A video taken from a law firm’s seminar on hiring H-1b workers clearly has set off a firestorm. In the video, the firm touts a number of loopholes to help firms prefer immigrant workers to US workers. The posting has received thousands of views, and been picked up by several news outlets. See the eWeek article for more information.
In the coming election, watch to see if the “user generated content” websites like digg, YouTube, blogs, etc., have an effect. They will surely have an effect on PR.
Law Firm’s Video a ‘Blatant Disregard for American Workers’
Monthly Archives: June 2007
Vista SP1
At one time, when a new version of a product came out–whoever the manufacturer: Microsoft, Sage, etc.–we waited from 90 to 180 days to see what patches, service packs, upgrades, etc. would be released. Inevitably, there would be changes. Today, it’s not so easy to do that. Products release major updates or fixes that have features needed or fixes required. Many businesses have been delaying the implementation of Vista for just this reason. Now it looks like it will be late this year or next before we see SP1 for Vista.
The search changes would allow users to select a default search provider and offer new links to the default provider.
Certainly, Microsoft and its customers would benefit from the search changes coming before there are massive Vista deployments. But the changes would be a reason for some businesses to further delay Vista deployments.
Julie Giera, a Forrester Research vice president, said that she believes many businesses would further delay deployments because of the search changes.
Is Open Source Dying?
The article in eWeek with the title above really doesn’t answer the question that is asked. It really answers the question, “Is open source dying in the public sector?” In California and Massachusetts, the state experiments that intend to use open source are evidently going badly. As one quote from the article says,
Sources close to the situation tell me that former state CIO Peter Quinn’s resignation happened at least in part because of delaying tactics by vendors who publicly support open source but do their best to scuttle it behind the scenes.
I don’t think the article supports the idea that open source might be in jeapordy in the larger market.
Is Open Source Dying?
Porn In Legit Sites
One of the first articles I wrote for the Memphis Business Journal was about protecting kids from porn. In the current print issue of InformationWeek (which I just read), there’s an article about a substitute teacher that has been convicted of risk of injury to a minor.
She claims, of course, that the porn just appeared. She did nothing wrong.
And if you’ve ever used a computer that’s been infected with a virus or spamware, you believe her. Your computer takes on a life of its own. Windows appear and disappear.
The bigger issue here (article below) is that the market for spamming blogs (like this one) must be pretty good. I spend a few minutes every day clearing the link-backs and comments from people who want to sell drugs that make me feel good or enhance body parts I don’t have (and a few that I do have), or make me more attractive to potential mates (I’ve been married happily 19 years), or take me to porn sites that have a variety of offered wares from teenagers to transgender folk to men and women of various ages.
And if I miss one of these comments (I rarely let anything pass until I’ve reviewed it thoroughly), you might find a link to something you don’t want to see.
Watch what you click, and take a look at the InformationWeek article below.
Experts Warn Links To Child Porn Hidden In Legit Web Sites — Security — InformationWeek
GPLv3: Linux Creator Torvalds Balks
I’ve written before about GPL v3. It seems that the list of folks that are opposed to this release of GPL now includes Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. The critical provisions to Torvalds seem like the ones that are bothering everyone. Here’s the quote from an InformationWeek article:
Key changes from GPLv2 include a ban on deals under which open source distributors agree to patent protection arrangements with commercial software developers. GPLv3 also adds a prohibition on including open source software in consumer appliances that don’t allow user modifications.
The Free Software Foundation says such arrangements and features violate the spirit of open source software, which is meant to be used and shared freely. The two provisions are squarely aimed at Microsoft and digital video recorder manufacturer Tivo.
Dynamics NAV Upgrade Toolkit
Microsoft is being pretty quiet about when the NAV upgrade toolkit might be ready. We’ve heard, though, from one of the other related vendors that the current release is anticipated sometime in July…I expect that after we allow time to look at it and do a sample migration of our own data that we’re looking at 4th Quarter before we start client migrations to 5.0 in earnest. We’ll keep you updated, though.
GPLv3 “Final” Draft Released
The newest version of the GNU (or General) Public License, GPLv3 has been generating controversy for months. At issue have been a number of issues of license compatibility (that is, what if my software is under GPLv2 and yours is GPLv3?). The inital drafts concerned many in the user community, particularly since there were circumstances in which all software would have to be the same version of GPL in order to (legally) be deployed together. Those issues–says the Free Software Foundation–have been fixed.
The bigger issue for Microsoft and Novell is a provision in GPLv3 that states (basically) that if you distribute software under GPLv3, you can’t press patent claims against anyone who uses the software–no matter how they got it. Read the exact language in the eWeek article.
The key question here: Does this kill the Microsoft-Novell deal? Most think it does…
FSF Releases the Final Draft of GPLv3