e had some fun (I had at least!) during these long nights playing Diablo II, one of the best games I ever played.

I just closed our Games web site, and the associated mailing list. I will just keep the pages available for good memories...

But it does not mean the game is totally over: I still hope to play some games with this group members again! Timezone difference will be the only problem, and, as far as I know, this was not really a problem when whe finished very late ;-)

By the way, If anyone wishes to take over the Games page (and all the stuff around), and revive this group, please let me know, I would be happy to give you the whole data (with no copyrights!).

If you can read this entry, it means that you are accessing my new website, which is hosted at hostitcheap.
In fact, the move will be quite painful, as their php setup is difficult to use: For instance, they use PHP-CGI instead of PHP apache module, and some functions, such as virtual() are not available. Of course, I was using virtual() everywhere!

I guess I will have some more surprises during the first days of the move...

Cédric (Hong-Kong): "And about the small bug in Sydney software, I would say..."
Guillaume (Sydney): "... This is NOT a bug, this is a feature."

Cédric (Hong-Kong): "Et a propos de ce bug a Sydney..."
Guillaume (Sydney): "... Ce n'est pas un bug, c'est une fonctionnalité"

Google has a new calculator. It even knows the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything!

Just get the result here. Cool, isn'it?

More seriously, the calculator works well, and kuro5hin has an interesting article about it.

Kamo-san (Tokyo): Jeff, you should improve your communication skills.
Kamo-san (Tokyo): Jeff, côté communication, tu devrais faire des efforts.

Sébastien (Tokyo): "Jean-Paul, what are you doing all the day?
Sébastien (Tokyo): "Jean-Paul, tu fais quoi toute la journée?"

Kamo-san (Tokyo): "Are you guys awake?"
Kamo-san (Tokyo): "Vous dormez, les mecs?"

Jeff (Tokyo): "Is Bangalore doing all this?"
Sébastien (Tokyo): "Are you interested to join them, Jeff?"
Jeff (Tokyo): "C'est Bangalore qui fait tout ça?"
Sébastien (Tokyo): "Tu veux y aller, Jeff?"

I already discussed about SCO claims about Linux, but many events came since then, especially since the beginning of this week.

For instance, on Monday, RedHat filled a lawsuit against SCO.

This could be a non-event, as RedHat looks much smaller than SCO, and the SCO-IBM battle seems more important, but I was surprised to learn that SCO market capitalization is no more than 120 millions USD, ten times less than Redhat (and 1,000 times less than IBM). This probably means that RedHat has the power to fight.

Yesterday, SCO announced the Linux runtime licence prices. Are they smoking again? I have a personal server at home and I should pay 700 USD (1,400 after Oct 15th), just because they ask me to do so?

Imagine that someday this story happens in litterature domain: An SCO-like publisher would attack readers for buying a copy of an hidden book, and ask them a $10 licence to read.

But let's come back to SCO adventures... Then answered yesterday to RedHat with this letter:

Matthew J. Szulik
CEO
RED HAT, INC.
1801 Varsity Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606

Dear Matthew,

Attached is the letter I discussed with you during our July 31, 2003 telephone conversation. Instead of actually sending the letter, I thought it was best to telephone you and speak in person to see if we could resolve the issues between our companies short of litigation. We left the conversation with a preliminary agreement to meet and continue our discussions further.

To my surprise, I just discovered that your company filed legal action against The SCO Group earlier today. You, of course, mentioned nothing of this during our telephone conversation. I am disappointed that you were not more forthcoming about your intentions. I am also disappointed that you have chosen litigation rather than good faith discussions with SCO about the problems inherent in Linux.

Of course, we will prepare our legal response as required by your complaint. Be advised that our response will likely include counterclaims for copyright infringement and conspiracy.

I must say that your decision to file legal action does not seem conducive to the long-term survivability of Linux.

Yours truly

Darl C. McBride
President & CEO

Of course you noticed the last sentence. Ooops! I am really afraid!

Stupidity is the great constant in this universe.

I am sure that she was looking at me when I was leaving our home this morning.
And Li found her inside the closed toilets this evening, when she came back.

What happened?

Apparently, today, Boudicca managed to close the toilets from the inside while she was alone at home. We only hope it was late in the evening, as today was very hot in Tokyo, and this poor little girl was catched in a very dark place with no water :-(

I am going to Paris tomorrow.

The target is mainly be to meet people in office and to start finding an apartment (it looks very difficult apparently). I will stay there two weeks, while Li will join me this week-end, for one week. I will meet my family too, they will come to Paris for a few days next week.

Cédric (Hong-Kong): "Petite Question": If ever you receive a mail with such subject coming from Bruno, DO NOT OPEN IT!!! It's a deadly virus which will infect your next 2 working days ...
Cédric (Hong-Kong): "Small Question": Si vous recevez un jour de Bruno un mail avec ce sujet, NE L'OUVREZ PAS!!! C'est un virus mortel qui va gâcher vos 2 prochaines journées de travail...