]
] Richard Stallman has written an article on Java, "Free
] but shackled: The Java trap," and Sun's Dr. James Gosling
] didn't much care for it or all the speculation about Sun
] that he's been reading about in the media, so he has also
] written an article, reproduced on Newsforge, which he
] thinks refutes it. What it really does is show what Sun's
] problem is with the FOSS community.

Stallman and Gosling on Java and the GPL

Jeremy wrote:
] Former FBI Director Louis Freeh is back in the saddle of his
] hobbyhorse, complaining about key escrow/recovery. I thought
] we'd already covered this, back in 1996, but for those who may
] need a refresher, this book is the one stop shop.

*sigh* ... I should have known better than to think we'd heard
the last from Louis Freeh... why don't these people understand
that there's no way to put this genie back in the bottle!
Further, it just compromises the security and privacy
for legitimate users and has no effect on the bad guys.
After all, the Feds won't find out the bad guys are using non-escrowed
crypto until its too late ... unless they're planning to
decrypt everything, all the time just to make sure they can!

RE: Cryptography's Role in Securing the Information Society

]
] But Microsoft just isn't the phenom it used to be. After
] 29 years, the software giant is starting to look like a
] star athlete who's past his prime. Growth is tepid.
] Expansion is stymied. Bureaucracy is a concern. And a
] company that used to be so intimidating it attracted
] antitrust suits on two continents seems, well,
] vulnerable.

If M$ can't reinvent the desktop OS and office suite with
Longhorn, I think Linux is really going to start snowballing
in the desktop space in just a few more years.

There's a quote in here from Gates that he thinks that M$'s
biggest competitor right now is their own installed base;
they have been having more and more trouble pushing upgrades.

BW Online | April 19, 2004 | Microsoft's Midlife Crisis

] Sun Microsystems Inc. has decided to drop the
] next-generation UltraSparc V from its road map in favor
] of its recently disclosed Rock processor, signaling a
] shift in the strategic direction of the company's
] processor division.

Is it just me or does it make no sense at all that Sun would be
making a huge investment in SPARC at this point.

Sun to drop UltraSparc V in favor of Rock processor - Computerworld

] Umem cards are battery-backed RAM cards that replace disk
] accesses with non-volatile memory accesses to improve
] response time and maintain reliability in server and
] storage appliances.

This is the special sauce that makes the difference between
a real raid controller and a Linux box. This device is
supported under linux and shows up as a block device. Its
probably really expensive, though. Its just a PCI card with
a bunch of battery-backed dram on it.

Micro Memory's PCI NVRAM Cards

] The ServerIron family of Layer 4-7 switches is the
] industry leader in load balancing servers, firewalls,
] caches, ISP links, and data centers with high-performance
] Layer 4-7 switching and integrated Layer 2/3
] functionalities. ServerIron switches enable network
] managers to build and secure mission-critical application
] infrastructure that is massively scalable and always
] available. Mission-critical applications are protected
] with IronShieldTM security against multiple forms of
] Denial of Service (DoS), Virus and Worm attacks. Many of
] the world

I don't think I'd heard of this company before.

Foundry Networks : Products : Layer 4-7 Switches : ServerIron

]
] This is no longer a job for engineers alone and no longer
] simply a question of making the packets flow to their
] appointed destinations. Our basic human rights and basic
] economic needs are determined by the current technical
] infrastructure.
]
] We've got to be sure that their design meets the test of
] both technical merit and social soundness. As Annan said,
] "In managing, promoting and protecting (the Internet's)
] presence in our lives, we need to be no less creative
] than those who invented it. Clearly, there is a need for
] governance, but that does not necessarily mean that it
] has to be done in the traditional way, for something that
] is so very different." Our challenge is to retain the
] flexibility to introduce new, innovative technologies,
] and on the other hand, to be sure that we meet basic
] human needs in the process.

Governments and Governance

Ahh yes... I think I first found this on alt.tasteless when I was
in high school back in the mid '90s.

I like Monkeys

] A couple of years ago Swedish scientists discovered that
] acrylamide is dangerous. It's a "natural" byproduct of
] high-temperature cooking. Mega-doses of the stuff
] produces cancer in rats. The World Health Organisation
] confirms that the risk to humans is real. Acrylamide is
] found throughout the food chain and there are tiny
] amounts in tap water (among its other unlovely
] associations, the chemical used to purify sewage so we
] can drink it without puking). The highest concentrations
] are in what America calls fries and we call chips. Not
] enough to kill rats, but enough to cause concern.

Guardian Unlimited | Columnists | Hold the French fries

] As part of a broad overhaul of U.S. priorities, he said,
] the Pentagon may have to scrap the $71 billion Air Force
] program to buy F/A-22 air-to-air fighters built by
] Lockheed Martin Corp. .
]
] "We may have to cancel this airplane that's going to cost
] between $250 million and $300 million a copy," said
] McCain, floating what could become a major new
] legislative hurdle to a top Air Force priority.

McCain: Scrap F/A-22 to Help Pay for War