I was sitting on the #gaim IRC channel earlier today (actually, starting immediately after seeing the article), and the following is a quote of one of the things I heard.
(12:05:45) KingAnt: Hmm, I just noticed this in the slashdot post thing: "but it's open source so expect a MSWin version shortly from Gaim team." (12:07:40) skiy left the room (quit: Read error: 110 (Connection timed out)). (12:08:55) peetah left the room (quit: "Leaving"). (12:09:03) grim: yeah.. lemme jump right on that.. (12:09:04) grim: pfft (12:11:55) Essington [~jason@essington.registered] entered the room. (12:12:00) Err: you didn't expect anything better from a slashdot post, did you? (12:12:37) grim: actually i expected less..:)
PhoneGaim is not officially affiliated with Gaim, except for the fact that they have common code. So this probably isn't something that should be expected as a Windows port any time soon... at least, not from them.
While I in no way condone this, it's to be expected. SCO is pissing off a lot of people, and this is the kind of thing that is bound to happen when geeks are rather peeved. Granted, it shouldn't happen, but neither should any criminal activity. Not everybody is as mature is *cough* the/. community here, where we all shun such actions. I'm rather surprised it hasn't happened more, actually...
That being said, SCO is probably revelling in this, even if it is genuine. In fact, DDoS is probably one of the perks to this whole thing - it makes everybody but them look bad, and they come out perfectly clean to the media. Playing the innocent little child who got their candy stolen, I dare say.
Yes, this is truly pathetic. But honestly, folks... how many people are surprised by it? The U.S. government has something of a history of neglect when it comes to technology, as several have pointed out. After all, it's a sad day when major government systems can be compromised by worms of any sort. It simply shouldn't happen. Period. And yet it has. And then, there are the constant sad stories coming out of the U.S.P.O., where people are patenting things that are blatantly not their own.
So, here's what we need: A government office that is responsible for the electronic welfare of the country. Not merely a minor department in some other place, but a significant entity of its own. It would be able to stop all these government technological blunders before they happen, being comprised of tech-savvy individuals. Or at least, it would have some people who specialized in the field. Yes, it may sound Orwellian, but it wouldn't be much more so than what we have now: Now, several government agencies work completely apart from one another to regulate electronics, and each government department is responsible for its own security. This would simply take this task out of the hands of the overworked and unknowledgable, and might actually boost those grades.
Slashdot Mirror
I was sitting on the #gaim IRC channel earlier today (actually, starting immediately after seeing the article), and the following is a quote of one of the things I heard.
PhoneGaim is not officially affiliated with Gaim, except for the fact that they have common code. So this probably isn't something that should be expected as a Windows port any time soon... at least, not from them.
While I in no way condone this, it's to be expected. SCO is pissing off a lot of people, and this is the kind of thing that is bound to happen when geeks are rather peeved. Granted, it shouldn't happen, but neither should any criminal activity. Not everybody is as mature is *cough* the /. community here, where we all shun such actions. I'm rather surprised it hasn't happened more, actually...
That being said, SCO is probably revelling in this, even if it is genuine. In fact, DDoS is probably one of the perks to this whole thing - it makes everybody but them look bad, and they come out perfectly clean to the media. Playing the innocent little child who got their candy stolen, I dare say.
Yes, this is truly pathetic. But honestly, folks... how many people are surprised by it? The U.S. government has something of a history of neglect when it comes to technology, as several have pointed out. After all, it's a sad day when major government systems can be compromised by worms of any sort. It simply shouldn't happen. Period. And yet it has. And then, there are the constant sad stories coming out of the U.S.P.O., where people are patenting things that are blatantly not their own.
So, here's what we need: A government office that is responsible for the electronic welfare of the country. Not merely a minor department in some other place, but a significant entity of its own. It would be able to stop all these government technological blunders before they happen, being comprised of tech-savvy individuals. Or at least, it would have some people who specialized in the field. Yes, it may sound Orwellian, but it wouldn't be much more so than what we have now: Now, several government agencies work completely apart from one another to regulate electronics, and each government department is responsible for its own security. This would simply take this task out of the hands of the overworked and unknowledgable, and might actually boost those grades.