Cleaning out the basement, I came across a Dell Latitude XP 4100CX: a 486/100 with 24 Mb RAM and 500 Mb HDD, and a tiny color screen. Hard as it is to believe, Linux will run on this, too. Found instructions on how to proceed without a CD-ROM drive here: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/network-install.html
Remarkable.
Happy fourth, Garrett! Garrett Fitzgerald’s Blog notes “Another year come and gone…. I can’t believe this has lasted for four years…”
Ars Technica] points to “A questionable study says that Americans see blogging as a kind of journalism, but at the same time, they seem to have issues trusting blogs. This sounds like a great time to spin the censorship issue!” The idea that they don’t know what they are, but they wanted them censored is deeply troubling.
I’ve spent some spare time this week cleaning up a relative’s computer. The machine is a few years old, and he was afraid it was due for replacement as it had been running slower and slower and seemed to have “funny” troubles. Yep, you guessed it – malware.
In Ed Foster’s Gripelog this week, Ed points to a site that dissects what happens when you agree to install an innocent-looking screensaver. Check out the screenshots and EULAs of the product – and the products that it installs, and the products that those install, and so forth. The junk brought this PIII-500 to its knees. This stuff ought to be illegal. And that they have the gall to hide behind a click-though license is despicable.
Read Ed Foster’s column here: Spyware and the Ghost of UCITA. “While we tend to think of UCITA as being dead outside of a few jurisdictions,…”
Garrett Fitzgerald pointed out the site OptOutPreScreen.com which supposedly will get you off the credt-card-offer-each-week merry-go-round. I’d welcome that. But Ed Foster voices his concerns in OptoutPrescreen.com’s Privacy Policy that not all of the subscribers to this site might respect your wishes – but they will use the personally identifiable information you supply. Ed concludes:
But doesn’t it strike you that there’s something very bass-ackwards about this process? Why should we have to opt out at all from having sensitive information shared with every two-bit loan shark that’s willing to pay the credit report companies for it? In this era of rampant identity theft, it just shouldn’t work that way.
OSNews posts Linux Can’t Kill Windows. “One fundamental difference guarantees that Windows will continue to dominate says Tom Yager.” I’ve enjoyed Tom’s editorials on the back page of InfoWorld for the last year. This isn’t a flame. I’ll be interested on seeing where Tom is going with this – an editorial with a “continued next episode” teaser.
Computerworld News reports Microsoft releases patches for 18 separate flaws. “Microsoft today released eight security bulletins detailing fixes for 18 separate vulnerabilities affecting a wide range of its software products.”
Youch! Patch quick, patch often. This RSS Feed (readable in a browser) points out updates for Exchange Server, MSN Messenger, Windows, and Office (Word 2000, 2002, 2003, Works – a Critical Update). You’ll also want to review http://www.microsoft.com/security. Regularly.
The security bulletins seem to be numbered MS05-016 through -023. It’s only week 16 of 2005. Looks like it could be a rough year for Microsoft.
Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc. notes “They’ve been AWOL so far, but finally some Big Media companies are coming to the legal defense (Silicon Valley Watcher) of the Web publishers Apple is suing for reporting “trade secrets” in recent months. I suspect this is because the judge in the case dodged the question of whether the site owners were journalists in the first place. … As I noted before, the ruling was a direct shot at the process of journalism in California. I’m glad to see that the big journalism organizations have understood the stakes — and are acting on that.”
OSNews speculates Longhorn Delayed Again – Who Wins?. “In the last few weeks, the tech industry has been buzzing with speculation that Microsoft’s next OS release, Longhorn, will not be ready for its planned 2006 unveiling. If the OS is put off until 2007, some competitors could win more profits, but many analysts say that software and hardware partners will face the most serious challenges and could end up losing more than they anticipated.”
The folks who coined the nickname “LongWait” might be proven right. If true, it could have good and bad effects. SysAdmins in the middle of a WinXP rollout will breathe a sigh of relief that they might get a break. OTOH, the claim that using a proprietary operating system gives you any more secure and reliable a roadmap than using free products might finally be put to a well-deserved rest. Planning based on vaporware, free or not, is risky. And buying one-year subscriptions with “guaranteed” upgrades is just a fool’s game.
Dan Bricklin’s Log asks Are bloggers journalists? Looking to history. “There has been a lot written about Apple going after bloggers and the question about whether or not bloggers have the same protections that journalists do. I just saw a little different answer… My next door neighbor Chris Daly is an Associate Professor who teaches journalism at Boston University. Previously, he has been the New England correspondent for the Washington Post, a features writer, and an AP editor. On the web he is best known as the main idea person behind the old Good Documents website that I created back in 1999 that was quite popular at Netscape and around the web.”
“He just weighed in with an essay titled “Are Bloggers Journalists? Let’s Ask Thomas Jefferson“. I found his perspectives helpful.”
Read Dan’s commentary here, including links to the original essay.
I thought the distinction between reporting and journalism was an important one – the former one is “just the facts” while the latter includes opinion enforced by facts.