Open Source

Wednesday, July 31, 2002

If You Want to Complain About the HP Unix Debacle Then ... Here's the "Email Carly" CEO vanity web form to submit your comment.  I submitted my blog entry.  It'll be interesting to see what happens. http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/execteam/email/fiorina/index.htm And, while I'm not sure, I think the email address for Kent Ferson is kent.ferson@compaq.com since that's the one variant that doesn't get bounced back right away (he originally worked for Compaq before this HP crap).  Drop him a line if you think this is just plain silly.  And if anyone out there has a definitive email address for him then I'll be thrilled to publish it... 9:45:38 PM

The New HP: In My Humble Opinion, As Dumb as a Sack of Dead Toads.  That's New. WASHINGTON--Hewlett Packard has found a new club to use to pound researchers who unearth flaws in the company's software: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company's Tru64 Unix operating system. In a letter sent on Monday, an HP vice president warned SnoSoft, a loosely organized research collective, that its members "could be fined up to $500,000 and imprisoned for up to five years" for its role in publishing information on a bug that lets an intruder take over a Tru64 Unix system. HP's dramatic warning appears to be the first time the DMCA has been invoked to stifle research related to computer security. Until now, it's been used by copyright holders to pursue people who distribute computer programs that unlock copyrighted content such as DVDs or encrypted e-books. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-947325.html This is just plain stupid beyond belief.  It also makes me sad to see HP claiming Compaq's previous role as one of the first commercial Linux companes.  What would John Maddog Hall (the original Compaq Linux enthusiast) think? Carly, Carly, Carly... Would you please drop kick the rather clue free individual known as "Kent Ferson", a vice president in HP's Unix systems unit.  And as a general rule of thumb, if your engineers simply wrote bug free code, these things wouldn't happen.  If you could ensure this then I'm sure that groups like SnoSoft will have no problems with your products. Thanks Dave for pointing this one out. 9:34:08 PM