Articles



JetBlue to be CAPPS II guinea pig

Apparently one of the things that you give up, besides meals, when you fly JetBlue is your privacy. According to an article from Wired, JetBlue has stepped up to the plate to take Delta's place after that carrier bowed out of the CAPPS II testing earlier this year. CAPPS II …

G5 crushes Intel at fluid dynamics

In the first test that I've seen involving fluid dynamics simulations, xlr8yourmac has published a benchmark done by a knowledgeable user who has used the top of the line Fortran compilers and compared single-processor G4, G5, Itanium, Xeon, and Cray X1 processors. The G5 starts out a little weak (beating …

Verisign steals the rest of the Internet

In a move that shows the success of Verisign's campaign to rid the world of ICANN's individual representation, the largest domain name company has taken over all nonexistent domains worldwide. Yesterday, if you had typed www.somerandomname.net, you would have gotten an error message from your browser. Today, you …

Apple announces PowerBook revisions and more

To a crowd of happy Apple enthusiasts in Paris, Steve Jobs announced revisions to the PowerBook line of G4 portable Macintosh computers. In addition, Apple has released a wireless keyboard and mouse using Bluetooth technology. The key changes in the PowerBook line are centered around the popular 15" model, which …

Will Lotus Notes save Microsoft $.5B?

Microsoft is hardly a beloved name in the computer industry, but when software patents are in question, everybody rallies to the support of the defendant. The latest example of this is a blog entry from Ray Ozzie (formerly of Lotus and currently of Groove Networks). Microsoft in August fell prey …

Microsoft and governments face off

The Economist has a fine article on the growing discord between Microsoft and (especially foreign) governments over the future of software. At issue is not only the cost, but issues of control, proprietary software vs. standards, and reliability. At the crux of the story is the defection of Munich, Germany …

Does SCO know?

An article from LinuxWorld this week raises the question of whether SCO knows the origin of the code that they claim was misappropriated into the Linux code base. Based on quotes from SCO officials (both in print and at conferences), the author postulates that one of the reasons that SCO …

Texas death row witness discusses the practice

A man who has been an official witness at over 200 deaths carried out by the State of Texas has stopped signing up to witness the acts, but that doesn't mean he's against capital punishment. The article (oddly enough from the Scotsman) goes over some of the inmates he has …

Forensic expert believes TV shows may jeopardize justice

In an article from the Scotsman, Dr. Susan Black opines that the growth in television shows like CSI and Silent Witness are jeopardizing justice by making jury expectations unrealistic. Not only does she contend that the popularity of the "sexed up" forensic techniques will establish expectations in juries that are …




The benefits of having no track record

An article in the Washington Post this morning describes the benefits inuring to presidential candidate Howard Dean for not having a voting record on the national scene. At issue right now are the key Democratic complaints about President Bush and the fact that nearly all of the other Democratic candidates …

RIAA "amnesty" program under attack

Days after the announcement of the RIAA's Clean Slate program for "amnesty," the RIAA is under fire for creating a misleading program which (at least from cursory examination by lawyers) doesn't provide protection from lawsuits. According to an article on CNet, one California resident has filed suit against the organization …

Bush sets sights on our freedoms

In a speech yesterday (reported by the Washington Post), President Bush asked the public to "untie the hands of our law enforcement officials." In his speech, Bush has called for extensions to the USA Patriot Act to give the government additional powers which he claims would bring anti- terrorism enforcement …


NIST looks at CD/DVD use as archive material

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced yesterday that they have launched a program aimed at determining the usefulness of DVDs and CDs as archival storage media and at setting standards for media that would be appropriate for keeping data for 50+ years. According to information on the …

ATI stomps nVidia in Half Life 2 benchmarks

ATI and nVidia have a new battleground now that the initial Half Life 2 benchmarks are making the rounds. So far, according to an article on Extreme Tech, ATI is in the lead by a healthy margin. However, some of this is suspect due to an OEM agreement between ATI …

Is Enterprise picking up Trek mantle

As a long-time Star Trek fan, I have to admit that after Star Trek:Voyager and the last lack-luster film, I have not put much thought into watching Enterprise, the latest Star Trek series. However, a recent article in Salon (yes, you'll have to either watch ads or subscribe to …