An unlucky victim had her iphone erased by mistake. This was made possible because she had an application that allows her to sync with a Microsoft Exchange Server. Even though this was her own person phone, an Exchange admin was able to wipe out her data. Keep backups of your data, limit access controls, and be mindful anytime you install or update an application.

We all know how Google Maps Streetview works. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could move around without going from one still picture to another? That’s what Microsoft promises in their latest attempt to topple the king of all things search. Once they drop the silverlight, I think Microsoft can expect widespread adoption. Hopefully it’s only for their previews.

These excerpts are by an anonymous Chinese labor rights activist. When coming and going from dormitories 1, 2 or 3 or housing outside the factory, employees are forbidden from speaking, smoking or eating with workers from other facilities. Using the company phone, talking, eating snacks and doing things unrelated to work are all forbidden while on a regular shift or working overtime. Workers are not allowed to bring outsiders inside to view the factory area. When the manager arranges overtime, employees are not allowed secretly or openly to avoid overtime if they do not have permission. After 10:30 p.m., workers must go to the dorm to sleep.

I saw this in pdf version on antitrust.slated.org, and I felt compelled to share. Microsoft sees the growing possibilities for open web standards and interoperability, but they don’t agree with the need for change. Yet they push Silverlight? None of us should ever forget: No matter what their marketing arm spins for us, their main agenda will always be sabotage.

Microsoft built 7 from the ground up to be a secure computing environment and retained the key security features that helped protect Vista, such as Kernel Patch Protection, Data Execution Prevention, Address Space Layout Randomization, and Mandatory Integrity Levels, but Windows Vista and Windows XP are equally at risk to viruses and exploits and overall Vista brings only marginal security advantages over XP. Net gain, zero.

The one microsoft application I always come back to because it’s actually the best offering in its field is Visio. There are replacements, but they don’t fill in any missing gaps or fix broken functionality - they’re just replacements. There is, however, one thing missing from my Visio, and that’s being able to share it easily.

I joke, I joke, but what will they do? Perhaps it will just mean an even cheaper price point as microsoft takes a loss like they did with the original Xbox. When netbooks first came out, they only ran Linux, and microsoft got scared and changed their mind about ditching XP. It’s too bad the consumer demand for XP over Vista never influenced their decision. That would be out of character for microsoft.

With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and which is not a business at all. It’s a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated technology from one end to the other.

Here’s yet another good reason to think about breaking free from your mental slavery to microsoft. The same ones who had 4 xp desks in a perpetually broken state, even with AV and limited accounts, haven’t broken a default linux install yet.