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So Who's Running Apple Now? 399

An anonymous reader writes "With Steve Jobs stepping down from heading Apple for at least six months who's running the company that he resurrected? This article names the three people who will try to keep things running. But you have to wonder whether they'll have the charisma needed to keep Apple cool..."
Software

Do Software Versions Really Matter? 693

An anonymous reader writes "I work for a rather large software company and I am currently working on a completely new product. So new in fact, that the official name has not even been decided. I had assumed that the version number for this product would be 1.0 (at most). However recently I learned that the Product Managers want to release this NEW product with a version number somewhere between 5.0 and 8.0 because 'there is a stigma about buying 1.0 products. People assume it's no good.' This latest Dilbert-esque comedy routine nearly sent me over the edge. So to gauge my sanity against that of the upper Product Management, I ask the community: Do version numbers play a role in software decisions, or have product version numbers lost all credibility and meaning? Would the community feel comfortable buying version '6.3' software (and paying tens of thousands of dollars for it) knowing that it was the first release of the product?"
The Courts

NYC Lawyers Subpoena Code 132

RonMcMahon writes "Lawyers for the city of New York have subpoenaed the text message records of thousands of people involved in demonstrations at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Tad Hirsch, creator of the TXTmob code that enabled convention demonstrators to transmit messages to thousands of telephones, has been instructed to release the content of messages exchanged on the service and to identify people who sent and received messages. Hirsch argues that release of such information would be a violation of users' First Amendment and privacy rights. 'I think I have a moral responsibility to the people who use my service to protect their privacy,' said Hirsch."
Bug

Y2K38 Watch Starts Saturday 542

Jon Masters writes "I just wanted to remind everyone that Saturday, January 19th 2008 will mark the beginning of the 30-year countdown to the Y2K38 bug, when Unix time will overflow 32 bits. Some 30-year loan calculation software might start having problems with this over the weekend."

Comment Re:hacked? (Score 1) 242

I got the same E-mail after 20 odd spam replies and inquires concerning items on ebay putting me as the seller, it does not have any links

It appears your account was accessed by an unauthorized third party and used to send unsolicited emails to other community members, including email offers to sell items outside of eBay. It does not appear that your account was used to list or bid on any items. Additionally, the email address on your account may have been tampered with, which is why you may not have received any emails about this activity.

At this time we have taken several steps to secure your eBay account. Rest assured that your credit card and banking information is safe on the eBay site. This information is kept encrypted on a secure server and cannot be viewed by anyone.

To regain control of your account, please complete the following:
1. Change the password on your personal EMAIL account to verify that it is secure and cannot be accessed by anyone other than you.
2. Change the password on your eBay account. To do so, click the "Forgot your password" link on the eBay sign-in page and change your password using the instructions provided.
3. Follow the steps below to secure your account:
> Click on the "Security & Resolution Center" link found at the bottom of most eBay pages.
> Click on the "eBay Account Protection" link in the "Online Security Resources" box. This will take you to the help page titled "Securing Your Account and Reporting Account Theft."
> Follow the instructions provided in "Securing Your Account".

As you take these steps, please be aware that you may need to repeat the instructions provided above or use the "Back" button on your Web browser to return to the "Securing Your Account" page.

To learn more about these fake or "spoof" eBay emails, visit the "Security Center" link found at the bottom of most eBay pages followed by the "Stopping spoof emails and Web sites" under "General Online Safety."

If you are contacted with questions about the messages that were sent from your account or other related issues, please refer those individuals to the web address provided above.


Regards,
eBay Trust & Safety
Programming

Thinking about Rails? Think Again 482

wolfeon writes "In 2005, Derek Sivers of CD Baby wanted to scrap his site and perform a rewrite in Rails. He hired Jeremy Kemper, also known as bitsweat on Freenode, to help on the project. Two years later, through blood and sweat, the project was then canceled because of limitations of Rails. Rails just wasn't meant to do everything since it is very much "canned" project. Mr. Sivers has written an entry in the O'Reilly blog: 7 reasons I switched back to PHP."
Mozilla

Submission + - Mozilla quietly resurrects Eudora

Stony Stevenson writes: Developers at the Mozilla Foundation have released the first beta versions of the new Eudora email application. The Eudora 8.0 beta releases for Mac and Windows are the first new versions of since Qualcomm discontinued commercial development of the application in October 2006, turning it over to the open source community.

Since then, a new version of Eudora codenamed Penelope has been built from elements of Mozilla's Thunderbird. "We are committed to preserving the Eudora user experience and maintaining maximum compatibility for developers and users with Thunderbird," said the developers.
Microsoft

Microsoft Wanted To Drop Mac Office To Hurt Apple 479

Overly Critical Guy writes to mention that more documents in the Iowa antitrust case have come out. This time, it's revealed that Microsoft considered dumping the Mac Office Suite entirely in a move to harm Apple. "The email complains at poor sales of Office, which it attributes to a lack of focus on making such sales among reps at that time. It describes dumping development of the product as: 'The strongest bargaining point we have, as doing so will do a great deal of harm to Apple immediately.' The document also confirms that Microsoft at the time saw Office for the Mac as a chance to test new features in the product before they appeared in Windows, 'because it is so much less critical to our business than Windows.'"
Databases

Microsoft Plays Up Open Source 224

An anonymous reader writes "Recently Microsoft's open source software lab posted PostgreSQL on Windows: A Primer. Postgres is one of the longest running open source databases — it has been around for nearly 11 years. The powerful object-relational database is a direct competitor to other OSS databases, as well as Microsoft's SQL Server 2005. So why is Microsoft promoting it? I get Redmond's interest in boosting anything that runs on Windows as a platform. Is this simply a case of left-hand, right-hand, or is something deeper going on?"
The Almighty Buck

Gates Foundation To Spend All Its Assets 319

El Lobo writes "The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has said it will spend all its assets within 50 years of both of them dying. The foundation focuses on improving health and economic development globally, and improving education and increasing access to technology. It also focuses on fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The Seattle-based foundation plans to increase spending to about $3.5 billion a year beginning in 2009 and continuing through the next decade, up from about $1.75 billion this year." The Wall Street Journal (excerpted at the link above) called the foundation's decision "a decisive move in a continuing debate in philanthropy about whether such groups should live on forever."
Patents

Ballmer Says Linux "Infringes Our Intellectual Property" 820

Stony Stevenson writes "In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property." From the ComputerWorld article: "In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux 'uses our intellectual property' and Microsoft wanted to 'get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation.'" His exact wording is available at the Seattle Intelligencer, which has a transcript of the interview. Groklaw had an article up Wednesday giving some perspective on the Novell/Microsoft deal. Guess we'll have something to talk about in 2007, huh?

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