G³ Solutions

Microsoft seeks RSS Patent

Friday, December 22nd, 2006

Microsoft has filed for two patents covering technology used to organize and read syndicated Web feeds, such as those delivered via the widely used Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, family of formats.

Microsoft seeks patent covering Web feed readers | Tech News on ZDNet

From another one of their blogs:

Just when you thought you’d seen it all, Microsoft has apparently applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a patent on the Really Simple Syndication protocol (RSS). The blogosphere hasn’t worked itself up into a tizzy quite yet.

I don’t want to spout about immature presumptions and journalism but… Well, since when is there an assumption that ownership of a patent (more so in this day and age where every company that is even remotely in the public eye with more than a stack of patents is actually trying to gain goodwill by opening up their patents) actually means that a giant company (such as Microsoft) is - by default - going to enforce payment of any kind?

Above and beyond that?

If this patent is actually granted and is actually their intellectual property (a subject more appropriate for a lawyer to decide as I’m not capable) then what if they do? After all, they’re a company and the job of that company is to make money for their shareholders while remaining within the letter of the law. The internet is not, nor has it ever been, nearly as free as the idealists would like people to think. Nor is there any reason (well no rational reason) to insist that everything be free. (I could almost make a case for open source but, well, in reality there really isn’t any justification in open-everything-source.)

Anyhow, what we have here is a few people who hope to stir up trouble that are making presumptions based on zealotry and ignorance. So be it… I make assumptions based on ignorance all the time - I’m just not much of a zealot.

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Posted in News, Windows | No Comments »

Microsoft Hands Out Linux

Thursday, December 21st, 2006

A number of enterprise customers have already signed up for 16,000 of the 70,000 annual SUSE Linux enterprise subscription certificates Microsoft is offering under its recent, controversial deal with Novell.

Heading the list of customers taking advantage of those certificates are Deutsche Bank AG, Credit Suisse and AIG Technologies, all of whom have welcomed the interoperability moves between Microsoft and Novell.

Microsoft Hands Out 16,000 SUSE Linux Subscriptions

If you’re going to get then I’d recommend getting while the getting is good. Not even I have a known insider that will help me out. I do suspect that I can try to find one though. I’ll likely wait until after the holiday though. Maybe in between Christmas and New Years will be a good time to ask? Then they might not have time or inclination to verify if I should get a copy.

*grins*

One can always hope you know? Besides, I’m an MVP - if Microsoft is going to work with making the two more compatible then it would be in my best interests (and their best interest) for me to have a copy of the software so that I can continue to provide support for their customers via their newsgroup, my site, and other sites that I happen to frequent.

See? I can make a good case for it.

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Posted in Linux, News, Windows | No Comments »

Safety First.

Tuesday, December 5th, 2006

“Microsoft Corp. today announced that the Get Net Safe tour, designed to help people learn how to become more safe and secure on the Internet, has arrived in Orlando for several days, starting today. The final stop on the 12-city tour, with events Dec. 5–7 in the Orlando metropolitan area, will give children, teens, parents, business owners and people over 50 the opportunity to participate in unique forums about how to be better protected online.”

Internet Safety Effort Calls on Orlando to Get Net Safe: Microsoft’s Get Net Safe tour has delivered Internet safety guidance and tools to 12 cities.

And so ends the tour. I’m hoping that they keep it up and that more companies start to do this sort of thing. Why this is an optional and not mandatory step people can take is beyond me. It is my opinion that this should be, or something similar, required prior to being allowed to connect a computer to the internet.

It is too bad that the tour is over.

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Posted in News, Security, Windows | No Comments »

Damned if you do…

Tuesday, December 5th, 2006

…Damned if you don’t.

Vista’s Many Turnoffs

Of all the idiocy. I never thought that I’d poke at a large, well respected, magazine but the article here made it past editors and thus it is subject to being scoffed at. Umm… Duh? There have pretty much always been many ways to turn off a Windows based PC. Those are options that are there for a reason. Having them grouped together in one place is a GOOD idea and if it is to complicated for people to figure out then perhaps they shouldn’t use a computer?

It goes on to state (obviously in support of it) that the OS should decide what to do… What? No. I should decide what to do. I’m smart enough to know if I want to log off, reboot, hibernate (to actually move the information to RAM so that the PC can be started faster), or sleep (a low power state where the PC is not actually off), shut down, or to switch users.

Then they go on to quote this guy as if it is an expert opinion when from my observations they appear to just want to find something to whinge about and that just about sums that up.

Err… No, no I want sleep and hibernation to not be “trivially merged” thank you very much. No, I don’t want an Apple, if I did I’d buy one - thanks. I’d like to be able to make my own choices, thank you very much. If people don’t know the differences between them then they probably should learn - if they can’t or won’t then they probably shouldn’t use a PC. This growing sense of entitlement about technology and the internet is absurd, frankly people who can’t figure out what options they need or want to click should either press them all to see what they do or, better still, take the time to learn about them before clicking on them. (Hopefully before buying them, going online with them, and gleefully clicking “YES” to everything they see.) Or, of course, they could just buy a Mac and run the same software that everyone else does with the same settings and somehow feel convinced they’re secure, unique, and making wise choices.

Anyhow…

It is my opinion that instead of taking the time to whine about stuff that they don’t understand people should spend time learning to do whatever it is they do better or learning about things prior to writing about them.

And yet another publication goes down the tubes and becomes as pointless as a tabloid. Journalism is about fact, the article is claiming to be “news.” Call a spade a spade and that is an opinionated editorial written by someone who has no business writing about the computer industry. I don’t care what they have for qualifications, the results are obvious proof that they are more likely to understand knitting than they are computers.

Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category

Microsoft seeks RSS Patent

Microsoft Hands Out Linux

Safety First.

Damned if you do…