Posts by Graham

Microsoft trades goodwill for TomTom Linux satisfaction

This is going to be cool...

This can only be good.

MS crown starting to slip:

Laying people off.

Share price dropping.

Vista.

and now this!!

B R I N G I T O N!!

If you ever thought of a good reason to buy a TomTom this is it!

Just go and buy one even if you are like six or something, just to see TomTom stick it to the Maaan.

I'm going to empty Halfords in a minute.

Come on Mark buy the company.

Get the Linux Foundation selling shares.

Anything just to get Microsoft right in the 'nads.

Have you ever had a PC crash or had a virus which you know should have been patched years ago!

All that work just gone poof!

Sink that damn ship in one.

--

I feel much better now.

BBC's TV detector vans to remain a state secret

Not cost effective

The don't exist for one reason.

Why to people buy empty alarm boxes for their houses?

It is a far site cheaper to run a tranny van with "Telly Detexion" written on it and a few metal cullinders on the roof than to pay like £100,000 for the technical equipment needed in each van to pick up the IF frequency or the scanning coils or whatever.

Oh yeah, the Beeb have coughed up big wedge to kit out and staff all this mobile equipment, course they did.

Or they could just get a couple of students in a tranny with flashing lights and funny noises.

Don't forget they are in the production business where make believe earns their crust.

Think about it!

US judge decrees open source licenses valid

Anti-GPL

To those who say, "Open Source, get real", I say "HA!"

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Now, where is that M$ OS development disc, hmmm lets see if there is any source code I recognise.

O and @Anonymous Coward is that the best you can do?

Coward.

As an lifelong resident of England...

I can with authority say...

There is no such thing as "US English".

English is -by definition- English.

As in "from or of England" not the US.

"US English" is a stupid way of describing "American"

Does the average American tell you they are speaking "US English"?!

ISO rejects Office Open XML appeal (redux)

@OOXML

Let's just get it right:

ODF is an OPEN format.

Like open source type open.

Microsoft can download openoffice and use the APIs to implement the standard in Microsoft Office any time they choose.

They can get upgrades to the APIs for free and if they open source the MS Office plugin they can even get it developed for free too.

You gotta ask yourself why they don't.

The REAL reason they don't is very obvious: they want to CONTROL the document formats WE use.

The only way they can do this is to make the "standard" so esoteric that they are the only ones that can be see to implement it as intended.

Either by completely closing the standard and making it in house.

Or in this case.

Fooling some tin pot standards organisation into thinking that the format can be implemented by anyone, knowing the reality.

@Anonymous Coward

The more I read your comments the more I am convinced of your links to Microsoft.

You claim to have used many OSs, but in reality you really only argue points which are made against Microsoft.

Oh and Microsoft themselves use more than just Windows OSs so that doesn't exclude this.

The reality check you need is you always fail to see how Microsoft's objective is to CRUSH anything that is not Microsoft.

This, I'm sure you will agree, is a healthy business attitude but it is not one with which I would want to be associated.

The porn and drugs business will have the same attitude, I'm sure.

I would rather be a long haired sandle wearing hippy than be associated with the behemoth glutton and yes darn right evil mentality of the Microsoft mop-up machine.

G'won then, AC, answer that one!

Paris, because it reflects the Anonymous Coward mentality.

Next Visual Studio going multi-screen?

This is a headline?

If they said they could use multiple computers that would be an advance.

On Linux you can do distributed builds on multiple machines.

WTF?

This is an ADVANCE?

They are just catching up!

And still from a great distance.

Don't you dare change Microsoft!

Headlines like that will sink them!

Paris, because even she will be laughing at that!

Kaminsky (finally) reveals gaping hole in internet

@Tom Maddox

Mutters, "Give me strength!" to himself.

Ahem.

Right.. (long intake breath).

Linux (et al), being an open source operating system, is ..well open.

This means the problem with the Linux server on which that DNS service is running (and you can bet your bottom euro it will be on one) will have the fix well scrutinised, be solid and updated frequently with improvements.

And this will probably be issued and in place hours or (even minutes) after vulnerability is detected.

You probably had some hacker in the corner of the room sitting crosslegged with a laptop on his legs coding up the patch as the guy was speaking.

He probably posted it to the BIND bugzilla site before the "...thanks for coming." speech.

Also, with *nix advanced and mature script facilities (lacking in Windows, and they know it) the massive brained *nix sysops will probably have their own temporary perl (or whatever) script fixes in place before the RedHat network (or whatever) even announce the download is ready.

I'm being general (or whetever) here, of course.

I (thankfully) don't have to wait for the behemoth profiteering giant to stall enough for it's "partners" to reap in a bit of cash in order keep up the MVP payments.

Did you spot the cynicism there?

It's a trust thing.

I don't trust business types to do the right thing if it conflicts with profit margins.

(Inhale again)

Now I'm off the make sure my house insurance payments are up to date for when the fire-storm starts.

...thanks for coming.

Nokia's Trolltech renews Windows mobile vows

firewalls

Nokia sell Linux based firewalls and I'm sure other Tux stuff

--

Smart people use Linux.

What are you using?

Microsoft Mojave 'outs' secret Vista lovers

The "Wow" starts when ...?

Are you still waiting too?

Honestly, for me the "Wow" started when I tackled my first Linux install.

There was pleasure with that pain and it just keeps on giving.

I couldn't go back to Windows if my life depended on it.

Being an IT professional it actually could too.

Paris, because she you probably doesn't need an overpaid marketing guru to tell her when the "Wow" starts.

Or maybe she does?

Torvalds brands Digg users 'W*nking Walruses'

@ Seanie Ryan

Seanie (- which is the sort of name I would call a child)

If talking software seriously gets us the Microsoft mess of today bring on the alternative.

Vendor lock-in.

Yeah we all want that!

"Silly Seanie" (awww, bless :-)

MS misses restart button on desktop auto-updates

Linux POS

Windows is really good software produced by an open company who want to share and work with others.

The software they produce is enables the users to get on with their tasks without any interference from the software, leaving them fully focussed on their tasks.

I think the reason they gave for pulling the release of that service pack because a minority of users with their niche software is entirely believable given the compassion of Microsoft and it's close relationship with the end users.

By contrast, the people behind Linux are a bunch of selfish mean spirited freaks who wouldn't lift a finger to help anyone.

If there is any problem in Linux software, well, you are on your own.

I wish there was a some good software which would enable me to browse around for problems other people have fixed, but alas everywhere you look in the Linux environment people are always demanding money for things.

And as for updates, well, they are so few and far between, you might as well give up checking.

I think anyone who could even try to depend on any Linux based system for, for example, running a web server or firewall is really asking to be infected as soon as it boots up.

I've heard some small company who is attempting to make this work.

I think I recall the name.

Yes, Google.

Red Hat, Novell sued for patent infringment

Prior Art and Patent law will knock this out

Xerox shows prior art and is very well known so it's a bit stupid.

I can't wait for the day in court, but I'm pretty sure it will never get there.

Patent life is 20 years.

The Legal guys know this so this is pure publicity.

This is not a headline.

Novell and RedHat will have a mild chuckle and pass the sugar.

I'm sure one of the Microsoft trolls pushed this to a headline.

Free-market think tank urges EU to unbundle Windows

We are already doing it.

If you buy a new PC it has a re-installation disc.

This is provided for anyone who completely f**ks up the installation and can re-install everything.

It gives the buyers of new PCs that warm feeling knowing that if all else fails (i.e. I click on some icon and the screen locks up) I can wipe the hard drive and start again.

Anyone who says the average user can't handle that should ring some customer support number and ask what to do about something.

It's one of the first thing those dumbassess suggest straight after "Are you sure it's switched on?".

So for the M$ zealots to suggest it's beyond the realms of the average Joe is just fanaticism gone too far.

That includes the ones that say "I'm no M$ fanboy, but...".

To move to the user install would give the user more confidence in being able to repair their own machine since they would have already done an installation once.

There are only two arguments against this:

1. M$ monopoly is a good thing, to mess with it is bad for computing.

2. Users don't want this so why provide it.

The rebuttal to both are generally a matter of opinion.

My opinion is that I would rather not pay for an OS which I don't use and being a techie type I do want to choose not to install.

I'm sure Microsoft will fight this with their last lawyer paying dollar, because it's means they will have to finally justify the the user why their OS is so crap.

To those who think Linux is not up to the mark

Have you tried it lately?

OpenOffice 2.2 is actually better at reading MS office documents than MS Office 2003.

I have proof.

Oh did I mention that open source stuff is available on Windows too?

Man sues God

And your evidence?

This is, of course, assuming it was God doing these things currently. The Devil can also do them.

You need to prove motive also.

Means and opportunity I guess are a given.

Mac, Linux BBC iPlayers in the offing, says PM

DRM is the ONLY issue here

One can download and play content on Mac and Linux already.

The only obstacle to making this a general solution is the DRM.

We all now this has been cracked already, so exactly what are the Beeb waiting for?

It's pretty straight forward to me: ditch the DRM and shut everyone up.

Oh yeah, the beeb have paid a small fortune for the DRM from Microsoft so they need to make it work to justify spending all that money.

Which involves spending more money on developing workarounds for the crap software in the first place, then even more money to business types to work the spin.

Thanks to the unique way the BBC is funded our ever increasing licence fee is just lining management and Microsoft's pockets.

Thanks beeb for a good cheap simple solution ....not!

And yes I do know for a fact that it works fine on Linux because I have tested it legally.

Microsoft promises less-annoying Vista OS early next year

Works for me

Vista works great for me.

DVD holds my coffee cup nicely.

Box for my PDA to sit on.

What more can you ask for.

What, you want me to use the software? why? what's wrong with the OS I've got?

Vista=ME in my book.

Ubuntu chief mua muas Microsoft

Isn't this a protection racket

Microsoft are asking these companies to pay money so they don't get hit (dragged through expensive lawsuits, even if they have no basis)

This is a protection racket.

Since this now involves several companies, isn't this a class action suit?

Zero-day sales not 'fair' - to researchers

Oh, boo hoo!

People are fixing software faster than you can make a quick buck.

Are you for real?

Get a real job!