Paul O'Flaherty

Hey Microsoft – Go ahead and patch pirated software – here’s how to make it work

Greg Hughes has another take on what Microsoft should do with all those pirated versions of Windows OS’s:

An open letter to Microsoft…

Once again, commenters everywhere are espousing opinions on Microsoft’s latest statements regarding the company’s plans to disallow updates for pirated copies of Windows (and other software).

We all know taking that position results in one primary problem: Unpatched computers get infected or overrun and then bombard computers of others – making victims of people with valid, paid-for copies of Windows.

I understand Microsoft’s position, I disagree with it, and I have a solution.

Patch the pirated computers, “update” the pirated computer’s firewall to control two-way traffic, then turn that firewall on. Turn it on all the way. Like as in “nothing-in, nothing-out.” Stop all the network traffic on those machines. And put “PIRATED” in all four corners of the screen, like you do with Safe Mode. Heck, for that matter, only allow users to boot into safe mode if it’s pirated.

Read on: Hey Microsoft – Go ahead and patch pirated software – here’s how to make it work

The Firfox FUD Begins

FUD = Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt!

The stupidity of “smart” people will never cease to amaze me….

Unbelievably enough, a Jupiter analyst, Michael Gertenberg, has written an opinion piece which ComputerWorld, unbelievably enough, has printed, cautioning businesses that they might want to think twice about switching from IE to Firefox because “Firefox lacks the ability to run Microsoft ActiveX code.”

[Groklaw jaws drop all over the world in unison]

You may think he was doing a parody for Onion, but I think he’s serious. Yes, friends, I believe we are seeing the birth of the anti-Firefox FUD. Here’s the man’s so-called “opinion”:

The reception that Firefox has received from consumers and the press might tempt business users to switch browsers, but there are some good reasons not to. Many mission-critical applications have been built on Internet Explorer, and most organizations don’t have the budget or resources to recode them. In addition, PCs’ application loads need to be properly tested to ensure that nothing breaks with the addition of a different browser. In the near term, many business users will be better served by keeping Internet Explorer and installing security updates as they’re released. If they aren’t dependent on Internet Explorer technology, however, some end users could use Firefox for their daily Web surfing while reserving Internet Explorer use for sites that require it. . . .

If Microsoft is spurred by Firefox’s success to put more resources into Internet Explorer, it would help create a better experience for both businesses and consumers. That might even happen before Longhorn ships.

Read the rest on Groklaw

2001 DA42

2001 DA42 is a rock in space and  a fitting tribute to the author of the “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, the late Douglas Adams.

For those of you who don’t know,  2001 DA42 is an asteroid. 2001 is the year Douglas Adams dies, DA, is of course his initials, and 42 is the answer to the question of  “Life the Universe and Everything”. Now all we have to do is figure out what the question really means!

The week he died, science-fiction humorist Douglas Adams was honored with an asteroid named after one of the characters from his classic “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Now, almost four years later, Adams has his own name in the heavens as well

MSNBC – Asteroid named after Hitchhiker humorist

The Microsoft Memo – If Bill hired Linus

I absolutely love this.

 When you hired me three years ago, you had to realize that I was going to speak my mind, no matter what the consequences. You told me that if I ever hit a wall with Steve or his people, I should let you know. Well, here goes. (Yes, again.)

After all our technical and strategic conflicts, I bet you never guessed we’d be at each other’s throats over a matter of pronunciation. But the fact is, when Steve goes to a marketing meeting, as he did yesterday, and pronounces our desktop system “Winux,” he jeopardizes not only my personal reputation, but, more important, the very foundation of our business and software approach for the next decade. The desktop system is not “Winux,” as in Linux. As he knows very well. WinX is pronounced like “winks.”

Why is this important? Because the name WinX was not random. It was deliberately chosen to express the strategy behind a 24-month engineering marathon inside Microsoft. We’ve built a Windows desktop and application framework around a Linux operating system, and both sides of this equation – open source and proprietary – are needed for our plan to continue to work. By talking about “Winux,” Steve blurs the distinction between Linux and WinX. Worse, he implies that we have taken over Linux for our own selfish ends. This makes the development community nervous, slows contributions from coders, and creates a huge amount of unnecessary noise.

Read On Wired 13.02: The Microsoft Memo

700mb of rant power!

Brian has gone off on a bender ranting about the fact that the steam demo is a 700mb download, won’t fit on a 650mb CD and that he was trying to download it via dial-up, so wasted 7 hours.

 They made the demo 700MB. Too big to fit on a cd by 50MB. And that’s just Steam. It said it was updating my copy of the demo, but I call bullshit because there was bugger all but Steam stuff on my drive before I registered. I’m sure it downloaded half of the game, or something. There was one or two HL2 files in one folder, the main core, but I didn’t download just an update.

I’ve got to through in my two cents here, because even though Brian is a friend, I can’t agree with him on this one. Not even close.

Brain, I can’t even remember the last time I saw a 650mb CD for sale, they’re mostly 700mb 80 minute CD-R/RW’s in the stores these days.

As for trying to download such a huge file via dialup and blaming Valve for it being so slow. Dude! I’m dumbfounded. For such a smart guy this rant is unnecessary, untrue and daft.

You might want to re-evaluate your post after you’ve calmed down.

Windows has holes if it’s cracked!

Windows has holes if it’s cracked, as users running pirated copies of the operating system are about to find out.

In an effort to crack down on software piracy, the big MS is to expand it’s “Genuine Advantage Program” by enticing users to verify their copies of Windows are valid by offering discounted and free software.

A new range of incentives are coming on February the 7th, however the best news here is thats some markets such as the Peoples Republic of China, Czech Republic and our Scandinavian brethren, Norway, are going to have no option but to verify the legitimacy of their OS before they can receive security updates!

WOOT!! This is great news, and I would love to see it adopted globally. After all, why not? Because the pirated versions will be insecure. I’ve ranted about this before, when there was talk of MS allowing pirates to download SP2. 

So should XP SP2, just refuse to install on pirated copies.. No. It should completely deactivate pirate copies. Give then 24 hours to back up their files and bang.. No more.. Display a screen telling people that their version is a pirate copy, tell them to contact their vendor if they purchased the copy and give them a mechanism to report vendors who are shipping pirated versions of the OS.

Deactivating copies which are illegal is the way to go. Then they can’t be a security problem on the net. And besides, if you just deactivate a pirated copy completely, who’s going to complain. If you complain your busted for using pirated software!

That’s just my opinion, I’m protective of what I buy and people who disagree with me probably have a pirated copy (probably)!

What other people are saying:

Beta News.com – Microsoft Shackles Unlicensed Windows
Channel 9 Forum – Legit Windows or no updates

Google Video leaves me cold

Indexing TV and video is a great thing, but what I would much rather see is a searchable index of events in a film. Some sort of  “object recognition”, yeah.. you can all see where I’m going with this one .

Let’s say I wanted to see all the red fire hydrants in a particular movies, I want to be able to type in “fire hydrants” and get the time index, for each picture. I’m sure you all can see other potential uses for such a search.

But what Google is doing now with video search, essentially amounts to nothing more than a time indexed search of the script, with a few pictures thrown in for good measure. Actually, it’s worse than that, as they seem to be indexing the “closed captions” of the shows, which, as we all know, are never exactly the same as what is said. They’re not.. trust me.. Closed captioners are lazy or can’t type fast enough to keep up with the chatter, so we end up with a “close enough” version of what was said! All right, I know that the chatter is sometimes different because of screen space constraints verses time required to read the caption, but that’s besides the point. They’re damn lazy I tell you!!

I must admit that what Google is doing with video search is interesting, and I’m sure many people will use it for something. Probably to get “that insult” from “that show” just right, for the next time they need a witty comeback in the pub.

I’d like to see the service expanded beyond US postal codes, and of course an expansion in terms of broadcasters being indexed as well.

But I don’t think I’ll find myself using the service often, if at all.

Here’s what some other sites are saying about Google Video Search.

Engadget  – Google takes on Video
BBC – Google launches TV search service
Things that make you go hmm – Google Labs strikes again with Google Video
Adam Jordens – Google Video Search
A Whole Lotta Nothing – Google Video Search

Tried Exeem? Don’t do it yet!

I know all you P2P lovers are dying to get your hands on Exeem, the next gen P2P technology from the guys who ran Suprnova.org. But don’t download it yet!

According to user reviews on BetaNews.com the Ad supported program is not just bundled with adware. It also comes with Spyware, Cydoor, and a host of other evils bits and pieces just waiting to play havoc with your system.

Most of these can removed with a good Anti-Spyware/adware program, but reports also suggest that a variant of Cydoor is actually embedded into the software, so can’t be removed.

This means, that I’ll be avoiding it at all costs, so should you. I’m very disappointed though, as I expected a lot better form the guys behind SuprNova.

Bead stops mobile radiation

Radiation from mobile phones can be reduced to virtually zero by a simple tiny magnetic bead which costs a few pence, a government adviser says.

Professor Lawrie Challis said clipping a ferrite bead on hands-free kits stops the radio waves travelling up the wire and into the head.

He called on the mobile phone industry to start using them “as standard”.

 The BBC has a story on how the simple ferrite beads that have been sued in computers to stop data interference can be used to cut mobile radiation down to zero.

Next version of AdSense to have published API

SiliconValley.com and Silicon Valley Watcher both report that the next iteration of Google AdSense will come equipped with a developers API.

For the first time, the search giant will provide its advertisers with an application programming interface (API), which will enable them to link their computer systems with Google and control parts of the mammoth Google ad delivery system. The API will allow advertisers to self-administer the delivery, the timing and the price they will pay for their text ads.

I like the idea of this. The only question I have is, how long will it take, before ordinary people like me can use the API effectively?

Open Source Windows NT?

Jason Perlow, wants Microsoft to open source Windows NT, citing generating interest in the Windows brand, to stop developers and admins being lured away to the lands of Linux during the long wait until Longhorn.

However, you have to wonder what real benefit would Microsoft get from this? Not much, I think! Okay, maybe you’d have a bit of buzz in the news about Microsoft doing this for a couple of weeks, but that’s not what Microsoft really wants here.

They don’t want admins and developers thinking about old technology. They want them, to think about the future, new products, and new opportunities for Microsoft to make profit.

Open sourcing NT would hit into Microsoft revenue, as companies still soldiering on with NT would now loose a lot of incentive to upgrade to better and more secure technology. If there are companies still paying MS for support beyond the life-cycle of NT, they will also loose that revenue.

So, why would Microsoft open source Windows NT?