How can I get the telnet client on Windows Vista?

Windows Vista comes by default with no telnet client. To turn it on, go to:

Control Panel
> Programs and Features
> > Turn Windows features on or off
> > > Telnet Client

Why it isn't there in the first place... well, that beats the shit out of me.

Links

So, I've been kind of busy lately, so I didn't post anything lately. To avoid having one more day without posts, here is what I have in my browser tabs:

• A reflection on Jobs' article on DRM, not my point of view but an interesting read;
• more criticism on Jobs' article;
• Recalling the math Courtney Love did some years ago;
• Microsoft bringing DRM to cellphones;
• USA more dystopian every day;
• Oracle with some funny security isues;
• How ridiculous can USA be? (in Portuguese);
• A nice blog I knew today (thanks, cha0s);
• Security in Windows Vista is a joke;
• Oni, the next mp3's I'm going to buy;
• The blog of Joanna Rutkowska, lately hacking Vista;
• Carbono Zero (in Portuguese) tells you how to compensate CO2 emissions.

Have a nice reading time.

Microsoft Windows Vienna

I'm not sure why, maybe it was because this will make people stop talking about how bad Windows Vista is. Microsoft filled a patent application, obviously describing what are they planning to release as the next version of Windows, formerly known as Blackcomb, now named as Windows Vienna, and scheduled to be released between 2009 and 2012.

I read it yesterday and almost choke on my dinner, and probably my humor got affected by it in the Lisbon.pm social meeting that happened after it.

What's all this fuss about it?

Imagine a world where you have a really limited choice of hardware to buy. The brand and manufacturer doesn't really matter, so you'll ignore those. You'll just have the "bad motherboard", the "good motherboard" and the "awsome motherboard". And they're expensive - more than now. After buying your computer (and by computer I mean - for the desktop market - a black box, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse), you'll have to buy the operating system. No, listen to me, you have to pay for it: your hardware won't run anything else but this Operating System. Right. Now, you bought it (well, probably it came bundled with the machine you just bought as well), go home and turn it on. WELCOME TO MICROSOFT WINDOWS VIENNA! And there are those... err... four big buttons: "Install Software", "Install Hardware", "Suspend" and "Shutdown". They can even do something like the actual Nintendo Wii interface: you have a square for one of those things and free space for some more. Now, you want to buy a word processor, because you bought this computer to write some documents, and you want to do it online because you don't want to get out of home. So, you connect your USB modem on your computer and you're notified "ILLEGAL SOFTWARE DETECTION - THAT MODEM ISN'T VIENNA CERTIFIED". Yup, welcome to the Trusted Computer Era. So, you call to your retailer and ask for certidied Vienna modems, you reserve one and the next day you go to the store to buy it.

Now, I could continue this story (I have better things to do, sorry) for a big load of time, to show you how desparetedly bad this is. If hardware manufacturers want to sell hardware where Windows runs, they'll have to pay - a lot - to Microsoft. If a user wants one functionality - any functionality (yes, including minesweeper) - will have to pay - a lot - to Microsoft. This is valid to any 3rd-party software: it will only work on Windows if Microsoft DRM system accepts it: pay. It will limit your hardware usage: if you want to have high bandwith you'll have to start paying twice: still to your ISP and now to Microsoft so they unblocks your hardware and let's it use another well-defined bandwith. It will even act on your harddrive space and speed, your processor, your motherboard, your life. Every site you visit must be "trusted" - by them. Maybe this will stop the worries of Google and Yahoo! on censorship: Microsoft will do it for them. Of course that, in this scenario, both Google and Yahoo! are useless... but I digress.

If you think that this dystopian view is way to exagerated, please read about this issue from some people that are better explaining the issue than me, or from those that are good in giving your a legal interpretation of the patent.

I have to start to agree with Paula about all this thing going around the "social web" - services instead of products and the lack of privacy and ultimately freedom that comes with it. Microsoft is aiming it fiercily - maybe it's time to really act and actively do something to fix Ubuntu's bug #1... Before 2009.

Ten things you should know about Windows Vista

I was trying to avoid blogging about Windows Vista. Really. But I just can't.

It all started with all those people talking about it. The media. Radio stations "offering" Vista licenses. All those comments I've heard yesterday on Tecnonov about the release. The discussions seen on mailing lists. I had to write this.

Ten things you should know about Windows Vista:

1. Did you know that Koreans are having a problem with Vista that his politicians are even afraid talking about it? That's right. An official of the Ministry of Information and Communication said on condition of anonymity, "We have been jointly working with Microsoft since the third quarter of last year. Even if there were many problems due to our domestically-developed application programs, Microsoft was late in providing us data on their technology, causing such confusion."
2. Oh, and software, you know, like an Operating System, have licenses. You should read Vista's license, where you can see that...
   "using the software also operates as your consent to the transmission of certain computer information during activation, validation and for Internet-based services.",
   
3. or...
   "You may install one copy of the software on the licensed device. You may use the software on up to two processors on that device at one time. Except as provided in the Storage and Network Use (Ultimate edition) sections below, you may not use the software on any other device."
   , meaning that if you have one disk partition you install it there and only there. If your hard drive blows up, you have to pay for another license,
4. or...
   "Microsoft may use the computer information, error reports, and Malware reports to improve our software and services. We may also share it with others, such as hardware and software vendors. They may use the information to improve how their products run with Microsoft software."
   , meaning that Microsoft has rights upon "your" data (if you technicaly still consider it yourse) and do with it whatever they want, including giving it to whomever they want, so they can do whatever they want with it?
5. Did you know that Windows Vista is not legal in Europe? Of course that people still buy it, in an epidemic way that turns profitable to sell it, even if ilegal, and pay the fines...
6. Did you know that Vista is full with DRM?
7. And do you know Vista's real price?
8. Did you read Microsoft's suicidal note?
9. How many are you going to kill?
10. And number ten: do you know all these other things?