Edited and formatted because/. said "Please use fewer 'junk' characters"...well that is a bit of a harsh comment on Sony's character don't you think? I'd sue/. for libel if I was them.
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That aspect of SCO's money-making scam is more battery. Its part of a multiple attack of blackmailing with threats of purgerous battery in order to extort money for their dying (has it ever been alive?) business selling (free) air (or was free Snow).
Deary me...Standards are going down...the Navy must be able to find some sighted people to navigate their subs (or maybe the sighted people cannot stand the awful pay, conditions and clostrophobia)...Oh wait...sorry should've read the article...
Groklaw down....Counter-attack?
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SCO.com Defaced
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· Score: 2, Informative
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Maybe SCO have attacked Groklaw in order to get their own back (or maybe they attacked themselves and Groklaw because they were bored).
Re:Announced here yesterday
on
SCO.com Defaced
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· Score: 2, Insightful
You shouldn't have done that...
Next/. story:TSG issues subpeana to/. for server logs. (assuming TSG read/.....yess.....)
(hmmmm....actually...no wait...they are very bored and haven't got anything better to do these days have they?...no money...no products (never had them)...no "IP" (or that)...nearly no lawsuit now....hmm could be....get/. to remove your comment ASAP...)
SCO partner webinars...hahaaa...they still have access and are obviously having morefun
...oh...no...wait...this is SCO and that is the way they normally speak as they had to sack everyone who wasn't a marketroid or lawyer (if they had any of those in the first place.)
Like it needs any help with that (or isn't already).
Oh wait, is this, by any chance, the same Internet Explorer that Microsoft (and its key executives) claimed under sworn testimony in US v. MS was a fundamental part of their OS that could not be removed due to it been responsible for much of the basic OS functionality? Hmmm...I wonder?
(Not that this is really a problem for Microsoft as they regularly directly contradict themselves in quick succession--even in court.)
I cannot find anything on The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority's WWW site about it, and (thanks to timothy not even looking articles he posts links to) the text in the story, "warned computer users against using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6" links to an article which doesn't even *mention* the warning.
*If* the story is true, can some of the/. Powers that Be edit the story to link to an article that *is* about the story.
BTW, I'm pretty sure he was not joking when he made the comments I quoted in the grandparent (and his colleagues were backing him up) though you can never be sure with these types.
If you need any more evidence of what idiots the sysops there (I could tell many a story...) look at their WWW site (linked to in parent, note lack of content, broken display, &c) which is designed by those same sysops.
The story of my conversation with the BoFH that day is funnier and longer than that actually--I'm sure I wrote some of it down somewhere.
It was funny, not least, because the sysop who made those comments looks like an orangutan--loads of scraggily bright red hair, very large tum, scratches himself constantly, move's with an orangutan's gait.
Although, admittedly, the analogy does fall down when you consider the fact that he is missing one of the most important facets of the species--also they aren't evil and I can genuinely imagine him doing many of the most evil things in the BoFH series. Actually, according to Wikipedia's article:
Like the other great apes, Orangutans are remarkably intelligent. In the mid-
1990s, one population of , one population of Orangutans was found to use feeding tools regularly. Evidence of this had been earlier discovered among chimpanzees by Jane Goodall in the 1960s. A 2003 paper in the journal Science described the evidence for distinct Orangutan cultures...
and I cannot really describe this sysop as the sort who would be cultured (in any sense), have any sense of the rest of society (except maybe "kill...kill...") and defintely not the type to be able to use "feeding tools".
I'm not *necessarily* saying/. mods are all smoking something[*] but...I feel really guilty because my reply to his post basically repeating what he said and agreeing with him got modded +5 informative whereas his original post got modded Flamebait.
[*] which incidentally means that/.ers are all smoking something as nearly all if us are mods at some point.
No...this has to have been a late April Fool's joke...May?...Could just be...
It could be worse. Your government could demand...
As I'm as UK citizen and that article is about my government and I didn't know about it before you mentioned it, it know is worse, thank you very much;-)
(When I said "the government" in grandparent I was talking about UK government obviously.)
There is a lot in this (especially with governments). I'm currently *trying* to persuade my uni have more free software on public machines starting with Firefox.
I'll give some recent examples from my experience of this in relation to Firefox (as well as the obvious minor stuff like the government only producing documents in MSWord format or WWW sites that are in MSHTML so only work in MSIE):
In my old (state) college (where I've just left) the sysops told me (in person) that we were not allowed to use Firefox because and I quote, "Firebird [as it was] is a hacking [sic, should be cracking] tool like Kuzu [sic, should be Kazaa]". They also denied that it was a WWW browser and said that MSIE was the only WWW browser. They also said that they have a policy of only using Microsoft's software on the PCs.
A friend of mine uninstalled Firefox because his ISP told him that they did not support their users connecting to the WWW using Firefox. They also told him that just using MSIE (without uninstalling Firefox) instead would not work as Firefox also stops MSIE from connecting to the Internet when it is installed. (The same ISP also said that they only allow their users to check their email with Outlook Express and that my friend should not install any other mail client.)
That is a version of Firefox optimised for use on portable drives (by reducing disk usage, reducing size on disk, making references to exntesions relative, &c).
>>Understand that the lighting should be dimmer than the usual office setting.<<
In the rooms with the public PCs at my uni (which I'm using now as don't have own PC yet), they have loads of *extremely* bright flourescent lights (in the ceiling) which hurt your eyes even when you go into the room, and are really annoying when viewing the LCD screens.
That's what I was trying to say, but you've said it much better than me (but then I was suffering many days of sleep deprivation--slightly remedied now--when I typed grantparent).
I seem to remember insiders and/or leaked documents have suggested this is MS's strategy too.
With that specific example, I'm not sure how often trolls would co-operate though;-). It might just defeat the object of trolling somewhat for a lot of professional troll(er)s* if only people who wanted to see trolls got them. LOL.
Well your preaching to the converted here with those points:-), but wrt the conclusion:
Latin America and other development countries should adopt the open source model, not because MS is not good software (that's not my point), but because it's our only chance to get in the game (it's the only thing we can pay now, and it's good).
I think you'll find that the governments of most developing countries are already thinking this way (especially Latin America--look at the MS v. Brazil thing and other govs in that region).
I'm a UK uni student and I'm aware of this practice. Incidentally, I am supposed to be getting (one day..) a grant to get my own PC in my halls--these public machines are so annoying--but I cannot buy a PC without MSW installed with the grant money (even though I have no intention of using MSW).
Your post reminded of the similar recent story I heard of MS offering cut-down versions of MSW to less economically developed countries (called MSW XP Lite). When I googled for "XP Lite" to find out about this, this article came up near top of hits, OSViews.Com: Microsoft Windows XP Lite and Monopoly Maintenance.
OK in the cold light of day my post from last night doesn't make that much sense--I' haven't slept at all for several days--need to spend less time on/. I think better people have explained this than me. I heard it some time ago and was remembering it from the top of my head, so maybe I got something wrong in my argument.
On the specific point I probably didn't make sense--I think I misunderstood what I read. Basically, I heard somewhere something about evidence that MS wants to reduce its number of sales of MSW (by encouraging some "pirated" copies)--as opposed to the amount of money it makes* (which is enormous--they practically have a "license" to print money, so, _even_if_ such a plan did result in short-term losses, it would be good if it helped them keep that "license") by keeping the cost of MSW high--some people have to use MSW and get legal copies and its best to squeze as much money out of them as opposed to trying to stop "piracy" (which in a way helps MS). This is relevant I think, because, in antitrust cases, MS were asked their number of sales so it could compared with the sales of rival OSs such as MacOS to see if they had a monopoly (note also MS's heavy investment in Apple--they want Apple to keep going for anti-antitrust-suit purposes). NB: The price of MSW is broadly irrelevant to whether they have an illegal monoply.
I'm sure there is more on on the Web somewhere on this. Personally I'm not particularly interested in what MS do. I use free software and think that in many way MS behave very much like (and not really worse than) any other proprietary software company (esp. considering their position).
[*this seems to be backed up by the Bill Gates quote about how he wants to get people in some places hooked on "pirated" copies of MSW (as opposed to even trying to sell them legit copies ATM)]
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Oh and heres the link (I'll link to them too, just to rub it in, you know...): http://www.sonymusic.com.au/misc/policies.do
What about the GNU/Linux version? Does it have all the support/extras/&c as the MSW version?
Groklaw.net is down and says:
That aspect of SCO's money-making scam is more battery. Its part of a multiple attack of blackmailing with threats of purgerous battery in order to extort money for their dying (has it ever been alive?) business selling (free) air (or was free Snow).
Maybe SCO have attacked Groklaw in order to get their own back (or maybe they attacked themselves and Groklaw because they were bored).
Next /. story: TSG issues subpeana to /. for server logs. (assuming TSG read /. ....yess.....)
(hmmmm....actually...no wait...they are very bored and haven't got anything better to do these days have they?...no money...no products (never had them)...no "IP" (or that)...nearly no lawsuit now....hmm could be....get /. to remove your comment ASAP...)
...oh...no...wait...this is SCO and that is the way they normally speak as they had to sack everyone who wasn't a marketroid or lawyer (if they had any of those in the first place.)
That was a joke? I though it was an off-topic troll. Obviously you're right about it being bad.
Oh wait, is this, by any chance, the same Internet Explorer that Microsoft (and its key executives) claimed under sworn testimony in US v. MS was a fundamental part of their OS that could not be removed due to it been responsible for much of the basic OS functionality? Hmmm...I wonder?
(Not that this is really a problem for Microsoft as they regularly directly contradict themselves in quick succession--even in court.)
I searched for a link but Microsoft have removed all their court filings from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/doj/, http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/, http://www.microsoft.com/legalnews (all 404, but, interestingly, not with MS's usual 404 message) and the rest of their site, and no one seems to have copies--I assume because MS own the copyright and won't let anyone copy them. See filings list (with links) at Harvard Uni's OpenLaw.
I cannot find anything on The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority's WWW site about it, and (thanks to timothy not even looking articles he posts links to) the text in the story, "warned computer users against using Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6" links to an article which doesn't even *mention* the warning.
*If* the story is true, can some of the /. Powers that Be edit the story to link to an article that *is* about the story.
If you need any more evidence of what idiots the sysops there (I could tell many a story...) look at their WWW site (linked to in parent, note lack of content, broken display, &c) which is designed by those same sysops.
The story of my conversation with the BoFH that day is funnier and longer than that actually--I'm sure I wrote some of it down somewhere.
It was funny, not least, because the sysop who made those comments looks like an orangutan--loads of scraggily bright red hair, very large tum, scratches himself constantly, move's with an orangutan's gait.
Although, admittedly, the analogy does fall down when you consider the fact that he is missing one of the most important facets of the species--also they aren't evil and I can genuinely imagine him doing many of the most evil things in the BoFH series. Actually, according to Wikipedia's article:
and I cannot really describe this sysop as the sort who would be cultured (in any sense), have any sense of the rest of society (except maybe "kill...kill...") and defintely not the type to be able to use "feeding tools".I'm not *necessarily* saying /. mods are all smoking something[*] but...I feel really guilty because my reply to his post basically repeating what he said and agreeing with him got modded +5 informative whereas his original post got modded Flamebait.
[*] which incidentally means that /.ers are all smoking something as nearly all if us are mods at some point.
(When I said "the government" in grandparent I was talking about UK government obviously.)
- In my old (state) college (where I've just left) the sysops told me (in person) that we were not allowed to use Firefox because and I quote, "Firebird [as it was] is a hacking [sic, should be cracking] tool like Kuzu [sic, should be Kazaa]". They also denied that it was a WWW browser and said that MSIE was the only WWW browser. They also said that they have a policy of only using Microsoft's software on the PCs.
-
I could go on...A friend of mine uninstalled Firefox because his ISP told him that they did not support their users connecting to the WWW using Firefox. They also told him that just using MSIE (without uninstalling Firefox) instead would not work as Firefox also stops MSIE from connecting to the Internet when it is installed. (The same ISP also said that they only allow their users to check their email with Outlook Express and that my friend should not install any other mail client.)
That is a version of Firefox optimised for use on portable drives (by reducing disk usage, reducing size on disk, making references to exntesions relative, &c).
>>Understand that the lighting should be dimmer than the usual office setting.<<
In the rooms with the public PCs at my uni (which I'm using now as don't have own PC yet), they have loads of *extremely* bright flourescent lights (in the ceiling) which hurt your eyes even when you go into the room, and are really annoying when viewing the LCD screens.
I seem to remember insiders and/or leaked documents have suggested this is MS's strategy too.
Have you suggested it to the Powers that Be?
With that specific example, I'm not sure how often trolls would co-operate though[*] Is that an oxymoron?
I suppose its better than getting modded troll when I say something insightful and insightful when I troll or flamebait like usual.
Your post reminded of the similar recent story I heard of MS offering cut-down versions of MSW to less economically developed countries (called MSW XP Lite). When I googled for "XP Lite" to find out about this, this article came up near top of hits, OSViews.Com: Microsoft Windows XP Lite and Monopoly Maintenance .
OK in the cold light of day my post from last night doesn't make that much sense--I' haven't slept at all for several days--need to spend less time on /. I think better people have explained this than me. I heard it some time ago and was remembering it from the top of my head, so maybe I got something wrong in my argument.
On the specific point I probably didn't make sense--I think I misunderstood what I read. Basically, I heard somewhere something about evidence that MS wants to reduce its number of sales of MSW (by encouraging some "pirated" copies)--as opposed to the amount of money it makes* (which is enormous--they practically have a "license" to print money, so, _even_if_ such a plan did result in short-term losses, it would be good if it helped them keep that "license") by keeping the cost of MSW high--some people have to use MSW and get legal copies and its best to squeze as much money out of them as opposed to trying to stop "piracy" (which in a way helps MS). This is relevant I think, because, in antitrust cases, MS were asked their number of sales so it could compared with the sales of rival OSs such as MacOS to see if they had a monopoly (note also MS's heavy investment in Apple--they want Apple to keep going for anti-antitrust-suit purposes). NB: The price of MSW is broadly irrelevant to whether they have an illegal monoply.
I'm sure there is more on on the Web somewhere on this. Personally I'm not particularly interested in what MS do. I use free software and think that in many way MS behave very much like (and not really worse than) any other proprietary software company (esp. considering their position).
[*this seems to be backed up by the Bill Gates quote about how he wants to get people in some places hooked on "pirated" copies of MSW (as opposed to even trying to sell them legit copies ATM)]