Well, BetaNews is reporting that the Windows source code was stolen not from any computers at Microsoft but rather from Mainsoft, a company that ports Windows applications to Unix. Ironically, word is that the stolen source code was stored on a Linux box that was compromised.
Josh Marshall made a nice catch today.
Just to prove I’m fair and balanced: I think that Greg Mankiw, the head of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, is getting a bad rap for his comments on outsourcing. The Washington Post has an editorial defending Mankiw that I think is right on the money. There is nothing better for the long term economic prospects of the United States than other countries climbing out of developing status and building robust economies, and outsourcing is a big part of that. Besides, outsourcing isn't the cause of the massive job loss over the past few years anyway. As a software developer, the idea of more and more development jobs migrating overseas is unpleasant, but turning toward protectionism isn't the answer either. Saudi Arabia deserves more criticism for building a fence along its border with Yemen. It wasn't that long ago that the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen could not even be drawn on a map -- nobody had really decided where one country stopped and the other country started. (The fact that the border passes through basically uninhabitable terrain helped in that regard.) Now the Saudis are building a big fence to keep the Yemenis out. If we're going to criticize Israel for building a fence to separate from Palestinians, we should do the same when it comes to the Saudis. (There are a number of reasons why the Saudi fence isn't making news like Israel's fence, not the least of which is that Israel is building its fence on land that isn't really part of Israel, but there should be more balance here.)
Mark Schmitt: How John Edwards has Changed the Democrats
Slashdot reports that GEOS, a windowed operating system for the Commodore 64 is now available for download. I can’t imagine using a Commodore 64 (or 128) for anything other than nostalgic reasons, but the download page seems to indicate that the owners of the product still think people would use it to be productive. Either way, reading about GEOS for the first time in a very long time reminds me that it was a very much anticipated Christmas present many years ago. My parents tricked me by hiding it in a gift that included a pair of pants. ...
Earlier today I (and everyone else) read that the source code to Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 has been released onto the Internet. My friend called me tonight to tell me that Steve Ballmer had admitted that the source code was stolen by someone who had illegitimate access to Microsoft’s internal network for over three months. I haven’t seen the source code nor have I seen any confirmation that Microsoft has acknowledged the exposure. ...
Today I’m playing with Feed on Feeds, a server side RSS aggregator written in PHP. If I can get it to do what I want, I’ll be extremely pleased because one of the big problems I’ve had in the past is deciding which computer to keep my RSS reader on. Until I was unemployed I kept it on my computer at work, which meant that I couldn’t catch up on RSS feeds when I was at home. A good server side reader could obviously clear that problem up entirely, and Feed on Feeds looks simple enough that I could add features myself if I need them. I’ll let you know how it goes. ...
I don’t have any dog in this fight, other than to chalk another scoop up to weblogs. The Business2 Blog has photographic proof that Dr. Atkins was not as fat as some media outlets are claiming at the time of his death.
Jim Henley argues that the single most pressing issue we face as Americans is whether we will succumb to fear. The Slacktivist had an interesting post on a related note as well. When you look at the transcript of President Bush’s interview with Tim Russert, his reelection bid hinges on the idea of being afraid and feeling President Bush is the leader who can keep you safe.
I downloaded the latest critical update for Windows to fix some problem or another that will let people take over my computer, and this time it blew up my video driver. Looks like an updated driver hasn’t yet been released, so now to find out whether removing it fixes the problem. Removing the security update didn’t fix it. That’s not a good sign … Reinstalling the driver several times seems to have fixed it. Wish I understood why. ...