Daniel Geer, former CTO for Cambridge, Mass-based @Stake, apparently
lost his job for co-authoring a report distributed by Microsoft rivals
via the CCIA, that claims that Microsoft’s monopoly and integrated
software and operating system poses a “clear and present danger” to
computer security.
Links: Rogers Cadenhead reports on an analyst who apparently was fired for criticizing Microsoft. [Scripting News]
Report: Microsoft Monopoly Puts Computing at Risk [MCPMag]
Microsoft critic dismissed by @Stake [c|Net News.com]
The report in PDF format, available here.
Archive | September, 2003
Your vote has caused a GPF and will be discarded…
We in the computer industry have a special responsibility to ensure
that the general public does not have a false sense of security about
things computerized. “It must be true, the computer said so” or “I read
it on the Internet” are chilling examples. Here, it seems an unreliable
computer system is replacing a more reliable, although slower and more
expensive, manual voting systems…
Can Diebold Be This Stupid?.
“UPDATED: BlackBoxBoting.org says lawyers for Diebold, maker of
electronic voting systems, have forced the site to shut down on
alleged…” from Dan Gillmor’s eJournal
Boston Area FoxPro Users Group
Off to the monthly meeting of BAFUG, where I’ll be practicing my Great Lakes Great Database Workshop presentations.
Opera 7.20 Released
Opera 7.20 Released – more details here. From [OSNews]
Knoppix 3.3 is out, and BitTorrent is the way to get it.
Knoppix 3.3, a self-booting Linux-on-a-CD distribution great for
demoing the product or rescuing a badly mangled install, is now
available for download. Instead of trying to get an image downloaded
from one of the mirrors, consider participating in the BitTorrent
technique for downloads. With BitTorrent installed and running, it took
most of the afternoon to get the image, but I got it on the first try,
and while I was downloading, BitTorrent could provide the parts I’d
downloaded to share with others, a real win-win situation. Slashdot
commentary and links to download sites are here.
Since I had nothing better to do with a few background CPU ticks, I’ve left the BitTorrent client running, sharing the wealth.
A great "word" (ok, phrase) for the day: deus ex machina
Dictionary.com Word of the Day: deus ex machina
The Story Story
Doc Searls has an excellent posting on his blog on “The Story Story,”
talking about how journalists often simplify an issue into two sides,
and lose a lot in the process. Software and media piracy are the big
issues.
Who’s reading RSS Feeds?
It’s interesting to browse through the web logs and see who is read the
FoxCentral and FoxForum Wiki RSS feeds. All four (both have 1.0 and 2.0
variants) are available from http://www.tedroche.com/RSSFeeds.html. Here
are some snippets from Saturday’s logs so you can see what kind of news
aggregators and accumulators are reading the subscription feeds:
lwp/trivial
FeedDemon/1.0+Beta+5a+(http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon
Bloglines/1.0+(http://www.bloglines.com
Feedster+Crawler/1.0
NIF/1.1++(http://www.newsisfree.com/robot.php)
PostNuke:+Rogue:+0.7.2
Syndic8/1.0+(http://www.syndic8.com/)
nntp//rss+v0.3+(Linux+2.4.18-386+i386;+http://www.methodize.org/nntprss/)
AmphetaDesk/0.93.1+(MSWin32;+http://www.disobey.com/amphetadesk/)
RPT-HTTPClient/0.3-3
Jakarta+Commons-HttpClient/2.0rc1
Radio+UserLand/8.0.8+(WinNT)
New Hampshire Highland Games
A dazzling day of beautiful weather, pipers, drummers, costumes, food, topped off with a concert by Clann An Drumma and Old Blind Dogs.
The Gathering of the Clans and the assembly of the bands – 30 pipe
bands in all – was great ritual to witness. The sound of 300 pipes and
drums was incredible.
Clann an Drumma was the most amazing tribal sound of a bagpipe and four mad
drummers – incredible sounds! Old Blind Dogs combined Scottish folk
tunes and jazzy, bluesy elements to make a great concert. The crowd on
many hundreds was on their feet, dancing and clapping for much of the
night. A great time!
Home again
Home in Contoocook. Looking forward to an interesting weekend, with 30
Pipe bands and probably tens of thousands of people visiting the New Hampshire Highland Games.