November 29th

Is Linux Bill's Biggest Nightmare?

The Net has been flooded with Linux stories this last week, ranging from the announcement that a German city dropped Windows for Linux, to the rumors that Microsoft is being forced to give large customers big discounts on Windows licenses in order to keep them from defecting to Linux. This brings up the question of Microsoft's future profits, especially in the light of the fact that they are subsidizing XBox hardware at well below cost. In order to attempt to compete with Sony's Playstation2, MS has cut the price of the XBox to $199, far below the manufacturing costs. But how can he compete with Linux if it is free?

It should not escape notice that Bill began his monopolistic career by doing the same thing: "offer it for free to kill the competition". He pretty much killed Netscape that way, not to mention Realplayer.  Now Linux is threatening to hoist Bill on his own Petard. 

So will the giant MS bank account slowly dwindle? Doubtful.  Bill has more ways to skin a cat (customer) than you can shake a stick at.  MS Office is still selling well at a mere $600, and Windows is still the major OS for PCs.  But if companies are smart, they will switch from Windows/.Net to Linux/Apache, that is if money means anything to them. The biggest question is why more companies haven't already done so.

                                       Dr. John

November 28th

IBM's Revenge

You may have forgotten, but at one time it wasn't clear if IBM's OS/2 was going to challenge Windows in the operating system arena or not. It is clear now (NOT!).  The whole thing left a sour taste in IBM's mouth, and they have been itching for a return match, but a much less expensive one if possible.  Enter Linux... it's lots less expensive, and gaining in popularity, so now IBM is pushing it hard.  With that kind of clout behind Linux, it might just put the fear of Cod, or other scary fish, into Microsoft. The best part for IBM is that they don't have to spend boatloads of development money to cause Microsoft pain, they just need to keep turning the promotional screws, and sit back and watch.  It helps their efforts every time Microsoft pulls another fishy move, like "Licensing 6.0", or the crackdown on MP3 files with service packs.

Here's to wishing IBM all the luck in the world, and while we're at it, here's to hoping Bill's turkey burns today.

                                       Dr. John

November 27th

Microsoft Still Pushing for Licenses

Microsoft admits that less than 1/3 of their business customers paid for "Licensing 6.0", which was supposed to save the companies money on MS products in the long run.  Now Microsoft is trying again (Licensing 6.1??). The idea is to get money from customers when there is no new product in sight.  It is simply a way of keeping the money flowing without offering anything to the customers other than a promise ("if we do actually make a new product, you'll get it"). But now it looks like Microsoft may be releasing a service pack in the guise of a "new product", as a way of satisfying their end of the deal to deliver something for all that money people paid out. This would be a new low for Microsoft if true.

Just as a rule of thumb, don't buy anything from Microsoft unless you really need it, and that goes double for "pay now, and maybe get a service pack later" schemes.

                                       Dr. John

The Inq

Another Inq

November 24th

Music Gestapo Raid US Navy

The Recording Industry of America (RIAA) has sent the Music Gestapo (MG) to confiscate the computers of 100 midshipmen at the US Naval Academy for allegedly having illegal copies of songs.  It used to take a couple of good barroom brawls to get the attention of the Shore Police, but now, the US's new Corporate/Military Complex (CMC) will haul the blaggards away for a stray J Lo MP3 on their hard drives.

I guess it's better than keel hauling, but it has me wondering why folks don't just boycott US music until the RIAA screams for mercy.  Come on, admit it... new music is just rehashed crap, trying to imitate good music, and there really isn't anything worth copying anyway.

                                       Dr. John

Story

The Inq

November 20th

64-Bit for the Masses

AMD is once again turning to PC game enthusiasts for salvation. AMD has been in a bit of a slump recently, and has been forced to lay off part of their workforce. At the Comdex tradeshow, AMD announced that they expect gamers to "bring 64-bit computing to mainstream PC users." They are probably right to some extent, especially considering that big game companies like Epic have said they will make a 64-bit version of Unreal 2003. 

That's the bottom line... will software companies make 64-bit versions of their programs and games?  If so, then AMD will win big time, because no software makers are going to write 64-bit home programs or games for Intel's 64-bit processor, the Itanium. That means if 64-bit computing takes off with the public, Intel will be left out in the cold. 

                                       Dr. John

The Inquirer

November 18th

It's Official... GeForce5 = GeForce FX!

NVidia's response to the very popular Radeon 9700 has been announced, and it will be called the GeForce FX. Based on the so-called NV30 chip, the  FX will sport 125 million transistors fabricated on a 0.13 micron process. It will be a Direct X 9.0+ part with AGP 8x capability, and should deliver 3 times the geometry performance of the GF4 series. The stats are very impressive, as are the screenshots. Here is a picture taken from HotHardware:

November 14th

Who Created the VisionTek Void? (a murder mystery)

                                       Dr. John

The Inquirer

HardOCP

BFG Tech

November 10th

The Name of the Beast

We have seen the beast, and its name is Palladium. And now we know more about what Palladium is and is not, thanks to the Trusted Computing Masterclass held on Nov. 7th.

But there's still much that we do not know, and will not know for sometime to come. First off, Palladium as it is now conceived is a secure add-on to Windows which interfaces with the so-called "Fritz" chip being developed for future motherboards. Palladium will not run in the background, but instead will be called up much like an application when needed. It will determine whether or not the hardware and software environment are "secure", before proceeding with any action. The interaction between the software and hardware on both ends of the transaction will involve encryption keys, and will only work once the hardware infrastructure is fully in place.

As far as the hardware and software makers involved are concerned, Palladium and Trusted Computing are a done deal, and no amount of whining or griping from the public is going to stop it. The computer industry as a whole is investing billions of dollars on this project with the hopes that no one will ever be able to make backup copies, or any other type of copy of any digital medium ever again in the future. To make this work, all hard drives and burners will probably need to have additional circuitry added to prevent unauthorized copying.

Perhaps the most unusual thing about Trusted Computing is that so many different vendors and manufacturers need to work together to make it function properly. But as far as I can tell, the hardware manufacturers are getting almost nothing out of this deal. This is wonderful stuff for Microsoft, the Recording Industry of America, and the Motion Picture Association of America, but it does nothing to help sagging hardware sales. And if, as I expect, the rollout of Trusted Computing does not go particularly smoothly, and causes untold aggravation to end users, I can imagine there been a significant public backlash. And in the end, there is absolutely nothing that the music industry can do to prevent people from recording music directly from an output device, so what is the point? And what if China starts churning out motherboards and disk drives without the business end of Palladium installed? It kind of makes you wonder if this is really worth billions of dollars invested in development.

                                       Dr. John

Masterclass

The Register

November 8th

What AMD Needs To Do

A leaked memo from AMD's big guy Hector Ruiz indicates some of the things the company needs to do to return to profits, including reducing operating costs with substantial layoffs. The memo states that AMD is doing the following:

- rebalancing channel inventories; an action we took in Q3 to bring inventories in line with current PC market demand,
- bolstering our capital structure; reducing capital expenses and refinancing assets to provide additional liquidity for 2003, and
- reducing our breakeven point; where we committed to bringing our quarterly operating costs down by $100 million by early next year.

The first point is possibly the most important, and I doubt AMD will go far enough. One of their biggest problems is that they often sell huge numbers of new OEM chips to large PC builders before putting any of these new chips up for retail sale.  Then the OEM builders resell some portion of those chips through the gray market at very reduced prices, whence they show up on PriceWatch at 2/3 the wholesale price.  This dramatically reduces AMD's profits, and floods the market with under-priced chips. This has got to stop.  AMD should only sell OEMs barely enough chips to keep them supplied, and must resist the temptation to dump inventory in this way. They need to put at least 1/4 of the new chips out to retail the same day they go to OEMs, so consumers can buy them immediately. Often, the retail chips lag behind by 2 to 4 weeks.

AMD still is going through growing pains, but they had better mature their business model if they want to compete with giants like Intel.

                                       Dr. John

The Inquirer

November 5th

XDocs Versus Acrobat

The ever extending tentacles of the Microsoft octopus are now working their way into the electronic forms and documents arena. Microsoft has announced that they are developing a new online forms and documents application meant to de-thrown Adobe Acrobat as the de facto standard. The idea is to make Microsoft's "XDocs" able to combine data from multiple sources, such as XML, images and spreadsheets to produce WYSIWYG electronic documents that rival Adobe's PDF format.

While Microsoft has been very successful at eliminating the competition in other areas of the computer and software industry, they may have a little more trouble eliminating Adobe Acrobat. One reason is that so many official electronic documents are already prepared using Adobe Acrobat, ranging from scientific publications, to court documents. This is a rather entrenched enterprise, and it seems to me there is little chance that Microsoft will be able to worm its way in. But that won't stop Bill from trying. This is just one more brass ring that Bill is going to reach for. I wonder how many billions of dollars he will sink into this project before he decides to move on to more fertile grounds.

                                       Dr. John

Planet PDF

November 4th

Bill And Thee

The celebrations must have gone on all weekend over at Microsoft headquarters. The Justice Department gave Bill everything he asked for. And I mean everything. To say that the penalties levied against Microsoft were mild is a drastic understatement, they were virtually nonexistent. So how did we get from a court order to break Microsoft into two entities to "Now let's play nice Billy"? Simple, the influence of big money on politics in United States. And while both Democrats and Republicans have been shamelessly guilty of favoring big business over consumers during the last decade plus, the Republicans clearly take the cake for screwing consumers for the benefit of large corporations.

Back in the mid-1990s, the Department of Justice under the Clinton administration began looking into Microsoft's anti-competitive practices. But all it took to squelch that investigation was a quick visit the White House by Bill Gates himself. End of story. The big question is, what quid pro quo was exchanged? We may never know, but it is apparent that fear of harming the economy is a major driving force for the government's acquiescence. And what does that mean for us consumers? That things are likely to remain the way they are for at least the foreseeable future. The previous and current administration were or are working under the misimpression that any penalties levied against Microsoft will hurt the U.S. economy. This is complete hogwash and they should know better. Currently the entire computer industry is in the doldrums, and one more bad piece of news for investors isn't going to make one bit of difference. But nonetheless, the desire to get reelected far outweighs rationality. And consumers get left in the dirt.

There are many articles out there on the Web today that you can read to find out just how pitiful the court settlement turned out. For example, what watchdog group has been put in place to keep an eye on Microsoft's behavior? Bill Gates himself, and I'm not kidding. Microsoft is to police its own actions. And what about those provisions we heard about that would allow you to actually removed Internet Explorer from Windows? Gone. Now you can remove the icons, and if you dig deep enough into the bowels of Windows, you might be able to specify a third party media player as the default player. Isn't all this new customizability making your head spin?

What can you do about it? Very little that will have a large impact, but just like every other voter and consumer, you have two votes that you can cast in this regard. First, vote with your wallet. When you buy a product you are rewarding the product maker. So for example, if you don't want to help Bill corner the operating system market you have two choices. Stick with your current version of Windows for as long as you can, to deprive Bill of further ill gotten profits, or switch to Linux. Next, vote tomorrow! Each vote counts, and it's one of the best ways that US citizens have to voice their opinion. Sure, both political parties are in the pockets of big business, but the current administration and the Republicans in the House are so clearly biased in favor of big business, at the expense of consumers and the environment, that there is a clear choice. All you need to do to convince yourself of the collusion between the DoJ and Microsoft is to listen to Attorney General Ashcroft's delighted remarks immediately after the ruling was announced.  There was clearly bias in favor of Microsoft.

Some people will say that there is no difference between the two political parties, but that's a lie promulgated by those who would like to see a light voter turnout. Snub these bastards by voting. If you like the influence big business has on politics, vote Republican and you will get much more of the same. Vote Democratic, and you will at least slow the steady march towards "corporateocracy", where corporations dictate to the politicians what legislation is to be passed. The Bush administration has been shameless in allowing business groups to formulate current legislation. If there is at least a balance of power, with Republicans controlling part of the government, and Democrats controlling the other parts, it will be harder for corporations to dictate their will. So please folks, get out and vote tomorrow!

                                       Dr. John

Linux and Main

November 1st

Microsoft To Get Wrist Slapped

Microsoft is awaiting the court's announcement concerning the remedies (punishment) that they will be subjected to after losing their anti-trust trial. It's been a very long time in coming, and no doubt will leave many saying it's too little, too late.  The judge has decided to wait until after the markets have closed for the day to make the announcement, just to make it clear that she is not worried about the effects on the stock market.

I expect the judge to accept the remedies outlined in the settlement, which then brings up the question of what took so long.  It isn't too difficult to rubber stamp bad court settlements.  Of course she could shock the entire world, and wreck all those celebration parties at Microsoft tonight, by rejecting the remedies as insufficient (which they clearly are).  I for one will not be holding my breath.

                                       Dr. John