Author: mtadros

I’m not Fake Steve Jobs

mtadros

Gates and Jobs meet at the All Things Digital Conference May 29-31, 07 and took the stage together [link]. Gates began by clarifying jokingly that he is NOT a fake Steve Jobs. One of the most amusing and revealing things in their talk is how Bill explains, and Jobs acknowledges, that the Apple II  actually used Mircosoft’s Basic to run. Here’s Jobs’ version of the story:

My partner we started out with, this guy named Steve Wozniak. Brilliant, brilliant guy. He writes this BASIC that is, like, the best BASIC on the planet. It does stuff that no other BASIC’s ever done. You don’t have to run it to find your error messages. It finds them when you type it in and stuff. It’s perfect in every way, except for one thing, which is it’s just fixed-point, right? It’s not floating-point.
So we’re getting a lot of input that people want this BASIC to be floating-point. And, like, we’re begging Woz, please, please make this floating point.
…
We’re begging Woz to make this floating-point and he just never does it. You know, and he wrote it by hand on paper. I mean, you know, he didn’t have an assembler or anything to write it with. It was all just written on paper and he’d type it in. He just never got around to making it floating-point.

So who comes in? Bill Gates comes in and writes the floating point for the Apple II.

Read the transcript or view the video:

gates-jobs.gif

is it the end of spam?

mtadros

The good news is that one of the top ten ‘most wanted’ spammers has been arrested. The bad news is that it will not even have a tiny dint in the amount of spam we are receiving. But his arrest is symbolic and it is still a good thing.

The spammer is 27 year old Robert Alan Soloway and he is on a Spamhaus list of 135 spammers responsible for as much as 80% of all junk e-mail:

Soloway sent out unsolicited bulk e-mails using networks of compromised computers called “zombies.” These are generally home computers whose owners typically have no idea that their machines have been infected with viruses or other malicious programs; service providers can’t easily block messages from zombies because they are mixed in with legitimate messages. [link]

 

who’s afraid of bill gates?

mtadros

bill_gates_halo_3.gifThe Scientific American is reporting that Microsoft’s Bill Gates is at it again: he is attacking open source and says it is violating 235 icsoft patents [link]. This is of course in response to the way Linux has been gaining ground and taking away from Microsoft’s market share. Apparently Microsoft sent an email to reporters this past Monday detailing its position which it had previously written in Fortune Magazine.

According to another source, patent experts say that

Microsoft’s patent complaints don’t make a lot of sense from a legal standpoint. The complaints, while possibly driving some customers away from open-source software, may make Microsoft the target of lawsuits from open-source developers seeking to prove they have not infringed, some patent experts have said.

Among those,

open-source advocates, including Linux creator Linus Torvalds and long-time open-source advocate Eric S. Raymond, have said there’s a simpler explanation for Microsoft’s action: It’s trying to create fear, uncertainty and doubt about open-source software.[link]

So.. don’t be afraid of Microsoft’s threats.

portrayl: is there a story inside you?

mtadros

Two new and interesting online tools that I found listed on techcrunch: Portrayl and Ficlets. Both allow you to create a collaborative story.

Portrayl , according ot their website “is a place where writers showcase their work. You can start a story and add a chapter at a time. When you decide you’re finished, you can create a pdf ebook and also rss feeds of your story. Here’s the cool part – other people can add chapters to your story – but your chapters stay intact. When someone adds to your story it branches off into a new direction.

portrayl.gif

Ficlets: according to their site “a ficlet is a short story that enables you to collaborate with the world. Once you’ve written and shared your ficlet, any other user can pick up the narrative thread by adding a prequel or sequel. In this manner, you may know where the story begins, but you’ll never guess where (or even if!) it ends.”

ficlets.gif

Cool huh?

the ghost in the browser

mtadros

google.gif

Google just released a study entitled The Ghost in the Browser: Analysis of web-based malware [pdf document] in which it claims that 10% of websites contain malicious malware. It conducted an “in-depth research on 4.5 million Web sites and found that about one in 10 Web pages could successfully “drive-by download” a Trojan horse virus onto a visitor’s computer. Such malicious software potentially enables hackers to access sensitive data stored on the computer or its network, or to install rogue applications.” [cnet news]

Not only that, but according to another article on cnet,

An average of 8,000 new URLs containing malicious software emerged each week during April, Cluley said, adding that the notion that such software resides only in the darker corners of the Internet is very outdated. Seventy percent of Web pages hosting rogue software are found on legitimate sites targeted by hackers, according to Sophos.