Comment Re:what happened to you, Austrailia? (Score 1) 674
I think you're getting confused with New Zealand
Comment Re:Another interesting tidbit (Score 2, Funny) 898
Comment Re:It will work... (Score 1) 907
OK, you win
Comment Re:It will work... (Score 1) 907
Scroll down and read the the section from the 2004 license:
If the individual software license is a desktop operating system (including Windows XP Media Center Edition), we grant you a nonexclusive right to distribute individual software licenses; provided that each one is distributed with either (a) a fully assembled computer system or (b) a nonperipheral computer hardware component. A "fully assembled computer system" means a computer system consisting of at least a central processing unit, a motherboard, a hard drive, a power supply, and a case. A "nonperipheral computer hardware component" means a component that will be an integral part of the fully assembled computer system on which the individual software license will be installed.
Several Microsoft documents make it clear that any component that is an integral part of the PC qualifies, including an internal connector for a hard drive or an external power cord. This online chat with members of Microsoft's System Builders group, from February 2005, is explicit on the subject:
Q: [P]lease elaborate on what nonperipheral hardware is. The OEM site lists power supplies/cords as examples implying it is legal to sell with an internal P4 power adapter or external power supply cord.
A: If you look at [the System Builder site] it states that a power code [sic] is and examples of non-peripheral hardware.... Non-peripheral is something that is essential to the functioning of the PC - so a power cord would qualify.
Keyboards and mice are almost textbook definitions of 'peripherals'. However, the left hand doesn't always know what the right hand is doing, and there's every chance that your rep quoted to you from a different license, or interpreted it differently, or was in a different section of the world, etc!
Samba's Jeremy Allison On Linux's Future 193
TRNick writes "Jeremy Allison talks Ubuntu, why he loves Gnome, and the trials and tribulations of open source development in a wide-ranging interview on TechRadar."
Comment Re:It will work... (Score 5, Informative) 907
I wondered about the legality of using a mouse as a component to buy an OEM operating system, so I did some research.
Turns out prior to August 2005, you could buy a copy of an OEM operating system with an "essential, non-peripheral component" - so a mouse would not qualify, but an IEC power cable would.
The changed rules renamed the licenses "system builder" and made them available to anyone building their own PC - including end users.
Comment Re:Have the bees gone too? (Score 2, Insightful) 474
Have a more open world view, moderators; the OP is referring to the arc linking all the episodes of series 4 of Doctor Who. It's the first thing I thought of when I read the post, and is also why the article is tagged 'badwolf' and 'starsgoingout'.
Comment BSOD network visualisation (Score 4, Informative) 201
Friends of mine at Waikato University have produced "BSOD", a network visualizer which shows packets flowing between your subnet and the Internet. It's great on a big TV.
Comment Re:a request (Score 2, Informative) 249
"Obama for America" is (was?) the legal name of his Presidential campaign.
The Internet Meme Timeline 235
CNet pointed out a great use of timeline creation site "Dipity" that has resulted a timeline of internet fads and memes. While there are some subtle inaccuracies and a few notable omissions, it seems to have touched on most of the big stuff. Everything from GOTO being considered harmful to "the website is down," it's a great trip down memory lane if you don't mind a few speedbumps like the goatse guy.
Best Integrated Issue-Tracker For Subversion? 99
JobSeeker writes "Now that subversion has merge tracking my boss wants to save money by dropping our expensive commercial solution. I've pretty much convinced myself that subversion can do the job. I like it. But what about integrated issue tracking? Version control without issue tracking is only half a solution. The TortoiseSVN docs say a little about bugzilla and not much else. What ready-to-play options (commercial or open source) exist for deploying subversion on commercial projects?"
Journal Journal: a possible /. ThinkPad incompatibility
My ThinkPad R61 has the Intel 965 Graphics chipset and I have trouble with the nice boxes around the comments and the expanding links not working properly. A workaround would be nice..
Submission + - Microsoft's View of Standards as Tools of War (boycottnovell.com)
christian.einfeldt writes: "Tech media maven Roy Schestowitz and Pamela Jones of Groklaw have unearthed 1997 documents from the Iowa anti-trust case of 'Comes v. Microsoft,' in which Microsoft Technical Evangelist James Plamondon talks about the importance of stacking seemingly 'neutral' panels to assure that Microsoft platforms are adopted as de facto standards. In a 'Highly Confidential' document entitled 'Evangelism is War', Plamondon justifies his step-by-step strategy for stacking 'neutral' panels as a necessary act of 'war.' He suggests ways to enhance the apparent popularity of Microsoft platforms as standards for the purpose of convincing 'enemies' that adoption of the Microsoft platform as a standard is inevitable, and 'surrender' is the only option. Groklaw's Pamela Jones draws a parallel to the current-day work of Technical Evangelist Rick Jelliffe, who says that he has been hired by Microsoft to act as a 'Devil's Advocate' for the National Board of Australia in Microsoft's upcoming bid to have Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) accepted as a second international electronic document format ISO standard. Recent efforts by Microsoft to change the composition of the ISO national panels have resulted in some controversy and have spawned a new EU probe into potential anti-trust claims based on the way that Microsoft influenced the composition of some of the national boards to vote in the upcoming ISO ballot."
Beer Brewing Bender Completed 113
An anonymous reader writes "The Beer Brewing Bender Project is finally completed. This is a fan built, full sized Bender from Futurama featuring a 6502 CPU powered brain to make him speak triggered by a prop remote control straight out of the show. Inside his body is a beer fermenter used to brew up a batch of real Benderbrau beer!"
Sun Niagara 2 CPU Now Open Source 158
downix writes "Late last night Sun Microsystems announced the immediate availability of the UltraSPARC T2, also known as the Niagara 2 CPU. While we all might not have a silicon fab in the basement, the access to this source code reaffirms Sun's commitment to open source, and in addition gives us FPGA-lovers something new to play with. The source code can be downloaded (with registration) from OpenSPARC.net. Already the previously open sourced T1 has spawned spin-off projects, such as the Simple RISC S1."
