SCO News Roundup

• "Paul Murphy" is extremely upset that everyone's (supposedly) ignoring him over the SCO thing. So naturally he gets top billing on SNR today.
  
  Ok, fine, fine, it's a really slow news day.
  
  
• Over on the Y! SCOX board, there's a long thread about Murph's self-pitying rant. This makes two Murph items in a single day, sort of. Did I mention it was a slow news day?
  
  
• In today's non-"Paul Murphy" news, Ralphie gets a Buffalo Chip from his local paper.
  
  
• The strangest use of the DMCA yet: A little company out of Santa Cruz, CA is sending out cease-and-desist letters to big companies for not using their DRM technology. Apparently they aren't joking, either. Here's an IV post of mine with more about these weirdos.
  
  
• Almost as strange, spoon-bending "psychic" Uri Geller used the DMCA to take down a 3 second YouTube clip that portrays his "talent" as a simple parlor trick. Now the EFF's suing him for abusing the law to stifle criticism.
  
  
• A bit on Red Hat's new slimmed-down desktop distro.
  
  
• And here's Red Hat's PR for their new "Red Hat Exchange" program.
  
  
• One more RHAT item and we're done with 'em for today. They're teaming up with IBM to enhance mainframe Linux (which is one of Murph's pet peeves, btw). The current announcement deals with multilevel security, aimed primarily at government customers. The piece reads like the author didn't really grasp that part, which isn't too surprising. Multilevel security is a strange and esoteric subject indeed.
  
  A fun bit from the article:
  
  

  
  The vendors stressed security in their announcement, saying "the mainframe's fortress-like security is legendary."
  

  
  
  Which is true, of course. Seems like every week you hear horror stories about lost or stolen laptops full of critical data, but when was the last time someone misplaced a mainframe?
  
  
• Yet another article full of handwringing over Palm's OS roadmap. By now, everyone figures the future has something to do with Linux, but what, exactly, and when? So far, they ain't sayin'.
  
  
• An article on the DVR industry in China. It caught my eye because at least one runs embedded Linux, although most use proprietary OSes (VxWorks, etc.) If you read closer, you'll notice these aren't entertainment DVRs, they're CCTV recorders for security cameras. Enhanced security cameras in an undemocratic country aren't anything to cheer for. The GPL doesn't restrict how you can employ GPL'd software, and even if it did, there'd be no way to enforce the restrictions in a case like this. But I'm still not happy about it.
  
  
• EE Times piece hoping this is finally the year for patent reform. Biotech/pharma is the industry opposed to reform, they like the rules just the way they are, thank you. Ok, fine, why not just treat them differently, so tech doesn't suffer?
  
  
• A contrarian opinion: Patent trolls are good for open source. As the argument goes, open source projects have no money, and thus are uninteresting to patent trolls, who will go after the moneybags closed-source big boys instead. Hmm, it's an interesting notion, certainly. I'm not sure I buy it. It's quite the cynical strategy, too. Sort of like letting vampires loose in the office because you heard somewhere they prefer a different blood type than yours, so that they'll chow down on your workplace rivals first and maybe they'll be full before they notice you. Not a great plan, if you ask me.
  
  
• PR for an allegedly fun and educational video about patent trolls.
  
  
• Wired interviews the guy at the center of thee AT&T/NSA domestic spying controversy.
  
  
• More on the FAA's worries about Vista.
  
  

Labels: linux, open source, sco, tech

By brx0 @ 12:29 PM