Susan Kirkland

Moonlight (Open Source Silverlight) Hits Public Release

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-15T09:43:31-05:00

From the 'may require some assembly' files:

The first 'public' release of Moonlight - which is the Novell led open source effort to replicate Microsoft's Silverlight on Linux - is now available, (though I'm not quite sure that it's production quality yet).

You see the first public Moonlight build doesn't include media codecs by default. Sure you can compile stuff in yourself after the fact - but then again I could also just virtualize Windows and run Silverlight natively too.

Too add further salt - it doesn't currently work on Firefox 3 either. Moonlight developer lead Miguel de Icaza blogged:

Although Moonlight works on Firefox 2 and Firefox 3, recent changes in Firefox 3 prevent Silverlight and Moonlight from working (For details see #432371, #430965). There is a user contributed Greasemonkey script that will work around this bug for some sites (requires Greasemonkey).

So yes Moonlight is out, but it's got a few rough edges and isn't a 100 percent apples to apples comparable technology to Microsoft's Silverlight (yet).

As de Icaza and his team continue moving towards the Silverlight 2.0 profiles I'd suspect that Moonlight will improve and soon enough become a viable option. It kinda reminds of Mono in the early days, which also didn't quite work as it should in its first few releases but lately seems to be quite solid.

Google Gets IPv6 Religion - But Do You?

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-14T09:45:04-05:00

From the 'we're running out of addresses' file:

Google has announced that it is now available over IPv6. Specifically you can access Google search with the next generation Internet protocol. To hit Google on IPv6 you must first be running IPv6 though (ipv6.google.com).

While this is 'good' news I suppose it also exposes the fundamental flaw and issue with IPv6 as it currently stands.

Why aren't more sites available on IPv6? (and why is Google doing this now?).

The problem is simple and complex at the same time. While the US Government itself is moving to IPv6, US based enterprises are not. (It's a problem that I've been researching for the last few weeks in fact).

And why should they?

Sure the 'chicken littles' of the world are saying the sky is falling and we're running out of IPv4 address space (which is true). But the reality in this part of the world is that we've got enough IPv4 to keep us from feeling any shortage. The reality is every organization in this part of the world has already figured out the IP address issues by using NAT and port forwarding scenarios that provide an abundance of addressing options.

So YES, great to see Google jump publicly on the IPv6 bandwagon, but it would be better to see you (yes you dear reader!) jump on the IPv6 bandwagon too.

Beware of Calendar SPAM

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-13T14:41:32-05:00

From the 'I don't remember making an appointment with a spammer' files:

I get a lot of email over the course of any given day/week/month. I also tend to book many appointments for briefings and such (often driven by email calendar event requests). For the most part the only reason why my calendar is full is my own doing -- but there is a new risk that I've recently become aware of.

Calendar SPAM.

Yuup. Spam has evolved from just jamming your inbox to also polluting your Calendar too. The Calendar spam technique targets both Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar users. Security vendor McAfee recently blogged that they've now seen Calendar Spam too.

According to McAfee it's still a low volume threat. Apparently the way it works is by taking advantage of users who automatically accept incoming meetings (so just disable that if you're got it enabled) and then including the spam message in the event meeting details.

Sure it's something that can be easily avoided with some filters and proper configuration, but still it's something that's annoying. After all who want to get a Reminder popup letting them know they've got an appointment with Spam (unless it's the lunch meat and you put that into your calendar as a reminder of what you're going to eat...).

Mozilla Data Project Is Not a Good Idea

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-13T09:44:34-05:00

I'm a fan of Michael Arrington and his work at TechCrunch, though I disagree with his assessment of Mozilla's new secret 'Data' effort.

The plan is basically to collect data from Firefox users (who opt in) in order to provide a data set on site popularity and user trends. It's an interesting idea and one that might help Mozilla, but IMHO it's not a good one for the broader marketplace for a few reasons.

1) The data will always be biased because it will only be for Firefox users
2) 'Hackers' will try to do 'bad things' with the data which could well provide personally identifiable information (sure Mozilla would do its best to secure users, but the point is they would be providing a new potential attack vector).
3) More data isn't always better. Every web server in existence has some form of log system which accurately measures real traffic. Adding yet another new statistics system only confuses an already confused marketplace.
4) A users 'History' file already tracks the data (though it doesn't publish it publicly...).

I personally like what Red Hat's Fedora project is doing with users statistics. Fedora (by way of its Smolt technology) tracks how many IP addresses actually connect to Fedora Update servers. With that data Fedora know how many 'active' Fedora installations it has.

How many active Firefox installations are there? Sure we know how many downloads, but wouldn't it be great to have real number on users too?
**UPDATE 5:41 PM EDT - I'm wrong on the Firefox installations issue. Mozilla's Asa Dotzler commented below (thanks Asa!!) that Mozilla does have stats on this now and that current users number about 170 million **

So YES, getting stats is a good thing. And YES Mozilla Data will be a solid effort at understanding what Firefox users may be doing. But NO I will not personally participate myself and while I'll comment on their Data (when it's available) I'll always take it with a grain of salt.

Just Java, Hold The Wireless, At Starbucks

jmottl — 2008-05-12T17:20:49-05:00

It sounded too good to be true.

Free wireless while you're enjoying a java decaffe latte supremo bean grande with whip cream. (Ok, I made the drink up. I'm an instant whatever's on sale high caffer myself).

A news release said AT&T would be deploying free wireless to AT&T subscribers at 7,000 Starbucks nationwide as of May 1st. I wrote about it on Feb. 13th.

Well, it's May 12th.

The Starbucks near me doesn't have it. People have come in for it, tried logging on and had no luck getting in. The baristas don't know anything except it was supposed to be on, and now it isn't, and they don't know when it will be.

AT&T, when contacted today, said it wasn't commenting on reports that the service wasn't available. I'm waiting on further clarification. Starbucks hasn't returned my call or email as yet.

Meanwhile there's no mention on the Starbucks site, though AT&T still has its official release up on its site.

So something hit a snag. What's the big deal in just saying what and why and when it's coming?

Cisco Getting New 'Cool' Leadership for Switching Biz

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-12T12:40:32-05:00

From the 'what happens after keynotes go bad' file:

After 15 years, Cisco's Jayshree Ullal, SVP, Data Center, Switching & Services is leaving. Ullal managed a $10 billion business at Cisco.

"Yes, I can confirm that after 15 years at Cisco, Jayshree has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities," a Cisco spokesperson wrote in an email to InternetNews.com. "At this time, Jayshree is in the process of exploring other opportunities and has not made any commitments."

Ullal also wrote a blog post on the Cisco data center blog in which she provided some highlights of her career, though not much in the way of reasons as to why she is leaving now.

Ullal will be replaced by John McCool who will assume Ullal's post alongside maintaining his current role of leading Cisco's Campus Switching Systems Technology Group. McCool will be reporting directly to Cisco CEO John Chambers.

Without reading too much into this executive shift, I think McCool's new responsibilities tie in nicely with Cisco's overall business consolidation effort. Frankly I don't understand why Campus Switching should sit under different leadership anyways so this move makes great sense.

Let's just hope for McCool's sake that if he ever takes the stage at a big IT conference, his presentation goes better than the one that Ullal recently did at Interop.

.ORG Domain Prices Set to Rise

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-12T10:46:32-05:00

From the 'everything is getting more expensive' files:

The .org top level domain (TLD)is soon to become more expensive for those that want a domain. The Public Interest Registry (PIR) which manages the .org TLD has informed ICANN that they're hiking fees later this year.
The wholesale price for a .org domain will rise to $6.75 effective November 9, 2008. Currently PIR charges $6.15 for a .org domain name registration (0.15 cents of whcih goes directly to ICANN as a transaction fee).

The increase in .org pricing will come a month after .com and .net pricing (managed by VeriSign) get hiked. The wholesale price of a .com domain on October 1, 2008 will go from $6.42 to $6.86 while .net will rise from $3.85 to $4.23.

A New (Old) Kind of Virus Infection

Andy Patrizio — 2008-05-09T12:39:51-05:00

Remember the good old days when a virus infection meant bedrest, a fever and feeling run down, not someone trying to steal your bank information from your computer? Well, thanks to JavaOne, they're back. Imagine my reaction this morning on seeing this in my inbox:

"The JavaOne conference team has been notified by the San Francisco Department of Public Health about an identified outbreak of a virus in the San Francisco area. Testing is still underway to identify the specific virus in question, but they believe it to be the Norovirus, a common cause of the "stomach flu", which can cause temporary flu-like symptoms for up to 48 hours. Part of the San Francisco area impacted includes the Moscone Center, the site of the JavaOne conference which is being held this week."

The San Francisco Department of Public Health sent out the alert after "several" people became ill after attending or working at conferences at the Moscone Convention Center between April 30 and this Thursday, May 8.

The culprit specified in the alert was the Norovirus. Norovirus is rather common. It's spread through failure to wash one's hands and seems to have hit cruise ships especially hard. JavaOne is a great breeding ground for something like Noro, too. Sun puts out beanbags in the south hall around some XBox 360 consoles for people to play, there is a beanbag area where people can watch movies (during the conference they paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars to attend) and probably worst of all, they have a small collection of classic arcade. After four days, how many hands were on those consoles, or the XBox controllers?

The health department requested that people who believe they have a Norovirus-related illness -- symptoms include low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness -- to keep away from the Moscone Center until they have been symptom-free for 48 hours.

Oh shoot, now where will I hang out this weekend?

GPL 1 : Skype 0

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-09T09:53:07-05:00

From the 'don't bet against the GPL ' files:

Guess what? The GPL is not in violation of any type of German anti-trust laws. VoIP vendor Skype had argued in a German court that they didn't have to adhere to the letter of the open source GPL license, but the German court has now ruled against them.

Harald Welte (who has been on a seemingly one man crusade in Europe against Skype) reported on his blog that:

In the end, the court hinted twice that if it was to judge about the case, Skype would not have very high chances. After a short break, Skype decided to revoke their appeals case and accept the previous judgement of the lower court (Landgericht Muenchen I, the decision was in my favor) as the final judgement. This means that the previous court decision is legally binding to Skype, and we have successfully won what has probably been the most lengthy and time consuming case so far.

So the lesson here is simple. Whether you're Verizon in the US or Skype in Germany, if you use GPL licensed code, then the terms of the GPL license apply to you.

Israel @60 : Tech Innovations that Changed the Industry

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-08T10:20:31-05:00

The state of Israel turns 60 today and I've seen all kinds of coverage on TV/newspapers/web. From a technology point of view there are a bunch of things that have come from that tiny country, but for this short blog post I'm going to highlight three vendor/technologies in particular.

ICQ: I couldn't do my job without instant messaging today. If you're like me than you have ICQ to thank. Israeli based Mirabilis launched ICQ -- the first 'real' internet wide instant messaging app - in 1996. AOL bought them out in in 1998 for $407 million and to this day in the US, AOL is still arguably the largest IM network.

Check Point : A number of different individuals 'claim' to have invented/pioneered the firewall, but it was Check Point that deserves a lot of credit and is the vendor that really took it main stream. Remember the mid 90's ? If you wanted a firewall you got Check Point, there really was no other viable choice.

Zend : While Zend did not invent PHP (and certainly PHP was popular without Zend), it is Zend that has become the leading voice commercially for PHP on a global basis. Tens of millions of websites (including InternetNews.com) use Zend developed PHP code in some way shape or form.

So if you use instant messaging, PHP or have a firewall, give thanks to the state of Israel today.

Don't Run Mozilla Firefox in Hanoi !

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-08T09:51:35-05:00

From the 'many eyes don't necessarily mean better security' files:

Open Source thrives on the idea that contributions help to grow development. Open Source thrives on the idea that many eyes looking at open code can provide better security than proprietary closed models.

Unfortunately on the security side, it's not always the case. Mozilla's Chief Security person Window Snyder has publicly admitted that Mozilla was inadvertently allowing a virus infected Vietnamese language pack for Firefox to be distributed. Snyder noted that the infected code could result in users seeing unwanted ads and could be used as a launching point for other malicious actions.

Mozilla is not aware of precisely how many users may be at risk, though they do know that there have been 16,667 downloads of the language pack since November of 2007.

So how did this happen? Doesn't Mozilla do some kind of security scanning before they distribute code? Snyder explains:

Mozilla does virus scans at upload time but the virus scanner did not catch this issue until several months after the upload. We are also adding after-the-fact scans of everything to address this sort of case in the future.

IMHO, while it's NOT GOOD that this happened in the first place, it is good that Mozilla is being relatively open about this now and is taking the appropriate steps to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Build a Supercomputer Day

David Needle — 2008-05-07T18:38:42-05:00

What’s it take to build a supercomputer these days?

One way is to first buy a whole lot of Dell computers and set aside a day, that’s right, just a day, to set it all up. That’s what Purdue University did this week with 812 Dell PowerEdge 1950 dual quad-core computer nodes.

More than 200 university employees participated in “Installation Day” Monday, May 5, actually taking only the half the day to build a new HPCC (High Performance Computer and Communications) system. You can see a 30 second sped up video of the Purdue folks loading the racks and software to bring the systems online.

The new HPCC will be used for research across a variety of disciplines, including engineering, biological and earth and atmospheric sciences, mathematics and physics. Purdue said its leading researchers pooled their grants and provided a majority of the funding for the cluster, which is housed at the University’s Mathematics Building on campus.

“This new supercomputer will enhance Purdue’s research capabilities and support our efforts to make significant advances in a variety of areas, from designing new drugs and materials to learning the structures of disease-causing viruses,” said Gerry McCartney, vice president for information technology and chief information officer, Purdue University.

When Michael Dell started PCs Limited (later renamed Dell) in 1984 out his college dorm room, it was one of the first to offer IBM PC-compatibles for sale via mail order. Wonder if he ever dreamed he’d eventually be shipping the components to build a supercomputer?

Drumbeats on Yang, Microsoft, Deals

Erin Joyce — 2008-05-07T17:39:23-05:00

Is Yahoo founder Jerry Yang feeling more heat after the Microsoft bid went away last weekend? Is Bill Gates just confusing things?

Maybe it's just the static coming out of the bitter bankers behind both sides grinding their axes after Microsoft walked away from its $47.5 billion bid last weekend. This, after Yahoo's Jerry Yang reportedly insisted on more.

Both companies' PR machines have been cranking up in the past few days, busy being the "people familiar"-sourced stories. (Generally speaking, you get Microsoft's side in The Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo's side of things in The New York Times.)

Come Monday, with Yahoo's stock diving by 17 percent, Yang did an interview with Reuters, sounding every bit the lover who, after dumping the boyfriend, realizes the mistake and wants him back.

Yang told Reuters that he had "mixed feelings" about the weekend outcome, after investors showed their disappointment over the break-up of negotiations by sending Yahoo shares down 15 percent.

Now, with Yahoo's stock still at least $3.00 below where it left off Friday, Yang's critics are growing louder.

Take The Wall Street Journal's biting commentary today. In a piece headlined, "Jerry Yang's Scorched Earth,"
Holman Jenkins Jr writes:

Mr. Ballmer didn't count on Jerry Yang, whose idea of what his company was worth became inflated by the perception that Microsoft needed it so much. When Mr. Yang said Microsoft's offer "undervalued" Yahoo, he meant it underestimated Yahoo's value to Microsoft, not to anybody else.
In a fashion, he outsmarted not only Mr. Ballmer but his own Yahoo shareholders and board. Having discovered how much Yahoo was worth to Redmond (and no one else), he set about destroying that unique value by ceding Yahoo's position in search to Google through an outsourcing deal.
All this so Jerry Yang can fulfill his dream of having an independent Yahoo whose halls he can continue to walk as the revered "founder."

Ouch.

(It's not as if Microsoft gets a pass in the piece. Jenkins raises again the Split Microsoft argument. If the brainiacs in Redmond are looking for a way to really shake up the competition, while keeping an eye on spending, maybe it’s time to do it: Split the company.)

Then, Bill Gates went and told a pool of reporters in Japan that Microsoft would be open to other possible tie-ups, then later said the company would go it alone, all while The Wall Street Journal was reporting that Microsoft and Facebook had been chatting recently over a possible deal. (The Motley Fool has a funny take on Gates' attempts at a poker face in all this.)

Yang's got shareholders in an uproar, Microsoft has the upper hand in the post-breakup he-said, she-said, and Google's still watching from a distance. The beat goes on.

OpenOffice.org 3 Hits Beta Testing

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-07T16:25:28-05:00

From the 'newer, better, faster' files:

After what seemed like an eternity (to me at least) OpenOffice.org 3.0 (OOo) is now finally in full Beta testing. Hurray!

There are a lot of things to like about OOo 3, but on the surface it just 'looks better' with new icons. It also supports importing Microsoft's Office 2007 XML formats as well as OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard. OOo's solid marketing team has listed a full list of new features in a nice high level document.

OOo will also be the first OOo release to be distributed under the LGPLv3 open source license.

OOo overall though has made some significant strides lately in smaller point releases. The OOo 2.4 release last month added a nice bunch of new charting improvements.

Does OpenSolaris Matter?

Sean Kerner — 2008-05-06T15:47:06-05:00

I'm not sure.

Sun first announced OpenSolaris in 2005 but they keep finding ways to announce 'first releases'. Yesterday was one such release.

I've written about a number of OpenSolaris releases over the years, often though under the guise of the Solaris Express Developer edition mantle as well as OpenSolaris based distributions like Nexanta (which uses Debian)

Apparently though after three years of development, Sun is now finally ready to make an OpenSolaris branded release stand on its own.

Why didn't OpenSolaris have a full release in the beginning just like any other normal open source operating system distribution?

Well I suppose you could argue that their new Project Indiana package system (now called the OpenSolaris Image Packaging System - IPS)) is one reason.

But hey wait a minute, open source packaging system...sounds vaguely familiar...

About 10 years ago I was really excited when RPM came out. Isn't IPS just an RPM-type system for Solaris? And if so, isn't this 10 years late?

Don't get me wrong on a personal level I think Sun is doing a lot of things right. I'm actually writing this post on a LiveCD version of OpenSolaris now.

I also think Sun is moving in the right direction with OpenSolaris -- an open community approach to developing an OS is the right way to drive innovation. What I question is how long it is taking to get there and how they may lag behind Linux development in terms of adoption.

What I question is how open OpenSolaris actually is in terms of reciprocity.

After all OpenSolaris is licensed under CDDL and not GPL like Linux. Smarter minds than mine have noted that the GPL is the magic sauce that helped to make Linux more successful than the BSDs. CDDL does not require reciprocity so in practice a company could extend OpenSolaris code and not be required to contribute back.

While some might want to compare OpenSolaris against Linux, I think the closer comparison is with FreeBSD. They both share a common Unix heritage and they both have BSD type non-reciprocal licenses. FreeBSD also may yet benefit from Dtrace and ZFS as well whereas it is unlikely that those technologies (in the form that Sun licenses them) will be integrated in any significant way in any mainstream Linux distribution.

OpenSolaris also may prove to have a commercial competitive edge over FreeBSD as well in that Sun with offers full commercial support. FreeBSD does have many people supporting it but it doesn't have the strength of a Sun behind it.

So where does that leave OpenSolaris?

Well I think OpenSolaris matters to those that would consider BSD. For Linux users, OpenSolaris is still playing a bit of catchup and it will be interesting to see over time if it does in fact catch up in terms of community and broad participation. When and if Sun will ever be able to claim (like the Linux Foundation) that it has thousands of contributors from a wide spectrum of vendors remains to be seen. Participation alone does not dictate if an open source effort matters, but it sure does affect adoption.