Suns Ex-Chief Reacts on Gates, Jobs

Don't expect Jonathan Schwartz to go quietly.
The former CEO of Sun Microsystems has taken to his personal blog, provocatively titled "What I couldn't say...," to dish some industry dirt and tell his side of the story about the demise of Sun. He has already hinted at plans to write a book, and a new post Tuesday suggests a tell-all tome could indeed be in the offing.
"I feel for Google -- Steve Jobs threatened to sue me, too," Schwartz writes, apparently referring to Apple's patent lawsuit against HTC, which makes Google's Nexus One smartphone.
Schwartz says he had just unveiled Sun's Linux desktop, Project Looking Glass, in 2003, when Jobs called him to assert that Sun's graphics were "stepping all over" Apple's intellectual property. If Sun tried to commercialize the technology, Schwartz says, Jobs told him, "I'll just sue you."
As Schwartz tells it, he responded by reminding Jobs about Sun's considerable arsenal of OS-related patents. "Steve was silent," Schwartz writes.
A later meeting with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer ended on a similar note, according to Schwartz. The Microsoft duo, then its CEO and president, had flown to Silicon Valley to meet with Sun's executive team.
"As we sat down in our Menlo Park conference room, Bill skipped the small talk and went straight to the point, 'Microsoft owns the office productivity market, and our patents read all over OpenOffice,'" Schwartz writes.
OpenOffice is the open-source productivity suite that Sun backed heavily as an alternative to Microsoft Office.
"Bill was delivering a slightly more sophisticated variant of the threat Steve had made, but he had a different solution in mind," Schwartz writes. Gates offered Sun a patent license. "That was code for 'We'll go away if you pay us a royalty for every download' -- the digital version of a protection racket."
Schwartz says he responded by asserting that Microsoft's .Net development platform was a rip-off of Java. "It was a short meeting," he says.
Microsoft declined to comment on the post and Apple didn't respond to an e-mail message.
The former Sun chief had been keeping a low profile since Oracle announced its plans to buy Sun almost a year ago. But he is apparently determined to tell his side of the story concerning Sun's demise, a collapse that some attributed to the waning Unix market and others blamed on decisions by Schwartz himself.
While Tuesday's post is more of an inside look at how corporations wield patents, it seems future posts will start to retell the story of Sun.
"I think I've said pretty much everything I could say as CEO of Sun Microsystems," Schwartz writes in the "about" section of his blog. "The more interesting stuff was what I couldn't say. And that's what this blog (and maybe a book) is going to be about."
"Make that 'definitely' a book," said 451 Group analyst China Martens

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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Microsoft to Announce Windows 7 SP 1

Microsoft has announced the first service pack for Windows 7, but has yet to reveal when a beta will be available to users.
The software giant said Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) will primarily contain "minor updates", including patches and hotfixes rather than new features.
"For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates, among which are previous updates that are already delivered through Windows Update," said Microsoft community manager Brandon LeBlanc.
"SP1 for Windows 7 will, however, deliver an updated Remote Desktop client that takes advantage of RemoteFX introduced in the server-side with SP1 for Windows Server 2008 R2," he added.
Windows 7 SP1 will be released at the same time as Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Microsoft said.
As well as RemoteFX, a new remote-access platform for Windows Server 2008 R2, SP1 of the server-side OS will include a feature called Dynamic Memory, which lets IT staff adjust guest virtual machines' memory on the fly.
However, Windows 7 users may have to wait until the end of the year to get their hands on the update. Earlier this month, Malaysian website TechArp, which has regularly predicted release dates for Windows and its service packs in the past, said Microsoft had shelved plans for a 22-month development cycle for Windows 7 SP1, and would instead release it in Q4.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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Judge Reject and Renegotiate 9/11 Settlement

  A federal judge on Friday rejected a legal settlement that would have given at least $575 million to people sickened by ash and dust from the World Trade Center, saying the deal shortchanged 10,000 ground zero workers whom he called heroes.

"In my judgment, this settlement is not enough," said U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who delivered his pronouncement to a stunned gallery at a federal courthouse in Manhattan.

Rising from his chair, the 76-year-old jurist said he feared police officers, firefighters and other laborers who cleared rubble after the 9/11 terror attacks were being pushed into signing a deal few of them understood.

Under the terms of the settlement, workers had been given just 90 days to say yes or no to a deal that would have assigned them payments based on a point system that Hellerstein said was complicated enough to make a Talmudic scholar's head spin.

"I will not preside over a settlement that is based on fear or ignorance," he said.

Of the proposed settlement of $575 million to $657 million, workers stood to get amounts ranging from a few thousand dollars to more than $1 million.

Hellerstein said the deal should be richer. Too much of it would be eaten up by legal fees, he said.

A third or more of the money set aside for the workers was expected to go to their lawyers. Some plaintiffs had agreed at the start of the case to give as much as 40 percent of any judgment to cover fees and expenses. That might have meant $200 million or more going to attorneys.

Hellerstein, who presides over all federal court litigation related to the terror attacks, ripped into the agreement after hearing several ground zero responders speak tearfully of their illnesses and after receiving letters and phone calls from others expressing confusion about the deal.

He said he was speaking "from the heart" out of great compassion for the thousands of men and women who spent time at ground zero.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the judge's actions would kill the settlement entirely.

The deal had taken years to negotiate and was announced March 11, with about two months to go until the first trials.

A spokeswoman for the law partnership that negotiated the settlement on behalf of the workers said she had no comment on the judge's remarks.

Christine LaSala, president of the WTC Captive Insurance Co., a special insurance entity created by Congress to represent the city in the lawsuit, said the judge "has now made it more difficult, if not impossible, for the people bringing these claims to obtain compensation and a settlement."

She said the lawyers would confer with city officials and "try to find a way forward."

New York City's chief lawyer, Michael Cardozo, said, "We have great respect for Judge Hellerstein and will consider his comments, but his reaction to the settlement will make it extremely difficult to resolve these cases."

Hellerstein laid out a number of proposed fixes for what he saw as deficiencies in the settlement and told the two sides to resume negotiations.

He rejected the idea that a third or more of the money should go to the plaintiffs' lawyers and said the legal fees should be paid by the WTC Captive, not the workers.

Hellerstein said workers should have ample opportunities to ask questions and get answers about the settlement, and he offered to go on a mini-speaking tour to get information to the plaintiffs.

"I will make myself available in union halls, fire department houses, police precincts and schools," Hellerstein said.

He said more money should be set aside for people who later develop cancer that may be linked to ground zero toxins. He said he wanted to retain ultimate control over which workers were entitled to have claims paid.

Hellerstein acknowledged that he felt a personal connection to the case, calling it "the greatest burden in my life," but insisted that his unusual intervention was legally and morally necessary, given the importance of 9/11 to the country.

"This is no ego trip for me. This is work," he said.

Hellerstein spoke after several ground zero recovery workers had risen in court to describe a litany of health problems they believe are linked to inhaling the ash and dust left by the collapse of the World Trade Center.

The settlement rejected by the judge would have created a pool of at least $575 million for sick workers. That amount could rise to as much as $657 million if enough people accept the deal. Injured workers would get a payment in exchange for dropping their suits against New York City and the dozens of construction contractors it hired to handle the cleanup.

Money for the settlement would be funded with nearly $1 billion in federal taxpayer money that has already been appropriated.

The deal covers a broad list of ailments suspected of being linked to trade center dust, including asthma, chronic coughing and interstitial lung disease, which involves scarring of lung tissue. Some types of cancer are also covered.

For the plaintiffs with relatively minor ailments, payments would have ranged from $3,250 to $9,760. William Groner, an attorney on the team that negotiated the settlement, estimated that 40 percent to 60 percent of the workers would fall into that category.

The rest were to have divided the remaining millions in the pot, with a handful of the sickest getting $1 million or more. The amount they got would have been based on a complicated scoring system that ranks each illness by severity.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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Actress Reacts on Suicide Tweets

Demi Moore has talked highly of Twitter and even used it as platform for good to to promote her and Ashton Kutcher's DNA foundation.

She took things one step further when she contributed to an online chain of posts responding to a young man in Florida's threats to hang himself earlier this morning. "R U rlly asking 4 help?" she tweeted. This must have been after she got back from the 18th Annual "A Night At Sardi's Fundraiser she attended with Ashton last night in these pictures.

Two calls came for the West Coast around 2:30 am to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office reporting the suicide threat and authorities went to the home and took the uninjured juvenile to a hospital. No further details were provided from the Sheriff's Office about the callers identity, but  one of those calls can be traced to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star Nia Vardalos who tweeted "I called suicide line, connected to FL police, I gave his name+city. They went to home, helped him."  Last April a woman in San Jose tweeted to Demi that she was going to cut her arm and Demi retweeted it causing her followers to make several phone calls to the police.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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British Airways Crew on Strike

 A three-day strike by British Airways cabin crew affecting thousands of travelers is going ahead Saturday after last-ditch talks between the airline's management and union leaders collapsed.

The walkout has forced BA to cancel thousands of flights, but it still hopes to operate around 65 percent of its international schedule over the period.

The Unite union has gathered some support from unions in the United States, Germany and Spain for its action - taken to protest a pay freeze and changes to working conditions - but the other unions have so far stopped short of pledging direct action that would affect BA's ability to refuel and service its planes.

A total of 1,100 flights out of the 1,950 flights scheduled to operate during the walkout will be canceled, but the airline has leased planes and crew from rival carriers to take up some of the shortfall.

At its Heathrow base, more than 60 percent of long-haul flights will operate, but only 30 percent of short-haul. At Gatwick, all long-haul flights and more than half the short-haul flights will run as normal.

"Tens of thousands of BA people stand ready to serve our customers," said BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh. "BA will be flying tomorrow."


Adam Huberman of Issta, a flight and tour agency specializing in trips to Israel, said he was taking 60 to 80 calls a day from passengers planning to travel to Israel before Passover, which starts March 30.

He said the strike couldn't have come at a worse time.

"It is the busiest time of the year," he said, adding that the agency had put on some flights of its own. "Some will be able to go but fares are obviously higher because it's so last minute."

Among others whose plans were affected were the Cardiff County and Vale of Glamorgan Youth Band from Wales, who are scheduled to play in a wind band festival at Carnegie Hall in New York on Tuesday.

Their scheduled Saturday flight was one of the ones BA has canceled, but after television and radio appeals - and a letter to rival virgin Atlantic - BA managed to get them onto alternative planes.

Picket lines will be mounted over the weekend at several entrances to Heathrow, but Walsh said he had "no concern whatsoever" about the threat of solidarity actions in other countries.

The U.S. International Brotherhood of Teamsters urged travelers to find alternatives during the strike.

"We are keenly aware of British Airways' operations in the United States and the cities served by the airline," the Teamsters, who represent 40,000 workers in the aviation industry, said in a statement. "We continue to look at this situation as it evolves and are keeping our options open."

Walsh said it was "deeply regrettable" that the union declined to accept a proposal on pay and working conditions from the airline, adding that offer would be withdrawn once the strike begins.

Unite joint general secretary Tony Woodley said that BA "does not want to negotiate and ultimately wants to go to war with this union."

The prospect of travel chaos in Britain in the run-up to the Easter break also intensified with news that railway signal workers voted in favor of a strike, joining rail maintenance workers. The Rail Maritime and Transport union has not called dates for a walkout of both groups of workers but has refused to rule out the Easter long weekend. The prospective industrial unrest is an unwelcome turn of events for the ruling Labour Party on the eve of a national election.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the strike to be called off immediately.

"The Prime Minister believes that this strike is in no one's interest and will cause unacceptable inconvenience to passengers," his office said in a statement.

"As the country struggles out of the recession, the last thing we need is the unions holding the country to ransom," said Theresa Villiers, the opposition Conservative Party's transport spokeswoman.

BA argues that the disputed changes - including a pay freeze in 2010, a switch to part-time work for 3,000 staff and a reduction in cabin crew sizes from 15 to 14 on long-haul flights from Heathrow airport - are critical for its survival. Unite argues it was not properly consulted on the changes.

BA said Friday it had offered to modify the changes, even though they had been approved by Britain's High Court, but Unite had declined to put the offer to its members to vote.

Analysts estimate that BA has already lost more than 25 million pounds because of canceled tickets and the cost of contingency plans, which include leasing fully crewed planes from other airlines.

Unite has a second, four-day walkout planned to begin March 27 and has said more strikes will be scheduled for after April 14 if the dispute is not resolved. It has pledged not to walk out over the busy Easter period.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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