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Linux Pipeline Newsletter www.LinuxPipeline.com Tuesday, May 10, 2005 In This Issue: - 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... - MySQL 5.0: 'Code Complete' But Not Yet Bug Free - Will Companies Follow Hula's Collaboration Lead? - Turning Swords Into Slide Rules - More Picks... 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 ----------------------------------------- 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
Don't let future editions of Linux Pipeline Newsletter go missing. Take a moment to add the newsletter's address to your anti-spam whitelist: linuxed@techwire.com If you're not sure how to do that, ask your administrator or ISP. Or check your anti-spam utility's documentation. Thanks. 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
Thunderbird To Get Calendaring App By Year's End
Sun Buyout Rumors: New Owners, Same Problems
Intel Shows Off Dual-Core Xeons, Talks Up Product Plans
Former SuSE Linux President Resigns From Novell
HP Study: This Is Your Brain On Email
OS X Patch Targets Security Flaws Stalking 'Panther'
Qualcomm Adds Linux Support To 3G Chipsets
Sirius Gives Podcasters A Satellite Soapbox
What Is PeopleSoft's Founder Up To? Web Site Suggests A Return To ERP
Ex-Sun Exec Surfaces At Penguin Computing
OASIS Sprouts SOA Standards Committee
Systinet Ships Web Services Tool Upgrade 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?
Turning Swords Into Slide Rules
Embedded Operating Systems Take Flight
Midmarket Getting Big On Open Source
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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 ----------------------------------------- Manage Your Newsletter Subscription We take your privacy very seriously. Please review our Privacy Policy.
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