I constantly run across situations where users don’t understand the license requirements of the software they have bought or “borrowed”. The basics of licensing are pretty straight forward although the variations from the likes of Microsoft can certainly confuse even an IT Consultant. The simplest way of addressing this is to just remember you need a license for each piece of software running on each PC. There are of course variations on this rule of thumb as Microsoft and others have multiple licensing models and programs but to confuse the process even more there are classes of licenses which can only be used in a certain way or by certain end users.

One of the most misunderstood software licenses is probably Microsoft Office Home and Student. This is understandable in that this version of Office 2007 breaks the basic rule I set forth above. First off the EULA, End User License Agreement, states you can install Office on three devices (I won’t go into what qualifies as a device) instead of installing on one PC. Second there is a “use” clause which states this software may not be used for “commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating business activities.” So even if you have a legal copy of Office you may not be legally allowed to use it depending on what your planned use is.

Further confusing the issue are various programs end users may be a part of which gives them access to software licenses. From Open Licenses to Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) these programs may give you access to install, use, and transfer software and based on which program the user is a member of.  Other software vendors have similar programs including subscriptions models such as antivirus companies with yearly support or maintenance fees. Most of these programs have very strict rules on who can use the program, how the program can be used and how the software can be installed on what devices.

As an example of misuse by a program member and what would be a unlicensed use by the end user I happened across this post on CraigsList.com where a MSDN member  is selling copies of his program software. First and foremost this is a violation of his program membership however the bigger concern would be any end user who paid for this software thinking that they had a legal right to use it. MSDN is a subscription service for Microsoft Developer’s to have access to software for development and testing purposes. during the subscription period. This means if you bought a copy of this software and installed it you would be a pirate, an illegal user and subject to as much as $150,000.00 per unlicensed use no matter that the seller of the software made any representations as to the legal status of the software.

I have a MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network) Account I will sell the following software copies to any who are interested
Windows XP Pro $25
Windows Vista Business SP1 $40
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 $50
Microsoft Office Pro 2007 $35 ($20 if you can provide a legal student email address) it must end in (.edu)
CASH ONLY
any questions just email me timothy632@xxxxxx.com
Again these are all legal copies and will pass Microsoft activation.
They have to be picked up in Mount Airy or we can work out a meeting arrangement. I will NOT mail these out or deal with anyone not from North Carolina ..dont bother ..too many fake email scams!

So the next time you need a copy of software for home of business you may be well served to contact your IT Consultant or the software vendor. Microsoft maintains a support line just for license questions, (800) 426-9400.

Reporting
Mike Flannery CHICAGO (CBS) ― President-elect Barack Obama and his inner circle fear that some voters expect him to turn around the economy, wind down the war in Iraq and, perhaps, cure cancer — all by the Fourth of July.

They know they must manage and lower those expectations, CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports.

A top economic advisor to Obama had a glum warning for the rest of us Thursday morning: Neither the job market nor the stock market will be turning around any time soon.

“This might be a long haul,” said Robert Reich, who was President Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor. “2009 is going to be a very hard year. Some economists say we won’t be out of this for two years, others are saying it may be three, or four, maybe five years.”

Now on Obama’s transition team, Reich worries about what happens after the new president is sworn in Jan. 20.

“We all have to be very careful about the expectations that we are putting on this man, our president-elect,” Reich said. “If we all assume it’s going to be the first 100 days, we’re going to be disappointed.”

The man who was Obama’s chief campaign strategist is moving to lower expectations, too.

“We are inheriting an array problems unlike any president has faced, maybe since Franklin Roosevelt in 1932,” David Axelrod said. “It’s not going to be easy, not going to be quick.”

Rick Jasculca worked for President Jimmy Carter, President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton. He said Obama will need every bit of his skill as a communicator.

“If people see you reaching across the aisle and they see you making progress – going forward rather than going backward – I think people will give  you the benefit of the doubt,” Jasculca said.

Added Axelrod: “One of his great strengths is he is never too high, he’s never too low — he’s very focused.”

That’s why some called  him “No-Drama Obama.” That has changed a bit, since the president-elect and his Chicago-based team of political operatives have begun to bring on board veteran Washington politicos.

Now there are stories quoting unnamed sources who claim, for example, that Obama’s team is frustrated with Hillary Clinton’s delay in taking the job of secretary of state. They’re not happy with those stories.

“This is a great example of when there’s a vacuum, the vacuum gets filled with a lot of speculation and hyperbole,” Axelrod said. “No one is frustrated. No one is anguished. She’s obviously a talented public servant and someone who’d enhance any team.”

Transition aides said late Thursday that Obama plans to nominate Clinton for secretary of state formally after Thanksgiving.

EXCLUSIVE:

President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military’s decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say.

Repealing the ban was an Obama campaign promise. However, Mr. Obama first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress, the advisers said.

“I think 2009 is about foundation building and reaching consensus,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The group supports military personnel targeted under the ban.

Mr. Sarvis told The Washington Times that he has held “informal discussions” with the Obama transition team on how the new president should proceed on the potentially explosive issue.

Lawrence Korb, an analyst at the Center for American Progress and an adviser to the Obama campaign, said the new administration should set up a Pentagon committee to make recommendations to Congress on a host of manpower issues, including the gay ban.

“If it’s part of a larger package, it has a better chance of getting passed,” he said.

The Obama transition team did not reply to a request for comment.

The incoming administration is well aware of how President Clinton botched the same issue 15 years ago. Shortly after taking office in 1993, the president ordered the Pentagon to rescind the regulation that excluded gays.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans, and some leading Democrats, including then-Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn of Georgia, objected. Retired military officers and a number of pro-military conservative activist groups joined the fight.

Mr. Clinton backed off. Congress ended up enacting the ban into law as part of U.S. Title 10 which regulates the military.

As a compromise, the White House and congressional leaders wrote a new policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Under it, gay service members must keep their sexuality private or face expulsion. About 12,500 people have been discharged under the policy.

Today, gay activists cite national polls that show public sentiment, unlike in 1993, support removing the ban.

Mr. Sarvis expressed optimism that Democratic gains in the past two elections make it “more likely” Congress will let gays serve openly.

“I think the congressional results are a factor in our optimism,” he said. He added that no vote count has been taken.

Delaying the congressional vote a year would give the White House time for consultation, but it would also let ban proponents organize and possibly sway public opinion, as they did in 1993.

Obama

“Homosexual activists are overconfident because they have not yet seen a counterforce emerge as occurred in 1993,” said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute at the Media Research Center, an organization that seeks to balance perceived liberal bias in mainstream news coverage.

“But as the threat grows stronger, we will see groups forming and the resistance building,” he said. “Americans go about their business and are not activists until they have a Pearl Harbor moment. That has yet to happen, but it will.”

He added that most Americans “are unaware that gay activists have the military in their gun sights.”

Mr. Obama’s gay-ban pledge was not a major campaign issue. However, he provided a policy statement to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay rights group, pledging to repeal the exclusion and to invite back service members discharged under the law. He also said that he wants the Pentagon to school military people on how to treat gays.

“The eradication of this policy will require more than just eliminating one statute,” he told the group, in a statement posted on their Web site. “It will require the implementation of anti-harassment policies and protocols for dealing with abusive or discriminatory behavior as we transition our armed forces away from a policy of discrimination. The military must be our active partners in developing those policies and protocols.”

The law states that open homosexuality in the ranks would be detrimental to combat unit readiness.

“The presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability,” the law says.

Ban proponents say removing the restriction would hurt recruiting by discouraging conservative, religiously oriented youths from signing up.

“It’s true that many in the military have looked the other way and served alongside people they know are into homosexuality,” Mr. Knight said. “But that is with the ban in place. Open acceptance would change the atmosphere entirely. If fraternization is a problem now between men and women, imagine the conflicts with openly gay officers who no longer have to be reticent.”

Mr. Sarvis said not to look for the debate to begin until late next year or 2010.

“What’s the reality for the new administration?” he said. “Financial crisis. Economic upheaval. Health care reform. Environmental challenges. Where does ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ fall in all this? I would say it is not in the top five priorities of national issues.”

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - People in a vast seismic zone in the southern and midwestern United States would face catastrophic damage if a major earthquake struck there and should ensure that builders keep that risk in mind, a government report said on Thursday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said if earthquakes strike in what geologists define as the New Madrid Seismic Zone, they would cause “the highest economic losses due to a natural disaster in the United States.”

FEMA predicted a large earthquake would cause “widespread and catastrophic physical damage” across Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee — home to some 44 million people.

Tennessee is likely to be hardest hit, according to the study that sought to gauge the impact of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in order to guide the government’s response.

In Tennessee alone, it forecast hundreds of collapsed bridges, tens of thousands of severely damaged buildings and a half a million households without water.

Transportation systems and hospitals would be wrecked, and police and fire departments impaired, the study said.

The zone, named for the town of New Madrid in Missouri’s southeast corner, is subject to frequent mild earthquakes.

Experts have long tried to predict the likelihood of a major quake like those that struck in 1811 and 1812. These shifted the course of the Mississippi River and rang church bells on the East Coast but caused few deaths amid a sparse population.

“People who live in these areas and the people who build in these areas certainly need to take into better account that at some time there is … expected to be a catastrophic earthquake in that area, and they’d better be prepared for it,” said FEMA spokesperson Mary Margaret Walker.

(Editing by Andrew Stern and Xavier Briand)

You got it, WSFC Schools have called a two hour SNOW delay due to a dusting of snow that fell in and around Winston-Salem. That’s right we had snow last night but you had to be up and about to see it. Snow is snow though and snow before Thanksgiving is extremely unusual for this area. So in case you missed it here is your November snowfall:

Six Men Shot: Police report a bar fight at El Deportivo bar on Kernersville Road turned into a shooting when several men involved in the fight left the bar then returned with a shotgun. Wounded in the the shooting were: Carlos Jonas Santiago, 22, Olimpo Rodriguez Ortiz, 40; Filberto Ramirez, 34; Christine Nava Rocincuet, 35; Xandart Cristian Arellanes, 30; and Alfred Toran, 23. The men with the shotgun drove away from the bar in red Honda.

State Laptop Stolen: A laptop from the Division of Aging and Adult Services contained up to 85,000 unprotected Social Security numbers. George Bakolia, the State CIO said the laptop was stolen in Atlanta and the information was not encrypted in violation of state policy.

12 Year Old Shot: Police arrested the father of a twelve year old boy found shot last Saturday morning. Two men were found intoxicated at the scene, the boys father and Garcia Cisneros.

 N.C. Treasurer Richard Moore Against Wachovia Deal: N.C. Treasurer Richard Moore has stated he is against the Wachovia, Wells Fargo deal and will vote the states Wachovia shares help by the state pension fund against the deal.

That’s right get a FREE copy of Microsoft OneNote 2007 just for watching a webcast, submitting a survey and being a Teacher. This Tuesday Microsoft will host a webcast on using OneNote as an effective educational resource:

Join me this Tuesday at 1:00 pm PST for a late lunch webinar where I’ll be covering the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers. This is a great resource to help teachers get up to speed on OneNote and how it can be used as an effective education resources. The toolkit is a OneNote notebook filled with templates, tutorials, how to articles, videos, teacher-focused OneNote explanations, lesson plan examples and other resources to help get teachers started using OneNote in the classroom. I’ve blogged about this toolkit in the past and this Tuesday I’ll be showing it live.  

Click here to sign up for this Tuesday’s webinar

Microsoft will also be giving a free a copy of OneNote 2007 for any teacher that views the webinar and completes the survey at the end! More details on how you get your free copy are listed below. So spread the word that teachers can get a free copy of OneNote if they watch this webinar on Tuesday.

Speaker: Mike Tholfsen—OneNote Product Team
When: Live Nov 11 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time  

*View the webinar and complete the survey at the end to receive a FREE copy of Microsoft Office OneNote!

*Offer good only to legal residents of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia actively employed as K-20 teachers/faculty members at accredited educational institutions in the US. Limit one (1) copy of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 per teacher / faculty member. All proof of academic status must be received by November 30th, 2008. Offer expires at 11:59 PST on November 30th, 2008, while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. Offer is non-transferable except as otherwise provided herein. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. Any Award(s) returned as non-deliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6 - 8 weeks for shipment of your Award(s).

Before we can send you a copy of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 you will need to provide proof of your academic status. No order will be shipped until a valid academic ID is received.. We will place your order on "hold" until we receive your valid academic ID. Upon receipt of your academic ID, we will ship out your order. You can send your academic proof one of the following ways:

1. Fax a signed copy of the letter to 425-708-6649, ATTN: TeacherTech
2. Mail a signed copy of the letter to: Microsoft, One Microsoft Way, Attn: TeacherTech — Lincoln Square/20257, Redmond, WA 98052.
3. Email a signed copy/PDF of the letter to Teachtec@microsoft.com

Acceptable Forms of Academic Proof:

(Any one of the following)

• Dated Student ID Card
• Dated Faculty ID Card
• Dated, current class schedule
• Letter from school on school letterhead
• Recent faculty/staff payment stub (please black out salary information)

If you currently use a Smartphone with Verizon you may want to go by the store or call customer service ASAP to confirm what packages are available to you for what phones because as of November 14th, 2008 Verizon will require a $29.99 data plan for all data capable phones. Current Verizon customers on a plan with no data plan but a Web 2.0 phone will not be required to change their current plan however if you go into Verizon on November 14th and want that high end phone which also has Internet Access you WILL BE required to buy a data plan.

This is at least the rumor based on a “leaked” document from Verizon and it appears legit enough to be worth confirming what your options are. Verizon is slated to release multiple “SmartPhones” including the Blackberry Storm and with this plan change going into effect on the 14th it’s safe to say that’s the day most of these phones will be released. Granted what use is a Storm without data however many people prefer the higher end phones so they can get things like an MP3 player, speaker phone, Bluetooth, etc which very often only comes on the phones which also support Internet Access. My phone falls into this class and although it is several years old and has Mobile Web I have no data plan as I don’t want Internet Access on this phone. If I was to walk into Verizon on the 14th and bought my same model I would have to not only pay for our nationwide phone service we use but also another $30 for something I have no use for or at least that’s how it appears.

So if your thinking of changing phones or even want to lock in the current Pay As You Go plans you better get over to Verizon before the 14th: