Because of the recent (to me, remember I've been gone for 2 weeks) internet worm, Microsoft has apparently contracted with Akamai to serve their crucial web pages under load conditions. An article from CNet reports the systems as using Linux (although I thought they were running FreeBSD), but either way …

After a long and enjoyable trip to the Grand Canyon (lots of details and a new web site soon), I will be returning to the DC area today. Unfortunately, my Exchange server decided to have one of its required reboots while I was gone and it appears that about a …

The New York Times has an interesting article about the commemoration in Japan of the arrival of American Commodore Matthew Perry, who dragged Japan out of isolation by gun point in the 1850's. It's a piece of our joint American-Japanese history that is seldom pondered (or even remembered) by people …

The Washington Post is reporting this morning about a program started at Northwestern University a couple of years ago to put Supreme Court audio online. The site, Oyez.org, has been running for the past few years, but the effort began in the early 1980's when a bunch of Chicago …

An article from Wired reports that, thanks to new terrorist threats that the government has heard about, we'll all be waiting longer at the airports and that our laptops and other personal electronic devices are going to be subject to more intrusive testing. I searched the TSA website and couldn't …

The New York Times has an article about Julian Green, 45, of the UK who was recently acquitted on a charge of child pornography by using a virus as a defense. Apparently, the man's computer started "acting up" due to a virus and became unstable. However, not only was it …

It's not terribly common for a US soccer player to have the attention of Manchester United, but this story in the Washington Post tells of a 14-year old Potomac, MD player who has already signed a $1M contract with Nike and is being sought by all of the big players …

SpaceShipOne, the XPrize entrant from Scaled Composites, has successfully completed a glide test after separating from its carrier aircraft, White Knight according to an article from SpaceToday.net. Way to go Burt and team!

If you use FreeBSD, you are undoubtedly familiar with the ports collection and its thousands of easy-to-install utilities and applications. This article from O'Reilly Press's Onlamp details a number of cool tricks with the system. Among the tips are: How to make a web-browsable set of readmes for the entire …

It may not seem like a record setter here in DC (and certainly not where I'm going to be starting on Tuesday), but 99.3°F is the highest temperature ever seen in the UK. According to an article from BBC News, the temperature was recorded yesterday at Heathrow. Predicted …

In the Q&A section of Roger Ebert's web site at the Chicago Sun Times, there is an interesting exchange about the movie Whale Rider (reviewed very favorably here in June). The crux of the problem is an endorsement that Ebert gave to the film that the MPAA (you remember …

While searching for a clean copy of the US Constitution on an official site, I found a set of six amendments that have not been ratified by the states. A summary is here, including the pro-slavery amendment and the DC statehood amendment. The history is that two were proposed with …

According to an article from the Scotsman, British Boy Scouts may now qualify for an new IT Merit Badge. New skills include navigating the Internet, using PDAs, and doing page layout.

A recent review of Bluetooth headsets is available from HowardChui.com. The review compares the HBH-60 from Sony Ericsson, Bluetake BT400, Jabra BT200, Nextlink Bluespoon, and Nokia HDW-2. In the end, the HBH-60 was the winner.

IBM let loose a fusillade of legal firepower today aimed squarely at blowing away SCO. The computer giant, considered three decades ago to be the most controlling, powerful, and anti- competitive company in the industry (like Microsoft is today) is in the interesting position of being the "defender of the …

Sun (the author/owner of Java) has posted an article about hosting MIDP development on Apple's OS X. MIDP is the Mobile version of Java (used by phones like the P800). The implementation requires X11, but works very nicely.

In preparation for the opening of the Dulles Annex to the Air and Space Museum, another piece of aviation history has landed at Dulles airport, according to an article from the Washington Post. The oldest example of a working Boeing Stratoliner has come to final rest at the site of …

A story form the Washington Post this morning tells the sad tale of a group of teenagers who allegedly beat up another teenager because the victim had cooperated with a Secret Service investigation into a counterfeiting in Reston. What does this have to do with Dell? Apparently, the counterfeits were …

Mike Hawash (of FreeMikeHawash fame), the former Intel employee held in secret for five weeks as a "material witness" before he was charged, has plead guilty and has agreed to testify against his alleged fellow conspirators in a plot to go to Afghanistan in 2001 to help the Taliban, according …

Because no bad idea (or bad name) remains unused for long, the state of Florida has been working to create an information network that gathers information about its residents to aid in "anti-terrorism" and law enforcement. According to this article in the Washington Post, Florida is now working to go …