Microsoft offshores patent war
"The explosion of patent filing activity at Microsoft doesn't necessarily indicate an explosion of creativity; and many may be even more fatuous than the FAT patent. For example today (thanks TheoDP) Microsoft has applied to patent the IS NOT operator."Is there a legal limit to their silliness?
Techaos: Indian EVM compared with Diebold [skip the first few paragraphs if you like]
"Now if only Diebold could learn something from our Indian friends."
I suppose this is the way to package important information for the unwashed masses :-) It's funny if you're in the right mood, otherwise it sounds pathetic.
"Dear IE, I'm leaving you for good"
"I just can't continue with this relationship any longer. I know you say you'll fix things, that next time it'll go better--but that's what you said the last time--and the time before that. Each time I believed you."
LWN: Linus on kernel management style
"First off, I'd suggest buying "Seven Habits of Highly Successful People", and NOT read it. Burn it, it's a great symbolic gesture."And after a start like that, what else do you expect from one of my 2 "Gods"?
SGI - Press Releases: NASA's Columbia Supercomputer is World's Fastest
someone commenting on the slashdot article at http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/27/0147206 :
"Am I really supposed to believe that an OS started by a Finnish university student a decade ago and designed to run on a 386, is now running the most powerful computer ever built? I mean, come on!"
Honestly, are there any limits to how good this open source thing is? :-)
OpenOffice.org development boosted by Arab-Israeli collaboration
"Similarities between the Arabic and Hebrew languages have enabled groups of Israeli and Arab developers to assist each other in solving common problems developing local versions of OpenOffice.org software."[For those who may not know, OpenOffice.org is the open source version of Sun's StarOffice, which together aim to unseat the major cause of Microsoft's stranglehold on us!]
Most people in the security industry (and even many not involved in IT security) have heard of Bruce Schneier.
Schneier on Security: Schneier: Microsoft still has work to do
Schneier: I think it's foolish to use Internet Explorer. It's filled with security holes, and it's too hard to configure it to have decent security. Basically, it seems to be written in the best interests of Microsoft and not in the best interests of the customer. I have used the Opera browser for years, and I am very happy with it. It's much better designed, and I never have to worry about Explorer-based attacks.
Picture this.
A 1993 Yamaha RX-100. Bright and sunny Sunday morning. Wife and kids out of town for a week. No cell phone. Virtually no traffic on the roads at this time.
For a 42-year old guy with 2 kids and a sedate job, this is as much freedom as I'll ever get. Even if it won't last :-)
My "dog leash" (a.k.a cell phone) died this morning. And I'm certainly not about to shell out on a new one right now -- I've got my heart set on a Motorola A780, which isnt available yet.
So at least one of my new-found freedeoms will last a while :-)
Update 2005-07-24 16:23
I got my new phone, but haven't had much time to blog about it! :-(
The article is a little old, but it's a good read nevertheless. Explains nicely why Unix is more secure than Windows. Not as funny as usual articles from The Register, although the author clearly tried to redeem that by the time he came to the last para:
Does open source software enhance security?
"So, while openness provides a couple of security advantages in itself, the chief reason why Linux and BSD offer superior security is not so much because they're open source, but because they're not Windows."
This is an article from The Register, one of my favourite IT news sites. Their comments are usually acerbic, often hilariously funny, and always on the dot. [ For another example see this article! ]
"Microsoft declined many opportunities to harden Windows XP in a meaningful way"[....]
"The home user is the one most in need of good security configurations and tools, yet the one least served by SP2"
