BBC News is reporting that France and Japan are in competition for the site for a breeder reactor project sponsored by the ITER Consortium (cool site, check it out) to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. However, the article points out that France is running into some resistance from the …

FileVault is a feature added to Apple's OS X for the 10.3 (Panther) release to enable users (especially users of laptops) to encrypt their data to protect it from prying eyes. The folks at MacDevCenter have written a good article about the feature, what it is good for and …

In a well-watched privacy case, the RIAA has been handed a defeat in its contest with Verzion over releasing personal information about subscribers. According to an article from USA Today, the US District Court of Appeals overturned the ruling and sided with Verizon (and the customers). This now throws into …

If you were wondering where the Rutan's Scaled Composites was getting its money to fund their attempt at the XPrize, then you need wonder no further. Space Today points at a number of reports of Paul Allen admitting that he is bankrolling the effort.

MacMice has a very cool new mount for the iSight, called iFlex. Check it out!

Wal-mart's PC-only, web-based service is now available for testing, with a $0.88/song price tag and rights similar to those of Apple's iTunes Music Service ( 3 PC copies, 10 burns, unlimited digital music player transfers), it may well provide some competition. Of course, it is windows only right now …

An article from Silicon.com points us back to Adobe, who are once again attempting to push electronic books. This time, they have opened their own Adobe Digital Media Store to sell the items in hope that they can reduce the burden for those trying to publish the books. The …

For those who keep track of the graphics world, ExtremeTech has a new head-to-head review of the current crop of mobile GPUs. The ATI Mobility 9600 came out on top. For mac aficionados, that means you're in good shape if you have the most recent PowerBook G4 15" or 17 …

A nice article from the Washington Post this morning indicates that volunteerism among both adults and teenagers is on the rise. Adult volunteering is up 6% over last year and there were significant increases in the late teenage group as well.

The Washington Post this morning has an article about Howard Dean, the Democratic frontrunner in the campaign for President in 2004. The reporters bring up a number of circumstances where Mr. Dean played fast and loose with the truth. However, the interesting part to me wasn't the information that politicians …

There is an interesting article from The Dallas Morning News that describes the phenomenon of workers who run their "offices" out of coffee houses and use WiFi and cellular phones to keep themselves connected to the world. As somebody who often falls into this category, it's amusing to see it …

Vonage, the supplier that I use for my VoIP phone, is now offering virtual telephone numbers from Canada. So, if you have customers in Toronto that you want to have call you for free, you can now sign up for Canadian number additions to your Vonage account for $4.95 …

The Smithsonian Institution has another winner on its hands, and so does the Nation. Monday, Dec. 15 marked the opening day for the National Air and Space Museum's new facility, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Since it is located on the property surrounding Dulles International Airport (actually, it is on …

Dueling articles between Lance Ulanoff of PC Magazine (article) and Richard Forno, former Chief Security Officer at Network Solutions (article). The basic gist is that the PC Magazine article was basically a gloat by PC users that there was a vulnerability (fixed in the December update by Apple) found on …

MacMinute has an article that points at a video from Japan showing the line on the opening day at Apple's new Ginza store. The line is said to have 5,500 people in it at its peak. Not bad for a "fringe player".

So, you want a high resolution photo of Bryce Canyon? Here it is. May Lyons of Tawbaware (he appears to make mostly digital camera support software) has created what is believed to be the largest stitched image ever created. Weighing in at just over a gigapixel, this image required almost …

According to an article from CNet, iPass and T-Mobile have signed an agreement to allow roaming between their networks. For customers of either network, this effectively doubles the number of "hotspots" where access is available. T-Mobile has about 4,000 (mostly in the US) and iPass has about 3,000 …

A very interesting article appears in tomorrow's Washington Post about Howard Dean, the Internet, Nobel Prize winning economist Ronald Coase, and possible changes in our two-party system. The article reflects many ideas discussed here about disintermediation, including the reduction in organization size due to the Internet (little did I know …

According to an article from CNet, the Canadian courts have determined that downloading files from P2P services is legal, although uploading them is not (if you don't own the copyright). This continues the existing tradition of favoring individual use over copyright holders rights in Canada. The additional twist this time …

That's right, boys and girls. An article from BBC News gives an account of Mick Jagger becoming Sir Mick Jagger. Fortunately, he's not taking it too seriously, but (unlike his pal Keith Richards, who has mocked the whole thing) was respectful to the monarchy for the award.