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On another apple-related thread, Forbes is running a story now where you can vote for your favorite and least-favorite Apple ads.

Check it out: http://www.forbes.com/2003/12/16/cx_ah_1216applead s.html

All that said was that Hussein was a threat. He was! But we never had reason to attack or invade his country. Iraq was never a direct threat. Who's making all the money off the war? Liberals or ... ... the Houston company -- once headed by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney -- has won $1.7 billion in Iraq-related contracts. Source

That is what one gets when one keeps crying wolf!

Unfortunately, the number of words in that sentence did not exhaust the immense volume of even the big lies told by SCO.

I hope the wolf is IBM.

But here, in Paragraph 2, is the tricky part. Not only does the WSIS want information for all, it wants "to harness the potential of information: Promote the development goals of the Millennium Declaration, namely the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger...

From Forbes

[Ralph] Yarro won't apologize for the IBM lawsuit. "I'm not a guy who goes away quietly in the night. I fight," he says. "If you take something from me, if you break a promise, I'm going to come after you."

My theory is that Canopy Group wanted to use Monterey project to corner 64-bit Enterprise-level OS market. I remember an interview with Stowell, where he said that even if 64-bit Linux may exist, it will always inferior to SCO's product, exactly because of Monterey project.

When the thing did not work out, and I believe that IBM is not completely without blame for terminating the contract. I am not sure what happened, but most probably each side thought that the other side is too greedy.

Anyhow, IBM, well taught by one software vendor about all implications of dealing with 'the only game in town' situations walked away to do Monterey on Linux, leaving SCO high and dry in the middle of nowhere, with mostly usless SVRX.

First Canopy Group reaction was: 'You've made shit of SCO. You'll buy it.' When it did not work out either, the whole thing degenerated into bloody vendetta, with the only Linux's fault that it happened to be the OS, IBM laid their eyes on.

I am sure, that if it were BSD (hypothetically, of course, since BSD License is too lax for IBM's patents protection,) we would have been talking about IBM and Apple rather then IBM and RH.

Could someone with financial background tell us if this is related to SCOX waiting to report their earnings for another two weeks?
Any correlation? How would these moves affect their reports?
*dons tinfoil hat*

How did that obvious troll get modded up?

economy problems

considering that the US economy was up 8.2% last quarter, which is the highest growth since 1984 -- when Ronald Reagan was president, i'd say it's becoming a lot less of a problem.

the claims of a 'jobless recovery' are pure BS. First-time filings for state unemployment benefits dropped 11,000 to 351,000 in the week ended Nov. 22.
The report also showed the number of unemployed still on the benefit rolls in the Nov. 15 week fell by a sharp 105,000 to 3.37 million, a level not seen since early February -- also from Forbes.

Bush's approval ratings are still extremely high-- and as long as the democrats can't figure out what their agenda is, none of the nine dwarves are going to beat him.

Isn't that like finding someone who's homeless and giving them the title of National Economic Advisor? Isn't it like the NTSB giving Firestone an exemplary safety award?

Windows Server 2003 is a small step in the right direction, except it's 10 years late. [by the way - I LOVE the caption on the Windows 2003 page - I initially misread it as "do less with more".

I like to tell users the reason they are paying me $xxx to repair their computer is because Microsoft was busy working on Clippy instead of fixing the mess they call "Content Zones" in IE/OE. In all fairness, if users would "just keep up to date on their patches" then this wouldn't be (as much of) an issue...

And this is Microsoft's fatal flaw: They look at computers/software completely differently than the typical user.

Microsoft: Install the OS, update drivers occasionally, Check for system security fixes daily, and upgrade when a new OS comes out.

Typical User: OK, this envelope thing with the blue recycle signs around it is what I have to click to get mail, right?

(most) People want to use computers like any other appliance: their vcr, tv, radio -- they don't want to schedule updates and check for vulnerabilities and install firewalls -- they just want it to work.

As long as Microsoft (or ANY admin, for that matter) depends on the end-user to secure their equipment, they will be sorely disappointed.

This actually was reported yesterday in Japan (here), but I could not find any article in English until now.

Courtesy of the Rejected Post Machine:

NTT DoCoMo: Linux-based 3G Mobile Phones in 2004

* 2003-12-02 11:59:33 NTT DoCoMo: Linux-based 3G Mobile Phones in 2004 (articles,pilot)(rejected)

Reuters cites a confidential source as saying that NTT DoCoMo will offer its customers Linux-based 3G mobile phones in 2004. DoCoMo has apparently sent specifications to handset manufacturers and DoCoMo supplier NEC has said that it will offer Linux-based phones by 2004. If true, the report would indicate a shift from the dominant TRON and Symbian-based handsets.

This was also submitted yesterday morning, but I guess Reuters wasn't considered authoritative enough until the English version of the Japanese story. =)

US inflation has been stable in the midst of the rise of the Euro. Obviously there is more than one lever involved in the matter which I was waiting for someone to walk into. One of those levers includes less assumption of consumer debt. Another is that prices for certain imported commodities (e.g. oil) are not controlled by the US, and as means of production, this relative stability only helps matters. From a purchasing power parity perspective, Canada (the largest US trading partner and where I am now, so stop this "you" business) is still not balanced relative to the US though prices have begun to fall somewhat in Canada on certain imported items (e.g. Apple's computers). In fact, Canada's economic growth was limited to 1.1% instead of the 3% the Bank of Canada projected because of the relative rise in the Canadian dollar, all while the US economy was rising 8.2%. Taxes have also fallen in the US creating additional money circulating through the US economy while the tax base in Europe is relatively steady albeit extremely high. I would've thought that there would be an increase in prices in the US, but there isn't, which means that there are many other things going on other than what I discussed. And now you know.

The networks are pretty wily. They are already starting to shore up things with products placement directly in TV shows, of course. I read an article in Forbes about it (there were a pair of related ones in the same issue) at end of September, around when the new season was rolling out. For those of you interested and not allergic to registration, they are here and here.

The networks are pretty wily. They are already starting to shore up things with products placement directly in TV shows, of course. I read an article in Forbes about it (there were a pair of related ones in the same issue) at end of September, around when the new season was rolling out. For those of you interested and not allergic to registration, they are here and here.

The article isnt correct, there was a problem, its fixed now.
For details check Forbes.com Siebel is the largest activations provider in the USA. Dell and others use the same software. The CEO of Siebel is stepping down Jan 1 due to these types of issues.

before plunging into AT&T's more expensive services.

Unlimited Verizon is 199 a month, Unlimited ATTWS is 149. Really, a quick google search will show price plans. Check out Inphonic click check rate plans. Some good information on coverage and prices. Zipcode search will tell which Telco covers your area. Theres a reason most public safety departments go with ATTWS, they need a network thats fast and stable.

Whats funny, is 40% of most customers think thier wireless telco sucks, and switching will resolve the issue. The problem is you might not be with the best telco for your area. Most people will just buy a phone and expect it to work everywhere. Everyone is about 2 years away from total network coverage for telcos, and in 2 years 2mbit+ data speeds will be normal. Now with customers able to switch (After contract is up) the best companies will start to show with better coverage and services. I also expect to see more CDMA/TDMA telcos merge together. (Sprint/Verizon) or (ATTWS/Cingular/Tmobile)

Its only going to get faster, better coverage and more offered services. Edge is the leader now, UMTS will take the market next.

Am I the only offended by condescending tone of the article when it comes to computer scientists and engineers?

I suspect these people are merely shocked that someone without an MBA degree and who doesn't walk around in a $2000 suit can call the shots in a company, and greatly exaggerate the degree of "arrogance"

--engineers and other geeks attending a conference
Yeah... all those weirdos

..."It's a distraction from pure technology, which is what I love...." ....Brin will become a billionaire. Make that a multibillionaire. So to hear him pining for the good old days sounds strange--
What? There are things more important than money???!!!

roller-hockey-obsessed doctoral students in computer science
Computer Science gradstudents must be obsessive, right?

an unspoken caste system has emerged. At the top are the engineers, people in the mold of Brin and Page.
They have people who actually make the product at the top????!!! Why can't they be like every other company and have all those TPS report-demanding MBAs at the top.

...wrote off SCO as a bunch of sleazebags and went back to playing live-action roleplaying (LARP) games in their mothers' basements, or whatever it is they do when they're not writing device drivers and complaining about clueless end users.
From Forbes... linked to in another posting

I agree. Fortune and Forbes are in general to be distrusted when it comes to reporting on technical companies. Having the best interests of big business at heart is bound to conflict eventually with developing better technology. Not to mention flamebait (search the webpage for "basements").

To what degree is the mainstream media reviewing reports like this recent one from OSDL? If they are, they're certainly not reporting it. It's looking pretty biased to me!

...There's a chance for more "dramatic gains in the SCO stock price"

...The ability to yank one million lines of code out of five million is substantial; Investors seem to believe that SCO's suit has merit

So, to the average investor, SCO's claim that they matched 1 out of 5 million lines of code in Linux is pretty damning evidence.. whereas domain experts like us can easily see through these lies. Hopefully this comes to light in the courts, 'cause people like us are certainly screaming in a vacuum right now!

I'm thinking that the the financial/business media is leaning towards SCO side since SCO represents a more conventional corporate america, and Linux / GPL threatens that model?

Bush's Justice Dept. doesn't go after his buddies.

Are you sure about that?

... the article with links...

New Startup Secret: Dumpster Diving - Rafe Needleman

Last week I covered Roku, the high-end digital media player for HDTV buyers with money to burn. Roku was founded and financed by Anthony Wood, who made out well when he sold ReplayTV to SonicBlue. He's a rich guy selling gizmos to other rich guys, but not all startups have Anthony's resources. Here is a success story from one resource-challenged startup. Wallflower, which is also in the digital photograph display business, managed to get itself off the ground with a strategy I've seen only once before: dumpster diving.

The company makes (expensive) digital picture frames that compete with Ceiva, Digiframe, and Pacific Digital. Nothing special there. But Wallflower's startup plan was based around building its high-end products with pieces from recycled computers. To get started, Wallflower founders Mitch Kahn and Gordon Clyne bought 150 old but unused laptops from liquidators and via eBay, for $25 to $150 each. They were obsolete as workstations (most had 133MHz CPUs and smallish hard drives) but had the right pieces to make nice picture framesmost importantly, working 12" LCD panels.

Mitch and Gordon's small team disassembled the machines, mounted the displays in handmade wood frames with the motherboard and hard disk, and added Wi-Fi and their own Linux-based software. Basically, the Wallflower displays are Web servers that appear on a Windows desktop as disk drivesyou put one on your network and you can just drag pictures onto it, and call up its internal home page to manage its settings. Now you have a nice big electronic photo frame to show your digital pictures, and changing the display is as easy as typing a URL into your home computer.

Frankly I can't see spending $500 for one of these thingsbut what do I know? Shortly after Forbes ran an article about the product, Wallflower sold out of its inventory of Frankensteined picture frames. Left with nice cashflow from its rising order volume, and needing more certainty in its supply chain than Weird Stuff Warehouse could provide, Wallflower recently gave up on the whole recycled kick and started buying components from manufacturers, the way most computer companies do.

With the new manufacturing strategy, the company is able to offer more features and bigger screens, but it had to raise its prices since these components are more expensive. Although I imagine they save a fortune in assembly costs, since they no longer have to dismantle laptops to get their parts.

There is a thriving economy in the leftover computer business. Another company in this space, RetroBox, makes money coming and going. First of all, they take in used computers from businesses that no longer need of them, and carefully scrub the hard disks clean of datacompanies are so worried that old machines will get out into the world with sensitive data on them that they'll pay nicely for this service. Then, of course, RetroBox is free to re-sell the scrubbed hardware to new users or to re-builders like Wallflower.

But back to Wallflower. I love this story, since it combines the identification of an unusual but growing market space (digital picture frames) with the extremely clever, low-cost startup strategy of making its first products from unloved, unsold, obsolete technology. The founders knew full well that strategy wouldn't scale if they became successful, and they were able to switch to more ordinary production methods when they did, about one-and-a-half years ahead of plan.

As I said earlier, this manufacturing model isn't completely new: In 2000, startup Scout Electromedia released the Modo, a pager-like

Maybe Darl has access to some old Novell documents that he is saving as his ace in the hole...
"From 1988 to 1996, Mr. McBride worked at networking leader Novell where he was responsible for growing Novell Japan's growth to more than $100 million in revenue. Mr. McBride concluded his tenure at Novell as vice president and general manager of Novell's Embedded Systems Division (NEST)."
View Entire Article

Although I find kneejerk quips about SCO about as funny as cancer, your comment may have a grain of truth in it.

Genetic Technologies, a small Australian firm, own patents to "junk" DNA, a particular kind of DNA. More than 80% of the human genome is junk DNA, and I'd guess that a large portion of the ebola genome is junk DNA too. Intellectual property is just as bad for biology as for software development, it seems.

Yep. According to the Fortune 500, only one other company makes more sales than they do. Exxon Mobil.

http://www.forbes.com/2002/04/08/0408oil.html

http://www.forbes.com/2002/04/12/0412topnews.html

And yes, you're right about Powell. Colin Powell is the reason why we had troups in Saudi Arabia. The evidence that Saddam wanted to attack Saudi Arabia was falsified. The only reason why we're in Saudi Arabia is because the next heir in line to take the leadership of the House of Saud is anti-american and pro-OPEC.

http://www.forbes.com/2002/04/08/0408oil.html

http://www.forbes.com/2002/04/12/0412topnews.html

And yes, you're right about Powell. Colin Powell is the reason why we had troups in Saudi Arabia. The evidence that Saddam wanted to attack Saudi Arabia was falsified. The only reason why we're in Saudi Arabia is because the next heir in line to take the leadership of the House of Saud is anti-american and pro-OPEC.

Linux geeks howled a bit, but then wrote off SCO as a bunch of sleazebags and went back to playing live-action roleplaying (LARP) games in their mothers' basements, or whatever it is they do when they're not writing device drivers and complaining about clueless end users.

Dinamo: In every company there are people who push for political decisions to be made no matter what. Who were the drivers of the decision to sell to AOL within Time Warner and how did they get there?

KARA_SWISHER: Incredibly, Jerry Levin made this merger almost entirely by himself with consultations from very few executives, although current CEO Dick Parsons was certainly more involved than he likes to admit now. That's also true for Ted Turner, one of the company's major shareholders.

This new (11/13) article has a decidely different tune from Mr Lyons.

Mr Lyons is now sounding like a reporting instead of a puppet (or perhaps a SCO investor).

The best cut is:

Oddly enough, on Nov. 11, SCO Executive Vice President Christopher Sontag complained to Forbes about IBM's decision to send subpoenas to investors and analysts who supported SCO. Sontag called the move "an attempt to bully and intimidate" and said IBM was engaged in "legal gamesmanship."

So why didn't Sontag mention that, uh, SCO itself was about to target Torvalds and Stallman with subpoenas? SCO's spokesman says Sontag and Darl McBride, SCO's chief executive, did not know that SCO's lawyers were planning the move.

The CEO and Vice-President did not know what their lawyers were up to!? Well I guess it is a clue to who is running the show.

"I am concerned about long-term entrenched confusions such as referring to a version of our GNU OS as 'Linux' and thinking that our work on free software was motivated by the ideas associated with 'open source.' These confusions lead users away from the basic issue: their freedom. By comparison, the events involving SCO are transitory and almost trivial," Stallman says.

What's the point of hassling people who make chips and set-top boxes? Don't ask SCO's top execs. They don't know anything about this stuff, remember?

Don't know why...

So it appears we have an official denial now (as reported by Forbes this morning).

Too late! Ritz bought Wolf. And Kits. And quite a few others. And boater's world. It's a big company.

2: do as IBM has done and try to get the facts out. And since we know SCO won't give up the goods, get it from anyone else with their hand in the SCO piggy bank. "It is time for SCO to produce something meaningful. They have been dragging their feet and it is not clear there is any incentive for SCO to try this in court"

I definitely understand the tendency to ignore all the paranoid ravings you hear on /., because I do too. That said, there are some legit reasons to give this one consideration. First, Forbes is typically quite the conservative mag, and I doubt they'd even have printed that had it not passed the laugh test to outsiders. Second, this scheme is simliar to what canopy has done before by Canopy. I'm generally skeptical, and I will bank on this being a pump-n-dump or similar scheme by SCO/Canopy. This is their MO.

The Microsoft angle is more farfetched, but not completely implausible. MS paid a *lot* of money for SCO licenses that were somewhere between unnecessary and worthless to MS. Also, lately, SCO has been making strange offers about discounts to people who make the switch to any non-linux system, and saying it in a way that all but screams "Windows."

Bottom line, I'd bet on Canopy running this scam. I'd wait for some more bookkeeping before I listened to the MS angle.

Interestingly enough, Jobs' salary is only one dollar.

Spot on! How dare one-man outfits like IBM demand licence fees from others for their patents!

This is not always the case.

But Lithgow's character is back? How, pray tell, do you come back after being swallowed whole by a whopping-great-dragon?

If Jonah could survive being swallowed whole by a sea monster, and if Geppetto could replicate the stunt, then why not F-wad?

Forbes is making specific threats against companies using Linux.

The tactic is a one-two punch: Darl makes wild but non-specific threats:

So what if the studios tell SCO to take a hike?"We're going to force people down a path,"McBride says. "They can choose licensing or litigation. If someone says they want to see a court ruling before they pay, we'll say, 'Fine, you're the lucky winner. We'll take you first.' I'd be surprised if we make it to the end of the year without filing a lawsuit."

By contrast, the assault on Hollywood has started on a softer note. SCO claims it has had brief conversations with executives at Fox, Universal and Sony Pictures. Patrick Scholes, an investment banker at Morgan Keegan & Co. who advises SCO, says that on Oct. 9 he spoke by phone with Mitch Singer, a senior vice president at Sony Pictures, broaching the fact that Hollywood companies use a lot of Linux. Scholes says Singer understood the implication. "He said, 'Okay, I can read between the lines,'" Scholes recalls.

I am going to contact every US attorney general, give a list of companies in the jurisdiction and ask them to investigate on based on this.

SCO is trying to wiggle around the law but I don't think every attorney general is going to let them spread FUD against Microsofts last real competitor.

...the hemp stores up there figured that they had sold enough seed to grow about 12 million pounds of pot, while their Federal government claimed that police had confiscated about 10 million pounds that year. So the good guys were _winning_, and the amount that was left was about an ounce for everybody. :-)

Boy are you waaaaaaaaaay off. The amount that canada's underground economy makes from pot is somewhere between $4-7 Billion (with a "B") US dollars/year. See this recent article in forbes for more info.

The "good guys" are losing. Badly.

WRT the insane War on some Drugs, and prices; have a look at this recent Forbes article on the subject.

Cannabis cultivation is worth $7Billion to Cannabis Farmers, $5B in beef for ranchers, wheat a paltry $1.7B, $4.3B for Logging and only oil and gas is more @ $15B.

Drug prohibition is one of the gravest mistakes of Modern Culture.

If you really want to scare the kids, print and wear this!

The real problem in Vietnam (and most other countries run by communist, oligarchical governments) is that IP laws are treated as optional
I guess by your logic, CISCO & Broadcom must be Vietnamese. Yep, down with those stinky communist companies ...ummm countries.

Ol' Ralph actually appears to have been involved in a company or two with clue (although said clue may have arrived after his departure).

I've felt for a long time that this is an affront to capitalism (yeah, I'm a capitalist... go ahead and mod me down). The only people who make big money did essentially nothing to earn it, besides the company founders who took big risk and make less than they could since the banks keep the price down to make sure they sell the whole float.

At the same time, we've been here before, as this Forbes article from early 2001 describes. Earlier efforts to make IPOs more efficient and democratic failed. It's not clear to me whether this was due to the coincidental collapse of the tech IPO market, or whether it was the result of a coordinate sabotage effort by the big investment banks. (Or maybe, just maybe those banks really do add some value by getting their big customers to serve as market makers).

Google has about as much market clout as I can imagine, so if they decide to go for it, this will serve as a good acid test. If the IPO goes off successfully as an online auction, this probably means that the earlier efforts were just bad timing. If it fails, I might smell a conspiracy.

"Please note that the Forbes article has a very different focus from the one mentioned in a previous Slashdot reference."

What about this article, or perhaps this one?

"Please note that the Forbes article has a very different focus from the one mentioned in a previous Slashdot reference."

What about this article, or perhaps this one?

We all know that these companies make their way by keeping others from doing things, now we know why. When you count beans for a living, you start to think they have value, that you own them and that you might not want to share with others because there just are not enough to go around. Bring me back AtHome and a real peering internet. I'm sick of how these assholes are making the net look like broadcast TV.

Last month Mr. Scalvos's approval rating went down to 3%. Think it will be lower this month? (vote here - bottom of page).

Last month Mr. Scalvos's approval rating went down to 3%. Think it will be lower this month? (vote here - bottom of page).

Other than that, publishing the investment without publishing the possible eventual short sale would encourage newcomer readers to invest in a probable loss, lemming-bandwagon style.