Maybe redundant, but some may find this background interesting.
From the page: "....Prior to 1998, the company and its employees gave virtually nothing in terms of political contributions. But when the Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the company's marketing of its popular Windows software, things changed. The company opened a Washington lobbying office, founded a political action committee and soon became one of the most generous political givers in the country."
During 2000 - 2002 election cycle, Bill and Co. gave about $5M to Rep., nearly $4M to Dem., which are nothing significant for their bank account. Under the current administration, no one will ever come to harm Microsoft's monopoly. Period.
I'm just wondering by what system the new hardware will be powered. Considering Sony's move towards Linux in development of new PS, it's natural to think Linux would be their choice. But they might develop some system of their own...? There are a number of portable DVD player with 7" LCD screen already available in the market. Swapping DVD drive with HD shouldn't be that hard.
One thing I have to give Microsoft credit for is their foreign-language support and Asian IME's.
Not really. Up to 98 and Me, i18n capability of Winduws was a joke. You had to install half-ass IME on preinstalled IE and it worked only on a few apps, as far as I know.
The current IME on 2K works OK, but apps written for a localized version of windows still DO NOT run on English version. You can't even install them. Localized versions of Win I believe handle apps for English version (I'm not sure) but localized versions of Windows has UGLY English fonts by default.
As far as XP goes, I'm not sure, but it looks like it went back to dark ages again. I couldn't configure it to be i18n compatible. I may be missing something, but configuration offers much less than W2K did. MS offers downloadable IME for XP, but unlike IME's for 98/Me, the one for XP is botched and it doesn't work with Mozilla!!!!. It only works on IE, Office and so forth. You can dual boot both English and localized versions on one machine to solve ALL the problems, of course, but why do you have to pay twice for one OS? Besides you HAVE to install two versions on different partitions because if you install both on one partition, system files for the two versions will screw each other up.
Linux's i18n capability depends on distribution. I first tried Redhat and it worked great. You need to re-login after you change language setup to switch default language, but switch is far more thorough than Winows. Not only IME, it switches desktop's language settings as well. Besides that, you don't have to worry about incompatibility between English version and localized version. Unlike Windows, OS by American monopoly, necessity for i18n has always been there during development of Linux, which took place world wide. Although there are some extra features on w2k ime (dictionary, etc), overall I find Linux language handling more thorough and trustworthy.
Its hanging from a cable, and seems to go nuts and tip over once it moves an inch or two. Am I missing something? Not as high tech as asimo... that's for sure!
Yea, the video is awesome. It looks like some stoned kid dancing for his own amusement. It sure is not as high tech as Asimo, but hey, my father told me that what's more important is process, not the result that comes after. It's a "home depot" walk-bot, but it may become something big and popular. I mean "maybe."
I can't stop thinking that our society is becoming more and more like the world in this classic novel. Though types of crimes committed today have changed since when it was originally written, we are living in the society that is watched by those who are in power. One's identity is a personal property to be exploited by criminals and politicians. Look at how MS has been controlling consumers with propaganda and FUD and what RIAA is doing to people with little voice. The only difference between the novel and reality is that the one who's watching us is not the government, but corporate monopolies that exploits workers and abuses their advantageous positions for nothing but their own profit.
It's such an irony that the guy's name is "Bill Gates." (ATM == gates for bills) Finally we shall have access to the world's richest man's bank account via ATM. heh.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates made an official announcement today that he is switching his Ford Pinto with Hyundai Excel. Gates insisted this is NOT an "act of retaliation whatsoever," but just a "matter of personal preference."
This is not so surprising at all since their claims are all baseless from the beginning, but filing $3B lawsuit against someone WITHOUT solid evidence and/or enough research will probably strengthen IBM's counterclaim against SCO of damaging IBM's business with false claims.
Maybe HP is afraid of retaliation and harassment from Gates for selling non-MS desktop in the US market.
It's too late for MS to slow Linux sales in the server market, but in the desktop market, they still are monopoly. I can see HP try not to take too much risk at this point in the US market. In other words I don't think Fiorina has enough guts to say "f%ck you" to Gates face to face...yet.
How could they NOT sue the distributors of the infamous IP infringing products, while they ARE more than willing to sue users of the same IP infringing products? It is like allowing pirate CD vendors on the street to do their job and going after those who bought pirate CDs from that vendor(s). Is it reasonable? At least RIAA is mean ass to everyone, not only to buyers.
Hey McB, so you are now endorsing distribution of illegal product while you demand money from those who bought it? Give me a fsckin break, would you?
What's more intriguing to me is a surge of their stock for the last two days. How could this be possible, after they revealed their own stupidity by showing BSD-lisenced code as smoking guns for IBM/IP case? Who'd buy a pile of shit?
Maybe hundreds of millions of retarded private investors are visiting SCO.com and that's causing their servers down. hehe
If their interpretation is valid, all free software available on the planet might be violating US copyrights laws because agreements that allow free distribution of copyrighted materials is illegal. Thanks for the tip, Boies office. I can no longer make copies of Mozilla or OpenOffice binaries without copyright holder's permission. Damnit!
But hold on a second; I thought GPL was an agreement more for distributor to release copyrighted materials to public without fees. While EULA is a Nazi copyright contract to limit users' rights, GPL works both on copyrights holder, distributor and end users mutually.
hmm, looks like SCO legal team, in desperation, is making radical accusations that is tough to verify.
its a story about a top notch reverse engineer (Ben Affleck) who, after a quick memory wipe, finds trying to piece together the mystery of his past.
I'm sure many of the audiences will want to get their memory wiped clean as soon as they exit the theater and forget BenA's wonderful memorable performance, a.k.a. "acting."
This will make an interesting situation. SCO will soon have to take care of their own suit against IBM and the one RH filed yesterday. Boies will be busy for sure, and his legal fees altogether will cost SCO more than McBride originally expected.
If other Linux distributors and server vendors kick their gears into offensive mode, there will be a dozen of legal cases SCO will have to take care of. McBride by now should understand that he threw sh*t at not one, but a number of companies.
Sure, SCO can survive for a while by dumping more shares to keep afloat and pay legal fees, but how long they can survive will be a question. If SuSE, Lindoze and other Linux distros with decent financial status (MDK...Doh!) decide to bring McBride to the court, SCO's stock price will soon be in decline. In a sense, Linux distributors can use litigation to undermine SCO in the same way SCO has been doing to Linux and possibly stop this professional extortioner from making any more noises against Linux. Goes around comes around. Yup, they deserve it.
By the time BuyM$sic.com manages to weed out all glitches, Napster comes back to the market and probably kick BuyMu$.lock-in.com's ass hard enough to make the new comer rethink about its business plans.
I will probably never use this site regardless since I need to 1) install proprietary operating system that is known to be insecure; and 2) surf the web with a browser that is not standard compliant; to 3) download sound files in a proprietary, non-standard format; which requires buyers (me) to only use 4) a bloated proprietary multimedia player that is/will be tightly integrated with the 1) OS; to playback.
Why should I bother? I rather buy and own CDs, even if.wma offers better sound quality than CD.
CEO of Roxio in this news.com article says "[Napster]will be very reflective of the key characteristics of the original Napster...independence, innovation and freedom of choice." (emphasis mine)
Australia is great. You can hack Xbox and install Linux without worrying about litigation from M$ or SCO, and most importantly the country is free from DMCA. Its IT and hacker culture has evolved very independently with no pressure from Corporate America. Now people are standing up against extortion by American company.
"Visit Installfest in Sydney next week! Bring your Xbox and we'll help ya install Linux on it!" No wonder so many unique creatures have evolved in outback. Maybe it's better place for us to live than the US.
It is odd to see a company who is to pursue correction of IP infringements, demanding end users to obtain license in order to become immune from potential litigation, that the company will bring up otherwise. If you have common sense, you may wonder that the distributors of the product in alleged IP violation (RH, SuSE, and SCO itself) are the ones to be tried before end users. Even RIAA tried Napster, the distribution means of legal and personal files, before it began to pursue endusers in violation.
Moreover, legitimacy of SCO's claim is yet to be proven by the court. McB claims that Linux is covered with a big cloud, but SCO is the one that keeps producing thick yellow smoke to keep the truth unrevealed. It is such an irony that SCO.com's current tag line reads: "relax: Worry Free Software." They are now officially and shamelessly using FUD for their marketing. How could one "relax" in using products of the company who extorts end users for their own profit?
Approaching endusers before correcting distributors' violation suggests that 1. SCO knows it doesn't have a strong case to stand, and 2. It is more profitable for SCO to keep the truth in the mist and play games with big corporations heavily relying on Linux. In news.com.com.com's interview, McB states that Linus can take alleged SCO source out of Linux kernel to be "clean" --which he claims is impossible without losing enterprise capability-- OR SCO should be compensated for the loss. Having given Linus skewed options (w/NDA) to examine the alleged code, McB and Boies' intention is clear: SCO does not want Linux to be fixed. SCO et al wants the state of infringing code to remain unclear and the future of Linux to be uncertain, and wants current Linux users to continue using Linux so that SCO can charge license fees.
SCO is no longer in Tech business. They sell worthless paper titled "EULA" now.
If a famous artist stole
your work, would you send letters to endusers and ask them to buy your book so that you won't be prosecuted for copyright infringement? I don't think so. But SCO does.
Is there any possibility of class action lawsuits against SCO that Linux users can bring to the court just like LinuxTug? Or any bureaus like FTC or Consumer Affairs to file claims against SCO of unfair business practices?
Now SCO is actively pursuing Linux users' money with underlied implication that if you won't pay, SCO will sue you. IANAL, SCO's action appears to me a threat and extortion, demanding "LICENSE" fees for the product which ownership is yet to be determined by the court. After all this whole thing looks a well planned extortion scheme that, ironically, has been very unsuccessful.
Slashdot Mirror
From the article:
Debian variants have been created over the years; none of them has been commercially successful.
...err... does "Lindows" ring the bell?
Maybe redundant, but some may find this background interesting.
....Prior to 1998, the company and its employees gave virtually nothing in terms of political contributions. But when the Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the company's marketing of its popular Windows software, things changed. The company opened a Washington lobbying office, founded a political action committee and soon became one of the most generous political givers in the country."
From the page:
"
During 2000 - 2002 election cycle, Bill and Co. gave about $5M to Rep., nearly $4M to Dem., which are nothing significant for their bank account. Under the current administration, no one will ever come to harm Microsoft's monopoly. Period.
or dome theater at home. Maybe George Lucas alerady ordered one for his home. If not soon.
I'm just wondering by what system the new hardware will be powered. Considering Sony's move towards Linux in development of new PS, it's natural to think Linux would be their choice. But they might develop some system of their own...? There are a number of portable DVD player with 7" LCD screen already available in the market. Swapping DVD drive with HD shouldn't be that hard.
why can i see this thing only playing sony titles only?
don't worry, it won't happen unless Sony is owned by Gates, which will never happen.
One thing I have to give Microsoft credit for is their foreign-language support and Asian IME's.
Not really. Up to 98 and Me, i18n capability of Winduws was a joke. You had to install half-ass IME on preinstalled IE and it worked only on a few apps, as far as I know.
The current IME on 2K works OK, but apps written for a localized version of windows still DO NOT run on English version. You can't even install them. Localized versions of Win I believe handle apps for English version (I'm not sure) but localized versions of Windows has UGLY English fonts by default.
As far as XP goes, I'm not sure, but it looks like it went back to dark ages again. I couldn't configure it to be i18n compatible. I may be missing something, but configuration offers much less than W2K did. MS offers downloadable IME for XP, but unlike IME's for 98/Me, the one for XP is botched and it doesn't work with Mozilla!!!!. It only works on IE, Office and so forth. You can dual boot both English and localized versions on one machine to solve ALL the problems, of course, but why do you have to pay twice for one OS? Besides you HAVE to install two versions on different partitions because if you install both on one partition, system files for the two versions will screw each other up.
Linux's i18n capability depends on distribution. I first tried Redhat and it worked great. You need to re-login after you change language setup to switch default language, but switch is far more thorough than Winows. Not only IME, it switches desktop's language settings as well. Besides that, you don't have to worry about incompatibility between English version and localized version. Unlike Windows, OS by American monopoly, necessity for i18n has always been there during development of Linux, which took place world wide. Although there are some extra features on w2k ime (dictionary, etc), overall I find Linux language handling more thorough and trustworthy.
My 2cents.
Its hanging from a cable, and seems to go nuts and tip over once it moves an inch or two. Am I missing something? Not as high tech as asimo... that's for sure!
Yea, the video is awesome. It looks like some stoned kid dancing for his own amusement. It sure is not as high tech as Asimo, but hey, my father told me that what's more important is process, not the result that comes after. It's a "home depot" walk-bot, but it may become something big and popular. I mean "maybe."
Maybe this comment is off-topic at best.
I can't stop thinking that our society is becoming more and more like the world in this classic novel. Though types of crimes committed today have changed since when it was originally written, we are living in the society that is watched by those who are in power. One's identity is a personal property to be exploited by criminals and politicians. Look at how MS has been controlling consumers with propaganda and FUD and what RIAA is doing to people with little voice. The only difference between the novel and reality is that the one who's watching us is not the government, but corporate monopolies that exploits workers and abuses their advantageous positions for nothing but their own profit.
What is "freedom," anyway?
It's such an irony that the guy's name is "Bill Gates." (ATM == gates for bills) Finally we shall have access to the world's richest man's bank account via ATM. heh.
Meanwhile, Bill Gates made an official announcement today that he is switching his Ford Pinto with Hyundai Excel. Gates insisted this is NOT an "act of retaliation whatsoever," but just a "matter of personal preference."
Why is this not surpising?
This is not so surprising at all since their claims are all baseless from the beginning, but filing $3B lawsuit against someone WITHOUT solid evidence and/or enough research will probably strengthen IBM's counterclaim against SCO of damaging IBM's business with false claims.
Linux/SysV != Microsoft/Dr DOS
"Damnit! We should have filed a lawsuit against Microsoft instead of Big Blue!" -- Darl
Maybe HP is afraid of retaliation and harassment from Gates for selling non-MS desktop in the US market.
...yet.
It's too late for MS to slow Linux sales in the server market, but in the desktop market, they still are monopoly. I can see HP try not to take too much risk at this point in the US market. In other words I don't think Fiorina has enough guts to say "f%ck you" to Gates face to face
How could they NOT sue the distributors of the infamous IP infringing products, while they ARE more than willing to sue users of the same IP infringing products? It is like allowing pirate CD vendors on the street to do their job and going after those who bought pirate CDs from that vendor(s). Is it reasonable? At least RIAA is mean ass to everyone, not only to buyers.
Hey McB, so you are now endorsing distribution of illegal product while you demand money from those who bought it? Give me a fsckin break, would you?
What's more intriguing to me is a surge of their stock for the last two days. How could this be possible, after they revealed their own stupidity by showing BSD-lisenced code as smoking guns for IBM/IP case? Who'd buy a pile of shit?
Maybe hundreds of millions of retarded private investors are visiting SCO.com and that's causing their servers down. hehe
If their interpretation is valid, all free software available on the planet might be violating US copyrights laws because agreements that allow free distribution of copyrighted materials is illegal. Thanks for the tip, Boies office. I can no longer make copies of Mozilla or OpenOffice binaries without copyright holder's permission. Damnit!
But hold on a second; I thought GPL was an agreement more for distributor to release copyrighted materials to public without fees. While EULA is a Nazi copyright contract to limit users' rights, GPL works both on copyrights holder, distributor and end users mutually.
hmm, looks like SCO legal team, in desperation, is making radical accusations that is tough to verify.
its a story about a top notch reverse engineer (Ben Affleck) who, after a quick memory wipe, finds trying to piece together the mystery of his past.
I'm sure many of the audiences will want to get their memory wiped clean as soon as they exit the theater and forget BenA's wonderful memorable performance, a.k.a. "acting."
This will make an interesting situation. SCO will soon have to take care of their own suit against IBM and the one RH filed yesterday. Boies will be busy for sure, and his legal fees altogether will cost SCO more than McBride originally expected.
If other Linux distributors and server vendors kick their gears into offensive mode, there will be a dozen of legal cases SCO will have to take care of. McBride by now should understand that he threw sh*t at not one, but a number of companies.
Sure, SCO can survive for a while by dumping more shares to keep afloat and pay legal fees, but how long they can survive will be a question. If SuSE, Lindoze and other Linux distros with decent financial status (MDK...Doh!) decide to bring McBride to the court, SCO's stock price will soon be in decline. In a sense, Linux distributors can use litigation to undermine SCO in the same way SCO has been doing to Linux and possibly stop this professional extortioner from making any more noises against Linux. Goes around comes around. Yup, they deserve it.
Some details on new Napster (2.0) here.
.wma offers better sound quality than CD.
By the time BuyM$sic.com manages to weed out all glitches, Napster comes back to the market and probably kick BuyMu$.lock-in.com's ass hard enough to make the new comer rethink about its business plans.
I will probably never use this site regardless since I need to
1) install proprietary operating system that is known to be insecure;
and
2) surf the web with a browser that is not standard compliant;
to
3) download sound files in a proprietary, non-standard format;
which requires buyers (me) to only use
4) a bloated proprietary multimedia player that is/will be tightly integrated with the 1) OS;
to playback.
Why should I bother? I rather buy and own CDs, even if
CEO of Roxio in this news.com article says "[Napster]will be very reflective of the key characteristics of the original Napster...independence, innovation and freedom of choice." (emphasis mine)
- I sure hope it will be.
Australia is great. You can hack Xbox and install Linux without worrying about litigation from M$ or SCO, and most importantly the country is free from DMCA. Its IT and hacker culture has evolved very independently with no pressure from Corporate America. Now people are standing up against extortion by American company.
"Visit Installfest in Sydney next week! Bring your Xbox and we'll help ya install Linux on it!" No wonder so many unique creatures have evolved in outback. Maybe it's better place for us to live than the US.
It is odd to see a company who is to pursue correction of IP infringements, demanding end users to obtain license in order to become immune from potential litigation, that the company will bring up otherwise. If you have common sense, you may wonder that the distributors of the product in alleged IP violation (RH, SuSE, and SCO itself) are the ones to be tried before end users. Even RIAA tried Napster, the distribution means of legal and personal files, before it began to pursue endusers in violation.
Moreover, legitimacy of SCO's claim is yet to be proven by the court. McB claims that Linux is covered with a big cloud, but SCO is the one that keeps producing thick yellow smoke to keep the truth unrevealed. It is such an irony that SCO.com's current tag line reads: "relax: Worry Free Software." They are now officially and shamelessly using FUD for their marketing. How could one "relax" in using products of the company who extorts end users for their own profit?
Approaching endusers before correcting distributors' violation suggests that 1. SCO knows it doesn't have a strong case to stand, and 2. It is more profitable for SCO to keep the truth in the mist and play games with big corporations heavily relying on Linux. In news.com.com.com's interview, McB states that Linus can take alleged SCO source out of Linux kernel to be "clean" --which he claims is impossible without losing enterprise capability-- OR SCO should be compensated for the loss. Having given Linus skewed options (w/NDA) to examine the alleged code, McB and Boies' intention is clear: SCO does not want Linux to be fixed. SCO et al wants the state of infringing code to remain unclear and the future of Linux to be uncertain, and wants current Linux users to continue using Linux so that SCO can charge license fees.
SCO is no longer in Tech business. They sell worthless paper titled "EULA" now.
If a famous artist stole your work, would you send letters to endusers and ask them to buy your book so that you won't be prosecuted for copyright infringement? I don't think so. But SCO does.
Is there any possibility of class action lawsuits against SCO that Linux users can bring to the court just like LinuxTug? Or any bureaus like FTC or Consumer Affairs to file claims against SCO of unfair business practices?
Now SCO is actively pursuing Linux users' money with underlied implication that if you won't pay, SCO will sue you. IANAL, SCO's action appears to me a threat and extortion, demanding "LICENSE" fees for the product which ownership is yet to be determined by the court. After all this whole thing looks a well planned extortion scheme that, ironically, has been very unsuccessful.