Cynicism is the last refuge of the idealist

Macworld UK - Microsoft’s Ballmer to meet EC antitrust chief

I want them to levy the harshest possible fines against Microsoft - I want them to be punished in the way the US government was to scared/feeble to do

It’s heartwarming to see that there are some people out there in the technology world who see that technology has a place in saving the world and it will only happen if it is not at the hands of greedy evil corporations instead, handing technology to the poor and underprivileged.

MIT Labs have announced that they will unveil a prototype of their sub $100 laptop intended to provide every child in the world with access to technology

The lab expects to unveil a prototype of the $100 laptop at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on Nov. 17, according to Negroponte. The WSIS is due to be held in Tunis, Tunisia, from Nov. 16 to Nov. 18. He showed slides of the prototype at the MIT event.

The 500MHz laptop will run a “skinny version” of the open-source Linux operating system. It will have a two-mode screen, so it can be viewed in color and then by pushing a button or activating software switch to a black-and-white display, which can be viewed in bright sunlight at four times normal resolution, according to Negroponte. He estimates the display will cost around $35.

The laptop can be powered either with an AC adapter or via a wind-up crank, which is stored in the housing of the laptop where the hinge is located. The laptops will have a 10 to 1 crank rate, so that a child will crank the handle for one minute to get 10 minutes of power and use. When closed, the hinge forms a handle and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap, according to Negroponte. The laptops will be ruggedized and probably made of rubber, he said. They will have four USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, be Wi-Fi- and cell phone enabled and come with 1GB of memory.

what an absolutely fantastic idea and one that truly deserves supporting.

I particularly lie the way the device will utilise open source software rather than the evil, bug-ridden bloatware that infests far too many of the worlds’ computers

Eolas Wins Round vs. MS in Browser Patent Fight

glad to hear that Microsoft aren’t getting things their own way in the fight agains Eolas - the US Patent Office has rejected Microsoft’s attempt to squash a patent which could cost Microsoft hundreds of millions of dollars.

A Microsoft spokesperson admitted the decision was not promising. “This is disappointing news, but we are committed to seeing this case through to a successful resolution,” she said.

I guess that’s Microsoft speak for ‘we’ve been found guilty before and avoided being punished, so it ain’t over till Bill gates sings’

Microsoft’s court trial isn’t bound by the decision of the PTO, and could come to a different conclusion, though “such cases are rare,” Crouch said.

I guess we should prepare to hear about Microsoft lobbying the fool on the hill and all his cronies to make sure they get off

Evil evil, I hate them

New Plant Finds In Andes Foretell Of Ancient Climate Change

Lonnie thompson, a glaciologist has returned from Peru with samples of plants which were formerly covered by glaciers which seem to show that the andes are warmer now than they have been for many thousands of years

In 2002, he first stumbled across some non-fossilized plants exposed by the steadily retreating Quelccaya ice cap. Carbon dating showed that plant material was at least 5,000 years old.

Then in 2004, Thompson found additional plant beds revealed by the continued retreat of the melting ice and when tested, these proved to be carbon-free, suggesting that they might date back more than 50,000 years. If true, that would suggest that the climate in that region may not have been as warm as it is today in more than 500 centuries.

and yet those arrogant bastards still deny that the global climate is getting warmer and disaster approaching

Warner raises decapitation strategy for Apple

It’s obviously the week for the arrogance of the record companies to show through - today’s batch of idiocy comes from Michael Nash, Warner’s digital strategy chief.

What if Jobs says 39 cents or 29 cents per download - what then? The industry can say, OK we’ll cut him of - very few people people buy music from digital downloads,” said Nash, who pointed out that most of the music on iPods is from their own collections.

Now there’s a good way to encourage people to buy in to digital downloads - threaten to stop them happening

And how about this little corker

“It’s going to be difficult to get the consumer to stop thinking about owning music, and think about paying for participation instead,” said one executive.

So actually these arrogant bastards really want to get us enslaved to paying them over and over again for their music - they need to go out of business, all of them

Ballmer: Microsoft Is Intent to Deliver Value

I’m sorry - does my hatred of the Beast of Redmond show???

Steve Ballmer, henchman extraordinaire to Bill Gates admits that Windows (spit) Vista (double spit) is just a poor copy of OS X - his justification - that enterprise managers don’t keep tabs on what’s happening in the Mac world - so that justifies plagiarism, does it, the ignorance of IT managers

Some Microsoft critics say that many of the features in “Longhorn” already exist in other operating systems. How do you respond to that?
I don’t hear that from enterprise customers. They don’t look at the Mac. They just don’t. Some people will say some of the features are kissing cousins to features they’ve seen elsewhere, and that is true. I’m not apologetic about the fact that we should, in a way that doesn’t offend anyone else’s intellectual property, study and learn and benefit from the work others have done.

I’m sorry but I can’t wait till the rest of the world wakes up and stops buying their bug-ridden insecure bloatware

In fact, I’m not sorry - this is a rant saying wake up world and put these people out of business

LXer: 10 Days as a Windows XP User: A GNU Perspective on Things
As if we need any reminding of the dangers of using windows - the tale of woe of a Linux user’s experience of installing windows XP on his machine

I do not consider Windows ready for the desktop. I found it difficult to use, buggy and lacking in security. I also found technical support lacking.

While Windows captured a significant portion of the desktop market, the product is clearly not a good fit for consumers who do not understand the risks associated with logging on to the Internet. The costs of providing aftermarket products can run higher than the price paid for the hardware.

As a gloating Mac user, I can definitely confirm that I have had a very similar experience when trying to sort out my brother’s laptop which was infested with spyware, viruses and trojans and is still disinfecting itself nearly two weeks later. My brother is virtually technically illiterate and so was not aware of the dangers of connecting to the internet. He was so fed up with the level of infection of his old Windows Me laptop that he went and bought a Win XP machine from Dell and was attacked within 30 seconds of connecting to the Net - how bad is that??

This story just get’s juicier - a quote from Macuser follows:

Suspicions that elements of the record industry are becoming increasingly divorced from reality were given further weight last week when Tommi Kyyrä from the Finland offices of the IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries) justified DRM technologies on CDs by saying that consumers have no automatic right to be able to play music on computers.
‘Now, we need to understand that listening to music on your computer is an extra privilege,’ he said. ‘Normally people listen to music on their car or through their home stereos. If you are a Linux or Mac user, you should consider purchasing a regular CD player.

Hmmmmm. Maybe we should just get a list of all your artists and boycott them - what these arrogant greedy bastards need to learn is that they don’t have an automatic right to our money

How’s this for being greedy??

The big record companies, in addition to the gazillions of pounds they bleed from consumers by charging so much for digital downloads, now think they should be entitled to a share of teh profits from the iPod

“Not all songs are created equal — not all time periods are created equal,” Mr. Bronfman told those assembled at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia investor conference. “We want, and will insist upon having, variable pricing.” His words were reported in an article on the Red Herring Web site.

Mr. Bronfman then upped the ante by describing his industry as “the arms supplier in the device wars between Samsung, Sony, Apple and others.” He insisted: “We are selling our songs through iPod, but we don’t have a share of iPod’s revenue. We want to share in those revenue streams. We have to get out of the mindset that our content has promotional value only.”

As for variable pricing, Mr. Bronfman was quick to point out that “some songs should be $0.99 and some songs should be more. I don’t want to give anyone the impression that $0.99 is a thing of the past.”

the sheer greed of these people stagger me - they know that they are enjoying their last gasp of having any large-scale earnings since it is only a matter of time before they are superfluous and are trying to wring every lastdrop out of the stone before they go bankrupt

Everyone knows that it is inevitable that piracy will rise once again if they put the prices up - it is a ridiculous position to take

What’s going on - why can’t I get in???