 |
::: Tuesday, December 31 ::: |
|
|
::: Friday, December 20 ::: |
|
|
::: Thursday, December 19 ::: |
|
|
Heh: Is $200 the magic number for PCs?
This has got to be tearing Microsoft up. They know that, even though none of these tech articles dare to mention it, most sub-$300 systems will end up running Windows anyway. I mean, who doesn't have a spare Win98SE disk hanging about?
That's one of the main reasons behind the Windows XP Product Activation push... to force people to adhere to the "one license=one machine" restriction. Between that and Microsoft auditing OEM's who refuse to quit selling OS-less boxes, it may soon be virtually impossible to get a machine without Windows. Good thing the new "Trustworthy" Microsoft doesn't do that sort of thing anymore.
1:39 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
::: Tuesday, December 17 ::: |
Uhm: Patent creates IM wrinkle
"The claim is it's a system where you have a network; you have a way to monitor who's on the network; and if you want to talk to them you hook them up," said Gregory Aharonian, publisher of Internet Patent News Service, a newsletter that's critical of technology patents. "If you're doing something like that, you're potentially infringing."
Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't a standard office phone system meet the criteria of their claim? One would assume that some "prior art" might exist since phone systems have been in use since the 60's.
3:37 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
::: Monday, December 16 ::: |
Ahem: Mod chip crackdown at Christmas
What Microsoft, Nintendo, and now CNN seem to conveniently ignore is that most modchip buyers are trying to defeat asinine regional coding to play legally purchased imports... not to play pirated games. Piracy may well impact publishers on some very slight scale, but that pales in comparison to the ill-gotten gains they receive from regional coding their products. Of course, if publishers were forced to charge a single, currency-adjusted rate for their products world-wide then buyers in US and Japan would end up paying much higher prices than they do now. As the man once said, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
3:15 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
Sweet: Froogle
Think Google for shopping... drop in a product name or description and see a broad selection of prices from a myriad of sites. My one complaint is that is doesn't seem to sort by price automatically.
2:49 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
::: Friday, December 13 ::: |
Summary: Woman denies trying to kill husband
This article can be summed up in five sentences:
- Dennis Pratt left the house to run an errand, only to find his wife pointing the loaded rifle at his groin when he returned.
- [Lori] asked [Dennis] for instructions on how to use the gun, which he gave.
- Lori Pratt works at the Happy Days Daycare in Arlington.
- [Dennis] is unemployed.
- The shooting allegedly took place at the couple’s North Road trailer.
[thanks to The Obscure Store for the link]
11:25 AM CST :: 1 comment
|
|
Finally: Netscape punctures pop-up ads
It's about time Netscape caught up with Mozilla in this respect. Now if AOL will just get off their high-horse and integrate Gecko with their 8.0 software everyone will be much better off. Perhaps if enough people are exposed to Mozilla technology then Microsoft can concentrate on producing a better OS instead of composing all those IE/Outlook Security Alerts.
10:45 AM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
Hmm: I, Cringely [12/12/2002]
Seems like everyone's talking about music distribution today. Bob has a few interesting ideas, but I'm not sure any VC would set their sails against the prevailing winds of the ultra-litigous RIAA at the moment. Perhaps I'm wrong though, I'm sure some VC's appreciate the value of a challenge just as much as they do profitability.
10:13 AM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
::: Wednesday, December 11 ::: |
|
|
::: Tuesday, December 10 ::: |
|
|
Thhpt: Web design guru sees Flash challenges
Calling Jakob Nielsen a "web design guru" is like calling Ralph Nader an automobile design specialist. Not to down-play the importance Nader had in making our cars safer, but all either of these men did was point out what was wrong and offer somewhat limited assistance in correcting the flaws they exposed to the public.
1:47 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
::: Monday, December 9 ::: |
|
|
::: Friday, December 6 ::: |
|
|
::: Thursday, December 5 ::: |
Cool: The Spam Battle 2002 - A Tactical Update
A complete run-down of the wonderful world of spam including a brief history lesson and the top methods by which spammers ply their trade. I've always thought that the best way to fight this garbage was through education, so this is certainly a step in the right direction. If everyone learns to just stop paying any attention to spam it will wither and die on its own.
The flaw in this plan is that a single purchase or banner-click from a lone moron is enough to justify millions of messages per day from hundreds of sources. Low percentages are nothing to spammers. Until they start seeing returns well below the eighth decimal place it's business as usual.
4:51 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
Uhm: Microsoft eases licences with Windows .NET Server 2003
I'm not sure who exactly is going to benefit (other than Microsoft of course) from this new licensing regime. Currently, Client Access Licenses are purchased on a per-device basis which is quite simple... when you buy a machine you buy a license also (unless that machine is going to be a replacement device for an existing user). One computer, one license.
The new concept revolves around a very fluid commodity, i.e. human resources. What is to become of the college computer lab, for instance? Previously the school could purchase a license for each machine in the lab and feel safe. Under the new plan would this situation require a license for each student who might potentially utilize that computer? What about home users? If my wife uses my machine to access our home server do I need a CAL for her as well? What about public computers in libraries or coffee houses? Does every customer have to have their own CAL?
The Novell Netware licensing model was even simpler: when you purchased the server-side software you specified the number of connections you might need and all-you-can-eat client licenses was part of the bargain. The down-side to this was two-fold. First and foremost the user counts lacked granularity. If you needed 30 users you had to buy 50, if you needed 51 then you were forced into 100, etc. This was necessary from a supply-chain stand-point to limit the number of SKU's particularly in the days when each language had its own part number.
The second problem was one that Microsoft faced itself in a much more limited fashion when people started tweaking NT Workstation to make it think it was NT Server. The only thing that determined a server's user count was the SERVER.EXE executable. Clever folks could open that file in a hex editor and crank the user count up to whatever they wanted. Less clever folks who wanted to bump up from that 5-user el-cheapo special could still "borrow" the SERVER.EXE from their school's 250-user server and use it themselves as long as the two servers never had to share a common network address space.
The upside is obvious: no counting whatsoever. You never had to count machines or users. Whenever the 51st or 101st user attempted to sign-on their connection was denied and life went on. This led to connection hoarding in some offices, but there has never been an office environment which was not, at least in part, polluted by some level of office politics.
In short... No, sir, I don't like it.
4:39 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
Hmm: Who will rid us of fake error message ads?
Call me old-fashioned, but what's the harm in leveraging a bit of Darwinism to drive traffic to a website? Don't get me wrong, I hate Bonzi just as much as any of the other companies who thrive on distribution of banner ads. I just don't think this is the best way to approach the situation.
Taking advantage of naive, inexperienced, or just plain dumb people has been an amazingly good business to be in since currency was invented... mostly because there literally does seem to be a new one born every minute. A silly law suit isn't going to change that fact.
4:05 PM CST :: tell me a story
|
|
|
dinoneil[at]newdream[dot]net
|
|
|
|
|
