this annoying," he says.

Some IT people are so sure they know what the problem is that they don't even listen to the user, says Katherine Spencer Lee, executive director at IT staffing firm Robert Half Technology in Menlo Park, Calif.

IT people expect users to always know what they want, and they can get exasperated when they don't. "Business people have a right to change their minds, because the business changes," says Ellen Gottesdiener, principal consultant at EBG Consulting in Carmel, Ind.

And IT folks often require the "right" decision, says Gerry McCartney, CIO at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia. "[They] have diffic

"I think the judge just sort of saw through what SCO was doing, particularly its public comments around copyright violations, and I think she took the prudent course here," said Dion Cornett, an analyst at Chicago-based Decatur Jones Equity Partners LLC. " SCO hasn't provided any evidence out there to convince IT managers that Linux violates its intellectual property rights."

I'd also be interested in a campaign revealing success stories on corporations that switched to Linux.
IBM could be a good start, when they get there.

...Right on the heels of this too.

This story just seems to be posted to drive traffic to a blog. Why do the Slashdot editors allow this?

The proper stories are posted at sportsillustrated.cnn.com (printer friendly) and computerworld.com (printer friendly) respectively. Click those links instead.

This story just seems to be posted to drive traffic to a blog. Why do the Slashdot editors allow this?

The proper stories are posted at sportsillustrated.cnn.com (printer friendly) and computerworld.com (printer friendly) respectively. Click those links instead.

I'm sure the CEO of Sendo will tell you it's not always safe to dance with Microsoft.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/s tory/0,10801,77242,00.html

Apple, in unit shipments, is the largest vendor of UNIX systems in the world. They may not be used in the same fashion, but Apple completely eclipses "unix/solaris/linux/bsd" in shipped units, in fact ridiculously so.

"With the release of Mac OS X, Apple became the largest vendor of Unix in the world"

"There are over 5 million Mac OS X users, including scientists, animators, developers, and system administrators, making Apple the largest vendor of UNIX-based systems."

A lot more...

This has been common knowledge for a couple of years now.

Now if the attack is a new type with no easy fix I don't neccessarily want them to publish it far and wide, but I'd at least like to know who are the relevant authorities Akamai says they've given the details to. Is there an FBI agent or case number I can make enquires to? Akamai is not very forthcoming.

Personally I think this attack was just a known exploit or a huge volume of spoofed DNS traffic and Akamai is hiding behind a veil here to protect its image.

• it opens folders into new windows, instead of reusing the current window
  
• there's no way to change individual colors in desktop themes

I didn't realize that the UN was involved in this kind of thing. It is good though. I wonder if they will have a stronger influence than they have had with other issues (like war).

Now there is additional unified governmental support. Here is another article that talks about governmental cooperation to fight spam. This is in addition to cooperation we read about between Microsoft, Yahoo! and others. It'll be interesting to see how the spammers counter. They are a particularly strong bunch. Like cockroaches I suppose.

"Now the problem is rapidly spreading to cell phones. Nine of every 10 spam messages in Japan are now directed to mobile phones as text messages, Horton said."

Thats the scary part. How do we stop spam on phones? They easiest way would probably involve filtering by our service providers. But do we trust them to do that? And would they do that? I don't know about USA or Japan, but here in Jamaica, the majority of unsolicited text messages that I get actually comes from my cellphone providers (I have phones from two telcos).

J2ME, SMS enabled versions of spamassasin?

I'm also glad for this FCC ruling. After reading about the citywide network in Rio Rancho, NM, which has rather hefty subscriber fees ($50/mo for 1 Mb/s), I wondered if authorities were seeking monopolization of WiFi.

This statement from the FAQs could indicate that: It's important to have the involvement of city government in approving this type of deployment

Why? Maybe if the service were free and tax supported, not subscription based. All they really provide is WiMax routers on lamp poles and the 43 Mb/s backhaul. (You supply your own WiFi card/router.) The disruptive technology that Cringely extolled recently, regarding Linksys/Sveasoft DIY mesh networks, is much preferable.

What Rio Rancho gets out of the deal is subsidized bandwidth for emergency services, which taxes ought to cover. Now government officials have an interest in suppressing DIY mesh networks. And Rio Rancho is being held up as a model for other communities.

The FCC ruling is very much in the spirit of Open Source.

I'll give you a billion dollars if you can prove this, because it quite simply isn't true. Take it from someone who used to work at 2SOPS (The military unit in charge of care and feeding of the satellites). To be honest, the only change in GPS performance over the last few years is to make it better!

Can you imagine the legal ramifications if the government was to degrade the performance selectively without notifying users properly? What if an airplane crashed?

if you think the US will gladly let anyone build a world-wide targeting system that anyone (North Korea, China, Iran, etc) can use at will, then you're dellusional.

You don't know the whole story. I guarantee it.

Besides - who's going to be able to build a guaranteed system? If you think the Euros can, then you're just fooling yourself further.

There was also an article in Computer World Magazine, about Robert Lang's software that's being used to fold stuff from airbags to solar panels in spacecraft.

Do you believe what you said? Read the studies and please stop saying the world is flat, when it is round.

In every case where there has been a problem with Windows security, it's been AFTER they released a patch for the vulnerability. Every one!

- "Microsoft issued a software patch, MS03-032, on Aug. 20 that was supposed to fix the problem. However, that patch failed to close the hole on Windows machines running Internet Explorer Versions 5.01, 5.5 or 6.0.
On Sept. 8, Microsoft acknowledged problems with the MS03-032 patch and promised to issue a fix as soon as possible. Since that time, no changes have been made to the MS03-032 patch. In the succeeding weeks, hackers moved quickly to take advantage of the company's slow response." ( Computerworld.com )

- "Two vulnerabilities have been reported in Internet Explorer, which in combination with other known issues can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.
1) A variant of the "Location:" local resource access vulnerability can be exploited via a specially crafted URL in the "Location:" HTTP header to open local files. ...
2) A cross-zone scripting error can be exploited to execute files in the "Local Machine" security zone.
Secunia has confirmed the vulnerabilities in a fully patched system with Internet Explorer 6.0. It has been reported that the preliminary SP2 prevents exploitation by denying access.
Successful exploitation requires that a user can be tricked into following a link or view a malicious HTML document.
NOTE: The vulnerabilities are actively being exploited in the wild to install adware on users' systems." ( Secunia )

- "The flaw, which is different from RPC DCOM flaw that spawned the Blaster and Nachi worms, makes Windows XP and 2000 servers vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks because of a multi-threaded race condition that exists. A remote attacker could crash the RPC service simply by sending multiple RPC requests. The vulnerability occurs if two threads process the same request, thereby corrupting memory.
Microsoft still has not released a patch for the flaw, leaving nearly every Windows XP and 2000 system exposed to potential exploits. Microsoft may, however, be preparing an all-encompassing RPC patch that would address this issue and previous flaws surrounding the network service, said Gerhard Eschelbeck, chief technology officer with Qualys Inc., at RSA Conference 2004. RPC is a protocol that one program can use to request a service from another program located elsewhere on a network." - ( searchsecurity.com )

- "Attackers are taking advantage of a security hole in Internet Explorer not immediately patched by Microsoft
Security experts have warned that a vulnerability that has apparently been left un-patched by Microsoft is being exploited by attackers "in the wild".
The "object type" vulnerability, which was first acknowledged publicly by Microsoft on 20 August this year, allows an attacker to take control of a system by embedding malicious code in a Web-page. If the Web page is viewed by an Internet Explorer browser - even a fully patched browser - the malicious code embedded in the Web-page will execute, experts say. Despite Microsoft acknowledging the patch doesn't work, it evidently has not yet issued a working fix for the vulnerability.
US-based information security company iDefense released a statement over the weekend claiming the vulnerability is being actively exploited "in the wild".
"Whether you are patched or not, attackers can execute code on your computer at will when you visit a hostile website when using vulnerable versions of Internet Explorer," the statement read.
The relevant Microsoft bulletin was issued on 20 August and last updated on 8 September." - ( ZDnet - but then again, you didn't say "...after

I seem to remember once reading that a few yeard ago Darl was the CEO of a company that sued IBM over intellectual property rights. The article stated that on that occasion IBM bought out the company and Darl received a big payout from the shareholders.

Some people say that SCO are only attacking IBM this time in an attempt to be bought out. In fact I just found this, an open statement by Darl that he would welcome IBM buying SCO to make the problem go away: SCO's CEO says buyout could end Linux fight. I think that settles it. SCO doesn't want to win in court they don't even want to go to court, they just want to scare IBM into buying them out.

This reminds me a lot of this story.

Simplified summary of both: buy some hard drives on eBay and you could end up with some cool data!

Not always true

I'm having a similar problem on my gaming machine where it says that two updates were applied, but each time I go to windows update, the same two are there again. What disgusts me even more is that they are for Internet Exploder and Outlook Express, two programs that I abhor and avoid like the plague. I messed with the permissions so that nobody on my computer can access outlook, but the patch details claim that one is vulnerable even if you don't use IE or Outlook.

So BeOS DIDN'T settle a lawsuit with MS concerning dual-booting?

I think he was referring to this.

I work for IBM. I run Linux on my desktop as my only operating system. I also run Linux on my development servers.

There are tens of thousands of IBMers running Linux desktops. However, you don't just migrate 300,000 people to Linux overnight. It's not yet suitable for everyone. So for now, the goals are more modest. See http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/uni x/story/0,10801,91301,00.html?from=story_kc

No actually, the Mounties (with the help of FBI) got a wire-tap warrant for the house in which Mafia Boy lived after tracking him down via IRC lurking. They then intercepted all telephone communications in and out of the house for 3 months, including all internet communications (they also had the cooperation of the ISP, since the kid was using a hacked account at the same ISP as his Dad's real account). The lion's share of the evidence against him came from these intercepts, not lurking.

Oddly enough, the RCMP had to pull the plug and arrest Mafia Boy not because he was about to launch another attack (which he was) but because the same wiretap overheard his father plotting to have a business rival killed in a hit! Great family, eh? No wonder he called himself Mafia Boy...

For more see this for more information.

Yours is a great question! Here's an article that basically says there is no simple definition.

The simplest I can make it is that Web services, as compared to "standard" Web pages, adds interoperability. This means that programs can actually operate with each other over the Internet. There are some other ways this can happen (distributed computing; cluster/parallel software like MPI), but Web services probably offers a more general-purpose framework. The trade-off is that WS are complex, and even deciding what the necessary components are can be tough!

One of the key desirable features for WS (but not a definition/requirement) is the ability to maintain state across connections. This is actually built into GS, which is an advantage I didn't mention (though notification frameworks might imply statefulness, I suppose).

I'm not trying to be an advocate, particularly, just pointing out what "real" problems are addressed by GS.

People who click any old "OK" button that pops up are part of the problem; I understand what they're proposing before I agree to it. I consider that doing what I should to not be part of the problem.

A I'm not familiar with the laws in effect here,

Apparently not. Here is an article that reads:

Microsoft settles Minnesota antitrust pricing suit
The trial in that case began last month

News Story by Joris Evers

APRIL 19, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Microsoft Corp. has reached a preliminary settlement in a class-action lawsuit in Minnesota that alleged that the company abused its Windows monopoly to overcharge customers in the state for its software.

As a result of the settlement, the trial, which began March 15, has been concluded and the jury has been discharged, according to a statement on the Hennepin County District Court Web site. The terms of the settlement will remain confidential until finalized sometime in early July, according to the statement.

The Minnesota case is one of several class-action lawsuits brought against Microsoft on behalf of consumers in the wake of the U.S. government's antitrust case that the vendor had been unable to settle or get dismissed.

Cases in Arizona, New Mexico and Iowa could still be headed for trial, and the Nebraska Supreme Court last month reversed earlier rulings that blocked a consumer class-action case in that state. In New York, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, courts have initially declined to certify classes of consumers, but plaintiffs are appealing those decisions, Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said.

Cases in Vermont and Massachusetts are also still active but not as close to going to trial as the Arizona, New Mexico and Iowa cases, because classes of consumers have not yet been certified, according to Desler.

In settlements reached with lawyers representing consumers in states including California, Tennessee, North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas, Microsoft agreed to make vouchers available to customers who bought Microsoft software during a specific time period. The vouchers can be used to buy computer software or hardware.

As part of the settlements, Microsoft has always denied any wrongdoing. In earlier statements, the company had also denied it did anything wrong in Minnesota.

Opening arguments in the Minnesota case began March 15. The court had allotted three months for the trial. Microsoft had said that it might call Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer to testify as part of its defense. Because of the settlement, the trial was concluded before Microsoft had even started to present its defense.

Trial exhibits in the Minnesota case will be available on the court's Web site until April 26. The documents offer an insight into Microsoft's business, back to the early days of the company when it was peddling DOS.

Actually, they do have the right. They are not regulated by any entity in the world, and there are no laws constricting them as to pricing their product.

How the f*** did you learn to post on Slashdot before learning to search on Google? Here's just one link that proves that you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground with regards to this subject. In case your clicking skills are as impressive as your Google skills, here's the article:

Microsoft settles Minnesota antitrust pricing suit
The trial in that case began last month

News Story by Joris Evers

APRIL 19, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Microsoft Corp. has reached a preliminary settlement in a class-action lawsuit in Minnesota that alleged that the company abused its Windows monopoly to overcharge customers in the state for its software.

As a result of the settlement, the trial, which began March 15, has been concluded and the jury has been discharged, according to a statement on the Hennepin County District Court Web site. The terms of the settlement will remain confidential until finalized sometime in early July, according to the statement.

The Minnesota case is one of several class-action lawsuits brought against Microsoft on behalf of consumers in the wake of the U.S. government's antitrust case that the vendor had been unable to settle or get dismissed.

Cases in Arizona, New Mexico and Iowa could still be headed for trial, and the Nebraska Supreme Court last month reversed earlier rulings that blocked a consumer class-action case in that state. In New York, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan, courts have initially declined to certify classes of consumers, but plaintiffs are appealing those decisions, Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said.

Cases in Vermont and Massachusetts are also still active but not as close to going to trial as the Arizona, New Mexico and Iowa cases, because classes of consumers have not yet been certified, according to Desler.

In settlements reached with lawyers representing consumers in states including California, Tennessee, North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas, Microsoft agreed to make vouchers available to customers who bought Microsoft software during a specific time period. The vouchers can be used to buy computer software or hardware.

As part of the settlements, Microsoft has always denied any wrongdoing. In earlier statements, the company had also denied it did anything wrong in Minnesota.

Opening arguments in the Minnesota case began March 15. The court had allotted three months for the trial. Microsoft had said that it might call Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer to testify as part of its defense. Because of the settlement, the trial was concluded before Microsoft had even started to present its defense.

Trial exhibits in the Minnesota case will be available on the court's Web site until April 26. The documents offer an insight into Microsoft's business, back to the early days of the company when it was peddling DOS.

If you'd like to verify, feel free to click the feedback link at the top right of any article on computerworld.com -- that goes to the editor mailbox, which I monitor (others have access as well, and a copy goes to the letters box).

I'm not the editor for any columns that start life in print, so I wasn't the editor on this one. But I am familiar with our open-source coverage in general, and I do feel strongly that it's unlikely Computerworld readers will be turned away from open-source because of this column.

First off, a criticism of one particular desktop implementation doesn't imply that the columnist advocates ditching Linux on the desktop; I can't speak for them, but I don't believe many of our readers would conclude that. But even if we had a columnist suggesting that, we've had a lot of other articles with differing points of view. (One recent example: I was the editor on a reader contributed opinion piece, It's Possible to Ditch Microsoft Office.)

In any case, I've sent along the link to this Slashdot discussion to our print Technology and Features editors.

As the poster mentioned, there wasn't much detail in that speech.

Computerworld and CNet have (slightly) more information, suggesting that the minister was floating the idea of an international treaty to combat spam.

For the record, this column appeared on page 30 of Computerworld's print edition this week, on the last page of our Technology section. Nicholas Petreley is one of several different columnists who rotate writing for that Tech opinion page. (There is an opinion column on the last page of the print publication's Management section as well.)

Our print readers have seen quite a bit of coverage of Linux and open source in addition to this column. Two weeks ago, for example, one of our cover features was A Sunny Forecast For Open Source, about how weather.com has cut IT costs by one-third after moving away from proprietary software and hardware. It was one of the most-read stories on our site that week.

Sharon Machlis
Online Managing Editor
Computerworld

You still don't have an electrical outlet. Lets hope you have 9 hours of battery life to get your money worth!

First, I believe laptops have electrical power available. So, you just need the upgrade. But, in trying to research my answer, I found this:

JUNE 18, 2001 American Airlines Inc., United Air Lines Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. last week announced plans to launch broadband airborne Internet service on 1,500 aircraft, with initial service slated to start in the second half of next year. . . and United has a hard time getting its laptop power ports to work."

Connexion by Boeing is owned and operated by a joint venture created by Boeing and its three airline partners, with each company sharing in revenues. Scott declined to detail the terms of the revenue-sharing agreement.

So, this is not an entirely new story. Looks like the 9/11 terrorist attack managed to stall broadband-on-aircraft by a couple of years.

Mind you, I can't wait until these dual core Opterons come out. I feel an 8-way workstation coming on....better start saving my pocket money :-)

Now all we need is an Opteron port of Slackware.

this