Posts

New! Outraged! Today! Much Ado About Everything Some thoughts on the Pentium III serial number controversy, and how it relates to Microsofts insidious new antipiracy scheme. Andrew Leonard covers similar ground in his article for Salon Magazine today. I’ve compiled a list of sources where I find the stories that I link to. Politics: the New York Times catches on. Yes, Virginia, there is a “Vast right wing conspiracy!” [registration required] Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin takes a stand in the impeachment trial. As a Democrat, he voted not to dismiss or disallow witnesses out of a sense of fairness. It’s rare these days to see statesmanship from politicians, but not where Feingold is concerned. He was reelected to the Senate this Fall by the barest of margins because he refused to feed at the campaign contribution trough like most of the other hypocrites skulking through the halls of the Capital. ...

Outraged! Daily Edition is a weblog, I now know. Thanks to CamWorld for the link. Upside’s Elite 100. I didn’t make the list. Maybe next year. John Katz says something that really hits close to home in his latest piece for Slashtot: “What the marketer of ideas most fears isn’t that people will criticize his ideas, but that people won’t respond at all. This is especially true online, where it’s so easy to measure feedback, in public postings, column hits and e-mail messages.” ...

An article in the Red Herring discusses Allaire’s very successful IPO, and then contrasts them with Vignette. I do think that Allaire will be very successful, because they make great products. Cold Fusion is very easy to use, and seems to be gaining a lot of traction in the market. However, Cold Fusion is not competitive with Vignette’s product, Storyserver, in any meaningful way, which is why the article is interesting. It’s apparent that the person who wrote the story has never used the products in question. ...

A new five-star review appeared on Amazon.com for Teach Yourself CGI Programming in a Week. This continues my string of alternating five-star and one-star reviews. What can I say? I provoke a strong reaction no matter what. Here’s a great op-ed piece about how companies in the US steal time (aka money) from their employees. Are you a salaried employee? Do you work more than 40 hours per week? If you’re paid hourly, do you work after you clock out? You’re giving yourself a pay cut. [registration required] ...

Microsoft sucks up to Perl developers. In the meantime, they advance the argument that they’re facing real competition from Linux these days. The written testimony of Paul Maritz introduces the competitive threat of Linux as a defense that Microsoft is not a monopolist. Weak. Web design digest A List Apart has relaunched, with a weekly webzine complementing the mailing list. In case you ever wondered where the mentally unbalanced folks on the far right go to get their news, check out Media Bypass Daily. This site convenienty gathers the top news from right-wing news outlets like the Washington Times, WorldNetDaily, and the Drudge Report. The epicenter of the conservative echo chamber. ...

The Windows Refund meme is really beginning to gain momentum. Here’s a pointer to some sites and press coverage. It seems like Netscape’s latest version of Enterprise Server is worth the upgrade. After holding out a few releases, the big sites that use Netscape’s server are jumping on board for version 3.6. Abbie Hoffman’s counterculture how-to, Steal This Book, is now available online. The story of the successful attempts to suppress the printing and distribution of the book found in the introductory page merit a click, even if you don’t want to read the book. ...

Linux users are organizing grass roots action against Microsoft. An Australian Linux user discovered that if you refuse to accept Microsoft’s End User License Agreement for Windows, you can return it to the person who sold you the computer for a refund, so he did. After much wrangling, they refunded the cost of Windows to him. Now, there’s a plan among Linux users to invoke this clause in the EULA en masse on February 15. Wired News reports. ...

Tabloid is back! Ken Layne rants excellently about beauty pageants, Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and ancient cultures of the Mediterranean. Read it now. According to this column in the Village Voice, Matt Drudge makes about 2000 bucks a day from advertisements on his Web site. No wonder he’s a Republican. What does the phrase “monopoly profits” mean to you? There’s an interesting interview with Jamie Zawinski at linuxpower.org, if you’re interested in the mozilla project. ...

@Home. Excite. 6.7 billion dollars. CNNfn has the story. At least it’s an all stock deal; I wonder how much this deal will turn out to be worth when the Internet stocks arrive at their true value? Apparently, a Linux user in Australia purchased a Toshiba laptop, rejected Microsoft’s End User License Agreement, and would up getting a refund for the cost of the Windows operating system that shipped with his laptop. If you’re unhappy with Microsoft’s hammer lock on the PC industry, this is certainly one outlet for protest. Just be sure to read the license agreement before you turn on your next new PC. ...

Slip sliding away … Windows 2000 beta 3 is now delayed until April. Maybe updating the software to reflect the name change is hurting the schedule? If you think that President Clinton is bad, try this character’s obituary on for size.