Daily Shaarli
September 26, 2020
When Oracle sued Google over Android, many assumed the database giant would target code Google lifted from the Apache Foundation's open source Java incarnation, Project Harmony. But Oracle just pinpointed six pages of Google code, claiming they were "directly copied" from copyrighted Oracle material, and according to Apache, this code is not part of Harmony.
"Recent reports on various blogs have attributed to the ASF a number of the source files identified by Oracle as ones that they believe infringe on their copyrights," the Foundation says in a Friday blog post. "Even though the code in question has an Apache license, it is not part of Harmony."
Microsoft Flight Sim released yesterday, giving quarantine-stricken players an opportunity to explore a complete 1:1 scale Earth in real-time from the comfort of their homes. The Bing Maps-powered illusion is usually pretty seamless, but some players are now finding bugs that feel like “glitches in the Matrix.” Like viewing into an alternate earth, these point to what are certainly Eldritch secrets sitting just beneath the game world’s multi-petabyte surface.
Take this obelisk Twitter user Alexander Muscat found towering over Northern Melbourne during a flight. Definitely not present in real-life, this impossibly narrow skyscraper certainly isn’t there to take part in any demonic rituals, no sir. //
That said, Microsoft posted last night that it is aware of issues players are having with the game and is working to fix them. Rather than the world map, though, these mostly apply to long installation times or even installations failing to complete. These problems are somewhat understandable, given the massive 150GB of data the game needs, though some Steam reviews are upset given that the long installation time makes it impossible to get any game time in underneath Steam’s two hour refund window.
Lawyers defending Google (NSDQ: GOOG) against a patent and copyright lawsuit brought by Oracle are trying desperately to keep a particular engineer’s e-mail out of the public eye-but it looks like they’re unlikely to succeed.
The e-mail, from Google engineer Tim Lindholm to the head of Google’s Android division, Andy Rubin, recommends that Google negotiate for a license to Java rather than pick an alternative system.
The key portion of the email was read aloud from the bench by U.S. District Judge William Alsup during a July 21 hearing. The second paragraph of the email reads: “What we’ve actually been asked to do by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin] is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome. We’ve been over a bunch of these and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need.” //
Now Google is taking action to have that email, and Alsup’s reference to it in his order, thrown out of the public record. In a letter dated July 28, Van Nest wrote to Alsup, explaining that Google had handed over the email (which was actually a draft) inadvertently, and then later realized the email was subject to attorney-client privilege and never should have been disclosed. Oracle’s disclosure of the document was “improper,” argued Van Nest, and the email never should have been made public.
Update 9/25/20 12:20pm PT: We have added more details to the text below about new information that has surfaced, including that multiple operating systems are impacted and that conspiracy theory material is also embedded in the torrented copies of the leak.
Update #2: A Microsoft representative has now responded to our request for comment, merely stating: “We are investigating the matter.”
Original Article:
Reports have emerged today that the Windows XP source code has been leaked to 4chan, with the leaked code then being posted to a torrent and the Mega file sharing service. Reports have also emerged that independent researchers have since begun analyzing the data, with initial indications that the leak is legitimate. However, there hasn't been an official confirmation from Microsoft as to whether or not the leak contains valid code.
The 42.9 GB leak also reportedly has newly-leaked code for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 mixed in with other various source code from previous leaks. It still remains to be seen if the leak includes the entire source code for Windows XP, or just a subset.