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That this is after deaths related to marathon videogame playing in Taiwan & South Korea. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm guessing that this might have something to do with the decision.

First of all, you can't tax e-mail. As mentioned before, what exactly is an e-mail? It just packets with plain text formatting and some headers. That's all. Taxing packets implies that the sender will keep track of the packets being sent. It also implies that the machine sending the packets in the first place is doing what its owners intend it to do. So to effectively tax spammers, they need to be using their own machine (yeah, right) and install new software that taxes itself. Non-techies tend to think that things like e-mail are centralized like the Postal Service. It's not.

People need e-mail, right? But they don't need SMTP or POP3 or IMAP or any other old e-mail based protocols. What about Jabber as a replacement? SSL, double ended authentication, server to server challenges, open XML protocol, open source clients and servers... It's basically IM, but some jabber servers support saving messages while you are away like an inbox. Doesn't that cover what we need e-mail to do?

My point here is that IM and e-mail are essential to internet communication, but we (techies) tend to think of them as seperate entities. They can easily be combined, though, and that's what jabber does. A poll here points out that many people feel that e-mail will always be important to the internet, along with IM, but not go away in favor of IM. This leads me to believe that people don't see how similar they really are.

E-mail taxation is not possible and if it were it would only hurt those who couldn't bypass it. Spammers would get around the same way they get around blacklists and spam filters. They would also heavily invest in IM spamming. Jabber can help with both at the same time. Why? Because jabber server administrators can whitelist the "trusted" servers or just blacklist the bad servers. "But that's what we're doing now," you say. True, but the difference here is that jabber servers can insist that they accept messages only from other servers whose DNS forwards and backwords lookups (ip name) match completely. Then, you know who (server, not user) sent the message and if they are a spam offender you can contact their administrator or blacklist them altogether.

Here are the facts that are going through my mind when I put this together:

1. E-mail spam is getting bad.
2. IM spam is growing as well.
3. You can't tax packets.
4. You can't insist that people upgrade their software if it already "works." In other words, servers with open relays are going to stay that way if they still "work."
5. People don't care how it works, they just want an inbox and a contact list.
6. People will not go through the trouble of making their own digital signatures. So, don't think that OpenPGP will be the next big thing in e-mail. It won't, it's hard for people.
7. Jabber IM takes care of authentication and encryption, anyway.
8. People are already familiar with IM and wont care which protocol they use.
9. Jabber IM with message storing can be the "new e-mail."
10. People flock to "new" if it works and is easy. Kazaa is a great example.

So, when you write your senators, or whoever, make sure you let them know that there are alternatives to cutting spam down. But, because spam is a technical problem, you need a technical solution. Making unenforcable policies won't help anyone and can probably do quite a bit of legal damage. They don't want to hear that, of course, but it's the truth.

Oh, and support jabber!

"Microsoft has started testing an international news search service in competition with Google's, upping the ante in the hotly contested web search market. Microsoft web portal MSN has unveiled a test, or beta, service called MSN Newsbot to search news in the languages of four countries - the UK, France, Italy and Spain. MSN Newsbot is an experimental, automated news service that gathers news from more than 4,000 sources online, according to the Newsbot website." Source Mirror

There's currently a story on Larry Ellison at silicon.com.
I love the first line: "Outside now... pistols, swords or databases, you decide..."

There's currently a story on Larry Ellison at silicon.com.
I love the first line: "Outside now... pistols, swords or databases, you decide..."

I suppose when Wired write :

Last week, the CEO of Red Hat, Matthew Szulik, suggested that users stick to Windows for their business desktops.

.. they are referring to this article, in which the RedHat CEO was not talking about corporate desktop, but about consummer desktop (ie. your mom computer at home) :

However, Szulik expects Linux to be ready in a couple of years after it has had time to mature. In the mean time, he is adamant that corporate users would be surprised by how much the operating system has to offer. "Consumers want USB drivers and digital camera support; but for the enterprise desktop, that is a little bit different - that area is ripe," he said. "We think that the enterprise desktop market place is much more strategic and has buyers whose needs we can exceed."

Are Wired editor getting as bad at quoting as Slashdot ?

Lack of an integrated software environment- What is that supposed to mean? Does it mean that I can choose what stuff I want to use?

My dictionary defines the word "integrated" as "formed or blended into a whole"...the word "choose" does not appear anywhere.

With MS, there's one choice. With linux, there's multiple choices for software to use.

Actually, I have found multiple choices of software to use on MS as well.

I don't quite get what they're saying with this one. If someone knows, then I'd like to understand better.

See above.

Lack of a clear roadmap- Well, the idea with linux is to make it more stable, faster, and more secure (not necessarily in that order). What more of a 'product map' do you want?

Perhaps some more details on exactly how it will become "more stable, faster, and more secure", and perhaps a rough idea about when it will be available. Some predictability of the timetable would be nice too, even +/-2 years (not "it will be ready when it's ready...now stop asking")

MS isn't going to come up with the next killer app of the internet.

Well, they have an awfully big R&D budget, so I actually think the chances are reasonable.

All of the other big applications have come out of open-source groups.

Accountability if problems arise- This means that the top IT person wants some one else to take the blame if something bad happens. Everyone knows MS stuff doesn't work perfectly, so if it screws up, it's not the admin's fault. With linux, if it screws up, most people (correctly) blame the admin.

And your point is?

I bet a lot of problems come up becaue when a company switches from windows to linux, the admins expect it to work the same, which couldn't be farther from the truth. Linux uses different programs, and often times, the best way to configure it is vi and a man page or two. With windows, it's all point-and-click.

But everyone is telling me that Linux is just like Windows, but it's totally free and never gets any viruses. Shouldn't I dump all my Windows stuff?

Fuck the performance numbers, getting away from the licensing nightmare that is Microsoft technology is by itself worth the switch.

silicon.com that ran the "Torvalds for Governor" story? They've removed the original from their site and replaced it with this apology but both they and zdnet were fooled.

No 5. Linus Torvalds creator of Linux
Last year's position : 21

Hero of the open source movement, geek made good, thorn in Bill Gates' side - there are so many reasons why people vote for Linus Torvalds each year.

In a nutshell it's because he embodies the idea that there is always another way, an antidote to the Microsofts of this world, evidence that the idea of the 'community' within IT is still there. If it wasn't for the presence of Lara Croft and Xena Warrior Princess, techies around the world would have posters of Torvalds on their walls.

Torvalds started work on the Linux kernel while he was at university in Helsinki in 1991 and since then it has been taken up and developed as a serious alternative to proprietary software.

In truth Torvalds best work is in the past but he got the ball rolling and he continues to be an Agenda Setter because he is the very embodiment of the open source community. A vote for Torvalds is not a vote for the man but more a vote for what he represents.

Linux now poses a major threat to Windows and a series of adoptions in the past year, especially at governmental level (and there are more expected in the coming year) means that threat is only set to increase.

Rumour has it he's a Guinness man as well.

...is the face of HORROR!

Innovation does.

Steve Jobs wins this year's silicon.com's annual Agenda Setters poll.
Heh, Gates may be richer, and Jobs may be a bigger asshole, but in the end, Jobs has the coolest company.

I'm sure Jobs can't be happier.

With only that statement to go on, I would guess that you may be new to Slashdot. Please visit and read the outrageous lies. More can be found here, here, and here.

You've confirmed for me that not many people actually looked at the code (around 500 lines) or even tried the demos that came with it before offering an opinion. The value of their opinions should be weighed with that in mind. After all, why voice an opinion on something you haven't tried? Why should someone believe that opinion? If you have a child, would you give that child the advice of following, and believing, in the opinion of others who haven't even experienced the subject firsthand, or know of actual cases where the subject warranted that opinion? Granted, a small minority of posters who didn't "think" the product could work at least prefaced their opinion with the fact that they didn't know the product at all.

did not convince that their product was useful for any real purpose

The idea that there isn't a place for this technology is proven false by the existance of products using some form of object prevalence. Simply go through the posts in this article and you'll run into a handful of people who bothered to post about their experiences and projects.

However, if you have no interest in using the product, there is nothing wrong with that. There may be a myriad of legitimate technical reasons why someone wouldn't use it (I know of very few). However, let's be clear here. To base a reason on packaging is nothing more than a simple matter of taste, not true objectivity. It has absolutely nothing to do with technical merits.

= 9J =

Enough people will be prosecuted and then people will stop.

But the more people they sue, the more people will start paying attention to boycott the riaa stickers. Yes, there will always be people that still go to the music stores, but numbers have been dropping already. 1 2

I mean, you define market forces with litigation. The whole point of this 'capitalism' thing is that people do what they want to, and it's businesses job to figure out how to make money off of it. I think that's what people are reacting to.

People wanting to do a quick search and then download the tunes they want to hear is a market force. Napster's cat is out of the bag, and there's no putting it back in. Now it's the industries job to figure out how to profit from it. If they don't, we will do it anyway.

overpriced TiBook, which had trouble with airport range due to the materials it was built with, the same engineering that flaking [powerbookcentral.com] body paint? [djedwhite.com]

Amazing! You were able to find problems with a product using the web! Here, look. I can do it too: Dell laptops catch fire!

Guess what? All product lines have some problems, but they're usually made out to be much more rampant than then reality reflects. I know several people with TiBooks and they all love them.

And, yes, that damn overpricing. Apple should continue to do R&D for the entire industry and drop their prices by 50%. That's the ticket.

- Scott

It is really amusing how Sun goes on to spread FUD about Linux in enterprise in light of the SCO lawsuit, yet they go on to employ Linux related solutions whenever it cuts the operating costs and overhead. Mad Hatter is a good example of this. Sun is stabbing Linux in a back when releasing press releases by pushing their queer Solaris/Unix in news reports how Linux might be dangerious in terms of IP infringment, yet you see them deploy Gnome and praise it for own gain.

and lets not forget, Linux is Unix, by Sun.

It is really amusing how Sun goes on to spread FUD about Linux in enterprise in light of the SCO lawsuit, yet they go on to employ Linux related solutions whenever it cuts the operating costs and overhead. Mad Hatter is a good example of this. Sun is stabbing Linux in a back when releasing press releases by pushing their queer Solaris/Unix in news reports how Linux might be dangerious in terms of IP infringment, yet you see them deploy Gnome and praise it for own gain.

and lets not forget, Linux is Unix, by Sun.

It's regarded as a bit of a myth, but there is some evidence to support it.

oops, pressed the wrong button...

Anyway Scott has had a lot of interesting things to say recently including saying of the IT industry "We're down to three - IBM, Microsoft, and Sun. The rest is collateral damage.", of the M$ top brass "Ballmer and Gates are drop outs" and of Redhat "With Red Hat you get the kernel. With Sun you get the application server". Last time I checked Redhat is a little more than that.

I was thinking could all this big talking be a McBride like attempt to raise the stock price of his new 1.5 million shares? Or am I jumping to conclusions because their names both begin with Mc?

Tom.

McNealy: 'I'm thrilled to death SCO can't revoke our Unix licence'

If you read the related article about the series (IT Myths Update), check out the last paragraph.

Now, I find it more than a little disapointing that they say they 'have a feeling it might be true'. What person writing IT articles doesn't even know basic computer history?

Surely at least SOMEONE at a tech-based news site has heard of Grace Hopper?!? Although most people might remember her for Cobol, almost any book or show on computer history mentions her famous conversation with Howard Aiken after finding a moth stuck in a relay of the Mark II.

Sheesh, either that or they are really strapped for ideas. Mentioning what should be known as one of the most fateful incidents, by one of the most famous people working on one of the most famous computers, as a 'possible truth' is a really bad way to hype a series, IMHO.

Of course, security should always be of great concern, and this is why WinCE has made such headway with internet devices as of late - it was created delibirately to be small, robust, secure and stable - everything youd want from your network.

Actually, this was pretty clear a month ago, as discussed in "SCO Amends Suit, Clarifies 'Violations,' Triples Damages". The theory is that because Read-Copy Update was developed for DYNIX/ptx, a System V Unix, it is derivative and subject to the System V license. Under this theory, JFS and XFS could also be derivative.

The fact that a Caldera employee encouraged RCU and JFS development makes it difficult for SCO to claim ignorance, as in the "pregnant cow". This not only renews the GPL debate, but opens the door to "the affirmative defenses laches, undue delay, waiver, and estoppel." I would add to that list unclean hands.

Yeah, but.. Didn't the government want us to be totally metric by now also?

Maybe the white house could push this through.
BTW does Bush even know what IPv6?
I called up one of my customers ISP's for support and asked if they support IPv4 and they said no.

For those not in the know, here is a brief article Explaining the benefits of IPV6.

Look at the story

Despite AOL's seven-year contract to use IE in its flagship service, Parsons was vague about the future of Netscape beyond maintaining it as a subsidiary under AOL. He said AOL is continuing to evaluate Netscape for its value but pledged AOL's support for IE.

For those not in the know, here is a brief article Explaining the benefits of IPV6.

Old News Here

"The company on Friday [March 21] said that Hotmail subscribers are now limited to sending only 100 messages a day. It is "an effort to prevent spammers from using Hotmail to spread spam," said Lisa Gurry, MSN lead product manager."

'Project Monterey' jacks into Linux

I disagree. They deserve to buy a load of shares in Palm, or maybe NTL.

Well yes, but I don't have a need for one and I don't own one. Therefore they are worthless and selling poorly as far as I'm concerned. Please don't trouble me with the facts.

What do you mean whatever happened to it?
The TabletPC sales figures are outstanding according to the online reports I've seen. For example. You can also do a google search on your own since one link probably isn't convincing enough.

A more detailed summary is available here and this is the project web site.

Compared to proprietary systems such as Ai's HAL, Meaningful Machines Knowledge Engine, and Lobal Technologies LAD, EBLA is the only system to incorporate grounded/perceptual understanding of language.

Yes...

Silicon.com did something just today on it, and the salary survey from Meta will be out soon.

So no I'm not making it up.

Techies and managers salaries have gone way ahead of Joe Six pack.... then look at the manager v executive curve to get even more depressed.

If you want to keep the FSF head alive you had better not. We all know what happens when you try to get into Microsoft's money. Does the name Daniel Feussner mean anything?

Doctor, doctor, my laptop's burnt my penis!

In 2001 Ford Europe was looking strongly at deploying Linux on the desktops there. Perhaps this went through or Linux got deployed somewhere else in Ford.

At up to 3 lbs per bird per day a flock of geese camped out on your yard make a disgusting mess.

I think we should rent a helicopter and spread birdseed.

I've read on this finnish news site that KPNQwests network will be/was shut down at 17:30 BTC, and since they are currently in daylight savings time, that should mean 16:30 UTC. The article states that the source is at www.silicon.com, however, I couldn't find the information in there right away.

In article, they also mention that the KPN's British offices will be/was shut down around midday. I'm not sure on whether this means today (Friday) or tomorrow (Saturday). Probably today, which meant that the network went down like four hours ago..

"MS software has no bugs?"
Admission of causing Incredible Painful Computing
:)

Admission of causing Incredible Painful Computing
Telling the truth at last......
.

>Not that I'm saying the sysadmins would stoop to
>anything illegal, but there's lots they can do
>legally if they find out who's behind the attack.

I wouldn't be so sure. Here in the UK it would seem that the Data Protection Act would stop the hacker's ISP from handing over details. See this recent story from Silicon where a UK ISP has refused to cooperate over hacking allegations.

Yet another case of UK law helping the miscreant & not the victim.

Matt

this is going to be the biggest tax write-off in history.
Congrats Bill.
Obviously you need a new set of geese for your house...

Yes. I have a link for you. Basicly, Ford says that it's a long term goal of theirs to move to an Open Source desktop.

Article on Ford's announcement.

I think I see a common theme here: finally, the PHB-types start to get a feeling that they are beeing trapped by Microsoft and there is enough talk about Linux and other free (speach and beer) alternatives to get them interested in trying to break free. With commodity brands like IBM and Kodak chiming in against the Microsoft monopoly this meme will get even more of a mindshare.

This could truely be the beginning of mainstream acceptance of a Open Source alternative to Windows.

Or Europe based web sites having to comply with the narrow laws (concerning e.g. nudity, drugs, or cryptography) of hyporcrite US.

(see The Register and Silicon.com)

Iridigm's technology, which sounds to me too much like a satellite business, call their tech "I-mod"

I'd post a link to the Trademarks Office if the server was not down (business UK hours only) but British Telecom just tried all the related names to annoy NTT DoCoMO with their 'phone kit :

Once you have a trademark registration, btw, you have a good claim against "confusingly similar" marques.

and once you've filed you have a superior claim in Madrid Treaty countries (US recognises this) from date of application of registered trademark Not the actual first use of a name.

you have to see an excerpt of the class descriptions for the application to believe this :

I had to cut the actual text because of Lameness Filter. But you can search for yourself tomorrow :-)

an excerpt from class 9 of the application: transmission, reception, processing, retrieval, reproduction, manipulation, analysis, display and print-out of sound, images and/or data; computer hardware and firmware; computer software; digital communications apparatus and instruments

the names : Status: Pending Mark Text: I-MODE Mark Text: i-mode Mark Text: i-MODE Mark Text: I-mode Mark Text: I.MODE Mark Text: i.mode Mark Text: I.mode Mark Text: i.MODE Mark Text: I MODE Mark Text: i mode Mark Text: i MODE Mark Text: I mode M

US "RIP" Bill
--

I think you're fighting a losing battle.
So many here just seem to completely miss the fact of internet as "global phenomenon". _sigh_ oh well.

If like me you're in Europe, and want Europe-centred news, try Silicon for news

This is because of the Data Protection Acts of 1984 and 1999. Businesses are obliged to seek explicit permission before storing and using *any* identifying information. They also have register with the Data Protection Commission with a fairly exact list of what data they're allowed to collect, where they're allowed to get it from and to what purposes they're allowed to put it.

Further, data subjects (that's you and me) have a right to the data stored about them for a 'reasonable fee' (ie around a tenner), and revoke permissions to data they have provided. It's not only commercial data users who are under obligation to go through this, but also health bodies, the police and so on. And the commission is a body with some teeth, as the kicking it handed out to the government over its privacy bill shows.