Alan F. Shugart, 76, a Developer of Disk Drive Industry, Dies

Thanks goes to patterson for this article. Since this is a NY Times article you either need a free registration or butmenot to read it. Sorry about that. It is worth the effort.

I've owned both Conners and Seagates, by the way :-).

Skype's free call plan to charge annual fee | CNET News.com

Well, I guess its official. Skypeout will no longer be free after 12/31.

Skype 3.0 for Windows

Official release. Version: 3.0.0.190. Release date: December 13, 2006
File name: SkypeSetup.exe File size: 19 MB
Skype A full year of unlimited calls to any phone in the US and Canada for $14.95
Make phone calls right from your computer.
PC to PC will always be free, We don't know what will happen to the free PC to phone calls we get now after the first of the year.
AlaskaJoe

Boing Boing: Milblog project gives hundreds of laptops to wounded US soldiers

I thought this was a geeky way to honor U.S. Soldiers, and that it would interest all (3 of us? ;)) who read the blog :)
--MissM

Ad-hoc charity group Valour-IT ("Voice-Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops") has donated more than 700 laptops loaded with voice-recognition software to US soldiers who've lost the ability to type due to lost limbs or severe hand/arm injuries. They expect to have delivered 850 or more by Christmas. A number of blogs authored by active duty military and vets worked together to raise awareness on the project. Mark Glaser at PBS Mediashift blog says,

It started last year when Army Captain Chuck Ziegenfuss injured both his hands and wanted to get back to blogging. His blog readers pitched in for Dragon Naturally Speaking software, and he and another blogger, FbL, put together Valour-IT and have raised more than $330,000 with two online Veteran's Day fundraisers fueled by milbloggers.

Boing Boing: Milblog project gives hundreds of laptops to wounded US soldiers

IT Confidential: Microsoft Is Mired In Vista, Report Says

I really don't know if this story is based in fact or not. If it is, Microsoft itself considers Vista as a problem without equal and one requiring "outside the box" solutions. Some of those given in the article are said tongue in cheek, but others are apparently reasonable reactions to an extreme problem.

Veeeeery interesting.

Jack

Microsoft answers IP questions posed in LXer open letter

LXwe sent an open letter to Microsoft after Steve (quiet as a mouse) Ballmer said that Linux definitely infringed on MS' intellectual property. Microsoft spokespeople have provided answers to the questions and the link above will take you there.

Personally, I did not find much substance to the Microsoft answers and so conclude theie reply is merely a continuation of a FUD campaign.

Jack

France plans open source centre of excellence

Last week, I read an article saying that Europe loves open source, but no one is using it, meaning that very few organizations or even departments had made the jump away from proprietary software and operating systems. It rang true, too!

The exception to that is the French, who are moving to Linux and free software at a noticeable pace. The reason is that using proprietary software drains such a significant amount of money from French coffers and transfers it out of the country. The "freedom" of open source is a secondary, but still counted, aspect of the deal.

Whether or not this "center of excellence" for free and open source software will yield any solid results is beside the point. What really matters is that the French are taking things seriously enough that they wish a repository of knowledge regarding building, deploying and using free software to be close at hand. Obviously, they intend using it enough to justify it's existence.

Jack

OnComputers Radio show Podcast 12-10-06

This is the On Computers Radio show podcast for 12-10-06. You can listen live every Sunday from 10AM to 1PM Pacific thats 1PM to 4PM Eastern. If you prefer, you can download the same file here via ftp.