AT&T Reduces Broadband Price for Some Customers

AT&T Reduces Broadband Price for Some Customers

ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 19, 2007; Page B5

NEW YORK -- AT&T Inc. has started offering a broadband Internet service for $10 a month, cheaper than any of its advertised plans.

The DSL, or digital subscriber line, plan introduced Saturday is part of the concessions made by AT&T to the Federal Communications Commission to get its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved last December.

The $10 offer is available to customers in the 22-state AT&T service region, which includes former BellSouth areas, who have never had AT&T or BellSouth broadband, spokesman Michael Coe said. Local-phone service and a one-year contract are required; the modem is free of charge.

The plan wasn't mentioned in a Friday news release about AT&T's DSL plans and is slightly hidden on the AT&T Web site. A page describing DSL options doesn't mention it, but clicking a link for "Term contract plans" reveals it. It is also presented to customers who go into the application process, Mr. Coe said.

The service provides download speeds of up to 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, matching the speeds of the cheapest advertised AT&T plan, which costs $19.95 per month in the nine-state former BellSouth area and $14.99 in the 13 states covered by AT&T before the acquisition.

BellSouth generally had higher prices for DSL before it was acquired, and the price difference persists, though AT&T did cut the price of the cheapest advertised plan in the Southeast region by $5 from $24.95 on Saturday.

The agreement with the FCC required the company to offer the plan for at least two and a half years. Mr. Coe said he couldn't comment on future advertising plans for the offer.

The introduction of the plan was earlier reported by The Tennessean in Nashville.

The Entry-Level Dilemma

I highly recommend this book:

"The Entry-Level Dilemma by Mattew Moran

One of the most frustrating elements of breaking into a career in technology is that initial job. This chapter identifies the quandary facing the entry-level professional.

This chapter analyzes the "need experience to get experience" dilemma that those who are new to the field often encounter. More importantly, however, this chapter discusses methods you can use to break past this barrier.

For many technology graduates, the past few years have been frustrating ones, because they have tried desperately to enter a seemingly shrinking job market. They had bought into the "get a certification—get a job" promise fostered by the marketing of many training programs. These graduates had been excited that their school had placement services to assist them in entering the growing and lucrative field of information technology (IT).

Unfortunately, although some technology graduates might have found their dream job as promised, many discovered a different reality.

Having followed the promised path, these eager students have discovered that many colleges have also struggled with placement. Although the schools have programs to help with résumé, and they work diligently to link graduates with employers, the fact remains that a tighter job market and a more skeptical employer pool have made job placement a nearly impossible task.

Adding to a tighter market is the fact that more experienced technology professionals have been forced to take a cut in pay and position. This has increased the competition for entry-level positions. Sometimes new graduates are competing with senior-level technologists for the same job.

Part of the fault of unsuccessful job placement lies squarely on the shoulders of the job seeker. Unrealistic expectations have many believing that a certification or degree qualifies them for positions that require hands-on knowledge.

I know of individuals who received their MCSE certification after attending several months of class. They passed the test, did some lab work, and got into the job market. Many of them expected to be hired as network engineers with salaries of $60,000 to $80,000. Their logic was that they were, as the certification implied, "certified engineers." As they perused want ads, lesser jobs, such as those of help desk or IT clerical support, were undesirable to them.

This attitude contributed to the current wave of "certification cynicism" that many employers have adopted. Employers hired the "certified engineers" only to discover that many could not complete the most basic and mundane tasks effectively.

A correction has taken place in the corporate world. Companies are no longer willing to provide pay and opportunity to an unproven commodity—the entry-level technology professional. Many new technologists are unwilling to give up the idealistic dream of instantaneous job satisfaction and a high salary. Unfortunately, this is also leading some to listen to the doomsayers moaning about the lack of opportunity in IT. Talent that would do well in the IT industry is leaving to find opportunity elsewhere.

If you are in that group—ready to leave your hopes of IT success and find greener pastures—wait!

I understand that you are frustrated and disenchanted, but I ask that you seriously consider the corrective behavior described in the section that follows. In it, I believe you will find a rekindled hope that comes with understanding the reality of the situation.
Correcting Perception

The first battle in overcoming frustration in not finding the "job you deserve" is to correct the perception of the new technologist. As discussed earlier, IT will remain a great career choice. However, it is no different from many other good careers. You must make a degree of sacrifice to reach the heights of professional success.

A perspective that places emphasis on long-term career goals and month-to-month personal growth is critical. You must understand where you want to be in the coming months and years. You must also set about creating the short-term plans to achieve that longer-term success.

I'm not necessarily advocating a start-at-the-bottom mentality. I don't perceive that each person's path, even with similar goals, will be the same. I advocate more of a start-where-you-can mentality.

If a company is willing to hire you as a full-fledged network engineer based entirely on your schooling, more power to you. However, beware of overselling yourself without first developing the aptitude that is required. Taking a job where the expectations greatly exceed your production capacity can be just as professionally damaging as it is to take a job that never makes use of, or stretches, the talents you have. In fact, I would say the former is more damaging.

It is more difficult—both mentally and from a perception standpoint—to move down the corporate ladder. It does not look good on a r?um , and more importantly, it can damage your confidence.

IT is an industry that provides ample opportunity to learn new and challenging skills. However, substantial failure early in a career can create a professional timidity that stops you from taking the necessary chances to take on the challenges that come your way.

The perception that you need when breaking into IT is one that seeks opportunity over position. If you have been trained as a network engineer but you find an opportunity to take a position in a clerical capacity, consider what opportunities that job might offer.

Some of the factors to consider in whether to take this slight shift in employment are as follows:

*

Does the company have an effective training program?
*

Is it possible to find mentors in the field you want to enter?
*

Is the company growing?
*

Does the opportunity exist to greatly expand your professional network of contacts?

Remember: You can safely make this consideration because the job itself is not your career. You have the freedom and ability to move within the company or to a new company when needed.

The most important factor is that you are moving toward a career goal. You might not get the title or job you want right out of school. If you can master those skills at your current position, while simultaneously building your network of contacts that lead to your dream position, you should be satisfied. You must build your career piece by piece. It won't happen all at once."

Microsoft didn’t invent the personal computer

"Microsoft didn’t invent the personal computer and they didn’t invent the first PC operating system. They didn’t even invent the first MS-DOS (they bought and re-branded 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products.) Nor were they the first to use a “window-like” GUI (Xerox PARC was). What Microsoft did (and still does to this day) is innovate — take what they’ve got, and improve upon it in unique ways! This is the key to their success"

see completed article here:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5427&tag=nl.e539

Web Browser won't load images- (Explorer or firefox)

On a yahoo newsgroup web site I tried to view some pictures or images and Firefox Web Browser version 2.0 or Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 7.0 failed to download the jpeg images. As soon as I disabled Zone Alarm Pro firewall the problem was solved.

The firewall was blocking access to those images and I did not know why.

To solve the problem I just opened Zone Alarm Pro console and clicked on PRIVACY then on site LISTING menu I selected MSN.com and allowed PRIVATE HEADER. When I reloaded the page on both web browsers then the images were visible.

Windows Vista DVD: Who Are Those People In That Picture?

Windows Vista DVD: Who Are Those People In That Picture?

Windows Vista Virtual Easter Egg:

Kwisatz has discovered a picture of three guys on the Windows Vista DVD cover. Who are they? What's the purpose? Does Bill Gates know about it?

I guess it's just a prank, but by whom?

He has taken the photos with a Nikon 5700 (click on images to enlarge):
He also says there are three more holographic pictures on the cover, but he hasn't been able to figure out what's depicted in them.

Do you have a Vista DVD and a microscope?

Head over to the Kwisatz site (spanish language) for more photos.

Update: Paul McNamara over at NetworkWorld sent a mail to the Microsoft PR agency to ask about their identity. The PR agency: "No comment".

Update: I see some people are suggesting the hologram could be an anti-piracy measure. But, then again, the pictures are on the cover, not on the DVD itself.

.

Labels: entertainment, informatics, picture, technology

In Linux is difficult and almost an undaunting task the configuration of a wireless network. But the good news is that a direct connection to a DSL AT & T modem works like a champ using a distro such as Ubuntu or Red Hat. Other than that: Linux is faster than Windows and more flexible and intuitive. If you are too attached still to windows and wants something that looks similar to Linux try Lindows now called Linspire, but bear in mind that this bistro is not free.

The Linux support forums are outstanding and best of all free of charge And by the way you don't spend too much time in linux seeking for viruses and spyware.


[b]Multitasking makes it possible for a single user to run multiple applications at the same time.[/b]

Linux reminds me a lot of the old 0S/2 and Amiga Preemptive multitasking/time-sharing capabilities. With Windows in the other hand for example and with the slow loading of an application such as MS word it seems like it takes "forever" to show up. In Unix/ Linux this is the opposite, with hardly any waiting period.

To explain it better: Linux/Unix operating system is designed as preemptive multitasking giving better results as far as system responsiveness and scalability. Although in many of the official "status quo" definitions Windows falls into this also preemptive multitasking category and MS techies would affirm cathegorally that I'm wrong by me saying otherwise or that Windows' approach is based more on the concept of cooperative multitasking (a process which explicitly yield to other processes) instead. But based in the actual Windows XP poor performance and -in this context- I still think Windows behaves more like a cooperative multitasking system and it is not in essence a true multitasking operating system, because Windows is really multi-threading and not multitasking. And my conclusion is based on what I have seen and not by what Microsoft claims to be. I do not think Windows is truly multi-tasking, but appears to be imitating multitasking based on its kernel, just like appears to imitate Apple superior operating system since MS released Windows 95 is been trying constantly to be number one. MS is disappointing users and this has been proven recently with the hurdles and flaws exhibited by its latest incarnation of Windows Vista.

Please, don't believe what I say and just give Apple a chance and for now you could even try Linux for free. As a matter of fact Mac OS architecture is derived from Unix. :)

If you don't have enough money for a Laptop give consideration to a Desktop. I think Mac-Mini is a good option for beginners. http://www.apple.com/macmini/

Dr-DOS

This story appeared on Network World at
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2002/1216drdos.html

Start-up revives once-vaunted DR-DOS

By Deni Connor, Network World, 12/16/02

LINDON, UTAH - A start-up is looking to dust off and buff up DR-DOS, a largely dormant operating system that still attracts a hardcore following but is best-known for a colorful past that some see checkered with missed opportunity.

DeviceLogics, a company co-founded last month by Bryan Sparks, former CEO and founder of Linux vendors' Lineo (now Embedix) and Caldera Systems (now SCO Group), has bought DR-DOS, which once competed against Microsoft's MS-DOS.

DeviceLogics purchased DR-DOS from Lineo, where it underwent minor functional development during the past few years. The start-up will develop a compact operating system - for kiosks, automated teller machines, point-of-sale devices, handheld computers and desktop PCs running legacy DOS applications. Observers say the operating system, which is expected to ship in the first quarter of next year, could be more efficient and less expensive than Windows XP Embedded, Windows CE or Linux.
Interest level high

"There are still a lot of people running DR-DOS on single PCs," says Troy Tribe, vice president of sales and marketing at DeviceLogics. "We are going to revise DR-DOS for the desktop, as well as provide a kiosk, embedded, point-of-sale and a handheld version. People are now having to do that work on their own."

Digital Research developed DR-DOS, a 32-bit operating system, in 1987 as a fully compatible alternative to MS-DOS for 80286- and 80386-based PCs. It succeeded creator Gary Kildall's Control Program for Microcomputers (CP/M). The most popular legend told is that Kildall, the CEO of Intergalactic Digital Research (later shortened to Digital Research), was piloting his plane the day IBM approached the company about licensing CP/M for its first microcomputer - instead, IBM signed Microsoft's MS-DOS.

In 1991, Novell acquired Digital Research, DR-DOS and CP/M, with plans to compete against MS-DOS in the DOS market. When Novell CEO Ray Noorda failed to capitalize on the plan to take over the DOS market, Novell sold DR-DOS to Caldera in 1996. Caldera, which Sparks founded with Noorda's assistance, then sued Microsoft for lost sales and unfair competition and settled out of court for an unspecified amount.
Simple development

Analysts say embedded DOS is important in that the development environment is simplified because the code is compact and the devices that use it often do not require a keyboard, mouse or more-complicated Windows-like display.

"It would probably be much smaller [than XP Embedded], take less machine resources, and because it is inherently simpler, some tasks would run faster," says Dan Kuznetsky, research director at IDC. "DOS runs very well in a small system by today's standards."
Challenges ahead

However, Kuznetsky says getting an embedded operating system such as DR-DOS accepted would not be without challenges.

"It would not necessarily have the same security or development tools that are up to today's standards; that would be a challenge," he says.

DeviceLogics says it will introduce a software developer kit in the first half of next year.

Users within IT organizations have mixed opinions about using DOS.

"We do have DOS applications running on legacy dedicated hardware that's sitting on real-time control systems, which simulate the hardware they are controlling," says Peter DaSilva, consulting engineer at ABB, a power and automation technology company in Houston. "We don't have any anticipation of upgrading them - ever."

Others say having a command-line operating system available such as DOS is still the most direct way to troubleshoot a system.

"DOS is still the best way to run recovery programs, low-level disk utilities, removal of computer viruses, the flashing of the system BIOS and diagnostics," says Jeff Johnson, an IT consultant in Boca Raton, Fla.

Johnson says that if DeviceLogics added features to DR-DOS that eliminated the need for commonly used utilities such as 4DOS and the Quarterdeck Expanded Memory Manager, while maintaining a small conventional memory footprint and compatibility, it would increase the chances of use by end users, PC hobbyists and developers.

DR-DOS will compete against a variety of other DOS implementations, including DataLight's ROM-DOS, Paragon Software's PTS DOS 2000 Pro and IBM's PC DOS for Embedded Devices. In addition, an open source version of FreeDOS is available.

Click to see:
PROFILE: DEVICELOGICS
Location: Salt Lake City
Founded: November 2002
Product name: DR-DOS
Product type: Embedded operating system
Ship date: First quarter 2003
Founders: Bryan Sparks, CEO; Troy Tribe, vice president of sales and marketing; Bryce Burns, vice president of operations.
Funding: Self-funded
Fast fact: Sparks’ Caldera started the first of two antitrust trials against Microsoft.


All contents copyright 1995-2007 Network World, Inc. http://www.networkworld.com


There is an open source of Dr DOS

at http://www.drdosprojects.de/index.cgi/news.htm

FlyakiteOSX

Wishing the coolest operating system on earth? Do you dream about having a look alike Apple operating system in your windows XP 2003 without loosing Windows?

Here is the answer:

http://osx.portraitofakite.com/

Boot Camp 1.2 supports Windows Vista

March 28, 2007
Boot Camp 1.2 supports Windows Vista

So much for that silly story going around last week that Leopard, the next version of the Mac OS X, was going to be delayed until October so its Boot Camp feature -- which lets Intel-based Macs dual-boot with Windows -- could support Windows Vista.

Apple has just released Boot Camp 1.2 -- and it supports Vista now.

Don't everyone rush to the servers at once . . .

Here's what's new in 1.2:

* Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
* Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera
* Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)
* A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions
* Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
* Improved Windows driver installation experience
* Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows
* Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)

Apple TV = hacked

Apple TV = hacked by ZDNet's Jason D. O'Grady -- The first day after Apple TV began shipping a bunch of sharp-as-a-tack coder types hacked Apple's new set top box to shreds.

The first day after Apple TV began shipping a bunch of sharp-as-a-tack coder types hacked Apple's new set top box to shreds:

Non-Apple TV owners can enjoy the out of box experience by viewing the opening video which one crafty person ripped from the hard drive and posted in all of it's 720p glory. You can also download the Quartz Composer Screen Saver and the Now Playing Screen. And if you're truly hard-core you can download the entire Apple TV OS, and (conceivably) install it on another Mac.

But this is just scratching the Apple TV surface.

True hackers will want to immediately take it apart (photos) and upgrade the wimpy 40GB HDD to 80 or 120GB - it's a standard 2.5-inch notebook mechanism (another HDD upgrade tutorial is here).

If you really want to hack it to the next level you can play Xvid movies on Apple TV, but it ain't pretty and involves removing the HDD (covered above) and un-breaking SSH (using Perian and DropBear) so you can access the Apple TV remotely.

If that's too much hassle for you there's a solution to automatically convert Xvid, Divx, WMV files to Apple TV format, and then import them into iTunes with a convenient Automator workflow.

You can even turn a Mac mini into an Apple TV or an Apple TV into a Web server (by installing Apache).

Keep up with even more Apple TV hacks at AppleTVHacks.net.

Travel back in Time

You Can't Travel Back in Time, Scientists Say

Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer
Fri Mar 9, 8:10 AM ET

The urge to hug a departed loved one again or prevent atrocities are among the compelling reasons that keep the notion of time travel alive in the minds of many.

While the idea makes for great fiction, some scientists now say traveling to the past is impossible.

There are a handful of scenarios that theorists have suggested for how one might travel to the past, said Brian Greene, author of the bestseller, “The Elegant Universe” and a physicist at Columbia University.“And almost all of them, if you look at them closely, brush up right at the edge of physics as we understand it. Most of us think that almost all of them can be ruled out.”
Vote for Your Favorite Time Travel Tale

The fourth dimension

In physics, time is described as a dimension much like length, width, and height. When you travel from your house to the grocery store, you’re traveling through a direction in space, making headway in all the spatial dimensions—length, width and height. But you’re also traveling forward in time, the fourth dimension.

“Space and time are tangled together in a sort of a four-dimensional fabric called space-time,” said Charles Liu, an astrophysicist with the City University of New York, College of Staten Island and co-author of the book “One Universe: At Home In The Cosmos.”

Space-time, Liu explains, can be thought of as a piece of spandex with four dimensions. “When something that has mass—you and I, an object, a planet, or any star—sits in that piece of four-dimensional spandex, it causes it to create a dimple,” he said. “That dimple is a manifestation of space-time bending to accommodate this mass.”

The bending of space-time causes objects to move on a curved path and that curvature of space is what we know as gravity.

Mathematically one can go backwards or forwards in the three spatial dimensions. But time doesn’t share this multi-directional freedom.

“In this four-dimensional space-time, you’re only able to move forward in time,” Liu told LiveScience.
Video: Can You Time Travel?

Tunneling to the past

A handful of proposals exist for time travel. The most developed of these approaches involves a wormhole—a hypothetical tunnel connecting two regions of space-time. The regions bridged could be two completely different universes or two parts of one universe. Matter can travel through either mouth of the wormhole to reach a destination on the other side.

“Wormholes are the future, wormholes are the past,” said Michio Kaku, author of “Hyperspace” and “Parallel Worlds” and a physicist at the City University of New York. “But we have to be very careful. The gasoline necessary to energize a time machine is far beyond anything that we can assemble with today’s technology.”

To punch a hole into the fabric of space-time, Kaku explained, would require the energy of a star or negative energy, an exotic entity with an energy of less than nothing.

Greene, an expert on string theory—which views matter in a minimum of 10 dimensions and tries to bridge the gap between particle physics and nature's fundamental forces, questioned this scenario.

“Many people who study the subject doubt that that approach has any chance of working,” Greene said in an interview . “But the basic idea if you’re very, very optimistic is that if you fiddle with the wormhole openings, you can make it not only a shortcut from a point in space to another point in space, but a shortcut from one moment in time to another moment in time.”
Video: How to Time Travel!

Cosmic strings

Another popular theory for potential time travelers involves something called cosmic strings—narrow tubes of energy stretched across the entire length of the ever-expanding universe. These skinny regions, leftover from the early cosmos, are predicted to contain huge amounts of mass and therefore could warp the space-time around them.

Cosmic strings are either infinite or they’re in loops, with no ends, said J. Richard Gott, author of “Time Travel in Einstein's Universe” and an astrophysicist at Princeton University. “So they are either like spaghetti or SpaghettiO’s.”

The approach of two such strings parallel to each other, said Gott, will bend space-time so vigorously and in such a particular configuration that might make time travel possible, in theory.

“This is a project that a super civilization might attempt,” Gott told LiveScience. “It’s far beyond what we can do. We’re a civilization that’s not even controlling the energy resources of our planet.”

Impossible, for now

Mathematically, you can certainly say something is traveling to the past, Liu said. “But it is not possible for you and me to travel backward in time,” he said.

However, some scientists believe that traveling to the past is, in fact, theoretically possible, though impractical.

Maybe if there were a theory of everything, one could solve all of Einstein’s equations through a wormhole, and see whether time travel is really possible, Kaku said. “But that would require a technology far more advanced than anything we can muster," he said. "Don’t expect any young inventor to announce tomorrow in a press release that he or she has invented a time machine in their basement.”

For now, the only definitive part of travel in the fourth dimension is that we’re stepping further into the future with each passing moment. So for those hoping to see Earth a million years from now, scientists have good news.

“If you want to know what the Earth is like one million years from now, I’ll tell you how to do that,” said Greene, a consultant for “Déjà Vu,” a recent movie that dealt with time travel. “Build a spaceship. Go near the speed of light for a length of time—that I could calculate. Come back to Earth, and when you step out of your ship you will have aged perhaps one year while the Earth would have aged one million years. You would have traveled to Earth’s future.”

More about Time Travel
Vote for Your Favorite Time Travel Tale Video: Is Time Travel Possible? Video: How to Time Travel!

Related News
Black Hole Puts Dent In Space-time Getting There: Research Warps into Hyperdrive Earth Warps Space-Time, Too Original Story: You Can't Travel Back in Time, Scientists Say

Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!

Vista's pretty, but it's a shameless Mac OS X imitator

Posted on Mon, Jan. 29, 2007
Vista's pretty, but it's a shameless Mac OS X imitator

JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA

I praise Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system, and I also curse it.

Vista certainly is pretty. PC users long used to the dowdy Windows XP will do a double take at Vista's translucent images and groovy 3D effects. Vista also is crammed with powerful, useful new features, like lightning-fast file searching, photo organizing and movie-DVD burning.

But after waiting five years — as in half a decade — for this thing, I think I should get something revolutionary, a PC operating system so astonishing it makes the competition look laughably primitive. The almighty Microsoft made this, right? So Vista — being released to consumers Tuesday — has to be jaw-droppingly superior, right?

Well, it's not. Vista hardly rocked my world during weeks of testing. It's a fine Windows upgrade, but it's also a shameless rip-off (and not quite the equal) of another major operating system, Apple Computer's Mac OS X.

That begs the question: Why not just use OS X?

Those upgrading from XP likely will have to get a new computer anyway because Vista doesn't work properly on most older PCs. (See my recent column, "Take your time buying that new computer," for details on this.) So, instead of purchasing a Windows PC, they could — and typically should — get an Apple Macintosh computer running OS X.

Apple is about to release an OS X upgrade, nicknamed "Leopard," that will make Vista look archaic in some ways. But Vista does retain the upper hand in certain respects. Here's how the operating systems compare in essential categories:

Appearance. Vista looks amazing. Its windows cast subtle shadows and sport translucent borders, for instance.

But OS X has had eye candy like this for years. Oh, Microsoft throws in a few enhancements. Users can adjust the border translucency, for instance. But Vista is still only an OS X clone — and a slightly inferior-looking one, at that.

Finding stuff. With so many documents, pictures, video clips, e-mails and the like on today's computers, search is an essential feature. Thank goodness Vista is vastly superior to its XP predecessor in this way. Click the Start button and type your search queries into the window that appears just above. Presto! Your results appear in seconds.

Hmm, does this sound familiar, OS X users? That's right, the Spotlight search engine does the same thing.

Vista helps you keep track of stuff in other ways. If you start getting confused by all the windows that are open on the desktop, click Windows-Tab. Ta-da! Windows tilt slightly and group themselves together in an easy-to-skim Flip 3-D arrangement. That's handy but hardly new. The Exposé feature in OS X does pretty much the same thing.

You also can create intelligent Search Folders that automatically fill with data based on criteria you set. Cool, just like the Smart Folders in OS X.

More secure. Windows XP is notorious for its gaping security holes, which Microsoft has scrambled to plug in Vista. Whether it has succeeded remains to be seen — hordes of cybervillains will do their darnedest to compromise this version of the market-dominant Windows, as well.

Vista's safeguards do seem impressive, though. You can't install anything on a Vista PC without clicking through confirmation windows, for instance. Seem reasonable? Sure it does — OS X has boasted this feature for years.

Wid(gad)gets. So-called "widgets" or "gadgets" are everywhere. The miniapplications show weather forecasts, track packages and much, much more. And everyone from the Yahoo and Google search engines and the Opera browser maker to the TypePad and WordPress blogging services offer their own variations.

So do Windows Vista and OS X. Microsoft's gadgets could be called rip-offs of Apple's widgets. But, to be fair, OS X widgets are rip-offs of Konfabulator, a pioneering widget technology now part of Yahoo and dubbed Yahoo Widgets.

A boob tube. By now, you'd surely assume that I'd recommend avoiding Windows PCs like the plague. Far from it. Budget permitting, I'd own both a Mac and a Vista PC — the latter largely because of its "Media Center" capabilities.

These allow PCs with integrated TV tuners to work as TiVo-like digital-video recorders once connected to cable-TV feeds. I've used a Dell desktop PC with Vista for weeks to record "Heroes," "Jericho," "Smallville" and "Battlestar Galactica," and I'm thrilled at how well this works. While Media Center isn't new (XP versions have been available for years), it has been improved and polished in Vista.

Nothing on the Mac quite compares. You can't get Macs with integrated TV tuners, and TiVo-style features are available only via add-on hardware and software that are inferior to Vista's elegant, built-in Media Center features.

But beware: Microsoft's close ties with entertainment companies are painfully evident in some ways. You won't be allowed to burn certain Media Center recordings (such as PBS' "Prime Suspect") onto blank DVD discs, for instance.

Bonusware. Microsoft has bundled an assortment of useful programs with Vista, which means you won't have as urgent a need to invest in additional software.

Windows Photo Gallery has nice tagging and rating features, for instance. Windows DVD Maker (a companion to the old, scarcely improved Windows Movie Maker) is handy for burning family videos onto blank discs that are playable in any home DVD player.

But these programs are no match for what is available on any new Mac. Every Apple machine has iLife, a suite of interlocking programs for editing video, burning DVDs, organizing photos, composing music and even creating slick Web sites. These make Vista's offerings look insanely inadequate. New PCs do often include extra programs from third parties for enhanced capabilities, but a software hodgepodge doesn't have iLife's tight integration.

Vista also bundles in Windows Calendar, Mail and Contacts, which are rough equivalents of iCal, Apple Mail and Address Book on Macs.

What's next? Apple this spring will release OS X version 10.5 with advanced features that will leapfrog the just-released Vista.

While the new Windows has rudimentary data-backup capabilities, for instance, Leopard will include something called Time Machine that will transparently replicate data on a backup drive and allow for point-and-click retrieval of existing files (and even old versions of those files).

It's also important to note that Apple has offered OS X upgrades at roughly yearly intervals during the half-decade that Microsoft has labored on Vista. Apple is an innovation engine; Microsoft, not so much.

Bottom line. Get a Mac with OS X unless your home-computer needs are Windows-specific, or if the fine Media Center is a must for you. You likely won't regret a Vista-PC purchase, but I'm betting you'll enjoy a Mac much more.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata covers consumer technology. Reach him at jojeda@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5467. Get more personal tech at yourtechweblog.com and twincities.com.

MORE INFORMATION

• Windows Vista www.microsoft.com/windowsvista

• Apple Mac OS X www.apple.com/macosx




© 2007 St. Paul Pioneer Press and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

Microsoft supports Novell's Linux Platform

My comments: MS seeks to use their code for their own benefit, Ms also see the threat and superiority of Linux, period!

Microsoft Backs Novell's Linux Platform

November 03, 2006 8:54 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO - Microsoft Corp. has embraced Novell Inc.'s open-source software platform, forming a technological truce between two longtime antagonists who want to make it easier for the still-dominant Windows operating system and the increasingly popular Linux system to work together.

The agreement announced Thursday between the world's largest seller of patent-protected software and a leader in the open-source software movement has potentially important business, technical and legal implications.

"This builds a very important intellectual-property bridge between the open source and proprietary sides of software," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said shortly before the companies formally announced their alliance in San Francisco.

Financial terms of the arrangement weren't disclosed.

The alliance is primarily aimed at the growing number of major companies and government agencies that rely on elements of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft's Windows and Linux to run their computers.

"It all comes down to recognizing there is a mixed environment out there," Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said during a Thursday press conference.

The partnership's impact on consumers appears to be inconsequential except for a commitment to improve the interaction between Microsoft's top-selling suite of Office software and a free alternative known as OpenOffice.

Microsoft's stamp of approval, extracted after six months of negotiations, represents a coup for Waltham, Mass-based Novell as it touts the advantage of its version of Linux over other varieties made by competitors such as Red Hat Inc.

After news of the deal leaked, Novell's shares shot up 92 cents, or 15.7 percent, to close Thursday at $6.79 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where Microsoft's shares dipped 4 cents to finish at $28.77.

Under the partnership, Microsoft's sales team will offer its corporate customers a chance to license its Windows operating system as part of a package offering maintenance and support for Novell's Suse Linux platform.

Novell primarily relies on the fees for customer support to make money off the Linux software, which is developed by a global community of programmers who aren't tied to any single company and freely share improvements to the code.

Ballmer stressed that Microsoft will first try to convince corporate customers to use Windows exclusively before relenting to the notion of a hybrid system using Suse Linux.

To encourage more companies to embrace Novell's open-source platform, Microsoft has pledged not to assert its patent rights over any of its technology that may be blended with Suse Linux.

The concession is meant to address the concerns of many corporate users who have been reluctant to use Linux because they feared Microsoft might retaliate with patent-infringement claims.

"This is a big day for Microsoft customers," said Stuart Cohen, chief executive officer of the Open Source Development Labs, a Beaverton, Ore. group trying to expand corporate America's reliance on Linux. "They are being told by Microsoft that they can use Linux and not worry about it. That's a big statement."

Microsoft's patent waiver only applies to users of the Suse Linux platform.

The new partners have a stormy history.

In 2004, Novell reached a $536 million settlement with Microsoft over antitrust complaints in Europe and then sued its rival again in the United States. The U.S. suit alleged that Microsoft withheld technical information about Windows that Novell needed for its word processing program. Novell has since sold WordPerfect, but its antitrust claim remains alive.

Microsoft's decision to work with Novell reflects the increasingly important role of Linux's open-source software in corporate computing systems. About 20 percent of corporate America relies on some form of Linux, Cohen estimated.

Because it's available for free, Linux software long has been has been a source of consternation for Microsoft, which makes most of its money from the sale of its proprietary software.

"I have had a lot of conversations with (Ballmer), and I can assure you he wasn't usually smiling when we were talking about Linux," said Shane Robison, chief strategy and technology officer for Hewlett-Packard Co.

But Microsoft has been under increasing pressure to loosen up, and not just from customers who want to be able to run Linux with Windows.

Online search leader Google Inc. also is giving away more Web-based software, including word processing and spreadsheet programs, and last year promised to work with Sun Microsystems Inc. to help distribute OpenOffice.

Just last week, Oracle Corp. provided the Linux system with another major lift by offering steep discounts on product support of the Linux platform provided by Red Hat Inc.

Microsoft's backing of Novell's Linux platform may raise even more worries for Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat, whose stock price has dropped by 17 percent since Oracle launched its assault.

Microsoft Partners Fuming Over Vista

Microsoft Partners Fuming Over Vista
By JORDAN ROBERTSON (AP Business Writer)
From Associated Press
October 20, 2006 11:59 AM EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Microsoft Corp. is no stranger to antitrust skirmishes and complaints from competitors about unfair business practices.

But the latest fight over its upcoming Vista operating system pits Microsoft against an unlikely adversary: the security software vendors who are some of its most intimate partners in protecting its notoriously vulnerable systems from attacks.

As Vista's planned release nears, the company is facing a backlash from such vendors as Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc., which argue that even the concessions Microsoft recently made to appease European antitrust regulators won't do enough to help them best protect their customers.

"We've been talking to them for over two years on this issue," said Rowan Trollope, Symantec's vice president for consumer engineering. "And now (with) basically a very short amount of time before the operating system comes out, we're not in a good position to provide that security to our customers."

Ultimately, consumers will decide whether Microsoft's own security measures are adequate to combat increasingly sophisticated Internet threats and keep personal data safe from hackers and online criminals.

But the showdown also marks an important turning point in how computer users buy security software.

Microsoft now competes directly with Cupertino-based Symantec and Santa Clara-based McAfee with its own product, called OneCare, posing a substantial threat to vendors who have been vital to protecting generations of Microsoft operating systems.

European antitrust regulators have warned Microsoft not to shut out rivals in security software and other markets, and the European Union so far has fined the Redmond, Wash., company $970 million over the current flavor of Windows.

To quell EU concerns about Vista, Microsoft pledged to make key changes, but the vendors remain unsatisfied and have threatened antitrust lawsuits. McAfee issued a statement Thursday complaining of the company's failure to live up to "hollow assurances."

Industry analysts said Microsoft's new dual role could inadvertently make the operating system more vulnerable.

"Microsoft's priority should be simple: Fortify the operating system, make it secure, make it as impenetrable as possible, but work with the third parties," said Joe Wilcox, a senior analyst with Jupiter Research.

Vista will be Microsoft's first major upgrade to its flagship operating system since Windows XP's release in 2001. The company touts Vista's sleeker looks, improved search capabilities and simplified organization as key upgrades over previous systems.

But several key security changes prompted Symantec and McAfee officials to launch withering public attacks in recent weeks.

Executives accused Microsoft of unfairly promoting its own security software with a dashboard that couldn't be disabled by vendors. The company pledged technological information to turn off the feature, designed to help customers easily see what protections are switched on.

Vendors also howled over an icon on the welcome screen linking to Microsoft security products. Microsoft refused to remove the link but has vowed to link to other security companies.

The biggest - and currently unresolved - fight hinges on vendors' claims they have been locked out of access to the core, or kernel, of higher-end, 64-bit versions of Vista.

A new feature called PatchGuard is meant to protect the most sensitive information in the guts of the system. While blocking out hackers, PatchGuard also keeps out security vendors that have traditionally been allowed inside to retrieve necessary information.

Vendors said their products will thus lack advanced security features for 64-bit users (The 32-bit version that consumers are likely to get does not include PatchGuard and thus offers access to the disputed data).

Microsoft said the methods previously used were undocumented and unsupported and left the system less secure and less stable. Customers, the company said, demand better security.

The company has agreed to permit limited kernel access, but will not provide a "blanket exception" or turn off the feature entirely, said Stephen Toulouse, a senior program manager in Microsoft's Security Technology Unit.

"We did look at that, but we got consistent feedback that that wouldn't be a good option for the customer," he said. "We want to make clear that we will work with those vendors. It will take some time, but we're committed to making that happen."

Microsoft held online briefings with security vendors on Thursday to address their concerns, though technical difficulties booted some vendors out.

Security vendors said their engineers are going to have to scramble to update their software once the technical tools they need become available, which could be months away.

Vista begins shipping to computer manufacturers and larger businesses next month. Consumers should be able to buy the new operating system in January.

"We're turning blue holding our breath waiting for something to happen," McAfee chief scientist George Heron said in an interview. "And frankly so are the users. This is the 11th hour. Now is not the time to crack open the designs."

In the meantime, third-party vendors said their products will work but won't have maximum protection. Microsoft said its products will adhere to the same rules and won't have an unfair advantage.

Security experts said it's unclear whether Microsoft's stance on protecting the kernel will make Windows more secure, though it will likely challenge hackers to try to crack it.

"No matter how secure any operating system is, if it has been built by man, it can be broken by man," said Ken Dunham, director of the rapid response team at VeriSign Inc.'s iDefense Intelligence. "While it might be a major improvement, there is no silver bullet."

Vendors said customers are likely to agree.

"It's a little bit like the fox guarding the hen house," Symantec's Trollope said. "If Microsoft can control the ways that companies can innovate, if they can control the dialogue of security with the customer, you end up with a security monoculture. And that's unacceptable."

ZoneAlarm glitches hit Eudora, McAfee users

ZoneAlarm glitches hit Eudora, McAfee users
By Joris Evers, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: June 20, 2006, 5:09 PM PT


Zone Labs has fixed a bug in a recent upgrade to its security software that is causing trouble for some Eudora and McAfee users.

The problems relate to ZoneAlarm 6.5 products released last week, the company said Tuesday. One glitch means the software won't install alongside McAfee antivirus products, while another interferes with date and time stamps in Qualcomm's Eudora e-mail client. Users had complained about the issues in Zone Labs' forums, a representative for the San Francisco-based security software maker said

All English-language versions of the products are affected. Zone Labs, part of Check Point Software Technologies, on Tuesday released software updates for all its ZoneAlarm products to address the problems.

"The update is live on the Web site," the Zone Labs representative said. "It will also be pushed out to existing customers--if they have automatic updates--in a rolling release schedule."

The conflict with the McAfee software was caused by a security feature in the ZoneAlarm products, the representative said. Installation is halted by a protection mechanism that kicks in when a known incompatibility exists between ZoneAlarm and another software program. "In this case, this was in error, as no incompatibility exists," the Zone Labs representative said.

People who don't have automatic updates can download the latest version of ZoneAlarm products from Zone Labs' Web site. The 6.5 versions includes some innovative features, including some that promise to help protect people against identity fraud on the Internet as well as offline.

JOB Mislead! - How do you handle it?

Mislead! - How do you handle it?
Posted: 25 Jan 2006 09:46 PM
OK - we all may not have the perfect job. But I took a position a year ago after being out of work for a while due to an acquisition with my previous company. After being on the job for about 3 months, it was obvious I had been mislead. Nothing I am doing is remotely related to the job description. I have been told that "due to the politics of the situation, you'll be doing something different." I can't stand my boss, but there are other opportunities within the company.

SO...how do you go about networking for another opportunity? I'll eventually have to tell my current boss if I post for an internal position, but I worry about retaliation. Or should I just bail out since they mislead me in the first place? Please help! I'm so confused...
JA



Re: Mislead! - How do you handle it?
Posted: 26 Jan 2006 06:24 AM
If your manager told you about the political situation, has something changed to now make you acceptable for the job you wanted? Or would this be for yet another job in the same company?

If there have been some changes, it might be ok to ask about the "better fit" job opportunities given the fact you were originally hired to do job X and instead was put into job Y due to politics.
ma



Re: Mislead! - How do you handle it?
Posted: 29 Jan 2006 12:34 PM
Wow, I can sure relate to your dilemma. As sad as it is, politics seem to rule over most situations within companies. Seeing that you can't stand your boss you may run into a problem posting for an internal position, especially if your boss was the one that told you "due to the politics of the situation, you'll be doing something different." If your boss is the one you sense retaliation from, you could be setting yourself up for some turbulent times with the company.

If your willing and emotionally able to go head-to-head relating to the politics influencing the statement that was made to you, than fasten your seat belt and prepare for the ride! As with any decision there's consequences though. Take some time and think about the possible outcomes if you choose to stay with the company. You can always do nothing, coast until you find a better job offering a better fit with a different company?

Good luck
L



Re: Mislead! - How do you handle it?
Posted: 14 Feb 2006 10:20 AM
Oh Boy, This could be a hard one. however, if you approach your boss and say "I have applied for a position within the company that I originally applied for last year, and I don't want any hard feelings if I get the position. YOU BETTER BUTTER HER/HIM UP. I quit a job last June/05 gave a 2 week notice, WITHOUT ANOTHER JOB. I have never done this in my life. BUT I was harrassed for over a year and she got what she wanted, to force me out by making my day to day functions completely unable to do. 25 years in mortgage banking and I am asked to do the most stupid things that I have Never heard of nor ever been asked to do within my career. She is a bad manager and a very bad person. HR got involved, but they believed her. I hear they are now "Watching her" because 7 people left after me, and they have been numerous complaints about her, but......SHE STILL HAS HER JOB!, My question to you is, Could she give you a bad reference? Is she in that position? She/He is NOT suppose to, but my ex-manager gave an employee a bad rap for her to relocate back to Buffalo, NY because she moved to Virginia within the company to be trained as a processor only to end up being her secretary. The employee ALMOST did not get her transfer back to buffalo. I heard she is sueing. Just find out who knows who in the upper office management.

AND, one more thing. KEEP A DAILY DIARY OF EVERYTHING, WHAT TIME YOU GET INTO WORK, YOUR BOSS GET'S INTO WORK, COPY EMAILS, DATE AND TIME AND WRITE DOWN CONVERSATIONS YOU HAVE THAT ARE ALL NEGATIVE. This of course is only to CYA, if it hits the fan with your boss.

Good Luck to you but get out soon, if it's within the company or with another firm. Life is too short to work with a boss you can not get along with.
r



Re: Mislead! - How do you handle it?
Posted: 14 Feb 2006 10:20 AM
Unfortunately, I too have been in your shoes. When you are in a bad situation, it is best to get out. The fact that your boss is NOT treating you well is unacceptable and likely to get worse, not better. (Lying to you about the position is a HUGE red flag and I'll bet this boss's turnover is high. As for other jobs within the company, it sounds like this is company policy - since they are allowing this to happen)

You should strongly consider leaving. Even if you don't have a job, it is better than getting fired.

Networking is the key. 90% of all jobs are found through networking. I strongly recommend you join Execunet (www.execunet.com). They have an awesome network, monthly breakfasts, excellent webinars and an awesome library of job seeking advice. You have to get out and pound the pavement through direct people contact and use only 10% of your time with the internet answering ads. When you were unemployed for a year, did you have 6 to 10 phone or meetings a day?

The good news is: I have heard from the headhunters that the job market is really picking up. Good luck! You WILL find a healthier, happier position.
l
Total Posts: 1


Exercise your political alliance
Posted: 14 Feb 2006 10:20 AM
Dear Misled,

I found your post very interesting since I too am finding that many of my interviews do not come close to the position advertised. I found myself working for a highly political insurance company when I was 24. I was ill-equipped to handle the situation in the best possible manner. I recently finished an MBA course on interpersonal skills and.....politicking in the workplace. A book I is excellent in helping me deal with political situations is "The Secret Handshake".

If you trust your manager, maybe you could form your own alliance with this person. Teaming up can help protect both of you in a political environment. Build trust and be honest with one another is a good start. Express exactly what you want and see what the manager has to say about it. Being a great political ally doesn't mean you have to have a high position. Had I known better techniques of handling situations like this, I would probably have been better off and equipped to hold my own.

Hope this helps.
r
Total Posts: 4


Re: Mislead! - How do you handle it?
Posted: 14 Feb 2006 12:57 PM
I would like to add 4 great books about networking. As far as I am concerned, networking is a great life skill and not just a job skill which should be taught in school!

"Never Eat Along" by Keith Ferrazzi
"Make Your Contacts Count" by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon
"High Impact Telephone Networking for Job Hunters - who to call, what to say, how to project a positive image and how to turn contacts into job offers" by Howard Armstrong
"Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty" by Harvey Mackay

I also highly recommend the books on the Five O'Clock web site which are aimed at helping you identify your strengths, weaknesses and get an actually job hunting accountability program going.

Lastly, have you thought about getting your next job offer in writing? A very smart attorney once told me that "if they are truly serious, they won't mind putting their offer in writing". Good Luck!

D
Total Posts: 1


Re: Exercise your political alliance
Posted: 14 Feb 2006 12:57 PM
There should be a red flag raised to the forming of an alliance here. If in fact the person (boss) is all you say and this will all surface eventually--you could be seen as an ally and done in along with the boss when all is finally revealed. Baloney, lies, and other negatives only last so long and then when it hits the fan you don't want to be seen as an ally or you could be dumped along with the person that so deserves to have it happen it to them. The higher and riskier road is to bail out. Then one may also say that the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. Difficult decision for sure and you are not to be envied for it. Good luck. You could of course start to look now for other possibilities and cover yourself while biting your tongue to spite your face in your present situation.

GRATIS! Web based Word Processor for windows or Mac

ajaxWrite is a web-based word processor that can read and write Microsoft Word and other standard document formats. Anytime you need to open, read or write a word processor file, simply point your Firefox browser to www.ajaxwrite.com and in seconds a full-featured program will be available for you to open, edit, print and save.

ajaxWrite has been designed to look like Microsoft Word, making it easy for anyone to start using it without needing to learn a new program. ajaxWrite also handles all the popular document formats so it's easy to share your files and collaborate with your co-workers and friends. Once finished with your document, you can easily save your work right to your hard drive. This keeps you organized and works in the same way that you're already accustomed to.

ajaxWrite works from a Firefox web browser on any operating system and on any device, no matter where you are or what computer you're using. And because the application itself lives on the web, we handle the updates automatically so that you don't have to deal with costly upgrades or getting stuck with old versions.
http://www.ajaxlaunch.com/ajaxwrite/index.html

Microsoft killed IBM OS/2 warp 4

If you are looking for stability and unmatched reliability OS/2 Warp 4 is for you.

Warp 4 allows you to run OS/2 native, DOS, Java, and most windows 3.x and Win32 1.25 applications. There is also a project called "Odin", that allows users to run Win32 (Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT) applications in OS/2 Warp operating system natively. You can Also run other OS'es like Linux, BSD, Windows 2000 or Windows XP with Connectix Virtual PC For OS/2

OS/2 Warp provides a variety of networking services you can select for your needs. These functions provide Internet, office, and remote access for todays connected world.

OS/2 Warp also supports current industry standards and specifications. Plug and play, PCMCIA, APM, Display Data Channel, SCSI and IDE, USB, and S.M.A.R.T.
Also see: eComStation VS. OS/2

warp serverWarp also come in a server version currently called, OS/2 Warp for e-business.

2003 Update:
On 10 December 2002, IBM United States Announcement Letter 902-274 announced the withdrawal from marketing on both Passport Advantage and Software Choice of IBM OS/2 Warp 4 and OS/2 Warp Server for e-business shrinkwrap part numbers. IBM OS/2 Warp V4 and OS/2 Warp Server for e-business with Software Maintenance will continue to be available through Passport Advantage. This withdrawal was made possible by the recent removal of initial purchase criteria for Passport Advantage subscriptions, enabling single and low volume orders by business partners and individual customers. This announcement also withdrew obsolete OS/2 part numbers for OS/2 Warp 4 for which End Of Service expired on 31 January 2001. In support of this announcement, the Passport Advantage media packages for OS/2 Warp V4 and OS/2 Warp Server for e-business are refreshed to include the Convenience Package for OS/2 Warp V4.52 media and Convenience Package for OS/2 Warp Server for e-business V4.52 media respectively. OS/2 customers wanting to obtain the Convenience Package media are able to obtain these CDs by ordering the Passport Advantage product media package. See HOW TO BUY for ordering information. passport Advantage subscription.

My happness was short lived by the below:
REDMOND, Wash.- February 19, 2003 - Microsoft Corp. today announced it has acquired the virtual machine solutions of privately held Connectix Corp., a leading provider of virtualization software for Windows- and Macintosh-based computing. By deploying supportable virtualization technology from Microsoft, customers can easily migrate to next-generation operating system platforms while leveraging investments in their existing applications. In addition, Microsofts virtual machine solutions will enable companies to consolidate server resources, thereby reducing hardware capital expenditures and operating costs.

So all of you Mac GODS will soon find yourself's in the same boot as the OS/2 user when Microsoft pulls the plug on VPC. Which is S.O.P. for MicroSoft.

Update Aug. 28th 2003
You can no longer buy VPC for OS/2. Micro$oft has pulled the plug and I have read in the newsgroups from other users that had it on backorder. Microsoft has cancelled all backorders.

http://www.ihatemicrosoft.com/mainbox.php4

Father of DOS Still Having Fun at Microsoft

Father of DOS Still Having Fun at Microsoft
Programmer Says His Place in History Due to Timing, Necessity

by Doug Conner, Guest MicroNews Contributor
In the fabled history of the PC revolution and Microsoft's place in it, the tale comes to a part that goes like this: It's 1980, and the leviathan IBM calls on a rambunctious company near Seattle that IBM hopes can fill the software hole in its embryonic PC project. The young Microsoft can do it, but to close the deal, it needs a crucial element in the package: an operating system for a 16-bit machine. And it needs it fast.

Enter Tim Paterson, programmer at a small Tukwila hardware shop, Seattle Computer Products, and known by Paul Allen to have already written an operating system for a 16-bit processor. In the ragged informality of those days, the program is QDOS, for "Quick and Dirty Operating System." Microsoft acquires the rights to QDOS, 86-DOS officially, and licenses a version to their secret client, IBM.


Tim Paterson, original author of DOS, is in the eighth year of his current stint at Microsoft. From there, Microsoft's steep trajectory of success takes off, and the story of MS-DOS 1.0 and its descendants-eventually the most widely used computer program in the world-is well-known.

But the story of Tim Paterson, now in the eighth year of his current stint at Microsoft, is not as familiar. Surprising, given that he sometimes bears the heavy mantle "The Father of DOS." It's a quieter celebrity the amiable software design engineer carries around, and it's a celebrity he's comfortable with-when the stories are accurate.

He squirms, for instance, at the implication that he's fixated on his authorship of DOS. He holds up a recent profile in Forbes, contrived as a first-person account. "I was 24 when I wrote DOS," it begins. "It's an accomplishment that probably can't be repeated by anyone ever."

"That really makes me sound egomaniacal," he frets. And if there is anything the genial programmer from the Visual J++ group appears to not suffer from, it's egomania.

Then there's that title.

"I prefer 'original author,'" he explains. "I don't like the word 'inventor' because it implies a certain level of creativity that wasn't really the case. Besides," he laughs, "there's enough people who think it's nothing to be proud of. If I say 'I invented DOS,' they say, 'Well, good for you, sucker.'"

The Mother of Invention...

He figures his place in history is due to timing. And necessity. Seattle Computer needed an operating system to sell with the new 8086 machines. Gary Kildall's Digital Research had provided the standard operating system, called CP/M, for earlier chip generations, but was overdue with software for the new processor. Paterson, tired of waiting, went to work to build his own.

"To get to that first version took about two man-months," Paterson recalls. "I worked on it about half the time over a four-month period," although by the time the original MS DOS 1.0 shipped with IBM a year later, he calculates his time investment "was more like six man-months."

Neither Paterson nor Seattle Computer knew who Microsoft's customer was until he was hired here in 1981. "IBM," he remembers thinking. "That's weird. Big computer company. Hope they do well." He reflects about this briefly. "I have no great ability to figure out where the future is going," he says.

Eventually Microsoft invested a total of $75,000 for 86-DOS. Both Microsoft and Paterson have fended off legal and professional challenges involving DOS-Microsoft settled a contract dispute brought by Seattle Computer for $1 million in 1986. And Paterson has taken pains over the years to detail the originality of the 86-DOS program, despite a surface resemblance to CP/M.

Paterson passed in and out of Microsoft during the 80s, but returned for good in 1990. He has patents and industry awards to his professional credit (including the Stewart Alsop Hindsight Award in 1991, recognized along with Bill Gates).

But the prominent "First Place" trophies and clippings on the wall of his Building 2 office come from the world of off-road racing, in which he bangs a four-wheel drive Mazda around gravel back roads throughout the Northwest with his wife Penny riding shotgun. "I'm still having lots of fun," he says. And the smile on his face confirms it.

http://www.ihatemicrosoft.com/graphics/Linuxmyths.png

Myths About Microsoft

Myths About Microsoft

Microsoft has a monopoly?
There are two kinds of "monopolies", which I'll call coercive and competitive. Coercive involves actual violence or the real threat of it. For example, organized crime has been handed its greatest gift - a coercive monopoly on distributing certain pharmaceuticals - this monopoly is enforced by the police, at the expense of the taxpayers, who are also the people buying the product. Try to compete with this monopoly and you die, either being shot by BATF thugs or by organized crime thugs. Nice setup, eh?

The Post Office is a coercive monopoly in most countries; you can be put in jail by force if you try to start your own first-class mail delivery service, in many countries.

A competitive monopoly is one that comes about as a result of market forces. Competitive monopolies generally don't last as long as coercive ones because, despite the high cost of entry, there are always people willing to try to compete, and some percentage of these succeed. Just a generation ago, IBM was the perceived monopoly and Microsoft came out of nowhere.

A coercive monopoly prevents alternatives. A competitive monopoly cannot prevent competitors from starting up and, often, gaining market share. Consider these alternatives:
Item Alternative
Operating System OS/2, Linux, OpenBSD/FreeBSD/NetBSD, BeOS, ...
Browser Lynx, Netscape, Opera
Office Suites Star Office, Applix, Corel Office, ...
Encyclopaedias on CD Britannica, others too numerous to list
Home Entertainment Too numerous to list
Small Business Software Too numerous to list

There is competition -- it's up to the people to use it!
The government needs to break Microsoft up?
Nonsense. The market will do so, in good time. When people don't want Microsoft to stay huge, they will stop buying its products. There are good alternatives on all fronts; see previous question.

Microsoft Promulgates Myths About Itself

Microsoft gains market share by innovation?
The sad truth is that Microsoft gains some of its market share by shady back-room deals and by threatening and intimidating its own customers.
Windows 95 is innovative
The alleged innovations in Windows'95 were "borrowed" from other operating systems.
Microsoft invented DOS
There were many Disk Operating Systems before Microsoft. IBM had DOS for its then-small System/360 mainframes as far back as 1964. The DOS that we know and hate today was not even written by Microsoft.
Microsoft Invented Directories
Many people have remarked upon how much the directory structure of UNIX looks like that of MS-DOS, and wonder if UNIX copied it. In fact, the UNIX directory structure was invented in 1970 by Ken Thompson and another researcher at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Bill Gates wanted to dominate the world so, in the 1980s, Microsoft was working on its own version of UNIX. They licensed it from AT&T and renamed it Xenix (since AT&T then wouldn't let anybody use the name UNIX). Now the folk at the MS Campus in Redmond are pretty collegial, so it wasn't long before the folks in the Xenix project and the folks working on DOS were drinking together. The DOS folks needed a way to get beyond the 15 "user areas" that MS-DOS had inherited from CP/M-86 (see DOS history above). The Xenix folk were bragging about how great UNIX-style directories were. So they DOS folk looked, and became believers, and borrowed the ideas and the syntax, but not the implementation. UNIX's chdir/cd, mkdir (shortened to md), and directory tree notions were grafted onto DOS's drive letters, and the slash (/) converted to a backwards slash (\) in a move that has driven "bilingual" people crazy ever since (it wasn't for that purpose; MS had already used "/" as an option delimiter where UNIX used the "-", and felt they couldn't change that for fear of breaking backwards compatibity).

Once Microsoft got the idea that they could write Windows NT and stop paying royalties to AT&T, the Xenix project was cancelled. However, it was taken over by a smaller company that had begun as its largest dealer. The Santa Cruz Operation, later shorted to SCO, continued to sell UNIX software and systems until around 2001, when it was acquired by Caldera.
Microsoft Invented Windows?

Window systems as we know them were invented by Xerox, at their Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Nearby SRI researcher Doug Englebart invented the mouse as we know it.

When Apple Computer was foundering after the first onslaught of the IBM PC (which even with its crippled processor was faster than the "Apple ][" or Apple 2) and MS-DOS, their leaders visited Xerox PARC and saw window systems. They hired some of the talent away, and put out the Apple Lisa (which I first saw demonstrated in Toronto around 1983). Lisa was a flop, but she paved the way for (or even mutated into) the Apple Macintosh.

Bill Gates, who even then wanted to dominate the world, saw the Xerox Alto and decided he had to have one, too. He got his best geeks to fake up a prototype, showed it at Comdex, and the press boys all wowed it. Then they actually wrote it and, after 3.1 tries, got something that barely worked :-) The rest is history.

For Further Reading

For Seattle DOS and MS-DOS, hit the library and read Microsystems (later called Micro/Systems Journal) for 1980-1984. Not the Microsoft Journal, but the original Microsystems Journal put out by Sol Libes, and later cannibalized by Ziff-Davis.

For Bill Gates, check out the books Hard Drive and Over Drive.

For life on the Redmond Campus, check the book MicroSerfs, by Douglas Copland, the same dude that coined the term Generation X.
Details...
Back-room deals

As a single example, consider this Reuters story which appeared in The Financial Post on January 12, 1998:

Microsoft Wins TCI Contract Seattle -- Microsoft Corp scored a major victory Saturday in its aggressive push to lead the convergence of television and the Internet, winning a contract to supply the core sofware for at least fie million advanced set-top boxes for cable giante Tele-Communications Inc.
The deal, hammerered out in negotiations that lasted until 2:30 a.m., came just a day after Microsfoft's bitter rival, Sun Microsystems Inc. announced [that] TCI would use its [J]ava programming language in the boxes,

In other words, once Bill Gates was stung by Sun, he went into the back room with TCI and a mandate to get even.
Threatening your own

Microsoft is not above threatening to destroy entire companies (even its own large customers) to get its own way. Here's another quote from another Reuters article, also in The Financial Post on January 12, 1998:

Software giant faces federal contempt charge
Washington -- Microsoft Corp faces federal charges of contempt tomorrow for allegedly violating a judge's order requiring the software giant to sell computer makers its Windows 95 software without building in a Web browser.
The Justice Department has aasked U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to fine [the company] US$1 million a day for violating his Dec. 11 preliminatry injunction...
The government stepped in last fall, after Microsoft threatened to cut off Compaq Computer's access to Windows 95. Compaq needs Windows to stay in business.

In other words, Bill was then so determined to destroy Netscape over its dominance in the Browser field that he was willing to destroy Compaq if they wouldn't help him do it.
Windows 95: Steal from the best

The general ideas of windowed computer are all appropriated from Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre) and environs, where windows, the mouse, selection, drag-and-drop, the File/Edit/View menu, and so on were all invented while Bill Gates was still just another college dropout. See Michael Hiltzik's book Dealers of Lightning for documentation on this.

Here are just a few of the major "innovations" in Windows '95, and where M$ "borrowed" them from:
Innovation Actual Origin
Icons directly on desktop Xerox Alto (1981); Macintosh (1982?)
Recycle Bin Macintosh Trash Can (1984?)
Start Menu Macintosh Apple Menu (1982?)
Settings->Control Panels Macintosh Control Panels
Long File Names Macintosh 1982?; UNIX 1979.
Task Bar HP Vue
Right Button Menus Sun SunView, Sun/ATT OPEN LOOK, ...
DCOM Xerox Alto; RPC (Sun&HP had RPC mechanisms by the early 1980's)
Internetworking Xerox Alto; UNIX (4.2BSD, 1982, included TCP/IP)
Network file sharing Many, many distributed filesystem schemes

No wonder the Macintosh fans all said "Windows 95 == Mac 88".
Seattle Computer's SC-DOS becomes MS-DOS

IBM was designing and building its first Personal Computers in the early 1980's, and needed an operating system. The main contender seemed to be CP/M-86, a second-generation version of Control Program for Microcomputers, a Digital Research product based on several earlier systems including Digital Equipment (DEC)'s RT-11 and another (Xerox??) operating system called simply CP, or Control Program. So CP/M was a reimplementation of those for the 8080/Z80 microprocessors that preceded the IBM PC. CP/M-86 was a reimplementation of CP/M for the faster, 16-bit 8086 that was coming into vogue, and its 8-bit cousin the 8088 that IBM eventually chose.

But then another reimplementation came out of the woodwork. Seattle Computer's SC-DOS was also called QDOS, for Quick and Dirty OS; written as it was in a pretty short time (rumor has it as little as one weekend, which I find hard to believe). SC-DOS was a clone of CP/M 86, and was sold for personal computers based on the 8086. Seattle didn't have any "application software" to run with it. But Bill Gates was able to "bundle" this O/S with his Basic interpreter (Basic was big back then, since it was small enough to run on machines with 64KB). IBM bought into the deal, Gates bought the rights to the O/S from Seattle for a song, Seattle went under, and Gates went on to become the world's richest man. That's history, folks!

There are two footnotes to the above footnote. First, Gary Kildall, visionary and founder of Digital Research, the home of CP/M and CP/M-86, died in relative anonymity in 1994, a bit like Mozart, forgotten in his own time but, perhaps, to be remembered along with Mr. Gates by future historians. Second, Tim Paterson, who wrote SC-DOS at Seattle, went on to work for Microsoft and is relatively wealthy from Microsoft stock options.