There's a lot of discussion these days about the right foods to eat and how to appropriately eat during your busy life. So, I decided I'd take a look at some of the fast food chains (the ones with drive-thru service, mostly) and see how they stacked up on default …

An article from the Houston Chronicle reports that although the liberal group MoveOn had their Superbowl ad rejected by CBS, they may have benefited more from the publicity about the ad rejection than the ad itself. Among other things, they saved the $2M placement fee and have now garnered almost …

It's the 24th of January and that means the 20th anniversary of the day that changed desktop computing. OK, it might sound like an exaggeration, but it is important to remember that Windows wasn't really a force until after the Macintosh had been out for a while (1.0 was …

Technical and legal experts from California (which has some stringent anti- spam laws of its own) are weighing in on the CANSPAM act, passed by congress and signed into law in December by President Bush. The word... well, with it you Can Spam. I'm reminded of the faux advertisement for …

According to a press release from NASA, the Mars Rover Spirit sent about 72 megabits of data yesterday in a burst of communication relayed through the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft. It was the first communication through the relay station since communication problems started on Wednesday and contained mostly diagnostic data. In …

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 …

With the news (from CNN) yesterday that the Mars Rover Spirit had not been constructively heard from in a day, and the loss of Beagle, the Mars Explorer, and lord-knows what other Mars exploration vehicles, it leaves you to wonder if there are Martians there trying to keep us away …

Apple's new iLife '04 contains an interesting music program called GarageBand. With it, you can create music via a number of different methods, including MIDI keyboard input. However, if you're not yet ready to plunk down real cash on a keyboard and still want to play, look at microSynth, a …

An article in the Washington Post this morning talks about presidential candidate Wesley Clark's attempt to turn a campaign embarrassment into a positive move for charity. After being derided for wearing an argyll sweater that the press claims was a transparent attempt to soften his image, Clark gave the …

OK, call me a Star Trek fan, but I found the new Priceline.com ad pretty funny. Pretty good marketing too, because without it, I wouldn't have paid any attention to the ad.

With astronaut safety concerns as the stated cause, NASA has decided to cancel the 2006 shuttle mission to provide the Hubble Space Telescope with its last parts exchange. This means that it will likely cease operation before its successor (the James Webb Space Telescope) is aloft. Articles from space.com …

It may just be $50, and not $6M, but Apple's upgrade to iPhoto works as promised, it is bigger (handles larger libraries), stronger (does a bunch more stuff, like photo sharing), and faster---oh, so much faster! So, if you have a lot of photos (or if you will have a …

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 …

Starting in 2005, children conceived with donor sperm or eggs will be able to track down the donor. According to an article from BBC News, the new law will allow 18-year-olds to find out who the donors are. The new law doesn't change the treatment for sperm or eggs already …

According to an article in Wired, it certainly was for Jonathan Caouette. The 31 year old made his Sundance Film Festival entry for a total of $281.32 (in supplies, not counting his Mac). Caouette's film, Tarnation, recounts his troubled childhood in a highly dysfunctional family. Sundance is showing a …

Pixar, Steve Jobs' other company, has posted a sneak peak of their upcoming short, Boundin'. Cute, but short. Looks like it'll be fun when it hits theaters.

OK, so the kid should have known it was coming, but a 17-year-old in Canada has gotten Microsoft plenty mad by registering MikeRoweSoft.com, according to an article on CNN.

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 in the Washington Post this morning talks about the problems that a number of communities in the Washington, DC area are having with large warehouse retailers. The crux of the problem is that the large buildings are ugly and ill-suited for reuse. Even when another warehouse retailer decides …