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Microsoft's Viridian passes first test

Microsoft has finally added a pre-release version of its Viridian hypervisor to its Windows Server 2008 software, offering users a first glimpse of Microsoft's much belated entry into the virtualization game.

eWeek put Viridian to the test, and found that it has it's basic bases covered.

VMware however has nothing to fear. For starters, Microsoft won't ship Viridian until 180 days after the release of Windows Server 2008. Secondly, Viridian is merely a version 1.0 product that lacks advanced features such as Vmotion or Hot Add capabilities. VMware is still years ahead.

For now, the software supports only a limited number of guests and in the eWeek test "panicked" when asked to run an rPath (Linux) appliance. So far for virtualization providing a standards based environment that runs any operating system.

The eWeek screenshots show an easy to use interface with enough handholding to lead a 6-year-old through a maze. But it's not like VMware Server is difficult to use. In fact, we've been able to install numerous virtual machines on the free version of the product without much effort.

September 29, 2007 at 01:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Poor call centre workers fall to new lows

Satellite provider DirectTV is calling consumer on its "do not call list" to confirm that they don't want any phone calls from the company.

Seriously, which marketing intern is taking credit for this one? Looks like the next step will be to create a "do not verify my do not call list entry list", followed by the "I chip in on nuking your corporate headquarters" list.

September 29, 2007 at 12:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Game maker wants to keep it real – bans gender fakers

Male gamers playing the Chinese game King of the World will no longer be able to pose as a female character.

The game's developer reportedly has instated a ban on gender fakers and is requiring anyone who controls female avatar to verify her gender via webcam. There is no word on how they will prevent gamers to use a photo or female friend to prevent to avoid the check.

A more fundamental question also remains unanswered: why is it wrong for a male to have a female avatar? And why is that more wrong than, say, an avatar with unrealistic body parts.

Pictures: Marge Simpson ventures into the online game 'Earthland Realms' in the "Marge Gamer" episode. In the bottom picture, gamers (all resembling characters from the cartoon) celebrate the slaying of Bart Simpson's avatar

September 28, 2007 at 06:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Adobe must be hiring former White House press people

Adobe doesn't get "it". Their PR always has been sub par, but they are now breaking ground on a tunnel to a new low. Just read the following that Stacey Long posted in response to a non-US journalist asking about attending Adobe's upcoming MAX 2007 conference:

On Sep 25, 2007, at 6:51 AM, Stacey Long wrote:

Hello,

On Sept 30 – Oct. 5th MAX 2007, Adobe’s annual customer and developer event, will be held in Chicago, Illinois. Subsequent International Max conferences will take place in Europe and in Japan this October and November.

In an effort to drive local press attendance to our International Max events we are not extending invites to US-based correspondents for the Max conference in Chicago.

We will keep you informed with up-to-the-minute news of what will be announced at Max Chicago. Should you need additional information or want to talk to a spokesperson that can also be arranged.

Thanks and all the best,

Stacey

The note is offending, ignorant and demonstrates a lack of intelligence. It makes you wonder if Stacey's career included a stint as a press secretary for the Bush administration, and warrants the following reply:

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for informing me that Adobe isn't interested in press coverage.

We won't be covering the European event, because you are effectively saying that you are only interested in dealing with press that you can control.

We exist to serve our readers by reporting relevant news, we don't exist to serve PR organizations who want to "drive local press coverage".

It's saddening to see that there are still organizations who think that they can control the media.

September 25, 2007 at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

The GPL gets its day in court

The US finally has received its first lawsuit over the General Public License (GPL).

Developers behind the BusyBox open source project have filed a lawsuit against Monsoon Multimedia for alleged violations of the open source license.

Monsoon is refusing to publish the source code for BusyBox tools that they ship with their consumer devices, even though help desk operators have allegedly admitted to using the code.

Amazingly, this is actually the very first time that developers are asking the courts to enforce the GPL. That is amazing because several parties (SCO and some within Microsoft) will still argue that the GPL is illegal and therefore can't be enforced. A court ruling would establish a valuable precedent.

Monsoon however seemed genuinely surprised when we called them for comment, claiming they hadn't seen the complaint and weren't aware of any problems. It is therefore plausible that the firm will quickly release the source code and settle the suite.

For that matter, Europe is years ahead of the US in its legal pursuit of GPL violators – something that can probably be credited to the limited costs of a legal battle in the old world. Back in 2006 D-Link was whipped into submission by the German courts, after the maker of networking gear had unsuccessfully argued that the license wasn't a legally binding document.

September 21, 2007 at 12:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Hybrid drives dead on arrival

Hybrid drives have been added to the mountain of technology innovations that worked much better in theory than they did in a real world.

The idea behind a hybrid dride is to add flash memory to a hard drive and reap the benefits: your PC will boot faster and laptops will run longer before requiring a battery recharge.

The idea might have looked good in theory, but is failing to deliver results. Microsoft for one is stalling development of the drivers that are essential for supporting the technology.

On the desktop front, the benefits have shrunken significantly due to the Windows Vista's new deep sleep mode. Even though users think that they are shutting down their systems, they really are putting them into a deep sleep from which it will wake up in mere seconds – much faster than the time that it takes to boot up the application.

Others argue that drive maker merely need to add more memory (but the same story completely overlooks the point that hybrid drives are primarily here for the mobile market).

Fact is that you have wasted you money if you recently purchased a hybrid drive.

September 20, 2007 at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

AMD claims three cores make the best company

AMD confirmed rumors today by unveiling a triple-core processor that is scheduled to ship in the first quarter of 2008. The chip is essentially a scaled down version of the quad-core processor.

It may sound silly to create a product that is crippled by design, AMD does have a point.

If you own a dual core processor today, have a look at your process viewer of the course of the day. It will rarely max out.

That's because most of today's software isn't optimized to run on multiple cores. And if it is optimized, it is designed for 2 cores are most.

Secondly, the average user doesn't need much processor muscle to begin with. Freecell isn't exactly the most CPU intensive application around, and neither is Internet Explorer or Word.

Quad core systems therefore might be useful for the extreme gaming enthusiast. A triple-core design however will appeal to mainstream consumers, where the low end of the market will be perfectly happy with a dual-core.

AMD furthermore is likely to have a trump card up its sleeve. Given that a chip consumes up to 120 Watts, eliminating the fourth core increases the power available to each core by 33 per cent, allowing them to run at high clock frequencies.

That is good news for users who are looking to run regular compute intensive applications that can't be spread out over multiple cores. In some cases, a triple-core CPU will perform better than a quad-core one, AMD confirmed.

September 18, 2007 at 01:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Computer game store refuses to sell to stupid kids

A Gamestop shop in south Dallas has instated a new policy: bad grades = no games

Youngsters looking to buy a game at the store have to be accompanied by an adult who will vow to their grade level.

"[A student] needs to be reading a book. He knows how to play Madden before he knows how to do his ABCs and 123s - that's backwards!" store manager Brandon Scott justified his policy.

Scott apparently likes discipline. He's married to a teacher himself. He'll also refuse customers who swear (especially the n*****-word is a big no-no) or have they jeans hanging at knee-height.

Because you need to demonstrate wholesome values to be able to purchase a game where stand up through their elbows in body parts while killing even more folks.

Texas values

September 15, 2007 at 12:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack

SCO down and out

SCO has officially been reduced to the status of a footnote in history.

The company today filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Although the firm could restructure its business, it would still have to deal with the tens of millions of dollars that it owes Novell.

From the hunter, SCO has become the hunted prey. That took amazingly little time: SCO first launched its legal assault against IBM and Linux customers in 2002, claiming that their Linux use violated its copyrights on Unix. The company purchased those rights from Novell in 1993, prompting Novell to dust off its contract.

The fine print however showed that SCO never acquired the full rights for the software. In fact, it was supposed to forward 95 per cent of its license revenues to Novell – which it had failed to do. A judge confirmed the terms of the contract last August.

It took SCO management only one month to admit defeat. There is nothing left to reorganize, because most of SCO's former customers have abandoned its software out of protest against over the legal proceedings. When SCO chief Darl McBride switches off the light in his office tonight, he might just as well keep it off for eternity.

SCO chief Darl McBride: enemy number 1 (well, maybe nr 2, after Microsoft) according to open source fans

September 15, 2007 at 12:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Escape from Alcatraz - geek style

Ran into this somewhere on Google Image search. No idea which genius created this shot.

September 13, 2007 at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack