my current 2 cents on the Microsoft - Novell deal

“We at Microsoft respect Novell's point of view on the patent issue, even while we respectfully take a different view. Novell is absolutely right in stating that it did not admit or acknowledge any patent problems as part of entering into the patent collaboration agreement. At Microsoft we undertook our own analysis of our patent portfolio and concluded that it was necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in place." http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-20Statement.mspx

It sounds a lot like while M$ may think some IP patents may be infringed upon they are likely infringing upon more patents Novell holds and do not want to end up on the loosing side of several patent lawsuits.

Hopefully this deal won't end up generating more lawsuits but rather generate a much more usable workplace. It'd be nice to be able to manage all the windows desktops from my Linux desktop and servers so I can make sure they are all getting properly backed-up, updated, current software installed and security settings in place. It would also be very beneficial to have the option to move some of our users to Linux desktops while using the same applications they currently do while enjoying the flexibility of the open source operating system.

firefox only (for now) ajax office components

http://us.ajax13.com/en/

from what I've seen so far it looks pretty nice and I look forward to trying out the rest of it's features

for more information go to the site above and http://go2web2.blogspot.com/2006/11/ajax13-new-look-for-ajaxlaunch.html

from a forward I recently read: RECOGNIZING A STROKE:

"RECOGNIZING A STROKE:

Thank God for the sense  to remember the "3" steps.

Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. The lack of
awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage
when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a  stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple
questions:

S  *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T    *Ask the person to TALK, - to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE. (Coherently)
        (i.e. . . It is sunny out today)

R   *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

NOTE: Another 'sign'  of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out
their tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the
other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

If he or she has trouble  with any one of these tasks, call 911
immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher."

if this is not accurate
please let me know what needs to be changed and I will edit this entry

talk about cool

Wikipedia geocoordinates for Google Earth

open source software for windows

I've found a wonderful site with a large listing of programs which use open source while I was looking for an open source anti-virus/firewall solution for a couple windows boxes I have to maintain.

Not only does this site have the ant-virus and firewall packages I was looking for but everything from business applications to graphic manipulation tools.


http://osswin.sourceforge.net/ - a large listing of open source programs for windows

During further wanderings (off this same site) I came across http://wiredx.net which allows users to use a remote X server from a web browser though I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, seems pretty cool though

links to visit

http://www.wallpaperreview.com/links.html - wallpaper sites

The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test

http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9935030990046738815

linux tv solutions

resource: http://www.tv-cards.com/linux.php has links on several other sources including (just listing the links to make it easier to get to the sites listed)

GATOS

Video for Linux Two
xawtv homepage
tvtime: High quality video for Linux
kwintv.sourceforge.net - News
Zapping
GnomeTV - Main

MythTV

LIRC - Linux Infrared Remote Control
Videotext/Teletext-Decoder for Linux
Froese's Stuff

web game

http://ubergeek.tv/article.php?pid=73

several useful linux resources

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/10/10/html-css-php-and-more-cheat-sheets/ cheat sheets

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters

HowtoForge - Linux Howtos and Tutorials | The Open Source Howto Development Web Site.

SourceForge.net: Welcome to SourceForge.net

DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

Linux User Commands Tips

How to edit themes - Ubuntu Forums

network traffic monitoring

Network Monitoring Tools

more to come later...with better organization, structure etc