__/ [ Mark Dodel ] on Friday 08 September 2006 22:13 \__
> On Fri, 8 Sep 2006 09:15:47 UTC, Roy Schestowitz
> <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> -> Microsoft runs out of Vista product keys
> ->
> -> ,----[ Quote ]
> -> | A small hitch has cropped up in Microsoft's beta-testing program for
> -> | Vista: the software giant has temporarily run out of product keys for
> -> | testers.
> -> `----
> ->
> ->
>
http://www.apcstart.com/site/dwarne/2006/09/1314/microsoft-runs-out-of-vista-product-keys
> -> -> Sounds similar to WGA false positives.
>
> You know what is really hilarious? I read in my local paper today
> that a high school was built in Philadelphia entirely at the direction
> of Microsoft. They provided no funding just their "management
> expertise". The retards left out the library. That way gates can
> control all the information these poor kids get to see I guess. The
> local tax payers were hosed as the damn thing cost over $46 million.
> Though "Microsoft will fund a full-time Microsoft Technology
> Architect". weenieDOS only for sure. What fantastic advise the
> scumsucking cretins at microskank provide!
>
> Mark
I agree that textbooks are a thing of the past, but I doubt Wikipedia will be
used for education (OLPC will sport Wikipedia, BTW). That school is,
needless to mention, a Microsoft developer/supporter factory. And I bet that
the course material will be based on Microsoft's biassed encylopedia, which
is tied to a business agenda. Have a look:
Changing the Report, After the Vote
,----[ Quote ]
| That agreement was nearly imperiled last weekend, though. Gerri
| Elliott, corporate vice president at Microsoft's Worldwide Public
| Sector division, sent an e-mail message to fellow commissioners Friday
| evening saying that she "vigorously" objected to a paragraph in which
| the panel embraced and encouraged the development of open source software
| and open content projects in higher education. The paragraph read like
| this:
|
| "The commission encourages the creation of incentives to promote
| the development of open-source and open-content projects at universities
| and colleges across the United States, enabling the open sharing of
| educational materials from a variety of institutions, disciplines, and
| educational perspectives. Such a portal could stimulate innovation, and
| serve as the leading resource for teaching and learning. New initiatives
| such as OpenCourseWare, the Open Learning Initiative, the Sakai Project,
| and the Google Book project hold out the potential of providing universal
| access both to general knowledge and to higher education."
`----
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/01/commission
Microsoft /controls/ education at a federal level.
Also see (old messages from Nessuno):
Quote:
------------
Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in
much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After
logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit
work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades - all from a
program running on a PC.
Click to learn more...
It may seem self-evident that virtual classrooms should closely
resemble real ones. But a major education software company contends it
wasn't always so obvious. And now, in a move that has shaken up the
e-learning community, Blackboard Inc. has been awarded a patent
establishing its claims to some of the basic features of the software
that powers online education.
-------------
End quote
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/ap_on_hi_te/e_learning_dispute
See also:
http://money.netscape.cnn.com/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-1333&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060827%2F1457575948.htm&sc=1333
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2362437
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/02/1217219
This may appear to be just a new, obnoxious example of patent trolling
(in this case by Blackboard). However, there are connections between
Blackboard and Microsoft:
http://www.blackboard.com/company/press/release.aspx?id=510542
http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/751121
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2001/04/23/daily13.html
http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2001/12/04/news/4013.shtml
http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i13/13a02701.htm
Quote:
----------
Charlene A. Douglas isn't surprised that Microsoft wants to get into
the booming business
of online-software systems for higher education, or that it has
recently formed a close alliance with Blackboard, a company whose
software helps colleges put their courses on the Internet....
In what the two companies call a "preferred relationship," Microsoft
will promote Blackboard to its education customers and Blackboard will
suggest that its clients use the Microsoft Windows operating system to
run Blackboard on their servers to take advantage of special features
available only to Microsoft users.
----------
End quote
See also:
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=98283
Additions:
Quote:
----------
US courts are endangering the very existence of free and open source
software, according to a leading digital rights pressure group...
The Federal Court of Appeals has recently used a "suggestion test" to
determine whether or not a patent is "obvious". The EFF argues that the
test forces those opposing a patent's grant to produce documents
proving that even the most obvious improvement has been suggested
before....
"In the case of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects, the
suggestion test has especially pernicious effects," it says. "Because
[open source] collaborations are forged primarily through community
rather than capital investment, many FOSS projects lack the funding to
pay patent counsel, much less afford litigation. Thus, the normal costs
of doing business in the patent-laden world of information technology
- opinion letters, litigation, etc. - are exponentially detrimental
for FOSS."
-------------
End quote
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/29/oss_under_pressure/
My addition:
Patent fight rattles academic computing
,----[ Quote ]
| The patent, awarded to the Washington, D.C.-based company in January
| but announced last month, has prompted an angry backlash from the
| academic computing community, which is fighting back in techie fashion --
| through online petitions and in a sprawling Wikipedia entry that helps
| make its case.
|
| Critics say the patent claims nothing less than Blackboard's ownership
| of the very idea of e-learning. If allowed to stand, they say, it could
| quash the cooperation between academia and the private sector that has
| characterized e-learning for years and explains why virtual classrooms
| are so much better than they used to be.
|
| [...]
|
| Why are universities concerned? Many use off-the-shelf systems sold
| by Blackboard already. But others use rival companies like Desire2Learn,
| or mix and match to meet their own needs. Because universities are
| decentralized and have such varied systems, one size rarely fits all,
| says Feldstein. Many borrow from open-source courseware programs with
| names like "Moodle" and "the Sakai Project."
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060827/ap_on_hi_te/e_learning_dispute
Best wishes,
Roy
--
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