For now, the software supports only a limited number of guests and in the eWeek test "panicked" when asked to run an rPath (Linux) appliance. So far for virtualization providing a standards based environment that runs any operating system.

The eWeek screenshots show an easy to use interface with enough handholding to lead a 6-year-old through a maze. But it's not like VMware Server is difficult to use. In fact, we've been able to install numerous virtual machines on the free version of the product without much effort.

A more fundamental question also remains unanswered: why is it wrong for a male to have a female avatar? And why is that more wrong than, say, an avatar with unrealistic body parts.

Pictures: Marge Simpson ventures into the online game 'Earthland Realms' in the "Marge Gamer" episode. In the bottom picture, gamers (all resembling characters from the cartoon) celebrate the slaying of Bart Simpson's avatar

The note is offending, ignorant and demonstrates a lack of intelligence. It makes you wonder if Stacey's career included a stint as a press secretary for the Bush administration, and warrants the following reply:

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for informing me that Adobe isn't interested in press coverage.

We won't be covering the European event, because you are effectively saying that you are only interested in dealing with press that you can control.

We exist to serve our readers by reporting relevant news, we don't exist to serve PR organizations who want to "drive local press coverage".

It's saddening to see that there are still organizations who think that they can control the media.

Amazingly, this is actually the very first time that developers are asking the courts to enforce the GPL. That is amazing because several parties (SCO and some within Microsoft) will still argue that the GPL is illegal and therefore can't be enforced. A court ruling would establish a valuable precedent.

Monsoon however seemed genuinely surprised when we called them for comment, claiming they hadn't seen the complaint and weren't aware of any problems. It is therefore plausible that the firm will quickly release the source code and settle the suite.

For that matter, Europe is years ahead of the US in its legal pursuit of GPL violators – something that can probably be credited to the limited costs of a legal battle in the old world. Back in 2006 D-Link was whipped into submission by the German courts, after the maker of networking gear had unsuccessfully argued that the license wasn't a legally binding document.

On the desktop front, the benefits have shrunken significantly due to the Windows Vista's new deep sleep mode. Even though users think that they are shutting down their systems, they really are putting them into a deep sleep from which it will wake up in mere seconds – much faster than the time that it takes to boot up the application.

Others argue that drive maker merely need to add more memory (but the same story completely overlooks the point that hybrid drives are primarily here for the mobile market).

Fact is that you have wasted you money if you recently purchased a hybrid drive.

That's because most of today's software isn't optimized to run on multiple cores. And if it is optimized, it is designed for 2 cores are most.

Secondly, the average user doesn't need much processor muscle to begin with. Freecell isn't exactly the most CPU intensive application around, and neither is Internet Explorer or Word.

Quad core systems therefore might be useful for the extreme gaming enthusiast. A triple-core design however will appeal to mainstream consumers, where the low end of the market will be perfectly happy with a dual-core.

AMD furthermore is likely to have a trump card up its sleeve. Given that a chip consumes up to 120 Watts, eliminating the fourth core increases the power available to each core by 33 per cent, allowing them to run at high clock frequencies.

That is good news for users who are looking to run regular compute intensive applications that can't be spread out over multiple cores. In some cases, a triple-core CPU will perform better than a quad-core one, AMD confirmed.

Scott apparently likes discipline. He's married to a teacher himself. He'll also refuse customers who swear (especially the n*****-word is a big no-no) or have they jeans hanging at knee-height.

Because you need to demonstrate wholesome values to be able to purchase a game where stand up through their elbows in body parts while killing even more folks.

Texas values

The fine print however showed that SCO never acquired the full rights for the software. In fact, it was supposed to forward 95 per cent of its license revenues to Novell – which it had failed to do. A judge confirmed the terms of the contract last August.

It took SCO management only one month to admit defeat. There is nothing left to reorganize, because most of SCO's former customers have abandoned its software out of protest against over the legal proceedings. When SCO chief Darl McBride switches off the light in his office tonight, he might just as well keep it off for eternity.

SCO chief Darl McBride: enemy number 1 (well, maybe nr 2, after Microsoft) according to open source fans

Still, it is all too obvious that VMware needs some serious competition. VMware has seen its valuation skyrocket from $635m in 2003 to nearly $29bn today.

The firm however is still headed up by co-founder Diane Greene (pictured above). You hope that parent company EMC has hired an executive search firm that is looking for a chief executive with some actual presentation skills. One that can sell a room full of 11,000 people on a product, get through a demo without getting lost in his/her own product and is able to deliver a keynote that has some coherency.

If EMC is lacking such insights, a bad quarter and the resulting collapsing stock price would do the trick, or a serious competitor in the shape of a convicted monopolist who can use its installed base of Windows Server to push its product.

We hear that Carly Fiorino still hasn't landed a serious new gig.

Fiorina during better days, posing with Gwen Stefani back in 2005

Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) is a nifty service that allows you to automate tasks that can't be automated. You can use the service to have small tasks performed by people, ranging from looking at satellite photos in hopes of finding an airplane – or whatever is left of it – or transcribing an audio tape. Typically you have to pay people to have them perform these tasks, but in the case of Fossett it will be all charitable work.

Analyzing satellite images provide a great case for AMT's capabilities, because it allows you to execute tasks at virtually no costs. A simple task such as a photo analysis typically costs only a few cents.

So even if you're not Steve Fossett and still get lost, $20,000 will probably get 100,000 photos analyzed. Now if only we could get satellite photos good enough to track down Osama bin Laden.

click to enlarge

click to enlarge - if you need a closer view, Google Earth will help you get there

Cisco subsidiary Linksys (soon to be renamed Cisco) has been shipping draft-n devices for some time. But the router maker itself always maintained that it wouldn't join in the great confusion of non-standard-standards. Linksys, it argued, was for consumers and small businesses who didn't care about standards anyway. The Cisco brand commanded a better corporate citizen.

But now Cisco's patience apparently has run out. The company will happily require its early adopting customers to upgrade all their equipment to the final standard when it is published, or have them risk losing connections or other grievances.

Few people however felt a need for a mini notebook computer that works only with a Wi-Fi connection or a Treo smartphone. Critics and reviewers lined up to thrash the device, including Colligan himself. In his blog posting, he admitted that "we still have a number of improvements to make".

But Foleo won't go down the incinerator just because it's a lousy product. It's just that Palm had made the silly decision to have the Foleo run a special one Linux distro, while it is developing yet another one for the Treo that will ship next year (hopefully). Maintaining two platforms is expensive, Palm realized.

But the company stubbornly maintains that consumers can't wait to start buy yet another gadget. There might be a Foleo II, and that one might actually make it out of the gate, he hinted. Should we see that as a threat, or is Palm just trying to save Hawkins' reputation. 

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Btw, if you have an urge to see more about the Foleo, vnunet.com TV has a 5-6 min video walk through of the device that shall never be mentioned again

Hawkins watches his Foleo go up in flames

Not all has been lost for Microsoft, although the firm has suffered a humiliating defeat. At a meeting in February next year, Microsoft can attempt to meet some of the objections and turn around the no-votes.

If no compromised can be reached, Microsoft can still submit OOXML through a (more time consuming) regular procedure.

Either way, IBM, Sun and especially OpenOffice come out looking at the big victors. There is some serious doubt that Microsoft OOXML will ever make it to the "open standard" stage (emphasis on doubt).

Organizations looking for an open format therefore will be guided towards ODF, which is supported in OpenOffice.

Microsoft also could concede, abandon OOXML and line up behind ODF instead. While that would eliminate a major advantage for OpenOffice and ODF, at least it would rob Microsoft from the hold that it currently has over the document formats of the world.

A recall would still be useful to the dozen of consumers who required fingerprint authentication to store their data and were willing to shell out $62.99 for a 128MB model $99 or for the 256MB one.

Or we could help evolution a bit, weeding out people who fail to understand that free encryption software and a 1GB USB Flash drive that costs a mere $15 will yield the same result.