Posted 8:56 AM (0) comments

Stop the ads, but let all the viruses in

The Register has now published relevant parts of California state senator Liz Figueroa's bill to prevent Google from offering its new Gmail product. One paragraph reads:

"This section does not prevent a provider of e-mail or instant messaging services to California customers from filtering unsolicited e-mail for removing spam or for managing computer viruses or other malicious programs."

Only problem? Anti-virus software filters all e-mail, not just "unsolicited e-mail" (it has no way of knowing which messages are solicited and which aren't, nor is there any conceivable way for it to tell!). Do-gooder Figueroa (she also authored California's draconian "do not call" legislation) may actually become the person who outlawed anti-virus software!

Posted 8:39 AM (0) comments

He'll take the credit, not the blame

In a bid to become poster boy for the whining generation, PeopleSoft's Craig Conway now says that the Oracle saga is not over. Six months ago, when PeopleSoft reported a good quarter, Conway trumpeted the "fact" that he had beaten back the Oracle takeover bid. This week, in the face of poor quarterly results, Conway blamed Oracle for sowing FUD among PeopleSoft's customer base.

I've had negative reactions to Conway's activities before (here and here). This man has succeeded in making Larry Ellison - once one of the most loathed men in California - look angelic, refined and equanimitible. That's quite a talent, Mr. Conway!

Posted 8:46 PM (0) comments

Even his supposed friends think MacBride's gone too far

Lot's of folks think SCO's Darl MacBride has gotten just a bit too obnoxious in his war against Linux. We've agreed with that sentiment but up til now there wasn't much anyone could do about it. Now the New York Times reports that VC firm Baystar Capital is demanding its $50 million ($20 mil from Baystar, $30 mil from the Royal Bank of Canada) investment be returned precisely because "The public statements from Darl McBride, SCO's chief executive, were too frequent and too grand for BayStar's liking."

Bravo Baystar. You woke up to this nasty situation late, but better late than never. Maybe now the Canopus Group, major backers of SCO, will pull the plug on this whole embarrassing mess.

Posted 8:47 AM (0) comments

And the winner is.....

Here's your chance to nominate folks for major Identity Management Industry Awards to be presented at the Digital ID World 2004 Conference.

Posted 2:35 PM (0) comments

CA still doesn't get it.

Computer Associates' honcho Sanjay Kumar stepped down as CEO it was announced today, but he remains with the company in the newly created position of "chief software architect". No replacement as CEO has been named.

CA came under intense pressure to make changes at the top when they announced the firing, earlier this week, of 9 mid to high level employees in legal and financial roles. CA has been under investigation by the SEC for some time for incidents that occured during Kumar's tenure as CEO and COO. This latest move may satisfy the board of directors, but stockholders and regulators will probably have much more to say about this slap on the wrist for the chief architect of the scandal-plagued company.

Its what I'd expect from this company, though. I've found CA to be essentially clueless over the years, and this latest step just reinforces that feeling.

Posted 8:35 AM (0) comments

A rss is a rss is a rss...

Signal vs. Noise asked readers to define RSS in ten words or less. (For the uninformed, an rss feed is what you get when you right-click that orange "xml" button to the left of here, choose "copy shortcut" then paste it into your favorite news aggregator, such as NewzCrawler).

My favorites:

* Remember Pointcast? Kinda like that, only actually useful
* If the WSJ redesigned the WWW, it'd look like RSS

But the Best real definition, I think, is: "Sends news you want to you, no email, no spam" from Stephan Downes.

Posted 9:57 AM (0) comments

Death, taxes and Bill Gates

Now that April 15th is past (tax day here in the US), it must be time to turn our attention to this year's revamp of Microsoft's licensing policies. According to a story in eWeek, quoting Steve Ballmer, Microsoft is Eying Pay-as-You-Go Licensing perhaps as early as next year. This would allow Application Service Providers (ASPs) to license software on behalf of their clients rather than have the clients negotiate volume pricing with Microsoft. While this might "level" the payments an organization has to make, easing budgeting requirements, its sure to cost the organizations more in the long run. The ASPs won't take on added paperwork without some recompense and Microsoft has never willingly lowered a license fee.

Nothing has been set in stone yet, according to Ballmer, but volume licensees should pay close attention - Microsoft may be looking to big your pocket again.