Monday, January 08, 2007
1/8 SNR
- The big news is that SCO's finally announced a CC, currently scheduled for January 17th. I wasn't sure this would ever happen, and it technically still hasn't happened, I guess, but at least we've got a specific date on the calendar now. My sense is that after all the anticipation, the CC itself will be anticlimactic. The numbers will be ugly, as usual, and after that they'll only take questions about Me Inc., which nobody cares about. Cue crickets.wav, etc.
- Here's the SLC Trib's take on the CC announcement.
- Today's other press release concerns the latest thrilling, cutting edge SCO product, "Shout Postcard". Which is your basic "Shout" app, but now it can send images too. Woweee!!! Think of it as SCO's bold step into the brave new world of the 1990s. One interesting thing is that today's PR once again refers to the ever-impending release of DT4, the co-branded Daytimer app they keep promising to an expectant world.
One fun thing is the Shout Postcard EULA, which basically begs you, repeatedly, not to use the app to send out image spam. If they have to lecture you in the EULA, that suggests the app itself contains no controls to prevent its being abused in this way. This ought to be interesting. - Remember how I said SCO didn't appear on the CES exhibitor list? Turns out they registered simply as Me Inc, as if that was the company's name. No mention of SCO anywhere. Which I guess is a rational decision from a marketing perspective, since "SCO" is about the most poisonous brand imaginable in the tech industry. But trying to slink into CES under a pseudonym, hoping nobody will notice... That just looks sneaky, not clever.
- NYT on the plague of Windows botnets.
- On GL: Bryan Sparks (now of Solera fame) on Caldera & Linux back in the day.
- Here's a surprisingly readable piece about SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) and embedded real-time programming in Linux. I mention this because the article dares to discuss -- in public, no less -- how RCU works. So here's your golden opportunity to see one of SCO's precious super-secret methods & concepts. If you dare.
- Some handwringing about the Gates Foundation.
- The founder of Amaranth Advisors, the recently-cratered hedge fund, plans to climb back in the saddle, and continue on his merry way as if he hadn't just lost $6.4B of his investors' money. Naturally, Boies is his lawyer.
- 2007: Year of the Penguin?
- The Linux-based Nokia 800, the long-rumored successor to the Nokia 770 webpad gizmo, is on sale now. It hasn't been officially launched, but they'll sell you one anyway, if you can find one. Just don't get ahead of me in line, or there may be trouble. Of course, the thing sells for $399, but you'll also need one of those nifty $699 SCOSource licenses if you don't want SCO to sue you. Sure, the N800's kernel isn't going to include stuff like RCU, NUMA, big iron stuff like that, but you still owe SCO nearly double the device's purchase price, just because.
- A report about record job losses among US CEOs.
- Rumor: An 8-core MacPro is on the way, Real Soon Now. No "Beowulf cluster" comments, please. Thx. Mgmt.
- Gartner: Vista isn't done yet. But something tells me that when Service Pack 2 rolls around, the MS shills at Gartner wil be dancing with glee like it was the second coming or something.
- Now here's a useful resource: A 3rd party archive of SCO press releases, dating back to when they changed their name from Caldera. The Caldera ones are probably in the system somewhere too, but nobody's found them yet.
- The latest FUD from "Paul Murphy" (not his real name). It's more of his usual incomprehensible word salad, so you won't learn anything useful by following that link. You might've noticed I've added his ZDNet blog to the Pro-SCO grouping in the sidebar, but it'd be more accurate to call him the world's angriest, nuttiest Solaris bigot. Don't get me wrong, I like Solaris. I have a Sun box at home, fer chrissakes. But this guy's really out there.
- Oh, and here's that Ralphie sighting I posted on IV earlier. Clearly, he's back in "to our utter destruction" mode again.
By brx0 @ 9:31 AM 
