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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/18/dalek_fcs_uav_ducted_fan_war_robot/

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9757072-7.html

But perhaps that's better than being poisoned by chinese robots.

Bert

Your point is valid, but I think the overriding risk with ARM is that a full version of Windows might never ship on ARM, and if it did, there might not be many applications available. If it's a lot of work to get Windows Vista (or XP) and normal Windows apps running on ARM, Microsoft might prefer to write off ARM entirely rather than overhaul its entire codebase. Microsoft has already decided once before that it's cheaper to stay with x86-compatible architectures, even in areas where x86 offers inferior price/power/performance tradeoffs. If they can afford to stick with x86 and still be competitive, they will do it. Microsoft and x86 have traditionally survived together while technologically superior solutions have fallen by the wayside.

Here's an update on the case. Arguments were heard all morning from both sides; the case is currently in recess.

He is referring to this lawsuit by then-owner of Dr DOS, Caldera, which ended up being settled out of court, essentially acknowledging Microsoft's complicity to all but die-hard fanatical MS shills.

In an attempt to provide content that would complement its high-speed connections, @Home bought the Excite Web portal for $6.7 billion in January 1999. Also as part of this strategy, the company in 1999 spent $780 million for Blue Mountain Arts, a provider of online greeting cards.

But the pipes-and-content strategy failed as online advertising revenue shriveled and investors fled high-flying Net stocks. As a result, Excite@Home went through several management shake-ups and strategy shifts, all of which failed to pull it out of a downward spiral.

It's a bit old but take a look http://www.news.com/Google-wants-dark-fiber/2100-1034_3-5537392.html. Your missing part of the puzzle here, Guys like Google and MS are already supporting and managing huge networks. The cost of becoming an ISP might be lower then not becoming an ISP. As I understand it there is a kind of ISP brotherhood thing. When a Gig of data gos from Comcast to Verizon they don't charge each other becuase they know that sooner or later a Gig will go from Verizon to Comcast. This is why stuff like AOL Radio is around. All they do is host bandwidth for people who make podcasts. With all the requests that people on Comcast and Verizon make for AOL Radio, AOL can balance out the requests that AOL users make for stuff on Comcast and Verizon. So to bring this back around when ever someone gos to google.com now Google pays a little to the ISPs, but if they were an ISP this would be a kind of bandwidth debt that Google can "spend" to go out and use the net. I might be a little off on this but it is my understanding that this is how it works.

"Some" people are way ahead of the curve on being an internet of its own, but not only the telco wired land.

After all, the network is the computer ... BHWAHAHA ! ;)

Better pictures can be found here.

No. Time to get paranoid, your cell phone can be remotely tapped (speakerphone mic) even when it's off:

http://www.news.com/2100-1029-6140191.html

That's what they're concerned about. A quote from the article:

Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their cell phones, he added.

I wonder if that applies to Steve's iPhone? heh

All cars with OnStar can be monitored the same way. Welcome to 1984.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. --Benjamin Franklin

The youtube and other flv hosts' mangling of the original video to avoid copyright by "defacement" is very upsetting, but watching "What is Love" might just resolve that ;)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5S3OA3nJRBQ
http://youtube.com/watch?v=HIHDqZLTK5Y

multiple "Danish Cartoon Parody" and "Geert" or "Forbidden Trailer" searchable.

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4047508
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4047509

We'll see how filterable a specific migratory stream / http url is... It takes a VERY large packet filter device to pull that scale of censorship off on multihoned isps.

Mirror FLV stream backup http://wikileaks.bluenorway.org/

Cnet's article on the routing effects http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9878655-7.html?tag=tb

http://bluenorway.org/
bluenorway@gmail.com

In 2000, IBM filed patent 6329919 "System and method for providing reservations for restroom use". Specifically, it was some thingamadingy for restrooms on planes. For whatever reason, they later decided to renounce all claims. Wonder how many people over at IBM have PhDs in waiting.

Take a look at some contribution statistics for open source projects; the vast majority are one or two person shows, with maybe a handful of patches over vast stretches of time. That picture improves a bit for bigger projects, but ReiserFS doesn't really count as a big project. You'll of course appreciate this interview comment:

"I do not think that just being arrested will affect anything so long as Hans is not actually convicted," says Oleg Drokin, the former release manager at Namesys. "If he is convicted, that might cause problems for Namesys [because] it is operated solely by Hans."
The main concern, according to Drokin, is whether Namesys employees, many of whom live in Russia, will continue to receive their salaries. If the money stops flowing, "some people will stop working, of course."
However, Drokin thinks that situation is unlikely. "Hans suspected that he would be suspected from the very beginning," he adds. "I would think he took necessary steps for Namesys employees to continue to work even in his absence and even Namesys itself is safe for at least some time." -- http://www.linux.com/feature/57759, bold emphasis mine.

And sure enough, http://www.namesys.com is gone, and here's the article marking their demise: http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9851703-39.html. So yes, the code is still out there... just waiting for some developer to take a look at it, shrug, and demand that the whole thing be rewritten from scratch, because no one ever wants to take on an existing project and finish it off.

It's dead, Jim. The source code is out there, but without anyone to work on it, it might as well be a collection of ads for whalebone corsets. Of course, that's just my opinion, and if I'm wrong, so much the better for Linux.

It's more than a case of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Gatesists made clear that they would not take "no" for an answer and would continue their plans against Yahoo one way or another. These so-called pension funds are likely part of that approach and just softening up Yahoo, while setting the media against the board in prep for its ousting. One point which is unlikely to ever make many mainstream news sites or forums, even open source ones like Slashdot, is that Microsoftologians are likely to try to replace Yahoo's board. Poisoning the press against the board is a first step.

Later, preventing the Yahoo employees from jumping off with golden parachutes might be a repeat of what MS did to Borland, except against key open source projects. Yahoo contributes in a big way to many open source projects, PHP and BSD being two Very Important (tm) ones. Getting Yahoo would crush a competitor to the spectacularly failed MSN. So without the 'chutes many would have to stay and MS could simply have them sweeping floors or making coffee.

There is also the question of Zimbra, which was recently purchased by Yahoo. MS Exchange is about the only thing that ties Windows into either/both the desktop and the server room. Zimbra is one of the few competitors to MS Exchange, besides Kolab and Citadel, none of which get much press. Quite a few shops would stop or drastically decrease use of MS products without MS Exchange. Zimbra is currently not GPL. Buying Yahoo would allow Zimbra to be put on ice as MS did with FoxPro

Advertising, aka tracking users, is another problem. MS execs want into advertising. Controlling the adservers allows a chance, finally, at income. It also allows access to be tweaked. Ads get served up first before content and delay, especially at the beginning, drastically reduces viewing time and thus mindshare. The first moments are crucial and studies show that the cap is set at 20s. A delay, on purpose or by accident, of even a fifth of a second x one million page views is hundreds of lost viewing hours. So the potential for severe abuse is there in addition to the technical problems MS services and servers are known for.

At the bottom is also a question of money. Many articles somehow neglect that much of the initial offer was funny-money, aka MSFT stock, which MS prints on demand. The noise and smoke about the attempted take over does well at drawing attention away from what must be some rather 'creative' book keeping there in Redmond.

There are plenty more possible reasons to go after Yahoo's board. Having sockpuppets poison the press makes sense for many of them.

At the same Black Hat conference, a chap presented on how easy it is to hack a smart-chip enabled credit card - "As part of his presentation Wednesday, Laurie asked for someone from the audience to volunteer a smart card. Without taking the card out of the volunteer's wallet, Laurie both read and displayed its contents on the presentation screen--the person's name, account number, and expiration clearly visible" - http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9875961-57.html

"The Comcast network is really content-agnostic," said company spokeswoman Jeanne Russo. [/quote]

I wouldn't say that at all. The United States puts more money into nanotechnology investment in the world. Per capita, the leader is Taiwan. This was at least true in 2004, where the federal government invested $1.6 billion, and the private sector about $1.7 billion, more than half of world wide private investment in nano-tech. I'm guessing now: but, I'd say that the funding from both sectors has probably increased significantly since then.

How many companies exist that would invest in a company that has no actual customers, already in chapter 11, and stuck in drawn-out legal proceedings that it almost certainly won't win? Microsoft has already undeniably helped SCO before, and they do have enough money to throw around that $100 million isn't too much to spend on a longshot.

So even if there's not direct evidence, there's also a very short list of people with $100 million sitting around who would want to invest in SCO. If it's not Microsoft, then I'd like to know who, because I've got a Perpetual Motion Machine for them to invest in next.

To me, this implies that as long as you're downloading something at some nominal speed, Comcast won't filter. If true, this is great info. All one needs to do is find a site somewhere that will let you download constantly at a very slow speed, and then your uploads should be unimpeded.

Has anyone verified this?

IBM (http://wistechnology.com/article.php?id=2201) and Sony (http://www.news.com/2100-1043_3-5097776.html) have also faced the wrath of WARF. Both were settled out of court for a pretty significant chunk of change. Luckily, most of that money goes back to University research and the inventors...

I believe this is the same patent that Sony eventually licensed for the PS2, but I could be mistaken. WARF took Sony to court to enforce it then, too. http://www.news.com/2100-1043_3-5097776.html

Many Facebook users set their profiles to private, which stops anyone but their friends from seeing their profile details. This is a great privacy feature that can protect users from cyberstalkers and is completely gutted by the application system. To restate things--if you set your profile to private, and one of your friends adds an application, most of your profile information that is visible to your friend is also available to the application developer--even if you yourself have not installed the application.

Try this http://www.news.com/Minnesota-court-takes-dim-view-of-encryption/2100-1030_3-5718978.html
"A Minnesota appeals court has ruled that the presence of encryption software on a computer may be viewed as evidence of criminal intent."

When i am crossing the USA border with encryption that is not crackable with ease - like keys over 1kb long - the enforcers (beleive to) have enough reason to put me in jail, either to annoy, prosecute or study me. And besides that: rumor has it that even when one uses or develops heavy encryption outside North-America soil, they might want to jail that person when it visits the states later on.

A federal court recently ruled that passwords are protected under the 5th amendment.

I've got good news for you. It's only three years down the road.

http://www.news.com/2100-1016_3-6197943.html

I think they have already screwed it up. According to the current head of DHS, as quoted on CNN, http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9771953-7.html

[I}mproved quality will come about, in part, because motor vehicle administrators will be required to link into databases to verify the legitimacy of the underlying identification documents, such as birth certificates, that Americans submit when they apply for Real ID-compliant cards.

Great, that means you now have to pick someone living to impersonate by use of a birth certificate. But if I can present the birth certificate of someone roughly my age who is still alive according the database (presumably still a state function), how does that verify anything? Or am I going to have to take of my shoes so that they can compare my footprint with the one they took in the hospital many years ago?

Apple seeks tax haven in Nevada

Now enriched with hefty cash reserves thanks in large part to booming iPod sales, Apple Computer isn't about to let California tax collectors take too big of a bite. The Cupertino, Calif.-headquartered firm has taken an unknown portion of its portfolio and set up shop in the veritable tax haven of Nevada, according to a recent BusinessWeek Online report.

The marketplace can define what it considers broadband. Government only needs to ensure there is a marketplace free of monopolies (that's the big reason why things aren't improving). With a free marketplace in operation, people can vote with their wallets for what they consider to be broadband.

That's what Ron Paul's position is too.

This coming from the same guy who complained that only 1 in 5 people who downloaded Saul William's album, which he produced, chose to pay for it. I find that to be a pretty good ratio considering they didn't even offer a way to sample the album without downloading the entire thing.

Silverlight might as well be. I for one don't trust Microsoft will keep up their cross-platform commitment in the slightest; As soon as it's beaten Flash to the ground, the Mac version will mysteriously disappear and the Linux version will be lacking any significant modules. And all other platforms are unable to play the content.

I guess as long as you're willing to admit that you're basing that on your own paranoia rather than the current state of reality then there's not much I can say to argue with it.

There are very good reasons to believe MS will in fact do this. MS has already threatened Apple to discontinue Mac software.

News.com has candidate interviews on technology policies.

Isn't HTC the world's largest smartphone maker? At a very high level, there are not many REVOLUTIONARY features in the android platform. The growing interest that this platform is getting is because of:

1. Software on the mobile devices / smartphones is usually terrible. Use any Symbian / Windows Mobile device for a few weeks and you will see how slow, counterintuitive, buggy and unintelligent the platform / user-interface is.

2. Android platform has the potential to become THE Linux platform for smartphones. Although Linux didn't get as successful on the desktop as I was hoping, it did get tremendous support from the development community. Looking at the limited market-share that Linux has on the desktop, it is heart-warming to see how many developers are working to provide all kinds of amazing applications to the Linux user. You do not have that kind of community in the smartphone market yet (Although there are some people developing Symbian and WinMo applications). If Android turns out to be a genuine platform, then we can be rest assured that a huge community will develop applications for it. Having Java as the language of choice helps as well.

3. One problem that Linux has on the desktop is that there are no big brand-names associated to it. Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows about Microsoft. And at least Tom and Dick know about Apple too. But none of them would be comfortable using Ubuntu or Fedora .. because of their unawareness. A Google platform called Android has a big brand-name. People trust Google .. in fact, more so than Microsoft. So, they won't worry about buying a Google Phone.

4. The openness of the Android platform makes it a real possibility that the smartphones of the future will NO LONGER be crippled by the Telecom Service Providers. Even if they do, it will hopefully be easy enough to install a fresh Android platform on the phone. This is tremendous in itself.

5. Google is an internet based company .. not desktop based. What does that mean to the smartphones? That means that we will no longer have the unnecessary tie-ups of the smartphones to the desktop. Those of you who have used smartphones enough know what I am talking about.

6. Never before have so many manufacturers and telecom service providers been brought together. And thanks to the potential of Android and the companies supporting it, and thanks to the iPhone, there's a good chance that the smartphone will finally become a commodity.

Is it possible that Microsoft will come to regret paying a premium for a business position in an industry it has yet to master, despite extraordinary expenditures (on-line revenue generation). Looky at how much ground Microft must make up to catch Google:
Rank Search Engine Volume
1. www.google.com 65.98%
2. search.yahoo.com 20.88%
3. search.msn.com 5.33%
4. www.ask.com 4.14%

http://www.hitwise.com/datacenter/searchengineanalysis.php

Note that msn searches have declined despite significant investment by the borg in pumping up its performance. There is strong reason to believe that Microsoft will not be able to tie its Yahoo properties to its Microosft Windows and Microsoft Office monopolies, and there is not a single one of Microsoft's properties that have succeeded to drive significantly scaled revenue unless it is tied to the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office monopolies. Halo was a huge seller, but them Microsoft sold off the Bungie, the creator of Halo, on October 1, 2007 after milking the cow dry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungie_Studios

Microsoft took a $1 billion hit on the X-box:

http://www.news.com/Microsoft-to-extend-Xbox-360-warranty,-take-1-billion-hit/2100-1014_3-6195058.html

The X-box was wildy outsold by Wii. MSNBC is popular but not a huge money maker. There is simply nothing outside the Microsoft Windows / Microsoft Office monopoly that shows signs of supporting Microsoft's stock is down 6.35% at the moment on the day, despite the Yahoo announcement. MSFT's stock is trading at $30.51, meaning that it is right back down in the same dolldrums where it has been since Q3 2003 , with no intervening splits!

There are lots of analysts talking about a glut of Vista machines, and wondering if CompUSA's bk might be the canary in Microsoft's coal mine. Microsoft's recent report of a 67% increase on its net reflects ADVANCE SALES of Vista licenses which Microsoft imposes on its vendors. If its vendors are overstocked with Vista machines, you wonder how much more Microsoft can cram down the pipeline in coming quarters.

In the meantime, Linux and Unix boxes have been selling very well on Amazon.com and swept all the categories for Amazon for 2007. From a recent story on /.'s fp:

http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/12/29/1959244.shtml
"Computers and handheld devices running default GNU Linux or Unix OSes have swept Amazon's 'best of' list for 2007, according BusinessWire.com for 28 December 2007. Best selling computer? The Nokia Internet Tablet PC, running Linux. Best reviewed computer? The Apple MacBook Pro notebook PC. Most wished for computer? Asus Eee 4G-Galaxy 7-inch PC mobile Internet device, which comes with Xandros Linux pre-installed. And last, but not least, the most frequently gifted computer: The Apple MacBook notebook PC."

Sure, MSFT is powerful, but with this Yahoo acquisition, they are taking on premium-weighted debt, and it really raises a question as to whether that asset will justify the premium. Yahoo has been declining, and it is not clear that the mere acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft will succeed where Microsoft has failed in all of their other non-Windows-Office monopoly. That is the $44 billion dollar question, IMHO.

Speaking of cellphones, any blackout lasting at least 3 to 6 hours will take cell off the air. Not to mention that when a blackout hits, everybody downtown will whip out their cellphones, and *TRY* to call someone, effectively gridlocking cellphones. Cell sucks when it comes to reliability.

They censored search pages.

JFGI

Here's a quick undersea cable map for anyone who's looking.

It sucks you cant ignore them either because they supposedly act with some kind of government authority.

They have no government authority other than that the government's job is to enforce legal private contracts. When you clicked on an EULA presented by a BSA member you agreed to that audit. So before he walks in the door you've already agreed to him doing so.

Just about every time you install an update on your OSX boxes you're doing just that.

I don't see that Sun is a member, but I'm not sure. Certainly with Linux you're on firm ground, along with Ernie Ball.

Sure, who doesn't remember them? In fact, the former CEO is the primary consultant working with Qtrax according to the press release: http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9711371-7.html

Sterling Ball claims otherwise. The problem is that they weren't removing UNUSED software from engineers' machines that were transferred to clerical staff. They were apparently paying for what they were using.

http://www.news.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html

Apparently the Storm worm is the world's fastest supercomputer. And even if it weren't, funneling whatever attacks the FSB might be likely to do through the Storm botnet would provide excellent plausible deniability.

Seriously, the problem might be you assuming I'm a 10yr old MS Faniboi when I'm actually an OS engineer/theorist and the chances are good that you are using an OS running code or modified code I wrote up to 25 years ago.

I think my current guess is closer to the truth than that. If what you say is true, I've read your work. There was some really elegant work in there. Continuing on the "if it's true" theme: you are in a position to know that in 1992 Windows NT 3.5 achieved usability and multitasking parity with the System V which had been released only nine years prior. Three notable differences being NT's impossibly complex security model, Unix's much higher price and the unambiguity of the licensing.

After Microsoft decided to recruit Unix and VMS wizards to emulate these platforms for their New Technology kernel, but two years before the release of NT 3.5 (about the same time they were knifing their IBM lovechild OS/2), USL sued BSDi and eventually the Regents of the University of California. You know all this -- I'm going over it for the crowd that isn't even going to go back to a thread this old. Just after the release of NT3.5 the Regents settled, agreeing to be paid a huge amount of money and being allowed to continue doing what they had always done with Unix. The only catch was that the terms of the settlement would remain secret essentially clouding ownership of Unix in a way that is eerily similar to many Microsoft tactics since then including the SCO case that brought light to this dark bit of history. If it had not been for this disastrous settlement I think by now there would be neither Windows nor Linux.

I'll bet playing on BSD back before the lawyers started peeing in the pool was a lot of fun -- afterward, not so much. I have wondered for many years if Microsoft pulled a BayStar here long before we had a name to stick to the tactic. You know the rest: Ransom Love's hubris drove him to buy Unix with the hope of releasing it as open source after his IPO went huge. Not only did he mangle the deal, but the deal he wanted didn't exist because the rights he wanted had already been licensed away in ways that could not be retrieved. Fast forward 15 years and Microsoft technology is now falling behind the fully vetted and totally open product of a Finnish college student who just wanted to create something for "just a hobby, won't be big and professional".

Don't get me wrong: although I dislike what Microsoft has done with their market dominance I am mindful that what IBM had planned for us with their Planar Boards and MCA was far worse. The pity is that they could do far better if their goal was only to release an excellent product.

This makes it very difficult to discuss Windows as credible, when most people here think of a different architecture design (Win9x) when they think Windows, let alone people that have virtually no understanding of OS architectures or why things are done specific ways.

No most people here prefer XP to Vista. Only a vocal minority prefer open source solutions and even they are schismatic. We know that when the issue is XP or Vista we already have tons of stuff for XP, we've learned to secure XP. We have learned to deploy, update and service XP. Our customers are used to XP and absent a compelling feature in Vista the cost benefit analysis comes down in favor of not re-architecting our entire environments just to suit Microsoft.

From a technical standpoint, Vista's kernel is the best in terms of general consumer based OSes. Vista also employs technologies that other designers are not even considering or realize are there yet, and this will give MS a serious advantage in a couple of years.

Stephen Colbert discovered the real lyrics to the Nokia jingle: "You annoying stupid douche bag, turn your phone off now." I mean seriously, when Nokia phones are affecting the development of bird song...

I still can't figure out why slashdot never posted my submission for Ron Paul's article at http://www.news.com/Technology-Voters-Guide-Ron-Paul/2100-1028_3-6224161.html?tag=st.num which is much more interesting.

It is really easy to predict something that has already happened.

Thumbs down on the blog link - the original CNet news story (link) is much more detailed and has this tidbit - Based on the number of "missing" iPhones, each of the 4,400 worldwide iPhone retailers "had more than 150 units of channel inventory at the beginning of this year" which sure sounds like they're counting them F.O.B. from Apple's warehouse door, not when it's actually sold to a consumer.

What part of Microsoft's record earnings yesterday did Slashdot seem to overlook? I think the joke is on us.

http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9857633-56.html?tag=newsmap

The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, which some security experts have alternatively called a flash mob or the first-ever cyberwar,