AMD's Pacifica revealed in full

"Pacifica has an advantage in that the AMD64 architecture, as implemented on the K8 family of chips, all have a memory controller on the CPU. This allows Pacifica to pull some tricks, and those tricks are found in two new memory modes called Shadow Page Tables and Nested Page Tables. Both allow Pacifica to do in hardware much of what VT needs to do in software."

NewsForge | Why technical writers aren't using FOSS

"Most important of all, many tech writers are more tolerant of the shortcomings of proprietary software than of FOSS. Kim-Eng sees a similar trend in both FOSS and proprietary software, yet while it keeps him from using FOSS, it does not discourage him from using proprietary software. In the same way, few experienced technical writers would expect to learn FrameMaker overnight, but, when they have trouble finding a feature in OpenOffice.org Writer, they jump to the conclusion that it isn't there -- although it almost always is, unless it's online collaboration tools. Moreover, a few perceived flaws in Writer or perhaps a beta release can cause them to reject it, although they will go to great lengths to find workarounds for problems in Word. For many tech writers, the unspoken assumption is still that FOSS is inferior to proprietary software. As a result, they do not approach it with anything like the same willingness to learn."

I find this true in general. Regardless of whether "tech", "programmer" or "analyst" is in the job title, more and more people these days have no actual interest in technology. If adding columns of numbers by hand paid more, they would be just as happy (maybe happier) doing that.

I think this is often confusing for those of us who are interested in technology and what the possibilities are. We are a smaller minority than we know.

Apple - Support - Discussions - boot camp hosed my os x partition ...

Apple switch to Intel causing users to dump OS X for Windows!

SCTV Guide - News and information for all things SCTV

Love this stuff!

Firefox Flicks: Drama Queen

Boot Camp users reporting serious crashes | News.blog | CNET News.com

"To be precise, the common crisis is that after partitioning their hard drives and installing Windows XP--which seems to work fine--these people find they can no longer boot back into OS X."

AH HA!
That sneaky Microsoft has outsmarted poor Apple AGAIN!

� APL, COBOL, & Dijkstra | Paul Murphy | ZDNet.com

He said APL!

Games Toaster: Xbox 360: Streaming music over Live may breach laws

Live could possibly be seen as the music-streaming-equivalent of web torrents, not providing the content, but a means of distribution. Even if royalties organisation, such as the IMRO, ignored Live at first, if Microsoft was to grow the format to their ambitious targets could the music industry afford to ignore the issue？


Is our DRM ridden Internet economy come down with a case of what old-time doctors used to call "consumption"?

Cringely - A Whole New Ball Game

"The crying shame of this whole story is that Microsoft has given up on Windows security. They have no internal expertise to solve this problem among their 60,000-plus employees, and they apparently have no interest in looking outside for help. I know any number of experts who could give Microsoft some very good guidance on what is needed to fix and secure Windows. There are very good developers Microsoft could call upon to help them. But no, their answer is to rebuild your system every few days and start over. Will Vista be any better?"

You read it here first. Hehe.

Kaspersky warns of cross-platform virus proof of concept - Computerworld

"Though rare, this is not the first instance of such a virus appearing in the wild. In 2001, the sadmind/ISS worm exploited a hole in Sun Microsystems Inc.’s Solaris to infect systems running vulnerable versions of the operating system. Infected systems then scanned for and attacked servers running Microsoft Corp.’s IIS Web server software. That same year, another proof-of-concept virus named Winux infected both Windows and Linux systems."

Mac Users Awaken from Stupor

"This added capability, however, may cause most uncertainty to current Mac game developers who have always had an uphill battle in providing timely ports to the Mac platform. Some fear that bringing Windows XP booting ability to the Intel Macs may reduce incentive to produce for the Mac-specific market."

Well DUH!

Ya think?

From Boot Camp to Legacy API? An Apple timeline | The Register

December 2008:Microsoft announces a $200m investment in the Legacy Products Division of Apple Entertainment Products Inc, formerly Apple Computer Inc, and now a $20 billion a year company. "We have supported Apple for 25 years and are happy to do so again," says Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. "This reaffirms Microsoft's commitment to healthy competition in the PC marketplace".

I'm not sure if this was meant to be funny, but it seems perfectly likely to me.

And then there is this:
Solaris x86 experience predicts security disaster for Mactel

Wired News: Laptop Detractors Shrugged Off

"Negroponte expressed frustration with Gates in particular, saying that the $100 laptop designers are still working with Microsoft to develop a version of the Windows CE operating system that could run the machines.

'Geez, so why criticize me in public?' Negroponte said.

Microsoft did not immediately return calls for comment."

And when they do it will probably go something like this: "But, uh, umm, how much of the $100 do WE get? Oh, and can we put our logo all over it?"

Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible

"Danseglio said malicious hackers are conducting targeted attacks that are 'stealthy and effective' and warned that the for-profit motive is much more serious than even the destructive network worms of the past. 'In 2006, the attackers want to pay the rent. They don't want to write a worm that destroys your hardware. They want to assimilate your computers and use them to make money.

'At Microsoft, we are fielding 2,000 attacks per hour. We are a constant target, and you have to assume your Internet-facing service is also a big target,' Danseglio said."

Prisoner of Redmond

"Four years later, when Microsoft had left New Mexico for offices in a bank building in Bellevue, Washington, and Jack Sams came from IBM looking for an operating system for the secret Project Acorn -- the IBM PC -- Allen was still the guy in charge. Sams mistook Gates for the office assistant. Though both Gates and Ballmer took part in those first talks with IBM, Sams recalled that the authority figure was definitely Paul Allen."