Slashdot Mirror

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/98779_bigfoot0 6.shtml

Hmmm. Millions of people lost jobs since Bush took office, 93,000 more payroll jobs vanished last month, and consumer confidence just took another dive.

Telemarketers and the Bush administration are not good sources of unbiased information. And, in other news, a fortune is not waiting for you in some Nigerian bank.

"Accounting Firms Outsource Tax Returns to India" [seattletimes.nwsource.com]

thank you.

ummm. here: Seattle Times Article

I'll see your lame link and raise you the truth.

Truth? The link you provided doesn't include any more truth than the Wired story, just that he plead guilty, instead of continuing to be held indefinitely against his will.

You're aware that a confession doesn't necessarily mean that the person is guilty, right? (And don't think that this doesn't happen in the US.

"limited" access is not the same as "no access,"

So, it's OK to violate someone's constitutional rights, as long as it's only a little bit, right?

Isn't somebody in the Defense Department actually taking a strong look at this crap? I don't care if you use SCO, just avoid Microsoft with my Country's Defense systems.

I'm starting to wonder if the Terminator's SkyNet was a Microsoft product?!

I hope everyone noticed this part of the article:

"Why would a company like Microsoft do this?" asked Richard Lang, who is Burst's CEO and half the company workforce. "We were a little company. Microsoft could have had our technology for almost nothing, but instead they stole it. We called them on it, and they could have settled at any time, but they didn't. They stuck their heels in and won't give an inch even now. The only way I can make sense of this behavior is that they need to win no matter what the cost."

That's normal behaviour for Microsoft. When faced with claims by Apple, Borland, Wordperfect, and others, Microsoft did exactly the same thing -- they dug in their heals and fought tooth and nail, dragging things out in court for years until the other side settled out of exhaustion.

But then SCO came along.

SCO's claim is dubious.

SCO's claim is unproven.

And what did Microsoft do?

Microsoft paid SCO at least $10 million.

They didn't question SCO's claim.

They didn't take time to negotiate a better deal.

They certainly didn't fight it out in court.

Microsoft just paid, quickly, and without being pressured.

Most people would say that the payment was premature, even for a normal company.

But for Microsoft, given their history, the quick payment borders on insanity.

Therefore, either Microsoft has suddenly gone insane, or the $10+ million is exactly what many people have been saying -- a payoff, in exchange for which SCO will try to do as much damage to Linux as possible.

Seattle Times

U.S. cyber investigators arrested a Minnesota teenager today who the FBI said has admitted unleashing one version of a damaging virus-like infection weeks ago on the Internet.

A court official identified the teenager as Jeffrey Lee Parson, 18, of Hopkins, Minn., known online as "teekid." A U.S. official in Washington also confirmed an arrest was made early today.

> If Microsoft decides to treat better their clients, it will involve many expenses (they can afford them anyway), but I don't think they will really appreciate it.

The Seattle Times has conducted an interesting interview with Microsoft Vice President and CIO Rick Devenuti, in which he comments on the company's internal testing procedure called dogfooding and explains why he has a PC running Red Hat Linux in his office. Devenuti's comments about ATMs needing "five nines" uptime is especially ironic given this incident. Picture here

Man, how did this make Slashdot

Here is a more interesting story...

The Seattle Times has conducted an interesting interview with Rick Devenuti, Microsoft Vice President and CIO, in which he comments on the company's internal testing procedure called dogfooding and explains why he has a PC running RedHat Linux in his office. Devenuti's comments about ATMs needing "five nines" uptime is especially ironic given this incident. Picture here

Man, how did this make Slashdot

Here is a more interesting story...

The Seattle Times has conducted an interesting interview with Rick Devenuti, Microsoft Vice President and CIO, in which he comments on the company's internal testing procedure called dogfooding and explains why he has a PC running RedHat Linux in his office. Devenuti's comments about ATMs needing "five nines" uptime is especially ironic given this incident. Picture here

Now that's just silly.

It d doesn't do 180, I hope 130 is okay for street driving

So all they have to work on next is making it look overtly huge (when it doesn't need to be).

If you look up Mr Taves at the Seattle PI you'd find he's actually the video game columnist. And I have to add one thing, the article did a bad job of quoting the article.

If you go to the article (which can be found here you will see that there is one additional line to the article. And I quote: "Scott Taves is a lifelong nerd who favors shooters and survival horror games."

I don't think the article was meant to be taken at face value... (but if you search his other articles, he does pick Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness as a hot pick) but I think the ommission of that last line from the article on the website linked above does leave out something interesting and insightful.

Just for the record, since the PI is my local large market newspaper (even though I'm 150 miles away), and my favorite of the two Seattle papers, I am writing a letter to the editor (by email of course) pointing out the backlash this article has created in the gaming community (as well as mentioning seeing if putting slashdot in the newspaper has a slashdot type effect). I'll let you know if it gets printed

If you look up Mr Taves at the Seattle PI you'd find he's actually the video game columnist. And I have to add one thing, the article did a bad job of quoting the article.

If you go to the article (which can be found here you will see that there is one additional line to the article. And I quote: "Scott Taves is a lifelong nerd who favors shooters and survival horror games."

I don't think the article was meant to be taken at face value... (but if you search his other articles, he does pick Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness as a hot pick) but I think the ommission of that last line from the article on the website linked above does leave out something interesting and insightful.

Just for the record, since the PI is my local large market newspaper (even though I'm 150 miles away), and my favorite of the two Seattle papers, I am writing a letter to the editor (by email of course) pointing out the backlash this article has created in the gaming community (as well as mentioning seeing if putting slashdot in the newspaper has a slashdot type effect). I'll let you know if it gets printed

So, earning $131,164,155 in the United States alone and breaking sales records is considered poor sales? Incredible. =)

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in an article on this, reports that "public safety systems in Seattle don't use Windows software." Talk about not recognizing a prophet in his home town....

I can't see how that is a whole lot more work than having to pre-print the ballots and deal with the machines that take the votes from you (This is in Seattle, WA). And anyone that lives in or around King County and has read a paper on a fairly consistent basis knows that this is not as easy as it may sound either.

...At least there is a greater chance of my vote not being screwed up...

Not here in Washington state. Furor over absentee ballot delay : "On the eve of today's statewide election -- when voters will decide critical issues from the future of Washington's transportation system to control of the Legislature -- frustrations increased over the delayed issuance of thousands of King County absentee ballots."

Hey, the US government is also trying to ban Model Rockets so why not? If it's fun and geeky, congresscritters, who almost always were members of the Debate Team and not the Science Club in high school, will try to ban it under some BS "terrorism" excuse.

You can read lots more about this by choosing from the links in the rejected post below. Also, it's important to note that EAL2 is NOT the highest Common Criteria certification level. The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation v2.1 describes the security assurance requirements and EALs in detail. For a look at the details read about the Evaluation Assurance Levels at NIST.

IBM, SuSE Linux Get Common Criteria Security Certification

Linux has reached a new milestone: IBM and SuSE Linux have received the Common Criteria Security Certification from the U.S. government (mirror), specifically from the Defense Information Security Agency (DISA) arm of the Pentagon. 'Right now it is the only Linux distribution available that has this. This certification is used as a standard by 14 countries including the U.S. and Canada,' says the SuSE U.S. general manager. Linux Enterprise Server 8 is certified at Evaluation Assurance Level 2+ EAL2 with the companies jointly pursuing a Controlled Access Protection Profile EAL3 certification by year-end, then on to EAL4. More details at CNet, AP via Detnews/CNN and Reuters/Forbes. It looks like they beat Red Hat to the punch.

- adam

Two observations of this thread:

1) How can there be infinitely small if you have a definite endpoint (zero)? Plus, if you go too small the distance between mirrors will be less than the size of a photon, so how can light bounce back and forth any longer?

2) Light actually can stand still.

They turn photos into data?!? How the hell did they manage that? Sheer genius! Thank the gods that we have MS around to keep the world in amazingly inventive, original products.

However their incredibly innovative (sorry, Microvative) robot, Robie, seems strangely familiar!

Microsoft Reasearch saves the day!

> Software is slowly and painfully learning the
> lesson that manufacturing learned a long time
> ago: "Build where you sell".

Oh, you mean like Mackie Designs.?

Better not fly on an Airbus.
They are already using computers to limit what the pilot can do.

• Spy museum in Washington DC
• North of DC, The NSA crypto museum
• The manly Rocketdyne F1 Saturn V Booster
• More thrust at the Alabama Space and Rocket Center
• Spam king Alan Ralsky's house
• A Lake Washington cruise past Bill's humble abode
• While in Seattle, the Museum of Flight
• North of Seattle is the largest building under 1 continuous roof at Boeing
• That Holy of Holies: Xerox PARC
• Another park, but of the vertical daqueri variety the Ouray Ice Park

I mean did you all hear that Metallica is suing a Canadian band for the use of the E-F chord in their song.

This was a hoax, thanks for playing.

Google does have a tendency to skew results towards shopping, though.

Well, in the example they used, they did a search for "flowers" and complained they got florist shops. However, if you're really doing research, and do a more specific search (say on "tulips") you don't get that same bias. Rule 1, be specific.

Their complaint about skewing is somewhat valid, but it helps to understand the nature of the web. It lives and breathes computers. So if you search "apple fruit" you get much better results, even better than "apple -computer". Rule 2, disambiguate.

Their complain about books is also valid, but this is an artifact of publishing and IP law. One that may be starting to crumble, given Amazon's recent announcement about offering book search. Rule 3, when there's a real market hole, look for the opportunity for profit.

Who said they are missing it? Lufthansa is going to offer Wi-Fi, and Connexion by Boeing is going to have both an ethernet port and Wi-Fi component.

Wi-Fi has the opportunity to be a major cash cow for airlines, and from what I see, they're moving in for the kill.

This story needs to be put in context with recent developments and crowing about Windows being chosen over Linux. The biggest story out of this surprising admission is that analysts and large organizations are starting to recognize the value proposition of Linux and Open Source, as described in the rejected post below. The most telling comment is in the quotation in boldface, which lends support to Mitch Kapor's predictions.

Microsoft Ranks Linux its Number Two Threat

While most media are focusing on Microsoft's growing sales and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 replacing Linux servers based on the June 2003 Netcraft survey, (also at SMH, but disputed by the Register) there's a more interesting story to Microsoft's latest earnings report and conference call. Speaking about the top five risks for Microsoft, CFO John Connors said, ''The general economic environment is risk and driver number one. Linux and non-commercial software is risk number two.'' The recent Munich win for Linux is partly credited for making Microsoft take Linux and OS software seriously. Said one analyst about future threats, ''People are underestimating Linux on the desktop. They're going to be surprised at how quickly Linux's threat will be an issue on the desktop.''

Safire article

... courtesy of the rejected post machine. The government sector news sites are always good - and usually better - for details about contracts of this sort:

Microsoft/Dell Gets $90-$120 Million Homeland Security Contract

Microsoft has been awarded the five-year, $90 million Department of Homeland Security contract for desktop and server software. The contract will be managed by Dell and will provide the DHS with 140,000 desktops running Windows XP and Microsoft Office Professional. When consolidated with current agreements, the contract amounts to a six-year agreement covering 144,000 desktops, worth between $110 million and $120 million. This follows the $478 million, six-year deal with the Army announced last month. More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Washington Post, InformationWeek, the Register , eWEEK, and Reuters.

This site is getting heavily astro-turfed. Innovative ideas get stalled

Watch out!

Replying to own post is bad form, but I was pissed when I found that Google completely removed this page from their news site. This is from yahoo!

Microsoft tries to stop Schnazzle

Now, to investigate further at Google!
-

Yeah, right. The secret is marketing half-truths, old-boy networks, graft, etc., the same bag of tricks as always. When I see something like the scene depicted in this David Horsey cartoon then I'll believe in your meritocracy.

David Horsey, the Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist for the Seattle PI, had a similar view.

Look at how many dedicated gaming devices Sony and Nintendo have sold compared to Microsofts try-and-do-everything Box.

Sony I will give you, but I don't think this strategy is actually working for Nintendo too well. Nintendo will win Japan, granted, but Europe, Australia, and America are probably lost at this point. Too bad that the Japanese (non-cellphone) game market is shrinking so much, too.

And if you really think the Xbox has only 2-3 worthwhile games, I am really curious what kind of games you play. Project Gotham, DOA3, Amped, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Shenmue II, JSRF, etc. are all pretty cool, and not available for PC or other systems (at least in the US in the case of Shenmue II). Likewise, how can you defend the GC's smaller library, which also has less variety?

By all means, enjoy any console you like, but it seems stupid to complain about how terrible a console is that many people seriously do enjoy, with sales numbers to prove it.

And what does the Xbox try and do that Sony hasn't tried with the PS2 (which is dominating)?

Ever wonder how in 2000 there were an unusual amount of "Florida military ballots" that went through the postal system LATE and WITHOUT POSTMARK?

Next election will be even more corrupt for military ballots. Military personnel will vote online in 2004

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/126504_vote14. html

The company that has been contracted to provide this service was just bought by a group of Saudi investors.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzelec0227.stor y

"Election.com, a struggling Garden City start-up scheduled to provide online absentee ballots for U.S. military personnel in the 2004 federal election, has quietly sold controlling power to an investment group with ties to unnamed Saudi nationals, according to company correspondence."

You wanna see how computerized voting really works?
Go here:
http://www.cntrybob.com/Fun/Voter/voter.html

Why bother to vote at all. Just resign yourself to fighting a revolution. If you value freedom and democracy.

An even handed article is here.

The complaint accuses Amazon of vicarious infringement for allegedly allowing its "trusted retailers" to offer Corbis images through its site.

"Amazon has failed to effectively supervise and control the infringing conduct of the supplier defendants," the suit says.

The suit also alleges that the defendants are violating Seattle-based Corbis' copyrights by including images on Amazon's Web site to entice buyers to purchase the posters and other products.

Corbis attorney Dan Donlan said the company sued first because the "acts by Amazon were a little more blatant than what we would see in other circumstances."

The complaint accuses Amazon of vicarious infringement for allegedly allowing its "trusted retailers" to offer Corbis images through its site.

"Amazon has failed to effectively supervise and control the infringing conduct of the supplier defendants," the suit says.

The suit also alleges that the defendants are violating Seattle-based Corbis' copyrights by including images on Amazon's Web site to entice buyers to purchase the posters and other products.

Corbis attorney Dan Donlan said the company sued first because the "acts by Amazon were a little more blatant than what we would see in other circumstances."

Well, Microsoft just landed their biggest contract for a whopping $470 million(about $950/copy).
With whom? Why, the US gov't, of course!

Hmm, how about a link that works, the kind with no space in the middle? Yeah, that's the ticket.

..and Redmond is the 'strip mall' version.

Seriously, I don't understand why being based in Bellevue is an issue. There are plenty of other companies in the Eastside area who've competed with Microsoft, and some that have even hauled them into court.

The reality is that, largely because of Microsoft, the greater Seattle area is a software development corridor, much like Mountain View, CA, or Boston, and it would be surprising if there weren't competitors to Microsoft there.

Yet another failed attempt by Microsoft to break into an industry in which they do not have a monopoly. Considering how much stock Balmer and company have been selling, I think they see the writing on the wall, and want to cash out before the world realizes that the glory days of Microsoft are over.

I already hate the fact that seatbelts are too tight and that there are laws mandating their use (especially here in MN where you can be ticketed for not wearing one while having no other violations).

Washington State (USA) has had three judges declare that unconstitutional. See here and here and more here or you can always Google it.

You don't want one of your "volunteers" suing for back wages, do you?

Maybe giving them non-monetary gifts would be a good workaround?

"There has never been a time where Unix as an operating system has been licensed in an open-source way. It's always been protected."

This from the inheritor of AT&T code which lost a lawsuit against BSD; from the company which (as Caldera) worked for more than a year on "unifying" Linux and its own (more or less) Unix; from the company which earlier this year released the "Ancient Unix" sources.

Time for the padded walls and do-up-at-the-back jackets. Or a fraud suit. Or possibly both. (-: