8835424
submission
oranghutan writes:
At the annual Linux.conf.au event being held in Wellington, NZ, one of the lead developers for the Samba Team and Google employee, Jeremy Allison, described Microsoft as "an elephant that needs to be turned to stop it trampling the open source community"
Allison has been an outspoken critic of the vendor since he quit Novell over a deal it did with Microsoft that he saw as dangerous to open source intentions. And now he has evolved his argument to incorporate new case studies to explain why Microsoft's use of patents and its general tactics on free software are harmful.
"Microsoft is often compared to the Star Trek icon 'The Borg'. You have this wonderful little Patrick Stewart icon with his Borg headgear on whenever you have Microsoft on a Slashdot story," he is quoted as saying. "I actually think that is completely wrong. We are the Borg — we really are. We integrate anyone's code, we can absorb code, we can take it, modify it, put it out there, re-purpose it — we are wonderful integrators of everyone's technology. But we are much friendlier."
His three case studies which show how the vendor poses a threat to the GPL license are: The OOXML standard; attempts to "corrupt" the open Internet; and the Tom Tom lawsuit.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/333351/illuminating_elephant_open_source_room/
7862686
submission
oranghutan writes:
A research and development group down under is working to develop an advanced video surveillance system for ports around the world that uses video superimposed onto a 3D map. With 16 megapixel high definition cameras on a distributed (cabled) network and a proprietary system written in a variety of languages (C++, Python, SQL, etc) the group from NICTA is aiming to allow security teams at the Port of Brisbane — which is 110km long — to monitor shipping movements, cargo and people. By scrolling along a 3D map the security teams can click on a location and then get a real time video feed superimposed onto the map. Authorities from around the world with the right permissions can then access the same system. The main difference from regular surveillance systems is the ability to switch views without having know camera numbers/locations and the one screen view.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/330081/nicta_gets_1_01m_advanced_video_surveillance_system_port_brisbane?fp=16&fpid=1
6656359
submission
oranghutan writes:
The Obama administration is looking to the southern hemisphere for tips on how to improve the broadband situation in the US. The key telco advisor to the president, Sarah Crawford, has met with Australian telco analysts recently to find out how the Aussies are rolling out their $40 billion+ national broadband network. It is also rumoured that the Obama administration is looking to the Dutch and New Zealand situations for inspiration too.
The article quotes an Aussie analyst as saying: "There needs to be a multiplier effect in the investment you make in telecoms — it should not just be limited to high-speed Internet. That is pretty new and in the US it is nearly communism, that sort of thinking. They are not used to that level of sharing and going away from free-market politics to a situation whereby you are looking at the national interest. In all my 30 years in the industry, this is the first time America is interested in listening to people like myself from outside."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/324041/obama_telecommunications_advisor_keen_nbn_detail?fp=16&fpid=1
6564913
submission
oranghutan writes:
Computerworld is reporting Canonical has made available the Release Candidate of its latest Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu 9.10, on the same day Microsoft launched the long-awaited Windows 7.
The article says: "The upcoming Canonical release, which is code-named Karmic Koala, is the latest version of the popular flavor of the Linux OS. The development release on Thursday pushed the OS one step closer to final release, which is due on Oct. 29, according to the company's release schedule Web page.
An image of the OS is available for download on Ubuntu's Web site. Test versions of Karmic Koala RC available for download include the server, desktop and netbook versions"
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/323448/canonical_takes_win_7_ubuntu_9_10_rc?fp=16&fpid=1
6255399
submission
oranghutan writes:
In this interview, Brian Kernighan — who helped popularise C with his book (co-written with the creator Dennis Ritchie) The C Programming Language and contributed to the development of AWK and AMPL — talks about his tips for up and coming programmers, who he thinks are the icons of the programming world, and what his thoughts on Ruby, Perl and Java are.
He also discusses whether the classic book The Practice of Programming, co-written with Rob Pike needs an update. Plus he highlights Bill and Melinda Gates as two people doing great things through computer sciences for the world and says "a typical programmer today spends a lot of time just trying to figure out what methods to call from some giant package and probably needs some kind of IDE like Eclipse or XCode to fill in the gaps. There are more languages in regular use and programs are often distributed combinations of multiple languages. All of these facts complicate life, though it's possible to build quite amazing systems quickly when everything goes right."
Another good quote for programmers is: "Every language teaches you something, so learning a language is never wasted, especially if it's different in more than just syntactic trivia."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/321082/an_inteview_brian_kernighan_co-developer_awk_ampl?cache=4
5521969
submission
oranghutan writes:
A judge in a court in Texas has given Microsoft 60 days to comply with an order to stop selling Word products in their existing state after a patent infringement suit filed by i4i.
According to the injunction Microsoft is forbidden from selling Word products that let people create XML documents, which both the 2003 and 2007 versions let you do.
An analyst quoted in the article — Michael Cherry from Directions — said:
"It's going to take a long time for this kind of thing to get sorted out."
Basically, most don't believe the injunction will stop Word being sold as there are ways of getting around it. However, in early 2009 a jury in the Texas court ordered Microsoft to pay i4i US$200 million for infringing the patent.
http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/314620/injunction_microsoft_word_unlikely_halt_sales
