Blackmoor Vituperative

A group of visually impaired campaigners have brought a temporary halt to plans by the US state of Massachusetts to move to open source document format (ODF), because the software to read them does not work with screen magnifiers.

Gutierrez found himself in a bind in February when he assumed the CIO’s position in Massachusetts. The state’s ODF policy called for executive-branch agencies by 1 January 2007, to use office applications that work with ODF and to configure those applications to save documents in ODF by default.

But the only office applications that could do that – such as the open source OpenOffice and Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice – are not supported by the major screen readers and magnifiers that people with disabilities use. It sparked an outcry.

(from Techworld.com, Visually impaired prevent Massachusetts move to open source)

This is a load of crap. A tiny fraction of Massachusetts citizens are forcing an entire state full of people to be subjected to (and pay for) proprietary, closed-source software, costing the state and the citizens of that state extraordinary amounts of money, not to mention the damage they are causing to the state’s long-term goal of making all state documents accessible to everyone. Would I rather that third-party accessibility software support ODF? Of course I would. But the people of Massachusetts should not be shackled to expensive proprietary software just because a small group of citizens wants to use a proprietary plug-in for that software. That’s ridiculous.

Peter Korn goes into detail about the issues at stake here. I suggest you go read it. It’s detailed, and I’m not going to quote it all here.

The Open Technology Development road map, a recently authored government report, advises Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Sue Payton to integrate a comprehensive open source strategy into defense department procurement and development policies. Written by consultants for Advanced Systems & Concepts in collaboration with major technology companies and the Open Source Software Institute, the 79-page report advocates adoption of open technologies, support for and adherence to open standards, and discusses topics like licensing and software project governance.

The report strongly cautions against proprietary vendor lock-in and discusses at length how open standards can facilitate interoperability between open source and proprietary systems, explaining that the DoD “needs to evaluate the impact that locking into one set of proprietary standards or products may have to its ability to react and respond to adversaries and more importantly, to technological change that is accelerating regardless of military conflict.”

(from Ars Technica, Department of Defense study urges open source adoption)

IBM PC celebrates 25th anniversary

The warrantless Internet and telephone surveillance program authorized by the Bush administration violates the U.S. Constitution and must cease immediately, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

The landmark decision makes U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s once-secret program. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed suit against the government, claiming the program “ran roughshod” over the constitutional rights of millions of Americans and ran afoul of federal wiretapping law.

(from ZDNet, Federal judge orders halt to NSA spy program)

Well I’ll be damned.

The US Department of Homeland Security has urged Windows users to install the latest patches from Microsoft as quickly as possible.

In particular it warned about one bug fixed in the latest batch of security updates that, if exploited, could put a PC under the control of an attacker.

Microsoft’s recent update fixed 23 flaws found in Windows software.

Many of these bugs are known to malicious hackers and some are already actively exploited on the net.

(from BBC News, Official warning on Windows bugs)

To date, with its Genuine Advantage anti-piracy programs, Microsoft has targeted consumers. Windows and Office users have been required to validate their products as “genuine” before being able to obtain many downloads and add-ons.

Come this fall, however, the Redmond, Wash., software maker is planning to turn up the Genuine Advantage heat in two ways: by baking more Genuine Advantage checks directly into Windows Vista, and by taking aim at PC makers, system builders, Internet cafes and other sources of potentially pirated software.

(from eWeek, Microsoft to Tighten the Genuine Advantage Screws)

Governor Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, you will join me at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.

Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

After months of issuing warnings, the music industry finally made good on its threat to file suit against peer-to-peer software company LimeWire.

A group of music companies, including Sony BMG, Virgin Records and Warner Bros. Records, have accused LimeWire and the company’s officers of copyright infringement, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New York. LimeWire produces software that’s often used to create copies of music recordings and then distribute them over the Web.

The recording industry is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, such as $150,000 for every song distributed without permission.

(from ZDNet, Music industry sues P2P firm LimeWire)

Personally, I use Shareaza.

A Homeland Security plan to require port workers to carry tamper-proof photo ID cards has numerous security problems that threaten to delay it, investigators said yesterday.

In an audit, Homeland Inspector General Richard Skinner said his review of prototype systems at participating U.S. ports identified several vulnerabilities in the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, known as TWIC.

The weaknesses, some of which were deemed “high risk,” included instances of “false positives” in detecting which workers might pose a security risk, as well as cases in which the system inadvertently disclosed sensitive personal information inappropriately.

(from BaltimoreSun.com, Plan for secure IDs for port staffs flawed)

The e-passport might well become a thing of the present, but it’s still vulnerable to hacking, as proven recently by a German computer security expert.

At a demonstration at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Lukas Grunwald, a security consultant with a German technology firm, successfully copied data from one e-passport to another, resulting in a maneuver that would fool e-passport readers into thinking that one person was passing through security when, in fact, someone else entirely was there.

(from Mobile Magazine, Cloned e-passport heightens RFID security fears)

Companies can, and do, fall from the top rung all the time.

Microsoft is no different.

Remember when everyone bought IBM PCs? IBM isn’t even selling ThinkPads anymore. Are you too old to recall when everyone bought American-made cars? Today, General Motors and Ford keep shrinking, while Toyota and Honda keep expanding. I can also recall when Pan-American Airways was the American airline for international travel. Pan Am closed up shop in 1991.

No, if Microsoft wants to stay on top, the Evil Empire could stand to take some lessons from its most dangerous competitor — and that’s Linux.

(from Linux-Watch, Top five things Microsoft can learn from Linux)