An article from the Christian Science Monitor discusses a number of environmentally friendly chemical processes that are being developed to turn waste products into useful material. The most intriguing of these turns poultry waste into light crude oil. The idea has two interesting effects: first, it finds something useful to …

An article from Technology Review News details a project at the University of Rochester that involves using passive RFID tags embedded in a facility as a trigger for digital audio or CD- based guidance. The idea is similar to the ones used in museums that have guided tours that require …

Thanks to Amanda for pointing me at the paper on the "Google File System", used by Google as a back-office distributed file system. If you are interested in such things at a technical level, this is a good description.

An article from CNet describes a new class-action lawsuit filed against Network Solutions over their system that redirects mistyped URLs to servers at Network Solutions. The lawsuit, believed to be the first to ask for class action status, was filed in California by Ira Rothken, who has a history of …

According to an article from InfoWorld, HP is now offering to indemnify purchasers of its Linux systems and support contracts against lawsuits from SCO. The deal is for people buying and using the HP-approved operating system from HP and only works if you have a valid support contract, but it …

An article from CNet this morning describes the experience of one Comcast cable internet user who recently received notification from his service provider that he was causing an "unreasonable burden" on the service and that if he did not cut his usage in half, his service would be suspended. This …

As if Microsoft's operating systems weren't causing enough trouble, Wired has a story that claims 65% of the bank ATMs will be running Windows by 2005. Microsoft will be selling them what the article refers to as a "stripped down version of NT," but it is more likely than not …

Virginia Tech has updated their Terascale Cluster site on their web pages with more information, links, and pictures.

Although the proposal is just in the early stages, an article from CNet reports that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is planning to start charging for the use of its character set and country code naming standards. People in the software and Internet industry are up in arms over …

Microsoft is hardly a beloved name in the computer industry, but when software patents are in question, everybody rallies to the support of the defendant. The latest example of this is a blog entry from Ray Ozzie (formerly of Lotus and currently of Groove Networks). Microsoft in August fell prey …

The Economist has a fine article on the growing discord between Microsoft and (especially foreign) governments over the future of software. At issue is not only the cost, but issues of control, proprietary software vs. standards, and reliability. At the crux of the story is the defection of Munich, Germany …

An article from LinuxWorld this week raises the question of whether SCO knows the origin of the code that they claim was misappropriated into the Linux code base. Based on quotes from SCO officials (both in print and at conferences), the author postulates that one of the reasons that SCO …

A site has been established by the attorneys general of the states involved in the anti-trust legislation against Microsoft to provide information about the settlements and to gather information about possible infringement.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced yesterday that they have launched a program aimed at determining the usefulness of DVDs and CDs as archival storage media and at setting standards for media that would be appropriate for keeping data for 50+ years. According to information on the …

In response to the Open Letter from SCO's CEO earlier this week, Linux Today has printed a response from Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond. It covers some specific responses to the SCO claims that the Open Source community has been harboring the DDoS attackers and also goes over the intellectual …

An article from CNet indicates that T-Mobile's wireless Hotspot service is expanding to include Delta's Crown Room lounges. As an added bonus, Delta is offering between 3,000 and 3,400 miles each year to subscribers to the service.

As was widely reported last week, Japan, China and Korea are trying to put together a program to jointly develop an Open Source operating system to stand as a competitor to Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system. In an interview with Wired, Microsoft spokesperson (and former US trade official) Tom Robertson …

PCWorld is reporting that Symantec (manufacturers of the popular Norton Anti-Virus software) will be increasing their individual subscription rates from about US$15 to US$20 this year. For companies like Apple that bundle competitors software into their products (in this case, their .Mac product), this is probably good news …

An article from BBC News reports that Gibbs Technology is now demonstrating the Aquada, an amphibious car that will be available in the UK next year at a price of £150,000. The vehicle is interesting in that it can achieve 100mph on land and 30mph in the water. The …

An article from Internetnews.com is reporting on moves by email-based newsletters to switch from email to a mechanism called RSS (Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary), which has users computers pull specially-formatted information from the newsletter's site instead of waiting for an email copy of the newsletter. From …