Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Tuesday, December 9, 2003

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Judge to SCO: cough up the code: "A Utah judge rules that the SCO Group has 30 days to cough up the Linux code which it says infringes on its Unix ownership rights." [Ars Technica]

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When the government is changing history: "Brewster Kahle's [...] Way Back Machine [...] has been collecting copies of the Internet since 1996. [...] On May 1, 2003, the Whitehouse's Office of the Press Secretary released this press release, announcing "President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended." But then, with airbrush magic, now the same press release has been changed to this, which reports "President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended." No update on the page, no indication of when the change occurred, indeed, no indication that any change occurred at all. [...] Why would you need to check up on the Whitehouse, you might ask? Who would be so unAmerican as to doubt the veracity of the Press Office?" [Lessig Blog]

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Licence fees and GDP per capita: "Rishab writes: I've prepared a table comparing the $560 cost of a single windows + office licence to GDP/capita for 176 countries and some geographical aggregates. In India, GDP/capita is $462 so the licence cost of windows is 14.5 months of average income, translated into US terms that's $42725. Not surprisingly, the higher this effective cost, the higher the BSA-estimated piracy rate." [Jeremy Zawodny's blog]

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Biometrics: Prepare to be Scanned: "[S]ecurity systems based on biometrics--human characteristics such as faces, hand shapes and fingerprints--are finally taking off. [...] [B]ecause biometrics cannot be forgotten, like a password, or lost or stolen, like a key or an identity card, they are an ideal way to control access to computer networks, airport service-areas and bank vaults. [...] Many people would prefer not to have to submit their eyes for scanning in order to withdraw money from a cash dispenser." [Privacy Digest]

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IBM hails nano chip-making: "IBM says self-assembly molecules could soon be used to make chip components even smaller." [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

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Jokes inflame 'e-mail epidemic': "The mass of e-mails produced daily is ramping up costs for firms due to archiving and storage problems." [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]