Bear Flag Republic Radio Weblog

Here are some facts. 1. MS has the dominant Web browser. 2. They got there illegally. They were convicted. 3. We're in the penalty phase now.

My belief: The conviction was the correct result. Now they must come up with a penalty that is appropriate, that will prevent Microsoft and future would-be Microsofts from using a monopoly in one technology to gain a monopoly in another. To allow juggernauts like Netscape a little breathing room to learn and make mistakes before they have to deal with a monopoly that acts willfully to cut off their air supply. To make Microsoft a better platform vendor, with more developers, with more new ideas being tried out. To help developers and their investors trust the market, without illegal and unethical interference from Microsoft.

On strictly pragmatic terms, if Microsoft isn't lying when it says it wants developers for its new platform, they should welcome the opportunity to get its developer relations back on track. Yesterday's survey says that at least people who read Scripting News, many of whom are developers, don't trust them. You can try to rationalize it any way you want, but a majority said clearly that they believe Gates lied about something that is central to the issues at hand. Arguing with me is pointless. The problem is deep. A major correction now is something that a Microsoft that's thinking long-term should welcome.

Microsoft clearly doesn't have any vision for the Web other than owning and controlling and freezing it. As Web developers, it was our air supply that Microsoft cut off. The correct solution is to decouple the Web from Microsoft in a permanent and non-revokable way. It should be done in a way that causes the least possible disruption of service for users, while creating the maximum possibility for competition. For Microsoft to argue fairness is ridiculous. They are not qualified to argue about fairness. [Scripting News]

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Gates Says Windows Updates Threatened. Antitrust penalties would keep Microsoft from releasing timely security updates to Windows, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday. Horse shit....

[New York Times: Technology]

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Boy the Google API has stimulated a lot of discussion on the XML developer mail lists.  [Scripting News]
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Intel, Loaves, and Fishes (and Blades and Razors): Intel gets all Biblical, like, and talks about their desire to have hot spots everywhere. Intel makes the chips (or will be soon), and wants to encourage public space providers to push it out. This, of course, helps their market in a variety of ways: newer devices will push the sales of newer machines; new motherboards with on-board Wi-Fi or wireless push new sales. Intel gets to diversify, too, and sell more wireless gear, unlatching their gravy train (as they have been increasingly working on the last several years) from the pure processor market. Ultimately, Intel might see a fraction of their revenue from CPUs.

[80211b News]
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Filter Tobacco.

"Filter Tobacco is a FREE software product designed to act as a gatekeeper. It protects children from tobacco marketing on the Internet by blocking access to websites that rate themselves (using the Internet Content Rating Association's system) as promoting use of tobacco products or are judged by the developers of Filter Tobacco as promoting the use of tobacco, especially those sites that sell tobacco products.

Filter Tobacco does not seek to remove these sites, or to censor their content. It is a tool to empower parents, helping them to make informed judgments as to whether their child should be exposed to websites that market tobacco or promote the use of tobacco products....

Filter Tobacco is a PICS-compliant template. With Filter Tobacco, parents can customize the tobacco-related filtering categories that they wish to allow and block. Filter Tobacco can be used in conjunction with Microsoft's Internet Explorer or ICRAfilter, the free filtering engine provided by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA). ICRAfilter is a powerful, highly-configurable filtering program that enables parents to control access to material they deem offensive or potentially harmful to their children. A unique feature of ICRAfilter is that it was specifically designed to allow third parties to create specialized filters for specific interests. Filter Tobacco is one of the first templates to be designed for this system."

Courtesy of Ernest Miller and Raul Ruiz.

[The Shifted Librarian]
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