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Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft: Format War is Over

Submitted by
jeevesbond
jeevesbond writes: "Microsoft Office program manager Brian Jones, whose work has centered around the Open XML document format, now says the so-called format war with OpenDocument is officially over. The winner, he says, is both.

"I think at this point we can really move onto more productive and collaborative discussion and admit that we are no longer in any sort of "file format war."
My translation: Sharepoint (and its tight integration with Office 2007) is what's important now, something FLOSS has no equivalent for."
Businesses

Submission + - Can the free market develop sustainable energies?

Submitted by
Basile Schaeli
Basile Schaeli writes: "Jeff Vail provides an interesting take on why free markets may not solve the world's addiction to energy. From the article:

'Is free-market innovation the best way to develop viable, sustainable energy alternatives?
The free market will ignore solutions that can't turn a profit. Any firm that fails to follow this simple maxim won't be in business for long. The corollary to this maxim is that the free market will ignore any solution that cannot be controlled, either through property interests (enforceable intellectual property, monopoly licenses, etc.) or because economies of scale demand centralized operation. This means that free market innovation is structurally incompatible with a huge portion of the universe of possible energy solutions.'"
Media

Submission + - AnyDVD updated, now removes Blue-Ray DRM

Submitted by
mariushm
mariushm writes: "SlySoft has just updated AnyDVD HD, offering users the possibility of watching Blue-Ray media without DRM. This comes after only two weeks from the first release which was able to remove DRM from HD-DVD.

Version 6.1.3.0 has lots of features but probably the most important one is stripping the evil DRM infection from Blu-Ray and restore your fair use rights.

The free upgrade can also remove region encoding, works on Windows XP-64 and Vista-64, and fixes a ton of bugs. You can get the update or a trial copy here."
Microsoft

Submission + - Thousands sign e-petition on rip-off Vista

Submitted by CoolWolf
CoolWolf writes: CustomPC News, Monday 26th February 2007
Thousands sign e-petition on rip-off Vista http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/news/106025/thousa nds-sign-epetition-on-ripoff-vista.html

Petition info and link:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to bring pressure on Microsoft to stop them overcharging the UK for its Vista Operating System.
Submitted by Paul Milne — Deadline to sign up by: 20 April 2007 — Signatures: 8,051
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/VistaOvercharge/
Windows

Submission + - Windows Vista Needs DST Patch

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: Windows Vista and Windows XP may require a HotFix patch to the C Runtime Library MSVCRT.dll as part of the Daylight Savings Time nightmare. Microsoft released a technical bulletin on 3/1/07 detailing the products which require the patch. Unfortunately Microsoft had the Vista Patch on 2/16/07 and the Windows XP patch on 2/19/07 but they decided to hold on to them until 3/1/07. This is the second round of Operating System patches for Windows and Daylight Savings Time. See KB932590 for more details. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932590/en-us. Note that to get the patches, you must call Microsoft and request the patch.
Media

Submission + - Xen trademark stirs up virtualization community

Submitted by
Virtualization Dork
Virtualization Dork writes: "Virtual Iron and possibly Red Hat have stopped using the word 'Xen' to describe their virtualization offerings, but it's VMware that trademark holder XenSource really wants to protect against. Read more at SearchServerVirtualization.com.

From the article:

"I've been asked by XenSource's lawyers not to say the word that begins with 'X' since they own that word outright," said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer at Virtual Iron Software in Lowell, Mass.

According to Grandinetti, XenSource's lawyers "dropped a bomb" on the Xen community last month when they announced that "you'll have to pay to certify your apps against our test suite, and you'll have to pay us some more to use the name," Grandinetti said.
"
Graphics

Submission + - Open Graphics Round Table

Submitted by
cranos
cranos writes: "In this fortnights episode of Open Source On The Air, I sit down with three Graphic Artists who have based their entire work flow on Free and Open Source Software.

We talk about the state of the current FOSS graphics toolset, how this has affected things like barriers to entry, as well as discussing the growing interaction between the audience and the graphic artists.

You can find the full show here: http://localfoss.org/OSOTA/Episode_16"
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft not gaining ground in search

Submitted by klblastone
klblastone writes: Despite Microsoft's massive investment in promoting and improving web-based search, the company still has less than ten percent of search engine marketshare. By comparison, Google is hitting about 50 percent, and still growing. Obviously, gimmicks like the interactive Ms. Dewey aren't helping Microsoft compete with Google in the search arena. Microsoft's deep pockets don't seem to be of much use in the highly competitive and dynamic web services market. As the web 2.0 revolution pushes more and more software online where open standards dominate and Microsoft can't leverage its desktop software monopoly, will the company start lose relevance?
Media

Submission + - RIAA Prepares to Sue 400 College Students

Submitted by
An anonymous reader writes: The RIAA sent out "pre-litigation settlement notices" to 400 network users at 13 U.S. universities today, continuing a PR blitz that began last week with a much-publicized list of the 25 most notified universities for copyright infringement. Once again, Ohio University tops the list, with one out of every eight notifications. From the press release: "The RIAA will request that universities forward those letters to the appropriate network user. Under this new approach, a student (or other network user) can settle the record company claims against him or her at a discounted rate before a lawsuit is ever filed."
Communications

Submission + - Is statewide Wi-Max possible?

Submitted by Philetus
Philetus writes: While many politicians seem dead set on shutting down or locking off parts the Internet, is it possible that one Deep South state could provide broadband wireless access to all of its residents? That's the pledge of a new bill that was introduced in the South Carolina Statehouse this week.

From the article:
"Toward that end, (Dwight) Loftis, House Speaker Bobby Harrell and others have introduced a bill, H. 3569, that would create the S.C. Wireless Technology and Communications Commission, a body tasked with implementing a statewide wireless broadband network, possibly as early as late 2008."

Is this another case of politicians getting their tubes mixed up, or is a statewide wireless network possible?
Microsoft

Submission + - Ballmer To India: Cut Piracy, Create 50,000 Jobs

Submitted by Pranjal
Pranjal writes: In an interview in Tuesday's edition of the Times Of India, Ballmer says piracy is having "a huge negative impact" on economic growth in India. He also cites an unnamed study indicating that 70% of all software used in the country is pirated. Reducing that number by 10% would lead to the creation of 50,000 new jobs in India, Ballmer says in the interview. InformationWeek.com has a commentary on the news item — "The concern, of course, is that a larger Microsoft presence in India would come at the expense of programming jobs in the U.S. Microsoft employees in Redmond may be hoping that India doesn't take its piracy problem too seriously — it may be the best job protection they have."
Movies

Submission + - C-SPAN Takedown Notice to U.S. Congress

Submitted by
Carl Malamud
Carl Malamud writes: "The New York Times reported on a dustup between C-SPAN and the new Speaker of the House. Speaker Pelosi placed a minute of a congressional hearing on her blog, and C-SPAN sent her a takedown notice. Pelosi caved in and removed the offending video. I think she should have asserted her rights to fair use and told C-SPAN to f*ck off.

The issue of congressional hearings on-line is an important one. Many of the committees, as a matter of policy, refuse to provide archives and everything is streaming-only, low resolution, proprietary. As a partial solution, I've started ripping those streams and uploading them to Google Video and the Internet Archive. (BoingBoing story)

As to C-SPAN, I think they're wrong, and I sent a letter to Brian Lamb yesterday offering to purchase all 6,251 DVDs in his collection that are congressional hearings, and pointed him to >1 minute of C-SPAN video which I have on-line and asserted fair use. Here's my letter to Brian. He hasn't answered my offer, but if he does, I'll then be faced with a $1,059,544 question. :)"

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