Those pesky pirates! With Tomato Garden XP allegedly deployed to over 10 million users in China, one has to ask the question, isn't that what Microsoft wanted?

and a look at a new distro which aims to appeal to the Windows XP market with consideration of a recent ruling that has an XP “pirate” hit with a fine and jail.

Its a question Ive asked time and time again on this blog.  There are many sites reporting the new Ubuntu derived distro which aims to appeal to the Windows XP user.  I will cover that more towards the end of the article but for me,  this poses other questions in regards to the view Microsoft seemed to have in respect of XP, the future of Microsoft with it’s recent products and the question – what is Microsoft most frightened of?

Lets rewind to August 2008 when the people responsible for China’s most popular “cracked” version of Windows XP were arrested….

For those that don’t know, the version of XP in question was called Tomato Garden Windows XP and contained other full versions of software (cracked if you will) which could be downloaded for free.  And downloaded it was.  Reports state that approximately 10 million people took the opportunity to get their hands on this unofficial, unauthorised Microsoft product.

Skip nearer to present day and on August 20th 2009 a judgment was reached by the Suzhou Huqiu District Court which saw the maker of Tomato Garden XP hit with a $147,000 fine and a three and a half year term of imprisonment.

Before we look at this further, let’s remind ourselves of what Bill Gates had to say about “piracy” in China.  The following quote comes from Bill Gates in 2007, you can read an article on that here.

Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, though……And as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

It appears he has been true to his word.  Its nearly 2010, 10 million people are seemingly “addicted” to Tomato Garden and sure enough Microsoft seems to be collecting.   Whilst I cannot and will not condone the “sharing” of material without the IP holders consent, does anyone see anything wrong with the way Microsoft have apparently been happy to let people “become addicted”?  Microsoft cannot be holier than thou (IMO) in regards to “theft” of code since its alleged that (albeit by a 3rd party contracted by Microsoft) they have done the same thing and it seemed a year before Bill Gates was more than happy for people to “steal ours” (his words).  Is this not at best entrapment?

I think we are all agreed you can’t “steal” code in the traditional sense, but for want of a better word, lets look for a minute at theft as defined in Section 1 of the Theft Act 1968 (UK Law)

A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

So by listening to Bill Gates in 2007, one could be forgiven for thinking that the “dishonest appropriation” element is absent from the “stealing” afterall Bill Gates said “we want them to steal ours” ergo no dishonesty, Bill Gates want’s you to steal it.  Taking this to a rather OTT extreme, one could also consider that the creator of Tomato Garden had a defense (of sorts) there.  This is, as I say, OTT, but for me highlights the hypocrisy of Microsoft.

Of course all this to me is really a moot point when you consider that Microsoft have already given XP a stay of execution and even in light of the fact its two versions behind the current product, people still want to keep using it.  Is this what Microsoft is most frightened of? People’s reluctance to move to what MS is offering today?  Maybe for many Windows users it’s nice to run an MS OS where your hardware exceeds the requirements of the OS itself and not find themselves in the middle of a performance battle which traditionally (IMO) was a combination of compromise and hardware upgrade.

It looks like XP but its derived from Ubuntu. I don't think Microsoft will be best pleased with a Gnome? replica of their GUI.

Here comes Ylmf OS!

With a name that rolls off the tongue? Ylmf OS appears to the casual user as XP.  Currently the Ubuntu based distro has no English translation.  What does this mean for Microsoft?  Well if it becomes the “protest choice” of China then quite alot, its got a 10 million strong user base to attract.  You can visit the website of this distro here and I would ask if anyone knows of either a translation for the distro itself and/or the homepage, please let me know!

A threat to Microsoft?

I have a some questions in regards to XP, firstly why on the eve of the Windows 7 beta did the arrests occur of the Tomato Garden creator?  Why when XP is such old software (two versions behind 7 which Microsoft seem to tout as the second coming of operating systems) did Microsoft want to actively persue this XP clone?  What does Windows 7 offer which is not already offered by a smaller (and less hardware demanding XP) but most important of all, if people are being pursued now for products as old as XP, what does that say about Microsoft’s latest products and their confidence in them?

These are questions which only XP users reluctant to upgrade can answer.  In the meantime, I don’t think it will be long before a translation of Ylmf is available and you can bet Microsoft will be looking very closely at its options in regards to the GUI having an almost identical look to XP, even if it is Ubuntu derived.

If I had not “upgraded” to Vista from XP, I would probably not be writing a Linux blog.  It was my utter dissatisfaction with Vista that caused me to look elsewhere, which now in hindsight was the best thing I ever did.  As I come to the end of a long testing/review of Windows 7, I am left none the wiser as to what Windows can now offer me (that review will be here in the new year)

Maybe 2010 will be the year of the Linux desktop? Starting in China albeit with a clone of XP? – The mind boggles!  What a wacky digital world we live in!

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

As we approach 2010 it appears a popular trend is Cloud computing. Will it take computing by storm and will Google's be the one to kick start a migration to the cloud? or could we be in for a storm?

As we end 2009, what will be the hot topic of 2010?

Regular readers to this blog will remember the questions I posed in regards to the resistance from some quarters about computing in the cloud.  My argument went something like this, if we are agreed that Microsoft Windows has the market share of the OS market and can agree that maybe one of the reasons its prone to so many security issues is because of that popularity, why do people have a fear of the cloud in relation to security of data?  If you read that article you may also remember the Microsoft advocate Andre Da Costa claiming that cloud computing was still a concept that was way in the future.

At the time I challenged this remark and stated that IMO this was always the claim with new tech/innovation when Microsoft were not at the forefront of it.  You can read that article here and before we proceed further, lets remind ourselves about what Andre Da Costa had to say about GoogleOS and cloud computing:

Everybody is saying its lame and Google is way ahead of its time. The fact that they are using this draconian measure of requiring specific hardware leaves much to be desired. If Google goes forward the two biggest losers will be Google and Linux. A web centric operating system is not viable today, next year, 5 years or even 10 years from now, because the ubiquity of an Internet infrastructure that Google is requiring for Chrome OS does not exist, even if there is a good internet infrastructure in some part of the world, its not completely reliable.

Of course if you are not indoctrinated into the world of Redmond the story is somewhat different and to me it appears that its only the advocates who believe that computing in the cloud is as far away as a secure Windows.  Its been reported on the net that as a result of a survey that cloud computing was one of the trends popular with companies.  Its grabbing the interest of enterprise and the home user?

Adam Bosnian had this say:

Almost any size of organisation can use public or private cloud resources and enjoy significantly enhanced economies of scale

You can read the entire article here: http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=conWebDoc.33924

So what does this mean for the masses?  In my opinion for most of us 2010 will be pretty much the same as it is now, we will continue to see Linux make in-roads into the mainstream desktop market (as well as the wealth of alternatives) and we will see a continued increase in Linux based hardware.  With GoogleOS hitting the streets next year, I think that this is why the cloud OS has been attacked and criticised by the Microsoft faithful.  They are worried.  With a name like Google and more people opening up to the concept of computing in the cloud one has to wonder where Windows will sit in all of this.

About mid 2009 I wrote an article entitled “Are games the last bastion of salvation for Windows?” and I think as we progress through 2010 this will become ever more true.  Whilst undoubtably hardcore PC gamers will choose a Windows based system, you have Wine going from strength to strength and many developers commenting that the PC market is getting harder to make the type of returns you see in the console sector (through piracy and a reluctance by some users to upgrade hardware just to play the latest releases)

Google has the brand name. Does it have the influence to convince people of a switch from traditional computing?

Where we’ve been, where we’ve come from and where we are headed?

I think the “mainstream” user was exposed (and had their mind opened to) alternative OS’s in the mobile phone market, we see popular devices offering a plethora of features that are not running a Windows OS.  Combine that with the reports of satisfied Apple Mac customers and the growing interest in Linux to see why maybe now more than ever people don’t consider PC==Microsoft (and are open to new concepts and solutions)

I don’t believe cloud computing is such a scary concept to users as it once was.  I remember in the days of dialup watching every minute online.  I remember an easier life when I first got broadband and now in 2010 most PC’s are connected to the net as soon as they are switched on and stay connected until they are powered down.  For those of you like me who’ve been about a while, I’d ask you to cast your mind back a little while.  Can you remember when the thought of “always connected” would fill you with horror and visions of cyber-attacks, hell and damnation and all manner of nightmares?

In 2008 the BBC wrote this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7421099.stm which in my opinion echoed the same fears that many people have in regards to important data being held in a remote location.

I think Cloud computing will start with Google, not necessarily because it has a killer implementation (although that may be the case) but rather because it has the brand name to inspire confidence in the concept.

So what of Windows?  Could its closed source nature be eventually the death of it?  Quite possibly, one only has to look at the wealth of FOSS projects that are providing alternative solutions to many of Microsoft products.  Even Microsoft themselves are alleged to use GPL code (and allegedly violate it albeit by a third party)

Remember Mr Ballmer’s cancer comment in regards to Linux?

Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches

But then should we really pay any attention to him? he was alleged afterall to also say that Google was a house of cards and iPhone had no chance of getting a significant market share.  I bring this up since GoogleOS is built on Linux so its rather relevant that the first “mainstream” steps of this concept are being taken by that which Mr Ballmer seems to have a low opinion of.  Talking of cancer and IP,  I wonder if he would like to retract that since Microsoft China are alleged to have taken code from another companies product and attempted to use it as their own.  For more information on this, read the article here.

I think many people are ready to look at the concept of computing in the cloud.  Just don’t expect a realistic answer from a Microsoft advocate unless the solution is being offered by them (IMO)  Consider yourself how many apps you are already using that are based in “the cloud”.   I think you will be quite surprised and certainly for the mainstream users with their Facebook et al, many people already have their data stored remotely and don’t even think twice about it.

We all remember how Mr Ballmer IMO says something only for the exact opposite to happen.  Here is allegedly what Mr Ballmer has to say about ChromeOS in July and time will tell if its another “Google is a house of cards” type comment from the man who has unique idea’s about how to perform in public. Maybe this is why it was reported 40% of a poll by the Wall Street Journal don’t rate Mr Ballmer?  Its worth noting however that already he has the the first part of his comments wrong.  A year and a half?:

I will be respectful … Who knows what this thing is? To me, the Chrome OS thing is highly interesting … It won’t happen for a year and a half and they already announced an operating system … I don’t know if they can’t make up their mind or what the problem is over there, but the last time I checked, you don’t need two client operating systems … It’s good to have one.

Read the full article here: http://www.geek.com/articles/news/ballmer-generates-laughter-with-chrome-os-comments-20090715/ I wonder if Mr Ballmer will be seemingly so flippant in 2010 when we see the first intended implementations of the ChromeOS?

Recent news on Cloud computing

Finally here are some points of interest in relation to Cloud Computing in recent weeks.

Cloud Computing Comes to Hong Kong –  http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/1208866

Fujitsu Unveils New Cloud Services for ISVs and Enterprises – http://tinyurl.com/y89gqlp

The Top 150 Players in Cloud Computing – http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/node/770174

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Microsoft has a patent portfolio and its not affraid to use it.  You know what they say though…those who live by the sword die by the sword….

Its a story which has been rumbling on now for a while, however its being reported today that a US court has upheld the verdict in a patent claim from i4i against Microsoft.

Microsoft had this to say on the matter:

We have been preparing for this possibility since the District Court issued its injunction in August 2009 and have put the wheels in motion to remove this little-used feature from these products…

and again, IMO we see the Microsoft PR “softening” machine going into action to try to convince you that this verdict doesn’t really matter.  So Microsoft think this a little used feature?  Well why on earth didn’t they just offer to remove it from day 1?

XML is used in Word 2003 and 2007 and its being reported that the injunction granted prohibiting the sale of these products will go into effect on 11th January 2010.  It is also alleged that Microsoft has been hit with a $290 million bill for court fee’s.  That will please the shareholders?!?! and maybe if it doesnt have any effect on Microsoft, the question should be asked, is Microsoft far too large?  My stance would be, if Microsoft can swallow a 290 million bill, then maybe its too powerful to truely act in the interests of consumers.

If Microsoft has this type of money in its war chest, then what other alleged actions can it do to harm competition and how on earth can it be punished or deterred from doing so?  Certainly not with fines/court cases if IMO it swallows these type of figures with ease.

The panel of judges in court allegedly said:

In this case, a small company was practicing its patent, only to suffer a loss of market share, brand recognition, and customer goodwill as the result of the defendant’s infringing acts……The district court found that Microsoft captured 80 percent of the custom XML market with its infringing Word products, forcing i4i to change its business strategy

So whats Microsoft to do?  Over the last few months we’ve seen GPL violations, Microsoft (or a 3rd party on its behalf) allegedly copying code from a small company.  Now we see an injunction banning the sale of Microsoft products (until it complies)  This doesn’t look good IMO.  As more news like this hits the press I always make the remark that Microsoft is not some 1bit software house comprised of teenagers coding in their basement.  Its Microsoft, the mighty guiding light of everything IT related thats good for you (or so its faithful would want you to believe)  For me it highlights everything that is wrong with Microsoft effectively having control of the PC software market (IMO).  Whilst Ballmer et al will allegedly make comments like FOSS being cancer, one has to question Microsoft’s true views on innovation (if its not coming from them)  I’ll let you answer that.

Microsoft are further reported to have said:

While we are moving quickly to address the injunction issue, we are also considering our legal options.

Legal options which I hope Plurk are considering (in respect of the code “stealing” issue)

A few months back when the story broke, it was reported on the BBC website, you can see that article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8197990.stm

i4i made these comments on the verdict and for me Im pleased that i4i got the result they wanted:

i4i is especially pleased with the court’s decision to uphold the injunction, an important step in protecting the property rights of small inventors.

Shame on you Microsoft, shame.

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Are you interested in the Zune? This "new" logo is one persons interpretation. Please see end of article for source of image.

There are reports that Microsoft is having issues with another handheld devices app.  This time it being ZuneHD and its Twitter application and before we go any further lets cast our minds back to new year 2009 when Zune was reported to have had an unfortunate incident with a “bug” reportedly causing it to freeze.

If recent reports are correct then Zune’s Twitter application is censoring explicit words without giving its users the option to turn off the feature and thus giving Zune attention once again as we approach the new year.

Lets hope that Ballmer doesn’t Tweet with Zune, since if the allegations about his behavior are correct then he doesn’t mind using a four letter word every now and then.  If you are interested in an allegation relating to Ballmers latest “outburst” then check out the article below and see what Ballmer has to say when you don’t get into the spirit of Bing.

I digress since this post is in relation to ZuneHD and whilst its failed (IMO) to achieve the popularity of Apples counterpart, its still a piece of tech that sits (somewhere) in the marketplace.   Microsoft have alleged to say on the subject:

The recently released Twitter for Zune HD application has been abbreviating some explicit words in tweets when viewed on the device. However, these explicit words do appear in their full text on the Twitter site or on any other Twitter client. We have identified the issue and are taking steps to update the application as soon as possible to ensure Twitter for Zune HD users are able to view tweets in their original state.

You can read more about this subject at http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/20919.cfm but for me is reinforcing that which I asked in the article here regarding Microsoft losing control of its projects.  If we look at the last few months alone we see allegations of GPL violations, code being “lifted” from other companies products, issues with an iPhone app and now this.  Is the wheel coming off the might Microsoft?  Have they “bitten off more than they can chew”?

For me I believe that Microsoft is fighting a battle on far too many fronts.  Whilst users rumbled about Vista and other Microsoft products in general, other companies took the opportunity to release some really great products and start building a loyal user base.  We see examples of this with Firefox eating away at IE (along with other browsers)  we see Apple going from strength to strength with its products and in addition we see Google showing Microsoft how search is done as well as making in-roads into other areas which once were almost the sole remit of Microsoft.

In my opinion Microsoft see’s itself in a battle with all these products.  Consumer choice is now commonplace in the PC market and even a reliable cash-cow like MS Office is, (IMO) being threatened by Open Office, Google Docs et al.  We are now in a world (IMO) where when a software product doesn’t live up to expectation theres plenty of choice to simply move on.  This can’t be good news for Microsoft (IMO) who once could almost guarantee that the majority of apps people running were theirs.

The logo in this article came from: http://forums.macnn.com/103/ipod-iphone-and-apple-tv/317449/the-one-only-microsoft-zune-thread/ and if the creator would like to name themselves in the comments section, I’d be more than happy to credit this original piece of work!

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

or, Its all bing going wrong at Xmas?

Microsoft, the industry leader who has seen its fair share of bad news in the last few months is now experiencing problems with its scheme of bringing Bing to the iPhone.  iBing was released on the 16th December which for Microsoft was good news and the usual Microsoft excitement rolled into action with Justin Jed making these comments in regards to its touted feature “voice search”

Our investments in voice search (you may have played with them on Windows phones or BlackBerry already) continues in our iPhone App…

Great news so far?  Yes?…..Well no.

It took one day for some cracks to show in iBing when Microsoft said:

we’ve also heard about a couple of issues that we’d like to address….

Anyone would be forgiven for thinking that they were refering to a couple of minor bugs of little consequence.  So lets look at what the couple of “issues” actually are:

Using voice search outside the U.S. crashes the app.

In my opinion thats a little more than an “issue” is that not a major flaw?  Well IMO according to Microsoft its not, as the “issues” continue:

App doesn’t work on 1^st generation iPod Touch

Ok, so having a first generation iPod Touch means the app is useless, ok. In my opinion slightly more than an “issue” but lets carry on.  Readers to this blog may question why Microsoft said iBing has a “couple” of issues when we are getting to our third one.  I can’t answer that.  I should maybe contact the Bing team and explain that a “couple” usually suggests two.

No search results outside the U.S.

So in my opinion what Microsoft are really saying (when you cut through the softening and PR) is:

If you live outside of the US or have a 1st generation Ipod Touch, iBing doesn’t work.

Need we say more?  Is this really the release Microsoft or the Bing team wanted?  Im sure Google will be worried. The blog post for these is here. The one thing that has surprised me here though is there does not seem to be any blaming….yet.   So since there is no 3rd party blame (yet) does that mean its Microsoft’s fault? I doubt it.

Keeping this all in mind though it was interesting to see a user called Brianm76 making the following comment on the Bing blog:

i am experiencing crashes at least 50% of the time when i search either by typing or through voice search and i am in the us with my settings set to us.  i experience a crash each time i use photo search and so do 2 of my co-workers with iphones.

But then maybe they just haven’t found the US bugs yet as a result of “listening to early good reports” [1]

Microsoft now parasitic?

This Bing news comes off the back of the reports that Motzilla is allegedly talking about Bing as being more “private” than Google, news which Microsoft must have been happy about since their own browser market share is being eaten up by Firefox (IMO).  If FF is to become the browser of the future then Microsoft will want at least a little piece of that.  Is Microsoft now happy to settle for the scraps that fall off the table of Mozilla too?

You can read more on the story of Mozilla and Bing here.  But lets consider for a moment the act of Microsoft developing products for other platforms.  Theres no doubt in the popularity of iPhone so is Microsoft settling for whatever scraps fall from Apple’s table?  I would say so, one only has to look at previous deployments of WinMob to see peoples opinions of that platform.  I myself suffered WinMob on an MDA Mail for a while, a shocking experience which almost convinced me that a mobile phone was not fit for purpose for anything other than phone calls.

Lets look at a definition of Parasitism:

is a type of symbiotic relationship between two different organisms where one organism, the parasite, takes favor from the host, sometimes for a prolonged time. …

That, in my opinion sounds exactly like whats happening here.

IMO to be fair to Microsoft we can’t blame them for Bing.  They even try to warn you of the Bing product in its name.  Lets look (again) at the dictionary definition of the word “Bing”:

Bing, noun -  a heap or pile.

So lets not be too hard on Microsoft this time.  Although maybe we should? Heres an allegation from a claimed ex-Microsoft employee who didn’t get into the spirit of “Bing”

Notes

[1] – Blaming listening to early good reports is what its alleged Steve Ballmer said in relation to Vista and the subsequent reception it received.

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Twitter Trends for 2009 – Microsoft beaten by Apple and Google?

The Twitter blog is showing the most popular trends for 2009.  What is interesting is that in the technology section it shows Snow Leopard ranking 2 places higher than Windows 7.

This surprises me for a couple of reasons.  Firstly I would think (from seeing them in action) that Microsoft has far more Twitter accounts (official and un) than Apple.  Secondly the IMO awful Windows 7 party ads that computer users from Linux/Windows/Apple camps found disgusting didn’t manage to push #Windows 7 as high.  Is that saying something about the consumers choice in the high street?

After Vista can Microsoft really manage to take another hit? and especially one on its Vista 7? You can see all the popular trends from Twitter here:http://blog.twitter.com/2009/12/top-twitter-trends-of-2009.html

Its worth noting though that the most popular technology trend was Google Wave.

Whilst we are on the subject of Twitter, on their blog they also announce that they are now looking into services for business.  You can read more about that here: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/12/feature-test-with-businesses.html

Noooooo! Its “evil proprietary drivers”!?!

Nvidia have today released their updated Linux/BSD Solaris drivers both in 32 and 64bit flavors.  Visit the official homepage: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html For me the one piece of proprietary that is always with my distro!

Take the 5th Microsoft!

Cnet speak with Microsoft in relation to its EU anti-trust issues and in my opinion the answers you get are pretty much the ones you would expect, IMO trying to suggest everything is “cosy” between Microsoft and the anti-trust body.  One answer though was of interest and it was in regards to the Plurk fiasco we covered the other day.  When asked if there was some agreement to be reached between Microsoft and Plurk, the response was:

I wouldn’t want to say anything that goes beyond the public statement we put out.

Probably for the best.

You can read that article here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10416714-56.html and of course this article was written in addition to the news that the EU has settled with agreement on its anti-trust case.  You can read that article here.

Paris Hilton’s Linux distro?

I wouldn’t think so, more someones idea of a joke, buts its a rather humorous article on Paris featuring Tux.  Observers of Paris said:

Many Linux users said they appreciate the exposure a star like Paris Hilton can give to the Linux movement, and added that they can “appreciate someone who can compile without panties on.”

You can read the full “article” here: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2006/08/paris-hilton-tinkerbell-linux.html

Android making inroads into iPhone apps?

Its being reported that Android apps has hit the 20,000 mark, going some way to reaching the 100,000 of Apples offering.  Big news?  Well as an owner of neither (nor do I believe the need for these mobile apps/games) I wonder if 100,000 apps is better than 20,000? and in fact to go further than that, is 20,000 apps (a silly amount of choice IMO) really anything to be proud of?  I wonder of the all those apps/games are decent pieces of software and how much of it is rubbish?

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Its been a busy and productive year for Google.  The biggest talking point of which seems to be (at the moment) ChromeOS, however lets not forget the ever increasing popularity of Google Apps, Google Wave which is currently in beta (and been a firm favorite of mine), GoogleDNS which despite being subject to privacy questions (by some) continues to be a rather fast DNS service which is free for everyone, now Google has another product to release to the world.

Here’s introducing goo.gl a URL shortening service, much in the similar to that of TinyURL and the plethora of others we’ve covered here.  At present time its not available for general use, being only available to Google Toolbar and FeedBurner:

…we may eventually make it available for a wider audience in the future.

and I would bet that “eventually” will actually be soon. Do TinyURL et al have anything to worry about?

The goo.gl does pose a few questions, some directed at Google some more general.

The first question I would like to ask is where are all these leading?  We often speak of Microsoft and its attempts to get involved in everything you do (IMO) but without anyone paying much attention, Google is penetrating many facets of our computing life either directly or indirectly.  Let me give you an example, I use Chromium, Google apps, have a google email address, been using 8.8.4.4 GoogleDNS (as a secondary) and use Google for search.  Thats alot of Google and it appears whilst I am busy advocating alternatives, Ive become “Googlified” without even noticing.  So is this a problem?

For myself and at the present time, Id say no.  There are concerns by some over privacy, thats a topic that Ive covered before but in respect of URL shortening it asks another question, is it safest with Google?  There are some great URL shortening services, these services are provided free and whilst some will be nearly household names and others won’t, whats the risk with using a URL shortening service?  Quite a lot if the service is removed and all the links in your Tweets are then broken (for example), this also makes me wonder if goo.gl are ultimately going to charge for their service.  Also consider that the URL and stats on clicks are also going to be of great worth to Google in terms of monitoring market trends (IMO) and are we really sure we know where that will lead?

Ive often said Ive been very happy with the Google services I use, but there is a saying about not putting your eggs in one basket and I can’t help thinking that maybe we should keep that in mind.   Im not suggesting for one minute to turn our back on Google, but maybe consider (just like you would with large sums of money) that there may be a benefit in “spreading yourself around”.

That being said (and slightly worryingly), if goo.gl takes away from say TinyURL and their service stops, we could have millions of links effectively worthless.  Google is afterall almost part of our vocab and goo.gl is certainly simple to remember.

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Readers yesterday will remember our article “Microsoft China steals code from Plurk?” and the question I asked at the time was who will Microsoft blame?  Well, heres what Microsoft has been reported to have said on the incident:

On Monday, December 14, questions arose over a beta application called Juku developed by a Chinese vendor for our MSN China joint venture.

Ok, so immediately we can see where this is going.  The key words here would be “developed by a Chinese vendor for our MSN…..”.

The vendor has now acknowledged that a portion of the code they provided was indeed copied.

Great and don’t tell me, Microsoft knew nothing?

When we hire an outside company to do development work, our practice is to include strong language in our contract that clearly states the company must provide work that does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. We are a company that respects intellectual property and it was never our intent to have a site that was not respectful of the work that others in the industry have done.

Really? but then this isn’t the first time we’ve had “code issues” is it Microsoft?  Are there any more 3rd parties that are going to  ”borrow” code from elsewhere (or violate the GPL)?

We will be suspending access to the Juku beta indefinitely.

Well then maybe is not all bad news then.

Later on in the statement Microsoft say:

In the wake of this incident, Microsoft and our MSN China joint venture will be taking a look at our practices around applications code provided by third-party vendors.

To which I would ask, why didn’t you do this the first time you had issues?  I have a few other points to include in the conclusions, but Microsoft statement can be found here

Plurk though don’t seem convinced they had this to say in regards to the incident:

we have a very hard time believing, given the size and scope of the undertaking, that there was no active involvement or development taking place directly within Microsoft itself on this service,

Conclusions

Please read my article yesterday and take note of my closing words:

Maybe we should run a book for the odds on who Microsoft will blame?

and when I posted the link to the article in comp.os.linux.advocacy I said:

I wonder who they will “blame” this time?   Maybe I should start a book…odds on favorite is a 3rd party.

and we all see now that I only had to wait a day for the answer.  I wish I was a betting man since I was spot on with the “odds on favorite”.

So yet again we find ourselves looking at an allegation that Microsoft has code issues (and IMO at best supervision of 3rd party issues) and yet again its a 3rd party at fault (allegedly) what I would ask is why does Microsoft appear to have lost control of its projects? (IMO).

I don’t care if they are written by a 3rd party or not, it appears to me that Microsoft really does not know what is going on and in respect of its many other schemes, programs, packages and deals, how many more issues like these are to be found?  Lets hope that the naughty 3rd parties are merely copying the code of others (or violating the GPL) and not using this apparent lack of supervision for more dubious means.

I wonder what the shareholders make of this, yet another allegation against Microsoft and yet another project suspended?

Of course it was only last month that it was reported:

Microsoft has pulled the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool from the Microsoft Store website after a report indicating that the tool incorporated open source code in a way that violated the GNU’s General Public License (GPL).

and the site Withinwindows.com said in regards to this:

…revealed the source code was obviously lifted from the CodePlex-hosted (yikes) GPLv2-licensed ImageMaster project.

You can read the original article here. Under the title “Microsoft pulls Windows 7 tool after GPL violation claims” Microsoft allegedly had this to say about this particular claim:

although it was not intentional on our part. While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process.

So another 3rd party eh? and yet again Microsoft didn’t notice?  What on earth is going on here?

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

Regular readers here will remember we mentioned Microsoft China’s innovative service of 140 char Microblogging.   In an allegation from Plurk, another established Microblogging service in China, it is claimed that Microsoft’s “latest innovation” has taken code from the Plurk project.

Watch out, code thief about? Have a look at what Plurk has to say about Microsoft's latest "innovation"

This is the second code issue in as many months with Microsoft being alleged to have infringed on the GPL with code in their software.  As usual it doesn’t take long for the “Microsoft blames” statements to arrive and in this instance it was in the form of blaming 3rd party developers for the “dodgy” code.  The question I had at the time was, if Microsoft don’t have control of their own code (in that they were not aware) what else lurks inside their products which we may not be aware of.

I digress, this article is about Microsoft and alleged using of Plurk code.  There is an interesting link to this, which can be found here and this site actually compares line by line the code of the two projects.

At the present time Microsoft has yet to comment.  Who will they blame? (if anyone).  Whilst Microsoft at present time appears to be silent, Plurk is not so:

If this was just a case of visual inspiration gone too far, we could probably have lived with it. We would have taken the time to reach out to Microsoft, get colour on the matter and try to amicably resolve it. That’s not the case here. This is something far more sinister. On closer inspection, we found that MUCH of the codebase and data structures that Microsoft’s MClub uses are identical snapshots of our code.

and you can visit the Plurk blog here.  Which also says:

We were first tipped off by high profile bloggers and Taiwanese users of our community that Microsoft had just launched a new Chinese microblogging service that looked eerily similar to Plurk. Needless to say we were absolutely shocked and outraged when we first saw with our own eyes the cosmetic similarities Microsoft’s new offering had with Plurk. From the filter tabs, emoticons, qualifier/verb placement, Karma scoring system, media support, new user walkthroughs to pretty much everything else that gives Plurk its trademark appeal, Microsoft China’s offering ripped off our service.

Maybe we should run a book for the odds on who Microsoft will blame?

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

From cloaking devices to Tweeting in Klingon, its all here in my favorite sites for this weekend!

Ive often come across many links and sites that I could not write an article on but do deserve a mention.  Where I can I try to showcase them on Twitter & Identi.ca , but often I am juggling several things at once.

With that in mind, here’s some of the sites, services and software that Ive used this weekend.

Rupom.net – Your URL shrinker – http://rupom.net/

Another free URL shrinker service which offers the shortest URL’s Ive come across in a long time.  I only found this one today as a result of an incoming visit to the site.  Worth checking out and will shortly be replacing TinyURL in my browser.  You can visit the blog of Rupom here.

Incognito 2009.0beta – http://www.browseanonymouslyanywhere.com/incognito/

A Gentoo based LiveCD using DE KDE 3.5.9 aiming to give you complete anonymity whilst surfing.  Without going into details of exactly how it manages that (if you’re interested you can visit the site) what I will say is it worked very well.  Browse, use BitTorrent sends emails, you can do so with you own IP “cloaking device”  (For a Klingon related link see last link).  Whilst the distro does indeed work very well, contain a plethora of desktop tools (such as Kword) I often wonder the reasons behind someone wanting to hide their identity so completely.

I had promised myself months ago I would look at this project and now I have I can put the matter to rest.  One observation I will make is that you should not expect as fast a browsing experience as you do now.  Due to the way that Tor “protects” your identity, I saw on my test rig (with a dedicated 8mbit connection) slow to almost a dialup crawl.  Unlucky? maybe, but it makes me pleased that I don’t feel the need to hide my IP identity when online, so I’ll pass on using it.

Linux Basement Podcast – http://linuxbasement.com/

I am ashamed to admit that I had never heard of this podcast so it was a pleasant surprise to find the content interesting, fun and accessable.  Currently in its 47th episode, whilst not a polished IMO in terms of production as Linux Outlaws, its the content thats important and in that respect it was damn good.  Check them out and give them your support!

Nitrotracker v0.4 – http://nitrotracker.tobw.net/

A soundtracker utility for the Nintendo DS that can be used with an R4 or similar.  Currently in v0.4 with apparently the source to be released very shortly, its a great little util for music generation on the DS.

Tweet in Klingon – http://tweetinklingon.com

Ok, it’s slightly old news but Ive only had the chance to look at it properly this weekend.    Visit this site, let it connect with your Twitter Account and you will be able to convert a Tweet into Klingon.  Great for StarTrek fans, a pain in the neck for those that are not.  I’ll let you decide which category you fall into.

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com