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Microsoft has been donating to poor countries such as England recently - often subverting the regional adoption to Linux.

Bribery is always an added option of course.

Microsoft (I *think* they're still involved)

The tags will be disposed of when the packaging is thrown away

We are talking about two different articles. I will admit that is a good solution. However not all items come in disposable backaging, and I have seen no commitment that tags will remain restricted to disposable packaging locations.

I was reffering to the article IBM slams RFID criticism as 'anti-retail'. She was either an idiot who missunderstood the issue with RFID, or she was intentionally missrepresenting the issue.

She said "The crux of the argument about privacy is that it's all very well to have an item marked and to be able to read it but it's quite another thing to be able to do some push-based marketing on the basis of it, that's what people are afraid of, location-based services, but that's not RFID." Maybe there's some confused RFID critic somewhere who is whining about "location-based services", but to claim it is "the crux of the argument" is a load of... well, a load of manure.

is it really that big of a deal for WalMart to track what kind of clothes I am wearing?

If you read what I posted it was NOT about Walmart tracking what you bought at Walmart. As I indicated, any scanner you walk past anywhere can read off every RFID tag on you. Every store can read off every tag from every other store when you walk in or out. If for any reason an office installs RFID scanners at the entrance, they can read every tag on you.

If someone felt like it, they could even set up a scanner at the edge of their property facing the sidewalk. This could be done in a residential neighborhood, or on the front wall of any building in the middle of a city.

We all want our cheap consumer goods. This is a way for stores to keep costs down.

Yes. I have no objection to that. I am pointing out that doing one thing for a good motivation can have other effects - undesirable effects. I don't think Walmart is in some evil conspiracy. However *if* tags start showing up inside products then we wind up walking around with a bunch of transmitters on us. And I don't want to be a walking transmitter.

-

Didn't I just read this story?

I found this site again yesterday, and won't hear a bad word said against a company that had this as it's corporate anthem: Power of Sun IT anthem

there's always an easy way to get your app up and running before the deadline slips

Jan 16th 2002: SGI transfers 3D graphics patents to MS
Jul 09th 2002: Microsoft Claims IP Rights on Portions of OpenGL
Jul 11th 2002: 3D graphics world shaken by patent claims
Jul 13th 2002: Microsoft patent claims may affect OpenGL
Mar 3rd 2003: Microsoft quits OpenGL board

If I mod my xbox emulator to run Linux and then connect my xbox emulator to XBOX Live will Microsoft intall an updatethat disables my xbox emulator?

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) blamed the slump in retail music sales -- now in its fourth consecutive year -- on rampant piracy, poor economic conditions and competition from video games and DVDs.

Google search = providing me with other people's stuff. Google mail = potentially providing other people with my stuff.

This article implies that the xbox GPU is much more comparable to a GF 3 / 4 and the GF 4 is the first PC chip to equal or surpass its power.

EMERGENCY services, homes and businesses were hit after an underground fire in Manchester city centre cut 130,000 phone lines.

The blaze, in a tunnel by the junction of George Street and Princess Street, destroyed cables connected to the national phone network.

Related News:

No time limit for Manchester phone lines fix
Fire wipes out internet in Manchester
BT tunnel fire cuts off Manchester phone lines
BT fire disrupts emergency services
Businesses hit by BT fire
Phones Out of Action after Fire in Tunnel
Tunnel fire knocks out phone network

Moderate this comment
Negative: Offtopic Flamebait Troll Redundant
Positive: Insightful Interesting Informative Funny

Here's some links from an almost-submitted post.

Microsoft Cuts Xbox Price to $150

Microsoft has cut the price of its Xbox game console to about $150 ($149.99), a $30 drop. The price cut was widely expected by analysts in a move to spur slowing console sales for the Xbox as the current generation approaches the end of its cycle, and gamers anticipate the next-generation of consoles in 2005. Microsoft also announced several price cuts on Xbox games and titles including 'Xbox Music Mixer, Project Gotham Racing 2 and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge.' More coverage at CNet, CNN Money, ZDNet UK, AP via Seattle PI and Bloomberg via Seattle Times. (Microsoft press release)

A company making misleading claims? That's never happened before.

ZDNet UK had a preview of Windows XP SP2 recently (see link) that included discussion of the pack's implementation of software-based overflow protection. It also mentions that 64-bit processors include this protection in hardware (NX or "no eXecute"). So, there is a little progress being made.

If the presidential election is within 10% either way (and from the current polls, that would seem to be likely), we are going to see a firestorm of lawsuits. With all the experts claiming electronic voting systems are insecure, both sides are already gearing up for legal battle.

Don Campbell at USA Today has an interesting op/ed piece on the subject.

Berzerkely has collected a large amount of information on this site. Lots of interesting data.

For being a monopoly......

For creating 3rd rate, no, 5th rate shite they palm off as software.

For overcharging for said shite.

For stealing blantanly others work (1 case in point of many)Znet Burst
Burst faq

For duping the general public into thinking THEY are the benchmark.

For actively assisting SCO in their quest against OSS.

For doing untold harm to the software industry in general.

There are several reasons.

1) American companies have been known for putting back-doors in programs so that organizations like the NSA could easily break in if needed. (Remember the infamous Lotus Notes story?)

2) America has put back doors in other software that caused nasty things to happen.

In short, other countries don't trust us.

America Online has the right to buy a $22m chunk of Google, according to a filing by parent Time Warner.

Guess you missed this.

In a few years to integrate GPS and be able to say "Computer, locate CmdrTaco". Or how about Google's former voice search?

Google's CTO Craig Silverstein has already said his grand vision for google in the future would be something along the lines of When search grows up, it will look like Star Trek: you talk into the air ("Computer! What's the situation down on the planet?") and the computer processes your question, figures out its context, figures out what response you're looking for, searches a giant database in who-knows-how-many languages, translates/analyses/summarises all the results, and presents them back to you in a pleasant voice.

With a few more technologies like this, it's only inevitable this WILL happen.

MS-Windows and MS-Office are still MS' only two cash cows. MS' high market share is the result of choices made by hardware manufacturers, which make up 90% of Windows sales and 68% of Word and Excel sales. Unlike MS-Windows which gets 90% of its sales from OEMs, only 68% of MS-Office sales come from OEMs, presumably leaving 32% who buy it separately. This 32% has a choice, at least in theory. Hardware sales have been flat for a while and if the U.S. does more outsourcing or tips into a full depression, then it will be flat for a while longer. There is the risk for MS - market choice and flat hardware sales.

If you look back at the 1980's and 1990's there where many options for productivity packages, even in different languages. These have all been crushed through various monkey business. For example, Quattro and Lotus 1-2-3 weakened after MS-Excel and MS-Word started being bundled together, though at the time both Quattro and 1-2-3 appear to have been much better products. So the choice since then whether you buy a different version depends on which versions you can read. Which in turn has pretty much limited which version of files you write ... until recently.

OpenOffice.org not only has an open, well-documented file format, but also runs on multiple platforms and has full support for many languages. All of which means less work over time, which means lower cost over time, both of which are highly attractive to both businesses and public agencies.

Ah, but can you give me one example of another computer storage media that is as widely supported in the computer world, even today? Sure, different operating systems may format the disk differently so one particular floppy-disk may not be directly usable on any machine, but the floppy in general is still everywhere.

I for one can't think of any other media that has surpassed the floppy in terms of ease of use, wide support and read-write ability. The ones that come the closest, like write-on-the-fly CD-RW, USB flash sticks or ZIP disks, are severely outnumbered and handicapped by the competition among various vendors trying to impose their own proprietary products.

Think about it: the closest second in popularity is actually the write-once CD. But can you go to a mate's computer with a CD in hand and leave 10 seconds later with a file on it, like you can with a floppy? Without having to fire up special CD-writing software? Without having to throw the disk sometime later? Without having seconds thoughts about shelling out the dough for a quality CD-RW? Without having to format or re-erase it previously?

Let's face it, the floppy-disk was and is an yet unsurpassed success, at least for me, and I seriously question the once-in-a-while attempts of PC vendors like Dell who try to ban it.

I've seen the "floppy is so obsolete" oppinion arise again and again. Yet no one seems to really be able to offer something as good in return, otherwise it would have disapeared by now, would it have not? It's not like the plotting of evil leprechauns is the thing keeping floppies around, they're still around for a sound reason.

"My computer was controlled by trojans" worked as a defence in the UK courts not long ago.

I have a few specific questions relating to this same topic:

1.In Canada, downloading music is legal, while uploading is not. What is REALLY the case in the US? If I own a cd, but say it's become unplayable by too many scratches, is it legal for me to get a copy from someone else? What if someone stole my cd's? Has anyone ever been sued just for downloading?

2. What about a peer to peer network where there is no distribution, only performance? It could be like a humongously massive jukebox, with secure DRM streaming of any song someone else hosts. User's pay performance royalties managed through Sound Exchange. or royalties are paid by the people that maintain the infrastructure with money they make from forced advertising in either the stream clients or audio ads before streamed songs.

They brag about 7 watts power consumption at about 1GHz... IBM was selling G3 processors at that speed with a 5 watt consumption in October 2001. ..."At speeds of 1GHz, the [750FX] chip consumes only five watts of power" So the transmetta chip uses 40% MORE power than a similar speed chip that has been on the market for 2.5 years. Hardly something to get excited about.

Take care,

According to this article on ZDNet, uncle Billy has a patent on this kinda thing. Dunno if a home brew version will fall foul of the patent, but best keep yours in an upstairs spare room, draw the curtains ('drapes' for our US chums) and not show it to friends or neighbours.

Of course, if you wanna really p*ss people off:

Bill: Have the thing scroll through your virtual art library

then...

RIAA: Show some stills from your favourite music video accompanied by the matching MP3

then...

SCO: Show a tasty source code snippet from the routine of your choice

Makes you wonder why such a profitable company wants to expose itself to the vultures at wall street?

The article linked within the original story is also on-topic for this discussion.

Governments could soon be using hacker tools for law enforcement and the pursuit of justice, according to an expert on IT and Internet law. Joel Reidenberg, professor of law at New York-based Fordham University, believes it likely that denial of service attacks (DoS) and packet-blocking technology will be employed by nation states to enforce their laws. This could even include attacks on companies based in other countries, he says.

How do ya like them apples?

1) But late amendments added to the law limited who intellectual property owners could take action against and what penalties they could apply. The amendments the parliament refers to are actually a compromise reached between parliament and the council of ministers (representatives of EU national governments) earlier in the process. The amendment says, in the preamble (not the main body of the text) that some (not all) of the harshest sanctions, such as freezing bank accounts, should only apply to 'commercial' violations. However, this is very broadly defined as a violation that gives someone an 'economic advantage', which could be applied to, say, someone who downloads a song off the Internet for free. For more information see this story.

2) This legislation, which originally had DMCA-like provisions The provisions banning circumventions of copy-protection technology were passed in the EU Copyright Directive of 2001, and according to a recent study, EU member nations are implementing these sanctions in full, without including protections to researchers and business competition, which they are allowed to do. See this story.

3) with companies able to raid, confiscate and freeze the bank accounts of those accused of copyright infringement This is accurate: these surprise raids are known as Anton Pillar orders, and in civil cases, they allow companies themselves to carry out the raids, hopefully overseen by their solicitors to make sure they keep within the rules of the order. More information on these orders here. In criminal cases, which are the only kind in which most countries allow Anton Pillar orders, the raids are carried out by police. In the UK the raids are allowed in civil IP cases, but only for large-scale piracy or counterfeiting. The new IP directive could make these raids available for any civil IP case. The recent raids on Sharman Networks and others in Australia were authorised by Anton Pillar orders.

It is true that the directive must still be interpreted by member states and implemented in their national laws, and this could represent an opportunity for the directive's harsher aspects to be limited. But it will now be a matter of making this happen in 25 different member countries (post-enlargement of EU) rather than on a Europe-wide level. Additionally, the experience of implementation of the EUCD (see above) suggests that member states won't automatically limit bizarre and repressive directives, no matter how controversial they are.

This is partly because, when they're debating laws like this at a national level, they tend to talk to the parties directly affected -- in this case, people like the BSA and the IFPI (Euro-RIAA); ordinary citizens have to work harder to be included in the process.

Matt Broersma, ZDNet UK

1) But late amendments added to the law limited who intellectual property owners could take action against and what penalties they could apply. The amendments the parliament refers to are actually a compromise reached between parliament and the council of ministers (representatives of EU national governments) earlier in the process. The amendment says, in the preamble (not the main body of the text) that some (not all) of the harshest sanctions, such as freezing bank accounts, should only apply to 'commercial' violations. However, this is very broadly defined as a violation that gives someone an 'economic advantage', which could be applied to, say, someone who downloads a song off the Internet for free. For more information see this story.

2) This legislation, which originally had DMCA-like provisions The provisions banning circumventions of copy-protection technology were passed in the EU Copyright Directive of 2001, and according to a recent study, EU member nations are implementing these sanctions in full, without including protections to researchers and business competition, which they are allowed to do. See this story.

3) with companies able to raid, confiscate and freeze the bank accounts of those accused of copyright infringement This is accurate: these surprise raids are known as Anton Pillar orders, and in civil cases, they allow companies themselves to carry out the raids, hopefully overseen by their solicitors to make sure they keep within the rules of the order. More information on these orders here. In criminal cases, which are the only kind in which most countries allow Anton Pillar orders, the raids are carried out by police. In the UK the raids are allowed in civil IP cases, but only for large-scale piracy or counterfeiting. The new IP directive could make these raids available for any civil IP case. The recent raids on Sharman Networks and others in Australia were authorised by Anton Pillar orders.

It is true that the directive must still be interpreted by member states and implemented in their national laws, and this could represent an opportunity for the directive's harsher aspects to be limited. But it will now be a matter of making this happen in 25 different member countries (post-enlargement of EU) rather than on a Europe-wide level. Additionally, the experience of implementation of the EUCD (see above) suggests that member states won't automatically limit bizarre and repressive directives, no matter how controversial they are.

This is partly because, when they're debating laws like this at a national level, they tend to talk to the parties directly affected -- in this case, people like the BSA and the IFPI (Euro-RIAA); ordinary citizens have to work harder to be included in the process.

Matt Broersma, ZDNet UK

1) But late amendments added to the law limited who intellectual property owners could take action against and what penalties they could apply. The amendments the parliament refers to are actually a compromise reached between parliament and the council of ministers (representatives of EU national governments) earlier in the process. The amendment says, in the preamble (not the main body of the text) that some (not all) of the harshest sanctions, such as freezing bank accounts, should only apply to 'commercial' violations. However, this is very broadly defined as a violation that gives someone an 'economic advantage', which could be applied to, say, someone who downloads a song off the Internet for free. For more information see this story.

2) This legislation, which originally had DMCA-like provisions The provisions banning circumventions of copy-protection technology were passed in the EU Copyright Directive of 2001, and according to a recent study, EU member nations are implementing these sanctions in full, without including protections to researchers and business competition, which they are allowed to do. See this story.

3) with companies able to raid, confiscate and freeze the bank accounts of those accused of copyright infringement This is accurate: these surprise raids are known as Anton Pillar orders, and in civil cases, they allow companies themselves to carry out the raids, hopefully overseen by their solicitors to make sure they keep within the rules of the order. More information on these orders here. In criminal cases, which are the only kind in which most countries allow Anton Pillar orders, the raids are carried out by police. In the UK the raids are allowed in civil IP cases, but only for large-scale piracy or counterfeiting. The new IP directive could make these raids available for any civil IP case. The recent raids on Sharman Networks and others in Australia were authorised by Anton Pillar orders.

It is true that the directive must still be interpreted by member states and implemented in their national laws, and this could represent an opportunity for the directive's harsher aspects to be limited. But it will now be a matter of making this happen in 25 different member countries (post-enlargement of EU) rather than on a Europe-wide level. Additionally, the experience of implementation of the EUCD (see above) suggests that member states won't automatically limit bizarre and repressive directives, no matter how controversial they are.

This is partly because, when they're debating laws like this at a national level, they tend to talk to the parties directly affected -- in this case, people like the BSA and the IFPI (Euro-RIAA); ordinary citizens have to work harder to be included in the process.

Matt Broersma, ZDNet UK

Here's some more information.

Wasn't there a recent article about how faulty US software was to blame for one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has ever seen?

Deliberately or otherwise, software can and does kill.

Yes, I said if at all. One of the reasons that Microsoft employees were not allowed to exercise all of their underwater options in 2003 (and none in 2004), is that Microsoft is trying to promote "employee retention" by making them hold on untill 2005. 2004 could be the year that permatemps on up decide to look for a new employer.

I note that ZDnet now has an article on this. And Design Technica and ENN have picked up (copied) the Register article.

I think we should be shouting this from rooftops. Microsoft secretly funnelled a whole lot of extra money to SCO, through intermediaries. It's a big deal, especially for a convicted monopolist.

Just a little update on this topic. Oh, the ironies of life:

"The Nevada court where SCO Group has filed a lawsuit against US retailer AutoZone could itself theoretically be subject to legal proceedings because the court is using Linux to run its Web site."

Read it here

Best reporting ever!

The Nevada court where SCO Group has filed a lawsuit against US retailer AutoZone could itself theoretically be subject to legal proceedings because the court is using Linux to run its Web site.

(Is this considered a conflict of interest? I'll bet even SCO didn't see this one coming)

What version of Mandrake didi he use? What are the exact models of the hardware it didn't detect? USB mice have been supported for ages for example. If you havnet tried Mandrake 9.2 or 10.0 then try again. Windows 95 would probably wouldnt work either, but does that mean that Windows 95 IS TOO HARD?

You may like to also try another distribution. Such as Knoppix. Knoppix has top class hardware support and doesnt need installing.

Windows XP dosent support my hardware, it BSODs when I plug my AGFA easypix camera into my computer, Mandrake pops up a disk on my desktop, and so does all the other Linux distros. My 52 year old mother can't figure out Windows XP, but she loves linux, and she uses it to play her games and online banking!

You may also like to report the non-detected hardware to Mandrake QA.

Here are some more links to back up my claim!

So try and get your Neighbour to try Linux again, tell him that its improving all the time!

I wonder if this could be the reason?

... when it was reported last year by ZDNET / news.com / Network Fusion / pcmag... that Microsoft were to buy a Romanian antivirus company !

Like the PIII Coppermine CPUs that wouldn't even boot sometimes.

Or the randomly rebooting PII Xeons.

Or the voltage problems with certain PIII Xeons.

Or the memory request system hang bug in the PIII/Xeon.

Or the PIII's SSE bug whose 'fix' killed i810 compatability.

Or the MTH bug in the PIII CPUs that forced Intel customers to replace boards and RAM.

Or the recalled, that's right, recalled PIII chips at 1.13GHz.

Or the recalled (there's that word again) Xeon SERVER chips at 800 and 900MHz.

Or the recalled (that word, AGAIN?!) cc820 "cape cod" Intel motherboards.

Or the data overwriting bug in the P4 CPUs.

Or the P4 chipset bug that killed video performance.

Or the Sun/Oracle P4 bug.

Or the Itanium bug that was severe enough to make Compaq halt Itanium shipments.

Or the Itanium 2 bug that "can cause systems to behave unpredictably or shut down".

Or the numerous other P4/Xeon/XeonMP bugs that have been hanging around.

Yes, I did consider the possibility that there might just be some basis for the belief that Intel's products are superior. Having considered that, in light of the mountains of evidence to the contrary, I shall now proceed to laugh at you.

Ha ha ha.

Now go away, or I shall mock you again.

Like the PIII Coppermine CPUs that wouldn't even boot sometimes.

Or the randomly rebooting PII Xeons.

Or the voltage problems with certain PIII Xeons.

Or the memory request system hang bug in the PIII/Xeon.

Or the PIII's SSE bug whose 'fix' killed i810 compatability.

Or the MTH bug in the PIII CPUs that forced Intel customers to replace boards and RAM.

Or the recalled, that's right, recalled PIII chips at 1.13GHz.

Or the recalled (there's that word again) Xeon SERVER chips at 800 and 900MHz.

Or the recalled (that word, AGAIN?!) cc820 "cape cod" Intel motherboards.

Or the data overwriting bug in the P4 CPUs.

Or the P4 chipset bug that killed video performance.

Or the Sun/Oracle P4 bug.

Or the Itanium bug that was severe enough to make Compaq halt Itanium shipments.

Or the Itanium 2 bug that "can cause systems to behave unpredictably or shut down".

Or the numerous other P4/Xeon/XeonMP bugs that have been hanging around.

Yes, I did consider the possibility that there might just be some basis for the belief that Intel's products are superior. Having considered that, in light of the mountains of evidence to the contrary, I shall now proceed to laugh at you.

Ha ha ha.

Now go away, or I shall mock you again.

So, irrespective of the technical competence, or otherwise of Google, it is going to be around and the leader, for a long time to come. P.S. My favorite missing google feature: search for bittorrent files

They will not be around for a long time if they don't focus on their core business - search. Their results are getting worst and worst. If someone has a better search engine, I am happy to switch, simple as that.

"Google has no natural monopoly -- there are no walls protecting Google's market position"
Google's IPO risks another bubble

And so ... I troll no more

Back in college as an exercise I wrote a mini-white paper on the Bluetooth technology spec.

It's pretty interesting stuff.

I completely understand why it's dead now though. Lackluster following of the specs (even by people who helped write it), a very complicated model of master-slave interaction, and several different layers of protocols to contend with made Bluetooth a good idea in theory....but not so much in practice.

It was kinda cool while it lasted, though.

What I would do is call 911 on your cell phon

Though in the UK, you'll be liable for a fine if you seek help in that way.

Of course calling 911 in the UK, probably wouldn't do that much good anyway.

Since when is Sun a friend of open source?

Sun pays for NFS v4 port to Linux.
Sun supports Xemacs.
Sun donates internationalization code to X.org.
Sun buys StarOffice and donates the code to OpenOffice.

Sun support development and porting of TCL.
Sun donates elliptic curve technology to openssl.org.

Etc., etc., etc.

Sun established open standards, such as: NIS, NFS, etc., etc.,...

Sun is a much bigger friend to "open source" and *nix than just about any other corporation.

So, are you trolling, or uninformed? Maybe just abusing a friend to open source?

There's an interesting article on ZDNet from November that takes as its angle that Yahoo deliberately set out to emulate Google's interface. The thing is, a lot of Google's design innovations (differentiating of text ads into coloured boxes, etc.) have now become web standards, and it pays (for users) that these are consistent across the web. Thanks to Google's innovation, I can recognise a coloured box as an ad, whether it's on Google or Yahoo. I just hope that they have sense, unlike Amazon, to not go around sueing everyone who does something similar.

So does this mean the recent Pentium suits will be thrown out too???

The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers