apt-get for Windows

Found via this LinuxWorld articlewin-get :

win-get is an automated install system and software repository for Microsoft Windows written in pascal (for the command line client) and php for the online repository. The ideas for its creation come from apt-get and other related tools for the *nix platforms.

They have a list of about 200 apps, free and demos, that can be installed through this.

US $30,000 – the cost of a “yes” vote for OOXML in Sweden (Updated)

Apparently Microsoft sent a memo to its Gold Partners instructed them to join the Swedish Institute of Standards and vote yes for OOXML. This memo has now leaked to the media and IDG has broken the news.

The Groklaw volunteer “Ghost” has translated part of the IDG news report and there is now an alternative translation at OS2World.

Swedish newspaper, Computer Sweden, now confirms that Microsoft did send out e-mails to get Gold Partners to get them to vote via one of the Gold Partners that received the e-mail and phone calls from Microsoft. According to the e-mail that Microsoft sent out and only to few partners, at least that is what Microsoft claims, Gold Partners expect to participate at the meeting with SIS (Swedish Standards Institute) and “to vote yes to Open XML”. The partner companies are also asked to participate to a number of meetings after the vote to “show good will”.

Basically Microsoft told its Gold Partners that in return for the expenses accrued through doing Microsoft’s bidding they would be recompensed via marketing subsidies and other support. Here are some very good reasons why OOXML should never make it as a standard.

The FFII Sweden described it thus:

In meeting at SIS yesterday on the standardisation of Microsoft’s OOXML file format (i.e. in principle the file format used in Office 2007) 23 new companies suddenly appeared that had not previously participated in the working group, a majority of these companies are Microsoft partners. From a clear NO-majority among the members, the result in the course of just one day became a YES. The final result was 25 in favour, 6 against; 4 members left the meeting. This also means that the work with hundreds of suggested corrections have been made void in one day; they will not be forwarded to ISO in any form — despite strong criticism against the proposal from several significant parties. Among these, most had been active since before, e.g. National Archives, The Royal Library and Sun, all of which had submitted criticism on several points.

If people can buy standards like this then the process is broken and worthless..

Update

Sweden’s SIS has now declared this vote to be invalid:

The Swedish working group of SiS, Swedish Standards Institute, Document description languages, SIS/TK 321/AG 17, decided on 27 August 2007 at a vote to vote for making Office Open XML an ISO standard. Today the board of SiS decided to invalidate the vote. The motive of the decision of the board is that SiS has information suggesting that one of the members in the working group has participated in the vote with more than one vote. […]

Windows DRM breaks – declares all XP & Vista installs pirated

Yet another reason to not bother with Windows or other DRM crippled software, Microsofts Genuine disAdvantage servers all crashed..

The result? Every single Windows XP and Vista installation — except possibly those with volume license keys — is being marked as counterfeit when it tries to check in. Installations which are flagged as counterfeit switch to a “reduced functionality mode” which results in features like Aero and DirectX being disabled.

Talk about Defective by Design..

Monster hack(ed)

The BBC reports that social engineers hacked Monster.com looking for information to make phishing scams more credible..

It said confidential details of more than 1.3 million people, mainly Americans, were stolen by malicious hackers who carried out the attack. It said that servers in the Ukraine and hijacked home computers were used to mount the attack. […] The thieves got away with names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of Monster.com users. […] The attackers wanted to get hold of personal information in an attempt to make e-mails supposedly sent by recruitment firms more plausible.

Dick Cheney talks sense on Iraq – in 1994

Shame he seems to have forgotten about this..

Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because if we’d gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn’t have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein’s government, then what are you going to put in its place? That’s a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it — eastern Iraq — the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you’ve got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.

It’s a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.

The other thing was casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had. But for the 146 Americans killed in action, and for their families — it wasn’t a cheap war. And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?

Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right.

That was Dick Cheney interviewed on CSPAN in 1994, now up on YouTube.

(Via)

Todays interesting spellchecker suggestion(s)

Courtesy of the spellchecker that the Kate editor is using under KDE:

Unknown word: OpenSolaris
Replace with: Epistolaries ((
Epistolaries are books that are written in the form of, or carried on by letters or correspondence.
))

Unknown word: Nexenta
Replace with: Exeunt

Unknown word: Namesys
Replace with: Nemesis

Umm, right, I think my spellchecker is biased.. 🙂