In a controversial Internet case, USA today reports on a journalist who was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. He was arrested for sending and receiving pornographic images over the Internet, and claims he didn’t know it was illegal. Apparently, the journalist was working on a story at the time, and committed the crimes during the course of his research.
The absurd AIP salary survey lives on in this article at Builder.com. The survey, which encompassed only AIP members and had a ridiculously small sample size, actually revealed that technical managers earn more than CEOs. The information in this seemingly worthless survey is being sold to loyal Builder.com readers at the bargain price of $400. Don’t fret though, you can get the executive summary online at no charge.
Up for some incoherent babble today? Check out the item at Mac OS Rumors with the headline “Dell-IBM: What does it mean for the Mac?” It’s exactly this sort of thing that prevents me from visiting Mac sites (other than Macintouch) with any regularity these days.
Aaron M. Renn takes a look at the philosophical differences between the people supporting the term “Open Source software” and those who support the original term, “free software,” in his paper <a href=http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/hacking/fsvos.html">“Free”, “Open Source”, and Philosophies of Software Ownership. He’s right to argue that the difference is more than just semantics.
Microsoft, legendary for its marketing, has blown it in the media relations department lately. As most people in the technology side of the industry already know, Microsoft refuses to admit a mistake and exhibits a “my way, or the highway” mentality in everything they do. Increasingly, journalists seem to be catching on to that aspect of Microsoft’s corporate persona as well.
John Markoff covers a privacy problem in Microsoft’s software for the New York Times. Apparently, some of Microsoft’s applications are assigning a unique ID to your computer, and submitting it to the company when you register your products. This is just another good reason why you should avoid the registration wizards in your products at all costs.
A K A Frank Sinatra -- the Washington Post pores over the FBI files on the chairman of the board.
IBM has launched a redesign of its alphaWorks Web site, which is the home of a lot of the free software IBM releases.
CNNfn reports that someone paid $521 on eBay for an Ultima Online character.
The Washington Post has an interesting feature on the effects of technological and organizational change on the U.S. Marine Corps. They’re putting more power in the hands of the grunts, and equipping soldiers in the field with wearable computers.