Articles


Published SCO complaint points at files

OK, now we're getting somewhere. SCO's amended complaint (appearing on Groklaw) contains information about which files are infringing and on which lines. There are 4 tables of lines in the complaint (hopefully this isn't their whole case), and they refer directly to the lines of code in the Linux 2 …


UVA moves to cut tuition costs

According to an article from the Washington Post, the University of Virginia will be dedicating $16M to keep the university affordable. The plan, dubbed Access UVa will attempt to eliminate need-based loans for low income students attending the university, a plan to cap needs-based loans for all students (in state …

SCO widens lawsuit against IBM

SCO's lawsuit against IBM expanded from $3B to $5B this week, through the addition of copyright infringement claims. It appears that most of the new claims come from IBM's sale of their AIX operating system after the folks at SCO told them they were no longer licensed this summer. An …

Is the web helping kids learn to write?

MIT's Technology Review has an article entitled Why Heather Can Write which attributes increased writing abilities to kids who frequent sites for fan fiction. In contrast to stories that have appeared recently discussing the deleterious effects of the internet's Instant Messaging technologies, this article focuses on what kids can learn …

Samsung tests Satellite TV phone chip for Japan

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 …


Apple adds Bluetooth headset and printer support

Apple has released (available through Software Update) a new version of their Bluetooth drivers for the Macintosh. Bluetooth Update 1.5 (available for Panther users) will allow you to use a Bluetooth headset for your iChat connections and other sound I/O. Further, if you are near a Bluetooth printer …

Barbers train to talk about Prostate Cancer

Although a little strange, the folks at NBC5 in Chicago have an article about a program by Rush University Medical Center to train barbers to talk to their patients about prostate cancer and getting tested. Hey, if it gets people in to see their doctors early, it's a great idea …

Counterfeit Contraceptives

A frightening story for those who purchase drugs online. A report from AZCentral (in Australia -- requires information disclosure) details the FDA's warning about an internet pharmacy that was selling counterfeit birth control patches. The fake Ortho Evra patches were being sold by the New Delhi, India company as genuine Johnson …

Sex and videogames hit the mainstream in the UK

It has been a dirty little secret for years that there are all sorts of pornographic computer games available. However, it appears based on an article from The Sun (in London) that the sheets are being pulled off of a game that will have strong marketing and explicit sexual content …

NASA continues their Mars explorations

A quick update from the New York Times about the Mars Rovers. Spirit (the one with the memory problem) is busy erasing its flash memory in hopes that will solve its storage problem, while Opportunity continues to look at soil samples. So far, the most interesting thing found are some …

Johnson book and film questioned

The New York Times is reporting that Bill Moyers and others are asking The History Channel to open an internal investigation into a documentary aired last year accusing former President Lyndon B Johnson of participating in the assassination of former President John F Kennedy. The row is about a show …

Microsoft offers users a chance to try 64-bit Windows

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 …

Courier banished from the State Department

In exciting typographical news today, ABC News is reporting that the US State Department has issued an edict that Courier New 12 be replaced by Times New Roman 12 as the official font in all documents issued by the State Department (with a few exceptions, such as treaties).

Half-life 2 gets closer (but farther away)

CNN is reporting that Valve Software, the makers of the upcoming game Half Life 2, have finally made some rumblings about the date for the game and are now estimating Summer 2004 (up from April 2004, when it was disclosed last fall that someone had hacked in and stolen the …

Washington Post reviews Microsoft Smart Watch

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 …

Mac-based 3D program gets renderer

For those interested in such things, the folks who do Cheetah3D for the Macintosh just came out with a version that includes a hardware renderer. It's a fairly nice package in terms of features and it's hard to beat the $59 price.

Flawed intelligence investigated

There's a good article appearing in the New York Times that follows the discussion of the CIA and questions about the intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. Much of this information parallels a discussion that Carol and I had with James Woolsey, the former Clinton CIA Director, and …

Car Talk gets (rid of) Real, switches to WMP

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 …