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The good is that we have the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

If SCO calls you, give them the finger and then report them to the ACCC. The Perth company, CyberKnights, lodged a complaint earlier on this month.

If SCO keeps going with trying to get UNIX licenses in Australia they should be prepared to face the ACCC.

They [AU + NZ Prime Ministers] agreed that all options should be left on the table, including the options of joint laws and joint competition policies.

From a quick Google search:
CBS news
Associated Press
An Australian site

Is that enough, or do you want more sources?

Credit for the phrase "Preferential Trade Agreement" must go to Ross Gittins, a columnist with the Sydney Morning Herald.

the fact that this will not make it through Parliament, especially during an election year.

One of the clauses of the agreement relates to our subsidised medicine scheme (the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme). I don't know the details, but the agreement requires that Australia reduces this scheme. The electorate will simply not allow this to happen.

There was a very good article on SMH about this. The article is about the downfall of our PM, John Howard, but the last two paragraphs refer to the FTA.

It looks like the US has pushed a bit too hard to get this to happen, and in the end it will all collapse.

Thank God for that.

Is this the death of two up ?

Why are people STILL SPREADING THE MYTH that linux is hard to use on the desktop? ITS NOT! Please tell me what distro are you using? Distros such as Mandrake, Lindows and Xandros give you exactly what you want, they are all very focused for the consumer. So why are you spreading 5 year old myths about linux?

Linux is getting so easy to use its getting mainstream websites reporting about it

From the Sydney Morning Herald we have this. SMH is about as mainstream as you get ... true it is in the technology section but it heads the section as a Special Report.

From the Sydney Morning Herald we have this. SMH is about as mainstream as you get ... true it is in the technology section but it heads the section as a Special Report.

And if reading the fascicle is too heavy going, remember that you can watch the movies instead, at http://scpd.stanford.edu/knuth/. Fourteen videos of Knuth's lectures are aavailable, inclusing last years's "Tenth Annual Christmas Tree Lecture: Finding All Spanning Trees".

I watched the Tenth Annual Christmas Tree lecture live (the "trees", of course, being various computer science graphs and structures, not pine trees hung with colored lights) and found it surprisingly engaging and accessible even to an educated lay-person. If you have any interest in computer science or algorithm design, it's a fascinating way to spend an hour. (Disclaimer: I'd just watched the 1998 lecture to better understand Garsia-Wachs coding.)

I was so excited about watching it live that I submitted the Knuth Christmas lecture as a story about it to Slashdot, but the editors didn't think it important enough to accept. (Nor the story on "brain fingerprinting" -- a kind of polygraph based on direct reading of brain waves -- casting doubt on a death sentence, nor Eagle's drummer Don Henley's op-ed piece in the Washington Post attacking the music industry and ruminating on p2p, nor the story about Anglo-German scientific rivalry and the resulting pickled baby "dragon".)

We don't stand a chance if the rest of the world sees fit to stand in solidarity against a regime that is precieved to be an agressive bully.

It is pretty unlikely that will happen as some 60 nations are supporting our actions in Iraq in some form. Even Japan has sent combat troops outside of its borders into a war zone for the first time since WW2. Strangely enough, the loudest complaints came from either those who Saddam bought off with oil deals or had arms deals with, like ... France and Russia. Runner up - Germany and the construction firms that built Saddams bunkers.

I just makes no sense to me why with all the resources at our disposal as a nation, we should see fit to best use those resources to make others hate and fear us rather than admire and follow us.

The reason that it makes no sense to you is because you are apparently paying no attention to the ideas of those who wish to do us harm. We in the US are a relatively free, democratic, capitalist, very tolerant, largely Christian nation. Al Qaeda, our main foe, advocate rigid, authoritarian, fanatical Islamist states with sharia law filling the globe. There is no middle ground. We will not willingly change to their ways, and they are willing to die to try to weaken us to the point we can no longer resist their will. Sadly, a nontrivial percentage of the Islamic world is in sympathy with Al Qaeda.

If we really were the terrible nation that some, mainly the left, try to portray the US as, we would nuke them, seed the land with salt, and be done with them. Instead we will end up fighting a long term war until the hearts of enough Muslims turn toward peace, or the governments of the Islamic countries act more responsibly, or we kill all who wish to try and harm us, or are destroyed ourselves.

Your idea that everybody automatically respects peace, democracy, and tolerance is very much a Western liberal notion, and very mistaken.

I have a feeling a coordinated effort by a diversity of determined nations could bleed us dry pretty quick.

Any "collection of nations" that tried to bleed us dry would be grabbing a tiger by the tail. We won the war in Afghanistan and Iraq with essentially a peace-time military. We've called up some reserves, but haven't even considered an actual mobilization for war. 60 years ago the US Army was well over 10x its current size. The Navy was enormous, as was the Air Force. The Marines were more than 2x their current size. We did that with a country 1/2 the size it is now. The methods that we have used have been relatively gentle to date.

We've paid the price to remain free before against nations who exterminated entire peoples. If need be, we will again, or enter into slavery or death. Once again, there isn't really much choice, is there?

Here in Australia the government sent a fridge magnet to every household in an effort to stop terrorism. Thank god we have the fridge magnet! Our saviour!

Quoting from the paranoid rant that you linked to, oil is used directly or indirectly in everything. Take plastics, for example. Can you imagine what a hospital would do without plastic? Now imagine it without electricity that needs oil to be produced. How about our (gulp) military? Do we really want our Air Force grounded when Fidel decides to get bold because they don't have enough fuel? How about heating oil? This winter has been brutal in the north east- I'm sure old people there would love to lose their homes heating source!

And BTW, as authoritative as "dieoff.org" looks on fossile fuels, they are only spewing out the same kind of nonsense that has been constantly debunked for 50 years. We are nowhere near an oil shortage. In fact, we are not even sure where oil comes from. Simple economics will take care of it if/when we do have a shortage.

The Hollywood foreign press association is an organization of movie fans who claim to be reporters. They get long interviews with movie stars that real reporters would die for and ask absolutely stupid questions. One once asked Tom Cruise what character he was playing in Minority Report;a lot of research went into that question. Anyway the studios buy these Golden Globe awards by giving these "reporters" gifts and access to the stars. It's a big promotional thing and was not even aired on TV until recently. Odd that this sham usually leads to getting an Academy Award nomination!

Read all about this joke

IMO, misinformation is much worse than information overload. I know a few people who go to alternative therapists pretty much exclusively and get told an amazing load of bullshit. Sure, doctors don't have all the answers and their judgement is often skewed by the pharmaceutical industry peddling new expensive drugs. But I'll take their advice over the alternative snake oil salesmen any day.

Link to Sydney Morning Herald article, titled Windows Source Code Leaked

Teaching him not to commit crimes will of course make society safer. However, I don't think you can show that sending him to jail will teach him that lesson.

In Australia at least, 41 per cent of all inmates who had served a prison term [are] returning to jail within two years. I don't think any other country can boast of significantly better numbers (unless, of course, they immediately execute people found guilty.)

Rehabilitation is a subject that some people spend their whole lives studying, so I really can't suggest better methods of handling this kid. Maybe a week or two behind bars would suffice to scare this kid straight. On the other hand, it might also teach him the lesson that he needs to be more devious and ruthless the next time he commits a crime. He can certainly meet plenty of mentors for that during his stint. I would just like to encourage a little thought behind sentencing.

Crime isn't a single variable equation (criminal | !criminal) that can be adjusted solely by length of time in jail. If more of the public believed this, fewer legislators would feel the need to appear tough on crime by mandating jail time.

Nope, not quite. From the SMH article:

Mr Crombie said even after the long phase-in period, Australian beef farmers would still fail to get free trade with the US.

"After a transition period we had expected that all beef tariffs and quotas would vanish," Mr Crombie said.

"In contrast, under the agreement beef quotas will remain in perpetuity.

"And although all tariffs are eliminated, safeguard provisions are in place.

"These will result in tariffs being reimposed if there is even a minor downward movement in US beef prices - a drop of 6.5 per cent."

So basically, after 18 years we get to sell the US another 70,000 tonnes of beef (equivalent to only two days of US beef production), and the tariffs will be right back where they started if US beef prices drop slightly (so we can't even compete in the market). What exactly does this give us?

My uncle happens to be a significant (Australian) beef producer, and when speaking to him a couple of days ago, he seemed quite optimistic about the FTA. I wonder if he still is today.

Um ... well I think the following suggests not everyone is convinced about the pharma situation being ok

And when was the last time the senate actually protected us from Howard's ass kissing ? We're not better off than the American public are with Bush.

Americans keep talking about "Checks and balances" being the alternative to Dictatorial style government. The proof is in the pudding ....

Um ... you might want to note the following from SMH today.

Well, now that I do a few seconds of research, apparently the MIPI was 'set up by the music industry' (acording to SMH, so it seems to be just a unit that concentrates on copyright infringement violations. According to the ACCC the MIPI is a part of ARIA.

Bogus. I'll say.

Now, since it costs $US0.90 to provide a downloadable music track,

Apple says iTMS does not make much money. At most, Apple gets about 10 cents of the 99 cents a single song costs - about $US20 million ($A27.7 million) so far.

Uh Oh... Spaghetti-Os!

Anyone hear about how Disney dropped out of Peter Pan because they didn't want to donate any money to a London children's hospital? The author of Peter Pan left the copyright to the hospital in his will. When the most recent movie was made, Disney believed it should be exempt from making any payment to the hospital from the sale of spin-off books, board games, soft toys and computer games, which are expected to generate tens of millions of dollars in their own right.

Read the full story here

So FUCK YOU Disney! Guess how much 50% of 0 is you bozos!

SMH.com.au has a more informed description of what happens. The gold is not "grown," it is "collected." Bacteria break down and carry gold material away from a larger vein, and another group picks it up and deposits it when they get to a chunk or nugget. ABC au also has a good article.

So unless you happen to live near a large, undiscovered underground tract of gold, your chance of growing gold in your backyard like potatoes is just about zero.

I'll go to a new source other than the BBC, since they are obviously trying to skew the news surrounding the case by buying up these Google results.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

According to the newspaper (the Sun), Lord Hutton criticised the BBC and its reporter Andrew Gilligan over a broadcast suggesting Downing Street inserted a claim that Saddam could launch WMD within 45 minutes.

"I am satisfied Dr Kelly did not say the Government probably knew or suspected the 45-minute claim was wrong before the claim was inserted in the dossier," Lord Hutton is reported as finding.

"The allegation reported by Mr Gilligan that the Government probably knew the claim was wrong or questionable was unfounded."

As a result, the program's listeners were given a misleading impression that the Government "embellished" its dossier.

The British newspaper, The Sun, has gotten its hands on a leaked copy of the report, from which this above information is drawn. Dr. Kelly killed himself after it was claimed he was the one to give the 45 minute quote. Therefore, the BBC is complicit.

Some say we should worry more about incoming asteroids wiping out all life on earth which would mean we should establish human colonies on the Moon, Mars and elsewhere to hedge our bets against such an occurance (could return to repopulate the planet after a time). Others say earth is heading for environmental disaster and the solution might be to leave it for lifeless places and artificial environments where we can do no harm. Others yet want us to think about overpopulation which could be solved by spreading out to other planets and while others say that sociopolitical causes are the main of hunger today, there is a limit to the number of people that can live here.

Why did people come to the New World, not just in Columbus' time but earlier from Asia? Why did they send their canoes to Pacific islands? The time will come that our reasons will match theirs. Today the reasons are not yet there and the will is only shared by a few but the reasons will likely become more apparent and the population more willing with time.

Lawyers might get a chance.

The Syndey Morning Herald is running this article about Perth-based open source consulting company CyberKnights.

Just another civil suit against SCO? Maybe not. The director of CyberKnights uses the phrase fraudulent claims. Fraud can be charged as a crime as opposed to a purely civil matter like a copyright or patent infringement. See what LAW.COM has to say about the subject.

Of course this is pure speculation by a non-lawyer (me) but perhaps with the help of the ACCC (mentioned in the article), CyberKnights can bring the criminal charges which many of us think are appropriate.

"When asked why the media release which provided this information had not specifically told commercial Linux users - whom O'Shaughnessy said were SCO's target - to take out a licence or else face the consequences, ..." - from the SMH Article

The Australian Copyright Council advises people to be very careful when alleging copyright infringement, as it is easy to fall foul of defamation laws or section 202 of the copyright act.

"In some circumstances, letters claiming that someone has infringed copyright can result in problems under the law of defamation or under section 202 of the Copyright Act (which prohibits the making of groundless threats of legal proceedings). Therefore, it is advisable to have a letter of demand drafted by a lawyer." - Australian Copyright Council

Unfortunately Mr O'Shaughnessy may have blown it with his unvetted response to the SMH journalist (continuation of the first quote)

"... he said "in effect, this is what is being said." " - from the SMH Article

"When asked why the media release which provided this information had not specifically told commercial Linux users - whom O'Shaughnessy said were SCO's target - to take out a licence or else face the consequences, ..." - from the SMH Article

The Australian Copyright Council advises people to be very careful when alleging copyright infringement, as it is easy to fall foul of defamation laws or section 202 of the copyright act.

"In some circumstances, letters claiming that someone has infringed copyright can result in problems under the law of defamation or under section 202 of the Copyright Act (which prohibits the making of groundless threats of legal proceedings). Therefore, it is advisable to have a letter of demand drafted by a lawyer." - Australian Copyright Council

Unfortunately Mr O'Shaughnessy may have blown it with his unvetted response to the SMH journalist (continuation of the first quote)

"... he said "in effect, this is what is being said." " - from the SMH Article

or else

I really think Linus should file a similar suit. He has been slandered and the proof is in the public domain. If SCO fails to deliver the goods on the 23rd - case closed. If nothing else he could donate the judgement to some worthy cause like groklaw, OSDL or FSF.

Regarding Venezuela:
The United States has been trying to overthrow the Chavez government for years. Do you not recall that in 2002 the Bush Administration supported (or orchestrated, depending on who you talk to) the coup against Hugo Chavez, the leader of OPEC this go-round and the President of Venezuela?

Possibly unreliable sources are here, here and here. The public vote for who should play David Brent, as seen on the SMH page, is kinda interesting.

"Those with a car antenna kit could now access mobile phone coverage across almost one-fifth of the Australian land mass, he said."

Other reports mention a 15-18% coverage, which is about 1.4 million square km.

Now you can't wait for the toilet........ From the Sydney Morning Herald "Qantas passengers have been ordered not to queue outside toilets while making the 14-hour flight to and from the US. The directive was issued late yesterday by the US Transport and Security Administration, which is demanding pilots make a pre-flight announcement banning passengers from "congregating in groups around toilets or anywhere else in the aircraft". "

Posted yesterday on slashdot (time for a repost;)

Actually, the sales are down by 20%. Popular filesharing is down by 30%. Offcourse, this is not proof. You have to take into account iTunes and likes, and the decline of the economy.

But I can't help and smile ;)

In case anyone is wondering what this image is, it's supposed to be Guy Sebastian - the winner of Australian Idol - being received digitally. Oh the imagination of newpaper artists... Not that non-Australians would want to know, of course. ;)

The problem is that Grand Theft Auto III is very obviously patterned after some very well known mafia movies. If those movies are ok, why aren't videogames?

Not long ago, an official from Australia called for the ban of Project Gotham Racing 2 because it "...sends the wrong message to young people. It is actually glorifying speed and power." So videogames are bad despite the fact that this game is at least advertised as being like the Fast and the Furious films.

The problem is not that videogames are exempt from being sometimes troubling. The problem is that so many in the media seem to think that other forms of media are exempt from being troubling. Videogmaes are scapegoats and when they do the things that have been done for years in other forms of media they get attacked.

Given that DVDs have an indefinite shelf life (okay, greater than 20 years)

You have apparently never suffered from DVD Rot.

I'm finding that I've had several DVDs for less than 4 years and they're already unplayable. The worst part is that many manufacturers are refusing to replace the DVD unless you can prove it was an error in their process that made the DVD fail. Who's surprised? Not me.

But I think the reality, disturbing as it may be, is that there are so many loopholes that they can do little more than a token effort. Remember that student who hid boxcutters on airplanes to show how insecure they still are? For that matter, if blades are a threat (and in reality, using a plane as a weapon is a far greater threat than simply blowing up the plane itself), one could easily a) get one of those nifty carbon fiber commando-style blades that don't set off metal detectors, b) hide a blade in some metal case (like a laptop chassis), c) hide a thin blade inside something metallic like a pen, d) watch James Bond movies for more inspiration.

The point of the matter, in my opinion, is that it doesn't really matter if someone does damage to a plane or its occupants--I ride Amtrak regularly and there's no security at all--but rather the risk of someone taking over a plane. 250 casualties are certainly bad (but there are plenty of other public situations--Amtrak, for instance--in which we all face the same risk), but the real risk, as I said, is that of someone taking over a plane. And we could prevent that with a lot less effort and a lot less difficulty if we simply beefed up the cockpit doors.

Why the hell is a ruling on antitrust action being made based on the current market, not when the action was first filed?

For another example, Bush has trouble seeing a difference between having WMD and not having them but maybe wanting them.

Just a note. Strangely the Sydney Morning Herald web site often has links from the front page to Linux and even Linux vs SCO articles. The articles tend to be pro Open Source mostly. Unusually savvy for a mainstream major paper, in Oz anyway.

Kids these days??
I was jokeing about that 20 years ago =>

but seriously, PC in somecases is going
way to far, there was a childrens playground
slang book realsed recently, and a number of
entrys where left out by the publisher because
of it.. mind you maybe its not realy PC noncense,
but the book dose come with an Adults only
warning, so go figure.

SMH.com Shreddie, you make me wallace and gromit

though he dose have an online page with "things 10 tiems worse" =>

Online Dictionary of Playground Slang

OMFG SADDAM is ON TEH SPOKE!!!


thatisall

This discussion reminds me about the fall of the Soviet Union. The communist hard-liners attempted to shut down the media. Unfortunately, these men were so out of date; they didn't realize that the media was still able to communicate via fax machine. (This link [cato.org] points to a book review of a popular book on the subject.) That ability allowed reporters to communicate to the outside despite the crackdown of the Soviet government. Those communications ignited the entire country. All the eyes of Russia, and the world, were focused on Moscow. They were specifically focused on Boris Yeltsin. Modern technology enabled this communication. The Iraqis need information about as much as they need water. Imagine if every day of your life, you've learned to live in fear. You've been taught to keep your mouth shut, you're eyes turned away, and you allegiance sworn to a mad dictator. Add to the fact that even if you do heed all these warnings, you may still be randomly charged with treason.

The Iraqis who wish to be free need to organize and communicate. They need to learn about the outside world. Heck, even Saddam was shocked when he saw how openly we as Americans criticize our President. He was under the belief, that our government suppressed dissent (especially unflattering satire) like he did. Frankly, the Internet is probably the best, low-cost method to promote open communication. Take a look at countries like Brazil or India. They're IT is run on Linux (except the most high-end). They still use many low-end PCs. OSS fanaticism aside; I think in this case OSS can be quite useful. Isn't the free flow of information what true hacking is about?

On a slightly (perhaps greatly) off-topic, but related note:

I know we complain about "fascism" in this country. That's a joke. The Iraqis have quite a few problems ahead. They're fighting real fascism. They don't have Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. They don't have a slow progression and long history of open dissent. What they do have is a sudden vacuum of power, arguing radical religious factions, and a severe lack of resources.

Drugs, sex, and Iraq
Why Iraq's neighbors want to see democracy fail
The rise of crime and vigilates

Unfortunately, I can't hunt down the specific article I wanted to link to. It discussed the sudden increase of crime [especially prostitution] (see articles above) in Iraq. It also discussed the rise of a radical Islamic movement looking to cleanse Iraqi society. They argue these vices/sins have been "unleashed"/"unchecked" by the Americans. I hate to say it, but this whole war is FAR from over.

Huh? Where did you read all this "the scientists are frustrated" stuff?

They've been warning us about tourism in Antarctica for years:

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_603081.html?m enu=news.latestheadlines
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/09/10629020 57291.html
http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/ antarctica/exemplars.html

True, but the officials making decisions are, get it?

You are wrong. We will just have to agree to disagree.

The researchers never stated (in any article that I read) that they had a limited supply of fuel, or that selling him fuel was any kind hardship.

Bugger McMurdo, we've got our own bases mate!

Being an explorer. An inventive Aussie, he could slide the bird to one of the other gazillion Aussie bases on Antarctica for refuelling, a hit of cricket, a cold beer and a few laughs before heading home to the misses for Christmas. Or he could wait for the drop from the RAAF boys, but he'd have to put up with those dull Americans.

Or perhaps the social rejects that habitat McMurdo, could show some hospitality and give him oily rag. Aussie Jon, with his scandanavian surname, might then just have enough fly to Casey, where I'm sure he can refuel before heading home to a ticket tape parade.

It included the following paragraph:

[Antarctica New Zealand chief executive officer Lou] Sanson said Antarctica New Zealand, the national scientific research program, could not provide the 47-year-old with fuel anyway because it did not have aviation gas, and the petrol it had was not of aviation quality. "It's very unclear that at McMurdo or Scott base we have the fuel he needs," he said. "We've done all we possibly can in terms of the resources we have."

I really am sick of these A-holes that risk their lives for "adventure" and expect someone to bail their sorry asses out (and risk the rescuer's ass) when the adventure goes wrong. You know why we are all impressed with Sir Edmond Hillary? Because he could have died and no one was going to bail him out. He knew it and he went anyway. This "I am going to do something stupid and dangerous, and if things go wrong the rescuers will bail me out" attitude is another symptom of our modern Nanny-state. Mom will fix all my problems.

Don't feel too bad for this guy. He already has offers for 3 (count 'em three) flights home.

"Now, about 2 hours ago they were just copy stories of the others, mentioning that sco was hit by a denial of service attack - no link to SCO, and no hint that SCO may not be entirely above board. I emailed the reporter at the link, and very soon after the story had the extra info added."