Author: admin

Remember how Microsoft spread fear and doubt on open source software, claiming its users are sitting ducks for intellectual property lawsuits? Guess what, corporations that use Microsoft Office XP or 2003 are now seeing the indemnification that Microsoft offers them isn’t worth the CD-ROM it’s printed on:

“It was recently decided in a court of law that certain portions of code found in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Access 2003, Microsoft Office XP Professional and Microsoft Access 2002 infringe a third-party patent,” Microsoft said in an e-mail to customers. “As a result, Microsoft must make available a revised version of these products with the allegedly infringing code replaced.”

The question for companies, though, is if they are exposing themselves to potential legal liability if they don’t quickly move to the new software. Microsoft promises to indemnify customers from third-party patent claims, but [Gartner analyst Michael] Silver said the license terms also require customers to “immediately” move to any new noninfringing version that Microsoft releases.

For those who believe that FLOSS contains no guarantees, warranties or indemnification, they would be correct. But check the fine print on the EULA on that proprietary software you just paid thousands of dollars for. You aren’t getting any kind of protection there either.

There are several reasons for the prevalence of “pursuits.” First, L.A. has a strong car culture. Its residents spend so much time in their cars that they’re like second homes, and nobody likes to be told what to do in his own home. Second, the county has some twenty-two thousand miles of highways and streets, and this gives a suspect the illusion of endless escape routes. Third, local police forces have been much quicker to initiate pursuits than many municipal forces…And then there is Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca’s theory: “We have more idiots here than anywhere else.”

– Tad Friend, __New Yorker__, on the art of police pursuits

I am now playing __Need for Speed: Most Wanted__, the eighth sequel in a franchise that stretches back eleven years. EA’s stance on videogame sequels is similar to that of the Roman Catholic’s stance on child-bearing: no regrets and keep pumping them out.

Intriguingly, EA seems to also be starting a soap opera serial of sorts, as you reprise the silent, nondescript character from __Need for Speed: Underground__ and __Underground 2__.

Once again, evil and presumably moustache-twirling rivals have once again deprived you of your car, which without it you are even more nondescript than usual. There’s a new, well-textured city to drive haphazardly in, new cars to drive haphazardly in, and a fresh female population to impress with said haphazard driving. But this time, you have to deal with the local law enforcement.

All in all, it’s a well executed package. The madcap police chases, complete with roadblocks, police chatter and smashy-smashy is worth the price of admission alone.

But some lingering questions remain. What is with your allure for mechanically and mammary inclined sidekicks anyway? How do you do it? Perhaps it’s the size of your cupholders. I had originally suspected that you were, in fact, a woman, but all the new graphical enhancements have put that rumour to rest: you can see yourself inside the car! Unfortunately, you look like __Star Trek__’s Odo, but in a hoodie.

And how do you fuel your racing habit? Perhaps you work at one of the many Burger King or Best Buy establishments that plague the landscape. Perhaps we will find out in the next installment.

Google’s recent release of Google Pack, got me thinking about the digerati dilemma; unless you feel like wading through tens of thousands of programs listed on software libraries such as Freshmeat or Sourceforge, it’s nearly impossible to find the free, good stuff. Google Pack is basically just a grab-bag of quintessential freebies with an intelligent auto-updater thrown in, and yet it’s ingenious in its simplicity in giving users what they want, pronto.

It made me think of the other resources I use to find free, good Windows software. Some of it is open source, some of it is freeware, but they’re all great and the price is right. Here they are:

* TheOpenCD.org – A CD compilation of only the creme de la creme of open source software. They aren’t kidding either – they carry less than 20 titles. They make up for it though with their friendly CD install wizard user interface that comes complete with detailed descriptions of each piece of software.

* The OSSwin project – A comprehensive list of links to the best open source software in dozens of categories, from programming tools to educational software to CAD designers.

* Software For Starving Students – Seems to be more for starving arts students who like to procrastinate, considering its emphasis on music ripping, video editing, graphics design and arcade games, but still a good compilation. Besides, you can download this CD-ROM compilation easily via BitTorrent.

* Neowin’s Freeware Alternative List – A rather lengthy link list updated by the Neowin community. It’s unique to the others above as it contains many little handy one-off tools and programs you may otherwise may never have known about.

UPDATE Jan 26th: Lifehacker posted their own list of free quintessentials as the Lifehacker Pack.

For my own sanity, and everyone else’s, here’s my modified Diggler extension that is compatible with Mozilla Firefox 1.5. I only changed the maxversion value. Everything else is the clever creation of former Netscaper Adam Lock.

Instructions:
1. Download Diggler 0.91
2. Drag it into your Firefox window to install.
3. Enjoy! It will automatically upgrade your old Diggler version if you have it installed.

UPDATE: I understand that Diggler has some sort of conflict with Tab Mix Plus v2.0. Since I’m not an extension developer nor do I use Tab Mix Plus, I can’t really say what the fix would be (maybe a shared variable name?). Besides, Diggler was released first.

UPDATE #2: Extension maxversion has been tweaked to support Firefox 1.5.0.1 onwards to v1.6.

UPDATE #3: Diggler is now compatible with Firefox 2.0. Please go to this entry to get it.