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Dang Bootz...I wanted that one..
The australian grub. (flip it upside down.)
It went "something" like that...
but the entire actual lyrics are:
I can't help about the shape I'm in
I can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to
Oh well
Now, when I talked to God I knew he'd understand
He said, "Stick by my side and I'll be your guiding hand
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to"
Oh well
Make that when he was the James Gang.
Bootzie... While I agree that the Walsh era of the James Gang was the highpoint of their career, ( Funk #49, The Bomber, Ashes, The Rain & I ),To dismiss the Tommy Bolin era would be a great mistake. In fact Joe was the one to hand pick Tommy as his replacement.
Don't feel bad about the Grammys... Today's music scene is insuring we'll have planty of "1 hit wonders" to discuss for eons to come. "Los del Rio" anyone? Where are THEY now? (The abomination responsible for unleashing "The Macarena" )
BOOTZ: Free was a 2-hit wonder:
"My Brother Jake" went to # 4 in the UK. Charts.
Paul Rodgers was the singer who went on to front bad Company, and the guitar player who you're referring to is the late Paul Kossoff. Free's keyboardist "John "Rabbit" Bundrick went on to be the "invisible offstage member" of the Who.
P.S. only 72% evil, only in the evening, and only when possessed by the spirits. (making you 36 proof).
Speaking of "1 hit wonders", remember Nick Gilder?( "Hot Child In The City" )
Best all-time single-hit wonder IMO? "All Right Now" by Free.
Lead singer Paul(?)-what's-his-name went on to sing lead for Bad Company. But you gotta give the guitar player's solo a lot of credit, too.
Bootz
yeah, "puerile"
Like your posts on this subject.
Main Entry: pu·er·ile
Pronunciation: 'pyu(-&)r-&l, -"Il
Function: adjective
Etymology: French or Latin; French puéril, from Latin puerilis, from puer boy, child; akin to Sanskrit putra son, child and perhaps to Greek pais boy, child -- more at FEW
1 : JUVENILE
2 : CHILDISH, SILLY <puerile remarks>
XBOX LIVE adds another Quarter Million Subscribers
No one else bothered mentioning it, so I will.
That brings the total of $69.95 annual dues paying subscribers to 750,000(and rising) Or, to put it another way, an additional $52,462,500.00 ( 52 Million, 462 thousand, 5 hundred dollars) pumped into MSFT's cash pile, just for operating a server for XBL.
Sweet.
Thanks Duke!
WOW. Over 23,000 for that letter? It looks like Mike is gonna get the 10 grand he wanted after all! And then some.
Maybe Lindows CEO Michael Robertson should eBay his "You're being sued by MSFT" letter, too... ( He won't get the XBOX thrown in the deal though. Too bad for him.)
Dutch judge bars Lindows name
Country joins Finland and Sweden in prohibiting use of Lindows
By Joris Evers, IDG News Service January 29, 2004
After Finland and Sweden, Linux vendor Lindows.com Inc. now is also barred from using the Lindows name in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg because the name looks too much like Microsoft Corp.'s Windows.
In a case brought by Microsoft, an Amsterdam District Court judge on Thursday ruled that Lindows.com's use of the terms Lindows, LindowsOS and Lindows.com violates the Benelux Merkenwet, the branding law for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Lindows.com has eight days to inform its regional distributors of the ruling and stop distributing, selling and advertising its software under the Lindows name. Furthermore, all inventories have to be exported from the region and all orders for products bearing the Lindows name into the region have to be halted. Lindows.com also has to make its Web site inaccessible to users from the three countries, according to a copy of the ruling.
Lindows.com can appeal the ruling. However, the company has yet to review the ruling and has not made a decision yet, a spokeswoman said. Lindows.com faces a fine of €1,000 ($1,250) for each day it does not comply with the ruling with a maximum of €90,000, according to the ruling.
European courts appear to be siding with Microsoft. The Redmond, Washington, company lost two requests for an injunction barring Lindows.com from using the Lindows name in the U.S. and the matter is now for a jury to decide in a trial set for March 1 in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Microsoft sued Lindows.com in the U.S. in December 2001, accusing the company of infringing its Windows trademark and asking the court to bar Lindows.com from using the Lindows name. Judges in Finland and Sweden granted preliminary injunctions late last year.
"This is only about the Lindows name, a clear example of trademark infringement. Our goal is not to stop Lindows from selling competing products, it is simply asking them to change their name," Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said.
Lindows.com Chief Executive Officer Michael Robertson, in a statement issued in response to the Swedish injunction last year, lashed out against Microsoft's legal pursuit of his company, accusing Microsoft of using lawsuits "as a battering ram to smash Linux."
I'm not quite sure, Bootz.
The first Pop Up's I can remember came courtesy a visit to RB, (
Remember the dreaded X-19 spy cam popup ads?)
I don't know who is the prime purveyor of pop ups.
(Try saying that 3 times fast)
I'm sure it's like you said with either the site or the ISP getting paid for the right of getting to all those eyeballs.
At the ISP level doesn't make sense, because if I was on Verizon & you were on Worldcom, & we saw the both saw the same pop-ups, that kind of makes it a sure bet it's site specific.
I'm guessing that the site traffic #'s are still the way they're measuring how much to charge for viewer access.
(Regardless of who has a pop up blocker, or not)
P.S. If you find out who the prime perpetrator is, let me know...I'm up for shorting that too.
ACE
Bootz... Here's your answer:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040126/sfm069_1.html
New MSN Toolbar Introduces One-Click Convenience to the Most Popular MSN Services
Monday January 26, 12:01 am ET
MSN Toolbar Offers Easy Access to MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger, My MSN, MSN Search Tools and MSNBC.com, in Addition to Pop-Up Blocking Features
REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Adding to its growing lineup of online services, MSN today launched a beta version of the new MSN® Toolbar in the United States at http://toolbar.msn.com/ . With the new MSN Toolbar people will have access to the most popular MSN services, including more convenient access to MSN Hotmail®, MSN Messenger, My MSN and MSNBC.com, as well as the best of the Web via MSN Search. In addition, the MSN Toolbar offers features including a customizable Pop-Up Blocker and the new Highlight Viewer tool, a feature that makes it easier for customers to find what they are searching for on the Web.
"The MSN Toolbar enables people to easily access their favorite services regardless of their online location," said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft corporate vice president for MSN Personal Services. "By offering innovative services like the Highlight Viewer tool and seamless access to world-leading communication services like MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger, we're helping people be more efficient online."
MSN Toolbar Provides Easy Access to the Industry-Leading MSN Offerings
Also unique to MSN Toolbar is easy access to the most popular MSN services. The customizable MSN Toolbar buttons offer one-click access to the following:
-- MSN Hotmail, the Web's most popular free e-mail service, with 145
million customers worldwide.
-- MSN Messenger, the most popular instant messaging service in the world,
with 110 million customers worldwide.
-- My MSN, a customizable MSN Home Page that consumers can tailor to
feature the online activities that matter the most to them, with more
than 150 content module choices, in addition to high-quality video.
-- MSN Search, a convenient search engine that makes it easier for
customers to find the information they are looking for when
they need it.
-- MSNBC.com, MSN Toolbar also offers customers the option of adding a
News Button that provides quick access to up-to-the minute news content
from MSNBC.com.
In addition to offering consumers one-click access to the above MSN services, the MSN Toolbar offers a drop-down menu providing quick access to online information sources for movies from MSN Entertainment, finances from MSN Money, online bargains from MSN Shopping, and encyclopedia and dictionary resources from Microsoft® Encarta®, along with directories from MSN Yellow Pages and MSN White Pages.
New Features Designed Specifically for the MSN Toolbar
-- Pop-Up Blocker empowers customers to take more control of their online
experience by preventing pop-ups. The Pop-Up Blocker is customizable in
the following ways: It can either be turned on or off, it allows
customers to specify particular Web sites they would like to receive
pop-ups from, and it provides an optional tally of the number of
pop-ups blocked and an optional sound indicator.
-- Highlight Viewer makes searching the Web easier. When a customer enters
a word or phrase into the search box within the MSN Toolbar, the
Highlight tool will highlight the word or phrase throughout the
resulting Web pages. Customers can then preview the search results in a
small, unobtrusive pane called the Highlight Viewer.
MSN will automatically update the features as enhancements and new versions of the MSN Toolbar become available. No additional download is necessary.
900....
Nice Grub, Bootzie!
Cotton, Check this out.
Howard obviously is faking, & does not know how to play guitar.
Hand positioning is everything, and this is obvious he's using it as nothing more than a prop. I know it's a little thing, but I have this thing about politicians pretending they can do something, when they can't. (like being presidential)
In Clinton's defense, at least he could pick up his Sax & wail.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/114273/19_2_012304_dean_milford.jpg
Duke, I'm not sure there IS a difference.
Every time I listen to the Dem candidates, I'm convinced they live on another planet, And I don't speak their lanquage either.
Republicanly yours,
ACE
Howard Deans's Latest Hit
http://home.comcast.net/~cozdemir226/deanjungle.mp3
There must be 20 of these by now.
ALiens? Hmmm
I'll get out my tinfoil pyramid hat.
Nanoo Nanoo
There's an explanation:
"Spirit Rover Lands on Mars!
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
NASA dudes, what are those laptops you're using?"
That explains why it ran 18 days then choked.
What a disappointment.
Howard Dean-Techno Rock Star:
"The personal Web site of Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist James Lileks features a similar piece of music, entitled "Yeagh" -- a phonetic rendering of one of the less-articulate moments in the former Vermont governor's wildly controversial statement. Mr. Lileks, who put up the music at http://homepage.mac.com/lileks/.Public/Yeagh.mp3, couldn't be reached for comment."
Mac.com has killed the link. However the same file can be heard via http://www.latimes.com/ You'll have to register, but the link is about 1/2 way down the page on the right hand side.
Go Howard! If this politics thing doesn't work out for him, maybe he can tour with the Chemical Brothers... or open for Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Potato?
Then don't vote for Dan Quayle.
Or do all Republicans just look alike to you?
(which is to say, the people that actually got the job...)
"if people like XXXXX didn't smear him" ...
Gee Linda, Speaking of smearing people's names, You've been on quite a campaign doing just that, not only here in the last few days, but on RB as well.
(Which is why you got TOS'd the first time.)
For someone who complained about their name being mentioned in a less than flattering light in a post, you're sure in overdrive trying to slander others.
Look in a mirror lately, or have they all cracked?
Bootz:
ask me... discretion is the better part of valor.
Buy The Crow!
If only to watch Mr. Rowe eat it.
I have a sense of humour too... After all, I named the family pet: "Peeve".
Agreed.
Nancy Pelosi is the Senate's ranking Democrat?
Who's bright idea was that? Froederick Frahnkensteen?
[Suppressed Sound Link]
Yes Jeremiah,
The kid doesn't have a chance. Had he made his site mikerowe.com , he'd have been home free & MSFT would've never blinked at him. But, He'd turned stupid & thought he'd be cute, & established mikerowesoft.com . Phonetically identical. Bad move.
I wonder if he'll think it's so cute when he gets a bill for all of Microsoft's court costs.(not to mention the court costs levied by the court itself.) His parents will be thrilled, I'm sure.
I'm sure if someone named Mac Apple built a site named http://www.macapple.com Steve Jobs would be all over him, & 99% of his blindered followers here would be ready to lynch poor Mr. Mac Apple.
Mike Rowe just fried himself:
from his own website: " All along I have just wanted to prove a point that the small guy can win against the giant corporations."
His own legal bill will kill him.
Deliberately drawing MSFT's eye was stupid.
He's not too bright... Probably names his computers, too.
Bubble Puppy's big hit was:
Hot Smoke & Sassafrass (sp?)
Incense & Peppermints was...The Strawberry Alarm Clock.
The Moving Sidewalks (where ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons came from) singles were:
99th Floor / What Are You Gonna Do?
Need Me / Every Night A New Surprise
I Want To Hold Your Hand / Joe's Blues
Flashback / No Good To Cry
I think 99th Floor was the biggest hit of them.
As for the Grass Roots, one of them, Warren Entner went on to be a manager for the early Randy Rhoads version of Quiet Riot, Faster Pussycat, and a really good band on TVT Records called Portable.
The Grass Roots' hit "Midnight Confessions" has got to be one of the biggest & best AM Radio hits of all time.
All's that was missing was
The Moving Sidewalks, Lillian Axe, & Pantera...
OK, Bootz...
Anyone who can reference Bubble Puppy can't be 100% evil.
Whewww talk about obscure.
Xbox Grows Console Market While Competitors Decline
Xbox Powering Ahead for 2004 After a Bumper Xmas Season
Xbox today revealed it is closing the gap on its competitor, with figures showing Xbox is the only console in the marketplace to have experienced growth in the last half of the year 2003.
Xbox drove the market growth* of 2% during this period, as the only console brand to record growth. From July 1st to December 31st 2003, Xbox grew year on year by 10% while PS2 declined 1% and GameCube declined by 5%*.
This expansion of the Xbox presence was reflected in a surge in market share during the key Christmas months, where Xbox snapped up almost 40% of the market. During November and December, Xbox recorded a very solid 37% and 39% market share respectively.* Figures just released** show the share has again jumped to 44%, with Sony PS2 now holding 51% of the market, and Nintendo GameCube a mere 5%.*
This promising start to 2004 follows on from an impressive Christmas retail period for Xbox, which saw close to 115,000 units sold, with many retailers struggling to keep up with consumer demand.*** "Sales for Xbox were particularly strong this Christmas," says Peter Geer, Senior Buyer for Myer, Grace Bros and Megamart. "We had anticipated this consumer rush, so thankfully we were still able to meet this high demand".
According to Xbox regional manager David McLean, the strong Xbox market share reflects the brand?s growing kudos among consumers. ?With less than two years in this market, these latest figures reflect how far we?ve come,? says McLean. ?This consumer confidence shows the strength of our product offerings which have positioned Xbox as an entertainment unit with something for everyone.?
Now with over 300 games available for Xbox, the strength and diversity of the Xbox Christmas line-up has also been a crucial factor in driving this market success. Some of the best sellers this Christmas included: Need for Speed Underground, Rugby League, Lord of the Rings? Return of the King?, The Simpsons Hit & Run?, Disney Pixar?s Finding Nemo, V8 Supercars Race Driver (Live) and Crash Bandicoot? The Wrath of Cortex. Several games from Microsoft Games Studios were also amongst the best sellers, including Project Gotham Racing 2, Top Spin, Crimson Skies and Counter Strike.
?We have such strong games that appeal to so many different ages and tastes ? from Music Mixer which allows you to turn the console into a karaoke machine through to Top Spin which lets you step onto centre court as our very own Lleyton Hewitt? says McLean.
Additionally, the appeal of the online gaming service Xbox Live which has so far outsold its competitor?s offering in Australia*, has also helped to steer this growth, with Xbox predicting that by June 2004, the service?s member base will have more than doubled to over one million users worldwide.
?2004 will bring us a host of new developments for consumers, so we?re confident this year will again be a huge year for Xbox,? adds McLean.
* Figures provided by GFK Marketing Services. Data refers to next generation consoles only.
** Figures for week ending 11 January 2004., source GfK Marketing Services
*** Total sales from October 03 ? December 03 provided by GFK Marketing Services
http://www.tomshardware.com/technews/index.html
Bootz: Personally,
I think procurring pardons for a price for your cell block mates, (like Roger Clinton attempted) was a BIT more of an outrage. Seeing as it's you, who seeks to contradict every word I ever said, I'll end this thread right here.
"What else did Carter do that was so awful? I'm honestly curious"
He made a really stupid move to attempt to try a commando raid to free the Iranian Embassy Hostages in the middle of a blinding sand storm. It cost us American Military Lives, Helicopters, & made the radicals holding our people really ticked off. His economic & foreign policy blunders were horrible, and his whole adminstration was overshadowed by his "Backwoods Bubba" brother, Billy. There hasn't been a more embarrassing brother to the president. ( Until influence peddling Roger Clinton showed up.)
Carter EARNED the title of Worst President ever.
Aloha! Happy New Year Guys.
While most of you are already in 2004, I've still got a few hours of 2003 left, So I'd like to wish Burp, sgolds, Windows Man, Duke, Yaw9n2,& all the readers of this board a Happy & Prosperous 2004. I'm still enjoying the holiday retreat to the land of surf, pineapple & really outrageous DSL service costs. (Roadrunner seems to have a lock on almost all DSL service in Hawaii, is like $75 a month... )
Hope you all had a Merry XpMas, & have a Happy New Year.
Aloha!
ACE
That is really dastardly,Lango.
Apple deleting discussion posts on iBook logic-board failures
Dec 15 2003
Rather than acknowledging a major hardware glitch that has been known to cause repeated logic-board failures with its dual USB line of iBook consumer portables, Apple seems to be taking an unethical standpoint on the matter.
It appears that the company has once again resorted to deleting customer's comments on its online discussion boards. "This morning I posted a message regarding the failure of the logic board in my 14" iBook. The post is no longer online as of this afternoon and my profile now states that only one of the two posts I have made is online!," claims one AppleInsider reader. According to the reader, the post contained no profanity of foul language, but simply presented an account of his current situation. Followup postings on subject were also removed "within a matter of minutes." I know just how this poster feels.
This is not the first time that Apple has engaged in such a practice, which only fuels consumer dissatisfaction to new levels. In 2002 the company began removing posts from disgruntled iTools users and proceeded with the same behavior earlier this year on the subject of defective Apple power cords.
BlackCider, a privately own site, is seeking to pursue the issue of faulty iBooks with a class action suit against the computer maker. The site collected over 100 signatures this past weekend from supporters experiencing identical issues. Meanwhile, a second petition now lists over 325 signatures on the same issue.
I wonder who made the call to "ethnically cleanse" Apple's online discussion board, (The corporate one, Not this one...) Steve Jobs, or "Chemical Avi" Tevanian?
Maybe Apple felt that they gave board users "broad latitude",
But in this case, Apple probably felt the users of the board were gaining some perverse pleasure out of pointing out a technical shortcoming?
Needless to say, I agree with you that the company and whoever moderates that message board should swallow the bitter pill and leave those posts alone. Even if it doesn't fit the RDF the company likes to project.
But I agree... Removing the non-complimentary posts are a "disgusting tactic".
.
.
.
.
.
Oh, the irony...
Au COntraire: It was only an OK day.
MSFT picked up a few cents... Cisco lost a few...
AAPL, SINA, & NTES all got the snot beat out of them.
This time, I was kind've hoping Bootzie'd be right.
Dang.
Didn't happen.
MICROSOFT/LOUDEYE MUSIC STORE PACT
Digital media firm Loudeye Corp. (LOUD) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT) on Monday said they will jointly offer businesses a fast and relatively cheap way to jump into the digital music game.
The aim of the software offering is to allow companies to create digital music services much more cheaply, capitalizing on the success of groundbreaking Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL) iTunes online music store without as much initial investment, officials for the companies said.
Initial customers for the application include AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (AWE), Gibson Audio, a new consumer electronics division of Gibson Guitar Corp., and Eyetide Media.
ATT Wireless plans to be the first wireless carrier in North America to offer a mobile music offering in 2004, the companies said.
Analysts have estimated that Apple spent about $35 million to $40 million to build the iTunes technology platform.
Roxio's acquisition of Napster, Pressplay and its integration of these services, which resulted in the relaunch of Napster, cost the company over $65 million, according to public documents.
The Loudeye Digital Music Store, which is based on Microsoft's Windows Media 9 Series platform, provides the infrastructure for setting up a digital music offering.
"We offload the burden of capital expense for anyone trying to enter the digital music arena," said Jeff Cavins, chief executive of Loudeye.
Terms of the initial deals were not disclosed, but Cavins said the deals may be structured in such a way that customers could pay Loudeye to be an operator of the service, or Loudeye can serve as a revenue-sharing partner.
Cavins said Loudeye has early access to certain Microsoft technologies that are unique and necessary to launch these services. REUTERS
NICE!
OT: Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
Saddam CAPTURED.
Monday will be a good stock market day.
ACE
correctedlink to Lindows vs.Windows Finnish victory for MSFT
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/12/11/HNlindowsorder_1.html
That other one will lead you an article on Mac OSX's latest security hole at the root level... My apologies.
Lindows.com ordered to drop Lindows name
Microsoft brought legal action
By Joris Evers, IDG News Service
December 11, 2003
Judges in Finland and Sweden have given Microsoft Corp. what it has twice been denied in the U.S.: preliminary injunctions barring Linux vendor Lindows.com Inc. from using the Lindows name.
Microsoft sued Lindows.com in the U.S. in December 2001, accusing the company of infringing its Windows trademark and asking the court to bar Lindows.com from using the Lindows name. The company lost two requests for an injunction and the matter is now for a jury to decide in a trial set to start March 1, 2004.
European courts appear to be siding with Microsoft. The Redmond, Washington, company sought a preliminary injunction in Finland on Nov. 28 and it was granted on Dec. 1, company spokeswoman Stacy Drake said Thursday. In Sweden, Microsoft requested a preliminary injunction on Dec. 9 and got it on Dec. 10, she said.
Microsoft has also filed a request for a preliminary injunction in the Netherlands and intends to do so in France, where it has already taken the first step in that process by filing a complaint with a local court, Drake said.
"In response to what is a clear and obvious infringement on our trademark, Microsoft has taken action in select international territories to curtail infringing or misleading behavior on the part of Lindows.com," Drake said.
Lindows.com spokeswoman Cheryl Schwarzman said the company was unaware of the Finnish preliminary injunction or the filing of a complaint in France. Lindows did know of the Microsoft action in the Netherlands, she said.
Lindows.com Chief Executive Officer Michael Robertson in a statement issued in response to the Swedish injunction, lashed out against Microsoft's legal pursuit of his company, accusing Microsoft of using lawsuits "as a battering ram to smash Linux."
Drake denied that Microsoft is trying to stifle competition. "Microsoft's steps in this case are only about the Lindows name. We are merely asking that Lindows.com change its name, which obviously is meant to copy our Windows brand," she said. "Contrary to Lindows' statements, this is not about Microsoft trying to prevent competition."
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/ZDM/mac_vulnerablility_pcmag_031211.html
McNeally's next failure - aisle 3:
Java Goes to Wal-Mart
Sun is challenging Microsoft on a new front: the consumer market. Believing its Java Desktop System is "a more effective home and retail solution," the company is negotiating with major retailers Wal-Mart and Office Depot to include the desktop on consumer PCs and laptops.
Sun Microsystems Inc. is embarking on a strategy that challenges Microsoft Corp. on a brand-new front: the consumer market.
The Santa Clara, Calif., company is negotiating with major retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Office Depot Inc. to include Sun's Java Desktop System on planned offerings of low-priced consumer PCs and laptops.
"You will see our focus trend toward us not visiting the CEO of, say, Goldman Sachs [Group Inc.] and trying to convince him that we can effectively replace the Microsoft desktop on his banker's workstation," said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's executive vice president of software, in an interview.
Instead, Schwartz said, the company plans to attract a different segment of the market, including companies such as Wal-Mart, "to leverage our desktop as a more effective home and retail solution."
"We have engaged [Wal-Mart] in a variety of discussions from auto-identification and [radio-frequency ID] tags on suppliers all the way to potentially providing them with a desktop solution," Schwartz said.
Asked whether Sun and Wal-Mart are close to an agreement, Schwartz said, "You should expect to see this sometime next year."
Wal-Mart, of Bentonville, Ark., is expected to launch its own brand of PCs next year, starting with notebooks. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk declined to comment on negotiations with Sun and would say only that the company "has no plans for a private-label PC at this time."
If Sun and Wal-Mart reach an agreement, it would represent a substantial departure from Sun's traditional enterprise focus and channel?and a challenging departure at that.
Wal-Mart could consider Java Desktop System for its offerings, said Sam Bhavnani, an analyst at ARS Inc., in San Diego, but "in terms of how well it can do, I believe 100 percent that a Windows-powered device would do far better than a Java-powered device.
"A Windows notebook will be far more appealing to most consumers than a Linux/Java one, no matter what the price," Bhavnani said.
At the same time, some users are painting Sun with the same proprietary brush they say applies to Microsoft and its products. An IT manager, who asked not to be named, said he could not understand why a user would trade one proprietary desktop for another.
"I personally keep Java off my computer because it crashes the system," he said. "If Sun had the interests of the customer in mind, then the Sun desktop would be written in C and donated to Linux. Sun is no better than Microsoft."
Nevertheless, Sun is moving forward, according to Schwartz, and is in talks with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Intel Corp. about running Java on the companies' respective architectures. Sun has "been having that discussion with Intel and AMD because we would need to cooperate with both of them to hit price points that were really compelling," he said.
A recent report from NPD Group Inc., of Port Washington, N.Y., said unit sales of notebooks jumped 31 percent in the United States during the first nine months of this year compared with the same period a year ago. Desktop PC sales fell by 1 percent over the same period.
Schwartz is upbeat about the potential for Sun's product in the mass consumer market. The long-run evolution of the Internet is most likely to be driven by consumers, many of them young, and that gives Sun another "bite of the apple" in the next wave of PC client adoptions, Schwartz said.
But ARS' Bhavnani disagreed, saying price is just one of many criteria for consumers and that the youth market is very particular about the products it buys.
"I think that Wal-Mart will test the waters with a known brand, like Windows, rather than an unknown Java or Lindows operating system," Bhavnani said.
"Even if Sun does score a deal with Wal-Mart, it would be big for Sun, but ultimately I don't think it would have any real effect on Microsoft and its dominance in the desktop market," he said.
Longhorn: 64 bit or 32 bit
From ZDNet, back in Sept 2003
" Microsoft already has 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 available in beta. MS has stated that its next-generation OS, code-named Longhorn and now due in 2005-2006, will support both 32-bit and 64-bit processors. Whether this will be done in a single release or separate versions may not have been decided as yet and if it has been, Redmond isn't telling. "
Here's a Longhorn FAQ site:
http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/longhorn.asp
Developers take Linux attacks to heart
December 9, 2003, 11:55 AM PST
By Robert Lemos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
A handful of recent online attacks on free and open-source software servers has open-source developers looking over their shoulders.
During the last four months, unknown intruders have breached the security around servers hosting programs and code published by the Linux kernel development team, the Debian Project, the Gentoo Linux Project and the GNU Project, which manages the development of many important programs used by Linux and other Unix-like systems. The attacks have convinced open-source project leaders to take another look at their security.
"The worry is that if someone wanted to be malicious, they could change core software and users could be using corrupted packages."
-- Corey Shields, Gentoo Linux
"It is a definite eyebrow raiser that there has been this targeting of open-source servers and core open-source development servers," said Corey Shields, a member of the infrastructure team that overseas the distribution system for Gentoo Linux's code. "The worry is that if someone wanted to be malicious, they could change core software and users could be using corrupted packages."
Although the open-source model has led to immense progress in developing a competing operating system to Microsoft's Windows--long a target of hackers--it now seems to be a magnet for attackers itself. In a sort of backhanded compliment, attackers are aiming at the Linux OS and other open-source applications because of the software's popularity. Even developers who believe they've adequately secured their development systems are looking at the trend with some trepidation.
"It is one of those things where you have to hope you are not next and try to be one step ahead of the bad guys," said Jeremy Allison, co-founder and developer of the Samba Project, the programming effort for the popular open-source file server that seamlessly fits into Windows networks.
What's new:
Although the open-source model has led to immense progress in developing a competing operating system to Microsoft's Windows--long a target of hackers--it now seems to be a magnet for attackers itself.
Bottom line:
Recent attacks on open-source fixtures such as Linux and the GNU Project have prompted overseers of those efforts to introduce tighter security measures to keep source code and shared programs from becoming corrupted.
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On Dec. 1, an attack on Gentoo Linux compromised one of 105 volunteer-run servers that make copies of Gentoo's source code available to users. The attack, however, didn't threaten the main source-code database. Moreover, security software on the targeted server detected the attack quickly and kept a detailed record of it.
The incident followed a November attack on the Linux kernel, which similarly happened because another system--this time a developer's--had been breached and used as a stepping-stone. The attacker used the developer's machine to submit code to a secondary server, code that could have been used by a later attacker to gain access to any systems that installed it. That attack also was detected within 24 hours.
Other incidents in the rash of attacks have been more serious.
Intruders gained access to the GNU Project's development system, Savannah, and in a separate incident, to four Debian Project servers used to manage development and community efforts for that Linux distribution.
Both attacks were similarly executed: An attacker managed to garner a legitimate user's log-in name and password and then used a recently discovered vulnerability in the Linux kernel to gain the rights and privileges of the system's owners. Both Debian and GNU Project leaders continue to keep the systems offline--and inaccessible to developers--until they can ensure they're secure.
The GNU Project said the latest attack, and another one that compromised the project's file transfer servers last March, had prompted its leadership to make changes.
"It is one of those things where you have to hope you are not next and try to be one step ahead of the bad guys."
-- Jeremy Allison, the Samba Project
"We expect to take measures in the aftermath of the Savannah incident," said Eben Moglen, general counsel for the Free Software Foundation, which maintains the GNU Project, a source of freely available software for Unix and Linux systems. Among the measures, the project leaders will force developers to digitally sign any code they submit, and they plan to introduce additional features to freely available source-code maintenance systems--the best known being the Concurrent Versions System, or CVS--to check developers' digital signatures before accepting changes.
"We believe (adding digital signatures) is the single most useful technical change to tighten these systems to assure the integrity of the code they contain," Moglen said.
The GNU Project, which has created a great deal of the software that makes Linux and Unix systems tick, calls its software "free" because the programs are distributed under the GNU Public License, which allows an application and source code to be used and modified freely as long as the resulting code is distributed under the same terms. The intent is to give the public a set of software that it can freely use, improve and share.
However, that model of software development comes with a hidden cost, critics say. Companies that want to have a high assurance that an attack hasn't resulted in a security weakness will have to audit the code themselves, said Greg Wood, general manager of information security for Microsoft, a vocal opponent and rival to many open-source software projects, such as Linux and the Apache Web server.
"There is a cost for open source, in terms of business process," Wood said. "I think that you are buying into the cost of doing your own integrity check and your own building process."
Microsoft has had its own problems. In October 2000, for example, an attacker was able to leverage control of a developer's computer and gain access to the software giant's network. Since that time, the company has embarked on its Trustworthy Computing initiative, aimed at securing its software and development process, among other goals.
Developers are quick to point out that although the recent attacks on open-source software may have given their perpetrators access to some computers, they've largely failed to affect development because projects are already taking security seriously.
"The reason all the latest break-ins have been quickly noticed is that the master sites tend to be private and…various checks trigger" when attackers change something on secondary sites, said Linus Torvalds, original creator and current maintainer of the Linux kernel and a fellow at the Open-Source Development Labs.
Torvalds has rethought his security more than once. At Helsinki University in Finland, he maintained the early versions of the Linux kernel on a machine that was accessible on the school's open network. Today, the Linux kernel server is protected by multiple firewalls, encrypted communications through secure shell (SSH), and cryptographic signatures to ensure integrity.
Larry McVoy, founder of BitMover, the maker of the source-code maintenance application used by Torvalds to administer the kernel project, stressed that every project should be using such signatures--or "checksums"--to ensure that source code hasn't been changed.
"If you are not checksumming your data--if you are not paranoid--guess what? You have asked to be screwed," McVoy said.
Already, the Debian Project, Gentoo Linux, and the Samba Project use external checksums to verify whether files have been tampered with during an attack. Such techniques remove much of the worry from maintaining a project, said Gael Duval, co-founder of MandrakeSoft, which uses such techniques to protect its distribution of Linux.
"The kernel source code is endlessly replicated, and we will find out if anything nasty was added."
-- Linus Torvalds, Linux creator
"Security issues are not new, and the solutions are not new," Duval said. "A first step would certainly be that system administrators--and users--consider security issues with more importance."
The Apache Software Foundation is moving its popular open-source Web server software over to another source-code maintenance system, Subversion, despite the GNU Project's intent to add additional security features to the CVS software. The primary reason for the move is security, said Justin Erenkrantz, a developer with the Apache Software Foundation.
"We have found that Subversion may be able to provide a better security model than we currently have with CVS, primarily by removing the need for local Unix accounts for all committers and adding checksums to all transactions," Erenkrantz said. "We are hopeful that we can reduce one common attack vector: reducing the number of local accounts that we have to support."
Other aspects of the open-source development model also remove some of the worry, said Erenkrantz. The distributed nature of development means that many other repositories of source code will be available to check the integrity of the code on the main server.
"In the event of an apache.org compromise, we can verify that each developer is in sync with the…repository--that is, (that) there has been no malicious insertion of code," Erenkrantz said.
Torvalds echoed the sentiment, saying that even in the event that the main server for kernel development gets compromised, the open-source community has other checks and balances.
"The thing is, it will get noticed in the end," Torvalds said. "The kernel source code is endlessly replicated, and we will find out if anything nasty was added."
Malicious attackers are less of a worry, Torvalds said, than simple mistakes.
"Personally, I worry a lot more about just plain bugs," Torvalds said. "Whatever kernel weakness people find is much more likely to be just a silly bug--like the one Debian got bit by--than some clever cracker doing bad things."