11:02 AM CST     0 comments

Sorry guys, but it seems to be a particularly slow news day. I'm tired of waxing poetic about Microsoft, WinXP, Napster, et al. and for the moment that's all the news sites are dishing up. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

10:50 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: M-Systems DiskOnKey

Nothing like a terribly expensive site that only works in one (take a wild guess which) browser. Apparently Netscape users aren't in their demographic. Any designer who would pull such a stunt should be drummed out of business.

9:18 AM CST     0 comments

Interesting: The Attacks on GRC.COM

Security expert Steve Gibson details his experiences regarding a recent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on his website. This is a must read for any webmaster, but even home users could learn a thing or two about protecting their PC's from being used as a DDoS zombie.

[link courtesy of The Reg]

10:33 AM CST     0 comments

Yummy: Freaky Franks Interactive Hot Dog Game

Want a hotdog slathered with spaghetti-Os and circus peanuts? This is likely the only place you'll find one.

10:12 AM CST     0 comments

Typical: The Case Against Absolute Privacy

I wouldn't expect a rich, white male to have any other opinion. I wish it were otherwise, but the privileged rarely see value in such rights because their rights are rarely challenged. It may be reactionary, but my personal opinion is if you want to know something about me then ask me directly.

9:20 AM CST     0 comments

Perhaps: Blogging as a Form of Journalism

I haven't devoted enough time to reading this in depth yet, but it looks interesting. From what I've read so far it looks like they are missing a key point, namely that most people blog for the same reason artists paint or musicians compose: because they enjoy the process. I know that's why I do it.

9:12 AM CST     0 comments

Cool: Pickin', Grinnin' and PCin'

The music business has been heading this direction for years. Acts like Fatboy Slim, Moby, and others have stepped out from behind the turntables and become stars themselves. Personally I think it's as much a matter of perception as it is a change in the way music is made. Producers and studio mixers have long been the make-or-break element for landmark albums.

In the end, all we're really talking about is a significant lowering of the bar. This doesn't mean that audio software is going to replace music ability any more than the wide-spread adoption of camcorders replaced studio produced movies. It does, however, open the door for new talent to produce quality samples of their craft. And that, at least in my opinion, is a Good Thing.

8:57 AM CST     0 comments

Uhm, no: Hype boosts video game maker

Just what the world needs: Mortal Kombat 5.

8:47 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Yamauchi gives killer interview

This is an interview with Nintendo President following E3. There are some intriguing statements in there, but the one that caught my attention was near the end:

So when it comes to the domestic launch of Game Cube, Nintendo will release only two software titles.

What I'm wondering is, A) if "domestic" means Japan in this case, and B) if he is referring only to Nintendo produced in-house titles. It seems likely that by the time the Gamecube reaches the US that second and third party games are going to be all over the place. Then again I'd be happy with a handful of really good games. Only time will tell.

[link courtesy of The Reg]

8:52 AM CST     0 comments

Uhm yeah: "Quake" for kitties

No comment.

8:41 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Windows HyperTerminal surrenders your box

It's beginning to look like anything that ships in the box with Windows is a liability. I've long advocated stripping out everything you can when you install any Windows OS, but lately that's been getting harder and harder to do because Microsoft has built in so many dependencies. Perhaps an OS that offers only OS-related services would be a good idea?

Integration is dead! Long live integration!

8:35 AM CST     0 comments

Oh well: MS-built UK 'Government Gateway' locks out non-MS browsers

This is the true legacy of the US v. Microsoft anti-trust case. Regardless of whether Microsoft ever receives its slap on the wrist, the company is now well and truly a political machine. In fact, it appears that Microsoft intends to get in on the ground floor of the UK .gov modernization and become their de facto standard for all things tech. There's nothing wrong with this, mind you, it's just sad that alternatives aren't even being considered.

2:25 PM CST     0 comments

My ISP's ftp server has been mysteriously offline for the past few days. So, even though I have been blogging I couldn't publish anything or even post a little "be back later" message. It was quite frustrating.

Anyway, things seem to be working now.

9:11 AM CST     0 comments

Cool: Absolut Director

This is the sort of thing that makes me wish I had a broadband connection at home. I could spend hours cutting together videos.

9:02 AM CST     0 comments

Hell yeah: Knell for the gel?

I don't know about classrooms, but I'd sure as hell like to ban them from the workplace. Everyday I get messages in day-glo colors which are nearly impossible to read. I got a phone message on pink paper written with a purple gel pen the other day. It's insane.

8:51 AM CST     0 comments

Yep: VeriSign Ends Critical Discussion

Verisign decides that it can't stand the heat and instead of leaving the kitchen decides to nuke the whole neighborhood.

8:49 AM CST     0 comments

Uhm, no: May the Best Interface Win!

While I patently disagree that Amazon's tabbed interface is a good idea, I wholeheartly agree with the other sentiments in this article. I too have spent far too long filling a shopping cart only to lose its contents through programming glitches or database timeouts.

I'm particularly put off by the statements made by Digital River's VP of IT. My time apparently isn't very important to him or others like him. Until it is I'll shop elsewhere.

8:42 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Bait-and-switch tactic alive and well on Net

What was the old saying? If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

8:31 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Snitch-a-customer program was 'stupid', says Microsoft

I would imagine Microsoft is getting used to the taste of crow by now. This is the third or fourth situation where they have taken a stance on an issue and they folded like a paper hat when the press found out about it. Personally, I still think they are just testing the waters... whatever floats they'll make their new policy and claim it was in place all along.

4:27 PM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Access denied -- A copyright battle

Who owns the CDDB? The consumers who filled its massive databases or a single corporation who funds the project? Personally, I think it should be public domain, but then I don't think domain names should have subscription fees either.

4:22 PM CST     0 comments

Facinating: Is Your Data Taking the Scenic Route?

I had literally no idea that such practices were commonplace. It sort of makes me happy our new T1 is coming from Sprint.

4:10 PM CST     0 comments

Thppt: Microsoft wraps around Office XP channel plans

The real meat in this one is at the bottom in the "Smart Tags" section. Apparently Microsoft has worked out a way for certain words to become "Smart Tags" automatically much like URL's are changed to links in the current versions of Word. This opens a channel for Microsoft to sell companies keywords which could send you to a website when you type the keyword as part of a document.

I, for one, can certainly imagine the level of popup browser spam that will likely result from this. If the option cannot be disabled, I fully expect office productivity to plummet world-wide.

4:05 PM CST     0 comments

Sigh: Win Media Player hole surrenders your machine

I would suggest removing Media Player and replacing it with WinAmp, but unfortunately Microsoft is making that harder and harder to do with each subsequent release. Eventually they will argue that Media Player is just as inextricable as Internet Explorer and only a third-party hack (such as 98lite) will cleanse your system.

9:52 AM CST     0 comments

Beep: The Answering Machine

This site offers decent sized collection of answering machine messages for download. Nothing spectacular, but perhaps you'll find something you like.

9:35 AM CST     0 comments

Cool: David Gelernter's New Desktop

This sounds like a really neat idea. I would still want the option of dropping back to a command line, but the chronological arrangement of files seems like an interesting concept. Large corporations have been using a similar system, called "transactional filing", for storing paper documents for years. I see no reason it shouldn't work for digital files as well.

9:31 AM CST     0 comments

Sigh: A 'White Hat' Goes to Jail

What a great idea! Find a genius level security expert and piss him off. Does anyone really think a parole officer can keep someone with Max's level of computer knowledge off the internet? The whole situation is absurd.

Regardless how you feel about White Hats, I think everyone can agree that we are all better off than if they decided to be Black Hats. It's not likely that any of these guys are just going to stop hacking altogether.

9:18 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Investors mis-interpret McAfee/MS .NET deal

A good example of why our economy is in a shambles at the moment. At least this time they drove the stock up instead of down.

9:14 AM CST     0 comments

Last week the ISP who provides my workplace with internet access sent out an e-mail warning about a few nasty sounding viruses. As is my practice, I checked the Symantec Virus Hoax page and discovered that all the viruses mentioned were in fact hoaxes. I then notified our ISP with a return mail and included the url for the hoax page linked above.

This morning I received an another e-mail in which they retracted the virus warning. Here's a brief excerpt:

"We are sending this email to retract the virus warning we sent out last week. We apologies for the incontinence that this may have caused our customers."

I've certainly been worried about virus activity in the past, but it has never caused *incontinence*. They must take virus threats pretty seriously over there.

12:30 PM CST     0 comments

Hell yeah: Misinformation and Scare Tactics

Jimmy Carter reminds us to look backward truthfully rather than looking forward fearfully. I remember a lot of the issues he refers to in this article. I also remember my Mom's outrage when Rippin' Ronnie Raygun undid a fair portion of Carter's work.

Facts are paramount in situations like these. It is therefore unfortunate that the vast majority of news organizations have decided that facts don't pay the bills.

[link sniped from Ceej]

10:50 AM CST     0 comments

Hehehe: Sinfest (5/22/01)

This is so much like our cat Darwin (aka D aka BooBoo-Baba-DeeDee) that I had to share it. If you aren't reading Sinfest every day then this is an excellent opportunity to start.

10:04 AM CST     0 comments

w00t: Nintendo rules E3

Always good to hear you are backing the winning team. I intend to get a Gamecube regardless, but it's nice to know I'm not alone.

9:52 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: AOL raises subscription rate

I expected this to happen much sooner. In fact, it doesn't make much sense for it to happen now. When AOL first launched their flat-rate plan most (if not all) users connected to the service via modem. Each new user was a drain on AOL's fixed number of point-of-presence connections.

These days many AOL users are on DSL or cable and thus represent little to no drain on AOL's precious POPs. The overall bandwidth requirement would be lessened as well because the internet backbone bears the brunt of these high-speed users rather than AOL's own backbone.

In short, AOL is raising prices simply to make more money, not to ease any imagined burden on their services. My guess is that they are filling the coffers in preparation for the onslaught of PS2 users. Expansion will certainly be necessary to bear that load.

9:35 AM CST     0 comments

Uh oh: Microsoft posts warning over Easy CD Creator

I'm no Einstein, but it seems to me that if Microsoft turns against Roxio and every reviewer on the planet continues to suggest Nero Burning Rom instead, that Easy CD Creator could be in for a long awaited and much deserved death. The only thing that may work in their favor is the sheer number of OEM agreements which Adaptec secured before passing the gauntlet to Roxio.

9:28 AM CST     0 comments

Bah: Jobs and Tevanian vow to fight OS X speed drain

Every review I read of OSX prior to release suggested that the Finder and the Dock were points of concern. Given that fact, it's surprising to me that those are the two biggest problems in the current version. The old Apple would have never shipped Aqua until it was as near perfect as possible.

The Reg mentions RBrowser, a facsimile Next UI, at the bottom of the page. I'm guessing a lot of people are going to go that route if Apple can't regain control of their development cycle.

3:59 PM CST     0 comments

Useful: ATM Locator Quick Search

Ever been out of town and need to find an ATM quick? Well, yeah. Me neither. This would be a cool thing to have if you did though.

1:58 PM CST     0 comments

Kill me now:'IRON CHEF' TO AMERICA

I've been anticipating an american version of Iron Chef for more than a year now. It's understandable then how I could be less than thrilled by the idea of William Shatner hosting the show. I'm afraid when this one tanks nobody will be interesting in making a real Iron Chef. And that's just sad.

[link courtesy of penny]

1:48 PM CST     0 comments

Damn: An Entirely Other Day

Ah, well... nothing gold can stay.

10:19 AM CST     0 comments

Sweet: R35 webColor Pad

The entire web-safe color spectrum printed on a mouse pad. Forget cheap freeware color apps, the webColor Pad is the wave of the future.

9:09 AM CST     0 comments

Thppt: Beyond the noise at E3

It's obvious this guy isn't in the target demographic for E3 so why the hell did CNet bother to send him? It's less a recap of the show than it is a parade of Mr. Becker's personal biases against youth, fashion, and excess in general. Certainly they could have found someone at CNet who could understand the importance of E3 and who could report on the show rather than grousing about the other attendees.

8:49 AM CST     0 comments

Whoa: IBM skips through HDD Land with pixie dust

Not that we really *need* bigger hard drives, but this is still really impressive stuff. By my admittedly sloppy calculations IBM's new laptop HD will be somewhere between 125GB to 250GB depending on whether it has one or two platters. That's a lot of space for a laptop.

8:35 AM CST     0 comments

Dumb: AOL wins rights to Aimster domain name

Whoever makes Aim toothpaste should sue the bejesus out of AOL. I mean, it's obvious AOL is infringing their trademark to confuse consumers.

4:05 PM CST     0 comments

Cool Tools: codeflux.com: Tools

I'm sure there are a bunch of similar sites out there, but this is the most comprehensive set of net tools I've ever seen in one place. Everything from the Jargon file to MAN pages to DNS lookups.

9:06 AM CST     0 comments

Not likely: Music Execs Find New Target

So let me get this straight... these guys want to pay music publishers a single flat fee for each track then turn around and charge us for each download of that track? I'm sure that seems plenty reasonable if you are on the little end of the funnel, but if not it comes off as an insult to the intelligence of Congress and consumers everywhere.

The only system that will work and make everyone happy is an automatic disbursement of funds. The consumer would pay a clearing house (like Napster) for the download. The clearing house would extract a fee for its services and then distribute the remainder in pre-agreed portions to the artist and the record company.

For this to work all clearing houses would have to be free to distribute music from all publishers by using a fixed, industry-wide standard commission percentage. If any clearing house entered an exclusive agreement with a publisher, then the whole system will collapse under its own weight. Consumers need to be able to select music services based upon ease of use and quality of service, not which artists and songs are available on which service.

The big stumbling block in this digital utopia is the fact that consumers are unlikely to adopt any file format other than MP3 and the publishers despise MP3 because of its inherent openness. Until one or the other of these opinions changes significantly, any pay-per-download system is bound to fail.

8:41 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Group calls .Net, XP monopoly all over again

And in other news, fish still swim and ducks still quack.

8:37 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Professor warns of threat to free speech

Lucky for us Professor Felton won't sit down and be quiet like a good little minion. I'm wondering how long he can keep this up before the RIAA or perhaps the MPAA arrange for him to have an "accident"?

8:18 AM CST     0 comments

Sniff, sniff: Smoking pistol unravels VeriSign domain name stitch-up

Smell that? It's the stench of big money. Let's hope that Congress not only eliminates Verisign from the equation, but puts severe restrictions on ICANN as well.

1:28 PM CST     0 comments

Hell yeah: re-run - What's Happenin' Bry?

Happy Birthday to Bryan, Happy Birthday to you!

10:44 AM CST     0 comments

Sigh: Life after Eazel

More information about the shutdown of Eazel including some quotes from Andy and Darin. I'm certainly glad they intend to continue forward with the project at least in part. The people is what made Eazel, and by extension Nautilus, special.

10:21 AM CST     0 comments

Thppt: TV Makers Take a Side on Anti-Piracy Technologies

In other words, if you want to record a show and watch it later you will need an outdoor antenna in addition to your cable. Assuming of course you are even in an area where over-air broadcasts can be received. I can't imagine that the companies who make VCR's are very happy about this development.

Perhaps it's time to give up on TV altogether. It's little more than a commercial wrapped in brief glimpses of worthwhile entertainment these days anyway. A good book is far more satisfying in the long run and, as the Oompa Loompas sang, you'll get no commercials.

9:59 AM CST     0 comments

Uhm, no: Congress Sees Music's Future

MusicNet will debut with "tens of thousands" of songs available.

And this is supposed to replace Napster? Give me a break.

9:51 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Sun admits ASP better than Java for Web

This is exactly the sort of thing that makes mergers so difficult. It's nearly impossible to ferret out every scrap of PR and advertising that each company has ever produced. That said, it's still pretty funny, to everyone but Sun at least.

9:38 AM CST     0 comments

w00t: RollerCoaster Tycoon

Over the weekend I played this game with my Dad and was pretty much instantly hooked on it. So much so that I nearly stopped on my way home from work Monday to buy myself a copy. It's a good thing I didn't because Dad bought it for me last night after we spent an hour or so reconfiguring his machine for a new cable modem.

I've never been a big fan of sim games (other than racing sims), but I'm completely hooked on this one. It is *so* much more than just building roller-coasters. I can't even begin to explain why it's so facinating... it just sucks you in. This is the first game I've played in ages where I lose track of time completely.

Anyway, check it out if you get a chance.

9:10 AM CST     0 comments

Whatever: Hackers' plan to dodge netwatchers

"Last year, it emerged that British police have been pressing the government to introduce new legislation forcing internet service providers to hold detailed logs on the surfing activities of all their users for seven years."

Can you imagine the amount of storage required for something like this? Even if you got past the storage problem, how the hell would you search the archive for a particular users activity on a particular day? Talk about a massive database project.

If it were me I'd set up a line printer, print a few cubic meters of traffic logs, and then dump them at the front door of the police station. Just tell them the data is in there if they want to find it. Then again I'd likely end up arrested myself for aiding and abetting.

9:01 AM CST     0 comments

Amen: Trying to Rush the Future

"Technologies trickle into mass usage in an exponential proportion to their unique value," said Bane, the Mercer consultant. "Something that is just slightly smaller or slightly rounder or slightly faster won't make you convert to a new way of doing things."

Finally someone who can see the failure of the dot-com mentality for was it was. What's a shame, however, is there are likely a handful of really good and sustainable dot-com's out there. They'll never really have a chance to prove themselves before being tossed to the wolves.

8:41 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Copy-protected CD's wounded Pride

See what I mean? That took all of two days or so. The company who designed the copy-protection scheme is claiming that this is not a breach of their "technology", but rather copies from an Australian release of the disc. It will be interesting to see whether this is indeed the case.

8:33 AM CST     0 comments

Dammit: Eazel pulls plugs after cash quest fails

I had fairly high hopes for Nautilus. I guess the code will survive regardless.

8:26 AM CST     0 comments

Alert: Yet another IIS exploit reported

What I found interesting is that the patches Microsoft has released for this issue are cumulative. In fact, the fix for IIS4 includes every installable IIS patch since SP5. I'm uncertain why Microsoft hasn't done this before, but I'm certainly not going to argue with them.

10:26 AM CST     0 comments

Uhm, ok: Court upholds teacher's punishment

"Notwithstanding teachers' rights to choose methodology under principles of academic freedom ... school officials must be permitted to establish and apply their curriculum in a way as to transmit community values, providing their discretion is exercised in a manner that comports with the transcendent imperatives of the First Amendment.''

Thanks for making that crystal clear for us, your honor. It seems to me that teachers only have their right to free speech until they piss off the more affluent members of their community. If 11th graders haven't yet heard any or all words related to male or female genitalia, I would be quite surprised.

Make no mistake about it, decisions like these are not, as they often claim, to "protect the children". These decisions are made to protect our hyperpuritanical society from a generation of free thinkers. As long as a large enough percentage of kids are taught that free expression of sexuality is dirty and shameful, then the "moral fiber" of our society is considered safe.

[link courtesy of The Obscure Store]

9:03 AM CST     0 comments

Duh: Congress has hard time stomaching e-mail spam

I appreciate your concern, Mr. Congressman, but no thanks. Legislation will only increase government fruitless spending to comabt the problem while doing little or nothing to stop it.

What I want is simple. I want an plain text e-mail program (no html or scripting support) that will let me filter messages based on known addresses. If I have sent you a piece of mail or I have voluntarily read mail from you then you are on the approved list. Otherwise your message enters a "holding area" where I can decide whether to add you to the blackhole list or to the approved list. Addresses on the blackhole list go directly to the trash.

Simple?

8:41 AM CST     0 comments

Ugh: Playstation 2 gains AOL for Net access

If you thought the current crop of AOLamers were bad, wait until the people who couldn't figure out how to use dial-up AOL get online with their PS2's. I simply can't wait to get an e-mail from someone who types using a Dual Shock Analog.

8:36 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Label releases copy-protected CD with Pride

What's ironic is that the copy protection is likely to be the only reason anyone would ever attempt to copy this CD. I mean, Charlie Pride? Come on.

4:38 PM CST     0 comments

Blogger appears to be back to normal for the moment. I'll try and catch up with the news in the morning.

8:14 AM CST     0 comments

Sigh: 'Hitchhiker' author Adams dies

That's two of my heroes gone in one year. Since these things are said to come in three's, I'm almost scared to ponder who will be next.

12:01 PM CST     0 comments

Booyah: Wicked Little Critta / Chopping Block Testimonial

Free music from TMBG and Emusic. I haven't quite wrapped my mind around the song itself, but it seems to have sort of a KITH feel to it. Certainly worth the d/l if you can spare the bandwidth.

9:07 AM CST     0 comments

Yep: Fireman Charged with Starting Fires

I suppose being enthusiastic about your job is a good thing, but this guy takes it a bit too far.

9:04 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Caldera CEO says MS right to shun open source

Talk about strange bedfellows. If nothing else, the GPL will go down in tech history as the catalyst for some major changes.

9:00 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Brick Wall Blocking Net Pipes

They are reporting this as if it is a new issue. The IPv6 battle has been looming for years and seems to rise to the surface everytime there isn't much else to talk about. In the end there are only two solutions... the US will either have to switch to IPv6 or we will have to run our own separate IPv4-based internet while the rest of the planet moves forward.

8:52 AM CST     0 comments

Alert: CD-R disc makers to hike prices

At least they're giving us a little bit of a head start. Realistically there's no way that CD-R prices could continue at their current levels. They were all but giving them away at some stores.

8:42 AM CST     0 comments

Whoa: Guilty! Rambus committed fraud

I never expected Infineon's fraud claims to stick. Rambus must have been pretty blatant about their subterfuge for a jury to have decided against them so quickly. One thing that nobody is talking about is how, or perhaps if, Rambus' woes will effect Intel. The indirect effect of R&D time lost could hurt them in their battle against AMD.

8:58 AM CST     0 comments

Priceless: Geek Culture Caps!

I simply *must* have a Tux Propellor Beanie. [rolls eyes]

8:35 AM CST     0 comments

w00t: Linus Torvalds Replies to Microsoft's Attack on Open Source

Linus seems to have this Zen thing going on. There's a palpable feeling of calm in the things he has written. You can almost see him shrugging and smirking. I dig that.

8:24 AM CST     0 comments

No kidding: Worm puts old IIS attack in full-auto mode

I wondered why there were so many failed attempts of this exploit in my logs lately. Before this I only had a handful, but that number has sky-rocketed over the past few days. What really irks me is that, even if everyone patches their servers, the bandwidth sucked up by all these bad requests is bound to be phenomenal.

8:19 AM CST     0 comments

Whoa: Resisting the Windows XP message

This can't be good.

8:16 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: AOL rejects software complaints

Mr. Peacock with the AOL CD in the Chat Room.

12:02 PM CST     0 comments

Whoa: Defending the cookie monster

Rosenberg continues to impress me. He really seems to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and pass on important information to readers. So many tech journalists seem to feed on their own hype in an endless loop until there's nothing of substance left.

11:55 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Caldera completes Unix acquisition

"Under Caldera's plan, software won't have to be changed at all to run either on Linux or Unix servers."

I'm pretty far from being an authority on such matters, but that sort of cross-platform executable support seems like a pretty tall order. Particularly for a company as conflicted as Caldera. It should be interesting to see if this has any significance at all to the *nix market as a whole.

11:49 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Analysts say Windows 2000 clock ticking down

Personally I think the Windows 2000 clock chimed twelve when XP was announced. Anybody seriously considering a wide-spread roll-out would be nuts to do so with a new version so close to release. Then again, nobody really wants to trust a dot-oh Microsoft release either. Therein lies the proverbial rub.

11:41 AM CST     0 comments

Thppt: MS squeezes business for more dough with rental model

So much for the "no upgrade" concept. A lot of companies were planned on staying with older versions of Microsoft products to avoid the "software as a service" paradigm. This decision effectively closes that loophole for corporate license customers.

Bummer.

9:42 AM CST     0 comments

Uh-huh: Microsoft May Supply Security for Napster

Call me paranoid, but try this senario on for size. Microsoft has already said that MP3 is dead and that their own format is much more secure. Following that line of logic it would be safe to assume that MP3's could be banned from Napster all together. Taking it another step further, Microsoft could easily send just about anything it wanted to your computer along with that coveted bootleg Beastie Boys track.

Certainly an unholy union to say the least.

9:33 AM CST     0 comments

Yep: Free-software licenses are the devil's work!

While this article might fall a into the "flagellating a deceased equine" category, there are a few good points in there. It's worth skimming at the very least.

9:13 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: AOL in cahoots with Compaq, HP to derail WinXP and .NET?

If this rumor has any truth to it at all, Microsoft is in for an interesting 2002. AOL, you will remember, is the only company that has thus far been able to beat Microsoft at anything. It seems reasonable to me that as Microsoft moves closer to replicating AOL functionality into the desktop that AOL would have to fight back somehow.

Then again, both Microsoft and AOL have said the desktop is dead. If that is the case, what exactly are they fighting over here?

9:02 AM CST     0 comments

Rejoice: Rambus loses patent fight

It's about time. Let's just hope that Judge Payne can sew this one up tighter than Judge Jackson did with the Microsoft case.

8:43 AM CST     0 comments

Hell yeah: Rivals spar over gas

This is the type of guy who makes me proud to be an American.

[link courtesy of The Obscure Store]

8:35 AM CST     0 comments

Whatever: Compatibility woes plague Windows 2002

At least Microsoft was thorough, they didn't just break other peoples apps this time. This time they broke their own too.

8:31 AM CST     0 comments

Heh: Seven Days of Spam

This is an interesting idea. This guy actually attempted to take spammers up on some of their offers. The results aren't that surprising really. What really surprised me was that a week's worth of spam for this guy was only 107 messages. At times I've received more than that in a single day.

8:26 AM CST     0 comments

Thhpt: MS Blasts Open Source Again

They are just not going to give up on this one. The last time I saw Microsoft so focused was when they were killing Netscape. The time before that was when they were killing Novell. Sensing any pattern here?

I don't think *nix in general or OSS specifically has anything to worry about. Even the deepest coffers on the planet can't fight the advantages of having several million people coding.

8:12 AM CST     0 comments

Hmm: Exploits for several million Microsoft servers posted

Well. That certainly didn't take very long.

8:10 AM CST     0 comments

Oops: Don't install Easy CD Creator 5 on Win2K

I'm not sure why anyone would anyway. Nero is a far superior product from what I've read.

10:24 AM CST     0 comments

This catching up thing is taking a lot longer than I thought it would. I suppose I should have expected as much seeing as how I basically lost an entire week of productivity. The new machine is working nicely and I've just about got all my preferences reset.

I really expected this new machine to be much faster than it is. The new hard drive is a ATA-100 model and I can certainly see some improvement there, but I can't say that I've noticed any jump in performance between my new 1GHz P-III and my old 350MHz P-III. I suppose if I used this machine for gaming there would be a much more perceptible increase, but since most of my apps here at work are network-intensive the CPU speed wasn't a bottleneck.

Overall, I'm pleased with it though. It's amazing how much harder you have to work when all your apps are missing.

11:47 AM CST     0 comments

Sorry folks. I'm in meetings all day today, so no new bloggage. I'll try and catch up tomorrow.

On a brighter note, for me at least, my PC came in this morning. I should be back on track and humming along nicely by Thursday or so.