CNET.com - News - Investor - News - Story: Microsoft Executive Says Linux Threatens Innovation

Redmond, Washington, Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating-system chief, Jim Allchin, says that freely distributed software code such as rival Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat.

Can you believe this FUD BS? Linux must really be putting the wind up Microsoft!

One of the reasons that I make http://www.scripting.com a daily visit is the leads that Dave puts up. In this case the insight provided by Craig Burton and his Alchin Advice:

The reason Jim doesn't like the open source movement is because it is doing the same thing to Microsoft that Microsoft does to other companies.

Craig Burton is in a unique postion to call Allchin on his pontifications about Open Soure. Go read Criag's weblog entry for its insight and candour. This why the web is so great! Completely unadulterated opinions.

The Register's favourite Hardware and chip links

Dan Gillmor on E-Mail Perils, and an Answer. Each and every day I thank my lucky stars that I use Eudora. I hadn't realised just how shabbily Microsoft were treating their Windows users. Why am I not surprised?

I think I'll be supporting the The Web Standards Project: Browser Upgrade Initiative. I never thought I'd end up liking a Microsoft product but I think Mac/IE5 is the best of the browsers at the moment. Mind you I don't really think of the Mac division of Microsoft as really Microsoft. They don't appear to have been assimilated yet. Long may they hold out. Mozilla shows promise too. As does iCab which I use fairly regularly. iCab has real potential. And then of course there's the Opera port to MacOS. I'm going to be spoilt for choice soon so I guess now is the time to emphasise and concentrate on the standards.

One thing I really like about Conversant is its strong support for CSS and the ease with which I can play around with it. Not that I've done much development on the look'n'feel for this site recently. Soon. I promise. Sort of ;-)

In his News, Views and a Silicon Valley Diary Dan Gillmor lifts the lid on KnowHow:

The major promise of P2P lies in several simple notions. The first is that we're using only a small part of the value of the devices at the edge of networks. Harnessing their power, from CPU cycles to their ability to create content, will make the Internet universe vastly more valuable for everyone.

In that world, every client -- that is, every PC and other device connected to the Net -- should also be a server. Lots of people are working on this, but a Menlo Park startup called KnowNow has figured out something that just might set off a new Net revolution.

BTW, yesterday KnowNow's web presence was a single holding page that invites people to join them (by e-mailing!) or contact them (by snail mail). This morning (GMT) it was the same. No doubt in the very near future they will do the full monty and announce details to the world.

In a thread started by Paul Browning confirmation of a wee snippet of important news from cms-list: Re: [cms-list] ZODB Rob Page of Digital Creations, Inc:

We're transitioning "sponsorship" of the ZODB and ZEO to the PythonLabs team. We'd like nothing more than for people to use the ZODB for object persistence behind things other than Zope.

OpenSymphony

OpenSymphony is an Open Source project dedicated to providing enterprise class J2EE applications and components. Our components aim to be specification compliant, and should work in any J2EE compliant application server. (Although some components only require a servlet container rather than a full J2EE app server)

dr. mabuse's house of fun

It's astonishing enough that a post-midnight conversation turned Blog You! Blog You! Blog You! into a reality. But what amazes me in particular is the overwhelmingly positive reaction to it. As of this post, Tom and I have been swamped with review requests, which we absolutely intend to carry out. Without revealing the exact purpose of this experiment, I'll say this much: by and large, people get it. And that alone seems to signify to me that blogging is more of a populist art form than anything else.

Bullshit! It amazes me too that there that there is an overwhelmingly positive reaction to it. But I guess my amazement is different from Ed and Tom's! Ed and Tom? They remind me of a talking horse and a cheeky wee mouse yet without their character or other saving graces. I suspect that these so-called weblog critics - wannabe reviewers? - are just trying to drive traffic to their site. The best thing to do would be to ignore them but like the irritating little back-biting bugs that they are it's difficult not to scratch that itch. Should webloggers conform to what they consider to be the weblog 'art form'. Hell no!

I guess I should ignore them. They reviewed this site entirely of their own accord. There's no way I would have asked them to review it. I don't write this weblog for them, or anyone else I don't know for that matter. Sometimes for I write for my students. Sometimes for my family. Sometimes for my friends - real and virtual. But mainly for me - for the discipline.

As Andrea points out

Heh, they didn't even realize that Duncan uses Conversant to maintain his blog. To them, anything that looks similar to some Manila blogs, is a Manila blog.

You have to wonder on this eveidence just how long Ed and Tom dwell at a site before turning in their tired old cliches. Anyhow, they've had their five seconds of infamy on this site as far as I am concerned.

If I ever refer to them again I'll be sure not to include a link to their site. As for their main criticism:

the copy's as dry as a stale cheese sandwich. Speaking of stale cheese sandwiches, Tom and I had a few last night when we experienced a rolling blackout. But the sandwiches in question were tastier than the morsels here. Interesting links can propel a blog to a point. But there's no life to the commentary.

To a certain extent I agree that my personal weblog commentary recently has not been up to snuff but then I've a life, a family, and work ;-)

Al [ViewFromTheHeart] Critiques Blog You! Blog You! Blog You! (Blog You*3)

You know the most annoying thing about BY3 is that they gave me the same rating as Al's site. Al deserved much better than that! Anyhow, if nothing else BY3 has helped to cement a sense of camaradarie amongst those critiqued. And I appreciate the kind words that have been directed to those of us that may feel put out. Funnily enough, I couldn't give a toss about the BY3 reviews - they have shown themselves to so fundamentally flawed that I'd never trust their opinion on anything. So there! ;-)

And to paraphrase Forrest Gump: "That's all I have to say about that".