Microsoft announced a patch yesterday for a significant vulnerability that affects core security protocols on all recent Windows operating systems (Windows 2000- XP). If you have a Windows box, you should immediately run software update and get this fix.

Verisign, the company that has a government-granted monopoly to control the root-level domains for .com and .net, is looking at reviving its SiteFinder service, according to an article in the Washington Post. With claims like "Site Finder was not controversial with users, 84 percent of whom said they liked it …

An article from InfoWorld gives some preliminary information about Samsung's upcoming satellite TV-receiving telephone. The announcement from Samsung earlier this week indicates that they have created a single chip that will decode the satellite signals broadcast at 2.6GHz (as opposed to 12.2GHz to 12.7GHz used by DBS …

According to an article from MSFN (Microsoft Software Forum Network), Microsoft has announced the availability of a beta version of their 64-bit Windows operating system. Official information on the 64-bit Beta can be found on the Microsoft site. Requirements are: Athlon64 or Opteron Processor 256MB RAM 1.5GB Hard disk …

Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post technology writer, has a few words to say about Microsoft's Smart Watch (aka MSN Direct) technology in his review of the Suunto n3. All things considered, he had nothing good to say about it. The summary is: Style: Clunky Battery Life: Too short News: Too short …

The venerable NPR program Car Talk has stopped providing streaming versions of their programs in RealAudio and has switched instead to Windows Media Player. As noted in the comments from the site, you can access WMP from the Macintosh, so they aren't cutting Mac users out. Interesting (and hopefully informative …

After noticing the new IBM advertisements touting the benefits of open source (check out the IBM Open Source page), I was intrigued to see that it took only days for the ads to generate an article in BBC News. Maybe they were having a slow news day. Perhaps they were …

The big claim of cable internet access over services such as DSL is the faster download speed (DSL is often limited to between 512kbps and 1mbps, whereas many cable providers have 1.5-3.0mbps maximums). Security Focus is carrying an Associated Press article that discusses recent moves by Comcast to …

Those traveling on Amtrak in the north-east corridor will be happy to hear that the train service provider is expanding their WiFi experiment to include stations in: Boston, Providence, Wilmington, and Philadelphia as well as Penn Station in NYC. This according to an article from CNet.

The Wilmington Star is carrying an Associated Press article that describes the plans by Best Western to have all of their hotels in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean offering free Internet access by September 1, 2004.

Atheros Communications, makers of WiFi chips, has announced a new single-chip WiFi solution implementing supports the 802.11g standard. There is quite a bit of buzz about this, due to the applications in consumer products and portable devices, where size and complexity are key factors. Did I mention they're scheduling …

Alright, some of you have already heard about me complaining about Microsoft trying to lock up the Office file formats by using encryption (and the Palladium initiative). Now, there is word in an article from CNet that Microsoft has applied for patents in Europe and New Zealand that may block …

According to an article from CNet, SCO has filed a lawsuit against Novell in an attempt to get Novell's much- talked-about remaining UNIX copyrights. In yet another round of the near-never-ending SCO vs Linux saga, SCO has decided to attack Novell's claims of UNIX ownership head-on by asking the court …

Continuing the chronicle of Martian landers and surveyors, the European Space Agency has sent Mars Express into orbit around the red planet. The first pictures are in from the stereoscopic camera, and they are pretty amazing. The mapping camera, which can be used to determine 3D data, has a resolution …

The Washington Post had a nice article about engineers on the Spirit Mars Rover project and the anxiety of waiting to see if their inventions will work on the red planet.

An article from Wired about a prototype home built by Andersen and Time Warner in Park City, Utah that has some amazing windows. Some of them are speakers, others are computer displays, but almost all of them can change from transparent to opaque at the click of a mouse.

The announcement last week that Hewlett-Packard would be aligning themselves with Apple in the approach to digital music was met by strong support in the Apple community and strong condemnation by both Microsoft and Dell. The press comments from these two companies spoke of "standards" and "choice", so what could …

We can all breath a sigh of relief now that BBC News reports that the British scientific Advisory Group on Non-Ionizing Radiation has declared that they don't think cell phones cause health problems. The report doesn't change the official position on cellular phones (the Brits have warned from the beginning …

OK, I'll admit it, I already own three Scott eVest jackets (not all purchased), the ones with all of the pockets and the space for the PAN (Personal Area Network), but this one will be another on the purchase list if it really comes out. Scott, in conjunction with ICP …

In a sign that digital cameras and disposable cameras are the mainstay of their sales in the "west", Kodak has announced that they will stop selling reloadable film cameras in the US. They are also going to stop producing APS cameras for sale elsewhere. The release notes that they will …