Thursday, October 17, 2002

Roach motel. Busted on a minor charge, I joined the luckless army of minorities who are crammed into jail cells every day by America's surreal war on marijuana. [Salon.com] 6:42:39 PM

Uncertainty in PC Industry Keeps Apple Earnings Flat. Fighting off a deepening technology recession, Apple Computer reported essentially flat revenue for its fourth quarter of 2002. By John Markoff. [New York Times: Technology] 6:30:58 PM

Bluetooth, Do You Read Me? Wireless Typing and Clicking. Microsoft's Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth is not just another wireless computer keyboard and mouse. By Michel Marriott. [New York Times: Technology] 6:28:01 PM

Some Yelp as Microsoft Squeezes. Microsoft's plan to impose a new pricing program has prompted a chorus of complaints from corporate and government customers. By Steve Lohr. [New York Times: Technology] 6:26:43 PM

Statements Put White House Into a Gun Control Debate. The White House has become embroiled in a combination of volatile gun control politics and the public's anxiety over the sniper in the Washington area. By Neil A. Lewis. [New York Times: Politics] 6:24:27 PM

Bush Garners Little Support at U.N. for an Attack on Iraq. The Bush administration's push for an early American-led war against Iraq drew broad opposition on Wednesday in an unusual open debate in the Security Council. By Julia Preston. [New York Times: Politics] 6:22:11 PM

Sun narrows loss, layoffs loom. The computer maker reports a quarterly net loss of $111 million, or 4 cents per share, on revenue of $2.7 billion and announces a 4,400-employee job cut. [CNET News.com] 5:44:36 PM

Palestinians 'killed by Israeli tank fire'. Seven Palestinians are killed during clashes at the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza¸ say Palestinian medical staff. [BBC News | WORLD] 4:05:12 PM

Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen: "At one point, Acrobat was known as the 'roach motel' of data formats -- you could get data in, but you couldn’t get it out." [Scripting News] 11:14:17 AM

Iraq States Its Case. The people of Iraq and their government in Baghdad have no intention of attacking anyone, now or in the future, with weapons of any kind. By Mohammed Aldouri. [New York Times: Opinion] 11:08:43 AM

FAA Considering Passenger Ban [The Onion] 11:04:18 AM

Bush On Economy: 'Saddam Must Be Overthrown' [The Onion] 11:02:38 AM

Passport for Linux On the Way. mrsam writes "PCWorld reports that Microsoft comissioned Ready-to-Run Software, ... [Slashdot] 11:02:15 AM

CTV: 4 in 10 Americans support annexing Canada. [Scripting News] 10:58:22 AM

Microsoft Settlement Compliance Criticized. Jeremy Allison - Samba Team writes "A report on the Microsoft "release" of ... [Slashdot] Maybe the mythological Microsoft Brain Implant is working overtime, but I just can't see what the fuss is about. This part of the settlement was to balance two things: one, allow market competition to have wire compatibility for their products and two, continue to have incentives for Microsoft to build new useful protocols. The compromise was RAND licensing, meaning (for what I can understand) that Microsoft can not discriminate among the different companies that licensing the protocol and to have reasonable terms for said licence. (For a feel what reasonable terms means see this zdnet article about a seperate RAND licence issue.) If Red Hat wants to use the protocols, they are free to license them, and release a product with that knowledge, but I don't see why it should have to be completely free. Microsoft often gives away a ton of IP and work when it makes sense, but there are times when it's better to try to license it. I guess it sucks for RedHat that they can't incorporate Free Software into a product that uses the licenced tech, but then that's a limitation of thier using the GPL (and why Microsoft continues to avoid it like the plague). I'll worry more when a party like Sun or IBM says that they have issues. 9:57:40 AM