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...but rather target the iPhone...

Well, certainly not the iPhone. Maybe Android or the Pre, or if you really want a head start (e.g., a long time with no paycheck), Chrome.

But custom corporate software is where much of the professional money is made nowadays.

The European Commission has added another 899m ($1.35bn) to the fine Microsoft must pay for failing to comply with the original anti-trust ruling in 2004. The fine covers the period from the 2004 decision to 22 October, 2007. ... The commission announced in October 2007 that Microsoft was in full compliance with the 2004 decision, so these fines are about past issues that have been resolved.

Multi-billion euro fines link Choice quote from that:

The latest punishment brings the total of fines to just under 1.7 billion ($2.6 billion)

Seriously, just Google the stuff.

But, if the compilers are similar enough to create the same pseudocode/bytecode/ASM, or smart enough to save the source code, and use it for future comparisons, then wouldn't one patch be just as portable as the original source code?

It's a good theory and you're a smart person, but:

1. The compilers probably wouldn't be similar enough. Even developers who use GCC to compile something for Linux usually use Visual Studio to compile the same code for Windows. (The source code for Chrome, for example, shipped as a Visual Studio project.) Mac OS X likes to have everything written in Objective C, so that output would probably be very different.
2. Different operating systems rely on different shared libraries to do the same things. So a function call that opens a file in Linux might not look like a function call to do the same thing on Windows -- it might take a different number of arguments, for example, which means it would look rather different in machine language.

Portability doesn't appear to be Google's primary concern, though. They seem to be keen on the idea of delivering binaries over the wire (real binaries, not bytecode) -- see Google Native Client.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/windows-microsofts-red-headed-stepchild-075?page=0,1&source=IFWNLE_nlt_blogs_2009-07-13

From the article ...
"I recently spoke with an IT manager who was budgeting for an Office 2010 upgrade from Office 2003. I casually asked him what features he had deemed important enough to justify a $100,000 budget item. He thought for a minute and admitted that he couldn't think of a single one. So I asked the logical follow-up: Why are you buying it? He had no answer for that either. The $100,000 line item disappeared. He's also sticking with XP."

So basically you're saying that people can install MS Office or Dreamweaver, but not FileZilla?

Microsoft doesn't ship with Word unless it's a trial or you buy it. That doesn't change the fact that MS Office still has a market share of 95%.

"If you care about security, don't use a jailbroken iPhone," said security researcher Charlie Miller, speaking at the SyScan security conference in Singapore on Thursday.

The process removes around 80 percent of the security protections built into the phone's software, making it more vulnerable, Miller said.

If you observe the stats collected in this page of the article, one will see that Lenovo and Dell machines constitute a very high percentage of downgrades. However, the other manufacturers are starkly lower in comparison.

I can't help but believe that this is because Dell and Lenovo are the main suppliers of business laptops in the United States. It's a well-known fact that businesses are super slow at transitioning to new versions of anything significant, especially operating systems. If one is going to make this sensational claim, people in the server community might as well bicker about how adoption to Server 2008 is as slow as molasses right now.

This will naturally slow once Windows 7 comes to the forefront, but considering how the release dates between the two are so close (Vista came out in 2007, 7 is coming out late this year or next year) and how vastly improved 7 is to Vista, there's no net benefit for businesses to adopt to Vista on user machines.

It's not like this is new information; it's always been like this. The big difference is that Microsoft is now suffering from taking so goddamn long to release a "meh" operating system and then release the awesome so soon afterwards.

Let me make this as clear as I can make it: Neil McAllister is an idiot. Stop posting his "stories".

He is an idiot. Confusing "HTL Technologies" with "HTC" is a serious mistake (here is the original article he misquoted). It's cowboyish and sloppy. Such a blatant mistake couldn't have survived the watchful eyes of a fact-checker/editor. That being said, it speaks volume about Infoworld, and the kind of process it has for reviewing articles submitted to it.

I notice the Linux zealots modded me troll, that's funny as hell. I have karma to last until Judgment day so have fun.

If you would have read my post I said there was a REASON that you should use MSFT, and that is because as of late they seemed more concerned with the stock price that with their core business. Just look at Vista, which was rushed out way too early with serious bugs to keep the stock price from dropping further, or Zune(doesn't "playforsure" now, huh?) which was spit out to try to give them an Apple style buzz, the X360 which was rushed out with a serious flaw(RROD) to give them a head start on PS3, etc.

Meanwhile their core markets, the ones that cut them the big fat checks for software assurance and buy desktops by the thousands have been given the finger yet again. Why? Because Steve Ballmer wants the stock to be as high as Apple Inc and have the kind of buzz that Steve Jobs has. I can just imagine what it must be like in Steve Ballmer's office "And with Win7 we'll finally be as hip and as cool as Apple! We really will! Yes we will! STOP LAUGHING AT ME!!!!"

So say what you want about Bill Gates but that ruthless bastard could put out a good business OS. Ever since he left the company has bounced from one idea to another like all of Redmond has ADHD. I'm sure the Linux and Apple guys are laughing their asses off because we MSFT users are getting the same treatment Apple did under the Pepsi guy.

But anyone who has followed the comings and goings of MSFT(and I have since the days of Win3.xx) can say that they have lost their focus and seem more concerned about image and stock price than in putting out a good product. So that is why I think MSFT is a perfect shortcut for Microsoft and better than that tired old M$ line. MSFT points out that they care more about stock price than product, M$ makes you sound like a 14 year old asshat or Twitter. And is there anybody here BESIDES Twitter that wants to sound like him? Besides his sockpuppets of course.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/platforms/windows-inherently-more-vulnerable-malware-attacks-os-x-489?page=0,2

Time to tear that article up, point-by-point, & show WHERE + HOW points in my article show how to do so:

(Here we go, & with how on EACH POINT I DISPUTE HERE, from this page -> See, "STEP #1 of 12 - SECURING SERVICES @ THE ACL/Security SID + POLICIES LEVELS" here -> http://www.xtremepccentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=8836f6b40cf558ad4c613e2c72251270&t=28430 for verification of any statements I make here)

"All Windows background processes/daemons are spawned from a single hyper-privileged process and referred to as services.

By default, Windows launches all services with SYSTEM-level privileges.

SYSTEM is a pseudo-user (LocalSystem) that trumps Administrator (like UNIX's root) in privileges. SYSTEM cannot be used to log in, but it also has no password, no login script, no shell and no environment, therefore"

See point # 1 of the security guide I wrote, entitled "STEP #1 of 12 - SECURING SERVICES @ THE ACL/Security SID + POLICIES LEVELS"

There? Well - I SHOW ANYONE HOW SIMPLE/EASY IT IS TO RUN ANY SERVICE AS LESS THAN SYSTEM!

(In fact, "oddly enough? I mention MacOS, because just like in MacOS X & its daemons, Windows users can control this & set services to run in LESS THAN SYSTEM SERVICE (not all do, but many if not most, can be altered to do so & function perfectly))

Yes, even on older Windows 2000 (but, you have to make a lesser priveleged user here, piece of cake, just like Windows XP &/or Windows Server 2003 already do in less priveleged users/groups already)

"The activity of SYSTEM is next to impossible to control or log."

What? This is doable but WHY BOTHER, when you can just assign a service to another "log on" entity, other than SYSTEM, in any service's properties -> Log On tab... as I noted above & in STEP #1 of my security guide for Windows users!

"Most of the code running on any Windows system at a given time is related to services, most or all of which run with SYSTEM privileges, therefore"

First of all - there is a lot of OTHER code running too (drivers, @ RPL 0/RING 0 along w/ system core kernel code AND usermode programs that run under the privelege context of the user logged in running them)

Secondly & Again - Many of which CAN be altered for backgrounded services as I noted above, IF IT IS SERVICES INVOLVED!

(Once more - It's simple to run as lesser priveleged user entities you have already as many services DO allow (LOCAL SERVICE, or NETWORK SERVICE)... AND? Windows XP &/or Server 2003 service packs even set some of them to less than "SYSTEM" once they were applied also (from the oem install defaults))

This is ALL noted in my article - Mr. Tom Yager of INFOWORLD must have overlooked its points!

"Successful infection of running Windows software carries a good chance of access to SYSTEM privileges."

Not "unique to Windows" by ANY means:

Privelege Escalation Exploits exist on MacOS X now, currently, & ARE UNPATCHED - This sword? Cuts 2 ways...

Fact is - The SINGLE KNOWN SECURITY VULNERABILITY THAT EXISTS FOR MACOS X in fact? Lists this @ SECUNIA.COM as a possible (along with DOS/DDOS & System Access, that also 'come along for the ride' on that one).

"Windows buries most privileged software, service executables and configuration files in a single, unstructured massive directory (SYSTEM32) that is frequently used by third parties. Windows will notify you on an attempt to overwrite one of its own system files stored

You spent #2,000 for a Mac?

Actually, the day I left the windows world was when I came home from work, found that there was a lovely little love letter from the OS, "Disk not found." Disk shit itself due to motherboard failure. I needed a new motherboard, a new HD, a new PSU(Voltages were a little funny when I went to check whether or not the board failed because I bought the cheapest PSU I could find), and other various pieces of new hardware.

Instead, I bought a Mac Mini. $500 bucks. Came with XCode too. My crappy choices in hardware wasn't what pushed me to buy a Mac. I knew that I chose the cheapest parts on the market, and I got what I paid for. I knew I was going to buy an OEM machine instead of build a new one because I now really don't have the care to choose good parts, choose good suppliers and build the whole thing. When I considered new hardware I also considered a new OS. Sun puts out a Solaris box for under a grand and that was tempting, but the Mini was simply cheaper and had *much* better app support.

It's got security issues galore in it's time too

yes, because Linux boxes are more likely to run stuff like ssh services, web services, ftp services, so on and so forth. That's where the security failures are.

& other hassles (sound system coding Adobe said, for instance, is a nightmare & recently, ext4 caused file damage/losses & still does if a coder doesn't alter his coding (how many can be reached for that @ once etc. et al) for filesystem usages, forcing wholesale rebuilds of any app that talks to the system possibly (not all, but most do though for MANY things)... printer support, & usb problems are others I have heard over time, as well as the "this runs on Windows but not Linux" variety (Gigabyte IRAM, anyone, as a SINGLE example with many more I could put out?))

and this is why I bought a mac! :D

Further more:

http://www.infoworld.com/t/platforms/windows-inherently-more-vulnerable-malware-attacks-os-x-489?page=0,2

QED.

So I can just download Opera and have it all work with out an Opera account? Nope, won't work, sorry. whoever is sharing HAS to have an Opera account.

So tell me mods, how exactly is this offtopic? he claimed that it would "decentralize the web" and I pointed out in the very article that was on Slashodt yesterday, and I again quote "Although Opera Unite claims to "directly link people's personal computers together," to use it you need an account on Opera's servers, and all of your exchanges pass through Opera's servers first.That's an effective way to get around technical difficulties like NAT firewalls, but more important, it makes Opera the intermediary in your social interactions -- not Facebook, not MySpace, but Opera."

Don't believe me? Read it yourself. The simple fact is if you have NAT there is NO WAY to use this at all without Opera servers as the MiTM, okay? And who doesn't use NAT in this day and age? Hell even my 67 year old dad who doesn't have a fricking clue about computers has a wireless router doing NAT.

So mod me down ALL you want, I've got enough karma to burn for centuries. Did I say Opera was bad? Nope, my oldest won't even touch anything else. But don't lie and say the sky is pink when it is blue. The simple fact is you CAN'T use this new feature without an Opera account. Sorry, but it just don't work, because it was designed to go through Opera's servers. So all you are doing with Opera Unite is moving the central server from Facebook to Opera. Sorry, but that doesn't sound very revolutionary to me.

Uuhhhh....I really hate to rain on your parade and all, but you do know that Opera Unite will send everything through Opera's servers right?

Allow me to quote you a snippet of the relevant text "Although Opera Unite claims to "directly link people's personal computers together," to use it you need an account on Opera's servers, and all of your exchanges pass through Opera's servers first."

So I'm afraid it doesn't work like you think it does. All it does is move the central hub from Facebook to Opera. Considering how low their marketshare is I really doubt everyone is going to switch browsers just so they can see Aunt Marsha's new vacation photos. And considering that Opera is the only main browser besides IE that is closed source and proprietary frankly nobody should be surprised.

I predict Opera will hang on for another year or two, thanks to their mobile division, but eventually that will be taken by Google or Apple or Mobile Mozilla and then they will be kaput. Damned shame, as during the IE5 period they really had a shot of gaining a chunk of the market, but they never really knew how to market Opera effectively.

The 1st such war involved Estonia and Russia (and its sympathizers). The war was sparked by the moving of a bronze statue of a Russian soldier on April 27, 2007. Russians in both Russia and elsewhere were outraged. According to the article published by "The Guardian", "The [Internet] attacks have been pouring in from all over the world, but Estonian officials and computer security experts say that, particularly in the early phase, some attackers were identified by their internet addresses - many of which were Russian, and some of which were from Russian state institutions."

Computerworld published an article about the incident. The Estonian government convicted an ethnic Russian (living in Estonia) of the crime. However, other cyber thugs (working for the Kremlin) also contributed to the attack, but these criminals live outside Estonia and are beyond the reach of its justice system.

Note that Estonia was part of the democratization wave that swept Eastern Europe around 1990. The Kremlin had brutalized and occupied Estonia for about 45 years. If an Estonian had opposed the occupation, Russian "security" forces would have killed him. Thousands of Estonians died at the hands of the Russian occupiers.

Despite this decades-long tyranny, the Estonians revolted against their Russian occupiers and established a liberal Western democracy and a free market in 1991. That is how people act when they truly want freedom and free markets.

By contrast, in 1979, after the Iranians overthrew the despotic government supported by Washington, the Iranians immediately established a brutal Islamic theocracy. That is how people act when they reject both freedom and free markets.

Cultures are different. Estonian culture and Iranian culture are different. The Iranian people are 100% responsible for creating a brutal theocracy. They are 100% responsible for the terrorist acts funded and conducted by Tehran.

Here are some articles on the topic of what is wrong with javascript.

Certainly the speed issue is or has been resolved with impressive recent results. Hopefully that trend will continue.

I don't agree with the strong typing but then that's just me.

Here they are, all with the title "What is wrong with Javascript" funny enough!

http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2006/02/27/WhatIsWrongWithJavaScript.aspx
http://service.compuskills.co.uk/blog/2007/01/17/what-is-wrong-with-javascript/
http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/getting-smart-about-languages-and-libraries-836

The bottom line for me is that I want MY TOOLS and LANGUAGE(s) that I use for projects rather than having so called "standards" forced on me.

If you like JavaScript all the more power to you.

If you like freedom to choose your own destiny then all the more power to both of us!

Native Clients for POWER USERS in the BROWSER!
http://code.google.com/events/io/sessions/NativeClientUsingNativeCode.html

One hop :
http://www.infoworld.com/t/platforms/sco-strikes-gold-verizon-just-strikes-728
Microsoft bought $6 million of "licenses" to SCO in 2003.

If the business demands MS Exchange, then OWA in "Light Mode" is all you get in FF.

It's true currently, but it looks like it's going to change in Exchange 2010, which opens up interesting possibilities.

Why the fuck should I have to do the work when experts in the field such as Bruce Schneier has done it for me? of course I guess that Forbes magazine and Bruce Schneier are "less than half a chromosome closer to a chimpanzee" because they don't want a bloated piece of spying pig shit like Vista. Want some more Mr Troll? How about Shane O'Neil of CIO.com writing on PCWorld for the perspective of enterprise companies in all this. His answer: XP works and Vista don't.

I could go on all day troll. I could wallpaper this page with link after link after link, by heads of corporations, by security experts, and of course by the users that have been burnt. Vista is a POS. Accept it and quit sucking the Ballmer cock. If you want an Apple so bad buy one. Ballmer is just as shitty a CEO as the Pepsi guy was for Apple Inc, he just has more money he can piss down a rat hole before they fire his monkey ass. Hell even their own executives got burnt on the whole Vista capable fiasco. Vista is DOA and I wouldn't be surprised if Windows 7 is just as big a can of fail.

Maybe after the next one bombs we can get Steve Ballmer fired and bring in someone who actually will give the customers what they want instead of wanting to be a ripoff of Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. But enjoy your big can of Vista failure troll, suck it down baby! As soon as Win7 comes out they will abandon you just like they did the WinME users a decade ago. Meanwhile I'm making the cash by cranking out new XP builds as fast as I can get the parts. I guess all those customers who are handing me money hand over fist just can't see the Vista "advantage" of protected media either, huh?

Lost perhaps in the fervor over "eating into Windows' share of PC operating systems" is the fact that Microsoft doesn't seem to -- or doesn't want to appear to seem to -- care.

Although it may be a case of CYA, or a byproduct of some Wintel partnership fine print, Microsoft has said it has no plans to port a PC version of Windows over to the ARM core, in a sense leaving the whole "smartbooks" market Linux and Android.

And though it may be true that an Intel deal, a desire not to eat into its own Windows netbook/notebook revenue, or the difficulty of porting a worthwhile version of Windows to ARM is at the heart of this deference to Android, you have to wonder whether there is some grain of truth to the fact that it is 'hard to create new categories' of technology, as Microsoft is claiming in relation to its stated disinterest in "smartbooks."

Asustek appears to have already scuttled this project, calling the technology 'not mature' and disavowing any pressure from Microsoft and Intel over the use of Android and Snapdragon in the Eee PC.

Of course, the Android-based Eee was demonstrated by Qualcomm, not Asustek. Yet, Asustek's distancing itself from the machine while competitors like Acer are announcing Android plans is a little bit intriguing.

Asustek appears to have already scuttled this project, calling the technology 'not mature' and disavowing any pressure from Microsoft and Intel over the use of Android and Snapdragon in the Eee PC.

Of course, the Android-based Eee was demonstrated by Qualcomm, not Asustek. Yet, Asustek's distancing itself from the machine while competitors like Acer are announcing Android plans is a little bit intriguing.

Aza Raskin, Mozilla head of user experience and the one who is spearheading Jetpack, has stated (one link deep from TFA) ""The question we asked ourselves is what [would happen] if any eighth-grader that can write a Web page [could] fundamentally enhance the functionality of the browser"", and TFA states a "goal of allowing anyone who can build a Web site to participate in making the Web a better place to work, communicate and play".

The majority of people don't know HTML, let alone CSS, and then add to that a JavaScript requirement. Now that we have established a population base, of the people who know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, how many are using Firefox? Who in their right mind would want to do anything complicated in JavaScript without firebug (and its associated FirePHP for PHP AJAX developers), as well as extensions such as Web Developer, DOM Inspector, Live HTTP Headers, etc...

If one defines the new breed of "major web surfers" as Web 2.0 Mashup creators, it should be apparent that this new breed of "major web surfer" would refuse to be crippled by Internet Explorer. Its only if you retain the old skool view of couch potato surfing content consumer that IE market share dominates.

Disclaimer: I hold these truths to be self-evident, but only time will tell.

Security experts say that if you're using a fully patched system with up-to-date security software, you should be protected from these attacks. To date, they've worked by hitting the victim with malicious PDF or Flash files.

Um... it should also be noted that CodeGear was purchased by Embarcadero last year

What is scary is those videos are showing the head of one of the most powerful fortune 500 companies. The guy comes off as a cross between a used car salesman and a self help guru. And the microsoft shills can mark anything negative about Ballmer as flamebait ALL you want, I have enough karma I really don't give a shit.

What I DO give a shit about is a company (MSFT) that I have been supporting for nearly 15 years has been run into the ground by the piss poor management and direction of Ballmer. Ever since he took over the company has been hopping from one idea to the next like it has ADHD, while its CORE market, the business and enterprise desktop, has been all but ignored as Ballmer has chased the home users in his attempt to be as hip as Jobs. Vista is a complete and total failure, the Xbox 360 has been hemorrhaging cash, their attempts to get into search and the cloud have been disasters....hell can you name me ONE thing besides MS Office, which from what I've read has basically been left alone by Ballmer, that hasn't been a failure under Ballmer? I bet you can't. He is simply a lousy CEO.

The company has lost focus and direction, they are for some reason chasing a market that they already have a lock on (home users) while at the same time risking the market (business) that could most easily switch to another OS like OSX or Linux. I could fill this post with links of many saying the exact same thing as this, but why bother? Everytime I have dared say Ballmer is a bad CEO or that Win7 risks going down the Vista road of failure I have had the post marked up only to have it then buried under flamebait or troll for daring to say Win7 has no clothes. So mark me down ALL you want. MSFT will keep losing market share and Ballmer will keep stumbling from one failed idea to another, until finally the board gets tired of the waste and fires his dumb ass.

By completely destroying backwards compatibility and not bothering to give a transition period (As Apple did with OS9-OSX) they have screwed the one thing that has kept businesses buying their product-the fact that their old apps will continue to function. His answer of "Running XP in VPC" for Win7 is about as lame and pointless as you can get. Whereas with OS9->OSX you could still run your apps because it was close to the bare metal and simply used a translation layer, with Win7 those apps that companies depend on will have the choice of running slower than before or being broken. And mark my words, screwing up all those apps and screwing all that hardware by not supporting XP drivers WILL come back to bite them in the ass with Win7, just as it did with Vista.

I don't think I EVER read anyone say "Vista is the same as XP" except those that were being made fun of for buying the turkey. Vista feels like Steve Ballmer disparately trying to be Steve Jobs and it just hurts. It is bloated, slow, doesn't seem to work with shit, by radically changing the driver model they screwed so much hardware it ain't funny, it brought back problems I frankly thought had died with Win9x (Need to reboot after the network connection craps itself and dies? WTF?) All in all it was just a truly nasty OS.

Linux guys, be getting your A game together, because you are about to get your shot. The home users that I've talked to that have heard about Win7 are thinking it will be some magical XP SP4 that will make all their Vista troubles go away. When they find out it is Vista SP2 they are going to run away in droves. A total ignorant buffoon like Ballmer don't get dropped in your lap every day. Reading articles like this tells me that Ballmer is liable to yet again give the bird to businesses and IT trying to be Steve Jobs. You guys already work with enterprise gear like network printers, now you need to push that it is "easy enough for sally secretary" and the grunts in the front office. Remember, if you get them to using it at work, they will be more likely to want it at home.

But if Win7 bombs out and business don't jump on the Win7 bandwagon I'm sure Ballmer will be retired and they will bring in someone who actually knows about business, probably from the office division. So make it good and make it count.

I don't think I EVER read anyone say "Vista is the same as XP" except those that were being made fun of for buying the turkey. Vista feels like Steve Ballmer disparately trying to be Steve Jobs and it just hurts. It is bloated, slow, doesn't seem to work with shit, by radically changing the driver model they screwed so much hardware it ain't funny, it brought back problems I frankly thought had died with Win9x (Need to reboot after the network connection craps itself and dies? WTF?) All in all it was just a truly nasty OS.

Linux guys, be getting your A game together, because you are about to get your shot. The home users that I've talked to that have heard about Win7 are thinking it will be some magical XP SP4 that will make all their Vista troubles go away. When they find out it is Vista SP2 they are going to run away in droves. A total ignorant buffoon like Ballmer don't get dropped in your lap every day. Reading articles like this tells me that Ballmer is liable to yet again give the bird to businesses and IT trying to be Steve Jobs. You guys already work with enterprise gear like network printers, now you need to push that it is "easy enough for sally secretary" and the grunts in the front office. Remember, if you get them to using it at work, they will be more likely to want it at home.

But if Win7 bombs out and business don't jump on the Win7 bandwagon I'm sure Ballmer will be retired and they will bring in someone who actually knows about business, probably from the office division. So make it good and make it count.

http://www.infoworld.com/print/73433

And I belong to the cult of "why the fuck you can not see the "print" link, you ass?" cult.

http://www.infoworld.com/print/73433

http://www.infoworld.com/print/73433

But that doesn't make any sense either, because then you could get sued for a situation like this: A) Create a website that violates some law in one country that is part of the EU, such as distributing Nazi texts which (as far as I know) is illegal in Germany, but legal in some EU nations such as the UK (where they actually have some shell of freedom of speech) B) The website is hosted in a legal country such as the UK and all maintainers of it live, work, and have all financial ties in the UK C) Germany brings charges against you That just doesn't make any sense (not that most governments do), and seems contrary to having independent nation's laws rather then general EU laws.

Umm, maybe you're joking, but that actually happened.

See my subject line, you fucking incompetent MBA fake? The bottom of that post tells the real story about 'networking scumbags' like you that are ruining the United States of America with your crooked slimy ways. Evidence thereof? Ok, again:

----

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/even-dirtier-it-jobs-muck-stops-here-002?page=0,6 [infoworld.com]

"I could prove a large percentage of senior management did no actual work at all," says Grimes. "These guys were making several hundred thousands dollars a year, and all they did all day long was surf porn."

----

WoW... nuff said, I've seen it myself - couldn't agree MORE! Out trash, out: Get us competent leaders in business, that grew from "within the ranks" & can actually DO THE JOB, as well as their subordinates OR better!

I mean, do you want MORE evidence? Here tis:

Look around @ the results in the USA, & when you have these MBA wannabe's doing a 'blind leading the blind', & they make PISS POOR DECISIONS!

I.E.-> They don't KNOW enough to make good solid long-term decisions... Gotta be this, or worse (crookery)...

(or, isn't the latest financial, real estate, & other industrial debacles not proof thereof for me, sadly though?)

Hey - Either they're incompetent STUPID, or are just the biggest damned crooks & greedy scum there is! (& I dislike calling ANYONE stupid, but when you don't know how to do the jobs of your subordinates & as GOOD as they do @ least? THIS IS WHAT YOU GET!)

(Take your pick - incompetence, or crooks, because I don't see another possible answer, & YES - I blame our 'fearless leaders' because with that greater pay you PAY YOURSELVES? You DO get greater responsibility, INCLUDING "OWNING UP TO" your OWN screwup(s))

E.G.? Ok - AIG, & doing their "paying myself performance bonuses" didn't make any sense & was further evidence of their 'crookery' (because their performance was, to be blunt about it? WAS/IS for shit!)...

APK

P.S.=> "Your kind", fake scumbags, are ruin on the hoof... pieces of SHIT like you? Ought to be hauling garbage @ best, but instead, you're leading this nation into the garbage heap... apk

Not to toot my own horn, but I predicted Oracle would buy Sun before the deal was announced -- but I didn't do it months ago.

Somebody reads Infoworld?

Right.

Months ago? Lots of analysts? Hmmm. I think maybe it's easier to "foresee" this type of stuff in hindsight.

Not to toot my own horn, but I predicted Oracle would buy Sun before the deal was announced -- but I didn't do it months ago. I didn't hear anyone else talking about it months ago, either. And when I made the prediction, the consensus here on Slashdot seemed to be that it was a terrible idea. So if you can point to some references from months ago I'd love to see them. I don't think anybody was really even thinking much about Oracle/Sun before the talks with IBM made the news -- I know I wasn't -- especially considering that Sun had consistently maintained that it was doing fine and didn't need any help from anybody.

So it doesn't completely surprise me that Ballmer didn't see this coming -- though maybe he's not as shocked as he's pretending to be. By acting surprised, he makes it sound like he wouldn't have made this deal himself, which makes it sound like he might not think the deal is a good idea, which is a totally self-serving position for Microsoft to take.

It does seem a little strange that IBM is acting surprised, though. By all accounts they had exclusive rights to negotiate with Sun for a set period of time, and they let that period elapse. What did they expect? Maybe they didn't believe Sun would be able to leave the table and arrive at a firm deal with a different suitor so quickly, but that seems a little foolish on their part, if it's true.

Furthermore, your "fair share" is determined on how productive in enterprising you are. The more you stimulate the economy, the more you're penalized for it.

This argument is based on the assumption that those who are payed more in our society are more hard working and productive. As any fool can tell you, in reality the exact opposite of this assumption holds. Typically the more you are paid, the less productive you are.

While there are exceptions, it is safe to say that those on the lower end of the payscale work very hard jobs for very long hours, whereas those in high paid executive positions are on a gravy train, with high salaries, bonuses, short hours, little responsibility and who actually do atrociously little work.

The truth, and it is something that many simply cannot bear to face, is that the wealth of many individuals has very little to do with their own productivity and labour, and very much to do with the productivity and labour of the many people who work for them. This notion was, and still is, denied by many, particularly whose at the top end of the pay scale, who struggle to find some rationalisation for why they, who spend most of their day idle, spewing out buzzwords, on telephone calls, making powerpoint presentations or surfing for porn, should receive an order of magnitude or more compensation for their day than the people on the factory floor who visibly sweat in order to make their living. It's a powerful juxtaposition and one which I'm sure people in top paying jobs are subconsciously uncomfortable with. Hence they rationalise. Oh do they rationalise.

Read Galbraith's book, "The Great Crash", where he analyises the 1929 stock market crash. Among other things, he argues that one of the main causes of the crash was the huge wealth disparity between the super rich and everyone else. Basically, there were a small number of people who had sucked up a sizable proportion of the money in the US, and gave nothing in return. When they stopped spending, the whole system froze up. They were essentially black holes which money flowed into, but never out of. Consumption taxes wouldn't have helped. Their money was idle and remained so.

So I don't buy this idea about the "injustice" of taxing higher earners. In my opinion, the true leaches in our society are the people in top positions who sit around doing nothing while creaming off the labour of others. they are the true parasites, and they are ultimately the ones who got us into the current crises we now find ourselves in. I'm not a communist, but I don't buy the idea that people should receive unlimited compensation simply because they had a rich parent, an expensive education and the right contacts. And make no mistake, those are the only qualifications that 90% of business managers have today.

"Why in the world would they want to put a permanent link to these onto the internet where people can randomly poke holes in the security?"

To save money, cause it's cheaper than leased lines. Same with ATM machine. Put ATM machines running Windows on the Internet and you end up with this and this.

' Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials'

"There are intrusions, and they are growing .. There were a lot last year"

'Many of the intrusions were detected not by the companies in charge of the infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said. Intelligence officials worry about cyber attackers taking control of electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the Internet'

Given the great Northeast Blackout of Aug 14 2003 and a similar incident at a Davis-Besse nuclear power plant the previous January, why is the US still using the Internet to control the power grid? And that's assuming that any of the above is even true.
-------

PROTHERO: Do you believe this crap, Dascombe?

DASCOMBE: It's not our job to believe it, Lewis. Our job is to tell the people --

PROTHERO: "Exactly what they tell us." I Know but do you think that people will believe it?

DASCOMBE: They will if it's you that's telling it to them. Now let's try it again.

Hm, I found this http://www.infoworld.com/print/32937 link to be more printfriendly.

Your link is for the older article, and seems to redirect back to the horrible paginated version. This link is hopefully more helpful.

Dude, noticed the "Print" button on the article in the first page ? Learn to use it.

Here's the link it sends you to.
http://www.infoworld.com/print/70002

Click here: http://www.infoworld.com/print/70002

Just go to the print view.

And remember that its like this because not that long ago the world's "netizens" said in a collective voice "A website that wants to charge us $10.00 a year or 25 cents a shot to read their articles can rot in hell."

Or just link to the printable version of the article in question (where possible), to save the 8 extra hits to their server to read the whole thing. Although... maybe that's their problem.

Hey, we can't all have careers at Google. Sometimes when you work in IT, you have to hold your nose and hope for the best.

Last year we named "The 7 dirtiest jobs in IT [1]," but we barely scratched the topic's grime-caked surface. In the world of technology, there's plenty of dirt to go around.

You may be ordered to crawl into the nastiest corners of your office -- or to explore the nastiest corners of the Web. You may be required to stare zombie-like at a network monitoring console, waiting (possibly hoping) for the alarms to go off, or be chained to an endless series of spreadsheets and Word docs, looking for minute differences in data. You may end up berated, belittled, or sobbed at for circumstances that have nothing to do with you.

And at some point in your IT career, you will probably be asked to spy on your fellow employees -- or even your boss -- and fearlessly report what you find.

[ Have your own tale of dirty duty in IT? Share it in our forum [2]. ]

These seven jobs are not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. But they're out there; in these dark economic times, you might consider yourself lucky to have one of them.

Dirty IT job No. 7: Disconnect/reconnect specialist
Wanted: Able-bodied individuals with affinity for adapters, plugs, prongs, and dongles; willing to crawl under desks and squeeze into tight spaces that have never seen daylight. Strong stomach required.

Disconnect machines from one site, reconnect them at another. It sounded so simple Garth Callaghan couldn't quite believe someone would pay his company, 127tech [3], to do it. Now he employs three full-time employees and 30 contractors, who spend half their time unplugging and replugging machines for commercial movers in Richmond, Va.

But don't think they don't earn their money.

Most businesses have been in the same location for a long time, says Callaghan, and many of their employees haven't budged from their desks in 5 or 10 years. That can make for a rather mucky experience.

Occupational hazards include dust bunnies the size of basketballs, displays coated in soot, keyboards with enough food lodged in them to feed a small third-world country or, in one recent case, caked with a viscous layer of cosmetics.

In the three years his company has been in business, Callaghan and his crew have probably unplugged and replugged 10,000 workstations. But one in particular stands out.

<!-- pagebreak -->

"One day a couple of years ago, one of my crew members was struggling to get some cables loose from between a workstation and a wall," he says. "I said, 'Don't worry, I'm the owner of the company, I'll take responsibility if the cable breaks.' I grabbed the cable and started to shimmy it up. It wouldn't budge. Finally I yanked really hard. Out popped a bottle of Italian salad dressing, three-quarters empty. It had leaked all over the wall, the desk, and the computer. When I looked at the label I saw it was two years past its expiration date."

Callaghan says that while the experience did not put him off Italian dressing, it will be burned in his memory forever.

"My entire crew has to shower down after our job," he adds. "It's not quite 'Silkwood,' but sometimes it feels that way."

Dirty IT job No. 6: Data crisis counselor
Wanted: Empathetic individual able to withstand long bouts of unwarranted abuse; soothing phone manner and low blood pressure essential.

When disaster strikes and critical data goes down the memory hole, it can generate a gamut of unpleasant emotions -- tears, depression, guilt, hopelessness, and rage.

[ For more on the grimy side of IT, see the original

Hey, we can't all have careers at Google. Sometimes when you work in IT, you have to hold your nose and hope for the best.

Last year we named "The 7 dirtiest jobs in IT [1]," but we barely scratched the topic's grime-caked surface. In the world of technology, there's plenty of dirt to go around.

You may be ordered to crawl into the nastiest corners of your office -- or to explore the nastiest corners of the Web. You may be required to stare zombie-like at a network monitoring console, waiting (possibly hoping) for the alarms to go off, or be chained to an endless series of spreadsheets and Word docs, looking for minute differences in data. You may end up berated, belittled, or sobbed at for circumstances that have nothing to do with you.

And at some point in your IT career, you will probably be asked to spy on your fellow employees -- or even your boss -- and fearlessly report what you find.

[ Have your own tale of dirty duty in IT? Share it in our forum [2]. ]

These seven jobs are not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. But they're out there; in these dark economic times, you might consider yourself lucky to have one of them.

Dirty IT job No. 7: Disconnect/reconnect specialist
Wanted: Able-bodied individuals with affinity for adapters, plugs, prongs, and dongles; willing to crawl under desks and squeeze into tight spaces that have never seen daylight. Strong stomach required.

Disconnect machines from one site, reconnect them at another. It sounded so simple Garth Callaghan couldn't quite believe someone would pay his company, 127tech [3], to do it. Now he employs three full-time employees and 30 contractors, who spend half their time unplugging and replugging machines for commercial movers in Richmond, Va.

But don't think they don't earn their money.

Most businesses have been in the same location for a long time, says Callaghan, and many of their employees haven't budged from their desks in 5 or 10 years. That can make for a rather mucky experience.

Occupational hazards include dust bunnies the size of basketballs, displays coated in soot, keyboards with enough food lodged in them to feed a small third-world country or, in one recent case, caked with a viscous layer of cosmetics.

In the three years his company has been in business, Callaghan and his crew have probably unplugged and replugged 10,000 workstations. But one in particular stands out.

<!-- pagebreak -->

"One day a couple of years ago, one of my crew members was struggling to get some cables loose from between a workstation and a wall," he says. "I said, 'Don't worry, I'm the owner of the company, I'll take responsibility if the cable breaks.' I grabbed the cable and started to shimmy it up. It wouldn't budge. Finally I yanked really hard. Out popped a bottle of Italian salad dressing, three-quarters empty. It had leaked all over the wall, the desk, and the computer. When I looked at the label I saw it was two years past its expiration date."

Callaghan says that while the experience did not put him off Italian dressing, it will be burned in his memory forever.

"My entire crew has to shower down after our job," he adds. "It's not quite 'Silkwood,' but sometimes it feels that way."

Dirty IT job No. 6: Data crisis counselor
Wanted: Empathetic individual able to withstand long bouts of unwarranted abuse; soothing phone manner and low blood pressure essential.

When disaster strikes and critical data goes down the memory hole, it can generate a gamut of unpleasant emotions -- tears, depression, guilt, hopelessness, and rage.

[ For more on the grimy side of IT, see the original

One-page link.

just look at the link! http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/04/01/13NF-microsoft-April-Fools_1.html

Indeed, in fact this happened in Belgium with them collectively asking for US$77M.

Eventually the two reached a settlement whereby G didn't show their cached results

a history of the case

While I think your idea of bringing back plus packs is a GREAT idea, as it would cut the bloat without having 400 fricking versions of the OS, there is another idea from that time I believe they desperately need to bring back as well: The WinNT/Win9x divide. Remember how if you remember how if you wanted a HOME OS you could actually BUY a home OS, and if you just wanted to get your work done there was an actual business OS? Now they put out the same bloated as hell, multimedia choked, bling bling to the top, I want to be OSX so damned bad it hurts OS and just cripple a few features for the home market.

That is NOT a business OS. A Windows business OS is a fugly, plain, low resource using, backwards compatible OS with minimum bells and wells and good GPO management. That is why to this day I still say Win2K Pro was the best business OS MSFT has ever made, and frankly everything since then has been downhill. There wasn't any added themes support or multimedia bling bling junk in the Win2K of goodness. Nope, just fugly Grey solid as a rock business goodness. Of course that is why you have tons of sites that show you how to turn Win2K8 server into a workstation. It is because ever since Vista all the business user(one of the most lucrative and largest markets MSFT has) has gotten from MSFT is the finger. It is also why infoworld is declaring Win7 is going to be yet another dud to the enterprise and SMB markets.

That is why I am making this prediction: Win7 is going to be another dud. MSFT has seemed to forgotten that folks want to use at home what they use at the office. That is why I have many customers that still insist on Win2K or WinXP, because that is what they use at work and that is what they want at home. The only good I foresee coming from Win7 is that they may finally fire that damned monkey Ballmer. He has had the company hopping from one boneheaded idea to another like they have ADHD, and his Apple and Google envy is frankly dragging the company down the toilet. If folks wanted an Apple they would BUY a bloody Apple! But of course I'm not the only one that thinks the best thing that can happen is Ballmer be given his walking papers. Bring back the plus packs and for the love of Deity bring back actual Business OSes. Because the shit they are shoveling now sure as hell don't cut it.

I wonder how much Microsoft's Malicious Software reporting tool would be to help in targeting specific systems?

Botnet fighters have another tool in their arsenal, thanks to Microsoft. The software vendor is giving law enforcers access to a special tool that keeps tabs on botnets, using data compiled from the 450 million computer users who have installed the Malicious Software Removal tool that ships with Windows.

See: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/29/Microsoft-botnet-hunting-tool-helps-bust-hackers_1.html

Microsoft had not previously talked about its botnet tool, but it turns out that it was used by police in Canada to make a high-profile bust earlier this year.

Someone care to expand on the above??? I've googled some but came up with nothing so far.