Blackmoor Vituperative

While the operating system market is still dominated by Microsoft and shows little sign of changing that doesn’t mean that all other options have failed hopelessly because there were some significant gains made over the past 12 months. Below are some good examples:

1. IBM will not use Windows Vista — but will move to Linux desktops
   IBM cancelled their contract with Microsoft last October which means that they will no longer use Windows for their desktops. Beginning July, IBM employees will begin using a Red Hat-based platform.
2. The City of Chicago goes Linux, saves over 85 percent in the process
   Big elements such as the vehicle registrations
   system, online job applications, restaurant inspections and more were migrated to a Red-Hat system in order to reduce costs and improve support, performance and scalability.
3. Munich opts to use Debian version of Linux
   The city of Munich has opted to use the Debian
   version of Linux for a high-profile, 14,000-computer installation, passing over Novell’s Suse Linux despite its regional popularity. Another massive win.
4. Ubuntu is noted as being #27 in PCWorld’s 100 Best Products of the Year
   Clearly a great result being placed above the iPod, iTunes, Google Desktop, Flickr and other good products.
5. Linux cuts Kent Police system costs by 90 percent by using SuSE
   Kent Police has cut the cost of running its major criminal investigations system by 90 percent using Novell Open Enterprise Server, the company’s version of SuSE Linux.
6. Kerala (an Indian state) goes Linux
   Children in 12500 high schools in the state will not be taught Windows. Instead instructors are lining up Linux for them. Another good win for Linux.
7. Venezuela’s Government Shifts to Open Source Software
   According to government sources in Venezuela, the South American nation has announced an official policy that exclusively calls for the use of open source software in that government.
8. Korea migrates 120K civil servants to Linux desktop
   The Korean government is to buy 120,000 copies of Hancom Linux Deluxe this year, enough to switch 23 percent of its installed base Microsoft user to open source equivalents. So another 120,000 users.
9. Dell refunds Linux users who ditch XP
   Dell, a massive player in the computer market have obviously accepted the need for this as an option for those users who do not wish to have Windows. A reasonably good gain as far as the consumer is concerned.

(from TechRepublic.com, Nine reasons why 2006 wasn’t a lost year for Linux)

2006 wasn’t a great year for me — I spent most of it alone in Richmond, away from Susan, doing one short-term contracting gig after another — but at least something good happened.

Troy Hurtubise, the Hamilton-born inventor who became famous for his bulky bear-protection suit by standing in front of a moving vehicle to prove it worked, has now created a much slimmer suit that he hopes will soon be protecting Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

He has spent two years and $15,000 in the lab out back of his house in North Bay, designing and building a practical, lightweight and affordable shell to stave off bullets, explosives, knives and clubs. He calls it the Trojan and describes it as the “first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armour.”

(from Hamilton Spectator, From bears to bullets)

Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

Jeffrey Brett Goodin, 45, of Azusa, was convicted Friday on multiple counts by a jury in the U.S. District Court for Central District of California in Los Angeles, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

[…]

The Goodin conviction is the first by a jury under the Can-Spam Act of 2003, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Goodin was convicted on multiple counts in addition to the Can-Spam conviction, including wire fraud, unauthorized use of credit cards, misuse of the AOL trademark and attempted witness harassment, prosecutors said.

(from ZDNet, AOL phisher faces up to 101 years in prison)

One down, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine to go.

I have the god-damned hiccups. I fucking hate the hiccups. Fu(hic!)ck!

I have updated the site statistics, featuring the IP addresses of idiot hackers from around the world and the search terms that lead people here. Here’s news: Prussian Blue is beating the Fantanas 6 to 1! I would never have predicted that.

An archive of 75+ inspirational messages from Despair, Inc., courtesy of TechRepublic.

For 37 years, Science Applications International Corp. has been owned by its employees. In that time, the company has grown from nothing to an $8 billion giant that does some of the government’s most sensitive work in intelligence, homeland security and defense.

But within days, those employees — 43,100 of them, more than a third of whom live in the Washington area — will have to learn to share their company with people who have never before had the chance to own SAIC stock: members of the public.

SAIC shares could begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange as soon as tomorrow in an initial public offering estimated to be worth $1 billion, which would be among the largest IPOs ever in the defense industry.

(from WashingtonPost.com, Filings Illuminate IPO’s Bumpy Ride)

It’s about time. I have a small amount of SAIC stock (I worked for them from 2002 through 2005), and this IPO has taken forever. I am really glad that they have professionals handling the stock program now. When I was there, it was handled in-house by Bull, Inc. (a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC), and I had more than a few problems with them. As much as I took pride in being a SAIC employee-owner (and I would still be one if my management had permitted me to accept a job offer I received from a different SAIC division), I think it will be a good thing for SAIC to go public. I think it will make them more accountable and force them to make better business decisions, particularly in these post-Sarbanes-Oxley days.

I could be wrong, but that’s what I think.

“You got your Edsels, diesels, Dumonts, and Eddie Wilson all together forming our own incredible monument to nothing. Here’s to nothing, fellas, here’s to nothing.”

If you haven’t seen Eddie And The Cruisers, you won’t get it. You might think you do, but you don’t.

Operations of global software companies, financial institutions and government offices in India’s main technology hub shut on Wednesday after activists called a strike over a border dispute with a neighboring state.

The 12-hour stoppage in Bangalore, the capital of the southern state of Karnataka, was called by groups disputing claims by next-door Maharashtra over a small border town.

“The strike is going on very well all across the state. All works in government departments have come to a complete standstill,” L. Byrappa, president of the Karnataka Government Employee’s Association, told Reuters.

The streets of Bangalore, home to over 1,500 Indian and multinational tech firms like Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and IBM, were deserted as companies and shops shut down. Schools closed and traffic was sparse.

(from eWeek, Software Giants Shut as Strike Hits Indian Tech Hub)

This is what happens when you outsource your IT services to a third-world country.

It’s funny how human beings work. I can shrug off the deaths of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, as simply the way the universe works. Meanwhile, the story of one girl’s death makes me cry like a baby.

It shouldn’t. People die by the thousands every day. It makes no sense that I am crying.