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Until legislation forces people to encrypt (and prosecute those who don't when audited or when incidents occur, with severe financial fines) this will continue to happen. Medical clinics are still not encrypting their backups today even though they are subject to HIPAA. People need to get fined heavily until the industry shakes up and people move. This is the way it works.

Also, it's surprising that they don't use a bonded courrier or offsite storage organization to handle offsite media backups. Don't get me wrong, these companies screw up every so often, but at least they are better than some 22 year old intern, and dealing with them is proper due care, even if they are not infallible.

Maybe after a few important people are affected (ID theft, etc), will there be lawsuits and hopefully intelligent legislation to promote and effectively enforce legislation that will protect data as it should be.

Neither you nor the GP are proving anything. You're merely sharing stories. And that's cool because we may be able to see a trend in what people are saying.
I don't know about the problems people encounter with Vista or in what number, but the industry and users ARE generally disappointed with Vista. And Vista sales are NOT great.

Supporting links:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jh tml?articleID=201201012 - MS lowers Vista sales projections
http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39164563 ,00.htm - Businesses wary of Vista
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,3928 7855,00.htm - Consumers wary of Vista

From there we can watch the progress of the Outsource Ship, and have a going-away hula party for our jobs ;-)

This isn't news. MS has already (unofficially) said they'd rather India and China used their software illegally than use the competition.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=198000211

In its earnings statement for the quarter, Microsoft said it shipped 700,000 Xbox 360 units during the period, compared to 1.8 million in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2006 -- a fall off of 61%.

Want objectivity? Okay, since you asked. Please refer to the many links in this post.

Also, if anything is a "troll" it's the original article. Drawing Conclusions about OS sales based on browser stats is idiotic - if not dishonest. And the methodology used is even more idiotic - or more dishonest.

Please note: this IDC data is for product shipments, the article is about browser stats. Which would you trust more?

The charts for the IDC data can be found here:
http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comme nts/idc_apple_mac_grabbed_56_of_us_market_share_in _q2_07/

More links for the IDC report.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/ 14313/
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2160333,00.as p

Or since you have $4500 in spare change, go buy the real thing: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=207308

Or maybe this article is a well timed bit of smoke screen, designed to try to hide: "Microsoft Xbox 360 Sales Plunge 60% As Problems Mount"

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jh tml?articleID=201200157

There is no shortage of IT workers, especially good ones, but companies make more profit off of young workers and foreign workers they can treat like slaves. See To H1-B or not to H-1B?. And in the minds of many experienced project managers, quality of worker's intelligence and experience are more important than having 10,000 interchangable drones as Google seems to want. See Smart and Gets Things Done.

Alexander Wolfe has been writing anti-linux fud for sometime. He has no technical qualifications at all. From TFA talking about kernel forking:
"It's also true that the few deviations that can fairly be called forks are very valuable, in that they are patches or shell add-ons (the latter are not really forks) to support real time and load balancing."

I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't know my kernel had any shell at all let alone a shell "to support real time and load balancing"...

In the past few days he has written two anti-Ubuntu FUD articles:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/ubuntu_aftermat.html "Ubuntu: puncturing the urban legend"
In which he makes various assertions including reporting that you need to install gcc and compile laTeX to get it
working on Ubuntu

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/ubuntu_linux_ai.html "ubuntu: linux aint as easy as dell"
in which he claims that ubuntu is too for him to install, so the Dell preinstalled ubuntu pcs must be bad

I don't know what his credentials are. Honestly I don't think he's qualified to say anything about tech, and we should do our best to discredit him before he causes more damage and spreads too much misinformation.

Alexander Wolfe has been writing anti-linux fud for sometime. He has no technical qualifications at all. From TFA talking about kernel forking:
"It's also true that the few deviations that can fairly be called forks are very valuable, in that they are patches or shell add-ons (the latter are not really forks) to support real time and load balancing."

I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't know my kernel had any shell at all let alone a shell "to support real time and load balancing"...

In the past few days he has written two anti-Ubuntu FUD articles:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/ubuntu_aftermat.html "Ubuntu: puncturing the urban legend"
In which he makes various assertions including reporting that you need to install gcc and compile laTeX to get it
working on Ubuntu

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/ubuntu_linux_ai.html "ubuntu: linux aint as easy as dell"
in which he claims that ubuntu is too for him to install, so the Dell preinstalled ubuntu pcs must be bad

I don't know what his credentials are. Honestly I don't think he's qualified to say anything about tech, and we should do our best to discredit him before he causes more damage and spreads too much misinformation.

Try one of the 359 distros. See: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/too_many_linux.html
:)))

PJ at Groklaw ranted about this grudge already. Presumably on account of the release of GPLv3, InformationWeek is now on a rampage of FUD and misinformation against open-source software and particularly Linux. Last week they declared Open Source / Linux "Dead". The author of that one has since written a correction, so it appears everyone at InformationWeek had a few synapses fuse this month and we're still sifting through the fallout of that.

This troll didn't need to make it to the front page.

In Soviet Australia, telcos fear the customers.

or just Information Week

Yes, this low-end dual-core is half the price, but not half the performance. Therefor a real bargain.

Note that 9 days ago, the Athlon 64 X2 4000+ was about $100 before AMD's July 9 price cut to $73 (AMD list price).

Tom's Hardware shows the Pentium Dual-Core 2160 outperforming an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ in open-source audio/video encoders and Photoshop. I'd like to find better performance comparisons between these two CPUs, but most of the good sites seem to ignore the Pentium E21xx series in favor of the Core 2 Duo E4xxx series (Allendale, 2MB L2 cache).

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/ 2007/07/open_source_is_1.html

In support of TFA: the above Iweek story really takes the cake for "most clueless" author on the subject of the GPL. One can take it as evidence that the GPL3 has become such a buzzword in the community that tech writers feel forced to comment even before they have even the slightest clue what the fuss is all about.

PJ over at groklaw politely stomped the author into the ground as one can see here:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200707131 92403106
Whle always a fan, I admire her tact here: she did it a lot less painfully than some in comments section of the original article ;-)

Ubuntu Linux's Achilles' Heel: It's Tough To Install On Laptops The wildly popular Linux distro isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially if you try to install it on a laptop, our reviewer Alex Wolfe finds. Come along on his Ubuntu safari, as he hacks his way through bug-fraught installation attempts.

So claims this InformationWeek review, Ubuntu Linux's Achilles' Heel: It's Tough To Install On Laptops The wildly popular Linux distro isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially if you try to install it on a laptop, our reviewer Alex Wolfe finds. Come along on his Ubuntu safari, as he hacks his way through bug-fraught installation attempts.

While you're right about ClamAV not having real-time virus detection and can only detect an infection after it has files on your machine, it's not true that it gets updates slower. I remember reading a couple years ago that, out of the most recent 50 viruses found, ClamAV was the first to have the signature for it, 80% of the time. That's pretty good for something that's free.

A rootkit though, once it's on it's tough to detect; ClamAV will need to develop real-time scanning, drivers that load before all others after installation (which means installation will require a reboot), or both, in order to be a complete system.

Ok, I found that reference:, published almost exactly 2 years ago:

As it turned out, ClamAV doesn't swim -- it flies. In Hyde's own tests, using two of the world's five top commercial AV products and 50 new virus variants, Clam AV was the first product to release a virus signature for new threats nearly 80 percent of the time.

This reminded me of a news article I'd seen a number of years back, concerning South Carolina. They actually recommend/allow/indemnify a computer tech searching your hard drive for child porn. Link found here:

Anyone know if this is still the case?

The company in question is Platform Solutions, Inc., who realized that they can completely emulate the Mainframe CPU opcodes by changing the microcode in Intel CPUs.

Itaniums have microcode? And it can be changed to run z/Architecture instructions rather than IA-64^WItanium instructions? That's news to me....

Or do they, instead, do binary-to-binary translation of z/Architecture instructions to Itanium instructions in software? The Information Week article on the IBM lawsuit quotes the IBM lawsuit as saying that's what they do:

Platform Solutions' emulator translates "IBM's copyrighted software into a set of instructions that can be executed by a processor that is not capable of executing the original IBM instructions," IBM claims.

And how will they compete with Free software anti-virus?

So why are companies jumping through hoops to avoid hiring US workers? I assume everybody has seen that video and article by now?

Microsoft has paid for positive comments elsewhere, including Wikipedia. http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArti cle.jhtml?articleID=196903015.

They're trying to drum up support through their own blogs http://blogs.msdn.com/ausdev/, there was the fake support letters during their anti-trust prosecution, the fake Zune fansites, the fake Switchers campaign and a dozen more.

Why would Slashdot be immune?

In a follow-up interview today, Croll explained, "ZFS is not the default file system for Leopard. We are exploring it as a file system option for high-end storage systems with really large storage. As a result, we have included ZFS -- a read-only copy of ZFS -- in Leopard."

"Read-only means that at a later date, if there are ZFS volumes, those systems would be able to read ZFS volumes," Croll added. "You cannot write data into the system. It will allow you to read ZFS volumes later."

"Read-only means that at a later date (bad start: read-only has nothing to say about time) , if there are ZFS volumes (there are definitely ZFS volumes, I've seen them on Sun boxes), those systems (to what does "those" refer?) would be able to read ZFS volumes," Croll added. "You cannot write data into the system (you can't write data into a system which can read ZFS volumes?!). It (what?) will allow you to read ZFS volumes later (when?)."

Link to the comments section:
http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticl e.jhtml?articleID=199903281#comments
FYI the NoScript Firefox extension blocked the comments from appearing

I understand your fustration and I have also made future purchase decisions on a single experience. But I would also like to say that I have a HTC Apache (branded via sprint as PPC 6700) and I absolutely LOVE the thing

In general I dont insure things like phones (or even laptops) but right now these things can keep thier value well enough to be worth insuring. If you had the insurance you would have gotten a new device immediately. Actually, after rereading your post I dont believe you werent able to get the device replaced/repaired. After three weeks you should have both a manufacturer and store warranty available to you.

Pocket IE, the contacts+google maps, ability to develop arbitrary custom applications with a copy of Visual Studio.NET, MythTV remote.

Also, the iPhone is going to be GSM is the United States, which is silly because Sprint and Verizon's CDMA data networks are exponentially faster. On my Qualcomm PPC 6700, I can run IRC (group chat), IM (individual chat), browse the web, and SSH (secure shell), and terminal services all at the same time. Or if I want, I can connect my phone to my laptop, and instantiate arbitrary network traffic that way.

It has a WiFi client in it, but I hardly use it because the EVDO network performs my network intensive tasks quite acceptably :-). You'd be hard pressed to perform all of these tasks simultaneously on a GSM network and find the performance acceptable. For this reason alone myself and many others will not be acquiring an iPhone:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jh tml?articleID=196900200

"The first customers of Apple's iPhone won't be traveling in the fast broadband lane much of the time. Transmission speeds over Cingular Wireless's Edge data network often drop down to dial-up speeds..."

I'm going to stick with Windows Mobile, and check out OpenMoko when it is available (although it is GSM based also, so I still cant imagine it completely replacing my Windows Mobile devices).

Hyperbole at best, utter bollocks at worst. Cite. Go on. All those new laptops being sold, they're all to "hardest core fanboys", are they? No, I'm not talking about the fraction of a per cent who want XP again, I'm talking about the 99.9x% of users who have it. Hard core fanboys, are they? You might want to consider a sedative - the rage and foaming-at-the-mouth apoplexies you get into on this whole issue surely can't be good for your holistic wellbeing.

http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArti cle.jhtml?articleID=199703115

FTA:
"Amazon's A9.com search engine pioneered the use of street images in its local search service back in January 2005....Former A9.com CEO Udi Manber now works at Google as a VP of engineering."

But how close are you to getting a product on the market - and can you compete with Microsoft on price? Computer GUI Revolution Continues With Microsoft Surface's Touchscreen, Object Recognition

ARIN didn't exist, and neither did that clause, when some of those IP blocks were handed out. For example, Karl Auerbach got a block pre-ARIN: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jh tml?articleID=199700668

Does it help that Adobe doesn't plan on making your creative suite Vista compatible?. You're gonna have to buy new versions moving to Vista... would it hurt trying to run them under Wine?

The attorneys general said that in 2006 the media reported almost 100 crimes involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children in the United States. They pointed to two cases in North Carolina, which is leading the charge to get answers from MySpace.

A former sheriff's deputy from was sentenced last year to 15 years in prison for molesting a 15-year-old North Carolina boy he met on MySpace. A North Carolina police officer was also arrested and charged with raping a 14-year-old girl he met on MySpace.

North Carolina, Connecticut, and other states have introduced legislation that would require social networking sites, like MySpace, to get parental permission before minors can register. In North Carolina, Cooper wants the legislature to pass a law that would make it a felony for convicted sex offenders to join social networking sites that include children.

Is this what you were looking for? InformationWeek | Galleries: Inside AMD's Phenom And Opteron Quad-Core Architectures

Microsoft has made the patents in question known to corporate Linux users and distributors, [Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's VP for intellectual property and licensing] said

Microsoft has made the patents in question known to corporate Linux users and distributors, [Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's VP for intellectual property and licensing] said

Yes, that's it" "No lawsuits" ... according to senior Microsoft Executives.

In addition there is a retort by Linus, here http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jh tml?articleID=199600443

and a scathing reply by OIN here, http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/press_release. php

and the ever insightful replies on Groklaw here: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200705151 25107293

It seems that this was again a case of Microsoft FUD and hot air. For which we can all be mighty gratefull I should think.

AMD's cool & quiet tech will shut down individual cores when you are not using them. I believe this is all new for the Barcelona. It idles down cores when you are not using them fully. It shuts off parts of cores that you aren't using (eg the FPU if you are only using integer instructions).

According to the last picture [imageID=9] in the Image Gallery, different cores on the same chipset can run at different voltages and different MHz's:

http://www.informationweek.com/galleries/showImage .jhtml?galleryID=30&imageID=9&articleID=199501467

"Funny, nowadays anything that has "trusted" in it seems to me like something I have to distrust..."

Can't image why. You all are trustworthy, right?

Someone already linked to the Linux client in another reply, but you should know that the Second Life server grid is built on Debian GNU/Linux.

In addition, the client (i.e. viewer), is open source licensed under the GPLv2. AND they have announced they will open source the server grid code as well. Seeing how the grid is built on Debian, it may even become a part of the Debian package repository so any Debian install can become a Second Life grid node with a simple apt-get install second-life-server.

Granted the code is still coming, but this is fairly exciting news for the GNU/Linux crowd nonetheless. At least I would hardly call this a Microsoft Windows-centric project.

Single page version of the story.

Obligatory link to the article all on one page

Vista mentioned eighteen times on the informationweek main page ..

Here is the printable version. Posted as anonymous to avoid karma whoring.

The obligatory link to the ad free, one page print version.

That's what happens when one uses MySQL, even for some applications that aren't search related ;)

Web apps tend to be far more susceptible to failure than traditional desktop-based applications. This is a widely known fact, that many people have written about. Here are a few such articles talking about when web apps go bad:

7 More Reasons Why Web Apps Fail

What's The Worst Web Application You've Ever Seen?

Web 2.0: A serious case of diarRIA.

AOL's AIM Today Beta: When Good Web Apps Go Bad

Web apps remain a trouble spot

Web apps ready for MySQL 5?

Technorati listed a lot more articles beyond those. So it's safe to say that web apps just don't offer the quality and reliability we'd expect from even the lousiest of desktop apps. At least when a desktop app fails, you usually are able to try to recover your data on your own, from files stored on your own system. But that's not something you can do with web apps. You'll just have to hope and pray that whoever manages the web app that just failed is able to recover your information.

Google, Intel, And Microsoft Fund Robot 'Recipes'

Abstract: Money from the three companies has enabled researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to create a series of Internet-connected robots that almost anyone can build using off-the-shelf parts.

By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
April 25, 2007
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.j html?articleID=199201449

Google, Intel, and Microsoft are funding what may become a robot invasion. Money from the three tech companies has enabled researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to create a new series of Internet-connected robots that almost anyone can build using off-the-shelf parts.

As part of the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK), a joint effort unveiled last summer between the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and Charmed Labs, associate professor of robotics Illah Nourbakhsh and members of his Community Robotics, Education, and Technology Empowerment (CREATE) Lab have created a series of "recipes" for robot building. (Those who recall The Twilight Zone will be relieved to find that "To Serve Man" is not among them.)

Possible robots range from a three-wheeled model with a mounted camera to a sensor-equipped flower.

The project's goal is to expand involvement in robotics.

The heart of the TeRK is the robot controller, called Qwerk, available from the Charmed Labs Web site ($349). The unit functions as an electronic brain and handles wireless Internet connectivity, motion control, and functions like sending and receiving photos or video, responding to RSS feeds, and searching the Net.

Qwerk is a Linux-based computer. It uses a field-programmable gate array to control motors, servos, cameras, amplifiers, and other devices. It also can accept USB peripheral devices, such as Web cameras and GPS receivers.

"We leveraged several low-cost, yet high-performance components that were originally developed for the consumer electronics industry when we designed Qwerk," said Rich LeGrand, president of Charmed Labs, in a statement. "The result is a cost-effective robot controller with impressive capabilities."

The robots are intended for practical uses, in addition to education and entertainment. They can be used for home or pet monitoring, for example. A future recipe being developed includes environmental sensors for measuring noise and air pollution.

Nourbakhsh doesn't subscribe "to geeky notions of what robots should be." That may explain one of the recipes that he and his team are working on: a controllable stuffed teddy bear.

Be afraid.

1. MS SQL - 61%
2. mSQL - 40%
3. MS Access - 38%
4. Oracle 10g - 22%
5. Oracle 9i - 20%

The survey ``asked developers at 517 companies in its 2006 winter survey what database they developed with'' with developers allowed to give multiple answers. It isn't clear to me why Oracle was split between two versions while none of the other databases were.