[dundee] Taylug Weekly Articles 17 - FOOLS

[gordon dunlop]

Hi All,
This week the theme is FOOLS. As you know April Fool's day was this
week at the same time it was announced that Microsoft's OOXML standard
was approved, is there a correlation in this. I thought that a
standards body was to fix criteria in an independent way so that
companies and individuals have to meet these criteria in order to
receive the pertinent classification, e.g. Laboratory standards, fire
& safety standards, degree classification standards & the simplest of
all, driving license standards. As long as the candidates meets these
standards, the certification is issued. So a proprietary software
company, with money and influence, can induce vote rigging and all
kinds of corruption in order to win. Yes Microsoft you have won! But I
hate to tell you that you have also lost! in the way that you treat
people, trying to trample over everyone for your own self interests,
everyone now truly sees you for what you are. You think that the end
is to the means, Linux thinks that it is the means to the end. I bow
to Linux because it is truly a noble product that tries for openness
and integrity and that there is a sense of TRUST.

F – FOSS:
Potential FOSS superstars.
http://socializedsoftware.com/2008/03/29/future-open-source-superstars/

Another angle on software patents?
http://www.linux.com/feature/130947

This guy seems to be into open source people.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Opening-up-the-Open-Source-List/

The man himself – RMS.
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3737586

A learning experience from ODBC 2008.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9904446-16.html

More potential superstars from ODBC 2008?
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2192

About open source in Europe.
http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7549

They are pumping £8 million into privacy management.
http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?newsID=11824&pagtype=samechan

Even Japan is getting in on the act.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9906320-16.html

And Australia.
http://www.apcmag.com/australian_open_source_industry_worth_500_million.htm

And U.S. Universities.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/032708-universities-open-source.html

And David Cameron? He is only out for votes, Jeremy Paxton should ask
him "Well David what do you think of Ubuntu?".
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/04/03/conservative_open_source/

The Labour government is going to do an open source deal? You are all
fighting for votes.
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/03/31/230047/pc-deal-could-save-public-sector-billions.htm


O – OOXML debate:
Irregularities in voting?
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2008032913190768

Free V OOXML.
http://www.memeverse.com/2008/03/30/free-market-vs-the-ooxml/

One commentator's view.
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/17458/1090/1/0/

And another.
www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/01/Microsofts-ISO-win-may-worsen-its-antitrust-woes_1.html

And another.
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/archives/080402-100013.html

And another.
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/04/01/iso-irrelevance/

Finally, a word on standards.
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=668&blogid=14


O – Other open source stuff:
A Firefox file browser extension.
http://www.linux.com/feature/129317

This is about open source phones.
http://www.powerpbx.org/content/aastra-xml-unleash-power-asterisk-and-aastra-phones-includes-video

And mobile Linux.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS5710819221.html

Open office presentation extensions.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/extensions-openofficeorg-impress

You have heard about Pam, now this is about Amanda. How sexy can Linux get?
http://www.zmanda.com/amanda-26-released.html

I like benchmarks, thank you Phoronix.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=phoronix_pts&num=1


L – Linux:
This is about the UBI flash file system.
http://kerneltrap.org/Linux/UBI_File_System

LUGS in China, hope my mate Bo joins one?
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62039551,00.htm?scid=rss_z_nw

Who is responsible for the the Linux kernel?
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6229131777.html

What Mercedes is flying?
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/17471/1090/

Snug as a bug in a rug.
http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2008/04/the-real-sun-ubuntu-linux-conn.html

We have got to add Big Blue stuff here.
http://searchenterpriselinux.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid39_gci1307872,00.html

Wall St. like Big Blue stuff.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Wall_Street_still_likes_Linux_but_for_new_reasons/1207083805


S – Security:
LPI security exams?
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5102122369.html


That is all for this week Tayluggers, the flash talks at the Abertay
Linux Society meeting on Thursday promises to be exciting with a
number of speakers giving talks that will interest a lot of people. So
get yourself over here and enjoy yourselves. Can someone who is a
reasonable photographer bring a camera to take photographs of the
speakers. I am disastrous with photography, we want the photos of the
speakers to be on the TayLUG web site.


Gordon
TayLUG Administrator