SCO News Roundup: November 2006

Thursday, November 30, 2006

11/30 SNR

Another day, another defeat for SCO. As usual, PJ's got the very latest here. Wells ruled from the bench this time, even. Important life lesson for Darl & Co.: When you exhaust the patience of a very patient federal judge, your realistic options have basically run out.
Coverage of yesterday's ruling at Slashdot & Ars Technica, and the Salt Lake Tribune.
If you see anything about the deal in your local newspaper, it'll probably be this Associated Press story. Which is ok; it's a pretty decent and well-researched story, by wire service standards.
The Seattle P-I has a quick blurb about the ruling here, which seems to be condensed from the full AP story.
KSL-TV in Salt Lake has a very brief blurb here. They accept user comments, so feel free to drop by and say hello, or smirk quietly, or gloat, or whatever.
Even Daniel Lyons can't totally ignore yesterday's events. In a new piece, he says he's "shocked, shocked!!!" that SCO lied to Forbes about the particulars of their IBM case. Since he's an MSM insider, we're supposed to ignore the fact that he was a willing, eager participant in SCO's con game from the beginning. I suspect he knew it was a scam from day 1, but stayed onboard anyway for misguided, purely ideological reasons.
Enderle's still drinking the Kool-Aid, if his latest rambling screed is any indication.
Yesterday, SJVN airily dismissed the whole SCO situation, saying they don't matter anymore. Here's PJ's response. I actually tend to lean towards SJVN's point of view, in a way; it's fun to follow, if you're a geek, but nothing remotely surprising has happened for a very long time now. If it was a fair fight, if there was any chance SCO had any case whatsoever, it would be much more newsworthy than it is now. There's no "man bites dog" here anymore.
One break in the gloom if you're a SCO employee: Tomorrow your latest batch of precious Employee Stock Purchase Plan shares will vest, and you can sell to your evil, shrivelled-up hearts' content, for all the good it'll do you. Just remember: Darl & Ralphie get to run for the border for real, but all you get is dinner at Taco Bell.
From the USPTO (which is hard to deep-link to), we learn that SCO applied for separate trademarks for the terms "ME INC" (#78711213) and "ME, INC." (#78608239), but the latter application has been abandoned. Also abandoned are their applications for the terms "MYVOTE", "MOBILET", "EXECUTION PROCESS SERVER", "ROADRUNNER MOBILE", "ABOVE THE LINE", "EPS MOBILE", and "GOMOBILE". "Roadruner Mobile" and "GoMobile" were refused due to the likelihood of confusion with already-trademarked products, and "Execution Process Server" was refused since the USPTO thinks it's just a description of a product, which is not protectable. "EPS Mobile" was refused because SCO didn't explain what "EPS" stood for, and there were plenty of examples of it standing for other already-trademarked things, e.g. Encapsulated PostScript. Even better, "Above the Line" was refused as a generic term, and the trademark examiner cited age-old references to IBM COBOL as a prime example. W00t! And in the case of "Mobilet", everything basically checked out, but the USPTO asked for more info about exactly what it was SCO was trying to trademark, and SCO failed to respond, so that application was tossed out as well.

Even the classic "SCO Grows Your Business" is no longer owned by SCO. The USPTO sent SCO's application to the big circular file in the sky, for failing to file a "Statement of Use". That's just a sworn statement asserting they've actually used the term in commerce. We've seen the term in their PR and so forth; even the most die-hard SCO opponent (such as myself) will probably admit to having seen SCO use the phrase. So that's the rare legal hurdle they should've had no problem with, but they botched it. What a bunch of maroons.
Meanwhile, the USPTO wants to refuse SCO's application for the word "HANDBOOK", again saying it's merely a descriptive term, but Darl & Co. are putting up a fight this time. I like this tidbit from SCO's response, where they argue their use of the word is unrelated to the dictionary definition of the word.

Thus, when the true nature of Applicant's goods are considered, there is nothing that relates these goods to the meaning of the word "handbook" by the Examiner. In other words, the word "handbook" in no way describes the nature, characteristics, features, and/or properties of the Applicant's communications software. Instead, upon hearing and seeing the mark, consumers are required to use their thought, perception, and/or imagination to fully understand and comprehend the nature and the characteristics of the Applicant's goods function to enable communications/collaboration with cellular phones, smart phones, PDAs, computers, etc.
From Usenet, a thread on nz.comp about yesterday's ruling.
Also from Usenet, some hand-wringing on c.u.s.m. about the ill-considered Daylight Savings experiment in Western Australia. Dealing with that will be enough of a pain with a common, mainstream, well-supported OS, so I can only imagine the fun SCO customers are in for in the next few days. Blech!
From blogospace, a failed attempt to locate SCO HQ.
Also from blogostan, what happens if you write your Christmas cards with a Me Inc. schwag pen.
Yet more from blogodelphia, a thread on NNSeek that originated on the Y! board.
IDC's stats about the server market in Q2 are here. ITJungle's spin on the numbers is here.
Seems that competence is occasionally rewarded at BS&F. The lawyer who handled the Bad Elf beer case is in line for an open state judicial spot in New York. Of course, then he won't be a BS&F lawyer anymore.

The same guy was behind the big fundraising campaign for that ritzy private school in Albany, NY, so that may be the real reason behind the nomination, for all we know.
Elsewhere, BS&F is arguing that bribing Chinese government officials is perfectly legal. Anything for a buck, I guess.
A real, live example of spam from EdgeClick / Me Inc. It's not even any good by the usual spam standards, just some boring crap about preapproved loans. Sorry, Darl, but half of Nigeria is having a laugh at your expense right now.
I guess Vista's on the market now, sort of, FWIW. BBC coverage here, and reader responses here. And a piece at CBR saying Vista stays in the lab for now. This jibes up with my own experience: I do a fair bit of Windows coding in RL, and I'd really like to verify that my code runs OK on Vista, but right now I can't. The new OS scares my IT department shitless, and they won't permit any Vista boxes on the corporate network until further notice.
From the boards, two fun(?) YouTube clips of Steve Ballmer.
From across the pond, the very latest on Birmingham's Linux situation. According to the city, the program was a success after all, just an unreasonably expensive success.
Some ancient history: a Forbes piece about Darl getting turfed out of SolutionBank way back in 1998.
Also, another bit about the MS-Corel deal, way back in 2000. The parallels with the recent Novell deal are a bit alarming.
At LinuxWorld, a rare positive piece about the MS-Novell deal.
In non-MS news about Novell, seems they've delayed the release of SuSE Enterprise 10 Service Pack 1, in case you were holding your breath. They're currently previewing their upcoming "Open Enterprise Server" release, an unholy mashup of Linux & NetWare. The same piece meanders off into Solaris world, mentioning that Trusted Solaris Extensions for Sol10 should be available in a few weeks. This is only cause for celebration if you've never actually tried to use Trusted Solaris. Eeegah!!!!
In related news, El Reg (ok, Orlowski) speculates about whether there's a GNU/Solaris in our future. Hmm.....
On the kewl tech front, pieces about dual-core and quad-core Opterons. 16-core boxes are on the horizon, and remember, you're gonna need a $699 SCOSource license for every damn one of those cores. So you'd better start saving those pennies now.
Are you sick of the ever-growing dominance of the x86 architecture? There's still a little hope left, if you're a geek with copious free time, and you want to homebrew your own CPU. It really is possible. You won't be winning any speed awards, but you can do it, if you really want to.
Got a weird urge to run some precious SCO IP on your Linux box? Here's the closest you're likely to get: Meet "Unix on Linux", an effort to extend the existing User-Mode Linux project so it can host other OSes, specifically a ported version of Seventh Edition Unix, circa 1975 or so. That is, if you think SCO has any rights to so-called "Ancient UNIX", which is highly doubtful.
FWIW: If you see ads for a movie titled "Breakfast with Sco", be aware that it's about gay hockey players in Canada, and not about "our" SCO. Actually "Sco" might be a typo in that story, but it came up in a Google news search, so I thought I'd pass it along. So, well, whatever.

By brx0 @ 1:54 AM [permalink]. 2 comments

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

11/29 SNR

In case you missed it, today's top story is that SCO's case against IBM is royally screwed. Yes, even more. Today, Judge Kimball affirmed Magistrate Wells' earlier ruling that tossed out nearly all of SCO's supposed "evidence". Groklaw has the story here, and Tuxrocks has the PDF of the ruling here.

It's never easy to predict how much media play this kind of thing will get. Kimball simply affirmed an existing ruling, and didn't break any ground. It's fair to say it would've been much bigger news if he'd reversed the earlier ruling. As always, if I see any interesting media coverage of the latest goings-on, you'll see it all here.
A new SJVN piece, written prior to the ruling, titled "SCO No Longer Matters". Well, I'd argue that's been true for a year or two now. But the saga's still fun to watch.
A piece from India about the recent SCOoffice Server update.
Another bit about the Bad Elf beer situation. More at BeerAdvocate.
Stop the presses: Looks like the state of New York has changed its mind, and citizens of the Empire State can have their Xmas brewskis after all. Way to chase that ambulance, BS&F! Naturally, they're saying the case will continue anyway, because arguing over constitutionality can be very, very lucrative.
BS&F may also end up running a class action case against Halliburton, if the plaintiffs manage to fire their existing law firm. Talk about jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Not a lot of useful material on the message boards right now, unless you like trolls and spammers. Someone posted a link to a video clip of the Spam sketch, complete with Japanese subtitles. So this will be today's token contribution from the boards.
More great Zune schadenfreude from BusinessWeek, ITWire, CNet UK, and FIN24.
A recent piece about the Canopy Group turning over a new leaf. The piece is recent, but everything in it is old news. Ralphie's been gone for ages and ages now.

By brx0 @ 6:08 PM [permalink]. 0 comments

Monday, November 27, 2006

11/28 SNR

First, the sole bit of SCO-related media coverage today, which isn't really new. If you've been watching the IBM case at all, one of SCO's sillier assertions in the case is that they don't have any evidence because IBM destroyed it all. IBM says that's a bunch of hooey. Nothing really new here, but the tech media's just noticed this quirk in the saga, so here it is.
On GL, the latest fun with Expedited Motions to Compel. Slowly, SCO is realizing it isn't quite so much fun when they're on the receiving end.
An update from hamjudo2000 on short interest in SCO stock.
Also, the Daniel Wallace sideshow makes a brief cameo in the SCO v. IBM case. IBM cites Wallace's multiple defeats as a validation of the GPL, so Danny's inadvertently done us all a favor.
Here's how to turn your shiny new Zune into a portable hard drive. It's a simple matter of registry editing. What could be simpler? World domination, here we come!
A bit about Vista video drivers, or the lack thereof.
WinXP: Bad for the environment.
A transcript of RMS in Tokyo. The message board trolls think this helps their cause for some reason. I have no idea why. Maybe they're just stupid.
Rob Enderle's holiday gift guide. Before he gets to the gadgets, he rhapsodizes about some sort of hot tub / spa setup. I realize he's from California and all, but that's just too much sharing. Surprisingly, he forgets to inform us where we can obtain the appropriate cologne and gold medallions.
When he isn't channeling the groovy 70's, Enderle still has time for a bit of anti-GPL fud. Anything to pay the bills, I guess.
Andy Ihnakto: "Avoid the Loony Zune".
Dan Frakes @ Playlist: "How not to be an iPod killer".
MS is all for virtualization in theory, but they say it's not for you. Big shocker there. Predatory monopolists only embrace cross-platform technologies in order to sabotage them. It's an iron law, true yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Don't be surprised now, and don't be surprised next time it happens.
Music copyrights in the UK will not be extended to 95 years from the current 50. So very soon, all sorts of crappy music from the 50s will finally be available for what it's actually worth. Yay!
Ralphie now fancies himself a movie mogul. His first blockbuster is titled Traffic Control: Driving Generation XXX, I suppose because CP80: The Infomercial doesn't have much of a ring to it. Local media coverage here, press release here, official movie site here. I suspect the name "Lake of Fire Productions" is a Matt Yarro contribution, the latest fruit of his weird combo of far-right religion and fantasy RPG gaming.

I have to wonder what sort of parent lets their kid talk to some creepy "businessman" about porn. Personally, I'd tell the guy to leave my kids alone and then call 911. I mean, eewww.
Boies & Co. have gotten into the holiday spirit, joining in for some fun litigation over Christmas beers. Seems the bluenoses at the Liquor Authority in New York have decided that holiday-themed beer constitutes advertising to kids. Never mind that winter seasonal beers are a centuries-old tradition in Europe, and a somewhat more recent tradition in beer-enlightened parts of the US (like Oregon for instance). So sure, BS&F seems to be chasing the right ambulance for once, but I'm afraid they'll bungle the case (as usual) and we'll end up with total Prohibition in New York when the case is over.

And then there's the matter of Boies's son, David Boies III, who's made quite a living chasing the opposite ambulance, suing all sorts of deep-pocketed beer, wine, and liquor companies for allegedly advertising to kids. You just can't win with these guys. I suppose they'd like us to institute a "Boies tax" on every drink, which you have to pay to avoid being sued. Maybe they'll call it a "BoozeSource license".
M$ runs into patent trouble in Korea.
The latest unflattering Novell analogy, in the wake of their M$ deal: Benedict Arnold.
A piece about MS handing out discounts like candy to avoid losing business to Linux. Novell & SCO get a brief mention.
The French Parliament dumps Windows for Linux.
Goldfarb pops up again, commenting on ClearChannel, Facebook, and Motorola's recent deal to buy Good Technology. I don't think he's completely off base on these, but he's also not venturing far from conventional wisdom, and none of these companies are likely PIPE candidates, so it's not his area of expertise.

It's interesting that Good Technology could be considered a Me Inc. competitor. The media coverage mentions them as a RIM competitor, I suppose because nobody knows or cares about Me Inc.
On OSNews: "Xandros Linux Conquers a Hostile Sony Laptop".
Apparently when you use the Zune's crippled Wi-Fi functionality, sending stuff back and forth is supposed to be called "squirting". (*snort* *giggle*) Surprisingly, when you search Google for the term, the #3 link (not counting sponsored links) relates to the Zune. The others are even less, uh, family friendly. Still, #3 is better than I expected. I doubt it'll hold, though, as some things have more enduring interest than others. Even MSNBC has some harsh words about the Zune. More Zune bashin' here and here.

By brx0 @ 3:51 PM [permalink]. 1 comments

Monday, November 20, 2006

11/22 SNR

As I've said before, I happily admit to being biased against SCO, but I also try to be fair. When there's actual SCO-related product news to be had, it leads, even if (like today) there are much bigger stories going on in the industry. Today's product story concerns the big Australian launch of Me, Inc. The story has the usual blah-blah about what HipCheck does (and not a word about the other Me, Inc apps), but what caught my eye is that ol' Kieran O'Shaughnessy is still with the company. We haven't heard from him in many moons, but his attack-dog rants about Linux were good for a laugh or two back in the day.
In news more people care about, the Novell-MS deal is getting ugly. I thought it'd be at least 6 months to a year before we hit the "he said, she said" phase of the relationship, but it's here already. There's no way I could keep up with every last story about the deal, but here's a recent selection:
- Computerworld: Novell backs away from Ballmer comments.
- David Berlind sez the deal's descended into a "late night spitting match". I've never seen one of those, so I don't know if he's right or not, but it's certainly a vivid image.
- Reuters: Microsoft to face challenge over Linux licenses. I was skeptical about some of the changes proposed for GPLv3, but more and more I'm leaning toward doing a "GPLv2.1" for the time being, with some common-sense provisions to make life more difficult for patent and other "IP" trolls.
- From IV, rfc3501's take on how to respond.
- IT World Canada says CIOs are unfazed by Ballmer's comments. SCO gets a mention here.
- PC World Australia says Linux users aren't real impressed either (my words, not theirs). Again, SCO gets a mention. It is apparently impossible to talk about Ballmer and the Novell-MS deal without mentioning SCO at least briefly.
- An Inquirer reader wonders if the latest threats from MS might ensnare them in court with IBM.
- A piece at openDemocracy calls the deal "Free software's Faustian moment". Which is as good an analogy as any to go with, since you can't compare it to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact without invoking Godwin's Law.
More proof of how great it is that there are so many watchful eyes trained on the Lindon mob. I only ping the USPTO site about once or twice every blue moon, but an astute reader informs me that the gears are moving down in ThinkAtomicLand.
- First, a couple of trademark apps for Ralphie's new Canopy-like portfolio, both filed for in October '05, with ThinkAtomic as the applicant. "Nanotop" is supposed to cover "IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: mobile devices, namely telephones, personal digital assistants including nano devices, MP3 players, digital audio players, digital video players, and computer application software for any of the forgoing".
- "Seedlet" is a bit more broad, covering "IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer application software for mobile devices, namely telephones, personal digital assistants including nano devices, MP3 players, digital audio players, digital video players.
  IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Wireless transmission of data and voice signals; application service provider services for mobile devices, namely telephones, personal digital assistants including nano devices, MP3 players, digital audio players, digital video players; computer application software design, development and implementation for mobile devices, namely telephones, personal digital assistants including nano devices, MP3 players, digital audio players, digital video players."
- The Nanotop application also lists a "published for opposition" date of December 19th, 2006. I don't know what that is, exactly, but I suppose it means you can start disputing his ownership of the term on that date. So far as I'm concerned, let Ralphie have the thing. It's a stupid name, and meaningless, unless maybe Ralphie's branched out into making midget S&M videos. Which I doubt.
- The Seedlet application seems to be in a bit of trouble. On November 7th, the USPTO sent the Yarro boys a "Priority Action" notice, letting them know the application as it stands is not acceptable. Seems the proposed "recitation of services" is vague, and they tried to quietly expand the application's scope with a later amendment, which is Not Allowed under USPTO rules. Gee, that sort of behavior sounds kind of familiar.
- Ralphie and friends also have three applications for different variations on "CP80", and they'd also like to own the phrase "Truth in Porn". Seriously. That application is dated January 31, 2006, and is supposed to cover "C 016. US 002 005 022 023 029 037 038 050. G & S: Printed publications, including providing books, pamphlets and other materials regarding the effects and risks of pornography, and methods of combating and reducing pornography; Advertising, marketing, or promoting public awareness, including, of the effects and risks of pornography, and methods of combating and reducing pornography; educational services, including, conducting courses and seminars in public awareness and reducing pornography; online information, including the effects and risks of pornography, and methods of combating and reducing pornography
  IC 025. US 022 039. G & S: Clothing, including t-shirts".
  
  Ooh! T-shirts that say "TRUTH IN PORN"! Where can I get one?
- I'm trying to puzzle out the attorney-of-record situation for the various applications. Brent Christensen (of Canopy "fame") is listed for some of them, while one Preston C. Regehr of Techlaw Ventures is listed for the CP80-related ones. As of October 11th, Regehr is now listed as "Correspondent" on the Nanotop and Seedlet apps, although Christensen is still listed as "attorney of record". I'm no expert on the ins and outs of trademark law, but it sure looks like Brent's off the case, voluntarily or otherwise.
- Christensen is listed on the apps as being with the law firm of Fabian & Clendenin. Where he once was the top-dog lawyer for the entire Noorda/Canopy empire, now he's just some random IP lawyer who doesn't even have his name on the door. That's got to chafe a little. Kevin freakin' McBride has his name on the door, and he doesn't even know which side of the courtroom to sit on during a routine hearing.
- Brent's keeping busy, at least, just not working for Ralphie. He's got trademark apps in the works for an industrial air conditioning co. and some sort of police training thing.
- There are also two dead applications connected with the Yarro mob, for the terms "CleanISP" and "CleanInternet" (capitalization inferred), applied for at the same time as the still-living CP80 apps. Both applications were marked "Abandonment - Failure To Respond Or Late Response" in late September '06.
- Also, for the sake of completeness, back in '97 Matt Yarro applied for a trademark on the term "Darkurthe Legends", for some sort of fantasy roleplaying thingy. That's dead now, too. FYI.
Elsewhere in IP-Land, our friends at Solera Networks have a pending patent application for "NETWORK PACKET CAPTURE DISTRIBUTED STORAGE SYSTEM", which they applied for on July 6th, 2006. It doesn't show up on the USPTO site, but the WIPO patent site identifies it as publication WO/2006/071560, if you want to go have a look.

The most interesting thing about it, to my mind, is Solera's patent attorney, J. Harrison Colter. He was general counsel of Caldera for a while, back in the Ransom Love era (see here for example) until his job fell victim to budget cuts, and he currently belongs to a group of lawyers advising CP80. While he was at Caldera, he supervised the destruction of documents regarding the DRDOS suit against Microsoft.
As noted with relief on the boards, the California Supreme Court has shielded ISPs, message board providers, and the like from liability for third-party user comments. You can't sue Yahoo for libel just because some random user there said something you didn't like. You'd think that would be basic common sense, but it's never wise to assume common sense will prevail when lawyers and computers collide.
A couple of negative pieces about Zune, one from Dvorak, and another at Playfuls
A couple of recent stories about Ubuntu, contributed by one of the boards' many trolls. The second piece is by a guy who's unhappy that the latest release doesn't work well on his laptop. So he's sticking with the previous version for now. The troll who posted the link apparently thought this counts as a great vote of confidence in Windows, but I'm just not seeing it. They aren't the most careful readers, those trolls.
Oh, and MS is being sued yet again for patent violations, this time by Alcatel.
MS would also like to license the Office 2007 user interface to you, on the condition that you not work on competing products, so sayeth the convicted monopolist. No word on exactly what protectable elements are covered: patents, copyrights, trademarks, or what. "Look and feel"? "Methods and concepts"? Nobody knows. Their PR just says they have unspecified intellectual property rights in the UI design, and they leave it at that. FUD, in other words.
On the heels of the latest Top500 list, a piece about how the geeks at Synopsis threw together #242 on the list in their spare time, with hardware they already had on hand. Which is cool and all, but just think of all the SCOSource licenses they'll have to buy for the thing, to avoid the wrath of Darl. Or not, I guess.
And finally, I've decided I now wish SCO had sued Bank of America. Why? Check out this, uh, catchy tune. Feel free to debate among yourselves which version is "better", the original or the David Cross cover.

By brx0 @ 11:31 PM [permalink]. 0 comments

Saturday, November 18, 2006

11/20 SNR

Wonder of wonders, today we got some actual product-related PR from SCO. Seems that a minor update to SCOoffice Server is out. O frabjous day!

If it sounds like your cup of tea, it looks like you can buy online from SCO's friends at Terian. As is typical with SCO products, it's all about per-user licensing, and it gets expensive pretty quick once you get past the base level. I wonder if they've ever sold any 1000-seat license packs?

It's actually a bit confusing trying to figure out what got released. The PR, and the one bit of media coverage I've seen suggest that this is the initial release of SCOoffice Server 4.2. But if you search around, the picture gets more confusing. This InfoWorld article asserts that v4.2 came out in August '04, while this PowerPoint presentation from SCOForum '05 suggested 4.2 would be out in Q4 '05. (There's also a roadmap for v4.3, in case the company lasts that long.) SCO's release notes for the thing were posted in late October. It's all so confusing.
Blankenhorn on Microsoft's venture into patent trolldom.
A similar bit at Neoseeker.
Marc Fleury of JBoss has some choice words about MS and Oracle. Seems nobody can mention these guys without also mentioning SCO. Birds of a feather, I guess. Toward the end of the piece, Fleury refers to SCO as a "frail hack". Nice.
A piece speculating whether MS is itself infringing anyone's precious IP. Well, duh, of course. Nice vintage screenshots from the Xerox Alto & Apple Lisa, though. Once again, SCO gets a mention a bit down the page.
And a suggestion that the MS-Novell deal won't be a long term plus for Novell's stock.
More wonder of wonders: BS&F wins a case, a disagreement over the 1996 sale of the Fresh DelMonte produce company. Here's a fun bit from the article:

"For four years, the plaintiffs have been trying this case in the press," said Carlos M. Sires, the Fresh Del Monte attorney from the Boies Schiller & Flexner firm in Fort Lauderdale.

"But Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh and Fresh Del Monte know that lawsuits are tried and won in the courtroom," said Sires. "They are gratified that it took the jury a very short time to conclude what they have always known, that this case was completely without merit."

It's official. Irony is dead. Film at 11.
In the rare moment when he's not burning the midnight oil on SCO's behalf, Boies occasionally takes time out to hobnob with New York high society. Henry Kissinger was there, and the Saudi ambassador. Oh, and Jimbo Wales (of Wikipedia fame) was there, too. Hmm. Go figure.
Salty has a nice chat with Rant-for-Rent Rob.
Linux: king of the hill in supercomputing.
Time Magazine compares the XBox 360 and PS3, not as game consoles, but as HD movie players. For those keeping score, the 360 is HD-DVD, and the PS3 is Blu-Ray. In the article, we learn that if you plug a Zune into a USB port on the PS3.... nothing happens. Also:

The craziest thing is that Sony has permitted geeks to load additional operating systems onto the PS3, including Linux. With all that processing power, it's a generous offer, although probably not one that many people will take up.

Craziest? Why? It wasn't widely publicized, but there's a semi-official Linux for the PS2 as well. So nothing new here.
An astute reader on the boards posted some additional info on J. Kent's "college".
Also from the boards, a photo of Steve Ballmer at a black-tie dinner in Utah. I love that deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression on his face. I think I'll call it the Blank Stare Of Death.
More about Birmingham's botched Linux project.
An eWeek article on security vulnerabilities in MacOSX.
Speaking of Macs, here's yet another sign of the apocalypse. I can't find any mention of anyone actually trying this on their shiny new Intel Mac hardware, but MacMall will be happy to sell you OpenServer licenses if you want 'em. Gaaaahhhh!!!!
A review of SoftMaker Office 2006, the commercial office suite I mentioned in a previous post which supports Linux & FreeBSD(!). Oh, and Windows, and PocketPC too.
If you're following a certain E. coli case out of Lindon, seems the lawyer on the case has a blog, and has posted about the case here.
SCO claims they own C++, which is crazy, but here's a language I wouldn't mind letting them have as their very own.
It's never too early to start making plans for SCOForum 2007, which is held in Vegas every year in August or September, whenever it's cheapest. Besides the usual element of morbid curiosity, by that time it may be possible to witness the first, uh, "fruits" of a recent FDA decision to improve the local scenery in Las Vegas. Esker's going, why aren't you?

By brx0 @ 12:47 AM [permalink]. 1 comments

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

11/17 SNR

First off, let me apologize for not posting anything since Tuesday. SNR is a spare-time project for me, and I haven't had much spare time this week. That's one downside to the fact that nobody pays me to do this. On the bright side, well, I can't truthfully argue that being unpaid means I'm objective, because it should be obvious I'm rather biased about the whole SCO situation. But at least I can say all my biases are my own. I guess that counts for something, probably.

Anyway, here's today's crop:

The bigwigs at SCO just got a bunch more stock options. Options granted 11/13/06, apparently vesting in full a year from now. Nice deal, if you can get it. Assuming the options aren't deep underwater by then, I mean. Oh, and assuming the company even exists a year from now.
Also on Edgar, a new 8K. Not only are there new stock option grants, there's a new employee bonus program, in the unlikely event that the company meets its objectives in FY '07. Supposing the company even exists at the end of FY '07, that is. The usual suspects at the top stand to get big bucks, hypothetically speaking.
Wonder of wonders, here's an actual article about SCO's Me Inc -- although it begins and ends by talking about all the ongoing litigation. The SCO guy sounds a bit defensive as he tries to explain that SCO does do some other stuff in addition to suing its customers, for real, honest.
A new Bob Mims piece chatting with IBM's VP for Open Source. SCO gets a quick mention.
Another shoe drops in the MS-Novell tieup: Now Ballmer's spreading IP FUD about Linux.
A piece at ZDNet titled "SCO Mk. 2" about Ballmer's blathering, quoting him and comparing the words with things Darl said back in 2003. If your're reading this, Mr. Ballmer, I don't think the Darl McBride comparison is intended as a compliment.
See also this Techworld rant comparing MS with SCO.
A piece wondering if the MS-Novell deal might be a Good Thing. Although note that this piece was from before Ballmer's latest rant.
The New York Times just realized that Rob Enderle is a paided shill. And by "realized" I mean "had it pointed out to them by an astute reader". Still, I can't fault the NYT too much for this; it's rare for a single day to pass without him being quoted in the tech trade press. The NYT must've figured he was a respected, objective observer, without taking into account the notoriously lax ethical standards in tech journalism. The trade press has known for years about Enderle's many conflicts of interest, and they just treat it as an open secret and never breathe a word about it.
A piece with a negative take on Sun GPL'ing Java.
An interesting piece analyzing a spam botnet connected with, among other things, pump-n-dump stock scams.
From /., A piece on the ongoing IT disaster at UK's National Health Service. I got to the part about 900,000 Windows boxes and gasped aloud. Yikes.
Also in the UK, the city of Birmingham recently botched a Linux pilot program. Also see this thread on Y! about it.
Zune: incompatible with Vista!
That's ok though. At least half of European businesses have no immediate plans to upgrade to Vista anyway.
Still, MS wants you to know that "Longhorn", the next server release of Windows, is going to be uber-kewl. And why wouldn't you believe 'em?
As one example of why technology from MS is so fantabulous, here's an amusing piece about how SOAP works.
The European wing of the FSF has a new legal unit, the "Freedom Task Force". This may be a good idea, but did they really need to let Tom Clancy name the thing? Sheesh.
More trouble with the Eclipse 500 jet, if you're paying attention to the Iacobucci/DayJet thing.
In other SCO BOD member news, J. Kent Millington is now on the board of some sort of group for Utah entrepreneurs. This gets a mention at Diploma Mill News, due to his "degree" from "California Coastal University". I seem to recall we first noticed this tidbit on the Y! board months and months ago. The Diploma Mill News site is fascinating, and more than a little frightening.
J. Kent gets a mention in this piece about adjusting to life overseas. This experience may come in handy when it's time for Darl, Ralphie, and friends to all flee the country.
Recently on GL: SCO changes its mind on case scheduling yet again.
From Ars, via IV, BestBuy's sneaky business abusing the DMCA to cripple online comparison shopping wrt "Black Friday".

By brx0 @ 6:22 PM [permalink]. 0 comments

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

11/14 SNR

Techdirt has a short piece about how to do IP shakedowns. The first user comment mentions SCO. They're pretty much the canonical example anymore.
A new Berlind piece at ZDNet, mostly about M$ and spyware. SCO gets a mention here as well. It seems it's basically impossible to write about shady doings in the tech industry without at least briefly mentioning SCO. Which is as it should be.
The latest Linux news from Lineo. You may recall that Lineo and Caldera used to be siblings, back in the Canopy Group's golden age. Blake Stowell used to work for Lineo, unless memory fails me.
A piece at Law.com about ways to reduce datacenter costs, including the personnel budget. The article estimates you need one IT person for every 15 Linux servers. In contrast, you only need one IT person for every 100 OSR6 boxes, but you'll also need one lawyer for every 4 or 5 boxes, for when SCO gets around to suing you.
What (supposedly) really happened with all that "edgy" Ubuntu artwork. So long as there's no Clippy, I'm a happy camper.
If you're stuck with Windows, you may as well try out Microsoft's BSOD screensaver.
Here's another icky patent troll case for ya. Check out the JMRI saga. JMRI is an open-source project dealing with model railroad stuff. Seems that a greedy patent troll actually swiped code from JMRI, patented the ideas within it, and then sued the developers for violating "his" precious IP. What a complete evil bastard. More on this at InformationWeek and Groklaw (back in mid-May). Bruce Perens mentions the case here.
If you'd like to have your vestigial faith in the USPTO shaken a bit further, check out this recently granted patent about data compression. Seems the inventor has found a way to compress random data to an unlimited degree, even though that's mathematically impossible. Wowsers.
Just bought a Mac? Today's your lucky day, if you haven't recycled the box yet. Turns out you can sell the empty box on eBay! (try doing that with a Dell)
IBM's not so sure about Sun's GPL Java thing. I have to say I think IBM and various others are off base here. Asking Sun to contribute to the Apache project's Java clone is just silly. For good or ill, Sun's JVM will always be the gold standard, so far as Java goes, at least until there's an ANSI standard for the language.
An article at El Reg insisting that C# is pulling ahead of Java. I don't have anything against C#, other than that it's another proprietary language, and a "cross-platform" language from a predatory monopolist. On a strictly technical basis, C# is just fine. Too bad the world doesn't work on a strictly technical basis.
Speaking of l33t programming languages, here's a new K5 piece about Eiffel. The article makes it sound like it's an elitist, academic language reserved solely for the discerning cognoscenti, but I think that's just a bunch of spin to make Eiffel sound more appealing to the K5 crowd. I do like the idea of enforced pre- and post-conditions. It's not the be-all-end-all of software engineering, but it's a nice touch.
More delays for DayJet. If you're new here, DayJet is the pet startup project of Ed Iacobucci, one of SCO's BOD members. Which is not to say that DayJet is a shady company or anything. It could be perfectly legit as far as I know. But over time I've learned that any business involving anyone connected to SCO ought to be regarded with great suspicion.
Here's a crackpot detection toolkit from the physics world. Much of the test is equally useful when applied to the ravings of SCO message board trolls. And SCO itself, for that matter.
SCO doesn't feature employee pics and bios on their site, presumably because their employees are too ashamed. So if you want to know what SCO employees are like in real life, you'll have to make do with this video. Rumor has it that the Theremin-heavy music in the clip is actually SCO's new corporate theme song.

By brx0 @ 12:56 PM [permalink]. 1 comments

Monday, November 13, 2006

11/13 SNR

It's official: We live in interesting times. First Oracle makes an unusual entry into the Linux sector. Then Novell and MS do a deal, and nobody (including me) really knows what it means. Now Sun's gone and released Java under the GPL.

A few Sun-related tidbits:

The CNet story covers the particulars pretty well.
Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's CEO, says the move is momentous. Which is true, but GPL'ing the code is only part of the equation. The language itself is still proprietary, and evolves according to Sun's whims and desires. A few years back, there was an effort to create an ANSI (or was it ISO?) Standard for Java, but Sun changed its mind (as it often does) and walked away from the initiative, which quickly shriveled up and died. Java is only really free when no one company owns the language. Also, Sun presumably has a pile of Java-related patents, and it would need to be explicitly clear that if you implement the ANSI standard without using any of Sun's code, you have the right to use all of the ideas embodied in the standard without any threat of IP litigation. Only then will the language really be free. But still, Sun GPL'ing its implementation of the language is a very nice first step.
SJVN wonders whether the move is too little, too late.
Seems that Sun's also thinking about GPL'ing Solaris, too. That would be an interesting move. Back in the heyday of SCO, we'd already have threatening noises emanating from Lindon, and Darl would be calling people terrorists for using Solaris, and all that, the whole circus. Now, nothing. Total silence. Seems nobody's even bothered to ask SCO's opinion.

Other news from across the interwebs, thanks in large part to SNR's growing mini-legion of eagle-eyed astute readers:

Daniel Wallace has lost again. The Court of Appeals has made it official, Danny-boy: Your 15 minutes are up.
PCWorld: Zune = Yawn.
A piece by the head of Red Hat's operations in India titled "Proprietary Vendors Feeling the Heat". The article focuses mostly on Oracle, for obvious reasons.
Time Magazine has released its list of Official Heroes of the last 60 years. Among the heroes is none other than Linus Torvalds. Which is pretty cool, even if you (like me) think compiling a list of heroes is a deeply silly idea. I can't wait for the companion list of Official Villains. At first I thought I'd like to see Darl on such a list, but it might be more fitting, somehow, if he fails to make the cut. Maybe he'd merit a sentence or two in their web-only "Dishonorable Mention" companion piece or something. That sounds about right; he's no Ken Lay, after all, though not for lack of trying.
Anderer's silly patent application for his "method" for "comparing" source code is still alive. The application status was updated on November 8th, with the label "IFW TSS Processing by Tech Center Complete". The USPTO's glossary describes it thusly:

What does IFW TSS Processing by Tech Center Complete mean?

This is really an internal code for PTO staff, but it means that our technical support staff is processing the application in image format.

So nothing terribly exciting is happening, but the application is still active, and hasn't been laughed out of patent court just yet. Very few things are laughed out of patent court, and when they are, it takes a long, long time. To me, this sounds like a job for the PubPat folks.

If you want to follow the slowwwwwwwly unfolding saga yourself, you can go to this USPTO search page, and enter the patent application number 10/938,844.
A SYS-CON piece about Red Hat's indemnification thingy. Nothing new here, but I notice that the piece is copyright 2006, Client-Server News. CSN is a G2 "publication", which means that MOG probably wrote the piece. SYS-CON is still carring her dreck, they just aren't putting her name on it anymore. I bet they think they're awfully sneaky.
In case you're curious, Tony Lawrence's site has a new howto about running OSR 5.0.4 under VMWare. This OSR version dates from well before the McBride epoch, so no smart sarcastic remarks from me about this.
On the other hand, here's a thread from someone whose OSR6 box is borked. Users can't log in at the console anymore, and there's a vigororous (by c.u.s.m standards) debate about what might be going on.
Oh, and it turns out there's a c.u.s.m. group on Frappr. Not terribly active though. 9 photos, and the last "shoutout" is from last December. But I thought I'd pass it along, in case anyone wants to drop by and say hello or whatever.
Another product announcement that mentions SCO. I've seen more than one of these in recent memory; that's practically an avalanche by SCO standards.
Here is without a doubt the weirdest "submit your resume" page I've ever seen, from a PR company called "EXL Public Relations". They want to know your daddy's name, and their form's "work experience" field accepts a maximum of 50 characters. In a sidebar labeled "Fan Club" is this telling testimonial:

“Thanks for supporting the Me. Inc. launch program in India and helping it to be so successful”

Blake Stowell
Public Relations Director, SCO Group.

Their PR for the mega-huge Me Inc. launch in India is here [PDF].
An ex-BS&F lawyer (not one of SCO's, thoughL) has moved to my neck of the woods. Grrr. At least the media saw fit to warn us, a little.
An update, if you care, about the ongoing elbowed Picasso debacle. It seems that in the room along with casino king Steve Wynn and David Boies (SCO's top lawyer, at least on paper) were the writer Nora Ephron, and the one and only Barbara Walters. The news reports insist the damage was due to an elbow, but with a cast of characters like this you can't help but wonder what sort of dark unholy ritual was taking place.

By brx0 @ 12:38 AM [permalink]. 0 comments

Friday, November 10, 2006

11/10 SNR

Two more pieces about MS+Novell, by Mark Wagner @ ZDNet, and Josiah Ritchie @ Open for Business.
You can be 100% sure you're really uncool if BusinessWeek knows you're uncool. And they think Zune is, like, totally not cool.
Red Hat and VMWare have embarked on a beautiful friendship, maybe. Or not.
As I noted here recently, Cohen's TICC recently invested $9M in a landscape design software firm. Now that firm is going on a buying spree.
Notorious patent troll NTP is getting a taste of its own medicine. A former employee is suing 'em for not getting credit on the company's patents.
Comcast has managed to fight off a patent troll.
The higher education world is also afflicted by patent trolls.
And here's a patent case in the UK that's been argued and appealed all the way up to the House of Lords. I'm resisting the temptation to make sarcastic comments about the House of Lords and their qualifications to rule on this kind of thing.
Even HP has gotten in on the patent litigation racket, although they're only doing it to protect the ultra-lucrative ink cartridge racket. In a sadly familiar twist, HP is refusing to say which patents the rival ink cartridge maker is in violation of. So maybe it's really about "methods and concepts", or something.
Flickr, i.e. Yahoo, is trying to patent the concept of "interestingness" as it applies to photos. Wow. Now that's what I call cheeky. It'll probably work, too. That's the sad part.
Rumor has it we'll soon see a Core 2 Duo-based Mac Mini. W00t.
From J. Sizz over on the boards, a pic of yet another satisfied SCO customer.
BBC blabs on about how some nonprofit in the UK prefers Windows over Linux, apparenly because Linux is too complicated for 'em.
The next wave of advanced technology in medical diagnostics: Google!
I, for one, welcome our new robo-sommelier overlords. Mmmm..... bacon.... Uh, wait, sorry. Stop looking at me like that.

By brx0 @ 1:31 AM [permalink]. 0 comments

Thursday, November 09, 2006

11/9 SNR

Disagreeing with Bruce Perens, SJVN asserts that Novell is not SCO.
Don Rosenberg at SearchOpenSource.com has a new piece mostly about SCO, responding to reader comments about a previous column about Novell & Oracle.
On GL yesterday, we learned more about the Leitzinger mini-controversy. SCO desperately wants to conceal where the guy gets his money from, and IBM begs to differ. IBM's latest filing is brutal and very, very funny.
Daniel Wallace's anti-GPL jihad gets smacked down again, this time in the US Court of Appeals. Veggie-boy has the text here, or if you prefer proprietary document formats, here's the PDF. The great thing about this is that the judges ruled on what the GPL is and isn't, instead of making a strictly procedural, technical ruling about whether Wallace had standing to sue and so forth. The GPL wins big in court, and we have Daniel Wallace to thank for it, in a backhanded sort of way.

I guess he could still try an "en banc" appeal to the full Appeals court (as a certain troll suggests on IV), or just appeal to the full Supreme Court. Somehow I think they have better things to do than take on boneheaded pro-se cases from angry wingnuts. But we'll have to wait and see on this one.
A Berlind piece discussing Novell in light of the MS deal. The one and only Jeffro gets a brief mention in connection with the history of the company.
A piece at Silicon.com asserts that Linux on the desktop is dead.
A Halloween-themed security piece at InfoWorld. Realm Systems gets a mention, plus there's a still from Shaun of the Dead.
A bit about Linux in the point-of-sale sector.
Another kernel panic thread on c.u.s.m. OSR 5.0.6 won't even boot, and the poster insists that WinXP runs fine on the same box.
Jerry Pournelle has a few words to say about SCO over at Chaos Manor. (Not the top story; you'll need to scroll down a little.)
Forbes: Zune is teh sux0r
Yet more anti-pr0n PR from BYU, once again heavily pushing CP80. The piece says they'll be introducing something called the "Internet Community Port Act" in the next Congress. This piece is dated the day before election day. I doubt the outcome of the election is going to boost the odds of this Use-CP80-Or-Else Act getting a hearing.
I had a sneaking suspicion we'd hear from Boies before the election was completely over. On election day, he commented about possible election controversies that didn't come to pass. And here he comments some more about the Virginia senate race. At least he stuck to a mostly-harmless role as a "celebrity interviewee" this time around. I'm sure he was iitching to sign up for (and then botch) a prospective Webb v. Allen court battle. I'm glad it didn't come to that.
Elsewhere in Boiestown, it appears that BS&F got conned by a shady private investigator in the AIG case. No honor among thieves, I guess.
And some BS&F guy in Albany NY is heading a fundraising campaign for some ultra-ritzy private school. Real humanitarians, these BS&F clowns.
Just how gullible are people in Lindon, Utah? Check out this tax dodge. The guy thought that he could avoid taxes by "giving" his money to friends and family, while retaining full control of what was done with it. And his friends and family agreed to go along with the con, even though there's no mention of them benefiting from the scam themselves. What sort of person agrees to participate in a tax dodge, without making a cent off of the deal, and seemingly without ever even wondering "What's in it for me?" Weird.

By brx0 @ 3:23 PM [permalink]. 0 comments

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

11/7 SNR II

More fun from around Usenet, including several extremely dusty corners:

Comp.unix.unixware.announce is an Ex-Newsgroup. This post on IV includes lyrics to celebrate the occasion.
Bob Mims's request for layoff info on c.u.s.m. gets a snotty response from some SCO diehard, which gets a calm and reasonable reply from Mr. Mims. The SCO guy posts with a Compuserve email account. In 2006. These SCO folks, they sure know how to live on the cutting edge of technology.
A recent, as-yet-unanswered plea for help on sco.public.tarantella. Yeah, I didn't know it (or any other sco.* newsgroup) existed before either.
A late October thread on comp.unix.pc-clone.16bit. The poster somehow ended up with a 286 box recently, and wanted to know what sort of Unix he could put on it. Minix and Xenix seem to be the leading candidates, although nobody bothered to point out that the former is free, while the latter is a SCO product. I expect the questioner will find out soon enough, though. Poor old SCO, losing business to open source even in the 286 world.

On the other hand, if you go with Xenix, and later decide to upgrade to a quad-core Xeon when they come out, you can put OpenServer 6 on it and keep all your Xenix apps. SCO made a really big deal about this when OSR6 launched. Even your Xenix games should work, according to SCO. They claim they tested it and made extra-sure about that. Isn't that special?
And a canonical example of how not to get your question answered: Someone was having trouble with a SCO Unix app called "Trinity", and started a whole new Google group just to ask the question. It's been over a year, and no answer yet.

Elsewhere on the interwebs:

At least one SCOX bagholder is still accumulating shares.
As you may have heard already, Bruce Perens isn't too happy about the Novell-MS deal.
Some new Novell PR about the deal, responding in part to questions from the F/OSS community.
Gateway has some new Opteron boxes out. I mention this only because it mentions SCO Unix as one of the OSes you could, in theory, install on it.
It's election eve, and I don't see any news stories with the word "Boies" in them yet, so hopefully that's a good sign. Whether you dislike the guy for taking Gore's side in 2000, or you (like me) dislike him for botching the case, I expect we'll all be happier if the election doesn't end up in court again.
OSDL has realized that if they want decent kernel documentation, they'll have to pay people to write it. You know, for those bozos who can't figure it all out by looking at the kernel source tree.

Ahh, we engineers can be an inscrutable and difficult bunch....
In a surprising new direction for Intel, they've ventured into the brave and ultra-glossy new world of Web 2.0. Runs on Windows and various Linuxes. It seemed pretty mysterious until I saw this bit:

The components of SuiteTwo will be optimized for Intel's client and server chips, including its 32-bit and 64-bit Xeon processors and future products, the company said.

The move will also create demand for SpikeSource and Six Apart, which Intel Capital has invested in. It also has an option to invest in other participating companies, once they seek funding, Lambert said.

Aha. That sort of explains it.
From Slashdot, yet another Linux Smartphone. I see PR for these things at least once a week, but I've never seen one in the flesh, not even once.
In other Linux widget news, I was down at Fry's the other day and played around with one of those Nokia 770 "web tablet" thingys, and I started seriously thinking about getting one, just as a fun toy to play around with, especially since there's a new GPS module for it. But then I see this spy report about a rumored successor, which people are calling the "Nokia 870". Dear Santa...

By brx0 @ 5:15 PM [permalink]. 2 comments

Monday, November 06, 2006

11/7 SNR

The resume of an engineer who lists himself as "sole client developer for the Me, Inc. product line", and who is no longer employed at SCO. Hmmmm...
Back in May, on his personal blog, he had a list of Me, Inc's direct competitors. Seems Oracle is one of them. If you're SCO and you're going up against Oracle, it seems to me that would count as a risk that ought to appear in your SEC filings. I don't recall ever seeing it, though.
NTP is at it again, this time they're suing palm, backed by the money they squeezed out of RIM. This is a perfect example of why appeasing IP trolls is a terrible idea.
Computerworld has something they call "IT Blogwatch", which (when they cover SCO-related topics) is sort of like what I do here, except not as good, of course. This week they're rounding up comments about MS+Novell. There are a few on there I haven't linked to already, so it may be worth a look.
The general counsel for Red Hat suggests that Novell will be out of the Linux market by this time next year.
I try to be evenhanded here, I really do, and on the rare occasion there's a vaguely positive news item about SCO, I'm not going to ignore it. I may have some snide remarks to say about it, but I'll still pass it along. SJVN has a recent piece provocatively titled "What I like about SCO". What he likes about SCO is OpenServer, and as an example he mentions the recent story about a SCO box being sealed up inside a wall for a few years. I understand that OpenServer is widely reputed to be very, very reliable, although it's not exactly chock-full of modern Unix features (kernel threads, large file support, etc.) -- unless you count OpenServer 6, which is actually a rebadged UnixWare. Any box that had been behind a wall for a few years would have to have been at most OSR 5.x, and possibly even older. Now, current SCO management can't take credit for the stability of OSR5, since that was entirely the doing of OldSCO. Heck, the last time that box-in-a-wall was booted may have been before NewSCO turned evil and started suing its customers.
LRG Capital, which is apparently Baystar's parent company now, has hired someone named Bryce Sutton as its new director of sales & marketing, who will report directly to the one and only Larry Goldfarb, LRG's CEO. I'm guessing the 'L' in LRG stands for Larry, and I have a few good guesses about what the 'G' might represent.
Another piece full of Novell-MS handwringing.
Someone on the boards mentioned this weird 512-core chip out of Japan. It's not SCO-related, really, but I thought I'd pass it along.
OpenBSD 4.0 has been released into the wild. There's a longer review of it here, which mentions that OpenBSD can supposedly run SCO Unix apps via an emulation layer. And Darl already said he owns all BSDs. But despite all of this, SCO hasn't sued yet. Maybe they're just scared about picking a fight with Theo.
David Berlind has a piece about Red Hat's new indemnification thing, and he talks a bit about SCO, DC, Autozone, etc.
SJVN explains why he's sticking with SuSE.
Solera's DS widget now has more disk capacity. Yawn.
Another growth industry in the Lindon area: pythons. Not the language, the snake, silly.

By brx0 @ 4:50 PM [permalink]. 1 comments

Saturday, November 04, 2006

11/5 SNR

I still haven't made up my mind about the Novell-MS thing. Given past history, it's reasonable to assume that MS is eating Novell for breakfast, and Novell won't realize it until it's far too late. But at this point that would just be an assumption. I tend to take a rather cynical view of the industry, and the world as a whole; my goal, as always, is to do that without verging into the realm of conspiracy theories. If you start dismissing actual evidence in favor of unproven things you'd prefer to believe, you may have gone over the line. It can be a very thin line, but it's an crucial one.

So here are a variety of opinions about the deal:

Eric Lai @ Computerworld has a reasonably positive take on the deal, which is unusual.
Red Hat says the deal is no big deal.
Matt Asay @ InfoWorld is a definite cynic about the deal, and he seems to have gone sour on open-source vendors in general.
Marc Wagner @ ZDNet is also skeptical, but then he goes and ruins his whole piece with some ignorant speculation about a "possible" buyout of SCO.
Our old buddy "Paul Murphy" has a piece about the deal, sort of. As always, he can't stick to a single thesis for more than a couple of paragraphs, and digresses off to sing the praises of Oracle on Solaris. It always comes back around to Solaris for this guy.
The same is true of Sun's Jonathan Schwartz, although he at least has very good rea$on$ to believe that. Apparently the Oracle and MS things indicate how important it is to have your own OS. Um, I hate to be the one to break it to Schwartz, but MS does have its own OS. Turns out they've had one for decades, even. Who knew?
Enderle knows better, of course; for him, it's all about Vista, Vista, Vista. Apparently this time around MS customers shouldn't wait for Service Pack 1. Rob suggests that's a naive course of action, not a prudent one. Who could have suspected?
David Sugar @ Free Software Magazine has some unkind words for Novell over the deal.
Dana Gardner @ ZDNet says the real battle is for the rest of the middleware stack, which seems like a reasonable assumption to me. SCO gets a brief mention here.
Antone Gonsalves @ InformationWeek suggests that in any case MS is unlikely to actually sue anyone over patents.
LinuxDevices speculates about how the deal might affect the embedded Linux world.

In other news:

Red Hat's now doing the indemnification thing. You'd think Didio would be dancing in the streets, but I haven't heard a peep out of her about it. As an "analyst", her job is to bark Redmond-certified talking points at any journalist within earshot. If anyone actually does what she says they ought to do, the talking point loses its value, and it's time to move on to something else, and pretend the last episode never happened.
A GL piece from last Thursday about SCO filing a "stipulated" agreement with IBM that IBM didn't actually agree to. They always say not to attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity. But in this case I think it's malice carefully crafted to look like stupidity, so if the trick doesnt't work SCO can claim it was just an innocent mistake.
Jonathan Cohen's TICC outfit recently invested in the lucrative home/landscape design software sector.
In further BS&F political news, David Boies is a big Joe Lieberman donor.
Also, a piece about a NY congressional race in which the Democratic challenger is a BS&F partner.

By brx0 @ 1:35 AM [permalink]. 0 comments

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

11/2 SNR

I've been pretty busy the last few days, but here are some things I ran across, plus some things various astute readers alerted me to.

On GL, yet another doc from the PSJ avalanche, the Declaration of Michael DeFazio, which basically lets us know that AT&T's SVRx license agreement doesn't say what SCO says it says. We all knew or at least assumed that already, of course, but this latest doc lays it all out in rather excruciating detail. You know you're a complete geek about the SCO case if you read the whole thing. Double points if you understand it. Triple points if you enjoy it.
A bit about the rumored Novell-MS tie-up. The piece insists MS would offer support for SuSE, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I'm immediately reminded of the deal where MS bailed out Corel in return for Corel dropping their (rather sucky) Linux distro.

These days Xandros is saddled with the ex-Corel distro, and they're having trouble making a go of it as well.
The notorious Brothers Yarro have added a whole "portfolio" of "companies" (or at least names of companies) to their metastatizing ThinkAtomic empire: Nanotop, Surf Recon, Jump Seed, That's Atomic, Nanobionica, Exo Applied Science, CP80, Hydruga, Facera.

A highly astute SNR reader has looked into these entities:

Facera has a LLC registration in Utah from 4/18/05. CP80 is known. The Nanotop and Jumpseed trademarks have a legal trail, but no business registration. Web domains are owned, but parked with "free hosting" pages.

Hydruga is most interesting. This is the genus name of the Antarctic Leopard Seals-- best known for their voracious predation of Adelie penguins. Yarro uses a leopard seal head as the logotype, just to make sure the point is not missed. Yarro hasn't registered hydruga as a domain yet.

Hydruga, the latin name of a seal that eats penguins. This is the sort of hilarity that ensues when suits and marketing types try to swagger and play tough guy. In related news, I used to know some people who named their dachshund "Fenris", but despite giving it a tough, scary name it stubbornly refused to morph into a huge hungry wolf. In fact, mostly it just sat around and slept and begged for table scraps and widdled on the rug. Given Ralphie's track record, I expect similar results for "Hydruga".
Remember that embarrassing metadata whoopsie back in SCO's DaimlerChrysler suit, where it turned out they were originally going to sue BofA instead? Here's yet another article using that incident as a classic cautionary tale of what not to do.
A podcast that mentions SCO. I haven't listened to it yet.
In those rare spare moments when they aren't going to the mat for Darl & Co., BS&F & the feds just settled the Medco case for $155M. Medco is a big player in the prescription drug sector, and they ran afoul of something called the "False Claims Act". BS&F's press release about it is here. This may help explain why I've been getting so many visitors from BS&F lately.

I haven't seen them put out any press releases about the SCO case in a long, long time. Actually I didn't realize it was typical for lawyers to put out press releases at all, but I could be wrong about that. Not a lot of media coverage about this, and what there is doesn't mention BS&F's role. The NYT has a short blurb about the case.

For another take on the story, here's another press release about the settlement, this time from the National Community Pharmacists Association.
In other Boies news, DB and his wife are donating $5M to a local hospital in the New York 'burbs. The same hospital also scored a cool $1M recently after treating Martha Stewart after a turkey-carving incident. Who says the health care system is broken in this country?

Call me crazy, but I'd be much more impressed if they donated the money to, say, a cash-strapped hospital in the inner city, something New York has an abundance of.
Another of those rare birds, a product announcement that briefly mentions SCO. The company makes x86 boxes, and wants you to know that all sorts of OSes run on it, which shouldn't come as a huge surprise. Yes, even UnixWare 7.x runs on it. Which probably means OpenServer 6 will work too, since it's basically just a rebadged UnixWare.
One of those less-rare birds, a new-hire announcement mentioning that so-and-so used to work for SCO back in the day. The guy's name doesn't ring a bell to me, but I thought I'd pass it along anyway.
Dana Blankenhorn has a piece about Oracle Linux
Ubuntu: Doing OK.
A post about the early years of the relationship between MS and Ed Iacobucci's Citrix. Recall that Iacobucci is a SCO BOD member.
A recent blog post by Harald, wringing his hands over whether GPL enforcement is doing any good.
A new commercial office suite for Linux (and FreeBSD)

By brx0 @ 12:30 PM [permalink]. 0 comments

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