Sobig.F Robots Pacman and SCO

Sobig.F fun

The W32/Sobig.F worm seems to be creating transient email logjams all over the net today. Even though we’re running Linux and not directly affected by the worm, we’ve seen a lot of really strange email traffic the last couple of days. Periods of no email at all will be followed by a huge burst of traffic as if the mail servers at other ISPs are alternately crashing from the load then being restarted.

Robots

Tuesday evenings these days are being spent at the DPRG warehouse, helping with network administration and doing robot-related software work. The debate about what to call the warehouse continues. I’m still in favor of just the “DPRG warehouse” or maybe the “DPRG lab” but a few folks prefer calling it the “clubhouse”. That word brings to mind old episodes of The Little Rascals more than cutting edge robotics. Meanwhile, we held the vote for moving the DPRG to an official 501(c)(3) non-profit group and it passed. So we’ll be working on getting the final tweaks to some new bylaws and other documents soon.

The Pacman OS

I ran across a Freshmeat.net announcement for Alpaca today. Alpaca is a multitasking OS that runs on Z-80 based Packman arcade boxes. Probably useless but it has a very high cool factor.

Time for an etoy-style SCO counter-attack?

This whole SCO thing is just getting out of hand. I’d like to see a much more organized opposition to SCO. The attempt by SCO and their lawyers to lay claim to code that isn’t theirs is very much like the attempt by etoys.com to lay claim to the etoy art group’s domain. The etoy counter-attack came very close to putting the company out of business and forced them to drop their lawsuit. Imagine a site that could act as a command and control center, organizing a counter attack against SCO designed to put them out of business. Planners could develop attacks which might include convincing SCO employees to quit, educating SCO ISVs and customers about better alternative products, organizing protests that coincided with SCO marketing events, and providing information like 800 numbers and fax numbers of SCO offices for those who wished to express their opinions to SCO directly. Volunteers could sign up for specific tasks and report back on the results.