Comment Re:Not new (Score 2) 288
Would really appreciate if you could post contact details for this firm as I have a brother in Sydney who is currently looking for work in this area.
Comment Re:Buying Windows does some good in the world! (Score 0) 451
> What marketing does Bill and Melinda Gates need?
Like most people they are concerned for their own reputations. Marketing is a way of addressing that concern.
> Could you be any more selfish and bitter?
It is interesting how vehemently people defend the virtue of Mr and Mrs Gates. Why the emotional atttachment?
Comment Re:Philanthropy (Score 1) 451
> it doesn't matter what the motivation for doing it is, the end result is what is important.
For someone who doesn't believe that the motivation matters, you have a very strong opinion on the topic
> When every conceivable want and desire is met, what is left but to be generous to your fellow man?
I seriously doubt that the wealthy are free from want and desire. Do you have any evidence to support this unusual idea?
It seems more likely to me that this is an example of people pursuing other common desires - the desire for reputation and the desire for influence.
I really don't think this is cynicism, by the way. Rather, it is expecting rich people to behave like anyone else.
Comment Re:Irony (Score 3, Insightful) 134
This is exactly why the digital rights activists need to go on the offensive. As long as we are continually on the defensive we are vulnerable to aggressive industry lobbying. Legislation needs to be promoted and passed that will solidify protection for digital rights, and weaken the position of our opponents. In strategic terms, we need to take the battle to the enemy.
Comment Re:Wow! (Score 1) 193
I agree with your sentiment generally, but this part is completely wrong:
"When the IRA were blowing up buildings every few months or so the UK never resorted to police state tactics and it never militarized the police."
Resorting to police state tactics and militarizing the police is exactly what they did in Northern Ireland I'm the 70s and 80s. I know because I grew up there. What is happening in England now is merely the chickens coming home to roost.
Comment Re:Again Kickstarter is used to rob the commons (Score 1) 114
GitHub are really well positioned to provide a crowdfunding platform for FOSS projects.
I suspect that, with the success of Kickstarter and other similar sites, it's only a matter of time before someone makes the model work for commons-based stuff.
Comment Re:Openess (Score 3, Insightful) 180
Apple looked at the same problem that Nokia is looking at and decided that since they had an operating system in house already, it made more sense to just modify it then modifying someone else's open operating system.
Except that Apple's operating system is based on modifying 'someone else's open operating system'.
Top 10 Disappointing Technologies 682
Slatterz writes "Every once in a while, a product comes along that everyone from the executives to the analysts to even the crusty old reporters thinks will change the IT world. Sadly, they are often misguided. This article lists some of the top ten technology disappointments that failed to change the world, from the ludicrously priced Apple Lisa, to voice recognition, to Intel's ill-fated Itanium chip, and virtual reality, this article lists some of the top ten technology disappointments that failed to change the world." But wait! Don't give up too quickly on the Itanium, says the Register.
Office 2010 Technical Preview Leaked 341
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft was planning on giving out the Office 2010 Technical Preview to select testers in July on an invite-only basis. Office 2010 will be available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and both flavors have been leaked to torrent sites and the like. Multiple screenshots of each application are available. '... some applications have changed a lot more than others. The ribbon seems to be on every application now, which is great for consistency's sake. ... The biggest change, in my opinion, is that the no file/orb menu is no longer a menu. When you click the colored office button, you get a screen that is shown in the second screenshot for each application.'"
Submission + - MS releases open source alternative to BigTable
gollito writes: Microsoft has released an open source alternative to Google's BigTable file system, which is used on large distributed computer clusters.
The devil must be freezing with all the snow hell is getting
The devil must be freezing with all the snow hell is getting
Comment Re:Tell you my "stragetgy" (Score 2, Insightful) 370
The second I want to make any contributions, depending on how I used the GPL code, my entire portfolio might be in legal jeopardy.
Firstly, "making contributions" does not normally trigger the GPL.
Secondly, the GPL does not put your portfolio "in legal jeopardy". The worst case scenario is that you have to remove (somebody else's) GPL'ed code from your portfolio.
Finally, it is copyright law which makes this a requirement, not GPL.
Hundreds of Thousands of Chinese Black-Hats 247
An anonymous reader sends us to Popular Science for a long article on the loose, uncoordinated bands of patriotic Chinese hackers that seem to be responsible for much of the cyber-trouble emerging from that nation. Quoting: "For years, the U.S. intelligence community worried that China's government was attacking our cyber-infrastructure. Now one man has discovered it's more than that: it's hundreds of thousands of everyday Chinese civilians. ... Jack Linchuan Qiu, a communications professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong [says:] 'Chinese hackerism is not the American "hacktivism" that wants social change. It's actually very close to the state. The Chinese distinction between the private and public domains is very small.' ... According to [James Andrew Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies], 'The government at a minimum tolerates them. Sometimes it encourages them. And sometimes it tasks them and controls them.' In the end, he says, 'it's easy for the government to turn on and hard to turn off.'"
Comment Re:Summary is hopelessly wrong... (Score 1) 492
I can write an opinion piece to the Atlanta Journal & Constitution declaring the President to be a bumbling buffoon, calling every Senator in Washington a bunch of dirty names, and expressing the opinion that Georgia's governor has terrible taste in suits. I run zero risk of being arrested for these acts.
You also run zero risk of being published.
Comment Re:lemme get this straight (Score 1) 430
Freenet's time is almost here.
Self-Encrypting Hard Drives and the New Security 205
In a recent blog post, CNet's Jon Oitsik has called for a policy shift with respect to data encryption. A new standard by the Trusted Computing Group promises the availability of self-encrypting hard drives soon, leading some to call for immediate adoption. Will this create even more security problems due to lazy custodians, or should someone responsible for keeping your information safe be required to move to the new hardware? Hopefully the new hardware comes with a warning to continue to use other data protection measures as well.
