Thursday, June 28, 2001

Appeals Court Sides with MS -- 1:27 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A federal appeals court sided with Microsoft today, turning the matter over to another judge. Note that the court agreed that MS is a monopoly they just disagreed with Judge Jackson's method of dealing with it. Here's a snip:

The appeals court also devoted 20 pages of its 125-page opinion on the matter to the suit to the subject of "judicial misconduct," saying that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the U.S. District Court judge who ruled against Microsoft, violated ethical guidelines requiring judges to avoid public comments on pending cases and avoid the appearance of impropriety.

However, the court affirmed Judge Jackson's conclusions that Microsoft does have a monopoly in the market for computer operating systems and violated U.S. antitrust laws.

This doesn't surprise me too much. We'll see what another judge does with it. I'll have to send the new judge my "ball-peen hammer to the forehead" method of dealing with the MS monopoly.

UPDATE! Dan Gillmor's column crystallizes my thoughts on the whole trial far more eloquently than I could. Give it a read.

No Smart Tags For Now -- 9:11 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

In a rare moment of lucidity, Microsoft will not be adding smart tag technology to the version of Internet Explorer that will ship with Windows XP. From the sounds of things, not only was it a bad idea, but it was a half-baked bad idea. This doesn't mean the subject won't come up again. In case you are worried, add this META tag to your site's pages to prevent smart tags:

<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">

I added this to The Haus today, just in case . . .

Wednesday, June 27, 2001

RAMBUS Slammed -- 6:43 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Fortune magazine posted a withering (and I do mean withering) article on RAMBUS' shenanigans. Here's a lovely little snip to show you how badly the Infineon trial went for the company:

"What you did," Infineon lawyer John Desmarais asked [RAMBUS' Richard] Crisp on the stand, "was work on new claims for the Rambus pending patent applications, and your intent was to make them broad enough that they would cover an SDRAM using the features that you had seen at prior meetings. Isn't that a fact?"

Crisp answered, "In some cases that was true."

Ouch, ouch, ouch! The article is a little short on the technical side of things, but long on goodies from the trial. Thanks Slashdot.

The Master comments: Wow-I wonder when RAMBUS is going to sue FORTUNE for slander. I'm sure their lawyers will find a way.

A.T. Hun comments: Actually, it would be libel, but since the facts were presented in court and Fortune just made a timeline out of it, there wouldn't be any grounds to sue. Plus, RAMBUS' lawyers will have their hands full as it is.

How Slashdot Got Its Groove Back -- 12:21 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

OK, maybe using the word "Groove" to describe the largest collection of geekness in the universe is a bit, um, inappropriate, but it works. Slashdot gives a blow-by-blow account of how everything went haywire last weekend and how they got it back working. The hero? Cisco technical support!

Anachronox Trailer -- 11:00 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

There is another trailer for ION Storm's new game, Anachronox, available for download. The movie is in several sizes, all in MPEG format. Their site is being beaten senseless, so I've given up trying to get it for now. Thanks, um, pretty much everybody.

UPDATE! I just managed to snag it from 3D Gamers. It's a pretty cool trailer, now let's see if the gameplay can match up. If nothing else, the trailer got me interested in trying the game . . .

Wolfie Interview -- 10:02 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

VoodooExtreme interviewed id's Kevin Cloud about Gray Matter's upcoming Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Cloud is the liason between id and Gray Matter. The interview talks about the storyline, the technology, and id's assistance in making the new Wolfie. The more I read, the more I realize how much id is involved with this. That makes it all the more interesting. Thanks Blue.

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