Month October 2006

Microsoft Software EULA: You (don't) have the right to *

Horrendous EULA restrictions for the upcoming Vista. While EULAs are of arguable legal status in many countries, I'd like to believe that they might be enough to persuade some Windows users who respect their rights and are on the fence to switch to software without such ridiculously restricting licences.

Java. Open. At last!

JCP was a move in the right direction. Open Sourcing Java is a huge leap forward and will hopefully breathe new life into the platform. However, I do hope that someone, be it Sun or a Java Foundation will retain control and prevent Java from losing the edge due to endless debates and lack of focus.

Patently Insane

If you’re living in Europe you might have heard of the debate on Software Patents. That is patents regarding software. This essentially equates to patenting abstract ideas, not implementations of these ideas. This is not just dangerous for progress, business and innovation. It’s nonsensical. Take a look at this article from ArsTechnica. US 5,796,967 – […]

Η ΕΕΤΤ απαντά!

Στις 13 Σεπτεμβρίου 2006, έστειλα ένα γράμμα στην Εθνική Επιτροπή Τηλεπικοινωνιών και Ταχυδρομείων (ΕΕΤΤ) σχετικά με το ζήτημα της τιμολογιακής διαφοράς μεταξύ των προσφορών ADSL και της λιανικής για χρήστες που ήδη έχουν γραμμές και συνδρομές ADSL στο όνομά τους. Σχετικά με το θέμα είχα γράψει και παλαιότερα εδώ στο cosmix.org. Τα βασικά ζητήματα είναι […]

Back from the abyss.

Okay, I’m almost done with this paper that I’ve been writing for a few weeks. Deadline is tomorrow morning, I think I’ll send it in later tonight. A whole lot of things to talk about though. Why .Mac could have been great I just ended my subscription to .Mac. No, I am not rich, and […]

Is 2007 going to be nice to Linux?

Linux on the desktop has come a long way and for a significant number of desktop uses (e.g. secretarial work, enterprise desktop, among others) it is a cheap, viable, high quality and usable platform. For many years there was a considerable difference in the multimedia, graphics and user-friendly feature support between Windows/OS X and linux. […]

Η Apple έχει call centre στην Ελλάδα.

Μπορεί να μην έχει αντιπροσωπεία στη χώρα μας, η Apple όμως φαίνεται πως έχει call centre στην Ελλάδα προς εξυπηρέτηση ευρωπαίων πελατών της. Ένας φίλος, μόνιμος κάτοικος Γαλλίας, αναγκάστηκε να τηλέφωνήσει στο Apple Store Γαλλίας, (τηλ. 0800 046 046, από Γαλλία), όταν αντί του προϊόντος που είχε ζητήσει έλαβε κάποιο άλλο. Καθώς συνομιλούσε με κάποια […]

Lost priorities.

In a previous article, I wrote how this year’s WWDC was probably the most uninteresting of all the WWDCs I’ve followed from 2002 onwards. In that article, I quoted a small part of an interview that Jef Raskin gave to the British newspaper, the Guardian. The quote was: “One only cares about getting something done. […]

Google loves the sun.

Their all-good-no-evil aura might be almost gone, but Google is still impressing with some of its actions. Google HQ is going solar, as 30% of its power needs will be catered by the sun through 1.6MW-producing solar panels. Excellent.