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Editor's Note: Bury The Hatchet (Job)
There's so much to say about a writer's story that publishes,
among other things, Groklaw editor Pamela Jones' home phone
number, address, and religious affiliation. But I'll stick with a
few important points about this mess, including what you can do
if you'd like to do more than gape in disgust.
The person who authored this hatchet job has earned quite a few
descriptive labels with her work. "Journalist" isn't on the list,
although "stalker" might qualify easily. As a colleague of mine
remarked yesterday afternoon, the article itself is the biggest
travesty he's seen during his 20-odd years as a technology
journalist.
Our lead news item this week (see below) includes a link to the
story itself. I won't lay any sanctimonious tripe on you about
not reading it; in fact, I got quite a nice jolt of righteous
indignation out of the thing. It was better than a cup of
coffee--but not quite as good, if a certain HP
study is any indication, as an hour or two spent rolling....I
mean, reading email.
Before you see it for yourself, however, please consider doing
two things. First, consider reading Google's cached version of
the article instead. This will at least reduce the amount of
traffic the article's publisher gets as a result of our morbid
curiosity. After you read this dumpster-diving diva's handiwork,
you may be happy you didn't put a penny of ad revenue into her
publishers' pockets.
The link in our news coverage does lead to the original article;
I think we're ethically, if not legally, obligated to point to
the original source of the news item being covered. In an opinion
piece, however, I am not similarly obligated;
here's a
link to Google's text-only cache of the article, which should
give you a chance to read the piece without tipping the
publisher's traffic count. If the link is no longer valid for
some reason, I found that searching on "Maureen" "O'Dowd" and
"Jehova" (note: this word is also misspelled in the story) took
me straight to the correct result.
Second, and more important: Contact a few of Sys-Con Media's
advertisers, and let them know what you think of hatchet jobs
that belittle someone based on her religious faith or what type
of reading material is visible in the back seat of her car (yes,
it's that bad).
This is supposedly a site devoted to Linux business news;
presumably, the advertisers are interested in selling things to
Linux and open-source software users. Bring this hit
piece--politely--to their attention, and then tell them--again,
politely--that hell will need its own Ski Patrol before you buy
anything from a Sys-Con advertiser.
I've also got some professional empathy for the LinuxWorld staff,
many of whom are sick of enduring guilt by association with this
hack and her work. Sys-Con Media publishes both sites; based on
what I've read at Slashdot and at a few other sites, more than
one LinuxWorld editor is ready to quit unless Sys-Con management
kicks its attack dog to the curb. This is apparently the last
straw for these folks, but certainly not the first; whichever way
it goes, I wish them the best of luck.
Finally, as Alexander Wolff reports in our coverage of this ugly
scene, the tin-foil-hat crowd at SCO, predictably enough, can't
get enough of this stuff. I'd like the SCO flunky who crows over
this as a vindication of their "PJ is a secret IBM agent" theory
to imagine someone publishing his home phone number, asking his
kids what kind of person Daddy really is, or maybe following him
around every Sunday to see which religious service provider he
prefers to visit.
SCO's management actually had a chance to make themselves look
like human beings for once; all they had to do was frown
disapprovingly at such unethical journalism, assert that no
matter how much they dislike PJ's work on Groklaw they would
never stoop to such behavior, and then go back to drowning
kittens or whatever it is they do at that place.
Could they manage this little homework assignment for Public
Relations 101? I don't think it even occurred to them to try.
Stupid, evil, and mean: SCO scores the hat trick.
Matthew McKenzie
Editor, Linux Pipeline
mattcmp@sonic.net
www.LinuxPipeline.com
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Top Linux News
Reporter Claims To Expose Groklaw Editor's Identity
A journalist publishes alleged details on Pamela Jones' identity, including
her address, home phone, an religion. The chronicler of SCO's
legal woes most readers refer to simply as 'PJ' says she's
considering legal action of her own in response.
'Extremely Critical' Bugs Found In Firefox
A pair of unpatched vulnerabilities in Mozilla's Firefox Web browser--rated
as "extremely critical" by one security firm--could allow an
attacker to take control of a PC simply by getting a user to
visit a malicious Web site, Mozilla said Sunday.
Thunderbird To Get Calendaring App By Year's End
Mozilla aims to address one of the most commonly cited shortcomings in its
open-source email client by adding calendaring tools, along with
features such as an anti-phishing alert designed to detect
possible scam email.
Sun Buyout Rumors: New Owners, Same Problems
Talk of taking Sun private is a sideshow, not a solution for the
profit-challenged company's business problems, according to
Sun's channel partners.
Intel Shows Off Dual-Core Xeons, Talks Up Product Plans
Moving aggressively ahead with its plans to field a full range of dual
core microprocessors, Intel has demonstrated two upcoming Xeon
server platforms with the new devices, and it confirmed that it
has nearly 20 other dual-core designs in production.
Former SuSE Linux President Resigns From Novell
Richard Seibt, who, came to Novell through its 2004 acquisition of the Linux
vendor, departs shortly after the company appoints Ron Hovsepian
to lead its worldwide field operations.
HP Study: This Is Your Brain On Email
Using email and other messaging technologies too often can cause
the same temporary IQ loss as smoking weed, according to research sponsored
by...umm...by....wait, we knew this a second ago....
OS X Patch Targets Security Flaws Stalking 'Panther'
The version 10.3.9 update, aimed at OS X users who have not moved to the
current Tiger release, covers 20 issues, including some potentially
dangerous remote exploits.
Qualcomm Adds Linux Support To 3G Chipsets
CDMA chipset vendor adds Linux support to one product now and
will include it in future 3G chipsets, used to build
multimedia-capable mobile phones.
Sirius Gives Podcasters A Satellite Soapbox
Sirius Satellite Radio has signed former MTV video jockey Adam Curry,
who created the open-source iPodder software last year, to
produce a program where podcasters can get their talk on.
What Is PeopleSoft's Founder Up To? Web Site Suggests A Return To ERP
PeopleSoft founder Dave Duffield isn't talking about his next move,
but he did set up a Web site with a catchy name--and davesnextmove.com
suggests an open-source, Web-based ERP startup is in the cards.
Ex-Sun Exec Surfaces At Penguin Computing
Sun's former head of U.S. sales, Bill Cook, resurfaced Wednesday at a Linux
systems vendor, just as his former boss, Robert YoungJohns, prepares to leave
Sun.
OASIS Sprouts SOA Standards Committee
The international standards body does what it does best: It forms a new
committee, this time to develop guidelines for service-oriented
architectures (SOAs).
Systinet Ships Web Services Tool Upgrade
Systinet launches an upgrade of its Web services tool for the Eclipse
open-source IDE for building Java-based applications.
Editor's Picks
MySQL 5.0: 'Code Complete' But Not Yet Bug Free
The MySQL faithful spent the user conference hearing about the same thing
they heard about last year: the still-unshipping MySQL 5.0
database.
Will Companies Follow Hula's Collaboration Lead?
Collaborative computing loves company, but it's hard on a budget. The
open-source Hula project wants to solve the conflict, giving
businesses powerful collaboration tools at a reasonable price.
Better yet, they intend to do it using tools you probably already
know, like, and use regularly.
Turning Swords Into Slide Rules
It's time for Microsoft and the Linux community to end their
media-managed "conflict," says Rob Enderle, and find ways to work
together, or at least to avoid open warfare.
Embedded Operating Systems Take Flight
Embedded operating systems and software tools are the brains behind
everything from cell phones to jet planes. For Linux and a handful
of competing products, its also a lucrative and growing
market.
Midmarket Getting Big On Open Source
As Linux grows in popularity by leaps and bounds, more software
vendors are rushing to get their share of the payoff by porting their
applications.
Building A Better Web Client With OpenLaszlo
OpenLaszlo server, which is not well-known outside of the open-source
community, beats many proprietary Rich Internet Application
technologies at their own game when it comes to building Web-based clients.
Voting Booth: 64 Reasons To Cast Your Vote
Cast Your Vote Now!
This Week's Poll:
This week, yet another project in my tireless work to pick your
brains for my (and, of course, for your own) education and
entertainment. The question is short and sweet: Are you using a
64-bit Linux distro yet? It's quick, it's relatively painless,
and Moose and Fat Tony would be really pleased if you cast your
vote.
Poll Results:
In our last episode of "Stuff The Ballot Box," we asked whether
you thought a handful of obnoxious Linux-bigot types were ruining
everyone else's fun. The "No" votes edged out "Yes" by 43 percent
to 38 percent, with about 400 of you voting this time.
The remaining 20 percent of you picked the third choice, where
you obviously enjoyed the chance to call me a "puerile
journalistic pig." As always, thank you for voting; my colleagues
Moose and Fat Tony will be coming around shortly with a few
follow-up questions for those of you who voted for this option.
Please give them a warm open-source welcome when you see them,
'kay?
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------- Advertisement -------------------
Join Network Computing for a FREE, OnDemand TechWebCast on J2EE:
A Standard in Jeopardy. Burton Group Senior Analyst Richard
Monson-Haefel - one of the world's leading authorities on Java
and J2EE - explains these threats and provides strategic insights
and practical recommendations.
Register and View Today!
http://www.techweb.com/webcasts/burton041205
-----------------------------------------
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