Oracle Lines Up Unbreakable MySQL 132
munchola writes "MySQL CEO, Marten Mickos, has revealed to CBRonline that Oracle has threatened to provide support for MySQL and is already distributing the open source database. "They have hinted to us that they will," said Mickos, indicating that the database giant is planning to repeat its October 2006 Unbreakable Linux plan, which saw it undercut Red Hat with enterprise Linux support. Despite the competitive threat, Mickos is unmoved. "I hope they do that," he said, noting that it would be seen as an endorsement of the open source database.""
Submission + - Windows XP Activation in the Future?
bigredswitch writes: Now we're on the verge of Vista being released, how are we going to activate XP when Microsoft drop support, either when performing a reinstall or resurrecting old hardware? It's not going to be a problem now or for the next few years, sure, but what's the future going to be like (flying cars aside)? Getting an older machine back into action to pull files off, run machine automation, etc., is easy with Win2k and everything that went before (I've worked at places running Gem on 286s still for in-house stuff) but is this at an end with XP and onwards? How are other people looking to handle this?
Submission + - Another interesting patent attempt
DocHart writes: "Here's a report from Groklaw on an interesting patent request:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200701280 8444146"
Submission + - Microsoft Copies, then Patents Java Education Tool
An anonymous reader writes: This blog.. says it all
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/cayhorstmann/archive/ 2007/01/microsoft_copie.html
Submission + - EarthLink Unveils Zero-Day Protection
jimbojw writes: "A recent PR Newswire Article describes EarthLink's new Attack Shield technology which has been unveiled today:
Can this possibly be effective? How long until malware accounts for such detection? Will false-positives annoy users into just turning it off?"EarthLink's "Attack Shield" technology is proactive: by utilizing Sana Security's (http://www.sanasecurity.com) award-winning multi-behavioral security engine, the application is able to monitor in real-time the consumer's PC to detect potential behaviors to determine if an installed program is malicious and remove it without requiring definition updates.
Submission + - DOPA returns from the dead
An anonymous reader writes: Perhaps it was a little premature to write an obituary for the Delete Online Predators Act (DOPA), as senator Ted "the Internet's a bunch of tubes" Stevens has proposed the new Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act which has a rather DOPA-esque ring to it, and would essentially ban the use of social software — such as blogs, wikis, and social networks — in schools and libraries which receive federal funding.
Submission + - UK introduces Internet voting
Mostly Cloudy writes: "The United Kingdom Electoral Commission has introduced Internet voting for the first time. The Government says: "More and more people, and particularly young people, are using the internet everyday. We need to see if we can use this to encourage people even more to participate in the democratic process." But the others are pointing out that "Using a voting system based upon the Internet poses a serious and unacceptable risk for election fraud. It is simply not secure enough for something as serious as the election of a government official." Considering the large scale postal vote rigging that took place at the last General Election, it remains to be seen whether the British electorate would accept this new scheme."
Professor Michael Geist on Vista's Fine Print 314
Russell McOrmond writes "With Microsoft's Vista set to hit stores tomorrow, Michael Geist's weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) looks at the legal and technical fine print behind the operating system upgrade. The article notes that in the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the "user experience" from the user. If you are a Canadian and think that the owner of computers should be in control of what they own, rather than some third party (whether virus authors or the manufacturer/maker), then please sign our Petition to protect Information Technology property rights."
Submission + - Report: PS3 May Drive Sony Profit Down 50%
njkid1 writes: "The expensive PlayStation 3 may have cut into Sony's profits significantly for the third quarter ended this past December, Bloomberg.com has reported. The games division is expected to lose a record 191 billion yen by the end of Sony's fiscal year.
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=1508 6&ncid=AOLGAM000500000000029"
Submission + - Music Industry in a Jam with Subscription Services
Infonaut writes: "AOL Music Now and Virgin Digital are toast. Yahoo's subscription music service isn't doing well, nor is MTV Urge. Rhapsody and Napster are hovering at around a million subscribers, but they're having a difficult time adding customers. Could it be that the music execs actually don't want to see the subscription model succeed? Seems they can't find a business model they like. They're scared of Apple, they're scared of even the Zune, and they're scared of subscription services."
Submission + - Install Vista and Microsoft Owns Your Computer
alittlespice writes: Michael Geist, a prominent law profession in Canada, has an essay detailing the rights you give Microsoft by installing Vista. These include the option for Microsoft to delete any 'unwanted software' from you system, without informing you. MS doesn't define 'unwanted software' leaving them free to consider anything on your computer as 'unwanted'.
Also, regarding premium content (from Blu-Ray/HD-DVDs), Microsoft will perform 30 checks per second to ensure you're not attempting to circumvent the content protection.
Also, regarding premium content (from Blu-Ray/HD-DVDs), Microsoft will perform 30 checks per second to ensure you're not attempting to circumvent the content protection.
Submission + - Offload content to Amazon using PHP
BlueVoodoo writes: "Save disk space and bandwidth, and increase the reliability of your site by using the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) remote storage service to host your media files. You'll also improve the reliability of your site as it serves the increasingly large multimedia files that are so popular in the Web 2.0 world."
On Electricity (Generation) 330
Engineer-Poet wrote a piece a few months back that focuses on electricity production; or rather how or what we will need to do to keep pace with people's demands while balancing that with environmental and economic impact. Lengthy but well-reasoned and good reading.
