Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2011
in technology.
M$ has a right to persue violations of copyright/EULA against any of its customers/users. Like any wounded beast lashing out in its death-throes, M$, instead of pursuing violators wants to pursue the customers of violators. The fallout could mean that “the tax” which we now can avoid by buying devices with non-M$ software or building from parts will now be a burden applied to every business which may anywhere use that other OS.
M$ is pushing legislation providing legal liability for any business presumed to use M$’s software illegally. The only real defence against this is to never use M$’s software. I recommend businesses use GNU/Linux. It works for them and not a failing corporation.
M$ has claimed that 90% of the use of their software in China is illegal. China is one of the world’s largest trading partners. Almost every business in the USA uses one or more products made in China. This is about M$ v World. Every Chinese business and every other business trading with China is liable to be hounded by M$’s abuse of the legal system.
See also Microsoft Pushes for Anti piracy Law
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2011
in technology.
Some commenters here have complained that that other OS is smooth as silk and I should not criticize M$. An example of why I criticize M$ is here. They have made their updates so complex that WSUS+”7″ SP1 make machines unbootable…
Complex? How about M$ not having any clue except suggesting folks avoid using WSUS??! For those who don’t know what WSUS is, it is a server application that serves updates to clients and servers in a system so that each client or server does not need to download every package. WSUS keeps thing up to date, serves packages locally and helps the administrator monitor and control the system. How can WSUS break an update? Ask M$. It’s their baby.
Fortunately almost anyone in a position to need WSUS may well have good backups to fix the mess.
I would suggest avoiding the whole mess and migrating to GNU/Linux. You can install on one machine and broadcast images. You can do a fully automated installation or use the usual installer booted from CD, USB drive or the network. This does not mean your systems will be forever bootable but the odds improve substantially if M$ is not managing your IT.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2011
in Uncategorized.
Not willing to deal fairly with its citizens, the ruling family of Bahrain has invited the GCC to send in troops to kill people in the streets more effectively. Saudi Arabia is particularly concerned that the contagion of freedom should not cross the bridge.
View Larger Map
This is a fatal mistake. If you try to sit on an exploding land mine, you will lose. Saudi Arabia may indeed be able to keep its friends in power in Bahrain but it will not be a quick one-shot deal. There will be civil war as we see in Libya and the opposition if suppressed will just go underground and become much more effective and dangerous. Of course from the rebels point of view, the opposition will become much more effective and welcome.
I was in Saudi Arabia from 1983 to 1985 and thought then that the royal family spent a lot of effort on preserving the status quo. The next generation seems more than ready to throw off the yoke. Seeing rebellion succeed in the Arab world and seeing the ruthless suppression in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain will just fan the flames. The royal families have lost the consent of the governed and the facade of “benevolent dictator” is tarnished.
One thing I remember seeing in Saudi Arabia was work on a “storm sewer system” in a land with one shower per year. Interestingly, the “storm sewer” had two channel in rectangular cross-section. It was actually an underground divided highway with nodes at the air-port and the palaces. We thought at the time it would be handy for quick exits should the need arise. They have been able to keep the lid on until this year. The pressure is very high now.
see also Al Jazeera’s report
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2011
in technology.
The waves emanating from the recent earthquake in Japan travelled the Pacific almost unnoticed until they hit coasts. The wavelength is so long and the speed of travel is so great that they appear out of nowhere on the shallows of coasts and deliver energy that can no longer hide.
There are waves in IT as well. The first computers were handcrafted, huge and expensive. They became the mainframes of IT. The mainframe subsided and was largely replaced by the personal computer, a machine of some power at arm’s length. Now networks are so strong that we no longer need the power at arm’s length and mobile and other small devices have become magnificent.
Gens see the emergence of a “third platform” in the explosion of mobile devices supported by services from the cloud. According to IDC forecasts, shipments of non-PC app-capable devices will reach approximately 400 million in 2011, which is about the same as the number of PCs that will ship.
…
“If you know where the developers are going, you know where the market is going,” says Gens. And the developers are going mobile. By the end of 2011, there will be 1.3 million apps available for the various mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android. That’s in comparison to only 50,000 – 75,000 total for PCs. Even if only 100,000 of these will be useful in the enterprise, that’s more mobile apps that PC-based apps — this year — according to IDC.
see Can you see the third platform from this fork in the road?
Not only is this third wave about mobility. It is also about small and cheap. We see ARM taking huge share from x86 this year and by the end of 2011, ARM will have a major place even in the normal PC. These huge numbers of apps for mobile devices can easily be ported on ARM to non-mobile devices, greatly increasing the energy released by the arrival of the wave. The seawall is being battered, undercut, breached, overflowed and bypassed all at the same time. Wintel can do little but take measures to slow down the rate of change or to preserve some niches. They cannot stop it.
Just as the netbooks gave momentum to the adoption of GNU/Linux, this third wave of IT is a natural fit for Android/Linux and GNU/Linux. Linux has run major distros on ARM for years. There is no shortage of applications, CPUs or features to deny Linux its due.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2011
in technology.
In business, margins are the differences between revenue and costs. A monopoly maximizes margins because they have little or no competition and can charge what the market will bear. iSuppli has dissected an iPad2 and estimates that on a sale of $729 worth of iPad2 (32gB) the cost of manufacture and materials was $336, leaving nearly $400 as margin. Some of that gets eaten by shipping/sales costs but it is still huge. M$ gets away with even more. For the cost of copying or accounting for licences it takes in $50 or more. The cost of a licensing transaction must be of the order of $10 or less with automation per PC.
Folks who actually work for a living and compete have margins as low as 2% in some areas of hardware. Some of the new gadgets like smartphones do permit larger margins because as fast as they can be produced the demand still exceeds supply. As markets mature, competition tends to lower prices so that consumers do not have to support huge margins. That is why we should buy Android/Linux or GNU/Linux on our PCs and even choose generic equipment instead of hot brands.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2011
in Uncategorized.
Finally the revolutionaries are getting some semblance of command and control and putting thought into engaging the enemy on more advantageous terms by manoeuvring at night and creating defensive positions…
From Al Jazeera:
11:03am
Major General, Omar Al Hariri, the military chief of the interim national council told Al Jazeera how his forces were able to take Brega back last evening.
“Today, the armed forces and the revolutionary youth have reorganised and maneuvered the Gaddafi forces, which are weak because they are not fighting for a cause.
“Most of the Gaddafi forces are mercenaries, who are fighting for money. Therefore, they were very weak and the revolutionary forces were able to kill and capture so many of them.
“The revolutionary forces were then able to enter Brega and to push Gaddafi forces to outside of Brega and Aqaila. They are now taking fortified defensive positions in Aqaila.”
That’s refreshing news instead of attrition and parading in broad daylight for Gaddafi’s air-force. While they were at it, they set up some ambushes as well. Amen. If you have a small but determined force, that’s how to multiply your effect for minimum cost.
- Robert Pogson
Published by Robert Pogson March 14th, 2011
in technology.
The idea that servers need more MIPS/watt just will not go away. There is now a chip specialized for creating 480 cores of ARM in a 2U enclosure for a 5-10X improvement in performance/watt over x86. The new chip comes from Calxeda and includes 4 A9 cores and fabric for meshing a bunch of chips together. Each node runs on about 5 watts. Cool.
“We start by building up from the concepts and technologies pioneered in the world of mobile phones, where every milliwatt counts, add in some secret sauce born in the world of Super Computers, and then work with System Vendors to create low energy servers for extreme scale.”
I like that. I am thinking about firing up my old quad-core beast that uses well over 100 watts that provides terminal server, file, web and database service for my LAN. Imagine what I could do with 20 or more cores using this technology… It’s not about creating a better hair-drier. It’s about putting more infrastructure into the silicon where Moore’s Law gives more processes per litre and per watt. It’s the right thing to do in a data-centre and may well be useful in workstations which amount to a super-computer near the desk.
Calxeda has been named as one of the top 50 most innovative companies by MIT. This is not just PR.
- Robert Pogson
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