FCC approves iPhone

i've been asking DMS when i can get an iPhone from them... and they were like "what? apple hasnt even got FCC approval for it"... well this was several months back...

but has finally got FCC approval...

M$ takes on the free world

Microsoft takes on the free world

Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe. Fortune's Roger Parloff reports.
(Fortune Magazine) -- Free software is great, and corporate America loves it. It's often high-quality stuff that can be downloaded free off the Internet and then copied at will. It's versatile - it can be customized to perform almost any large-scale computing task - and it's blessedly crash-resistant.
A broad community of developers, from individuals to large companies like IBM, is constantly working to improve it and introduce new features. No wonder the business world has embraced it so enthusiastically: More than half the companies in the Fortune 500 are thought to be using the free operating system Linux in their data centers.
But now there's a shadow hanging over Linux and other free software, and it's being cast by Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500). The Redmond behemoth asserts that one reason free software is of such high quality is that it violates more than 200 of Microsoft's patents. And as a mature company facing unfavorable market trends and fearsome competitors like Google (Charts, Fortune 500), Microsoft is pulling no punches: It wants royalties. If the company gets its way, free software won't be free anymore.

Source: CNN Money

... and linus responds to m$'s claim!

Linus Torvalds, lead developer of the Linux kernel, has a sharp retort to Microsoft executives' statements in a Fortune magazine article that Linux and other open-source code violate 235 Microsoft patents.
"It's certainly a lot more likely that Microsoft violates patents than Linux does," said Torvalds, holder of the Linux trademark. If the source code for Windows could be subjected to the same critical review that Linux has been, Microsoft would find itself in violation of patents held by other companies, said Torvalds.
"Basic operating system theory was pretty much done by the end of the 1960s. IBM probably owned thousands of really 'fundamental' patents," Torvalds said in a response to questions submitted by InformationWeek. But he doesn't like any form of patent saber rattling. "The fundamental stuff was done about half a century ago and has long, long since lost any patent protection," he wrote.
Microsoft should name the patents that it claims have been violated so the claims can be tested in court or so open-source developers can rewrite code to avoid the violation, Torvalds wrote.
"Naming them would make it either clear that Linux isn't infringing at all (which is quite possible, especially if the patents are bad), or would make it possible to avoid infringing by coding around whatever silly thing they claim," he said.
"So the whole, 'We have a list and we're not telling you,' itself should tell you something," Torvalds said of Microsoft's stance in the Fortune story. And for good measure, he added: "Don't you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they'd just tell us and go, 'nyaah, nyaah, nyaah!'"
Microsoft would prefer not to actually sue anyone, particularly a Linux user who's also a Microsoft customer. "They'd have to name the patents then, and they're probably happier with the FUD [fear, uncertainty, doubt] than with any lawsuit," Torvalds predicted.

Source: InformationWeek

kottu wordpress bug

there was a blog post by a self proclaimed voice of colombo... who i personally think needs to clear his/her throat... and this voice had accused another person of "Stealing Traffic" from kottu.org... 'cos it seems like he/she lives off advertisements in his blog... and probably get a bit upset to find that someone had managed to very easily stay at the top of the list... and since he obviously had noclue of how syndicated content polling works... he felt a bit "unfair" that his posts didnt appear at the top of the list...

i'm just kidding...

back to the flaw in kottu.org...

seems like the rss / atom / html importer in version of wordpress used in kottu.org has a flaw such that it uses the timestamp of the imported content without validating with its own... that is... if i write a blog post at 11:59 PM since its the latest... it will appear at the top... i gave up on wordpress because drupal seemed to be better... well it api was much easier so you can write your own modules or extend the existing ones... wordpress wasnt that cool... so i gave up on it... and switched to drupal...

i made two blog posts: a and b

a and b was posted around the same time (around 6.30 PM on 5/15/07)
but i had put two different timestamps

a: at 5/15/2007 06:00:00 PM
b: at 5/15/2007 11:59:00 PM

b would appear before a in kottu.org

so how do you fix that?

well consult a professional software engineer... its a capitalist world after all...
i'm just kidding... wordpress should have a patch for it... :)
i would run a cron every 15 min or whatever and just import content and stick to my server timestamp... as opposed to using the timestamp in feed....
wordpress is written in php so if you know a bit of php you can modify the code by yourself... its legal 'cos wordpress is opensource...

do the right thing?

the the fuss is about posting a future dated blog entry with the intention of making it stay at the top so that he/she would want some traffic to his/her poll or whatever... and thats supposed to be unethical.... and the solution is to get all the bloggers in kottu.org to stone unethical blogger by visiting the ethical blogger's post...

ya well i dunno... i'd rather try to fix the code in kottu.org and worry about all that ethical bullshit!

and the voice is being anal about this whole thing saying "DO THE RIGHT THING" i just read the thread in his blog... so what if prabath fixed a false date? and DOING THE RIGHT THING and shit like that is boring...

forward dated and back dated blog posting is necessary... its like you've got this diary and you've made notes on another diary and you want to update your main diary... and if the main diary didnt allow you to write on whatever page you wanted to... then thats screwed up... say there is a future event... and you def know that you cant be in front of a computer or use your phone to make a blog post...

modify the code!

if wordpress has issues with taking content and assuming that the date stamped is the actual posted date then thats screwed up
how about this... i have my own server... and i have wordpress running on it... and i modify the code so that whatever blog entry thats put there would have 12:59 PM as its timestamp...

look its an accepted content validation practice... like i said... i would use my time as reference... the time my server imported your content is what would matter...

Related Blog Posts

Memory Bank Threatened..!
Stealing Traffic on Kottu.Org. Bloggers Be on Alert!

Memory Bank had misunderstood my initial comment on the ads... and had said in his blog: " So, for all my blog readers, I would like to say, Memory Bank never depends on 'ads', so never goes after popularity. "... i was not referring to him... i was referring to the colombo voice!
but leaving all that a side... its an issue with kottu.org and not Memory Bank...

kottu -> pls modify your code!

Ban On Windows Vista

FAA May Ditch Microsoft's Windows Vista And Office For Google And Linux Combo

FAA chief information officer David Bowen said he's taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency's Windows XP-based desktop computers and laptops.
read more....

U.S. DOT Ban On Windows Vista, Explorer 7, and Office 2007

"Tens of thousands of federal workers are prohibited from upgrading to the latest versions, according to memos seen by InformationWeek. "
read more....
read DOT memo
Micro$oft responds...