Now they say that actually some attack began Saturday evening and they are knocked to their knees. Off the internet totally. But they have some strategies to cope and by Monday they will tell us what they are.

How about implementing them now? Then you don't have to tell us anything. It seems now would be the operative moment. Someone tell Hal to behave. Or Eliza. Or whoever is running that spaceship.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, targeted for Tuesday, and being a professional software company, has already said they expect to be able to handle whatever comes their way. It seems the B version of MyDoom has some bugs so it isn't spreading well anyway. Ah, irony. Here's SCO's press release about their inability to cope:

*********************************************************

SCO Experiences Massive Denial of Service Attack

Mydoom Virus Blamed For Exponential Internet Traffic to www.sco.com

LINDON, Utah, Feb. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The SCO Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOX), the owner of the UNIX(R) operating system and a leading provider of UNIX-based solutions, has confirmed that a large scale, Denial of Service attack has started that has made the company's Web site, www.sco.com, completely unavailable. Internet traffic began building momentum on Saturday evening and by midnight Eastern Time the SCO Web site was flooded with requests beyond its capacity. The company expects these attacks to continue through Feb. 12.

"This large scale attack, caused by the Mydoom computer virus that is estimated to have infected hundreds of thousands of computers around the world, is now overwhelming the Internet with requests to www.sco.com," said Jeff Carlon, worldwide director of Information Technology infrastructure, The SCO Group. "While we expect this attack to continue throughout the next few weeks, we have a series of contingency plans to deal with this problem and we will begin communicating those plans on Monday morning."

About The SCO Group

The SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX) helps millions of customers in more than 82 countries to grow their businesses with UNIX business solutions. Headquartered in Lindon, Utah, SCO has a worldwide network of more than 11,000 resellers and 4,000 developers. SCO Global Services provides reliable localized support and services to all partners and customers. For more information on SCO products and services visit http://www.sco.com. SCO and the associated SCO logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The SCO Group, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. All other brand or product names are or may be trademarks of, and are used to identify products or services of, their respective owners.

*******************************************

Netcraft begs to differ:

"SCO have done the public spirited thing and taken www.sco.com out of the DNS. This means that there will be no more http traffic travelling across the internet from the infected machines to www.sco.com. . . .

"Generally, conditions on the Internet seem very acceptable at the moment, with few hosting company sites experiencing failed requests . This contrasts markedly with forecasts from Anti-virus companies and this morning's press release from SCO which reported the Internet as being overwhelmed."

So, who is telling the truth, do you suppose? Both stories can't be true, since they are mutually exclusive. So what will the media report? The exciting sounding one from SCO? Or the more normal one from the folks whose job is to monitor the state of the internet? Let's wait and see.

According to this Globe and Mail story from Canada, Stowell is still saying SCO believes the Linux community is responsible, which is no doubt why they are putting out press releases about their failure to cope, but notice what he let slip:

"SCO does not expect the website interruption to affect its business.

"'The way we really look at this, people don't come to our website to conduct commerce,' Mr. Stowell said. 'They come to obtain information and maybe receive a product update or software patch.'"

That doesn't match what they said in their SEC filing, does it?

IBM and the SuperBowl

If you are watching the SuperBowl this evening, you'll see an IBM ad. Guess what it will be about? Yup. Linux. Here's the news about the spot, called "Linux is Shaking Things Up". My favorite detail, aside from the fact that IBM is dedicating their spot to Linux in the first place, is how they got involved with the NFL:

"In a bold statement by the company that the Linux operating system is here to stay, the ad will instead feature Muhammad Ali with the blond-haired boy from IBM?s ongoing Linux campaign, which promotes the open-source movement. . . .

"Though the ad and other Linux spots that ran during the playoffs are perhaps IBM’s most visible football tie-in, the National Football League signed a three-year agreement last year that made IBM the NFL’s official information technology partner. This agreement is centered on providing the NFL with a digital media solution that will transform 80 years of film and assets into a digital format that can be accessed on demand by fans, coaches, League members, broadcasters and business partners. By exploiting the power of technology, the NFL will be able to distribute its assets faster and more efficiently, keeping costs down and gaining the most return on its investment.

"As part of the agreement, IBM received the rights to use NFL and Super Bowl marks and imagery in its advertising and marketing. The agreement is to help the NFL create a technology system to support next-generation digital media and other critical new business ventures."

IBM has made a commitment to Linux, and it shows. You can the ad here, in case you aren't a football fan. They even provide an HTML version for those of us allergic to things like Real Player.

Eureeka. You think maybe that's why SCO is waiting for Monday? They're want to watch the SuperBowl? They won't like the ads, methinks.

Speaking of IBM, notice this story? They think of everything. Looks like they've got the Harvard angle covered. Take a look at this exciting project:

"Harvard University and IBM are developing a universitywide computing grid for student and faculty research, data sharing and collaboration in life sciences, engineering and applied sciences, they announced today. The "Crimson Grid" will be based on Open Grid Services Architecture and is expected to eventually be available to other universities in the region, said Robert Eades, worldwide executive for academics, government and health in IBM's life sciences division. The grid also will be part of a Massachusetts biotechnology grid.

"'I am just excited beyond words,' said Jayanta Sircar, CIO and IT director at Harvard's Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His division is where the grid will start, and then it will be expanded to the rest of the university and beyond. The grid is a milestone in Sircar's IT career and has the potential to be a transformative step in how science and engineering tools and technologies are developed because of Harvard's reach and importance in those fields, he said.

"Harvard and IBM will develop and pretest tools and protocols for the grid. Harvard is receiving an IBM Shared University Research award as part of the initiative and will get eServer systems for a blade center that will power the grid. Harvard's Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences' IT group, along with IBM computer scientists, will implement and build the Grid Reference System Implementation, which is the grid's core development environment. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard University Information Systems will provide the network backbone service. . . .

"'Why rely on Bill Gates to give you technology and say, "This is what is good for you to use"?' he said. Instead, scientists and researchers will increasingly insist on letting vendors know what commercial products they want and need. As things are now, many scientists and researchers develop their own proprietary software and tools because they don't like what is available commercially or what they need doesn't exist. But that likely will change with more integrated, collaborative efforts, such as the grid computing concept, Sircar said."

IBM is way cool. And Linux is here to stay. InfoWorld did some performance tests on the new kernel, and they say it sizzles: "If commercial Unix vendors weren’t already worried about Linux, they should be now."