The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: December 10, 2006

Official News - page 10

WINDING DOWN

An idiosyncratic look at, and comment on, the week's net and technology news
by Alan Lenton

Well, this is the last Winding down of the year, which is probably just as well, since tech news is dying away at the moment - the executives are probably too drunk to launch new products.

Fear not, though, for as the Governator once said (cue gritty voice) 'I'll be back.' To be exact, I'll be back with more news, opinions, outrageous assertions, and stories vaguely related to facts on Sunday January 7, 2007.

So, to see out the old year, here is this week's eclectic soup of bits and pieces. :)


Story: Vista - not such a good view

Microsoft's new version of Windows -Vista - was launched at the start of this month, though you wouldn't have known it from the lack of fanfares. Admittedly, it was only the business version, but you would have expected Microsoft to make some sort of noise about it. Instead it was a stealth launch, almost as though they hoped no one would notice.

It's possible that the zero-razz launch may have something to do with the fact that Microsoft had to strip out most of the new features that businesses were interested in, just to get it in a state where it could be shipped. As one analyst put it, "Sure, it's a big day for Microsoft, but what are we really getting? With all the delays and features being dropped, this looks to me like it might just be Windows XP with a prettier face."

And therein lies the rub. The main new feature is the much touted Aero 3-D desktop. Pure eye candy. But the price you pay is that, whether you use the 3-D or the classic Windows interface, the operating systems uses a substantially larger chunk of your computer's processing power. When I switched from Windows 2000 to XP I got a massive slump in the speed at which my applications ran, in spite of using massively upgraded hardware (processor twice as fast, four times the memory, etc.). What sort of drop will you get with a move to Vista? And all in the name of more pretty pictures...

One much touted feature is upgraded security. Well, yes, its built in security does zap most of the currently circulating nasties, but only if you use Microsoft's own tools, like browsers, exclusively. And looking a little more closely, one is left with the impression that it's not so much a more secure operating system, as an attempt to freeze out anti-virus program vendors in order to acquire the lucrative market for itself. A secure operating system would imply a complete rebuilding of the operating system from the bottom up. Unfortunately, Microsoft programmer culture is that security is an add-on - an application - not a function of the operating system.

I don't think this is going to work. For one thing, the anti-virus program companies are getting increasingly antsy at Microsoft's attempts to freeze them out (there is a -lot- of money at stake here). There is also the fact that the underlying operating system is insecure, and that Microsoft ties its key applications into the operating system, which means that flaws in applications can present serious threats to the integrity of the whole operating system.

So which version of this system am I going to buy?

The answer is none of the eight flavours that are going on sale to consumers in the New Year. I intend to buy a new computer before Microsoft is able to zap Windows XP. Unfortunately, it's not really been possible to buy a new machine with Windows 2000 on it for a while, but XP should be available for some time yet.

Hopefully, by the time XP is gone the open source people will have produced a desk top worthy of the quality of the underlying code, and the applications available for Linux will have been polished into true usability. Otherwise I'll be forced to waste a vast amount of money and processing power on an operating system that has less useful functionality and which runs even slower than my current system :(

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?r=314&c=722697&l=12141&ctl=
15292BD:215D3E184FC552DC5546CD59577E60E4EFF29049075316B4


Shorts:

Hewlett-Packard seems to have managed to buy its way out of trouble in California. In return for the modest sum of US$14.5 million - pocket change for a company the size of HP - the Californian Attorney General will settle the civil case relating to HP's notorious black ops against journalists, employees, directors and anyone else who got in its way. This doesn't get the five individuals charged with criminal offences off the hook, it just settles the corporate civil case. If I was in charge of HP I would think the settlement was a nice Xmas present from the AG's office.

"Cheers! Bartender, trebles all round!"

http://ct.news.com.com/clicks?t=21798742-18a32f6148453f76b7d88f6b914d69a0-bf&s=5&fs=0

The Internet is fuelling a rise in the number of journalists jailed for doing their job, according to the Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ). A tally taken at midnight on 1 December 2006 revealed a total of 134 journalists imprisoned - up 9 from 2005. Significantly a third of those incarcerated were bloggers, online editors, or Web-based reporters.

Partly this is a facet of the fact that more news is presented on-line, and that the line between 'professionals' and 'amateurs' is becoming increasingly blurred. It is also a reflection of the struggle of state governments to censor Internet news. For instance Malaya is considering introducing new laws to prevent bloggers from spreading 'disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies'. That pretty much covers most blogs, I guess.

When the Internet first shot to prominence in the 90s, a number of the more naive commentators proclaimed a new, unfettered, means of communication that would topple authoritarian governments and be uncensorable. Unfortunately for their theories, they forgot that the Internet also has a physical presence - cables, routers, telecoms exchanges, and brick and concrete buildings and the like. Politicians may not know a zero from a one (comment on modern education systems censored), but they do know all about controlling bricks and mortar.

Sadly, I expect things will only get worse over the next year as the Internet becomes more and more ubiquitous. One day, even politicians will understand it, and then we will really be well and truly screwed!

[CPJ info from the Politech mailing list]
http://www.physorg.com/news84365755.html

And finally, a good note to go out on for this year - a higher court has confirmed the ruling of the lower court in the SCO v IBM and everyone else in the universe case. This means that most of SCO's case has been zapped in one fell swoop. They are now going to have real problems persuading the court that IBM used SCO intellectual property in its version of Linux - or in any version for that matter!

Clearly the market thinks that is the case too - as our department of mixed metaphors notes, SCO stock is already on the ropes, and now it's fallen through the floor.

Well yes, exactly!

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061129165103775

Happy Xmas and a prosperous New Year everybody else :)


Scanner: Other stories

Fujitsu shows world's smallest optical spot
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/01/fujitsu_tar_spot/

Room-sized particle accelerator surf the wave
http://www.physorg.com/news84632983.html

US government approves dotcom contract
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/01/usg_approves_dotcom_contract/

In "FORTRAN DAYS," John Stuckey recalls his experiences
http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/reflections/v7i47_fortran.html

Terahertz-controlling device is built
http://www.physorg.com/news84474758.html

Researcher's 3-D digital storage system could hold a library on 1 disc
http://www.physorg.com/news84454118.html


Acknowledgements

Thanks to readers Barbara and Fi for drawing my attention to material used in this issue. Please send suggestions for material to alan@ibgames.com.

Alan Lenton
alan@ibgames.com
10 December 2006

Alan Lenton is an on-line games designer, programmer and sociologist. His web site is at http://www.ibgames.net/alan.

Past issues of Winding Down can be found at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/winding/index.html


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