While it’s a …

While it’s a little hard to believe, here’s an article from the extreme right about the implications of “Homeland Security” and the losses of freedom that accompany it. [Thanks, jcw]

Microsoft on a Mission: “More than anything else, XP reminds me of a tourist trap. You arrive in a foreign city, and a handsome stranger walks up to you and says he will show you around the city. He offers to take you to the very best shops and restaurants. But you soon realize that he is taking you only to places that are owned by his relatives or by someone who gives him a kickback.

The Talking Moose says that Windows Messenger is spyware. Apparently, you can’t quit the application if you’re running Outlook, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer or Internet Explorer. Of course, Windows Messenger requires the use of a Passport account so that Microsoft can track your every movement and leak all your credit card and personal information to unscrupulous hackers who take advantage of the as-yet-undiscovered security holes. Microsoft is attempting to “link” all of their applications together and create unnecessary cross-application dependencies. Here’s a hacker tip: find a hole in one app and you’ve found a hole in them all.

When is a word processor not a word processor? Lovely quote from Microsoft: “Microsoft’s approach regarding the spell checker dictionary and thesaurus is to not suggest words that may have offensive uses or provide offensive definitions for any words. The dictionary and spell checker is updated with each release of Office to ensure that the tools reflect current social and cultural environments.” Uh, that seems a bit heavy-handed, you think? I’m sure that they haven’t but wouldn’t it be just perfect if Microsoft removed the word “monopoly” from their dictionary? What about “dictatorship?” I’m also betting that the words “Net” and “Passport” are Microsoft-ized (I haven’t checked). Puh-leeze Microsoft, what’s so wrong with licensing Webster’s? At least with that option, we’d be able to avoid the ridiculous subtle bias you seem intent on inflicting upon your users. [via flutterby]

In true Microsoft fashion, the Company decided to block users of Mozilla and Opera from being able to visit MSN.com, but then backpedaled after the media caught wind of the latest bullshit wafting from Redmond. Microsoft’s spokeperson claims that they did this because Opera and Mozilla don’t comply to the W3C standards. Huh? What kind of funny weed are they smoking up there in Redmond? Both Mozilla and Opera are more W3C standards-compliant than both IE 5 and IE 6. Oh, I find it rather humorous that MSN.com renders fairly well in Netscape 4.x, and is not one of the user-agents that was being blocked. This fact alone makes Microsoft’s standards-compliancy excuse seem blatantly ridiculous, since everyone knows that Netscape 4.x is the worst browser in the world when it comes to supporting standards.

I learned an interesting lesson today while doing some site production. I wanted to duplicate a directory and then move it inside itself. So from the comamnd line I typed:

cp -r directory directory/newdirectory

People who fully understand Unix will know what happens. In fact, they’re probably giggling pretty hard right now because they know that this creates a recursive loop, as Unix tries to copy a directory into itself. I realized what happened when the command failed after filling half a screen full of */newdirectory/newdirectory/newdirectory/*. The solution isn’t to try to copy the directory into itself, but to copy it first with cp and then move it with mv.

OK, this is just silly.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at October 25, 2001 04:16 PM

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