Phasor Burn

Microsoft pulls out of UN software standards group over intellectual property rights of reference code used in the standards.

I really disagree with so called standards that require use of patented or otherwise encumbered reference software that was “donated” by one or more standards body members. The reason we have the internet today is because of open, freely copied, freely modifiable reference source code that implents well defined on-the-wire protocols and file formats.

The real reason Microsoft pulled out of that standards group was that heterogeneous cooperative software interaction is in direct opposition of their proprietary vendor lock in mode of thinking.

Check out this little remote control helicopter. (Under 7 grams!)

I guess Hammy Hamster sold his old airplane, or is doing better with his day trading lately.

Time to start pushing firefox on friends and family as much as possible . . .

Internet Explorer has another critical vulnerability even when Service Pack 2 of Windows XP is installed. Microsoft is slow to respond.

A modified version of the exploit installs an executable when the user drags the Internet Explorer’s scrollbar. The exploit may possibly be modified further such that minimal user interaction would be necessary for its successful execution.

Note that Windows XP SP1 (fully patched) and SP2 are both vulnerable.

See the SANS @RISK newsletter for details.

Microsoft put’s it’s foot in it’s mouth, again …

Microsoft has also managed to upset women and entire countries. A Spanish-language version of Windows XP, destined for Latin American markets, asked users to select their gender between “not specified,” “male” or “bitch,” because of an unfortunate error in translation.

Edwards said that staff members are now sent on geography courses to try to avoid such mishaps. “Some of our employees, however bright they may be, have only a hazy idea about the rest of the world,” he said.

Umm, isn’t that true of American’s in general?

In this Sun Blueprints book and in this PDF, Sun recommends certain directory structures etc be used when setting up a jumpstart server.

Why doesn’t the default jumpstart server installation that you get when you use sun’s scripts (included in Solaris itself), set it up this way? Why doesn’t the vendor follow their own best practices?

Yes, I know. Legacy documentation and end-user expectation that you will not radically change how something works from one version to the next. OK, fair enough. How about making it a question that is asked during those scripts, or simply make it the new default and give an optional switch that could be used to get the old behaviour?

Then again, I believe it takes time to transition things slowly enough so as to not “surprise” people. That’s why Openlook is still part of Solaris, even tho CDE has been the default desktop for aeons now. I hear in Solaris 10 that Openlook will be gone and CDE will be installed but not the default, with Gnome desktop being the new default. That should mean that CDE will be removed from Solaris 14 or 15.

In about 10 years.

If Sun is still in business then.