Submission + - Sir Patrick Stewart (cnn.com)
david.emery writes: SIR Patrick Stewart... came out on the Queen's New Years Honors listing...
Submission Summary: 0 pending, 31 declined, 8 accepted (39 total, 20.51% accepted)
Submission + - Microsoft says there's a 'tax' to use Macs (cnet.com)
david.emery writes: "A CNet column by Matt Asay cites an interview between Microsoft's Brad Brooks and CNET's Ina Fried (http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-10064580-75.htmll).
Asay points to the comments by Brooks to the effect that not using Microsoft products constitutes a 'tax' for alternatives. Here's a quote
There's going to be an application tax, which is if you want choice around applications, or if you want the same type of application experience on your Mac versus Windows, you're going to be purchasing a lot of software.
and Asay's analysis/commentary:
In other words, it's cheaper to continue paying the Microsoft tax, wherein companies give up any hope of future innovation or industry competition, than to try that dreaded, costly thing called "choice."
Particularly with things like Open Office, is there really a problem with alternatives to Microsoft? How much does choice really cost?"
Submission + - Yahoo DNS poisoned???
david.emery writes: "Yesterday I got a strange email bounce from groups.yahoo.com, and something didn't look right in the headers about where the message was going. nslookup on groups.yahoo.com yielded the following:
; > DiG 9.4.2-P1 > groups.yahoo.com a +multiline +nocomments +nocmd +noquestion +nostats +search ;; global options: printcmd
groups.yahoo.com. 43 IN CNAME groups.yahoo3.akadns.net.
groups.yahoo3.akadns.net. 68 IN A 209.73.164.118
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS use3.akadns.net.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS eur1.akadns.net.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS zd.akadns.org.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS usw2.akadns.net.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS zb.akadns.org.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS use4.akadns.net.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS za.akadns.org.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS asia9.akadns.net.
akadns.net. 37394 IN NS zc.akadns.org.
asia9.akadns.net. 33620 IN A 220.73.220.4
zb.akadns.org. 1087 IN A 12.183.125.5
zc.akadns.org. 608 IN A 124.211.40.4
zd.akadns.org. 1270 IN A 65.114.105.4
eur1.akadns.net. 32741 IN A 195.59.44.134
use3.akadns.net. 35723 IN A 204.2.178.133
use4.akadns.net. 29133 IN A 208.44.108.137
Today I did the same, and got something that looked a lot more correct: ; > DiG 9.4.2-P1 > groups.yahoo.com cname +multiline +nocomments +nocmd +noquestion +nostats +search ;; global options: printcmd
groups.yahoo.com. 142 IN CNAME groups.yahoo3.akadns.net.
yahoo.com. 66848 IN NS ns8.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 66848 IN NS ns6.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 66848 IN NS ns1.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 66848 IN NS ns3.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 66848 IN NS ns2.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 66848 IN NS ns5.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 66848 IN NS ns4.yahoo.com.
ns5.yahoo.com. 154843 IN A 119.160.247.124
ns6.yahoo.com. 150553 IN A 202.43.223.170
ns8.yahoo.com. 62351 IN A 202.165.104.22
ns1.yahoo.com. 63924 IN A 66.218.71.63
ns2.yahoo.com. 63924 IN A 68.142.255.16
ns3.yahoo.com. 63864 IN A 217.12.4.104
ns4.yahoo.com. 63781 IN A 68.142.196.63
This wasn't just me. My ISP's sysadmin did nslookup yesterday and got the same weird results (akadns.net) last night. So, is this evidence of DNS poisoning? Did someone somehow get the wrong data into the larger DNS infrastructure? Enquiring minds want to know!... dave"
Today I did the same, and got something that looked a lot more correct: ; > DiG 9.4.2-P1 > groups.yahoo.com cname +multiline +nocomments +nocmd +noquestion +nostats +search
This wasn't just me. My ISP's sysadmin did nslookup yesterday and got the same weird results (akadns.net) last night. So, is this evidence of DNS poisoning? Did someone somehow get the wrong data into the larger DNS infrastructure? Enquiring minds want to know!... dave"
Submission + - Google to invest in Geothermal energy (cnn.com)
david.emery writes: "CNN has a story about Google investing in geothermal energy: http://greenwombat.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/08/19/google-invests-in-drilling-for-geothermal-energy/
Could we see data megacenters relocating to geothermal areas? But aren't those geologically sensitive, e.g. prone to earthquakes? How hard would it be to engineer an earthquake-proof "data bunker"?
The story mentions an effort to map geothermal resources in the US, could this be the start of a new energy land rush?"
Submission + - AFNOR proposes convergence of OOXML and ODF (afnor.org)
david.emery writes: In a press release here (http://www.afnor.org/prt_actualite.asp?ref=7021&PageActu=Portail&lang=English), AFNOR (the French member body for ISO) is proposing convergence of OOXML and ODF into a single standard:
Through a large number of contributions, the different stakeholders have demonstrated the need to have an OOXML format having a quality to be recognised by ISO. In the context where multiple document format specifications exist, the French experts, who have put considerable efforts into this work, have shown that a convergence is feasible between OOXML and the ODF format — the latter being already standardized today as ISO/IEC 26300 — thereby tending towards a single revisable document format standard.
The press release has details of the French proposal.
Submission + - Microsoft's 'Clippy' is also a security hole...
david.emery writes: "According to an article in extremetech, there's an (ActiveX, of course) vulnerability in Windows 2k 'Clippy': http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2182388,00.asp
Well, this just confirms what we always thought. Not only is "Clippy" annoying, he's actively evil :-)"
Well, this just confirms what we always thought. Not only is "Clippy" annoying, he's actively evil
Submission + - DCMA suit against Apple iPod for not using MRT?
david.emery writes: "According to this posting, http://playlistmag.com/news/2007/05/10/mrt/index.p hp , MRT has sent Apple a Cease & Desist letter under the terms of the DCMA. It appears to me that the gist of the MRT argument is that Apple is in violation because they're not using MRT's technology.
Well that's a new wrinkle on the DCMA. MRT seems to think that the DCMA can be used to force the use of (only) their technology.
dave"
Well that's a new wrinkle on the DCMA. MRT seems to think that the DCMA can be used to force the use of (only) their technology.
dave"
Submission + - Microsoft ordered to pay $1.52b to Alcatel-Lucent
david.emery writes: "CNN [ http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/22/technology/microso ft_alcatel.reut/index.htm?postversion=2007022215 ] has a short item on a Jury award of $1.52b in damages to Alcatel-Lucent, from Microsoft, for violating a patent relating to computer audio files."
Submission + - Sun announces winners of "Try and Win" con
david.emery writes: "Sun Microsystems had a promotion where you submitted a proposal to evaluate one of their new multi-core machines. They lent you the machine for 90 days, and if they were sufficiently impressed with what you did with it, they'd let you keep the machine.
Here are the results: http://www.sun.com/tryandbuy/prm/perf/winners.jsp
Most of these projects demonstrate the ability of the machine to do transaction kinds of things, like web servers, where you load up the cores through the transaction load. A few, such as the Grebyn Corporation project, instead loaded up all of the cores working collectively on a single problem. In other /. postings, various people have commented on our inability to write software that makes use of large numbers of multiple cores. The Grebyn application demonstrates that at least some people on some problems can keep 8 cores fully occupied."
Here are the results: http://www.sun.com/tryandbuy/prm/perf/winners.jsp
Most of these projects demonstrate the ability of the machine to do transaction kinds of things, like web servers, where you load up the cores through the transaction load. A few, such as the Grebyn Corporation project, instead loaded up all of the cores working collectively on a single problem. In other
Submission + - Ctrl-Z: Justin Long denies he's no longer "A
david.emery writes: "In a report on his website, http://www.justinlong.net/ , Justin Long denies rumors that he has been removed as "the Mac" in the Apple "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ads.
From the posting (somewhere in the middle of the latest blog freetext): "as for the mac commercials, i don't know where that report came from that said i wasn't going to do anymore — i literally setting my alarm right now to wake up for a mac shoot tomorrow — if i'm not doing anymore i guess i can sleep in on my day off"
I guess we'll have to wait for the next series of ads to see who shows up."
From the posting (somewhere in the middle of the latest blog freetext): "as for the mac commercials, i don't know where that report came from that said i wasn't going to do anymore — i literally setting my alarm right now to wake up for a mac shoot tomorrow — if i'm not doing anymore i guess i can sleep in on my day off"
I guess we'll have to wait for the next series of ads to see who shows up."
Submission + - Apple to replace it's "I'm a Mac" star?
david.emery writes: "MacWorld is reporting that Apple will be replacing Justin Long as its "Mac" in their "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ad campaign. John Hodgman, the personification of (nerdy) PC, is reported shooting new commercials. http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/11/10/justinlong /index.php?lsrc=mwrss."
Submission + - Washington Post on "5 years of WinXIP"
david.emery writes: "In an article in the Washington Post entitled If Only We Knew Then What We Know Now About Windows XP, Post Technology Columnist points out the 5 year legacy of Windows XP. The article starts "Windows XP is turning five years old, but will anybody want to celebrate the occasion?". This is (IMHO) a very well-reasoned critique of WinXP, although it does fail to credit XP as being markedly better than its precedessors."
