Sean Gallagher tells a tale of Open Source to the Rescue:
when Ziff-Davis’s eWeek staff lost connectivity to their main site, he
improvised a wiki on his $7 a month personal web site to get them
through the day.
Archive | May, 2004
Microsoft’s Ballmer: "Linux Requires Our Concentrated Focus and Attention"
There’s a rare occurrence. Steve Ballmer and I agree on something.
DevEssentials conference fee discount deadline
There’s a big deadline coming up this Friday for early discounts to the
DevEssentials (Essential Fox) conference in Kansas City next month.
DevEssentials. DevEssentials – Register before May 8, 2004 and save. http://www.devessentials.com To register, visit: https://secure.visionds.com/DevEssentials or call toll free, 866-568-4459. Session matrix available at http://www.devessentials.com/sessionmatrix.asp.
Pre- and post-conference workshops: SQL Reporting Services, .NET Boot
Camp, .NET Business Frameworks, VFP Boot Camp, VMP and more… http://www.devessentials.com/workshops.asp By Vision Data Solutions, Inc.. Posted from FoxCentral News
CentraLUG May meeting
I attended the Central NH Linux User Group meeting tonight. David Berube presided as master of ceremonies. Ed showed off the Straw RSS News Reader, and Bill showed off the SciTE text editor. A good time was had by all.
Sasser Worm on the loose; patch may be as bad as the worm
On the Worm Watch: Sasser.
“Windows users beware: The Sasser worm is spreading. And the patch
which Microsoft made available to block the hole in Windows which
Sasser is exploiting leaves some systems unbootable.”
Ouch.
Posted from Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley
Diebold electronic voting set back in California
E-Voting Challenge in California.
Mercury News: State curbs use of e-vote. California
Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Friday banned the use of
touch-screen voting machines in the November election unless they meet
stringent security measures. He barred outright the use of a new
Diebold electronic voting system in Kern, San Diego, San Joaquin and
Solano counties. Ten other counties — including Santa Clara and
Alameda — will only be permitted to use touch-screen voting if they
provide a paper receipt for digital ballots cast or meet 23 security
conditions, including disconnecting the machines from phone lines and
the Internet.
Dan Gillmor says: “This is
amazingly good news, and shows that Shelley has been, in effect,
radicalized by the outrageous behavior of the voting-machine industry.
The companies selling their balloting snake oil went too far, and now
they’re going to have to do the right thing.
Most notably in Shelley’s announcement yesterday, he said he’d referred
the case of the notorious Diebold Election Systems to the attorney
general for possible criminal, not just civil, prosecution. The record
is already clear that Diebold has — at absolute best — been
irresponsible and has dissembled about what it’s been doing in
California (and who knows how many other states).
Had Diebold not been so over the top, Shelley might have allowed the
2004 election to proceed as planned even in counties using non-Diebold
machines. The requirement for a voter-verifiable paper trail had not
been scheduled to take effect for two more years.
Now, faced with an industry that insists on pretending all is well when
all is blatantly not well, he’s doing the right thing early. The paper
trail will now have to work this year, or the machines won’t be
allowed.
Predictably, local voting officials — the same people who’ve been so
negligent in adopting an unproven, maybe dangerous technology — are
screaming about the unfairness of it all. They’re partly responsible
for this fiasco. They should stop complaining and get to work. We’re
only talking about the core of our republic here.”