technology Articles


New bio-fuel cell will take over-the-counter alcohol

Wired reports that researchers from St. Louis University have created a new fuel cell that is able to take alcohol and turn it into power. For those who follow fuel cell developments, this would be a completely uninteresting story, except that it doesn't require the use of methanol, like previous …

Kodak names their OLED technology NuVue

Those interested in seeing the NuVue 550L Display, Kodak's first product in the line of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays, now have a chance. The company has incorporated the low-power, high-contrast, high-viewing angle technology into their LS633 Digital Camera, which should be making its way to stores soon …


Companies respond to SCO Linux threats

An article from CNET describes the reactions of Red Hat, HP, Microsoft, and Sun to the claims by SCO that Former-AT&T IP was stolen and infused into Linux. Each company reacted a bit differently: HP claims there are no grounds for the suit and that it is a …

PeopleSoft likens Microsoft's .NET to asbestos

In an interesting analogy, PeopleSoft's president and CEO Craig Conway has compared Microsoft's .NET technology to the naturally-occurring substance that seemed to be a very promising heat shield and insulator until it was found to cause severe lung trouble and was labeled one of the more toxic substances that …

Microsoft-SCO connection

It didn't take long for people to start writing editorials about the Microsoft-SCO connection in trying to get you to stop using OpenSource software. Check out the article from CNET.

Cloudmark's plans to charge create row

Cloudmark, makers of a hot anti-spam product have announced that they are finally starting to charge a monthly fee for their service. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, especially as a product goes from beta to final release. However, testers and the media claim (as in this article from CNET …

UK banks roll out more secure credit cards

In an effort to fight fraud, banks in the UK are rolling out a pilot program to defeat credit card cloning (where you make a copy of the credit card by duplicating the data on the back of the card) through the use of an electronic chip that verifies a …

Extensive article on photo preservation

There is an excellent and extensively researched article on photographic preservation on the Washington Post. It covers everything from the why's and wherefore's of photographic preservation to Bill Gates' private photo archive at Corbis (which you can use if you pay for the rights).

Is historic software in danger?

An article from the New York Times relates that there is concern in the library and archive community that the DMCA may prevent the preservation of such historically important software as VisiCalc. Because of "bit rot", the disks containing the original software are becoming unusable, but archivists are hesitant to …

Roxio + PressPlay = Napster, part two

It's official. A press release on the Roxio site indicates that they have purchased PressPlay from Sony and Universal Music for a $12.5 million in cash and 3.9 in stock. In addition, the company plans to pour at least $20 million into the venture just to get it …


The $336 XBox-PC

An article on USA Today describes the efforts of hackers to use an XBox as the basis of a PC and describes the costs, potential benefits, and legal risks.

DSL growth explosive in first quarter

According to an article from CNET, the first quarter of 2003 saw an increase of over two million users with broadband. Most (1.2 million) went to cable, but the healthy remainder are now using DSL. The article further states that of the 87 million people within the reach of …

Tadpole releases new Sparc laptop

Tadpole, long-time purveyor of Solaris-running Sparc-based laptops, has decided to try competing directly with lower price offerings. According to an article on CNET, the company has released an under-$3000 model as part of its new line- up.


Microsoft licenses SCO Unix code

In a move that is undoubtedly intended to bolster the copyright claims of SCO, Microsoft Sunday announced that they will be licensing the remnants of AT&T's original Unix from SCO. As reported by CNET, this is the next salvo in the war between Microsoft and the Linux community …


Diabetes invention takes top prize at MIT

A nice development for diabetics who require close monitoring and insulin. According to an article on Wired, this year's MIT prize for Entrepreneurship goes to a team who developed a once daily injection that will release insulin based on need as opposed to time or all at once.