Articles


PC Mag service & reliability survey results

The results are in, PC Magazine has tallied the votes, and the Apple Macintosh is clearly sitting atop the computer industry in terms of service and reliability. Dell was also rated an overall A+, with somewhat lesser rankings in some of the areas than Apple. Compaq continues its streak in …

Apple's iSight is Out of Sight

The positive reviews for Apple's new iSight camera and iChat AV software continue to roll in. This time, it's Popular Mechanics adding their kudos for the pair. Once again, the comparison is made to Microsoft's MSN Messenger offering, but once again, the issue of tight integration has given the Apple …

iPod 3G docking connector coming

SendStation has announced that they will be releasing an adapter from a standard 6-wire FireWire cable to the new 3G docking connector on the iPod. Although a bit pricey at $16.95, those who travel often and prefer to keep the number of cables down will find it very nice …

Perhaps the record industry should concentrate on this

With all of the disruption over copying music online, maybe the record industry should read this article from BBC News, based on information provided by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The organization claims that over one billion counterfeit CDs will be sold worldwide this year. Now, our friends …

Wal-mart scraps RFID smart shelf

In a win for privacy advocates and a loss for technologists and the RFID industry, Wal-Mart has decided to abort their trial of the controversial technology for inventory control, reports CNet. The company claims that they never finished installing the shelf and never received any RFID products from their partner …

Strange historical perspectives

Reuters has article quoting a new article from the Journal of the Royal Society for Medicine entitled "Stonehenge: a view from medicine." The author claims to have determined that Stonehenge is actually an enormous scale model of the female genitalia. Although I couldn't get the actual article, I did at …

Macintosh eBay sniper upgraded

Although the press announcements were about the upgrade, I'd never heard of the program Maxi Bidder from Colourfull Creations before yesterday. The software is a $9.95 program for doing eBay sniping from a Macintosh. Sniping is the practice of lurking until a few seconds before the bidding is complete …

FreeBSD 5.1 review is in

A review from eWeek has now hit the web, and the word on 5.1 is pretty good. 5.1 has some big changes from 5.0, including the support for nearly double the number of processor architectures and a complete revamp of the way the kernel handles SMP (symmetric …

Post-9/11 government sends fear through business, customers

In a fine example of what is wrong with the kinds of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) created by the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act, the Washington Post has an article about some of the indecencies and inconveniences caused to Muslim-Americans. The article discusses the uproar about Monster removing all …


Religious conviction leaves the fruit to rot

An interesting article from The Scotsman tells of a school in Leicester, The Midlands, UK that has decided not to accept free fruit from the government because the food is to be funded by the National Lottery. The school's students are 96% Muslim and the parents were surveyed before the …

Guido leaves Zope.com

An article from SlashDot is reporting that Guido van Rossum is leaving Zope.com. Guido is the original creator of the Python programming language. The article says that he is going to a startup called 'Elemental Security' that will be creating a security product using Python.


Supreme Court lets "open source law" decision stand

Thanks to a pointer from SlashDot, I found my way to an article from GTW Associates (a firm that consults on international standards and trade policy) about a relatively obscure, but potentially important decision by the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal in a copyright case. The case deals …


100Mbps to the bedstand in San Jose

ABC News reports that the Hotel Valencia in San Jose, California, has just finished a significant information systems deployment that has resulted in one of the most technologically advanced hotels in the nation. Among its interesting technologies are: A card-reader-armed doorman who can confirm your reservation, check you in, and …

US Mars rover finally launched

An article from SpaceToday.net reports that NASA has finally launched Opportunity, NASA's new Mars rover. Further information about, and pictures from, the launch are available in the NASA feature piece. More information on the MER (Mars Exploration Rover) mission, and about Opportunity's twin, Spirit, are available on the NASA …

Extreme USB extension

Gefen has announced a new USB extension product that will allow you to communicate with USB devices that are 1,650 feet away using fiber optic cable. Thanks to a pointer from MacCentral, we were turned on to the latest product in Gefen's extension empire. The company has long been …


Boeing granted spectrum by ITU for Connexion

A press release from Boeing announces that the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) has extended acceptable use of existing spectrum so that the company may use it for their Connexion high-speed internet services for aircraft. The ITU has extended the secondary mobile satellite service allocation at 14-14.5GHz to include aeronautical …