This is a big case, with at least the potential for some rather interesting techie tectonic shifting:)
Anyway, The San Jose Merc also has a story on this. Interesting take on the gov't interference angle, tho:
"Forcing the breakup of a company is a tactic that has fallen out of favor with the courts in recent years because of a reluctance to disturb free market forces. But the Justice Department is prepared to argue that a structural remedy is actually less intrusive than a conduct remedy, sources say.
The Justice Department wants Jackson to consider alternatives to reconfiguring the market that do not require constant government oversight -- or intrusive interference -- in the free-wheeling high technology sector."
Kind neat pre-emptive strike there re. ms and supporters claming unfair gov't intrusion into a highly volatile market.
One card that ms and its supporters will be looking to play is the economic impact of ANY punishment to the company. Anyone remember Bill&co's pathetic attempts to manipulate the econmic fears of a delayed Win95 launch - I recall either bg or sb saying that the stock market could loose big time!
Now, how much you wanna bet that any of the judges getting to hear the appeal will be hit with an arguement about present economic reality outweighing past corporate misdeads?
(While I applaud the conclusions in the FoF, I'm not too sanguine about the ultimate punishments for ms.)
So, since this case will get there sooner or later, anyone out there follow the supreme court wrt this type of ruling? Other cases that have come before the court? Individual judge's published decisions re big business and such?
Well, when you get to be somewhat successful and then well-known, you're going to be in the press one way or t'other. Reading the articles cited was kinda like scanning through the grocery store chekout-line tabloids - it was funny in one sense - but they really didn't get the true flavor of/. - no references to phurrst poast! I mean, c'mon guys, let's get an accurate sampling:)
Maybe this would be a good project for the new Red Hat Center for Open Source to take under its wing? I mean, if this guy needs financial help, and possibly sound legal help to fend off the industry, perhaps RHAT could get some good pr.
I'm going to summarize some thoughts expressed in this and the other MS/legal thread, and speculate.
Let's look at it like MS getting it's fingers tied off and immobilized, or at least impared:
1. DoJ trial is giving MS fits, despite the spin-doctoring. Exposure of arrogant attitudes towards gov't investigators and some really weird Alice-in-Wonderland shenannigans.
2. This case now going to trial with some very specific legal meat wrt provable anti-trust actions on MS's part.
3. Win2k not being all that MS promised - more vaporware-type pronouncements from MS. Ship-dates slipping and features being dropped.
4. Corporate IT folks more concerned with Y2k fixes rather than going through another Sisyphus-like upgrade dance wrt NT 4.0 -> winy2k
5. More and more high-profile hardware vendors slipping into bed with Linux/*BSD for a quickie - and realizing it feels better.
6. More and more anti-MS press - not just the usual complaints, but talk about Alternatives!
7. Linux, and as a result other alternatives oses, getting a lot of media attention as well as financial/corporate recognition.
Hmmmm..... seven fingers? Not too bad. With that much clout tied down or impared, I think the time is just right for even more alternative os business planning on the part of the major hardware and applications vendors.
Even if the trials that MS is involved in last for months, or years, this is still good. The more MS is distracted, the more mistakes it will make - publicly. The more distracted MS is, the more breathing room hardware vendors will have to really look at alternatives - and promote them. And, more importantly, the more time alternative oses have to make inroads on traditional MS territory, the less impact, economically, a break-up of, whatever-punishment for, MS will have.
A pretty generalizing piece, I think. I mean, so some tech companies are lobbying DC, and some techie PAC's are forming to whisper sweet nothings in the the whor^^^^politicians ears. But I think there's a gap here in exactly WHO is doing this kind of stuff. Hard-core geeks - coders, sys admins network gurus, hardware hackers, and so on, typically don't have the time to keep up with the miasma that wafts out of DC.
So, does the real SV care for politicos and DC? I don't think so. Just the CEO's CFO's and political management types from tech companies that either dig that kind of thing anyway, or are heading companies that are big enough to get hassled by tax, export or other silly legislation that often comes from our elected representatives.
The fine folks in Washington don't get the 'net - or technology for that matter - they just want to regulate it: makes 'em feel like they're doing something:)
I started to get this weird feeling, especially in the last segment with Gabriel and ESR, that I was reading a transcript from a lawyers lunchtime discussion. BTW, wtf is a chaord?
While I'm not a business-type, I guess I can see the rationale behind this move on MS's part - a nice little "Well, fuck you very much" message to the DoJ.
But I'm wondering here. This just might piss the lawyers in the DoJ off and who knows, they just might decide to make it a bit more personal with ol' Billy boy. How about a nice IRS anal probe for starters? INS spot checks on the Redmond campus to make sure all those H1(?) visas are in order, you know, real subtle stuff.
I can see it now: Gov't pressure blamed for techie stand-off in Redmond!
Feeling more and more persecuted by relentless government probes, programmers and management - even Bill Gates himself - barracaded themselves in their Redmond, Wash, campus today, vowing to create another Waco rather than put up with the alleged goverment harrassment.
"It's spite, pure and simple," President Steve "The Enforcer" Ballmer is quoted as saying. "The DoJ is mean-spirited and vengeful. They started this whole thing because they didn't have a case. Sure, we spent some money to get their funding cut, but, hey, that was just business."
State a federal authorities have cordoned off the sprawling tech campus, and have posted sharp-shooters in strategic locations. Said one FBI specialist, "They told us to be on the look-out for the bald guy and the goofy looking guy in glasses."
Anybody here see the Ameritrade, I think, commercial with the kid who's supposedly the hacker at work? They have a new one now where he's even more krad w/ a wilder hairstyle and off-beat behavior - walks into the pool on his way to breakfast al fresco w/ his grilfriend's parents. He then goes on to extoll his desire to shake money out of Wall Street via on-line trading. (His gf's dad is a broker.)
Sort of lame, but I'm wondering if this and the MTV thing is a new marketing thingy where haxor d00dz are now viable sales vehicles?
Thos cubes are very nice! Never got to play with one, but when we were spec-ing out a new mail server, I checked the cobalt web site. I begged my boss to get a cube - perfect solution for what we needed. (Love the color). No dice, though.
Hope this deal helps cobalt sell lots of raqs 'n cubes. Perfect solutions for small - medium shops. Pretty good support, too. These boxen are inexpensive enough to have two configured mail servers, for example, a main and one in case the first one fails. Very practical.
As has been stated in other posts, Mr. C was somewhat brief in his condemnation of Jane's. I thought what Jane's did was pretty good, and given the reputation of their publications, I feel Mr. C was pulling a cheap shot.
I used to work for a private - now public subsidiary of a LARGE aircraft/defense contrator type corp - business jet manufacturer, and Jane's was very much a well-thumbed presence in the Corporate Library. So much for credibility.
Sometimes Mr. C is okay, but he really screwed the pooch on this one.
And it's just about at my price - $149 is not that bad (okay, I'm cheap!) I'm seriously querying my credit card to see if it will cooperate on this one.
Basically, I think that technology as we have it now, presents information - and ways of accessing it - in more and varied forms than even two years ago. Internet time is a fact, but that doesn't mean that you HAVE to be plugged in 7/24/365.
The info is there as are the means to access it faster. That's a good thing. Example. I'm in the smoke room contemplating email clients' whimsical natures when my boss says:
I need info on sat dishes for X. He needs 'net connection. I think Hughes has some. Get me the spec sheets and prices. Oh, yeah, order another UPS."
Done in 15 minutes. While listening to music, monitoring the mail server, checking my email. Then I get to relax and read/. What's the problem?
Well, the thing is most companies and some govt agencies don't really think about secuirty until theirs has been compromised.
That said, ANY company or govt agency with sensitive data needs to have regular security audits. Tiger teams from bonded intrusion testing companies come to mind; four times a year is not a bad schedule. This costs money, but so does loss/corruption/theft of data. Make sure you admins are keeping up with security issues for the OS(es) that's being run on your sensitive server(s).
Also, internal security is often overlooked. If you run a company that uses internet access, and you have sensitive data, strictly limit internal users' access to the big bad net. Firewalls and NAT are a good start. Use anti-virus scanners on your email server. Keep access to internal servers at a minimum. Use internal firewalls to protect sensitive departments.
Even though I really liked Patton and Dr. SL, I've come to think that my personal fav is his reprise of Scrooge in a remake of A Christmas Carol. *Shug* dunno why, but I find his Scrooge the most convincing.
NPR replayed an interview they had with him from a couple of years ago. It's was pretty good. It seems he was somewhat of a recluse, and George responded:
"I don't like to go anywhere. I don't like to see anyone. Hell, the only fella more reclusive than me is Charley Bronson. We're neighbors and we never see each other."
The above roughly paraphrased. GCS will be missed.
I was using netcom for years w/ my Linux box & ppp with no problems. Now, after switching to mindspring/netcom, I all of a sudden can't send email with xfmail. Getting mail, no problem, sending mail....well all I get is operation not permitted or some such blather. No change on my config..... Maybe it's time to go local.
I really don't have any experience with the technical/pedagogical problems asociated with distance learning, but I would really like to see this trend grow. Right now, I'd dearly love to see a distance learning approach to the certified Linux engineer/technician/whatever. I just can't afford the travel/per deim/tutition - and my company ain't gonna spring for it. But, as a computer professional, I can see the value of the certification, not so much the paper, but learning the things that I don't get to do on the job.
Done right, I think it's a great way to pick up new skills in a structured environment.
Well, I don't know about IRC servers, but Mr. D's column seems a bit thrown together. I mean he states:
"Where Linux shines today is in medium-strain server systems. It's a near-perfect solution for the Web site on a budget. It's close to free, and when combined with the famed Apache server software, Linux can handle almost any medium-size page service chore. This is probably adequate for most uses today, but ask the true networking superstars about Linux on big systems under big loads and they all shake their heads."
and then concludes that maybe Linux will be good in the sub-whatever bargain PC market, but,well not really 'cause it uses command line and, as we all know, cli is just....blah blah.
Uh, so he sees Linux development going from medium strain server to $200.00 el cheapo desktops, maybe?
One would think that logical OS development would advance in the server arena, where Linux is a good viable solution for more than just a shoe-string web server - what about nntp and email servers along the same line - medium strain, rather than reteat to the bargain basement, no? I find the whole article just a bit short of well-thought-out. But, then again, IANAP (I am not a pundit).
but, I can remember using gopher in maybe late '92 for the first time. Then on to usenet and I remember downloading mosaic and installing it on my old rs/6000 and feeling really cool.
I quite frankly wouldn't be doing the job I have today if it weren't for the growth of the 'net, so Happy Birthday! Many happy returns on the day! (btw, I love my job - sysadmin/webmaster/network geek at a small startup) (I'll hoist a few tonight)
is that the more MS steps into the real networked world, the more we see this kind of screw-up. It all goes back to the mind-set at MS - it's fundamentaly a single-user mentality. This is not a hard concept for people to grasp - even for journalists and average users, who after all use MS products for the most part as single users.
I sure wish someone would point this out in a big way.
"Well, MS products are not secure in the real world 'cause they, MS, don't really understand mulituser, networked topology."
A business case can be made for that. For example, at my company, we work with remote developers, investors, and partners. My boss gets very pissed when the server here gets hosed, or the relay hosts go down, or the pipe gets clogged, or the big router we're homed on throws a fit and spits out an ATM card.
If we're waiting for confirmation on a contract from Intel, say, or waiting for a conference call time sent via email by one of the overseas investors, or a follow-up from a developer re. a bug fix to code that needs to be out this afternoon, and the developer is in Taiwan. Well, that can cost us money.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a big case, with at least the potential for some rather interesting techie tectonic shifting :)
Anyway, The San Jose Merc also has a story on this. Interesting take on the gov't interference angle, tho:
"Forcing the breakup of a company is a tactic that has fallen out of favor with the courts in recent years because of a reluctance to disturb free market forces. But the Justice Department is prepared to argue that a structural remedy is actually less intrusive than a conduct remedy, sources say.
The Justice Department wants Jackson to consider alternatives to reconfiguring the market that do not require constant government oversight -- or intrusive interference -- in the free-wheeling high technology sector."
Kind neat pre-emptive strike there re. ms and supporters claming unfair gov't intrusion into a highly volatile market.
One card that ms and its supporters will be looking to play is the economic impact of ANY punishment to the company. Anyone remember Bill&co's pathetic attempts to manipulate the econmic fears of a delayed Win95 launch - I recall either bg or sb saying that the stock market could loose big time!
Now, how much you wanna bet that any of the judges getting to hear the appeal will be hit with an arguement about present economic reality outweighing past corporate misdeads?
(While I applaud the conclusions in the FoF, I'm not too sanguine about the ultimate punishments for ms.)
So, since this case will get there sooner or later, anyone out there follow the supreme court wrt this type of ruling? Other cases that have come before the court? Individual judge's published decisions re big business and such?
Well, when you get to be somewhat successful and then well-known, you're going to be in the press one way or t'other. Reading the articles cited was kinda like scanning through the grocery store chekout-line tabloids - it was funny in one sense - but they really didn't get the true flavor of /. - no references to phurrst poast! I mean, c'mon guys, let's get an accurate sampling :)
Maybe this would be a good project for the new Red Hat Center for Open Source to take under its wing? I mean, if this guy needs financial help, and possibly sound legal help to fend off the industry, perhaps RHAT could get some good pr.
I'm going to summarize some thoughts expressed in this and the other MS/legal thread, and speculate.
Let's look at it like MS getting it's fingers tied off and immobilized, or at least impared:
1. DoJ trial is giving MS fits, despite the spin-doctoring. Exposure of arrogant attitudes towards gov't investigators and some really weird Alice-in-Wonderland shenannigans.
2. This case now going to trial with some very specific legal meat wrt provable anti-trust actions on MS's part.
3. Win2k not being all that MS promised - more vaporware-type pronouncements from MS. Ship-dates slipping and features being dropped.
4. Corporate IT folks more concerned with Y2k fixes rather than going through another Sisyphus-like upgrade dance wrt NT 4.0 -> winy2k
5. More and more high-profile hardware vendors slipping into bed with Linux/*BSD for a quickie - and realizing it feels better.
6. More and more anti-MS press - not just the usual complaints, but talk about Alternatives!
7. Linux, and as a result other alternatives oses, getting a lot of media attention as well as financial/corporate recognition.
Hmmmm..... seven fingers? Not too bad. With that much clout tied down or impared, I think the time is just right for even more alternative os business planning on the part of the major hardware and applications vendors.
Even if the trials that MS is involved in last for months, or years, this is still good. The more MS is distracted, the more mistakes it will make - publicly. The more distracted MS is, the more breathing room hardware vendors will have to really look at alternatives - and promote them. And, more importantly, the more time alternative oses have to make inroads on traditional MS territory, the less impact, economically, a break-up of, whatever-punishment for, MS will have.
Nothing new here, but just my Friday $0.02.
Linux Today has this story - part 2- about Linux and Korea.
A pretty generalizing piece, I think. I mean, so some tech companies are lobbying DC, and some techie PAC's are forming to whisper sweet nothings in the the whor^^^^politicians ears. But I think there's a gap here in exactly WHO is doing this kind of stuff. Hard-core geeks - coders, sys admins network gurus, hardware hackers, and so on, typically don't have the time to keep up with the miasma that wafts out of DC.
:)
So, does the real SV care for politicos and DC? I don't think so. Just the CEO's CFO's and political management types from tech companies that either dig that kind of thing anyway, or are heading companies that are big enough to get hassled by tax, export or other silly legislation that often comes from our elected representatives.
The fine folks in Washington don't get the 'net - or technology for that matter - they just want to regulate it: makes 'em feel like they're doing something
If I understand the original article correctly, you have 85 web sites going. How do you admin these in terms of reporting, monitoring, etc.?
I think they'll do well. They have some good boxes that are perfect for small businesses that have small/no IT depts. Should be a good market.
BTW, does anyone else think this "i" and "e" thing is getting waaaay out-of-hand? I mean, "e-tailers"! God, makes me want to hurl.
I started to get this weird feeling, especially in the last segment with Gabriel and ESR, that I was reading a transcript from a lawyers lunchtime discussion. BTW, wtf is a chaord?
While I'm not a business-type, I guess I can see the rationale behind this move on MS's part - a nice little "Well, fuck you very much" message to the DoJ.
But I'm wondering here. This just might piss the lawyers in the DoJ off and who knows, they just might decide to make it a bit more personal with ol' Billy boy. How about a nice IRS anal probe for starters? INS spot checks on the Redmond campus to make sure all those H1(?) visas are in order, you know, real subtle stuff.
I can see it now: Gov't pressure blamed for techie stand-off in Redmond!
Feeling more and more persecuted by relentless government probes, programmers and management - even Bill Gates himself - barracaded themselves in their Redmond, Wash, campus today, vowing to create another Waco rather than put up with the alleged goverment harrassment.
"It's spite, pure and simple," President Steve "The Enforcer" Ballmer is quoted as saying. "The DoJ is mean-spirited and vengeful. They started this whole thing because they didn't have a case. Sure, we spent some money to get their funding cut, but, hey, that was just business."
State a federal authorities have cordoned off the sprawling tech campus, and have posted sharp-shooters in strategic locations. Said one FBI specialist, "They told us to be on the look-out for the bald guy and the goofy looking guy in glasses."
Anybody here see the Ameritrade, I think, commercial with the kid who's supposedly the hacker at work? They have a new one now where he's even more krad w/ a wilder hairstyle and off-beat behavior - walks into the pool on his way to breakfast al fresco w/ his grilfriend's parents. He then goes on to extoll his desire to shake money out of Wall Street via on-line trading. (His gf's dad is a broker.)
Sort of lame, but I'm wondering if this and the MTV thing is a new marketing thingy where haxor d00dz are now viable sales vehicles?
Thos cubes are very nice! Never got to play with one, but when we were spec-ing out a new mail server, I checked the cobalt web site. I begged my boss to get a cube - perfect solution for what we needed. (Love the color). No dice, though.
Hope this deal helps cobalt sell lots of raqs 'n cubes. Perfect solutions for small - medium shops. Pretty good support, too. These boxen are inexpensive enough to have two configured mail servers, for example, a main and one in case the first one fails. Very practical.
As has been stated in other posts, Mr. C was somewhat brief in his condemnation of Jane's. I thought what Jane's did was pretty good, and given the reputation of their publications, I feel Mr. C was pulling a cheap shot.
I used to work for a private - now public subsidiary of a LARGE aircraft/defense contrator type corp - business jet manufacturer, and Jane's was very much a well-thumbed presence in the Corporate Library. So much for credibility.
Sometimes Mr. C is okay, but he really screwed the pooch on this one.
And it's just about at my price - $149 is not that bad (okay, I'm cheap!) I'm seriously querying my credit card to see if it will cooperate on this one.
Basically, I think that technology as we have it now, presents information - and ways of accessing it - in more and varied forms than even two years ago. Internet time is a fact, but that doesn't mean that you HAVE to be plugged in 7/24/365.
/. What's the problem?
The info is there as are the means to access it faster. That's a good thing. Example. I'm in the smoke room contemplating email clients' whimsical natures when my boss says:
I need info on sat dishes for X. He needs 'net connection. I think Hughes has some. Get me the spec sheets and prices. Oh, yeah, order another UPS."
Done in 15 minutes. While listening to music, monitoring the mail server, checking my email. Then I get to relax and read
Well, the thing is most companies and some govt agencies don't really think about secuirty until theirs has been compromised.
That said, ANY company or govt agency with sensitive data needs to have regular security audits. Tiger teams from bonded intrusion testing companies come to mind; four times a year is not a bad schedule. This costs money, but so does loss/corruption/theft of data. Make sure you admins are keeping up with security issues for the OS(es) that's being run on your sensitive server(s).
Also, internal security is often overlooked. If you run a company that uses internet access, and you have sensitive data, strictly limit internal users' access to the big bad net. Firewalls and NAT are a good start. Use anti-virus scanners on your email server. Keep access to internal servers at a minimum. Use internal firewalls to protect sensitive departments.
Well, just some basic suggestions.
Even though I really liked Patton and Dr. SL, I've come to think that my personal fav is his reprise of Scrooge in a remake of A Christmas Carol. *Shug* dunno why, but I find his Scrooge the most convincing.
NPR replayed an interview they had with him from a couple of years ago. It's was pretty good. It seems he was somewhat of a recluse, and George responded:
"I don't like to go anywhere. I don't like to see anyone. Hell, the only fella more reclusive than me is Charley Bronson. We're neighbors and we never see each other."
The above roughly paraphrased. GCS will be missed.
I was using netcom for years w/ my Linux box & ppp with no problems. Now, after switching to mindspring/netcom, I all of a sudden can't send email with xfmail. Getting mail, no problem, sending mail....well all I get is operation not permitted or some such blather. No change on my config..... Maybe it's time to go local.
I really don't have any experience with the technical/pedagogical problems asociated with distance learning, but I would really like to see this trend grow. Right now, I'd dearly love to see a distance learning approach to the certified Linux engineer/technician/whatever. I just can't afford the travel/per deim/tutition - and my company ain't gonna spring for it. But, as a computer professional, I can see the value of the certification, not so much the paper, but learning the things that I don't get to do on the job.
Done right, I think it's a great way to pick up new skills in a structured environment.
Well, I don't know about IRC servers, but Mr. D's column seems a bit thrown together. I mean he states:
,well not really 'cause it uses command line and, as we all know, cli is just....blah blah.
"Where Linux shines today is in medium-strain server systems. It's a near-perfect solution for the Web site on a budget. It's close to free, and when combined with the famed Apache server software, Linux can handle almost any medium-size page service chore. This is probably adequate for most uses today, but ask the true networking superstars about Linux on big systems under big loads and they all shake their heads."
and then concludes that maybe Linux will be good in the sub-whatever bargain PC market, but
Uh, so he sees Linux development going from medium strain server to $200.00 el cheapo desktops, maybe?
One would think that logical OS development would advance in the server arena, where Linux is a good viable solution for more than just a shoe-string web server - what about nntp and email servers along the same line - medium strain, rather than reteat to the bargain basement, no? I find the whole article just a bit short of well-thought-out. But, then again, IANAP (I am not a pundit).
but, I can remember using gopher in maybe late '92 for the first time. Then on to usenet and I remember downloading mosaic and installing it on my old rs/6000 and feeling really cool.
I quite frankly wouldn't be doing the job I have today if it weren't for the growth of the 'net, so Happy Birthday! Many happy returns on the day!
(btw, I love my job - sysadmin/webmaster/network geek at a small startup)
(I'll hoist a few tonight)
but still pretty neat is Mapnet that shows the major backbones, peering stuff and pipe sizes.
is that the more MS steps into the real networked world, the more we see this kind of screw-up. It all goes back to the mind-set at MS - it's fundamentaly a single-user mentality. This is not a hard concept for people to grasp - even for journalists and average users, who after all use MS products for the most part as single users.
I sure wish someone would point this out in a big way.
"Well, MS products are not secure in the real world 'cause they, MS, don't really understand mulituser, networked topology."
Simple.
A business case can be made for that. For example, at my company, we work with remote developers, investors, and partners. My boss gets very pissed when the server here gets hosed, or the relay hosts go down, or the pipe gets clogged, or the big router we're homed on throws a fit and spits out an ATM card.
If we're waiting for confirmation on a contract from Intel, say, or waiting for a conference call time sent via email by one of the overseas investors, or a follow-up from a developer re. a bug fix to code that needs to be out this afternoon, and the developer is in Taiwan. Well, that can cost us money.