Think [ . . . not Different, but IBM ]

CNet/John Spooner:

At a presentation for analysts, customers and reporters in New York City, the company described the “Think” campaign as recognition that PC buyers are less concerned with speed and more interested in getting the most out of their machines.

The heart of Think will be software designed to make IBM computers easier to use and quicker to recover from disaster. For example, the software will help restore a system after a failure, automatically configure network and Internet connections, and improve security.

In addition, IBM will rename its desktop PC line and PC-related services to incorporate the word “think.” The NetVista line of desktops, for example, will be replaced next year with ThinkCenter desktops. The company also will sell ThinkVision displays, ThinkServices and ThinkAccessories, which includes hardware such as network adapters.

Okay.  WHO got paid WHAT to come up with that?

The strategy unveiled Monday is designed to distinguish IBM from other PC makers such as Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard. IBM hopes that if it can offer PCs for about the same price as its competitors, potential customers will select IBM-based features that could reduce maintenance costs.

It’s funny.  The first thing I think of is “Think Different.”

Have you seen where I left my ThinkStick?  What about my ThinkMan?  My ThinkPhones?

CNet/Richard Shim:

Dell Computer is looking to put the squeeze on handheld makers with the introduction this month of two of its own handhelds.

I’m not sure if this is the best move for Dell considering the current slump in PDA sales, but they are a force to be reckoned with.  I wonder what they have come up with.

Werner Vogels:

I am at a GXA/WSDK (global webservices) dev meeting in Redmond. I am the only academic surrounded by about 30 platform & infrastructure vendors. The meeting will last for 3 days and will focus mainly on ws-security, ws-routing, ws-referal and dime, and ms’s implementation of them. Until now (noon first day) the presentations and discussions were mainly on basics of ws-security and the direction the spec is going to take.

Pascale Soleil on the .Mac killer service/app.  As soon as I read the title, I thought: iBlog.  It’s mentioned further down in the post.

Think about it: it’s a natural. Everyone wants a blog. Everyone wants nice spiffy templates designed by some of the best in the business. Everyone wants to have an excuse to use all those megabytes of webserver space.

Sam Gentile has pointed out several great .NET related articles:

• .NetWire: A walkthrough of Microsoft’s WSDK Tech Preview.
• .NetWire: Queued Components for .NET Enterprise Server.
• .NetWire: Why you should migrate to C#.

.NetWire is part of CNet’s builder.com.

Peter Drayton goes to (Seattle) Washington:

9:30pm Sunday @ Gate 89, Terminal 3, San Francisco International. I’m sitting here with a one-way ticket to Seattle. One-way. Wow. Seems slightly unreal…

The Register on SOAP 1.2 stumbling points:

With the ratifications of the proposed SOAP 1.2 standard within spitting distance, a number of intellectual property issues are proving stubbornly hard to shift. To date, standards body the W3C has cleared hundreds of hurdles in defining SOAP 1.2 but it has failed so far to overcome 11 IP issues.

Scott Johnson: 11 Signs You Need a De-Geeking Intervention.

John Udell on Groove Web Services:

HOW DO YOU PORT 5 million lines of Win32/COM code to the Pocket PC?

The answer is in his Infoworld article.

Kevin O’Neill points out that JBoss 3.0.4 is out.  This is aparently a bugfix release.  If you want to know more, you need to buy the official book.

The Worst Coders in Washington: the AOTC (American Open Technology Consortium) has compiled a list of lawmakers that have created laws that are bad for the internet along with their take from anti-net contributors. [via Doc]

Michael @ LibraryPlanet is back online with Red Hat 8 on a Microtel PC:

I am posting once again from my Linux computer: only this time running Red Hat 8. Major easy install that just involved swapping 2 CD’s and clicking next a bunch of times. Now, for the first time ever, I have Linux running permanently on a computer powerful enough to actually serve as a viable learning environment (and what I hope, eventually, is a viable web-hosting environment down the road).

I’m glad that I was able to take knowledge from my useless bin of information and let him know that Red Hat 8 and Via’s C3 play nice together.

I’ve been offline most of the day and will probably remain so.

Slashdot covers Ghost for Linux.

Hubert Feyrer released the latest version of g4u (“ghost for unix”), a NetBSD-based bootfloppy/CD-ROM image that allows one to easily clone PC harddisks by using FTP. Since it reads the disk bit by bit, it can create an image of any operating system and any file system. Besides, it’s free (under BSD style license).”

Rock! 

ExtremeTech/Rami Khater: KDE and Gnome Must Merge. [via Newsforge]

Simon Fell:

Job for today, read the Basic Profile Version 1.0 draft. Congrats to Keith and the rest of the folks for getting this out.

Phillip Windley:

This report from Reuters describes Microsoft’s efforts to block the sale of KMart’s bluelight.com ISP in bankruptcy proceedings because of the terms of the software licenses on the servers and other gear.

Sticky licenses…

Congrats to Greg Klebus, I hadn’t realized that he had thrown the switch on his self-hosted blog.  Actually, I think I tried to go over there a few days ago, but the DNS entry hadn’t made it to my part of the world yet…

If I bought a warship, I’d probably call it Badtz Maru too.

MUDs and MOOs

K5: Dirty MUD:

Before EverCrack and after Adventure, there was a time when weekend wizards and warriors could gather online to rid the world of evil (or good), battle monsters (and sometimes each other), collect treasure and artifacts and rise in fame, power and glory.

While some may naively think the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games phenomena is a new thing, the idea actually goes back quite some time. While there are many differences (pro and con) between the newer graphical games and the original text adventures, they share a common ancestry.

I thought I’d take this time to share a little about my past.  When I was in middle school, I was an operator/moderator for the Science & Technology section of CapAccess, a DC area freenet.  It was great to have access to usenet newsgroups, gopher sites, and local content long before the graphical internet was upon us.  Yes, even before the Trumpet Winsock days.

I digress.  I also spent a ton of my time at ViBES: the Virtual Interactive Blair Environment System.  ViBES was/is a virtual environment, a MUD (multi-user dungeon/domain) or MOO (object oriented multisomething).  It was massivly multiplayer before the term was coined.  It was text based but sucked hours (and hours) from me each week.  Eventually I hung around enough that I was an operator of ViBES, which allowed me some control over what happened.

My name was Prometheus.

Here’s the only mention that I could quickly find on Google:

VIBES – cap.gwu.edu. ViBES (Virtual Interactive Blair Environment System) is set at Montgomery Blair High School (though you can leave to go to place in the DC area). Most activity centres around the computer labs or people’s own areas. Access is open to all. You must first get an account on CapAccess. Dial 202-785-1523 or telnet cap.gwu.edu log: guest passwd:visitor. Once on cap, type go vibes to get to the vibes area. Dan Sandler is the account manager. dsandler@cap.gwu.edu

CapAccess and ViBES was a significant part of my middle school experience, therefore it must be blogged.  You may start laughing at me now, if you haven’t started doing so already… 🙂