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Wonder why MS isn't licensing the patent from Eolas ? Perhaps they think that negociating for that would imply that the patent was valid and they aren't willing to do that yet... maybe they are hoping that public pressure over breaking plugins on thousand (millions?) of sites will make Eolas back down... sounds like lawyer games run amok.

The quotes from the cringley article imply that Eolas may not want to license to MS, in some attempt to change the balance of the browser market. If so, it's pretty annoying/arrogant that a one-person company thinks they know what's best for the internet enough to pull that kind of stunt... The costs of website conversions that shouldn't be necessary could run awfully high.

Wonder if anyone has thought of suing Eolas over the fact that they are screwing up their websites, and costing everyone money to convert away from plugins...?

...The [Cringley] article points out some interesting possibilities, though, such as Eolas giving license to the patent free to everyone except Microsoft. It could restart the web browser wars again.

The article you are thinking of is here:


http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit2002110 7. html

It's well worth a read, as it becomes apparent that maybe Eolas doesn't want to stop *everybody* from using the technology, or squeeze cash out of them.

In terms of Open Source involvement, Mike Doyle is actually a respected member of the Tcl comunity.

They did make a product, in fact several. They created a Web browser that they demonstrated in '93 and '94, which was released in 1995. It was called WebRouser. In fact, Cringely pointed out that their browser was invalidating prior art to the SBC "frames" patent.

Ah - I think you missed the point.

Microsoft has to pay $521 million for violations of the patent - they used the technology without getting a license first. It's a penalty. It does NOT give them a licence to use this patented technology.

To KEEP using the technology - they'll have to get a licence from Eolas. That's a separate negotiation - and Eolas can name any figure they want - $1, $100 billion, or even "Nope, sorry - you can't use this technology Microsoft no matter how much money you throw at us."

There's an interesting article by Cringley where he talks to the CEO I believe of Eolas. Check it out here

Memory Glasses is what you're looking for:
It's a project involving Rich DeVaul at the MIT media lab wearable computing project
You can also watch some footage of it in action.

"The enemy has guns, so we could buy bulletproof vests for our soldiers, but if we did that the enemy would just sneak up on them and use knives or bombs instead, so let's not bother with the bulletproof vests and let our soldiers get shot to pieces."

There's a rule of thumb about analogies and slashdot. You've illustrated it excellently. Not only are guns and nukes completely different, but so are soldiers and cities, and ballistic vests and antimissile shields (hint: one of them can be bought, the other is impossible)

If the US had an antimissile shield on the other hand,

Then N.Korea doesn't waste any cash on missiles, so they can built more bombs, and have a little leftover to bribe the border guards who think they're bargaining with drug-dealers.

This world never learns that vandalism is not art.

Art and vandalism can certainly coexist.

I've certainly seem some carefully crafted, beautiful graffiti that the artist regrettably chose to place on someone else's property without permission. That it's illegal and messes with someone else's property doesn't invalidate that it is also art.

Similarly you can engage in political speech and do something illegal at the same time. Burning draft cards was both illegal and a political statement. Hitting someone with a cream pie can be both assault and speech. Destruction of property (Say, dumping a bunch of tea in a harbor) can be intended as a political message.

Mind you, that someone is making art or engaging in political speech doesn't justify the crime! I can both appreciate the quality of some skilled graffiti while simultaneously wishing that the artist would get caught for damaging someone else's property. I'd rather the artist had not chosen to do so. But to deny that it could be art is just silly.

The RIAA only makes money from the Record Companies. They don't make squat from you, and, unlike SCO, there's no stock to run up. The RIAA's only job is to convince the Record Companies that they need them, and bill them by the hour. While there once was a real purpose for the RIAA, it's long since autotelic.

Techies are smart, but they make up for it by being gullible and naive -- all the threats, DDoS and negative press just makes the RIAA richer and more powerful. The Record Companies will lose money, but the RIAA will make sure you get blamed while they get that money.

Cringely would properly call the RIAA sharp. Some sources for their money are:

1) Charging the Record Companies for the legal advice (and purchased politicians) to allow them to avoid paying artists and/or taxes.
2) Convincing the Record Companies to spend that saved money on Payola, and grabbing consulting / finder's fee kickbacks from both the indies and Clear Channel.
3) Charging $500 an hour to defend (in the press, running MD5s and in the court) the Record Companies against the issue of the day (Cassette tapes, dirty language labeling, Napster, PTP), which the sharp RIAA lawyers constantly troll for in the first place.
4) Day-to-day activities like fudging sales figures downwards to convince the Record Companies that they need them more than ever.
5) Silly stuff like billing hours for moving their web site weekly. They play some things so incompetently I'm amazed they've been able keep a straight face. 'oh yea? Watch what I can get away with!'

?Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, in an online forum in which he and the RIAA's Matt Opennheim answered questions from readers about the legality of downloading, copying and sharing digital music files.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/june03/copyright .html

Your idea is actually quite insightful, if not slightly premature. Unfortunately, you have already been beaten to the punch. Robert Cringely's column The Pulpit has carried a story similar to yours on January 16, 2002. Definately a marginal possibility to watch for.

Your idea is actually quite insightful, if not slightly premature. Unfortunately, you have already been beaten to the punch. Robert Cringely's column The Pulpit has carried a story similar to yours on January 16, 2002. Definately a marginal possibility to watch for.

Most inventions were based on some innovation or the other - the IC was an innovative usage of the transistor, the microwave an innovative usage of UV, etc.

As Newton opined "If I have seen further, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants" I've created/invented software that I'm proud of and others might term innovation - what's so wrong with innovation anyway?

"Neocon?" Isn't that the politically-correct codeword for "Jew-Supporting?"

Yes... why, yes I believe it is!

Why, no it isn't! In fact, it's a term created by Irving Kristol, father of Bill Kristol (the founder and editor of "The Weekly Standard"). Irving Kristol founded the New York Intellectual tradition of "Neo Conservatism" as a transition from Democratic liberal Trotskyism (a group of Democrats who were former Trotskyites) to Conservative Republicanism (meaning the joined the GOP) in defiance of Democratic support for anti-war protestors during the Vietnam era. You have your history completely wrong, Sir. How does it feel to be ruled by a group of former Trotskyite "Neo-Marxist: intellectuals? Because that's who's running the GOP at the moment.

Here is a notable quote taken from the link above:

" Ever since I can remember, I've been a neo-something: a neo-Marxist, a neo-Trotskyist, a neo-liberal, a neo-conservative; in religion a neo-orthodox even while I was a neo-Trotskyist and a neo-Marxist. I'm going to end up a neo- that's all, neo dash nothing."

Maynard

It would seem this might open up another "Cringleyesque" loophole for a "file swapping service". You buy the rights to a song. When you are done playing it you sell it to some sucker. With the proceedes from the sale you buy another "used" song you would like to listen to. Rise and Repeat. Of course, you might ocassionally get stuck with a song nobody wants and have to buy in again. But, with a large enough pool of users, it will probably work out over the long run. To mitigate the risk you could buy several songs to begin with so that you always have a slot to place a new purchase in.

On October 28th, from 8pm to 10pm EST, the PBS show "Nova" will be running a special regarding string theory (among other things). More details are here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/.

The NY Times article mentions that Nova is doing an string theory episode this fall (Oct 28,2003 and Nov 4, 2003) based on Brian Greene's book The Elegant Universe. Turns out the homepage for this episode is already online with plenty of interviews and animations.

Management: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 288,281
Business: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 348,028
Computer: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 472,632
Architecture: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 184,347
Life sciences: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 36,770
Legal: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 76,642
Art, design: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 29,564
Sales: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 226,564
Office: Number of jobs moving overseas by 2015: 1,659,310
Oh, and, by the way, it's only xenophobia if one is "unduly" contemptuous...

"Today a technically competent corporation can secure documents using certificates, PGP, etc. If they really want to cover their tracks they can do so."

Such as for example, Microsoft
who have just admitted destroying evidence prior to a court case against Burst.com

1. Microsoft doesn't use it for its own products. If .NET is so good, why? If someone said, "I would never eat this, but here is some for you", would you take what was offered?
2. Programs written in .NET are more easily decompiled. If you discover and implement an especially good algorithm, others may be able to see what you did. Maybe that is the reason for number 1, above.
3. All the tools are proprietary. The programmer and his employer become like dogs on a leash. Their fortunes are tied to the management decisions of the proprietary vendor. Computer company managements often make sink-the-company decisions; consider the .com self-destruction, for example. When your company uses proprietary tools, your company is dependent on the lifestyle of the proprietary vendor's management, the vendor's ability to hire and keep good people, the vendor's financial decisions, and the vendor's estimation of whether they want to invest more in the tools you are using.
4. My understanding is that the license agreement for .NET prevents a company from using .NET to compete with Microsoft in some areas. But how does a company know if software it develops will eventually compete with Microsoft?

1. Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design
   The mainstream media is starting to realize that Microsoft products are especially insecure.
2. (PDF file): The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) urges the Department of Homeland Security to stop using insecure (Microsoft) products.
   The computer industry attempts to educate those in government about the insecurity of Microsoft software.
3. Stupid Microsoft Tricks -- Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat
   A famous industry columnist exposes an example of Microsoft's apparent dishonesty. When ordered by a court to produce all its email records concerning a company that alleges theft by Microsoft, there was a 35-week gap.

Acording to NOVA, the standing record is 113,739.9 ft (~ 35 km) was set in 1961. Back then however these people were pretty hardcore, as it was too technical to pilot the balloons back down, they would jump (with a parachute).

My grandfather and his brother were some of the balooning pioneers in the US, and I actually had the oppertunity (when I was much younger) to acompany my grandfater taken up in a balloon by Joe Kittinger (first altitude record of ~100,000 ft and the longest freefall to date-where he actually broke the sound-barrier unaided by propultion other than gravity). We didn't go to 100 kft but even back then (I think I may have been about 7) it was quite an experience.

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

I just finished watching NOW with Bill Moyers on PBS. The first segment was about job flight.

It's worth watching for many reasons, not the least of which is the way Indian's learn American English by singing along to hip-hop songs.

I just finished watching NOW with Bill Moyers on PBS. The first segment was about job flight.

It's worth watching for many reasons, not the least of which is the way Indian's learn American English by singing along to hip-hop songs.

Why surprised?

These analysts were the same people pushing enron and worldcom before the news of their illegalities got out.

Perhaps at one time they were independant, but these days they seem to be salesmen for the investment banking community.

check Frontline Dot Con for more info.

right.....

Actually, in addition to AC, Tesla also invented the radio.
If you dare say Marconi, well click here for an education

back to intro physics for you

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home.

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM on PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home."

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM on PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home."

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM on PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home."

Check your local listings!

This Friday, August 29th, PBS will air an important one hour show on outsourcing work to foreign countries.

In the midst of steep economic recession and skyrocketing unemployment rates, more and more major American companies are cutting costs by outsourcing work to foreign countries. Now, these exported jobs are taking their toll on college-educated and skilled professional workforce. With experts estimating that 3.3 million white-collar jobs will be sent overseas by 2015, is America's middle class being hollowed out?

On Friday, August 29, 2003 at 9PM on PBS NOW goes to India where the country's skilled and educated workforce is answering customer and financial service calls and taking over technology positions for some of America's biggest corporations while millions of Americans search for jobs at home."

Check your local listings!

The Pulpit, Auguest 2001

Hey, and it's August again, a little over two years later!

Well, more importantly that Microsoft was going to try to kill Java and embed a media player in the browser.

Cringely writes about this in his current story.

from The Pulpit (November last year):

But what if they won't settle for money? This brings us to Mike Doyle, who runs tiny Eolas Technology Inc., which controls a patent that covers embedding plug-ins, applets, scriptlets, or ActiveX Controls into Web pages -- the use of any algorithm that implements dynamic, bi-directional communications between an app embedded in a Web page and external applications. That more or less defines how the World Wide Web is used today. As I have written before, Eolas is suing Microsoft for patent infringement, and has been generally wiping the floor with Redmond. Of course, so did the DoJ, and look how THAT turned out. The suit comes to trial in the spring and should be very interesting, not just because of the principles involved, but also because Mike Doyle and Eolas insist they are looking for more than just money.

"It would sure be nice for someone to actually consider all of this from our point of view, rather than MS's," wrote Doyle in a recent message to me. "It amazes me that everyone just assumes that MS will be able to merely write a check and make the whole thing go away. What if someone went through the following, purely theoretical, of course ;-), logical analysis?"

"Is there any practical settlement amount that is worth more to Eolas than a victory at trial? Considering the facts in the case and the magnitude of the stakes here, a highly likely outcome is that it will actually go to trial, and, once it does, that a jury will award us both damages and an injunction. Injunction is the key word here. That is what patent rights provide: the power to exclude. What if we were to just say no? Or, what if some other big player were to acquire or merge with us? What if only one best-of-breed browser could run embedded plug-ins, applets, ActiveX controls, or anything like them, and it wasn't IE? How competitive would the other browsers be without those capabilities? How would that change the current dynamics in the Industry?"

"One possible scenario is that Eolas would have the power necessary to re-establish the browser-as-application-platform as a viable competitor to Windows. That would be an interesting outcome, wouldn't it? How much would that be worth? The Web-OS concept, where the browser is the interface to all interactive apps on the client side, was always a killer idea. It still is. It lost momentum not because it wasn't economically or technically feasible, but because MS made it unlikely for anybody but them to make money on the Web-client side. Therefore, nobody could justify the necessary investment to take a really-serious shot at it. It doesn't have to be that way, does it? Just think of how we could use this patent to re-invigorate and expand the competitive landscape in this recently-moribund industry. What if we could do what the DOJ couldn't, and in the process make Eolas and everybody else, possibly excluding MS, richer? Wouldn't Eolas stand to profit more in such a scenario than any kind of pre-trial settlement could provide? Wouldn't everybody else?"

"The last couple of years in IT seem to have convinced people that the current status quo will continue indefinitely. They seem to have forgotten what seemed so obvious as little as three years ago, that change is the only invariance. That axiom has always proven out in the past, and I'm certain it will continue to do so in the future."

So will Mike Doyle give in to the Microsoft checkbook or will he opt, instead, to change the world of IT as we know it, knocking Microsoft down to size along the way? And notice how he referred to mergers and investors and being acquired? What if an IBM or an AOL or some party behind door number three was to do exactly that?

As I said, it should be a VERY interesting trial.

DeBeers is an even bigger fraud than the RIAA. Diamonds (even natural ones) are not really scarce. Also, the new lab methods do not all rely on the mettalic solvents to create diamonds. One is deposited as plasma, with no extra gunk in the process. They are white diamonds, of unusual perfection.

BTW, Plastic had this a few weeks ago.

Dean G.

When to Shoot a Policeman, the last story on the page.

Yes, he is being extremist here, but it's scary that he flaunts these kinds of fantasies. From reading his "armedndangerous" site, he comes across as a lunatic just looking and waiting for an excuse to get to shoot someone.

That's a very strange reading of that article.

The key point of the article is that he is speaking against a particular killing of police officer. Raymond condemns the killer as a murderer. He's making this point in contrast with his view that it might be acceptable to kill a police officer in certain circumstances. Those aren't "fantasies," that's someone who is thinking about his own moral boundaries. It's not really fair to give a blanket label to an activity as wrong unless you've considered what you would do in every possible similar situation. Take something as straight forward as terrorism. Lots of people are eager to say the terrorism is never acceptable. However, if your home country was successfully invaded by a hostile power and your military defeated, would you be willing to strike back covertly to try and free your country? Similarly, if you're an American, do you believe that vandalism and property destruction for political purposes is never, ever acceptable? If so, do you object to the Boston Tea Party? Even if you decided that all of these cases are wrong, the point is that you need to seriously think about them with you as the potential subject.

After discussing many of the possible cases in which he would shoot a law officer or military member, Raymond specifically notes "But the United States of America has not yet reached the point at which the political mechanisms for the defense of freedom have broken down. This judgment is not a matter of theory but one of practice. There are not yet police at our door with legal orders to round up the Jews, or confiscate pornography or computers or guns."

Raymond has clearly thought about these issues regarding violence against government. This isn't the paranoid rantings of madman, it's someone putting forth his ethics on the matter. He's clearly thought the matter through and decided where his lines are. I don't entirely agree with Raymond's positions, but his positions are well reasoned. The sense I get from the article is that this is someone who is very rational, someone who doesn't hide from uncomfortable ideas, someone I could understand.

Offhand, I can't think of a movie with a steam train exploding in a fireball, but fireball aside, it was fairly common for steam engines to explode when pushed beyond their specs. 1647 were killed when the Sultana exploded in 1864. I'm sure that was a pretty cinematic explosion.

I'd suggest you take a look at some of the material PBS has online, such as complete streaming episodes of Frontline, Commanding Heights, Washington Week, and a variety of other shows. Yes, this is a bit of a way from having their entire catalog online, but its still progress.

Besides, so many of the shows on PBS are produced by member stations (as are the majority of NPR shows) that its understandable that some would be more interested in having their work online while others haven't yet jumped onto richer web-based content.

And regarding NPR taking taxpayer money... goodness, do we have to go into this again?

I'd suggest you take a look at some of the material PBS has online, such as complete streaming episodes of Frontline, Commanding Heights, Washington Week, and a variety of other shows. Yes, this is a bit of a way from having their entire catalog online, but its still progress.

Besides, so many of the shows on PBS are produced by member stations (as are the majority of NPR shows) that its understandable that some would be more interested in having their work online while others haven't yet jumped onto richer web-based content.

And regarding NPR taking taxpayer money... goodness, do we have to go into this again?

I'd suggest you take a look at some of the material PBS has online, such as complete streaming episodes of Frontline, Commanding Heights, Washington Week, and a variety of other shows. Yes, this is a bit of a way from having their entire catalog online, but its still progress.

Besides, so many of the shows on PBS are produced by member stations (as are the majority of NPR shows) that its understandable that some would be more interested in having their work online while others haven't yet jumped onto richer web-based content.

And regarding NPR taking taxpayer money... goodness, do we have to go into this again?

There's one big difference between this and Napster. When you walk over to somebody's house and borrow a book, there is still only one copy of that book. No new books have been created. However, with Napster, every time you connected to another user's computer to download a song, you would essentially create a brand new copy of that song on your computer, plus allow other users to make copies of that song, and then share those copes with even more people, ad infitum.

What would be neat is if somebody designed a "music library", where files could only get loaned out once and would then get locked, requiring the file to be returned before being loaned out again. I believe Crigely mentioned something along these lines on his site before.

I've been the IT specialist for a government organization for five years. All our computers are Macs. In those five years we have never gotten a virus that has caused one day of lost productivity. I have lost work time however posting messages to Slashdot bragging about this every time another e-mail worm or virus hits.

Cringely just had a column on the cost benefit of using Macs: I Cringely

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/16/blackout.chron.ap /index.html

One thing is clear : the timely coincidence between MSBLAST and power blackout is certainly _there_. The following postings on securityfocus.com shows that the SCADA systems run on Windows 2000/XP and some are connected to the internet.

http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/333505/2003 -08-13/2003-08-19/0

" I believe that the outage was caused by the MSblaster, or its mutation, which was besieged upon the respective vulnerability in certain control and monitoring systems (SCADA and otherwise) running MS 2000 or XP, located different points along the Grid. Some of these systems are accessible via the Internet, while others are accessible by POTS dialup, or private Frame relay and dedicated connectivity. "

http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/333513/2003 -08-13/2003-08-19/0

SCADA manuals : http://www.automationtechies.com/sitepages/pid641. php

The following is very interesting : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cybe rwar/view/
its a Documentary about cyberwar and its impact on America after 911, and brought online on apr. 24, 2003. Inside video #4 and #6 Gen. Clark from the Pentagon and other government security officials clearly state that Cyberwar Criminals (El-Queida members are named as possible candiates) can takedown large parts of the American Powergrid.

So when Mr. McSlarrow talks about things like: "we must extensively investigate the cause of power fallout here, and new power bill de-regulations must be introduced", i can only think of yet another mass media attempt to distract the attention in other directions. Why does No-One mention the failing of Microsoft's software? Why does No-One mention that the Government should disallow using Microsoft software for essential services, like power-grid, healthcare, airport flight navigation etc.?

Robert

In the end, the previous Cyber Security dude in the Whitehouse, Richard Clarke, noted that if something big were to happen due to lax, specifically, M$ security, that the gov wouldn't hesitate to regulate.

A nuke plant and public transit system seem, in my book, to be pretty big time. Although, the admins are responsible for locking down those systems (shame on them!), M$ still is somewhat responsible for shotty coding.

The whole program is viewable online here.