To:mswier@YAHOO.COM
Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 15:57:26 -0400 (EDT)
From:"Linux Pipeline Newsletter" <linuxed@techwire.com>
Subject: [LP] Linux Pipeline - 5.10.2005 - Bury The Hatchet (Job) Linux Pipeline Newsletter | Bury The Hatchet (Job) | MO.DD.2005
Linux Pipeline Newsletter
www.LinuxPipeline.com
Tuesday, May 10, 2005


In This Issue:
  • Editor's Note: Bury The Hatchet (Job)
  • Top Linux News
        - Reporter Claims To Expose Groklaw Editor's Identity
        - 'Extremely Critical' Bugs Found In Firefox
        - Thunderbird To Get Calendaring App By Year's End
        - More News...
  • Editor's Picks
        - MySQL 5.0: 'Code Complete' But Not Yet Bug Free
        - Will Companies Follow Hula's Collaboration Lead?
        - Turning Swords Into Slide Rules
        - More Picks...
  • Voting Booth: 64 Reasons To Cast Your Vote
  • Get More Out Of Linux Pipeline
  • Manage Your Newsletter Subscription


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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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