Microsoft Breaks MIME …

Microsoft Breaks MIME Specification. But, is this is a real bug? Microsoft has a long history of making their products incompatible in order to force end users to migrate towards their platform. This “bug” may very well be an intentional flaw designed to force people to use Microsoft email clients. I would not put it past Microsoft.

Boing Boing turns two today. Congrats Cory, Mark and the gang. Keep up the good work.

The big news over the weekend was that AOL is in acquisition talks with Red Hat. This makes sense when you think about it. Microsoft’s lock-in strategy works because they own both the OS and the browser and are able to combine them in ways that create a bigger monopoly. AOL, who clearly sees Microsoft as its biggest competitor, would like to do the same thing. Think about how easy it would be for AOL to distribute an AOL-customized version of Linux with an AOL-customized version of Mozilla (Netscape 6) all on a single CD, along with a mail client (an AOL-customized version of Netscape Mail) and AOL Instant Messenger. All of a sudden, AOL is free of Microsoft’s tentacles. By shipping a unified OS, web browser, email client and IM client, AOL is going down the same path Microsoft has been going down for some time now. The only danger here is if both companies decided to not play fair and make their products incompatible.

A year from now, this conversation may be normal:

Person One: What kind of computer do you have?
Person Two: I have an AOL 9.0 computer.

O’ReillyNet: Think Twice, Red Hat

On holiday mornings, it’s normal to watch cartoons and post to your weblog? Oh wait, I know what it is. The new neighbor upstairs used all the hot water and I’m waiting for the hot water heater to finish its job.

UK government report on operating systems and interoperability.

LA Times: Security Flaws May Be Pitfall For Microsoft. Um, industry people have been saying this for a long time now. It’s interesting to see the mainstream press finally pick up on it. The other huge issue that may be Microsoft’s pitfall is the lack of trust Microsoft has among its end users. Which, of course, is directly tied to security.

I had a great lunch today with Ed Vielmetti, Jeff Ubois and Cynthia Froggett. We talked about all kinds of things, most notably the differentiation between an online persona and the person themself.

Watching Scooby Doo cartoons this afternoon (for the first time in many years) and I can’t help but notice how minimal the animation is. Entire 10-15 second scenes of nothing moving but the mouths of the Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy moving. Zoinks! Some dialogue from Sccoby Doo:

Velma: Hey look, someone left the door open.
Fred : Hey, let’s go in.

Posted by Cameron Barrett at January 21, 2002 08:28 PM

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