Posts by Telic

Better pay your taxes: The world's NOT going to end this year

Bombe Suprise

This is the type of superstituous mythos that may be exploited by terrorists, for mass hysteria.

If they can knock out a major public site or service on 21 December, the media will hype the fate factor.

Ballmer says Windows will shame iPad

The PC <> MS Windows !

Pity that the author of this article (Galvin Clarke) faithfully prescribes the brain-fog of equating "the PC" with Microsoft Windows.

My PC is liberated and turbocharged by Ubuntu Linux. No fiddling. No fooling.

www.ubuntu.com

Brits take iTablet moniker for 12in iPad rival

Linux Too

Electronista.com and others report that the X2 iTablet will be available with either Windows or Linux:

http://tinyurl.com/yz8gun9

!

Adobe sounds off on iPad's Flash slap

Adobe has a 64-bit Flash

Adobe has a 64-bit Flash 10 plugin for Linux. Currently at version 10.0.42.34.

http://tinyurl.com/yk82fm8

:-)

BIND crash bug prompts urgent update call

Ubuntu Updated

The Ubuntu desktop Linux auto-update system has promptly installed a new Bind9 on my PC.

:)

IBM cuts internet comp for work-at-homers

Travel Expenses

In many companies, traveling sales and service staff get reimbursed for use of their own car in business duties. It makes sense to likewise reimburse tele-travelers for use of their Internet connection.

Adobe brings AIR to Linux

Easy Install for any RPM or DEB distro

Some assert that Linux's terminal CLI is required to install Adobe AIR. Wrong!

First, install Adobe Flash 10. ;-)

Now, after you download the AIR installer: Using (GNOME's) Nautilus file manager GUI, right-click on the Adobe BIN file and check under the Properties' Permissions tab, to allow executing the file as a program. Next, right-click and Rename the file to remove its .bin extension, so the file name is just AdobeAIRInstaller. Finally, double-click the file to run the Adobe installer, which pops open a new window, requests your authorization (password), and prompts you through the install. That's it.

You'll then find AIR maintenance items in the Ubuntu "Accessories" menu (or in the "Tools" menu of Mandriva Linux 2009). The .air file extension is associated with Adobe's run-time. An AIR application can be removed via the distro RPM or DEB package manager GUI, or by double-clicking its original .air installation file.

:-)

Adobe breaks sound barrier with Flash Player 10

@ Skipping Sound

In some cases Flash performance improves after its private cookies are deleted.

Have a look at the article "Flash Cookies: The Silent Privacy Killer"...

http://tinyurl.com/4ox8b6

!

Ballmer gives Norwegian students free love

'Free' Meal Deals

Déjà vu.

Again, Microsoft uses drug-lord tactics to pursue their next generation of addicts.

Bill Gates has boasted about how those free (and pirated) products can effectively lock students and developing markets into Microsoft's proprietary tools and formats: "As long as they are going to 'steal' it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

As noted by Con Zymaris, CEO of Cybersource, "This strategy is even more insidious, as Microsoft is expecting governments to pay for the hardware, thus paving the way for Microsoft to snare its next billion addicts in a friction-free manner.

"What is equally apparent is that Microsoft would prefer to lose money initially, to prevent competitors from capturing mindshare."

Review the Cybersource press release (2007) about Microsoft "free" meal-deals for students...

http://tinyurl.com/4z2wkt

Ubuntu lovers slap Canonical over Firefox EULA

Keep Your Eye on the Prize

Even prior to switching from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux, I was a longtime Firefox user. That my fave browser is available for Linux just made the decision to abandon MS Windows feel that much less bothersome.

Shuttleworth is doing the right thing, by keeping his eye on solutions to Ubuntu Bug #1 (i.e. "Microsoft has a majority market share").

Diehard FOSS fans are always free to reject the Firefox EULA and instead install an alternative browser.

Best Buy removes craplets for $30

Cloud of Opportunity

This could open opportunities for ad sales to online retailers besides software vendors, which in turn can reduce the relevance of any particular desktop PC operating system. This is a potential for Linux, which the PC makers can leverage to recuperate profit margins by eliminating the Windows license fees paid to Microsoft.

Firefox 3.1 vs IE8: 'Alpha, beta testers step forward, please'

@ Kevin Eastman

""I am hoping there is an IE Add on though that will work in Linux, as my work website and email only works with IE.""

Have a look-see at IEs4Linux to run IE on Linux...

http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page

:-)

US retailers start pushing $20 Ubuntu

Twix Cup and the Lip

Methinks Canonical chose the wrong version to do this. At the very least, I hope they use the bug-fix re-issue version 8.04.1.

I've been using Ubuntu as my full-time OS since May 2007, and considered each upgrade to be an improvement. Version 8.04 is the first upgrade that I refuse to keep, because it was glitchy even after two months of updates. For now, I'm staying as an avid user of the previous version.

I recommend the book-CD combo that includes version 7.10, "A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux"...

http://tinyurl.com/5bzz7n

Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges

Too Many Lawyers to Screw in a Lightbulb

Is the legal system totally moronic?

What if Megan's suicide were the result of premeditated verbal assault? Would the law have no case at all, since there'd be no "terms of service" to prod a prosecution?

Death by shooting or stabbing or poisoning may be accidental, or be done in cold blood. The purpose and result must weigh in. The perpetrator's particular method is incidental.

In this case, networked computers were the weapons of choice.

OLPC and Microsoft punt Windows-only XO laptop

Disgrace to Humanity

"People in developing nations deserve to have the same choices we do, not be herded into making an ideological decision that will isolate them from almost all western computer users (of Mac or Windows)."

What isolation? Fewer video games?? The Linux GUI has the same windowing paradigm as the Microsoft and Apple OS, and the system interoperates with industry standards. Mac OS X was derived from FreeBSD, which means it's as much of a *nix creature as Linux.

As far as what currently dominates western computers, that was achieved through racketeering tactics by a convicted monopolist which treats its own customers like criminals. Its ideology is as foul as a greedy and soulless cult.

That the target is young children of the poor is a disgrace to humanity.

:(

Never Never Land

How can Windows be widely useful without Internet or computer stores for the (proprietary) application programs? With Linux, productivity software can be provided as freely as the OS.

How can dirt-poor communities advance or leverage their children's early "Windows education" unless they subsequently purchase overpriced Microsoft products for their homes and senior schools and small businesses?

Microsoft dumps its products into underdeveloped markets -- like a drug ring handing out cheap samples -- knowing it'll eventually cash in (full price) on all the "hooked" customers.

>:(

World economy group gives IPv6 big push

Y2K.38 Bug

"I'm guessing that this story will keep on re-appearing at five-year intervals, and we'll still be using IPv4 when the Unix Timestamp Armageddon comes round and the world really does come to an end in 2037 :-)"

Actually, the 2038 computer bug (Y2K-38) isn't about any one particular operating system.

The bug arises largely due to the popularity of the C and C++ programming languages, which are used for all versions of Windows (and MS-DOS), Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, and countless embedded systems (e.g. consumer electronics). The culprit is the use of "signed 32-bit long integer" values for date/time functions.

The standard C/C++ time-keeping library has a type of data variable that keeps track of the date and time as the total number of seconds which have transpired since 1 January 1970 at 00:00 GMT. A signed 32-bit integer can represent a maximum positive value of 2147483647, which corresponds to Tuesday, 19 January 2038, at 3:14:07 AM GMT (about 8:14 AM EST, or 11:14 AM PST).

When the time-variable is incremented beyond its positive maximum, it will "wrap around" to a very large negative value: -2147483648. The C/C++ time-functions translate this negative to a date in the past, sometimes with invalid values, such as -17 January 1902, or sometime in 1901.

So, the moment following 19 January 2038, 03:14 GMT, could launch millions of desktop and embedded systems back into 1901, or 1970 by default. Symptoms of the problem can include clocks running backwards!

This shouldn't be an issue for fully 64-bit computing systems.

:-O

Becta asks EC to probe Microsoft school deals

@ Edward Rose: Desktop Lockdown

"I'm also trying to make sure they can't run any of their own software."

I've read how schools use KDE kiosk mode, and a kiosk lock-down extension for Firefox. See the article, "Flipping the Linux switch: Control freaks, meet KDE Kiosk"...

http://tinyurl.com/5krcbl

KDE kiosk is used at Westall Secondary School, for example...

http://tinyurl.com/5twel3

:)

Windows XP SP3 sends PCs into endless reboot

SP3 is a Vista Backport

How can there be any surprise in this havoc, knowing that SP3 contains backported Vista code?

As reported by InformationWeek: "Contrary to popular belief, Windows XP SP3 does ship with all-new features, not just patches and hotfixes," said researchers at NeoSmart, a nonprofit group that tracks computer technology. Most of the new features are "backported from Windows Vista," according to NeoSmart.

Read the full report at http://tinyurl.com/5bzkf3

Thank you, Tux, for my freedom Microsoft.

!

Microsoft opens APIs and protocols to all

More Smoke and Mirrors

Even the brown noses at Microsoft Watch are sceptical:

"For quick clarification: The principles aren't really new -- the European Union's Competition Commission required the principles' framework, in response to Microsoft's March 2004 adverse antitrust ruling. The timing also is suspicious, given the potential public relations bang Microsoft could get about a week before a key vote will determine whether or not ISO adopts OOXML (Open Office XML) as a standard."

Read the full sobering report...

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/whose_principles_are_they.html

:<

Canonical scoops up KVM for Ubuntu virtualisation

Annie Does Linux

Speaking of virtual worlds: The Society of Digital Artists reports...

Another prestigious animation award, the Special Achievement Annie Award went to Edwin R. Leonard for seeing the need to adopt Linux as common industry platform. He convinced the studios to get behind him, then pushed for hardware and software vendors to create what was needed to allow the studios to move to Linux.

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4417

The Annie Awards...

http://www.annieawards.org/

:)

Nigerian firm demands $20m from OLPC

Old Saint Nick

I was put off OLPC as soon as I saw the name Nicholas Negroponte. This is the guy who tried to foist "Interent Time" onto the world, supposedly as a good deed to solve all our time-zone problems. Turned out his philanthropy amounted to little more than endorsing kooky "Swatch" watches which move the time reference meridian from Greenwich to Biel...

http://nzsm.spis.co.nz/article1971.htm

Novell congratulates itself for snogging Microsoft

A "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Affair?

Now that Novell has tossed aside the use of a prophylactic with Microsoft, can they post a detailed list of the alleged patent violations?

Cambs cops podcast 999 timewasters

MP3 Busters

Those 999 recordings are posted in MP3 format. Many open-source software users can't legally play MP3 files on their PC. How about getting stricter on promoting international Internet crime, hmmm? ;-)

'Beer Hunter' lifts 40,000 pints of Guinness

Carbonated Conundrum

Perhaps the suds were stolen by misguided environmentalists.

A story in New Scientist magazine warns of dangerous greenhouse gas emissions by household beverage refrigerators, particularly from beer-loving Canadians...

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn12975-beer-fridges-present-a-gassy-problem.html