Archives - February 2004
02/13/2004
Part of Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 source code leaked out and published on the internet since last Friday. The leaked code with a mix of assembler, C and C++ programming languages, the leaked code of windows 2000 contained 30915 files and 13.5 million lines of code. And Windows NT breach had 95103 files and 28 million lines. Holy cow, that's a lot!
Microsoft had a announcement on Feb 13 and said:
Subsequent investigation has shown this was not the result of any breach of Microsoft's corporate network or internal security, nor is it related to Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative or its Government Security Program, which enable our customers, partners and governments to legally access Microsoft source code
Is it means Windows 2000 becomes to an "open source" operating system? NO, like Microsoft announced that all source code are Shared Source initiative which Microsoft lunched last year in part to combat competition from Linux. We can't expect Microsoft to be an Open source developer but more concern about source code will bring us a lot of security problem since hackers and virus writers begin to find out leaks from these source code packages.
Relative reading:
Profanity, partner's name hidden in leaked Microsoft code - CNN
Microsoft probes Windows code leak - ZDNet
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Mozilla released a new version of Firefox 0.8 which renamed from previous Firebird. Steven Grarrity, the guy is in charge of Mozilla Visual identity Team creat a new branding logo and icon for new version of Firefox. In this team, three of key person come from silverorange. Steven Grarrity, Daniel Burka, Stephem DesRoches. Steven has a post on his blog talked about team work with new design and interface of Firefox, and Jon Hicks who is a excellent UI designer has made a great post about the design process.
See Firefox promo graphic page to put some logo in your webpage if you like this browser.
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02/12/2004
Astounded the financial world that Comcast Corp the cable television giant now faces a daunting task in selling the blockbuster combination and announced a 487 billion deal to bid for Walt Disney Co. This unsolicited bid makes Disney extreamly on edge.
Just couple days ago I heard Pixar Animation Studios ends its Disney deal in 2005, Pixar produced a lot of incredible, well know animation movies for Disney in the past few years, Toy Story, Finding Nimo, Monster Inc etc.
No wonder, that's a big shock for Disney lost a such creativity producer. But now they have to be faced with a more tougher situation. Business competition are always astounding us no matter how big company it is. Market are making changes everyday. Netscreen, a security technology company which I recommanded to my manager to use their product at PN. right now are been buying by another Network giant company Juniper Network corp.This is Market economy.
Releated Reading:
Investors Frown on Comcast Bid for Disney - AlwaysOn
Hunting Disney - Economist.com
Chinese Version - WSJ
Comcast offers $66 billion for Disney - CNET
Updatae:Disney rejects offer from Comcast Corp - MSNBC
118 Comments
02/ 8/2004
Guardian Unlimited recently has an interview with Bill Gates who is a Chairman of Microsoft Corp. Article said Bill Gates is the world's wealthiest man and history's most generous philanthropist.
No doubt, he knows money, Mr. Gates makes millions everyday and his company Microsoft expends business every second. The whole world people are jealous of him and his wealth. We are making our eyes on the money but nothing. Just a few people know he is the world's most generous philanthropist. I am not saying he is good or not. But we can not turn a blind eye to his huge contribute in charity.
Mr. Gates and his wife found a foundation called "The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation"; the foundation is 10 times the size of Rockefeller's (oil monopoly in 20 century) charitable foundation and three times of Henry Ford's. His wife spends most of time in India to help poor people. Also, Mr. Gates has pledged to give away his 95% ($46bn) fortune before he dies to help the world's poorest countries.
As one of technology's most devout missionaries, Gates is surprisingly restrained in preaching the benefits of computer literacy. Bill says "When I'm at IT conferences and people say the most important thing in the world is to get people connected to the internet, I say: 'Are you kidding me? Have you been to poor countries?'". That's true, Web Technology is helping people to acquire information and enhance personal communication, but in developing countries the most important thing is not get online, they need food and blankets, they thirst for dress warmly and ear their fill.
In a typical week, he spends up to 60 hours working on Microsoft business and 10 on the foundation. His charitable work is not just about grand gestures. He tells a story about helping his four-year-old son Rory on a small-scale volunteer project. "We were putting together these kits for homeless people - you know, where you put in the toothbrush and toothpaste- and Rory says: 'This is really nice, Dad, but if these people are homeless, why don't we give them homes?'
"It's kind of a good question." He breaks into laughter. "We told him: 'A home costs a little more, but basically you're right!'"
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"Great Taste, Less Privacy" An article from Wired.com is talking about scanning ID will leak our private information.
In United States, everyone has their own Driver's License (ID) card; it's the same like an identification card in China. But the difference is US ID contained a magnetic strips and bar code on the back which can be scanned/swiped by scanning machine. On the magnetic strips, some can store up to 2000 bytes information on it. Which mean most of our personal information will be stored inside, not only those information shows on the ID card's surface, but also some kinds of private info like: Salary, working status, telephone number etc, even our social security number (SSN). Normally that would be fine for police or other security related issue to identify our identities, or identify a fake ID. But if those information were scanned by commercial companies like bar, restaurant, museum, hotel etc. That would have a potential risk to be leaked out or be collected. We never know how much information was contained in our ID card and how much private information was collected by commercial bloc!
The toll tag operation suddenly brought to my mind. Toll tag is high way auto-payment device, it's a pocket-size card which I can apply online. Once I applied one and put it on my car, every time I pass through the booths on have-to-pay high-way. It will be automatically scanned and charged by Distance scanner. This new technology was used on Toll way system in TEXAS which called E-ZPass toll system. Think about if our ID card embeds this technology in the future, with distance scan, we will never know how and when our personal information was being scanned?!
Absolutely magnetic strips, bar codes and ID card scanner system prevent fake ID and underage drinking; also it's very convenience to use and fast to pass. But it's easy to lose our privacy too. What should we choose?
Refference:
North Texas Toll-way System.
Swipe: Decipher the bar codes on IDs
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02/ 7/2004
Accessibility Internet Rally: 2003 Training - A Fantastically comprehensive tutorial on Making web sites accessible from Knowability
Dive Into Accessibility: Excellente Accessibility guide.
Building accessible websites: Joe Clark's book on web accessibility online edition
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Basecamp released their online project management system.
Basecamp is a simple, hosted web-based service that lets you manage projects and quickly create client/project extranets. It lets you and your clients (or just you and your own internal team) keep your conversations, ideas, schedules, to-do lists, and more in one password-protected central location.
It seems the whole system actually developed based on content management system conception. Some of features could be integrated to our project.
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"Father of the Web" This is a old article from Wired.com, a interview with Tim Berners-Lee in 1997.
Wired.com
"Trained in physics at Oxford,Berners-Lee was working at the Swiss-based European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) when, in an astounding burst of creativity, he sat down in 1990 and wrote the specifications for a global hypermedia system, using the innocuous acronyms HTTP, HTML, and URL. Originally designed to let far-flung researchers collaborate on large problems, the resulting universal information space made real the dreams of hypertext visionaries from Vannevar Bush to Ted Nelson. For good measure, Berners-Lee even gave his creation a name: the WorldWideWeb.
Berners-Lee, now 41, left CERN in 1994 to found the World Wide Web Consortium, a nonprofit group of research institutions and Web technology users and providers. Headquartered at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science, W3C's mandate is to try to guide the Web's evolution - a task Berners-Lee describes as frantically trying to steer a bobsled that is careering downhill at ever-accelerating speeds.
Mr. Berners-Lee also list in TIME 100 - The Most Important People of the 21 Centry.
Interview with the Web's Creator in 1999 Oct Via Wired.
Stuart Weibel Interviews Tim Berners-Lee July 29, 2003 Via OCLC (Online Computer Library Center).
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What is Metadata:
metadata would be a machine understandable set of standards for describing data. This would enable Web functions like ratings and comparison shopping. Music retailers, for example, could create a standard set of HTTP queries for searching all music databases on the Web.The World Wide Web Consortium heads up several metadata efforts, such as the PICS project for labeling content and the Digital Signature Initiative.
Chinese definition:
"Meta Data" 指的是描述資料本身特性的資料，在全球資訊網上，它指的是讓機器看得懂的、描述資訊內容的所有相關資訊，例如描述資訊的所有權、著作權、流通權、隱私維護政策等，這可以幫助上網者更方便使用資訊。由於網路上對於這些相關資訊的需求愈來愈大，我們正在設計各種方法，將電腦能夠了解、辨認的資訊放上網路。目前以ＨＴＭＬ編寫的網頁，基本上是為了讓人類閱讀而設計的。將來，有一部份的網頁將會以所謂「資源描述結構 (Resource Description Framework,RDF)」寫成，由電腦軟體負責閱讀，幫助人類組織所有的資料。〞
Metadata Resource:
Frequently-asked questions on metadata
A review of metadata
Metadata for the masses
Metadata and Resource Description (W3C)
Metadata Information Day, Lund, October 11, 1996
Schoolnet Metadata Consultation
Metadata初探
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Google is the most popular search engine in the world. Right now UW (University of Washington) professor Joe Janes open the world first goole class for his graduate students.
This class — taught by University of Washington Information School professor Joe Janes — isn't a simple class on Web searching that one might find at a library or a community college. This is a graduate-level course (albeit only one credit) that explores Google as a cultural phenomenon, Google the business, the technology behind Google — and "Google the Ravager of Worlds."
Oh, my goodness! Google's founders may be very pround to heard this news. A "great company" whose researchers have a "high level of IQ" that remind him of “Microsoft 20 years ago." Says Mr.Gates in
WEF Davos 2004. Via
AO. Google is creating miracle.
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Google fans Nancy Blachman has put everything together about google and build up an elegant new Interactive online Google tuorial: Googleguide.com
GoogleGuide
Why Take The Google Guide Tutorial?
Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a fraction of Google's features and services. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.
Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information.
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02/ 6/2004
Online advertising and mobile-phone messaging (SMS) give Sohu.com Inc big increased profit in last year. Also its first full-year profit in 2003. Via AlwaysON
Sohu said Tuesday it earned $26.4 million, or 66 cents a share, for the full year under U.S. accounting rules compared with a loss of $1 million, or 3 cents a share, in 2002.
Alike Sohu, other two Chinese internet protals Sina.com, Netease.com also got a big step in profit, they both had a huge revenues in 2003. Netease CEO DingLei almost be the richest man in China since their shares 50 times increased in NASDAQ stock market.
Although those three big protals went to profit and expended their business in other fields like online game, wireless access via mobile phones, but they were losting their reputation gradually. Sexual pic, message and nasty stories all over the site. I think one site attracted visitor not only service but also culture and information quality.
1864 Comments
Stephen Wolfram's new book "A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE" provide a online edition in Wolframscience.com
About this book:
This long-awaited work from one of the world's most respected scientists presents a series of dramatic discoveries never before made public. Starting from a collection of simple computer experiments--illustrated in the book by striking computer graphics--Stephen Wolfram shows how their unexpected results force a whole new way of looking at the operation of our universe.
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Well-known Janet Jackson overexposure on sunday night's super bowl half time show (Detail please see CNN). OK, Some genius brought us a Cupcakes copied Jackson's nipple ring! This "artwork" from The Amateur Gourmet. Spotted point it out step by step to make this Breast Capcakes.
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A PC technician Andy use his skill to put PC components to Apple dual G5 case for a replacement! His stupid action brought on an unbelievable reaction from the Mac community. Thoundsand of email and message fill in his mail box with plenty of damnation.
The hoaxer, identified only as "Andy," claimed he received a dual-processor G5 for Christmas. But preferring a Windows PC, he swapped out the insides of the $3,000 machine for the guts of a cheapo PC. The post included several digital photographs to prove the outrageous claim.
How stupid his is! man! although he said this is just a joke, but put the crab PC components to the Dream machine's case, this is the truly blasphemy behavior.
His original post on overlocked.com: How I PC'd an Apple G5
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