|
Linux Pipeline Newsletter www.LinuxPipeline.com Wednesday, August 31, 2005 In This Issue: - SEC Filing Shows Microsoft Fears Firefox, Lawsuit Threats - Skype Opens VoIP, Messaging Platforms - Publishers Read Google Riot Act Over Book-Copying - More News... - Google Unlikely To Change Fragmented IM Market - IE Turns 10: Prodigy, Or Problem Child? - Apache: The First Open-Source Superpower? - More Picks... Join InformationWeek for a FREE, live TechWebCast, Not All IP Call Centers Systems are Created Equal. Attend this TechWebCast to learn the business reasons for moving to an IP contact center system, the distinctions between a Pure IP contact center system versus an IP-enabled system, and how to formulate a migration plan that best matches the particular needs of the company. Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - 11:00-12:00 PT / 2:00-3:00 PM ET "http://www.techweb.com/webcasts/ipsystems091305" ----------------------------------------- Editor's Note: An Ill Wind I'm a New Orleans native; my family goes back at least six generations in that city. The house where I lived my first five years was the same one my parents had been lucky to escape with their lives the year before I was born: The storm surge from Hurricane Betsy breached the levee two blocks down the street, leaving them in chest-deep water by the time a neighbor pulled them into his boat. We left New Orleans when I was still in grade school, but I have returned frequently over the years. A number of my relatives still live in the city -- some still close, some virtual strangers, all of them by now wondering how their homes could have survived the wrath of nature, only to have bad luck and human folly step in to finish the job. If you want to get a sense of what has happened, don't rely on the evening news, or anything else you see on TV. Those folks are very good at what they do, and I don't begrudge the need to edit Katrina's wrath to suit the needs of a 24-minute network news program. And as of this afternoon, when rising water forced the staff of the New Orleans Times-Picayune to flee their offices and temporarily focus more on surviving than on updating the paper's Web site, the main official source of local news about Katrina had gone ominously silent. Fittingly, the last time I looked, the paper had left in the top spot of its news brief page a story about the only topic that could be more depressing to a New Orleans native than a killer hurricane: The New Orleans Saints. Nice try, guys. Once again, as we've seen so often in recent years, it's the bloggers -- the "citizen-journalists," as CNN calls them -- who have stepped up and demonstrated just how powerful this new medium can be. The mainstream media, to its credit, recognizes that power and has taken to blogging, or to publishing others' blogs, photos, video and other content, to supplement its own coverage. Yet the most compelling blog content has always been, and I believe always will be, material that keeps the professionals -- the folks who are trained their whole professional lives to strive for objectivity -- at a safe distance from the proceedings. If you haven't already been over there, Technorati set up a section dedicated to Katrina-related blogs. It's a better place to start than any individual blog, because those have been so changeable over the past couple of days. Very few, of course, are actually coming out of the New Orleans metro area, and the few that are will probably be offline by the time you read this. But there are plenty of blogs where people have talked to people, other stories have been linked, cross-referenced, and reality-checked, bits of cell phone conversations and cam pics assembled into something far larger than the sum of its parts. When it works, it's both more accurate and more gripping than any conventional coverage could be. There's still a place for the grey-haired veterans of wars, plagues and famines the world over who, I'm sure have already converged on a drowning city, ready to file their appropriately somber, carefully prepared, meticulously crafted stories during the weeks to come. They'll cover this hellish fiasco, but with all due respect, they won't even begin to get it. That's why I owe an immense debt to the people, the technologies, and the way of thinking that produced the blog just as surely as it produced Linux, Apache, and Perl -- those blogs are giving me the ability, however tenuous it may be, to see into a disaster that is in one sense more than a thousand miles away, and in another sense happening in my own back yard. And now, by the way, you know why the people of New Orleans spend so much time having a good time: Rebuilding a city, when the time comes, is damned hard work.
Matt McKenzie
Don't let future editions of Linux Pipeline Newsletter go missing. Take a moment to add the newsletter's address to your anti-spam whitelist: linuxed@techwire.com If you're not sure how to do that, ask your administrator or ISP. Or check your anti-spam utility's documentation. Thanks. Top Linux News SEC Filing Shows Microsoft Fears Firefox, Lawsuit Threats In its SEC regulatory filing, Microsoft for the first time ever acknowledged that Mozilla's browsers pose a security threat. The company also said that security vulnerabilities leave it open to litigation.
Skype Opens VoIP, Messaging Platforms
Publishers Read Google Riot Act Over Book-Copying
OpenOffice Enters Second Beta Release
Sun Lags Behind Growing Server Market
Porn Site Seeks Court Order Blocking Google, Amazon Search
Mozilla Posts Long-Awaited Update Tool
Linux Stands Out In Strong Server Market Editor's Picks Analysis: Google Unlikely To Change Fragmented IM Market In launching Google Talk, the search engine called for other major network providers, including AOL, MSN, and Yahoo, to work towards interoperability. Experts say it's unlikely.
IE Turns 10: Prodigy, Or Problem Child?
Apache: The First Open-Source Superpower?
Will Podcasting Pay?
Preview: Enterasys' Dragon Intrusion Detection 7.1
The Shape Of Macs To Come Cast Your Vote Now! This week's question, back because I think someone, somewhere, who is eligible to vote hasn't yet: Do you use anti-virus software with your open-source system?
Poll Results: Try Linux Pipeline's RSS Feed Linux Pipeline's content is available via RSS feed: Get RSS link. The feed is also auto-discoverable to many RSS readers from the Linux Pipeline home page. Note: RSS feeds are not viewable in most Web browsers. You need an RSS reader, Web-based service, or plug-in to view RSS. Find out which RSS readers the Pipeline editors recommend.
Check Out Our Linux Product Finder
Discover All The Pipelines
Recommend This Newsletter To A Friend
Join InformationWeek for a FREE, live TechWebCast, Not All IP Call Centers Systems are Created Equal. Attend this TechWebCast to learn the business reasons for moving to an IP contact center system, the distinctions between a Pure IP contact center system versus an IP-enabled system, and how to formulate a migration plan that best matches the particular needs of the company. Tuesday, September 13, 2005 - 11:00-12:00 PT / 2:00-3:00 PM ET "http://www.techweb.com/webcasts/ipsystems091305" ----------------------------------------- Manage Your Newsletter Subscription We take your privacy very seriously. Please review our Privacy Policy.
Linux Pipeline Newsletter
|