vnangia - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Microsoft's Two Big Weaknesses (Score -1) 214

by vnangia on Friday September 01, 2006 @01:41AM (#16022110) Attached to: Redmond Yawning at Apple-Google Alliance?

Unless I'm completely mistaken, the last couple of times there was an application versus platform war, platform triumphed - think Lotus 1-2-3, for example. You may be right that encouraging people to switch to OpenOffice is an improvement over a total Microsoft platform, but it is only an application, not a platform. I'm fairly sure that unless FOSS is successful in overturning the platform, Microsoft is not going anywhere. What Apple and Google have going for them, if there is such an alliance, is that they respectively provide platform and application. Unfortunately, Google is not a killer exclusive app for the Mac platform, and their bread-and-butter search and advertising is their main revenue stream. Their applications, IIRC, are all losing money. Hardly a logical place for Google's shareholders to keep it?

Jack Thompson Files Take-Two, Rockstar Lawsuit 451

Posted by samzenpus on Tuesday August 15, 2006 @08:22PM from the think-of-the-children dept.

rtt writes "Jack Thompson is back on the video game scene and has followed through with his threat to file a law suit against Rockstar, Take-Two and Walmart for Rockstar's upcoming "Bully" title. bit-tech was sent a copy by the man himself which started as follows "Take-Two has until five o'clock p.m., Eastern time, Monday, August 14, 2006, to inform me in writing that it will forthwith provide me with a copy of Bully so that I and others can analyze it to determine whether it still poses a threat of copycat violence in our schools.""

RIAA Case Against Mother Dismissed 236

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thursday July 13, 2006 @09:47PM from the injecting-sanity dept.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In Capitol Records v. Foster, in federal court in Oklahoma, a case against a mother -- whose only connection to the alleged filesharing was that she was the person who paid for the internet access -- has been dismissed with prejudice. Faced with the mother's motion for leave to file a summary judgment motion dismissing the case against her, and awarding her attorneys fees, the RIAA made its own motion for permission to withdraw its case. The Court granted the motion and let the RIAA drop its case. The Court went on to hold that the defendant, Ms. Foster, is the 'prevailing party' under the Copyright Act and is therefore eligible for an award of attorneys fees. The Court then indicated that it would decide the attorneys fees award question upon receipt of a motion for attorneys fees."

Wind Powered Freighters Return 261

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Saturday July 08, 2006 @03:33PM from the more-than-just-hot-air dept.

thatoneguyfromphoeni writes "It appears that sails could return to the ocean's freighters soon. Newsweek is reporting on a technology to assist with cross-ocean travel. From the article: 'SkySails' system consists of an enormous towing kite and navigation software that can map the best route between two points for maximum wind efficiency. In development for more than four years, the system costs from roughly $380,000 to $3.2 million, depending on the size of the ship it's pulling. SkySails claims it will save one third of fuel costs.'"

The Plot To Hijack Your Hard Drive 181

Posted by Zonk on Friday July 07, 2006 @02:55PM from the avast-me-harties-pop-ups-rollin-in-from-the-south dept.

An anonymous reader writes Business Week Online examines the business practices of spammers and pop-up advertisers, using much-maligned Direct Revenue as an example case. The article discusses the history of the company, their rocky road through good and bad times, and what they're willing to to get your eyes on their ads." From the article: "Among Direct Revenue's alumni, pride over technical cunning mingles with regret for exasperating so many computer users. After waffling on the issue during a long interview, one former Dark Arts wizard sighs and sums up his version of the company credo with an elegiac observation by abolitionist Frederick Douglass: 'Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.'"

An Overview of Virtualization Technologies 204

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday July 07, 2006 @04:07AM from the an-operating-system-by-any-other-name dept.

PCM2 writes "Virtualization is all the rage these days. All the major Linux players are getting into the game with support for Xen, while Sun has Solaris Containers, Microsoft has Virtual PC, and VMware arguably leads the whole market with its high end tools. Even AMD and Intel are jumping onto the bandwagon. InfoWorld is running a special report on virtualization that gives an overview of all these options and more. Is it just a trend, or will server virtualization be the way to go in the near future?"

UK Gives Go-Ahead to Gary McKinnon Extradition 309

Posted by Zonk on Thursday July 06, 2006 @06:36PM from the normal-dition-not-enough dept.

robzster1977 writes "Judges in the UK have given the go-ahead to the extradition of UK hacker Gary McKinnon. McKinnon is accused of breaking into US Navy, Army and Department of Defense computers in 2001 and 2002." From the article: "On 4 July the secretary of state signed an order for Mr McKinnon's extradition to the United States for charges connected with computer hacking. Mr McKinnon had exercised his right to submit representations against return but the secretary of state did not consider the issues raised availed Mr McKinnon."

Western Union Blocking Money Transfers to Arabs 904

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 06, 2006 @12:50PM from the no-get-the-even-broader-brush dept.

lowrydr310 writes "Western Union is blocking money transfers to people with Arab names. They have delayed or blocked thousands of cash deliveries on suspicion of terrorist connections simply because senders or recipients have names like Mohammed or Ahmed. 'In one example, an Indian driver here said Western Union prevented him from sending $120 to a friend at home last month because the recipient's name was Mohammed.' Western union claims they are merely following U.S. Treasury Department guidelines that scrutinize cash flows for terrorist links. I agree that Western Union shouldn't allow anyone supporting terrorism to use their service, however I'm fairly certain there are millions of people named Mohammed or Ahmed who aren't terrorists. I wonder if any other financial companies such as banks are doing the same thing."

Planning the Future of Privacy at Microsoft 138

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday July 03, 2006 @09:42PM from the genuine-disadvantage dept.

Tony writes "Peter Cullen, Microsoft's chief privacy strategist, found himself in the front line in the wake of the software giant's recent antipiracy controversy. He talks about his role at the company, and what's in store for the future." From the interview: "Cullen, Microsoft's chief privacy strategist, has been very involved with the issue and readily admits that the software maker dropped the ball on WGA Notifications. The flap puts him on the front line, rather than his usual role behind the scenes. For the most part, Cullen, who joined Microsoft three years ago from the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, is happy with his role at the software giant. He works on things such as guidelines for developers and privacy policies."

Networked Landmines Work Together 768

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday July 03, 2006 @07:04PM from the red-rover-red-rover dept.

crazedpilot writes "New landmines will soon communicate via a radio network, and move from place to place in order to be most effective." Termed the "self-healing minefield", the individual mines are capable of detecting an enemy breach and then moving to seal the gap.

How The Internet Works - With Tubes 664

Posted by Zonk on Monday July 03, 2006 @05:29AM from the yay-tubes dept.

Chardish writes "In an attempt to explain his reasons for voting against a Net Neutrality bill this past Thursday, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens delivered a jaw-dropping attempt to explain how the Internet works. Said Stevens: 'They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.'"

Freenode Network Hijacked, Passwords Compromised? 414

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday June 25, 2006 @11:09AM from the hope-your-password-wasn't-important dept.

tmandry writes "The world's largest FOSS IRC network, FreeNode, was hijacked (for lack of a better term) by someone who somehow got a hold of the privileges of Robert Levin, AKA lilo, the head honcho of FreeNode and its parent organization, PDPC. To make matters worse, the passwords of many users may have been compromised by someone posing as NickServ, the service that most clients are configured to send a password to upon connecting, while they reconnected to the servers that hadn't been killed. Of course, if someone was able to nab lilo's password, every user password may have been ripe for the taking. The details are still unknown, but these events raise scary questions about the actual security of FreeNode and other organizations like it."

Slashback: Sidekick Justice, Free WebTV, Office Patent 88

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Wednesday June 21, 2006 @07:59PM from the trial-by-public-opinion dept.

Slashback tonight brings some clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot stories including, justice for a stolen sidekick victim, free WebTV test a hit, SUSE 10.1 release postponed, Microsoft loses Office patent appeal, and PayPal fixes their phishing hole -- Read on for details.

Microsoft to Turn to Driver Quality Ratings System 333

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday June 14, 2006 @09:20PM from the four-stars dept.

QT writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Microsoft is finally trying to do something about PC driver problems. A new crash-report-driven Driver Quality Rating system will be used in Windows Vista to rate drivers. Drivers that rate poorly in real world use by users will lose their logo certification status, which would be bad news for OEMs and the device manufacturers themselves. Maybe now submitting crash reports will feel more useful? This is long overdue."

Jack Thompson's Game Bill Moves Forward 272

Posted by Zonk on Thursday June 01, 2006 @01:19PM from the those-are-words-i-hate-to-see-together dept.

Gamespot reports that the Jack Thompson-penned anti-games bill currently being considered by the Louisiana Senate Judiciary Committee has been approved, and will now go to the full Senate for debate. From the article: "According to the text of the bill, it would be illegal to sell, rent, or lease a game to a minor if it met the following three conditions: (1) The average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find that the video or computer game, taken as a whole, appeals to the minor's morbid interest in violence. (2) The game depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors. (3) The game, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors."

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