text:
Whacking Science Journalists
Collide-a-ScapeBy Keith KloorOctober 1, 2010 11:30 PM
There's been a fair amount of fretting over science journalism lately. It's taken the form of earnest criticism and parody. (For an arch rejoinder to the latter, see this post by one of the science reporters at The Economist.) Even Jay Rosen, whose meta mind scans of mainstream media tend to focus on political journalism, weighs in. There's not much I can add to the critiques, except to note that they seem to treat science journalism as a monolith. When in fact, there's the spot newspaper or web story; there's the deeply reported and nuanced pieces you see in Science and Nature; the explanatory, (sometimes narrative-driven) features in the likes of Discover, Scientific American, New Scientist, Wired, etc. From my view, it appears that newspaper reporters receive most of the barbs. Yet critics don't really make the distinction when raking science journalism over the coals. It's as if a particular NYT or Guardian piece singled out for some egregious failing represents all science journalism: Did you see that terrible false-balance story today? Yet another reminder that science journalists suck. Science journalists have been tied en masse to the whipping post before. In fact, I've been a little surprised that Dorothy Nelkin and her seminal book Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology, have not been mentioned in any of these current discussions. Here's a 1988 review of the book that distills Nelkin's take on science journalism:
A central theme of Dorothy Nelkin's Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology is that science journalists all too frequently perpetuate "this idealization of science as an ultimate authority." In general, she argues that too many stories contain too much hype and not enough of the context in which the scientfic advances take place. Rarely do science journalists look behind the immediate story, she says, and they often blindly accept theories and findings that are controversial or open to alternative explanations. As a result, science and scientists have largely escaped the critical reporting that has been directed at virtually every other profession.
The reviewer, who is now the news editor at Science magazine, later notes that Nelkin is unfairly indicting all of science journalism based on a narrow selection of stories, which is the same problem I have with the current crop of critics. At any rate, I wonder what people make of Nelkin's critique today. (It predates the uprising against the he-said, she-said type of story that is a whole other ball of wax.) I wonder what folks make of how scientists are treated by the press today, and whether other parts of Nelkin's critique holds up in 2010. On a related note, I really wanted to blog in full on this excellent post by Heather Pringle at Archaeology magazine. But I'm running out of time today. Here's an abbreviated take: I read the paper she refers to and last week, an archaeologist friend alerted me to this story about it. There is much to say about both the journal paper and this particular news story, but for now, I'd encourage those interested in the debate over science journalism to read Heather's post and think about 1) how the groupthink in southwestern archaeology was wrong for a long time about an emotionally charged issue (and some of that groupthink still persists), and 2) how some archaeologists tend to interpret their findings through a prism of the age they live in. So, in an attempt to come full circle, let me ask: in the story I refer to just above, who is responsible for the sensationalist angle and tone: the scientist or the journalist?
Ancient Proteins Reveal 6,000-year-old Ring Was Made From Deer Antler or Bone
In Russia's Far North, a Lone Group of Neanderthals May Have Been the Last of Their Kind
Denisovan Research Reveals That Early Humans Were More Complex Than We Thought


Educators looking to prod high school students into thinking more deeply about career choices might take a cue from the military, according to researchers from the American Institutes for Research.
Investigators for the Washington think tank based their advice on a study of a testing program given by the military each year to about 1 million students.
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Career Exploration Program, or ASVAB, is primarily a recruitment and placement tool. But any student can take the two-hour test and fill out the accompanying survey to find out what occupations match his or her interests and abilities.
As a way of getting a foot in the door, military recruiters will even visit the school to help students interpret the results and to provide career information.
The AIR researchers evaluated the program during the 1994-95 school year for the U.S. Department of Defense's manpower data center.
What they found was that the program is an effective way to get students--many of whom receive little formal career counseling--to think hard about what they want to be when they grow up and what they need to do to get there.
"One might say high school students are in real need of career guidance, and this program really fills that need," said Roger Levine, who directed the portion of the study that focused on the program's impact on students. Other researchers looked at the program's effectiveness as a recruiting device.
Mr. Levine and his colleagues presented their findings here last week during the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
As part of the study, the researchers surveyed 1,100 students in 48 high schools across the country at three points during their school careers: just before they took the tests, at the close of the semester in which they were tested, and again almost a year later, when most were seniors.
The students' responses were compared with those of students at 12 randomly chosen high schools where no ASVAB program was offered. The researchers also surveyed 300 guidance counselors to see if their responses matched up with those of the students.
"The bottom line story is that, after the test, kids who participated in ASVAB showed significant improvement in terms of their career maturity," Mr. Levine said. In other words, they were a little more certain about their career choices. Those students were more informed about the kinds of skills or preparation required for their chosen careers and were more likely to have talked with a school counselor or a military recruiter, for example.
"Usually a program effect dissipates hours, days, or weeks later," Mr. Levine added. "But a year later, when we looked at career-exploration behaviors, we found these effects were persistent, and there was the suggestion that they became more profound with the passage of time."
This was true, the researchers said, even after they took into account the fact that students were a year older and might naturally be more interested in deciding on a career path.
And the counselors confirmed that ASVAB students were indeed seeking out career advice in greater numbers.
Moreover, the program seemed to have the same effect on students regardless of their race, their gender, or whether they were enrolled in an academic track or a general education track.
"I was really shocked that I was able to demonstrate an effect so easily," Mr. Levine said.
For more coverage from AERA's annual meeting, see our stories, "AERA's Smorgasbord Caters to Wide Variety of Tastes,""Surprise! Analyses Link Curriculum, TIMSS Test Scores," and "Bonuses Weren't Prime Reason Schools Worked To Improve, Study in Ky. Says," in This Week's News.
The AERA Web site allows you to search the 1997 Annual Meeting Program and has answers to many questions about the conference.


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* Must be 18 years old, US citizen, and willing to relocate to Garland, Texas. Also willing to work 10-12 hour days and weekends.
* First and foremost you share in the profits generated from the game. Something few places can offer. You get this in addition to a salary. And with Duke Nukem Forever, you can reasonably expect this game to be a commercial success.
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Als je jezelf aanmeld, vergeet ons dan niet op de hoogte te houden!


text:
IRC Proceedings: June 22nd, 2010
Posted in IRC Logs at 6:03 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Read the log
Enter the IRC channel now
Microsoft Advertises Patent Scare in GNU/Linux, Using Novell
Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Patents, Virtualisation, VMware at 4:30 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Microsoft issued and spread another wave of propaganda yesterday, calling for more companies to sign patent deals like Novell's
THE ON-LINE PRESS has some new discussions about the VMware-Novell relationship which we covered earlier this month [1, 2, 3]. There is nothing new there but an argument over who exploits Novell and puts more pressure on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and other distributions of GNU/Linux, as opposed to Ballnux).
Then comes the latest propaganda from the 'Microsoft press'. It is a poor article that promotes Microsoft's case (PR) and disregards objective facts. It also speaks about the VMware affair (VMware is full of Microsoft executives, for those don't remember).
Microsoft Cites Success of Novell Linux Interop Deal
Microsoft touted its operating system interoperability partnership with Novell on Monday, saying that more than 500 customers have signed up since the program began more than three years ago.
The program does more than just ensure that Windows and Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise play well together in heterogeneous computing environments. It also ensures that users of SuSE Linux Enterprise don't violate Microsoft's patents, providing users with so-called intellectual property (IP) "peace of mind."
In June, Novell announced a partnership with VMware in which VMware will bundle its vSphere cloud-computing platform with Novell's SuSE Linux Enterprise. The announcement that VMware planned to "standardize its virtual appliance-based product offerings on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server" drew swift reaction from Microsoft. In a blog post, Patrick O'Rourke, director of communications for Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, claimed that VMware was offering "a bad deal for customers" by locking them into using vSphere to do patching. In response, VMware said the bundling offer actually streamlines the agreements vSphere customers have to sign.
Lyman dismissed this Microsoft-VMware spat as just part of broader competitive trends.
Notice the use of the term "peace of mind" — a phrase that we often hear from Novell. They are both in it for the scare and for the software patents. Both Novell and Microsoft benefit from them.
The "Open Source Insider" at Computer Weekly is smart enough to know that Microsoft is only pretending when it comes to statements it makes about "Open Source". Many other journalists don't know the truth and that includes the magazine above, which is tied to Microsoft and thus it's propaganda. People who print out such articles (or pass these quotes without scrutiny) need a reality check. Microsoft already uses racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] against "Open Source" and Novell is not an "Open Source" company. That's why it signed the deal with Microsoft without any threats being issued. It is Novell that came to Microsoft for the deal. █
Framework for Legalising Software Patents in Europe Falls Over, So Why Does Canonical Join the OIN?
Posted in Europe, IBM, Law, Microsoft, Patents, Ubuntu at 3:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Canonical, the EU-based company which produces the "Ubuntu" GNU/Linux distribution, joins the Open Invention Network just as the "EU patent" seemingly collapses
A few weeks ago we showed that the unified patent litigation system (UPLS) was failing to materialise. It's one of those back doors to software patents admission all across Europe. A new report from IAM hammers another nail into this coffin, but vigilance remains necessary because they keep renaming and/or dressing up this same plan which would help lawyers, not science.
A single EU patent looks dead in the water as member states seek alternatives
Attempts to create a single EU patent could be heading to yet another failure, according to Margot Fröhlinger, Director of Knowledge Economy inside the Internal Markets DG of the European Commission. Speaking today at the IP Business Congress in Munich, Fröhlinger, who is closely involved in the negotiations surrounding the patent, as well as a single litigation system in the EU, told delegates that the project "is not in the best shape". Proposals about languages and translations are due to be presented to the Council of Ministers next week. There is, however, "little chance that they will fly," she said.
Oddly enough, the UK-based Canonical has just joined the US-based Maginot Line as a member, supposedly for protection against racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] from Microsoft, MPEG-LA [1, 2], and other aggressors/trolls who will potentially use software patents. The official announcement (appended below in full) says:
Open Invention Network (OIN) today announced that Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has become its first Associate Member. Open Invention Network developed the Associate Member program to further strengthen the Linux community and empower open source leaders to ensure ongoing freedom of action for Linux as it relates to intellectual property (IP) rights..
It is not entirely clear how the OIN will help Canonical. It didn't exactly save the EU-based TomTom, which paid Microsoft after it got sued. Florian Müller got in touch with us to say that the "Open Invention Network, a patent holding firm owned by six companies (IBM, Sony, NEC, Philips, Red Hat, Novell) has announced a new "Associate Member" program and the fact that Canonical (the Ubuntu company) becomes the first Associate Member (previously, Canonical was a mere "licensee")." For those who do not know yet, Müller is an OIN sceptic. The same goes for the FFII and for Techrights, unlike Groklaw for example.
"The Canonical announcement once again shows the absolutely unacceptable degree of intransparency with which the Open Invention Network operates," Müller explains. "Both the press release and the OIN's website fail to specify what exactly the rights and obligations of OIN Associate Members — as compared to mere licensees — are. Also, there's no information concerning the criteria according to which a company is eligible to become an OIN Associate Member. Canonical is known for being a strategic partner of IBM, and since IBM is the most influential force behind the OIN, that's probably the reason why its membership status was upgraded.
"Canonical is known for being a strategic partner of IBM, and since IBM is the most influential force behind the OIN, that's probably the reason why its membership status was upgraded."
–Florian Müller"The OIN can't claim to pursue the protection of the Linux ecosystem as long as its non-assertion commitment relates only to an arbitrary definition of what the OIN calls 'the Linux System', which includes some but not all of the major applications that are usually shipped with major Linux distributions. The OIN reserves the right to redefine 'the Linux System' and therefore the scope of its license agreement anytime at its sole discretion, which is intransparent and arbitrary and raises serious questions. It seems to me that the OIN is basically a strategic patent troll, a non-practicing entity owned by a small group of companies that can use it for its purposes against their competitors whenever they elect to do so, and the protection of Linux is just a pretext.
"Some of the OIN's backers have a terrible background concerning software patents, such as IBM, and I have had to lobby against most of those companies in the past because they tried to convince lawmakers in Europe to strengthen the legal position of software patents over here.
"I'm not aware of even one case in which the OIN's patent pool served the purpose of protecting Linux. Organizations close to the OIN try to suggest that it was the case, but there's absolutely no evidence because otherwise there would have had to be an announcement that a company trying to assert patents against Linux or other open source software backed off and instead obtained a license to the OIN's patents. Not even one such case is known. Instead, patent infringements by companies building products based on Linux happen all the time, and even very strong and competent organizations such as Amazon and HTC feel forced to pay patent royalties for their use of Linux. If the OIN were as useful as its backers claim, those companies, too, could have chosen to be protected by the OIN."
We omit the remainder of Müller's mail because it contains promotion of other schemes that we wish not to endorse. As Carlo Piana put it last month, "the *only* solution is abolition NOW."
We patiently wait for the Bilski decision to come. Here is what Patently-O has to say about it:
UPDATE: No decision today. The court will release opinions on Thursday (June 24) and again next Monday.
It will definitely be out by the end of the month [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], so either this week or next week we will know what milestone was achieved. █
Open Invention Network Announces Associate Member Program and Recruits Canonical As Its First Associate Member
New Associate Member Program Strengthens Linux Community and Deepens OIN Impact in Support of Linux's Growth and Migration into Key Emerging Markets
Durham, NC (June 22, 2010) – Open Invention Network (OIN) today announced that Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has become its first Associate Member. Open Invention Network developed the Associate Member program to further strengthen the Linux community and empower open source leaders to ensure ongoing freedom of action for Linux as it relates to intellectual property (IP) rights.
"We view Open Invention Network as one of the key methods through which open source leaders and innovators can deter patent aggression,"
–Canonical CEO Jane SilberOIN Associate Members, such as Canonical, demonstrate support and commitment to limiting the effects of patent disputes in Linux. Canonical's activities and those of all companies seeking to adopt and use Linux will be facilitated as OIN works closely with Canonical and other companies that are supporting Linux's growth and expansion. Through the support of its founding members including IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony, OIN has amassed a broad portfolio of patents, including patents held by nominees on its behalf.
"Canonical has shown great leadership with Ubuntu and it is an important participant in the overall open source and Linux ecosystem. By transitioning its relationship with OIN from Licensee and becoming OIN's first Associate Member, Canonical is once again demonstrating its leadership and commitment to Linux," said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. "We are extremely pleased to launch our Associate Member program and have Canonical join as our first member."
"We view Open Invention Network as one of the key methods through which open source leaders and innovators can deter patent aggression," said Jane Silber, CEO of Canonical. "We are committed to freedom of action in open source, and have noted OIN's efforts to actively defend and enable the Linux ecosystem. By becoming an OIN Associate Member, we are supporting the broad OIN mission and its commitment to enable and protect Linux's advancement."
About OIN Membership & Licensee Opportunities
Open Invention Network has three levels of participation, each of which helps to promote open source as a modality for invention and ensure ongoing freedom of action for Linux community members:
• Founding Members – Open Invention Network comprises six forward-looking organizations that originally created OIN with a mission of enabling and protecting Linux as it relates to IP rights. OIN's Founding Members include IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony.
• Associate Members – Associate Members are recruited from Linux-related companies, including those that are leaders in advancing Linux's migration into emerging growth markets. Associate Members make a commitment to the Linux Community by virtue of their commitments to and membership in OIN and help to ensure that patent issues do not impair Linux's growth.
• Licensees – Any company or organization that agrees to refrain from using its intellectual property against the Linux System may become an OIN licensee. Licensees benefit from royalty-free access to a valuable and growing portfolio of strategic patents, as well as from ongoing communication with OIN concerning Linux-related patent issues. In so doing, licensees facilitate their access to OIN resources such as Linux Defenders, which is designed to address patent issues with the potential to impact Linux. OIN licensees, be they founding members, associate members or licensees, contribute to an ever expanding community of companies that share a common goal of ensuring freedom of action in and across the Linux ecosystem. Through their unified commitment to Linux, they limit the negative effect of patent-based challenges mounted by companies antagonistic to Linux and open source innovation.
About Canonical
Canonical provides engineering, online and professional services to Ubuntu partners and customers worldwide. As the company behind the Ubuntu project, Canonical is committed to the production and support of Ubuntu – an ever-popular and fast-growing open-source operating system. It aims to ensure that Ubuntu is available to every organisation and individual on servers, desktops, laptops and netbooks.
Canonical partners with computer hardware manufacturers to certify Ubuntu, provides migration, deployment, support and training services to businesses, and offers online services direct to end users. Canonical also builds and maintains collaborative, open-source development tools to ensure that organisations and individuals can participate fully in innovations within the open-source community. For more information, visit www.canonical.com.
About Open Invention Network®
Open Invention Network is a collaborative enterprise that enables innovation in open source and an increasingly vibrant ecosystem around Linux. It does this by acquiring and licensing patents, influencing behaviors and policy and protecting the integrity of the ecosystem through strategic programs such as Linux Defenders. OIN enables the growth and continuation of open source software by fostering a healthy Linux ecosystem of investors, vendors, developers and users.
Open Invention Network has considerable industry backing. It was launched in 2005 by IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony. OIN has received supplemental financial support from Canonical. For more information, visit www.openinventionnetwork.com.
Open Invention Network, the Open Invention Network logo, Linux Defenders, Linux Defenders 911 and the Linux Defenders 911 logo are registered trademarks or the property of Open Invention Network, LLC. All other names and brand marks are the property of their respective holders.
Media-Only Contact:
For Open Invention Network:
Ed Schauweker
Ketchum for Open Invention Network
ed.schauweker@ketchum.com
For Canonical:
Joe Eckert
Baker Communications Group
jeckert@bakercg.com
Serena Denies Allegation That Microsoft Paid it to Stage Ditching of Google
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Rumour at 3:03 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Despite Microsoft's habit of paying companies to ditch Microsoft's competition (be it GNU/Linux or Google), Serena says that rumours about it are wrong
MICROSOFT loves to suppress fair competition. A good example of that would be sub-notebooks. We wrote about that subject in:
Russia's Antimonopoly Service Targets ASUS, Toshiba, H-P, Samsung and Dell for Potentially Colluding with Microsoft
ASUS Enters the Slog Business
More Suspicious Moves from ASUS
It's Unofficial: Microsoft Pays ASUS (Kickbacks) to Block GNU/Linux. Will EU Commission Step in?
ASUS: "Currently, We're Closely Tied up With Microsoft"
What is Going on with ASUS and GNU/Linux?
ASUS Profits Fall 94% After Getting "Closely Tied Up with Microsoft" at the Expense of GNU/Linux
Microsoft Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing Sub-notebooks
Does Microsoft Blackmail Sub-notebooks Vendors?
What Microsoft's Anti-Linux Taskforce in Wal-Mart Teaches Us About Sub-notebooks
According to this report, Microsoft may be dumping 'free' (gratis) software on companies (sometimes it bribes users) which it then uses as "case studies" for abandonment of Google. It's a form of bounty. [via]
I heard that Microsoft gave Serena BPOS for free for three years, a claim Serena disputes.
The truth might be close to it. The exact phrasing of this dispute would matter a lot because there is wiggling room in plausible denial and this was done before. Microsoft is making some cases against the competition, often by paying to manufacture these cases. A good example might be LSE, which failed badly [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and ran away from Microsoft to GNU/Linux. █
Oracle Doesn't "Go Bananas Over EIF 2.0" Being Subverted by Microsoft and Friends
Posted in Database, Europe, Law, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents, Standard, SUN at 2:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Oracle blog rant about EIF 2.0 said to have been removed; the role of the BSA in fighting software freedom is explained
THE PRESIDENT of the FFII points out that "Oracle´s blog post over EIFv2 open standards lobbying has disappeared" and that it can still be found here (titled "The EU goes bananas over EIF 2.0″). What's the matter with all that? Is it possible that Oracle found it unacceptable to defend software freedom and standards (like Sun removed MySQL's anti-software patents page following the acquisition [1, 2])? Here is a portion of what this newer Oracle post about the Digital Agenda says despite the fact that it too has been derailed.
The EU Digital Agenda (I gave it an 85/100 score), while laudable, stops short of using the term. The speech is a nice interpretation of her own document. I am told all other relevant Commissioners saw and accepted the speech in a brief interservice consultation. What that means is another thing. Are they blind? Have they changed their mind? Or, do they simply let her have her own opinions, but were not prepared to go as far as this in the Digital Agenda? Whatever lies behind what happened and what was said today, it is progress.
The next step for the European Commission is defining the term open standards. If they do that, and do it right, Vice President Kroes will go into history as having made a significant contribution towards global progress in e-government by possibly eradicating lock-in forever. Moreover, she will put Europe's SMEs in a better position to succeed in a global IT market filled with barriers to entry from players not fully understanding, using, or unpacking standards.
For some background about the lobbying, see the following posts.
European Open Source Software Workgroup a Total Scam: Hijacked and Subverted by Microsoft et al
Microsoft's AstroTurfing, Twitter, Waggener Edstrom, and Jonathan Zuck
Does the European Commission Harbour a Destruction of Free/Open Source Software Workgroup?
The Illusion of Transparency at the European Parliament/Commission (on Microsoft)
2 Months and No Disclosure from the European Parliament
After 3 Months, Europe Lets Microsoft-Influenced EU Panel be Seen
Formal Complaint Against European Commission for Harbouring Microsoft Lobbyists
'European' Software Strategy Published, Written by Lobbyists and Multinationals
Microsoft Uses Inside Influence to Grab Control, Redefine "Open Source"
With Friends Like These, Who Needs Microsoft?
European Interoperability Framework (EIF) Corrupted by Microsoft et al, Its Lobbyists
Orwellian EIF, Fake Open Source, and Security Implications
No Sense of Shame Left at Microsoft
Lobbying Leads to Protest — the FFII and the FSFE Rise in Opposition to Subverted EIF
IBM and Open Forum Europe Address European Interoperability Framework (EIF) Fiasco
EIF Scrutinised, ODF Evolves, and Microsoft's OOXML "Lies" Lead to Backlash from Danish Standards Committee
Complaints About Perverted EIF Continue to Pile Up
More Complaints About EIFv2 Abuse and Free Software FUD from General Electric (GE)
Patents Roundup: Copyrighted SQL Queries, Microsoft Alliance with Company That Attacks F/OSS with Software Patents, Peer-to-Patent in Australia
Microsoft Under Fire: Open Source Software Thematic Group Complains About EIFv2 Subversion, NHS Software Supplier Under Criminal Investigation
British MEP Responds to Microsoft Lobby Against EIFv2; Microsoft's Visible Technologies Infiltrates/Derails Forums Too
Patents Roundup: Escalations in Europe, SAP Pretense, CCIA Goes Wrong, and IETF Opens Up
Patents Roundup: Several Defeats for Bad Types of Patents, Apple Risks Embargo, and Microsoft Lobbies Europe Intensely
Europeans Asked to Stop Microsoft's Subversion of EIFv2 (European Interoperability Framework Version 2)
Former Member of European Parliament Describes Microsoft "Coup in Process" in the European Commission
Microsoft's Battle to Consume — Not Obliterate — Open Source
Patents Roundup: David Hammerstein on Microsoft Lobbying in Europe; Harrison Targets Lobbying on Software Patents in New Zealand, Justice Stevens Leaves SCOTUS
The BSA was among the lobbyists for Microsoft. In other news that covers the BSA's actions regarding software patents and policies, we have this:
The largest growing part of the software sector, and which most threatens the legacy business models of BSA members, is the Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) movement. I joined this multi-sectoral movement, which includes but is not limited to commercial software companies, in the early 1990′s. Most of the policies promoted by the BSA since the mid 1990′s have been aimed at stopping or reducing the growth of this movement. The two most active policies are software patents and legal protection for technical measures.
Independent software authors have obvious allies with other independent software authors. There is the Open Source Initiative, the Free Software Foundation and the Linux Foundation in the US, and various software user/developer groups in Canada such as CLUE: Canada's Association for Open Source.
If you look at the membership for the Linux Foundation and the BSA, you may notice there are overlapping companies between who I consider to be my most obvious opponents and allies. This is not only true within these associations, but within individual companies. I've observed informal policy debates between employees of IBM, with these different employees being as far as two individuals can be from each other on key areas of technology policy.
The BSA members are using the labels as their public face to the political process, just as the labels have always used specific famous musicians as their public face. Michael Geist has suggested that the major labels are behind the latest Astroturf campaign, and from what I have seen I suspect this is true.
Oracle is not listed as a BSA member. It could do a lot more to rectify EIF 2.0 and the Digital Agenda, especially now that it has important Free software projects in its portfolio. █
Links 22/6/2010: Dell in GNU/Linux Talks, Loads of Red Hat Press
Posted in News Roundup at 1:58 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Clip of the Day
You Want Linux to Run What?
Someone left a comment on one of my posts similar to, "Linux won't be popular on the Desktop until it runs Windows applications." To which I silently responded, "Huh? and, "You've got to be kidding me." We have WINE for running Windows applications and it works reasonably well for those who care to spend the time to work through any problems with it. I don't think the Linux Community needs to spend time on such an undertaking. Is anyone asking Apple to run Windows applications so that it will gain popularity? No? Then, why should Linux? If you want to run Windows applications, run them on Windows.
And now, for something totally different: EveryDesk!
Now that most of our work for FLOSSMETRICS is ended, I had the opportunity to try and work on something different. As you know, I worked on bringing OSS to companies and public administration for nearly 15 years now, and I had the opportunity to work in many different projects with many different and incredible people. One of the common things that I discovered is that to increase adoption it is necessary to give every user a distinct advantage in using OSS, and to make the exploratory process easy and hassle-free.
Dell backtracks on Linux being safer than Windows
So why did Dell back down from their claims for Ubuntu Linux. I'm not getting any answers from Dell, but I think it's pretty easy to guess: Microsoft took note of people talking about Dell saying nice things about Linux, and decided to "have a word" with Dell. Microsoft has been pushing the computer vendors around for decades — which is why Windows is so popular, not because Windows is better than the alternatives.
But, and this is what I find really interesting, Dell didn't pull the comments about Linux being more secure. They just softened them. I think this speaks volumes. It means that Dell remains committed to Ubuntu Linux on its laptops and netbooks. It also means that Microsoft can't get away with being the bully it once was to computer manufacturers.
Dell and M$, Sitting in a Tree, KISSING
Dell in talks with Google over Chrome OS
"We have to have a point of view on the industry and technology direction two years, three years down the road, so we continuously work with Google on this," Amit Midha, Dell's president for Greater China and South Asia told Reuters in an interview.
"There are going to be unique innovations coming up in the marketplace in two, three years, with a new form of computing, we want to be on that forefront … So with Chrome or Android or anything like that we want to be one of the leaders," Midha said, adding that there were no firm announcements to be made but talks were underway.
Toshiba AC100 video demo
ITS BORING NAME ASIDE, Toshiba's AC100 "mobile Internet device," as the company calls it, runs Android 2.1 and has an Nvidia Tegra 250 processor, a 1024 x 600 screen and 512MB of RAM. Boasting 7-day standby with split second bootup, its battery life for "full use", which includes 3G internet access, can last for 8 hours according to Toshiba. 3G is optional while WiFi comes as standard.
What Is I.B.M.'s Watson?
This is the quintessential sort of clue you hear on the TV game show "Jeopardy!" It's witty (the clue's category is "Postcards From the Edge"), demands a large store of trivia and requires contestants to make confident, split-second decisions. This particular clue appeared in a mock version of the game in December, held in Hawthorne, N.Y. at one of I.B.M.'s research labs. Two contestants — Dorothy Gilmartin, a health teacher with her hair tied back in a ponytail, and Alison Kolani, a copy editor — furrowed their brows in concentration. Who would be the first to answer?
Ballnux
Samsung posts firmware source bundle for BD-C5500 Blu Ray player, some wonder if it is real…
So Samsung finally posted the source code that they were legally obligated to provide me in order to fulfill the contract they entered into with me as a recipient of GPL'd source code that they distributed. Maybe.
If nobody calls companies to account when they have not lived up to their side of the agreement, they'll get the idea that it's OK to continue ignoring their obligations, so with all due deference to Mr. Kuhn, I feel it is my right to demand that the contract between myself and Samsung be fulfilled.
One last thing, and this is for Samsung:
Quit asking people why they want the code, or what they're going to do with it. It's none of your damned business if all the customer does is print it all out and use it for toilet paper, you're still legally obligated to fork it over.
Augmented reality in openSUSE 11.2
WYSIWYG music app makes a score
Musical inspiration may come from heaven, but once it arrives, you'd better record it or it'll fly back to where it came from. MuseScore software lets you set down your music notation and compose (or at least create sheet music) on your computer.
Linux Odyssey 2010 – Logging Software
With the ARRL Field Day just around the corner, I decided, in the spirit of my own Linux Odyssey that I should find and use a new logging program. It is the search for this program that prompted these thoughts.
Instructionals
Linuxables: Intro to Linux Command Line
Blender 2.49 Scripting
Two tips for meeting survival in an entrenched bureaucracy
Prevent brute force attacks using fail2ban
How to install webmin in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx
noCD? |boot from usb| Sabayon Linux
How to Hide Desktop Icons in Ubuntu
Guake: Hide-able terminal goodness
Guide to dual-booting
6 Bash Conditional Expression Examples ( -e, -eq, -z, !=, [, [[ ..)
4 Bash If Statement Examples ( If then fi, If then else fi, If elif else fi, Nested if )
Getting rid of the blanks in a spreadsheet column or row, and more
GRUB 2 boot problems
Cute Knight Kingdom For GNU/Linux Released !
Today Cute Knight Kingdom came out of beta and is now available for GNU/Linux !
K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)
KDE 4.5 2nd Beta: The End of an Era
Last Week in Krita — Week 24
Last week, Krita development really picked up, and if today's commit rate is anything to go buy, this week will be just as good! We had fifty commits in week 24. Our bug count is now 58, but that's after Sven Langkamp closed half a dozen bugs today. People seem to like Krita 2.2 and do very nice work with it. If you give 2.2 a try and you experience a problem, please inform us about it. There's a very cool and handy Report Bug menu option in the Help menu!
Week 24: Photoshop brush support in Krita
Equally easy to overlook are improvements like the drag and drop support for tabs in the Dolphin file manager, the use of the semantic desktop features in creating Konqueror bookmarks, or the support in Kontact for alternate calendars and new holiday listings.
The Reg guide to Linux, part 1: Picking a distro
Debian is the daddy, the basis for Ubuntu, Mepis and others. It's intentionally restricted to only open-source components, so it's a bit more work to get proprietary code such as graphics or wireless network drivers working, or the official versions of Java, Flash and so on. Good for servers if you know what you're doing, but not a great desktop choice unless you're already a guru.
8 Linux-based Live CD/DVD and USB Distros For All Occasions
If you're new to the Linux or open source community, you might not have heard of live disc or USB distributions yet. They let you run a operating system on PCs without installing anything on the hard drive. It loads directly from the CD/DVD disc or USB flash drive. Many full Linux desktop distros, such as Ubuntu, can be ran in this live mode. However, there are also live distros created for a wide-variety of other specific applications and solutions. Here we'll review several of these. Let's get started!
Review – Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Netbook Remix – With Screenshots
Ubuntu Netbook Remix, or UNR, sports the same purple theme that the Gnome Ubuntu release has. There is only a toolbar at the top, and then the Netbook Interface. Different to Gnome-Shell, which I spent some time with over the past seven days, I have none of that feeling of "where do I go now" that Gnome-Shell leaves me with.
SAS ranks No. 6 in Computerworld 'Best Places to Work' list; Red Hat is 95th
SAS, Red Hat among 100 best places to work in IT
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) is the only other Triangle technology company to make the list, ranking at No. 95. The Raleigh open-source software company had IT turnover of just 5 percent in 2009 and maintained a $1,250 training budget per IT employee.
Hanging Our Hats at One of the Best Companies to Work
AcrossWorld eyes global access to free college courses
Across Fort Point Channel is AcrossWorld Education Co. Inc., which launched last year to bring freely available college-level courses to developing communities across the globe. To do so, it is hoping to emulate the success of another company that has been a big winner in monetizing free content — Red Hat Inc.
Unlike Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), which took the open source operating system Linux and turned it into an enterprise-level software player, AcrossWorld is tapping the courses available through the open education resources movement for its business model. Like Red Hat, however, AcrossWorld will be making its money by selling expertise. For AcrossWorld, that means helping collect and structure courses for colleges that otherwise would have to invest major funds in developing their own curricula.
NYSE Euronext Fuels Performance, Integration and Cost Savings With Red Hat's JBoss Enterprise Middleware
Prompted by their positive collaboration and customer experience as a long-time Red Hat Enterprise Linux customer, NYSE Euronext turned to JBoss Enterprise Middleware to integrate their disparate and legacy proprietary infrastructure.
Nyse Euronext taps Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Middleware
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Nyse Euronext (NYX), the leading and most liquid equities exchange group in the world, has standardized on Red Hat's JBoss Enterprise Middleware.
Red Hat Looking At Systems Management Market?
Red Hat Recognizes 2010 Red Hat Certified Engineers of the Year
Red Hat Enables and Empowers Global Business Partners with Center for Resources on Cloud, Virtualization and Middleware Computing
Red Hat Ahead of Earnings
New Post-Release Repository For New Applications Starting With Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat
But Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat wants to change the game: according to the whiteboard of the "Implementation of delivering apps post-release" blueprint, a new Ubuntu repository "extras.ubuntu.com" will be created and new applications will be uploaded to this repository even for the already released Ubuntu versions. The new applications will have to be approved by the Application Review Board.
The Spirit of Ubuntu
My father-in-law Ron is 88 years old, a member of what Tom Brokaw called The Greatest Generation, those who survived the Great Depression and went on to fight World War II — in Europe, in Ron's case. Time is taking its toll now on all of those folks: limited mobility, slower reaction times, often reduced vision. It can happen to all of us who live that long.
I sent copies of my articles to Ron from time to time. He had been interested in computer hardware some years ago and had accumulated a good many bits and pieces, but had long since given it away; unfortunately, a lot of his enthusiasm had gone with it. Still, he always read the articles and a few months ago he remarked that Linux sounded interesting. Naturally I jumped at the opening, offered to send him a Live CD, and to my surprise he said he'd love to try it. I sent him Ubuntu 9.04, a short summary of it, and references to the Ubuntu sites on the web.
Meet Steve Kowalik
Ubuntu on TV: The IT Crowd
You can clearly see an Ubuntu logo on the the back of one of the characters' monitor from Channel 4's geek comedy 'The IT Crowd' (which has just started a new series o'er here.)
Isadora KDE Development Report
After using the new Mint Community website for testing, with some new tests too, the last development ISO still had some minor bugs. Two were easy to fix, but the other two KDE ones have been a real pain. Well lets say they are very easy for a user to configure using system settings if you know where to look but to have them enabled by default is…. well… I gave up. KDE 4.4 now has new ways to generate the configs it wants after putting your configs there first.
Kindle vs. Nook: The price war is on; E-reader shipments to surge?
The price war in e-readers is on and the scrum between Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook may be enough to change the buying calculus for dedicated reading devices.
Dedicated E-Readers: They're History
Barnes & Noble just launched a new Wi-Fi only version of the Nook for $149 and cut the price of the original, with both Wi-Fi and 3G from $259 to $199. Whoops! And, what's this? I no sooner finish this blog and Amazon drops the bottom-line Kindle's price to $189. That's great, right? Wrong. It's actually just postponing the end of all dedicated e-readers.
Besides, in the next few months you're going to see a flood of Linux-powered iPad clones and other tablet devices. I expect these tablets to have prices ranging from $150 to $250 and, thanks to most of them running Google Android, they'll be able to run many of the same applications that now live on Apple iPads. Besides, when it comes to e-readers, the Nook is an Android Linux device and there's already a Kindle for Android application.
VLC 1.1 Forced To Drop Shoutcast Due To AOL Anti-OSS Provision
Press Release about Shoutcast Removal in VLC
During the last year, the VLC developers have received several injunctions by e-mail from employees at AOL, asking us to either comply to a license not compatible with free software or remove the SHOUTcast capability in VLC.
AOL sucks, forces VLC to remove SHOUTCast, AOL sucks…hard.
Firefox 4 gets web sockets support
Recent Firefox 4 nightlies feature new support for Web Sockets, a new technology (an HTML5 spin-off) that enables bi-directional communication between a web browser and a server.
Linux: "The Cloud", Tablets, Desktop PCs and Control
On the other hand, the tablet PC systems I see so far are limited to control by some folks other than myself. You see, for now these are closed consumer devices that do not allow me to install or choose my own operating system and only work best when connected to "the cloud". The tablets by Apple come with all the restrictions that come with any Apple system, only worse in this case. The tablets from Google are at least supposed to use an open source operating system. But still, Google's dedication to "cloud computing" puts their tablet in a questionable light as far as control over "my stuff" is concerned. At least with a laptop, notebook or netbook PC I can still have a local disk installed with my operating system of choice, a complete set of productivity applications installed and full control over my own data. No access to the 'net? That is no problem with a device with local storage where I can keep my data and work on it with locally installed applications.
Confessions of a cloud skeptic
OpenOffice at the crossroads
OpenOffice.org is a flagship for free and open source software, released under free software licenses and achieving downloads in the hundreds of millions. OO.o is a success by most measurements, but there have long been murmurings of discontent among developers resulting in complaints of "non-responsiveness and lack of leadership" on the project. The argument is not that the project is a failure, but that OpenOffice.org could be so much more, given a less top down approach to project management and a looser rein on developers' ability to get involved.
Can a FOSS Firm Hit the Billion-Dollar Jackpot?
In any discussion of FOSS's potential to be profitable, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) is invariably held up as the poster child for success.
The Economics of Open Source: Why the Billion Dollar Barrier is Irrelevant
The explanation of why zero pure play open source vendors have hit the one billion dollar revenue mark has never seemed, to me, particularly complicated. The economics of open source are, as Glyn notes above, fundamentally differentiated from the closed source models that preceded it. Open source as an application development model enjoys many advantages over proprietary, in-house development; distribution and usage among them. But revenue extraction has not traditionally been a strength, for obvious reasons. When payment is optional, as it is with most open source software, fewer users become commercial buyers. Next up, a study proving that objects further away are harder to see.
Opscode, Turning Sysadmins into Superheroes
Dru Lavigne Appointed "Director of Community Development" for PC-BSD Project
Dru Lavigne currently serves on the Board of Directors for the FreeBSD Foundation and is the current Chair of the BSD Certification Group. As of August 2nd, she will be adding Director of Community Development for the PC-BSD project to her resume.
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
Introducing the campaigns interns…
Open Geoprocessing Standards and Open Geospatial Data
The following guest post is from Lance McKee, who is Senior Staff Writer at the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and a member of the Open Knowledge Foundation's Working Group on Open Geospatial Data.
Why engineers don't like Twitter
Twitter is one of the most popular social networking tools around today. But of the 50 million+ "Tweets" broadcast daily (according to Twitter), not all that many are being sent or received by engineers, many of whom say they just aren't buying into the micro-blogging service based on "140-characters or less" text messages.
Ex-Massey Miner: Safety Gripes Led To Firing
A former Massey Energy coal miner has filed a federal whistle-blower complaint, claiming he was fired after complaining about unsafe conditions at two Massey mines in West Virginia, NPR News has learned. One of the coal mines is Upper Big Branch, where an explosion killed 29 workers April 5.
Ricky Lee Campbell's complaint says he repeatedly told his supervisors about failing brakes on the coal shuttle cars he drove at the Slip Ridge Cedar Grove mine.
New "atomic" server: 512 Atom CPUs take on Xeons
When Intel first unveiled its "Silverthorne" microarchitecture in 2008, it was clear that the low-power, in-order processors based on it (i.e., Atom) would be at the very bottom of the performance heap. It's fair to say that none of us in the tech press ever expected to see a server based on the design, much less one that would be aimed directly at Intel's high-end Xeon line. But we weren't the only ones watching the Silverthorne announcement.
Metro Goes On Making Profits
According to Steve Auckland, Metro UK's managing director, the paper made an operating profit even during the worst of the recession in 2009, its seventh successive year of profitability.
Why Mobile Innovation Is Blowing Away PCs
The competitive interplay between Apple and Google will continue to help smartphone software outpace PCs. But iOS and Android also benefit wildly from the structure of the smartphone industry. Apple and Google are pushed not just by each other, but by the symbiotic advancement in chipsets and the system integration work of component vendors that I detailed above. The entire smartphone innovation value-chain just works.
BCS trustee threatens rebels with libel action
Rebel members of the BCS have been threatened with libel action unless they withdraw claims that appear to question the probity of the organisation's Trustees.
The BCS is the midst of £5m 'transformation' programme that includes re-branding to "BCS: the Chartered Institute for IT". Such moves have not gone down well with some members.
✍ BCS Members: Vote Now
Boost to next generation human genetic research
The 1000 Genomes Project, an international public-private consortium to build the most detailed map of human genetic variation to date, has completed three pilot projects and announced the deposition of the final resulting data in freely available public databases for use by the research community.
EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in five years
Europe will import its first solar-generated electricity from North Africa within the next five years, European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said in an interview on Sunday.
Music of the sun recorded by scientists
Astronomers at the University of Sheffield have managed to record for the first time the eerie musical harmonies produced by the magnetic field in the outer atmosphere of the sun.
Lucy fossil gets jolted upright by Big Man
Security/Aggression
Napolitano: US must balance liberties, security
Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation's homeland security chief said Friday.
London Borough sees a way of making some easy green
Mr Mayes story is a perfect example of how our power-hungry society has become one ruled by bureaucratisation and rationalisation. How a council warden can think a few plants could represent flytipping is quite ridiculous and shows how the state is obsessed by the tiny details instead of seeing the bigger picture.
Government plans new model for Summary Care Record
Exclusive: The Government is planning to switch to a scaled back, 'patient-held' electronic care record, severing central control over the controversial programme, but stopping short of scrapping it altogether.
Budget 2010: Forget being tough, it's time to get realistic on crime
Who spends the money? Politicians. Do they always spend as wisely as they know how? Not at all. In many fields politicians of all parties conspire to spend wilfully, knowing full well that they are wasting considerable sums that will do no good to anyone. They hope they are at least buying votes, but there is little evidence that their profligacy even succeeds in this. Law and order and drugs prohibition are just two of many examples where pursuit of populism trumps spending money well.
NASA: Easily the hottest spring — and Jan-May — in temperature record
Debunking the myth of the internet as energy hog, again: How information technology is good for climate
That's the start of a guest post from Dr. Jonathan Koomey, a project scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Koomey has been a friend and colleague for more than a decade and a half — and we've spent a lot of time debunking mis-analysis in this area (see "Ignore the media hype and keep Googling — The energy impact of web searches is very LOW").
Whistleblower aims to expose dark side of Japanese whaling
Now, as Japan pushes to overturn the 24-year ban on commercial whaling, the former whaler has come forward with allegations of widespread criminality among the men with whom he spent months in the freezing waters of the Antarctic.
Why anti-whaling campaigners are the bluefin tuna's last hope
Sea Shepherd activists free hundreds of threatened bluefin tuna off Libya
Lessons from 9/11 for the Gulf oil spill
BP AND THE AXIS OF EVIL
BP is accused of destroying the wildlife and coastline of America, but if you look back into history you find that BP did something even worse to America.
They gave the world Ayatollah Khomeini.
Of course there are many factors that led to the Iranian revolution, but back in 1951 the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company – which would later become BP – and its principal owner the British government, conspired to destroy democracy and install a western-controlled regime in Iran. The resulting anger and the repression that followed was one of the principal causes of the Iranian revolution in 1978/79 – out of which came the Islamist regime of Ayatollah Khomeini.
BP's British shareholders to join US class actions over oil spill
BP Disaster: Put the oil spill birds out of their misery
Tony Hayward, the tactless shithead CEO of BP might "like his life back," but what about the 99% of the birds caught up in the oil spill catastrophe who will inevitably die from suffocation and liver and kidney damage?
Gulf oil spill: A hole in the world
'Obama cannot order pelicans not to die (no matter whose ass he kicks). And no amount of money – not BP's $20bn, not $100bn – can replace a culture that's lost its roots.'
Buncefield fire: Oil storage firm found guilty of safety breaches
A company controlled by Total and Chevron has been found guilty of host of grave safety failures that led to the Buncefield oil depot explosion and the largest fire in peacetime Europe.
Gulf paymaster: People are in 'desperate' shape
The man President Barack Obama picked to run the $20 billion Gulf oil spill damage fund said Monday many people are in "desperate financial straits" and need immediate relief.
Goldman's Blankfein Suddenly Looks Good, Thanks to BP's Hayward
Watching BP (BP) CEO Tony Hayward mundanely evade responsibility for the historic ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may have angered members of Congress and television viewers alike. And split screen images of the underwater well continuing to gush vast quantities of oil as Hayward demonstrated little emotion or sense of urgency only heightened the irritation.
Goldman Sachs, AIG to Testify at Derivatives Hearing
Representatives of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and American International Group Inc. will appear before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission as the panel holds a hearing on the role of derivatives in the credit crunch.
Gardy & Notis, LLP Files a Class Action Lawsuit on Behalf of All Purchasers of Shares of Common Stock of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — GS
The class action seeks to recover damages on behalf of plaintiff and a class of all other individual and institutional investors who purchased or otherwise acquired shares of Goldman Sachs common stock during the class period. The defendants in the case are The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lloyd C. Blankfein, David A. Viniar and Gary D. Cohn. The complaint alleges that defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by issuing a series of materially false and misleading statements concerning Goldman Sachs' business model and reasons for Goldman Sachs' business success during the class period.
Goldman Sachs, SEC, Agree to Extend Goldman's Reply
A judge today in New York signed an order granting Goldman Sachs Group Inc. more time to respond to a April 16 lawsuit accusing the firm of defrauding investors while selling mortgage-linked securities, records say.
Weber Defies Trichet Over Europe Bond Bailout as ECB Succession Approaches
On May 10, just hours after the European Central Bank stepped into government bond markets for the first time, Axel Weber broke ranks with most of his colleagues on the ECB's Governing Council — including his boss, President Jean-Claude Trichet.
Business Rallies to Shape Finance Endgame
For a year, users have been fighting furiously to fend off changes in how the securities are bought and sold, and have had considerable success in the House. Then, this spring the tide turned against them in the Senate. Now, with a bloc of business-friendly Democrats pressing hard, the issue has exploded into one of the biggest battles as a House-Senate conference crafts the final version of a financial-regulation overhaul.
Lawmakers to tackle toughest issues remaining on Wall Street reform
Bank Lobbyists Make a Run at Reform Measures
As Congress rushes this week to complete the most far-reaching financial reform plan in decades, the banking industry is mounting an 11th-hour end run.
Wall Street Reform Could Cost Goldman Sachs BILLIONS
The proposed financial reforms pending before Congress could cost Goldman Sachs nearly a quarter of its annual profits, Citigroup analysts estimate in a new report.
Wall Street reform singes, not burns
New York lawmakers say the changes could cripple an industry that's the state's lifeblood.
Dead On Arrival: Financial Reform Fails
There is great deference to power in the United States, and perhaps that is appropriate. But those now calling the shots should remember that they will not be in power for ever and – at some point in the not too distant future – there will be a more balanced assessment of their legacies.
The Undeserving Unemployed
Long-term unemployment, a jobless period of six months or longer, has reached a historic high. In March 2010 more than 44 percent of the unemployed fell into this category.
Bank-closure workload leads FDIC to open 3rd satellite office
The FDIC has closed nearly 250 banks since the beginning of 2008, and the number of failures is expected to peak during the third quarter of this year. Cleaning up such financial wreckage has depleted the agency's deposit insurance fund, which goes toward putting seized banks into receivership and backstopping individual accounts of up to $250,000.
Saudi gold reserves over twice previous estimate
Saudi Arabia's central bank holds more than twice the amount of gold previously estimated, a shift that analysts said reflected more of an accounting adjustment than an indication the oil rich nation was veering away from its conservative reserve policy.
Former Soviet Republic of Georgia To Become IT Tax Haven
Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights
If Your Brother Was Arrested For A Crime, Does It Violate Your Privacy When They Store His DNA?
Well, here's an interesting privacy conundrum. In the US, if you are arrested, the government records your DNA in a giant database. There is already some controversy over the fact that it's upon arrest, and not conviction, but the privacy issues appear to go much deeper. Slate is running a fascinating article about how there are some serious privacy questions raised by law enforcement using that DNA database to track down relatives of people in the database.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange breaks cover but will avoid America
The elusive founder of WikiLeaks, who is at the centre of a potential US national security sensation, has surfaced from almost a month in hiding to tell the Guardian he does not fear for his safety but is on permanent alert.
Julian Assange, a renowned Australian hacker who founded the electronic whistleblowers' platform WikiLeaks, vanished when a young US intelligence analyst in Baghdad was arrested.
The analyst, Bradley Manning, had bragged he had sent 260,000 incendiary US state department cables on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks.
The prospect of the cache of classified intelligence on the US conduct of the two wars being put online is a nightmare for Washington. The sensitivity of the information has generated media reports that Assange is the target of a US manhunt.
With Rumored Manhunt for Wikileaks Founder and Arrest of Alleged Leaker of Video Showing Iraq Killings, Obama Admin Escalates Crackdown on Whistleblowers of Classified Information
IFJ condemns jailing of Venezuela journalist
The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the jail sentence and fine handed out to Venezuelan columnist Francisco Perez.
"It is a brutal, unacceptable judgment with very few international precedents," said the Brussels-based body that represents around 600,000 journalists in more than 100 countries.
Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM
BBC Trust Consultation: On-demand Syndication
As I wrote in my submission using the online survey, it would be far better if the BBC simply released the iPlayer code as open source, and allowed companies and people to support the platforms they are interested in. This would save money and enable a far greater range of devices to be supported. I also recommended allowing the atomisation of content, rather than forcing people to watch pre-defined channels – in other words, in the way we consume content online.
Supreme Court's ruling on Monsanto's GM alfalfa
1.Supreme Court Ruling in Monsanto Case is Victory for Center for Food Safety, Farmers
2.Supreme Court's Ruling on Monsanto's GM Alfalfa: Who Won?
Pork Board takes bite out of Unicorn Meat spoof
National Pork Board thinks Canned Unicorn Meat is real
The super-genius legal-beagles at the National Pork Board have done their duty: they caught ThinkGeek advertising their "Canned Unicorn Meat" (an April Fool's gag product) using the Solemnly Registered Trademark "The Other White Meat Circle-R," so they sent them a 12-page cease-and-desist letter.
ThinkGeek gets awesome cease-and-desist order for Unicorn Meat
ThinkGeek's Best Ever Cease-and-Desist Letter
File-sharing has weakened copyright—and helped society
Has file-sharing helped society? Looked at from the narrow perspective of existing record labels, the question must seem absurd; profits have dropped sharply in the years since tools like Napster first appeared. But a pair of well-known academics argue peer-to-peer file sharing has weakened copyright in the US… and managed to benefit all of us at the same time.
"Consumer welfare increased substantially due to new technology," write Felix Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard and Koleman Strumpf of the University of Kansas. "Weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society."
Copyright Ratchet, Copyright Racket
An anti-trust exemption that would allow newspaper to operate as a cartel *in the public interest*. George Orwell would have loved it.
Director Furious As Lawmakers Watch Pirate Copy of Hit Movie
A movie director in India is threatening legal action against lawmakers after it was revealed they gathered and watched a pirate copy of his hit movie. The film, titled 'Raajneeti' ('Politics'), was released early this month in theaters but dozens of lawmakers from the Indian Bharatiya Janata Party didn't visit one. They were caught after their illicit screening was broadcast on TV as part of a news report.
Britain's BPI goes after Google
The BPI, the RIAA's UK counterpart, has gone up against the Holiest of Holies, American online advertising conglomerate Google, says Chilling Effects.
Short for British Phonographic Industry, the BPI contributed to the British government's Digital Ecomy bill, complete with its ACTA Three Strikes and you're Off The Net element, with hardly a murmur from the UK lamescream media.
Well This Is Funny…
With that in mind, I had to chuckle to myself when I read the news that the producer of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" has started shooting the project with a mere $5-million budget and a crew that likely ensures a quiet direct-to-video release (if that).
The producer was forced to rush this thing into production now – otherwise he would lose the rights altogether after tying them up for nearly 20 years.
Major Labels Begin Major Astroturfing Campaign To Get 3 Strikes In The US
A friend just forwarded me an email "from" the CEO of Universal Music (really from an email marketing campaign system if you look at the headers) that encourages him to push for new laws in the US to kick people offline for file sharing. To date, the RIAA and others in the recording industry have known better than to seriously push for a three strikes-type legislation in the US, knowing that it is a battle that they very well might lose. They had hoped, quite strongly, that various ISPs would come to simply agree to implement a three strikes plan to kick people offline after three accusations (not convictions) of copyright infringement. But it's been nearly a year and a half since the RIAA believed those deals were close, and there's still nothing to show for it. Nothing.
So, it looks like the industry is going to plan B: which is going back to trying to ram through legislation that will require ISPs to take the draconian step of protecting one industry's broken business model. And to get this going, it looks like the industry has set up a neat little set of astroturfing groups and "consumer" campaigns that try to hide the specifics, but clearly are designed to get similar three strikes legislation (similar to the Digital Economy Act in the UK) put in place in the US.
International Experts Find that Pending Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement Threatens Public Interests
CLUG Talk 12 May 2009 – IPTables (2009)
The History of 'Paul Murphy' Defaming Linux
Posted in GNU/Linux, IBM, SCO, UNIX at 6:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A look back (8 years ago) at what "Paul Murphy" was doing to GNU/Linux, leading to the thread "Rudy de Haas' Defamation"
Our previous post dealt with pseudonym "Paul Murphy", whose fake nickname must have indicated an escape from some past or some shame (sincere people needn't hide their identity), even predating the SCO case. A reader has sent us a pointer to this old message which refers to IDG (LinuxWorld):
From: John Alvord [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 5:17 PM
Subject: Re: Rudy de Haas' Defamation
On Mon, 27 May 2002 19:33:01 -0400, "Post, Mark K" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>I thought quite a while before deciding to write this note. I finally
>decided that it was worth the trouble and risk of being ignored.
>Rudy de Haas' (aka Paul Murphy) latest and final article in his series on
>Linux/390 was really too much to have to deal with in what should be a
>reputable publication such as LinuxWorld. Inferring that the subscribers
>the Linux-390 mailing list are the same as gullible members of a religious
>cult is crossing the line of responsible journalism into territory that I
>don't even know how to categorize.
>In his zeal to criticize IBM and the Linux/390 platform, he seems to be
>unaware of one possible explanation for all the things he can't understand
>about the platform and its supporters: they might be right and he might be
>wrong. In his last column he makes the comment "The list members know
>what's going on, most of them have daily access to Linux on the mainframe
>and can see its costs and limitations far more clearly than outsiders can."
>Which is true. In his mind, though, that just makes them deluded cult
>members, as opposed to intelligent professionals who know a good thing when
>they see it.
>If Mr. de Haas had actually listened to the responses he got, instead of
>taking them as further evidence of a collective delusion, he might have
>avoided libeling thousands of honest, hardworking IT professionals.
>Instead, he chose to drape himself in the mantel of self-righteousness and
>proceed in his own delusion.
>To use a British turn of phrase, bad show, both on his part, and yours as
>well.
>Mark Post
Maybe some people here should author a rebuttal and see if LinuxWorld
would publish it.
The SCO case is practically over, but the usual suspects — Rud^H^H^H^Hrphy included — keep flogging a dead horse. It's important that people don't pay attention to them. █
"Maureen O'Gara said she was going to call them so it looks better coming from her."
Microsoft's "smoking guns"
More Microsoft Debt, Legalised Tax Evasion, and Investment in the SCO Case
Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, SCO, SUN at 4:04 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A look at Brad Smith's lobbying, a loan of $1.25 billion, and Microsoft's involvement in the SCO case against Linux is revisited
The last post finished with a word about Brad Smith's lobbying for Microsoft.
It was only weeks ago that Brad Smith was lobbying for legalisation that gives Microsoft a green light to tax evasion — an issue which is now being discussed by apologists of Microsoft's bad practices (who met Brad Smith for dinner):
As we pointed out in today's Morning Fizz, Jeff Reifman, a former Microsoft employee who is on a crusade to get Microsoft to pay royalty taxes on software licenses, took me task for not asking Microsoft VP Brad Smith about their—estimated $100 million a year—tax dodge. (Reifman's website has a helpful fact sheet on the issue.)
Here's the deal: Microsoft has a shop in Reno, Nevada where it issues its software licenses. Even though dividends from those licenses come back to Redmond, the licensing transactions are not captured by Washington State because the business is technically generated out of Nevada. (I talked at length today with bureaucrats in Olympia who confirmed the situation.)
By the way, I take issue with Reifman's assertion that I was "charmed" or "rolled over" by Smith and the dinner.
Microsoft really needs to start paying tax. The company's existing debt deepens based on this new report, so citizens might never see a penny.
The Bank of New York Mellon Trust will be trustee of $1.25 billion in Microsoft convertible debt after the software company offered them to investors last week, Microsoft announced Friday (PDF – 106 pages).
Pogson wrote about this company's famous case of legalised (using Microsoft veterans in the government) tax evasion:
I would like the USA to apply RICO to what M$ does, too. RICO covers fraud such as false advertising and tax fraud. Many of the "get the fud" ads, the layers of partners and kickbacks, and $billions "invested in research" could be fraudulent. Could a business really investing billions in research actually produce a product as faulty as that other OS? I expect a lot fewer billions have been invested in GNU/Linux research for a much better result. Is the research of M$ legitimate, or a tax dodge? Around the world, M$ has been pursued for dodging taxes. I would not be surprised to find they do it "at home". The last annual report said:
"During fiscal year 2008, we reached a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") on its 2000-2003 examination. As a result, we reduced our unrecognized tax benefits by $4.8 billion and recognized a tax provision reduction of $1.2 billion. As a result of the 2000-2003 settlement and the related impact on subsequent years, we paid the IRS approximately $4.1 billion during fiscal year 2009."
One can go further and discuss Microsoft's funding of SCO, which is a serious issue. "Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system," confessed Larry Goldfarb, a key investor in SCO who was approached by Microsoft. "Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux," he added. SCO is now dead or at least dying, but the damage caused by Microsoft's investment in SCO will never be undone.
I, personally, would like to see SCO die in a fire for all the expense, FUD and general heartache they brought to the free and open source community, but there's probably not enough left of the company to burn.
Over at ZDNet (now featuring Vista 7 ads in all blog pages), pseudonym Paul Murphy is told: "Come on "Paul", you need to step up someday and admit that you have been wrong all along about SCO and their scheme against Linux. You can do it, I know you can!"
Pseudonym Paul Murphy has been promoting SCO's case for many years and he still refuses to acknowledge that it was all in vain. Groklaw responds with a mention of Novell's role:
He continues to insult, and he predicts SCO, or a new owner of Novell, will surely succeed yet in fulfilling SCO's plot, in what he believes, if I've understood him, will be a legal Hail Mary pass to go down in history. The new FUD is his article, Suicide by Victory: More on SCO, in which he predicts gloom and doom for Linux because Novell won at the jury trial in Utah.
Groklaw also refers to this article which cites Rob Enderle (big SCO booster and Linux agitator). "The link is to Rob Enderle's old article," writes Groklaw. "His point is that litigation is a skill, and most CEO's don't have skill in that field."
Well, Microsoft has been claiming to 'embrace' "Open Source" while litigiously attacking "Open Source" [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and clearly describing it as a competitor. SCO did something similar with Linux. That was probably before Microsoft approached SCO with cash. That's just how Microsoft operates.
Based on a new report, the judge who became famous partly for his role in convicting Microsoft is being tapped by Oracle in its case against Microsoft's ally SAP (which lobbied against Oracle and Sun last year). To quote part of the article: (also in [1, 2])
Oracle has brought in the big guns to assist in its intellectual-property lawsuit against rival applications vendor SAP, hiring attorney David Boies, well-known for his high-profile role prosecuting the U.S. government's landmark antitrust case against Microsoft.
The attorney's role in the Microsoft case, where he served as a special trial counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice, was just one highlight in a career many legal industry observers have called legendary.
Oracle has just been sued for overcharging the government, but that's another story. We hope to see Microsoft sued for the role it played in the SCO case, which happens to have hurt Oracle. Microsoft has a tradition of sending attack dogs or vultures to attack its competition. █
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Latisha Hayes McCarter, 15, May Have Been Kidnapped In 1998
Home » Latisha Hayes McCarter, 15, May Have Been Kidnapped In 1998
Kenisha Washington Was Found Dead In A Vacant Lot In 2018
Latisha Hayes McCarter was just 15-years-old when she went traveled from Oakland, California to nearby Sacramento to visit her sister. On April 7, 1998, Latisha's sister stated that she and Latisha were walking along Stockton Avenue during daytime hours. While they were out, the sister left Latisha for a moment to walk across the street to buy food from a restaurant. As she came out of the establishment to look for Latisha Hayes McCarter, the teenager had disappeared.
Witnesses in the area told police that they saw a black man force Latisha into a copper-colored 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The man is described as being approximately 25-years-old, but any other descriptors remain a mystery including his height, weight, possibly ethnic or racial background. Latisha and her mysterious abductor have ever been seen again.
Strangely, Latisha's family didn't officially report her missing to the authorities until five days after she vanished. Few details have been made available in her case and details remain scarce and unclear.
At the time of her disappearance, Latisha was 5 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 120 pounds. She had black/dark brown hair, brown eyes, and both of her ears are pierced. She also has a circular-shaped birthmark on the center of her left arm. Latisha goes by the nickname "Tish."
Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact the Sacramento Police Department at 916-264-5655 or their local authorities. Her Agency Case Number is 980028840.
Candice Aliciea Taylor Went Missing Before Partial Remains Were Found
Please share this story about Latisha Hayes McCarter to help reignite the investigation into her case. She is our sister and her life matters.
kidnapped teen Latisha Hayes McCarter Missing in 1998 missing in california Missing In Oakland
Erika Marie November 22, 2018
Jeanine Camille Barnwell, 3, Disappeared During The Day In 1985
Tiffany Michele Goines, 12, Left Her Home To Play Outside & Never Returned [1987]
Alma Felicia Lewis Disappeared While Driving Cross Country In 1999
Jennifer Reidy, 15: Vanished From Northern California In 1993
Daphne Webb, 1: Father Commits Suicide After Reporting Her Kidnapping
Margaret Diaz, 32: Last Seen At Her Birthday Party In 1988
Consuella Cash, 7: Little Known About Child Who Disappeared In 1975
Fonya Harris, 30: Last Seen In A Car With Her Ex-Boyfriend In 2003


Maybe a mix of all that makes me spurting such mean comments on your finely crafted work.
I've downloaded yours pictures and watch them again and again and guess what?
Even though the technical part still leaves me bored cold, they make me feel at peace and comfty looking through yours eyes.
Re: was is jaleousy, bad mood or the technical part?


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You are here: Home / Featured / Review: Epson L485
Review: Epson L485
October 9, 2017 By Anish Leave a Comment
When it comes to printers, people often buy the cheapest or the one that is pushed by the retailer and while printing technology has not changed drastically over the years, quality prints, especially in colour have now become even more affordable. Thanks to large ink tanks and better ink quality.
We have used printers, both Laserjet and Inkjet from brands such as HP, Samsung and Epson. While every brand delivers good quality printouts, it is the printhead quality and features that can sway an individual's purchasing decision.
One such all-in-one (AIO) printer you can take a look at is the Epson L485. The L485 is an ink tank printer from Epson that unlike traditional cartridge-based printers, does not require the user to replace the cartridge but instead, refill the ink in respective compartments. The L485 is an all-black printer with a 1.44-inch LCD display on the tiltable front panel along with the physical control. The device also features direct printing from memory card, a common feature found in most AIOs. The printer also features a flatbed scanner that is capable to scan documents at a resolution of 1200×2400 dpi. The scan speed at 300dpi colour is 28 sec and monochrome is 11 sec. The device can be connected to the PC via USB or Wi-Fi and even supports Mac OS X 10.6.8+.
Setting up the printer via Wi-Fi is a breeze. We like the fact that the printer checks for the firmware update and suggests to install the same, hence, eliminating the need of a PC to update the software.
In printing test, the Epson L485 delivered excellent results. The colours were bright and natural and the black and white text was crisp. The L485 also supports Apple AirPrint, Google Cloud Print and Mopria Print Service. Thus, one can easily print documents/emails directly from the mobile phone. Besides this, the printer comes with nifty applications like Epson iPrint that lets you scan and print directly from smart devices or save the same on the cloud.
The L485 prints at a high printing resolution of 5760 dpi. The company claims a print speed of 33 ppm black and white and 15ppm in case of colour, which obviously varies depending on the document.
Epson provides one year warranty or 30,000 pages whichever is earlier. The device retails for Rs. 17,499 and is perfect for someone who is looking to print more black and white documents
and occasional colour or a SOHO/SME who prints around 100 pages per day and does want to invest in a colour laser.
Epson TX720WD All-in-one Photo Printer Review
Epson B510DN Review
Epson PictureMate PM310 Review
Review: Epson L850 Printer
Filed Under: Featured, Hardware, Reviews, Trending
Worth a read
Lenovo Yoga 9i laptop with 13th Gen Intel CPU comes to India
January 16, 2023 By Apurva Leave a Comment
Intel's 13th Gen processors have been out for a while for desktops but Lenovo has just become the first brand to launch a laptop powered by Intel's latest generation of processors. The Lenovo Yoga 9i is a thin and light convertible laptop with a 14-inch touchscreen OLED PureSight display and Dolby Vision with up to […]
January 13, 2023 By Manav Leave a Comment
Android tablets are still far away to offer an experience similar to the Apple iPads and now Lenovo is taking a stab at it with the launch of their first premium tablet in the Indian market. The Tab P11 5G supports the sub-6GHz 5G band that will allow users to carry out their tasks with […]
December 17, 2022 By News Team Leave a Comment
Marshall has announced a newer generation of its home speakers, which now come with improved sound quality and a better soundstage. Acton, Stanmore and Woburn speakers are re-engineered in a way that features outward-angled tweeters and updated waveguides, allowing the speakers to deliver wide sound that will fill the biggest of the rooms. Moreover, there's […]
EA, Marvel Entertainment announce a multi-title collaboration, starting with Iron Man
October 31, 2022 By Kinjal Sangoi Leave a Comment
EA has announced a long-term deal with Marvel Entertainment that will see the gaming company release "at least" three new action-adventure games designed for consoles and PC. The first game to be developed under this collaboration is a single-player, third-person, action-adventure Iron Man. EA says the game is under early development at Montreal-based Motive Studio […]
Sony increases PS5 price in select markets due to inflation
August 26, 2022 By Manav Leave a Comment
A general rule of thumb with respect to pricing for any tech product is that it goes down as the time passes. But for Sony's PlayStation 5, it's the other way around. Already struggling with supply issues, Sony today announced that the price of both the PS5 SKUs – digital and disc – will increase […]


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Home / News / OAU Teachers Stages Protest Over Unpaid Salaries
OAU Teachers Stages Protest Over Unpaid Salaries
Peaceful demonstration by the OAU teachers responding to the late payment of salaries
Teachers working with the staff school of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile ife and University of Ibadan in Oyo state today staged a protest condemning the Management of both Institutions for failing to comply with the industrial court ruling over their inclusion on the school's payroll since 2016 .
The teachers are also alleging that the Management is also defaulting in payment of about thirty months salary arrears stating that this has greatly affected the living conditions of their members .
The protesters who were supported by the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the Obafemi Awolowo University, and the University of Ibadan started from the campus gate and grounded movements in and out of the University before marching to the institution's senate building were they expressed their grief.
Speaking for the protesting workers the National Vice president of SSANU, Southwest, Alfred Jimoh , accused the management of the both universities for disobeying the court order on the staff schools, as well as owing salaries of members.
He said, "the protest was to make our demands known to the world. The University managements has refused to obey the industrial court where the court held that staff school teachers like other workers in the University should be returned to the school payroll. They are also owing teachers 13 months salaries in OAU. Even with the modulated salaries being paid it has not been paid as and when due. Also The vice chancellor is also planning to privatise the staff school which we will not condone in University of Ibadan. The UI said it was waiting for a circular from the government before complying. The University of Ibadan was also paying 75 percentage which they last paid in March and they expect them to go to classes "
He added that though the national leadership of the two national unions was yet to instruct the teachers to embark on strike, teachers would boycott classes until their demands are met.
Jimoh urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the full reinstatement of members of staff schools as well as their full payment of their salary arrears.
The school's Public Relations Officer, Abiodun Olanrewaju however said the institution was never a party to the court ruling.
According to him, the defendants in the ruling being referred to were National Commission of Salaries and Wages, Ministry of Education and He said, " If you are not a party to a suit, the judgement should not be of concern to you. Those involved in the case were Ministry of the education, National Commission for salaries and wages. OAU was not written in the judgment. What they should have done is to go to Abuja to protest. The management of the institution will only do whatever the ministry of education orders."
He added that he wasn't aware of the management owing the staff school teachers.
He noted that what he was aware of was the decision of the management which was in accordance with the directives of the Ministry of Education to pay them the equivalent of primary school teachers across the country and not that they would be absorbed into the institutions payroll.
OAU Teachers Stages Protest Over Unpaid Salaries Reviewed by Busari Fatai on 17:14 Rating: 5


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Top 100 disaster movies: The Swarm
Bees. The problem with bees is that they have no respect for the sanctity of human life, as if they were just a common ant. It's hard to understand quite why the ant has never made the transition to the silver screen, really: like bees they are an organised, social creature who will defend themselves to the death. Like bees they are capable of stinging you. And like bees they have mastered flight, albeit for only one day a year. The only difference is that ants do not have an Africanised killer variant and that bees do.
The population of Texas in The Swarm are very aware of this, as a vast cloud of fuzzy black and yellow vengeance descend on the southern United States. First they take out a military base, then they completely shag a family picnic. Before long they are beginning to threaten larger population centres, leaving nothing but a trail of corpses and traumatised, pustule-strewn, lumpy survivors hallucinating giant bees. The only response the human race seems able to muster: Michael Caine shouting at everyone and half a town's male occupants trying to pork schoolmistress Olivia De Havilland.
The Swarm: international bright young six-foot hallucinatory bee
The Swarm is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made. It isn't, of course, but its reputation was earned by the gulf between its budget and its fairing at the box office. None of these things have any real bearing on the quality of a film. There's also no reason that a film with an all-star cast like The Swarm shouldn't ultimately produce a wretched film, as there are so many other variables at play. Where they don't have too much of an excuse, however, is for wretched acting. Michael Caine, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Olivia De Havilland, Slim Pickens and Fred MacMurray are all on display and yet the most believable performers are the bees.
The bees are the only star turn that matter in The Swarm, although Michael Caine's hysterical turn as an entomologist wins me over every time. The sheer tenacity and resilience of the African killer bee is something to behold. If The Swarm is an accurate depiction of their lust for life then everyone in the world should be grinding their teeth with panic. As well as a spectacular series of attacks which cripples an underground military base, makes an orphan of a spotty teen and seriously disrupts a nascent love triangle of people old enough to do better, the bees also survive being driven into Houston and bombed by the National Guard. It's only when the bees are lured into the sea and set on fire - either of which is usually sufficient to kill a regular, ready salted, bee - that the threat is finally neutralised.
The Swarm is one of the most preposterous, shrill, manic and bewildering films of all time. Everybody should see it. I give it FIVE out of ten disaster points. Because although it is brilliant, it is also shite - a winning combination.
Labels: Culture, Disaster movies, Films
what do you mean no ants?
Mr Fatuous said...
Or even
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Yay, new bench day
No commercial potential


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The $100 Million Hyphen
In 1962, NASA launched the Mariner 1 spacecraft, beginning what was meant to be a mission to Venus over the next several months. That mission, however, ended much sooner than anticipated—less than five minutes after liftoff, to be exact. The abrupt end of Mariner 1's mission was caused by a failure in its guidance system software, resulting in the loss of nearly $100 million by today's standard. Soon after, the culprit of this enormously expensive and humiliating incident was identified as a single hyphen that had been left out of the software code.
Surely such a minute error was a fluke of incompetence, and decades of continued research and learning would eradicate any similar incidents for NASA, right? Well, in 1999, a Mars orbiter dipped much lower than intended into the planet's atmosphere and was presumably destroyed. This $125 million mistake occurred when data that had been written in English units was not converted into the appropriate metric units, causing a severe miscalculation in the orbiter's trajectory.
If nothing else, these events prove that even the keenest, most scrutinizing minds can be humbled by the most miniscule errors or glaring inconsistencies. This is clearly not an issue of incompetence: the same mistakes have been seen from experts at the highest levels of government in trade agreements; at the pinnacle of finance in the stock market; and down through every level of marketing, manufacturing, and service across the globe. Billions of dollars have been lost to misplaced commas, hurried typos, and unrevised publications, making the importance of strong writing and editing skills self-evident.
The underlying fault for each of these incidents was a sense of assurance. After so much time without an incident, people assume that what is working will always continue to work, and when any error is overlooked, the odds of skimming over and missing the error again and again increase exponentially. This leads individuals, departments—even entire companies—to adopt an unfounded sense of assurance that their codes, calculations, documents, policies, and procedures are perfectly accurate. In part, this is a natural response to the pressures of time constraints and high-value stakes, resulting in a hesitance to expend time or resources on additional checks.
But is it worth the cost of a $100 million hyphen?
The final lesson is to not become a victim of over-familiarization. Use a quality assurance system with editors who are not only knowledgeable of the content, but also able to refresh their perspectives and address the content with the same skill and thoroughness for every revision. Don't let the biggest projects fail because of the smallest mistakes.
Category: Uncategorized July 16, 2017
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