Slashdot Mirror

konstant writes: "Microsoft has published a document on its TechNet security site providing most of the information in the infamous CAB file plus sample code. There appears to be no onerous license this time." Well, it's not the *whole thing* but has lots of useful info about Microsoft's Kerberos implementation. Strange note: the page where this appears has a footer that says, "Last updated January 21, 2000," but when I did a search on Microsoft.com during our little tussle with them last month, I didn't find it.

konstant writes: "Microsoft has published a document on its TechNet security site providing most of the information in the infamous CAB file plus sample code. There appears to be no onerous license this time." Well, it's not the *whole thing* but has lots of useful info about Microsoft's Kerberos implementation. Strange note: the page where this appears has a footer that says, "Last updated January 21, 2000," but when I did a search on Microsoft.com during our little tussle with them last month, I didn't find it.

Snoop Baron writes: "Microsoft has released information about C# on their Visual Studio homepage; the article includes an early version of their C# Language Reference. After having browsed the C# Language Reference PDF I believe they have made some mistakes that Java thankfully avoids. What do you think?"

Snoop Baron writes: "Microsoft has released information about C# on their Visual Studio homepage; the article includes an early version of their C# Language Reference. After having browsed the C# Language Reference PDF I believe they have made some mistakes that Java thankfully avoids. What do you think?"

Snoop Baron writes: "Microsoft has released information about C# on their Visual Studio homepage; the article includes an early version of their C# Language Reference. After having browsed the C# Language Reference PDF I believe they have made some mistakes that Java thankfully avoids. What do you think?"

Meenky writes: "I heard on NPR that Microsoft announced their newest product, .net. This is a product that integrates with windows using XML to store all of your information on Microsoft servers, so any computer in the world can be used as "your" computer. "

Meenky writes: "I heard on NPR that Microsoft announced their newest product, .net. This is a product that integrates with windows using XML to store all of your information on Microsoft servers, so any computer in the world can be used as "your" computer. "

xype writes "I just got a mail from NaN (the company developing Blender) that the new 1.8 release is out now - and it's freeware, without any "optional features one needs to pay for"! B@rt of NaN also gets into detail about NaN's plans around opensourcing parts of Blender." For those in the dark, Blender is a 3D Modeling/Rendering application for Linux [Update by nik: And FreeBSD (freebsd.org hosts the US mirror), and SGI, and Sun, and others]. Its not 3D Studio, but it'll do a lot of the same stuff.

spectecjr writes "Looks like Microsoft have at last released some detailed information on their ClearType technology. It involves a whole load of Fourier Analysis to come up with the optimal distribution of color energy and to reduce color fringing. You can read the paper and more indepth info in PDF and gZipped PostScript, as well as the paper submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal PDF. Samples of ClearType vs. standard anti-aliasing are up online too."

spectecjr writes "Looks like Microsoft have at last released some detailed information on their ClearType technology. It involves a whole load of Fourier Analysis to come up with the optimal distribution of color energy and to reduce color fringing. You can read the paper and more indepth info in PDF and gZipped PostScript, as well as the paper submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal PDF. Samples of ClearType vs. standard anti-aliasing are up online too."

spectecjr writes "Looks like Microsoft have at last released some detailed information on their ClearType technology. It involves a whole load of Fourier Analysis to come up with the optimal distribution of color energy and to reduce color fringing. You can read the paper and more indepth info in PDF and gZipped PostScript, as well as the paper submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal PDF. Samples of ClearType vs. standard anti-aliasing are up online too."

spectecjr writes "Looks like Microsoft have at last released some detailed information on their ClearType technology. It involves a whole load of Fourier Analysis to come up with the optimal distribution of color energy and to reduce color fringing. You can read the paper and more indepth info in PDF and gZipped PostScript, as well as the paper submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal PDF. Samples of ClearType vs. standard anti-aliasing are up online too."

spectecjr writes "Looks like Microsoft have at last released some detailed information on their ClearType technology. It involves a whole load of Fourier Analysis to come up with the optimal distribution of color energy and to reduce color fringing. You can read the paper and more indepth info in PDF and gZipped PostScript, as well as the paper submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal PDF. Samples of ClearType vs. standard anti-aliasing are up online too."

spectecjr writes "Looks like Microsoft have at last released some detailed information on their ClearType technology. It involves a whole load of Fourier Analysis to come up with the optimal distribution of color energy and to reduce color fringing. You can read the paper and more indepth info in PDF and gZipped PostScript, as well as the paper submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal PDF. Samples of ClearType vs. standard anti-aliasing are up online too."

spectecjr writes "Looks like Microsoft have at last released some detailed information on their ClearType technology. It involves a whole load of Fourier Analysis to come up with the optimal distribution of color energy and to reduce color fringing. You can read the paper and more indepth info in PDF and gZipped PostScript, as well as the paper submitted to the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal PDF. Samples of ClearType vs. standard anti-aliasing are up online too."

reuel writes: "Here are Microsoft's comments on the DOJ's proposed break-up plan. Looks like they want to preserve the chance to play the same old tricks -- special and secret OEM deals, required but unpublished interfaces, extend and extinguish, and an interesting new one: rights to inspect the source code of competitors' products!"

The Digital Divas are devoted to helping women get together to learn from each other in the world of Web design. More than that, the Divas organize Grey Day, an annual effort to spotlight the dangers of unlicensed copyright use and plagiarism on the Web. And, oh yes -- it appears that Microsoft has stolen their trademark.

Founded in 1997, the Digital Divas have grown to a membership of 71 women around the world. In addition to championing copyright enforcement, they also provide a free, member-written digital newsletter that provides Web-design help and advice.

In April, Microsoft launched a Web site at Digitaldiva.com that features a woman named Stacy Elliott giving advice to women on how to use the Internet and computer technology. This is all very corporate, and is not the community effort set up by the Digital Divas. For example, Microsoft provides marketing information on their target audience right off of the Digital Diva site.

The Digital Divas aren't rolling in cash. Thankfully, the lawyers at Moses & Singer wrote a pro bono cease and desist letter to Microsoft, but Microsoft's site still remains up and active.

Dana Whitmire, founder and 'Fearless Leader' of the Digital Divas, is mad as hell. "The whole thing makes me very angry, and it's frustrating. We've worked very hard to build a sound reputation and a good group, and I think we've done a good job. It's extremely infuriating that Microsoft comes along and takes the name with their power, money and PR machine behind them and the possibility that they can just run over us and undo everything we've done."

At first glance, it seems as if the problem could be purely accidental. However, research into the Digital Divas name shows a staggering number of Web sites and resources run by members of the Digital Divas. So, Dana, what are the chances that this could be a simple mistake? "We feel the chances are virtually nil. If anyone searched any search engine, there is no possible way they they could not have found us. We've grown steadily, and this is something that we've done with just elbow grease, pure and simple. It's all been very grassroots. We don't have a big publicity machine behind us. This has been the individual members pouring heart and soul into it."

Microsoft has responded to the cease and desist letter sent by the Digital Divas, informing the Divas that they didn't feel that 'Digital Diva' was a trademarkable term, according to Digital Diva and Attorney Faith Kaminski. "Our response to them has been showing them that we've had continuous use of the name dating from 1997, and it includes printouts from Network Solutions, and E-mails dating back to November of 1997."

Meanwhile, Microsoft is stepping up the appearance schedule of Stacy Elliott, their own Digital Diva. The 'original' Divas are angry not only for the alleged trademark violation, but also because of the way in which Stacy Elliott presents herself, and the name Digital Diva. Stacy Elliot's recent interview at siliconvalley.com got the Divas in an uproar. "She's just continuing her stance that women are such idiots when it comes to computers, that we're so afraid of them," Dana said in an interview yesterday, "It's really, really, condescending. ... The damage that we're suffering is that damage to our reputation. Our reputation is not for being a bunch of women who are idiots about computers. Our reputation is being people who are very computer-savvy, and this woman is trashing that by going around saying 'I'm a Digital Diva, and all women are morons.'"

Remember, it costs nothing to join the Digital Divas. It's a free organization. There's not a lot of money lying around to support a legal fight. Dana Whitmire has a day job. The organization exists because of the goodwill and volunteerism of talented people, not as the fruit of a vast payroll account. The good news is that Friends of Ed, Ltd., a division of Wrox Press, is publishing 'The Digital Divas Design Guide,' a real-world book with Web-design advice. Wrox Press heard about the legal issues that the Divas are involved in, and offered them a $10,000 advance to pay for legal fees. Moses & Singer agreed to match that amount with services, and will be fighting for the Divas all the way up through a preliminary injunction hearing against Microsoft.

Well, what's next? The Digital Divas have written back to Microsoft with a mountain of evidence that they've been around since 1997, and expect to see a response from Microsoft by noon today, Wednesday, May 31st. Thanks to the dynamic nature of the Web, expect to see this story updated with new information about this legal battle.

melaniemad writes: "I haven't seen this story anywhere else but kuro5hin. Microsoft has set up a user account on eBay: msoft@buddy.ebay.com. They apparently use this account to shut down auctions of Microsoft software. This has resulted in a lot of negative feedback, which has been changed to 'neutral' by eBay. This does not coincide with their policy about removing feedback. But then, do the rules ever apply to Microsoft?" (read more...)

(Boy, a ten-day-old story. I need to start reading kuro5hin more often.)

Anyway, I know from experience that my chances of getting through to a real eBay person are approximately nil, especially on Memorial Day, so I'm not even going to try. Here are the questions I'd like to ask, and if some eBay staffer would like to answer them, feel free.

1. Regarding "VeRO," the Verified Rights Owner Program. Comments from sellers who have had their auctions yanked include:

• "I own this software. It is mine to sell."
• "Ended my perfectly legit sale."
• "I was forced to buy it from Dell, I should be able to sell it. www.linux.org"
• "I have the right to sell the Windows 98 I BOUGHT.. this is BULL SHIT....."
• "ended 2 of my legit auctions. won't respond to emails."
• "Legit auction canceled."
• "MS & Ebay Cancelled my perfectly legit auction."
• "copyright violation - on unopened retail box!"

These are not spurious complaints; they come from over a hundred eBay sellers with positive feedback ratings like 40, 253, even 476! Clearly these people are not scammers, they are legitimate and frequent eBay sellers who know the rules and who feel angry that they've been ripped off.

It is already apparent that eBay is ending perfectly legal auctions of E-Meters based on illogical and unfounded claims of copyright violation from the Church of Scientology. So "Verified Rights" doesn't mean much.

Can anyone at eBay confirm that each and every software auction terminated by Microsoft was illegal? And if not, shouldn't VeRO be renamed the "Unverified Rights Owner Program"?

2. EBay claims that, upon receiving VeRO complaints, it "reviews the reported items and, unless there is an obvious error, ends the auction." Were any of Microsoft's reports so reviewed, or were the auctions just immediately terminated?

3. Where on Questionable Items: Software is it indicated that software, unopened in the box, purchased at retail, cannot be resold?

4. Has Microsoft invoked a particular law - UCITA would be an obvious guess - in terminating these auctions? Or has it pointed to its license agreements (which for many of these auctions, apparently, would not apply)?

5. EBay's page about removing feedback doesn't mention cancelling rating of feedback, which is obviously a very important part. Isn't that misleading?

6. What did Microsoft do to get this special favor done for them - neutralization of their negative feedback? Does eBay do this for all their VeRO program members, or just Microsoft?

Update, 25 minutes later: gehrehmee pointed out Microsoft's internet piracy webpage (the URL got chopped, but deserves to be seen). Scroll to the bottom to read (emphasis added):

Microsoft and eBay have initiated an aggressive program to stop auction sites that Microsoft believes may be distributing infringing product. Microsoft monitors all auction sites and conducts daily searches to identify auctions suspected of offering counterfeit or infringing software. The company notifies eBay of suspect auctions and asks them to terminate the auctions within 24 hours.

Phrases like "due process" and "guilty until proven innocent" are coming to mind.

Reemi writes "On Microsoft's Office update-site they write: The Outlook® E-mail Security Update is in development... Since access to certain file attachments in Outlook is restricted by the update, users will need an alternate method for distributing files... For a list of file types impacted by this update, read File Types Impacted by the Outlook 98/2000 E-mail Security Update. It seems Microsoft is setting a new standard: Emails without attachments. "

Reemi writes "On Microsoft's Office update-site they write: The Outlook® E-mail Security Update is in development... Since access to certain file attachments in Outlook is restricted by the update, users will need an alternate method for distributing files... For a list of file types impacted by this update, read File Types Impacted by the Outlook 98/2000 E-mail Security Update. It seems Microsoft is setting a new standard: Emails without attachments. "

I spent some of yesterday and part of today (Saturday) on the phone with our law firm's intellectual property specialist dicussing Microsoft's attempt to get us to remove reader posts about Kerberos. We're lucky to have a lawyer who "gets it." We're also lucky to have gotten some very favorable press about all of this.

But, sadly, I can't really tell you much more right now than "we're still working on it" for two reasons:

• We're exploring a lot of angles and doing a lot of research, and in order to maintain attorney-client privilege we must keep all discussions with our lawyer *extremely* private.
• Microsoft's legal people (obviously) read Slashdot.

I have scanned every single reader post on this subject, and some of them have contained *very* helpful suggestions. It hurts me not to be able to share more, especially with those of you who have given us useful advice.

Meanwhile, Andover.net's management has been totally supportive. Our President, Bruce Twickler, deserves special thanks for his staunch backing and general coolheadedness. And our VP of Corporate Communications, Janet Holian, has done an excellent job of getting information out to other media while letting us work (comparatively) undisturbed.

There are also rays of light from the other end. I've gotten a small but steady trickle of e-mailed support messages from Microsoft workers who are embarrassed by their employer's actions both in rudely extending Kerberos and their attempt to "publish" their proprietary Kerberos extensions while still trying to keep them hidden behind a non-disclosure agreement.

Please bear in mind that many Microsoft employees are perfectly nice people. For all we know, the nice people at Microsoft may yet persuade the not-so-nice ones that there are times when it's better to work with others to establish industry-wide standards than it is to act as if the freedom to innovate belongs only to Microsoft.

(Special message to nice Microsoft people: Here's a quote you may wish to call to your bosses' attention: "...Kerberos is a multivendor standard, so it allows secure interoperability and the potential for single sign-on between the Microsoft world and other vendor environments." If they ask where you got these words, please refer them to this Microsoft.com page.)

Anyway, once again, please accept my personal apology for not being able to share more information with you right now. This is an uncomfortable situation for everyone involved, and we hope that Microsoft chooses to give this story a happy ending as soon as possible.

- Robin "roblimo" Miller

I spent some of yesterday and part of today (Saturday) on the phone with our law firm's intellectual property specialist dicussing Microsoft's attempt to get us to remove reader posts about Kerberos. We're lucky to have a lawyer who "gets it." We're also lucky to have gotten some very favorable press about all of this.

But, sadly, I can't really tell you much more right now than "we're still working on it" for two reasons:

• We're exploring a lot of angles and doing a lot of research, and in order to maintain attorney-client privilege we must keep all discussions with our lawyer *extremely* private.
• Microsoft's legal people (obviously) read Slashdot.

I have scanned every single reader post on this subject, and some of them have contained *very* helpful suggestions. It hurts me not to be able to share more, especially with those of you who have given us useful advice.

Meanwhile, Andover.net's management has been totally supportive. Our President, Bruce Twickler, deserves special thanks for his staunch backing and general coolheadedness. And our VP of Corporate Communications, Janet Holian, has done an excellent job of getting information out to other media while letting us work (comparatively) undisturbed.

There are also rays of light from the other end. I've gotten a small but steady trickle of e-mailed support messages from Microsoft workers who are embarrassed by their employer's actions both in rudely extending Kerberos and their attempt to "publish" their proprietary Kerberos extensions while still trying to keep them hidden behind a non-disclosure agreement.

Please bear in mind that many Microsoft employees are perfectly nice people. For all we know, the nice people at Microsoft may yet persuade the not-so-nice ones that there are times when it's better to work with others to establish industry-wide standards than it is to act as if the freedom to innovate belongs only to Microsoft.

(Special message to nice Microsoft people: Here's a quote you may wish to call to your bosses' attention: "...Kerberos is a multivendor standard, so it allows secure interoperability and the potential for single sign-on between the Microsoft world and other vendor environments." If they ask where you got these words, please refer them to this Microsoft.com page.)

Anyway, once again, please accept my personal apology for not being able to share more information with you right now. This is an uncomfortable situation for everyone involved, and we hope that Microsoft chooses to give this story a happy ending as soon as possible.

- Robin "roblimo" Miller

I spent some of yesterday and part of today (Saturday) on the phone with our law firm's intellectual property specialist dicussing Microsoft's attempt to get us to remove reader posts about Kerberos. We're lucky to have a lawyer who "gets it." We're also lucky to have gotten some very favorable press about all of this.

But, sadly, I can't really tell you much more right now than "we're still working on it" for two reasons:

• We're exploring a lot of angles and doing a lot of research, and in order to maintain attorney-client privilege we must keep all discussions with our lawyer *extremely* private.
• Microsoft's legal people (obviously) read Slashdot.

I have scanned every single reader post on this subject, and some of them have contained *very* helpful suggestions. It hurts me not to be able to share more, especially with those of you who have given us useful advice.

Meanwhile, Andover.net's management has been totally supportive. Our President, Bruce Twickler, deserves special thanks for his staunch backing and general coolheadedness. And our VP of Corporate Communications, Janet Holian, has done an excellent job of getting information out to other media while letting us work (comparatively) undisturbed.

There are also rays of light from the other end. I've gotten a small but steady trickle of e-mailed support messages from Microsoft workers who are embarrassed by their employer's actions both in rudely extending Kerberos and their attempt to "publish" their proprietary Kerberos extensions while still trying to keep them hidden behind a non-disclosure agreement.

Please bear in mind that many Microsoft employees are perfectly nice people. For all we know, the nice people at Microsoft may yet persuade the not-so-nice ones that there are times when it's better to work with others to establish industry-wide standards than it is to act as if the freedom to innovate belongs only to Microsoft.

(Special message to nice Microsoft people: Here's a quote you may wish to call to your bosses' attention: "...Kerberos is a multivendor standard, so it allows secure interoperability and the potential for single sign-on between the Microsoft world and other vendor environments." If they ask where you got these words, please refer them to this Microsoft.com page.)

Anyway, once again, please accept my personal apology for not being able to share more information with you right now. This is an uncomfortable situation for everyone involved, and we hope that Microsoft chooses to give this story a happy ending as soon as possible.

- Robin "roblimo" Miller

Our friends at Microsoft are upset about some of the readers' comments attached to the story, Kerberos, PACs And Microsoft's Dirty Tricks (posted on May 2), and would like us to remove those comments from Slashdot. We are not happy about this, to say the least. But instead of reflexively going into rant mode, we are calmly posting the full text of the e-mail we got from Microsoft, along with our initial response to it, so that you can see what news and community Web sites like Slashdot are up against now that the DMCA has become law. We are talking to our lawyers, of course, but we would also like your suggestions on how we should handle this situation.

From: "J.K. Weston"
To: "'dns_admin@andover.net'"
"'dns_tech@andover.net'"
Subject: Notice of Copyright Infringement under the Digitial Millennium Copyright Act
Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 07:08:49 -0700
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2651.58)

Andover Advanced Technologies
Andover.Net
50 Nagog Park
Acton, MA 01720
Phone: (978) 635-5300
Fax: (978) 635-5326
Email: dns_admin@andover.net; dns_tech@andover.net

Dear Internet Service Provider:

We understand that your website, http://www.slashdot.org, is a popular site for developers to discuss topical issues of interest. In that vein, it has come to our attention that there have been numerous posts of concern related to Microsoft's copyrighted work entitled "Microsoft Authorization Data Specification v. 1.0 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Operating Systems" and we would appreciate your posting this email to the site to help relay our position to your users.

This notice is being sent under the provisions, and following the guidelines, of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA).

Included on http://www.slashdot.org are comments that now appear in your Archives, which include unauthorized reproductions of Microsoft's copyrighted work entitled "Microsoft Authorization Data Specification v.1.0 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Operating Systems" (hereafter "Specification"). In addition, some comments include links to unauthorized reproductions of the Specification, and some comments contain instructions on how to circumvent the End User License Agreement that is presented as part of the download for accessing the Specification.

Although not intended to be an exhaustive representation, the specific comments below, categorized by corresponding activities, are examples of the misuse of Microsoft's proprietary information:

Comments Containing A Copy of the Specification:
"by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday, May 02, @03:37PM EST (#197)"
"by BlueUnderwear on Tuesday, May 02, @04:09PM EST (#239)"
"by BlueUnderwear on Tuesday, May 02, @04:15PM EST (#248)"
"by smartin on Tuesday, May 02, @02:20PM EST (#86)"

Comments Containing Links to Internet Sites with Unauthorized Copies of the Specification:
"by ka9dgx on Tuesday May 02, @2:52PM EST (#133)"

Comments Containing Instructions on How to Bypass the End User License Agreement and Extract the Specification:
"by myconid (my S conid@ P toge A the M r.net) on Tuesday May 02, @07:27PM EST (#362)"
"by markb on Tuesday May 02, @05:47PM EST (#321)"
"by Sami (respect.my@authorita-dot-net) on Tuesday May 02, @01:47PM EST (#19)"
"by iCEBalM (icebalm@[NOSPAM]bigfoot.com) on Tuesday May 02, @01:52PM EST (#33)"
"by Jonny Royale (moc.mocten.xi@notners) on Tuesday, May 02, @01:59PM EST (#51)"
"by rcw-work (rcw@d.e.b.i.a.n.org.without.dots) on Tuesday, May 02, @07:12PM EST (#353)"

Under the provisions of the DMCA, we expect that having been duly notified of this case of blatant copyright violation, Andover will remove the above referenced comments from its servers and forward our complaint to the owner of the referenced comments.

This email notification is a statement made under penalty of perjury that we are the copyright owner of the referenced Specification, that we are acting in good faith, and that the above-referenced comments, as part of http://www.slashdot.org, is posting proprietary material without express written permission.

We request immediate action to remove the cited violations from Andover's servers, in accordance with the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

This email is not intended to waive any of our other rights and remedies.

Please confirm your receipt of this request by responding to this email. Also, confirm the status of this request either via email or via the following contact mechanisms:

By mail:
J.K. Weston, Designated Agent
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way, 114/2314
Redmond, WA 98052
By phone:
(425) 703-5529
By email: jkweston@microsoft.com

---------------------------

To: J.K. Weston"

From: Robin Miller

Subject: Notice of Copyright Infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Dear J. K. Weston:

Per your request, we are posting your e-mail on this subject on Slashdot.org to help you relay your position to our users.

The balance of your e-mail's content is somewhat puzzling to us. I'm sure you agree that freedom of speech is at least as important a principle under American law as the freedom to innovate, so I'm sure that you personally, and Microsoft corporately, will understand our hesitation to engage in censorship.

Indeed, after reflecting on the nature of freedom for a little while, you may wish to withdraw your request that we remove readers' comments from Slashdot. Please realize that if we censor our readers's posts because they contain ideas Microsoft does not wish to have made public, we may set an unhealthy precedent for other online news outlets and online service providers, including those owned in whole or in part by Microsoft itself.

Meanwhile, in case Microsoft does not decide to have a happy change of heart and support a free and open Internet (which would certainly be in everyone's best interest), we have sought advice both from our attorneys and from our readers about what, if anything, we should do next.

Please expect a formal reply to your request that we censor our readers' comments, which we allow them to post on Slashdot as freely as Microsoft allows user-generated content to be sent through Hotmail and through chat facilities and discussion groups hosted on MSN.com servers, as soon as we receive wise counsel not only from our attorneys, but also from concerned members of the Slashdot community and other interested parties.

Sincerely,

- Robin "roblimo" Miller

Editor-in-Chief,
Andover.net

Chris DiBona wrote to us with something that Ted and Jeremy (Samba Boys) wrote: "Microsoft, after getting beat up in the press for making propietary extensions to the Kerberos protocol, has released the specifications on the web -- but in order to get it, you have to run a Windows .exe file which forces you agree to a click-through license agreement where you agree to treat it as a trade secret, before it will give you the .pdf file. Who would have thought that you could publish a trade secret on the web?" Read more from the Samba Team below.

The critical part of the license states:

• "b. The Specification is confidential information and a trade secret of Microsoft. Therefore, you may not disclose the Specification to anyone else (except as specifically allowed below), and you must take reasonable security precautions, at least as great as the precautions you take to protect your own confidential information, to keep the Specification confidential. If you are an entity, you may disclose the Specification to your full-time employees on a need to know basis, provided that you have executed appropriate written agreements with your employees sufficient to enable you to comply with the terms of this Agreement.

This is course is a very clever way to pretend to distribute the spec, whilst making it completely impossible to implement in competiting implementations which implements their propietary protocol extensions --- extensions to a protocol which was originally published by the Kerberos team as an Open Standard in the IETF. This completely defeats the IETF's interoperability goals, and helps Microsoft leverge their desktop monopoly into the server market.

The one good thing about Microsoft having pulled this dirty trick is that it makes their propietary intentions about the Windows 2000 PDC clear as day. I doubt anyone else could come up with a charitable explanation for what they've done. What a better example of Microsoft's "embrace, extend, and engulf" business model!

Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.

Theodore Ts'o,
(former) Kerberos Development Lead "

snack writes "FINALLY! ATI has released info on their new graphics chip, built to take on both the 3dfx and nVIDIA. Reading through the press release it says that it has Windows, Linux and Mac suport. There are no benchmarks yet on the Web site, but reading through the tech specs it seems that this chip will blow everything else away. It also says that over the summer, this will implement the MAXX technology. Two of these chips working in parallel... Oh, my God!"

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

DeepDarkSky writes "Microsoft unveiled the Pocket PC today. Products being available by its partners include: HP Jornada, Compaq iPaq H3600, Casio Cassiopeia E-105 and Symbol PPT 2700. Microsoft's touting it as being better than Palm. Here's a list of features, significant among them: Microsoft Reader (for reading e-books), Windows Media Player (for playing music), Pocket Streets (a map program), Pocket Internet Explorer, and "Pocket" versions of office productivity tools like Outlook, Word, and Excel. " Check out the preview on C|Net as well.

ContinuousPark writes: "According to this Wired News piece, Microsoft Research is working on a huge Internet database (similar to the TerraServer) that will make the data from a massive survey of the cosmos available to anyone with a Web browser. The project, called SkyServer, is the first in a series of initiatives to bring to the public "virtual telescopes". The data (about 40 terabytes) will come from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This means that, with just an Internet connection, I will be able to use the world's best telescopes and do my own research, maybe discover some celestial objects that have always been there but no one's had the (available telescope) time to look at/for them. "

Let's start this off with jsewell's truly amazing story about the rocket car urban legend from the man who claims to have invented it. Did you do your homework last week? Remember that Slashdot was nominated for a Webby in Community so go do their little login dance and vote for us if you think that our First Posts, Oog, Trolls and 'God Slashdot Really Sucks These Days' messages are cool. Maybe we'll even fly CowboyNeal out to give an acceptance speech if we win ;) Glowing Spleen sent us an optical illusion that really bugs me. I had to check if it wasn't an animated GIF. A few for the do it yourselfers: Slash T.M.F.D.W. sent us a real mech and Ryan J. Evans sent in the worlds largest playable tetris. If you don't actually want to build something, but want to play anyway, try SodaPlay and you can mess with these crazy animated 2D springy models. Its surprisingly addictive. After all that building, you might need Jeremy's Microbatch Ice Cream (thanks alangmead) and its "Wired" flavor, a caffinated vanilla ice cream. Between that and the Triple Espresso flavor. Wonder what happens if you keep it in this Bio-Plastic Wrap that detects contaminated food (sent in by Accipiter) You can't use plastic wrap to preserve human heads, but ChunkyGoodness noted that Chet Fleming has US Patent number 4666425 for keeping them alive. Dugh Daren sent us a hilarious essay from Space.com on Star War's most annoying characters that I found extremely funny. brunning pointed us to perhaps the most pressing bug in all of Microsoft's software. kwsNI pointed us to an extremely disturbing article about Pandas on Viagra in China. Blake sent in a filter based on "Being John Malkovitch." Read Slashdot in Malkovitch Mode. And finally, we need a stupid lawsuit: east_bay_pete told us about a commercial that featured a cockroach scampering over the screen ... people are suing because they keep breaking TVs trying to kill the CGI Roach!

Well, we hope you had a good April Fool's here at Slashdot; we're done with weird translations for the day. It's been an interesting day online, from Andrew Leonard's Salon piece to the Google MentalPlex to the l33t.freshmeat.net post over at Freshmeat, and of course, the Advogato joke on Andover. Also check out the 'Windows Games' post on Linux Games. Special thanks to Rinkworks and Babelfish for translations. Personally, my favorite April Fool's site on the entire web can be found here. Oh, you mean it's not? Oh, dear...

ken_i_m writes "VMware has signed an OEM deal with Microsoft to offer various flavors of Windows pre-installed with their product. Here is VMware's news release." Don't get too angry about this; if you're using VMware, you're probably loading up a version of Windows anyway.

Booker asks: "Microsoft has been the driving force behind the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), a system by which education-related applications can communicate with each other via XML messages. Although Microsoft is the coordinator, the spec seems extremely open, and something that Linux applications could easily work with. Many vendors have signed on to the SIF, and it looks like it will become a standard, at least in North America. What do you think? Could Linux stake a claim as a server for this new standard? What would it take to port this code?" This would be cool. Anyone interested in tackling this one?

"One of the things Microsoft has done to support this standard is to release a Zone Integration Server which manages the queuing and authentication between the various client applications attached to it. The interesting thing, though, is that the source code is available, and the license is quite liberal - liberal enough, I think, that a Linux port would be possible.

Booker asks: "Microsoft has been the driving force behind the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), a system by which education-related applications can communicate with each other via XML messages. Although Microsoft is the coordinator, the spec seems extremely open, and something that Linux applications could easily work with. Many vendors have signed on to the SIF, and it looks like it will become a standard, at least in North America. What do you think? Could Linux stake a claim as a server for this new standard? What would it take to port this code?" This would be cool. Anyone interested in tackling this one?

"One of the things Microsoft has done to support this standard is to release a Zone Integration Server which manages the queuing and authentication between the various client applications attached to it. The interesting thing, though, is that the source code is available, and the license is quite liberal - liberal enough, I think, that a Linux port would be possible.

Booker asks: "Microsoft has been the driving force behind the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), a system by which education-related applications can communicate with each other via XML messages. Although Microsoft is the coordinator, the spec seems extremely open, and something that Linux applications could easily work with. Many vendors have signed on to the SIF, and it looks like it will become a standard, at least in North America. What do you think? Could Linux stake a claim as a server for this new standard? What would it take to port this code?" This would be cool. Anyone interested in tackling this one?

"One of the things Microsoft has done to support this standard is to release a Zone Integration Server which manages the queuing and authentication between the various client applications attached to it. The interesting thing, though, is that the source code is available, and the license is quite liberal - liberal enough, I think, that a Linux port would be possible.

Bloob writes, "It seems that Microsoft, in an apparent attempt at leveraging MCSEs to encourage organizations to upgrade to W2K, is expiring the NT4 certificate very quickly, and offering a dubious upgrade route. Here is an open letter from Keith Weiskamp, CEO of Coriolis, a supporter of MSCEs, with over 2000 comments from MCSEs et. al, and a response from Microsoft. Looks like quite a revolt."

Eric^2 asks: "We have an old NT server that we are going to replace sometime this year. It has Diskeeper on it to do disk defragmentation. I remember from DOS that this was also a BIG problem, and am curious how the EXT2FS handles file fragmentation. Whatever we put in to replace that NT box needs to be fairly resiliant, and I was thinking either FreeBSD, or maybe Linux with the XFS file system, as it's supposed to be more fault tolerant. I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have! Is there a more robust solution than XFS for Linux? FreeBSD? Should I stick with NT and Diskeeper? "

scromp writes, "Microsoft really does innovate! See for yourself! " I can't decide if this is supposed to be a joke or not. I mean, it's funny, but I just can't tell. Perhaps I need a cup of coffee before I try to post stories.Update: 03/03 06:11 by H :To be fair to Microsoft, they did talk about symlinks.

scromp writes, "Microsoft really does innovate! See for yourself! " I can't decide if this is supposed to be a joke or not. I mean, it's funny, but I just can't tell. Perhaps I need a cup of coffee before I try to post stories.Update: 03/03 06:11 by H :To be fair to Microsoft, they did talk about symlinks.

If you're a regular Slashdot reader, you've heard about UCITA by now. You have probably also gathered that many prominent spokespeople for the open source and free software communities, most notably Richard Stallman, don't like it. UCITA already passed in Virginia, but the governor hasn't yet signed it into law. Here in Maryland, where I live, UCITA is still under consideration. I'm working hard to block it, and I'm not alone. But this story is not as much about Virginia and Maryland as it is about the way UCITA is being "sold" to state legislatures all over the U.S. and how you can work effectively in your state to keep it from becoming the Law of the Land.

Let's start with Virginia. There, UCITA has been passed by the Legislature and is awaiting signature by Governor Jim Gilmore. But all is not yet lost. Skip Lockwood of 4cite.org says, "It is very important that the Governor, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate all hear from dissatisfied consumers. Virginia has really put the 'horse before the cart' with the passage of this law. Call, e-mail and fax so that legislators know what a mistake they have made." And UCITA isn't scheduled to go into force in Virginia until next year, so there may be time to undo the damage. It's worth a try, certainly, even though UCITA is backed heavily both by Microsoft and Virginia's own "star" online business, AOL.

In Maryland, UCITA is is by no means a done deal. As House Bill #19 and Senate Bill #142, it is still being considered by legislative committees. This means UCITA could conceivably still be stopped in Maryland even before it came to a vote, although the forces working to push it through are both mighty and well-financed. One state senator told me this was the first time he'd ever seen actual lobbyists from Microsoft, in person, in Annapolis (Maryland's state capital). Many highly-paid "local" lobbyists are also cruising the legislative halls, busily telling the politicians why UCITA is a must-pass piece of legislation.

But apparently the lobbyists and their masters never told Maryland legislators exactly what UCITA was all about. I called the offices of all 13 members of the House of Delegates who are co-sponsoring Maryland UCITA, House Bill 19, and not one of them or any of their staff members to whom I spoke could tell me honestly that they had read the whole thing. All most of them seem to have read was this synopsis:

Adopting the Maryland Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act; establishing provisions of law applicable to agreements to create, modify, transfer, or distribute computer software, computer data and databases, Internet and online information, and computer information and products; establishing provisions of law applicable to licensing of computer information; etc.

But the bill goes just a little bit beyond this. If you have time (it's about 85 printed pages), here's the entire UCITA text.

Quite a difference, eh? If you actually read all the way through the document, you now know more than most of the Maryland legislators who are tasked with deciding whether or not it should be made into law.

The way things work here in Maryland - and in many other states - is that the heaviest political leaders call lesser politicians to whose campaigns they have donated or for whom they have done other favors and say, "I'm sending you a bill I want passed." If the lesser politician knows what's good for him or her, he or she salutes and follows orders, especially on somthing like UCITA, which is not an issue most ordinary citizens either understand or care about.

In my opinion, the single most politically powerful elected official in the State of Maryland is Casper R. Taylor, Jr., speaker of the House of Delegates. He consistently has one of the largest campaign fund "war chests" in the state and freely shares lucre from it with other legislators who support him. Mr. Taylor has personally assured me that the large sums of money he solicits - and gets - from assorted industry groups and other big donors do not influence his votes or buy his support. (I did not laugh out loud when he said this only because I am a professional journalist and have developed the ability to listen to almost any kind of outrageous statement without showing emotion. Please don't try this at home.)

Wherever you live in the U.S. (or almost anywhere else) there is a primary power broker like Taylor, and it is this person upon whom the Microsofts and AOLs and the Business Software Alliance and the rest of the big-money crowd will concentrate their efforts (and lavish funds). But don't think that people like Taylor are evil. They usually aren't, down deep inside, and if they get enough reasonable citizen input that opposes the lobbyists' desires, they can often be persuaded to do the right thing.

Guys like Casper Taylor actually like hearing from citizens; if they weren't basically gregarious and outgoing they wouldn't have gone into politics in the first place. If you don't believe me, give Casper a friendly call. His office phone number is 410-841-3800. If you don't live in Maryland, consider this a practice call for the UCITA fight that is likely to take place in your state sometime in the next year or two.

There are several things to bear in mind when calling a politician to express your opinion. The first is that yelling and acting nutsy gets you nowhere. Be sane and have *real reasons* handy for your opinion - and no, "because Richard Stallman doesn't like it" is not a good reason, because RMS is not widely-known in political circles. You need facts like the ones on this page. The second is to make sure you don't just say "UCITA." You need to refer to the correct bill number, in this case House Bill 19. Even if you speak to the lowest of Casper's underlings, and they only give you the chance to say, "I just want to ask Speaker Taylor to please withdraw his support for House Bill 19 because it is bad for consumers and will inhibit open source software development," you have done a good and valuable thing. A hundred brief calls can be worth more than $1000 in Microsoft lobbying money even if you feel like you haven't done much or that you were barely listened to.

Note that I mention phone calls, not e-mail. Politicians are generally more receptive to calls than to e-mails. They also like faxes (Taylor's fax number is 410-841-1138), but e-mail is still valid, as long as you only send one or two polite ones to each elected official you want to reach. (If you want to use Casper for a practice e-mail, send it to casper_taylor@house.state.md.us.)

So we've contacted the most powerful guy. Fine. But there are other leaders who should also hear from you. In Maryland, in this case, some of the most important are Governor Parris Glendening, Senate President Mike Miller (to whom you should mention Senate Bill 142, not House Bill 19), and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer. All of them have complete contact information on their Web pages, as do almost all public officials everywhere.

If you live in Maryland, besides these people, you'll want to contact the representatives from your district. Find them here. If you live in another state and want to find out if UCITA is about to become a burning issue there, check this page. And, no matter where you live in the U.S., here's a list of state and local government Web sites that can not only help you fight UCITA, but help you find out what your elected officials are up to in general, and who to contact if you have a beef or want to get something done.

Dealing with politics and politicians can often make you feel like you're pushing into a wall of warm fuzz, especially if you spend most of your time dealing with machine-style logic where each specific cause has a specific effect. And I don't know about you, but reading the lawyer jargon in which most proposed laws are written gives me a headache.

But if you and I and a bunch of other people don't take the trouble to go through this headache over UCITA and other legislative actions that directly affect our lives and livings, rest assured that Microsoft and the other companies and industry groups on "the other side" will keep slogging along, making sure their views get heard as loudly and strongly and often as possible.

And when your legislators hear from the industry groups and lobbyists over and over, and hear nothing from you, they will not only pass UCITA and other laws you don't like, but they'll be perfectly justified when they smugly say, afterwards, "Almost everyone I heard from about this matter was in favor of it!"

Anonymous Coward pointed us to a microsoft.com page that claims, "Major customers, such as Quote.com, are switching from Sun to the Microsoft® Windows® platform because it offers better reliability." That's not the only reason given here to switch to a Windows environment, and apparently there are more to come every day until Windows 2000 is launched. Another direct quote: "Want more facts? Return to this page tomorrow for your daily dose of reality."

solar writes "SecurityPortal.com is running a comparsion between RedHat, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems on the response time between software bugs being found and patch releases. Find out if open-source is the champion bug squasher we all believe it to be. " Interesting bit.

migooch was the first of many people to write with news that Bill Gates has stepped down as CEO of Microsoft. Steve Balmer, who replaced him as President, will be CEO. Gates will become "Chief Software Architect", and will remain as Chairman. Update: 01/13 10:27 by E : The official Microsoft press release is here.Alright - Salon's Top 10 reasons Bill Gates stepped down is pretty funny as well. What do you think are the Top 10?

migooch was the first of many people to write with news that Bill Gates has stepped down as CEO of Microsoft. Steve Balmer, who replaced him as President, will be CEO. Gates will become "Chief Software Architect", and will remain as Chairman. Update: 01/13 10:27 by E : The official Microsoft press release is here.Alright - Salon's Top 10 reasons Bill Gates stepped down is pretty funny as well. What do you think are the Top 10?

Quite a number of people have written to us with news that's been seen on CNN regarding the MSFT anti-trust trial. Apparently, government prosecutors are considering breaking the company into three parts - it's expected that MS will appeal the ruling. The parts would be (probably) a Windows OS division, a software division, and perhaps an Internet-business division.Update: 01/12 04:53 by H :We've heard now that the DOJ denies the report - or at least parts of it, saying that it's incorrect in several "aspects".