2003 January

“AT&T Corp plans to lay off 3,500 staff, just under 5% of its workforce, in a move that will lead to a $240m restructuring charge in its fourth quarter. More than half the job cuts are in management, and AT&T said the move is the result of “improved processes and automation” in the provisioning and [...]

“First came a decommissioned missile silo, then an abandoned logging town, and on Monday a Caribbean island became the latest mega-property to list on Internet auction site eBay Inc.”

When it comes to an Apple Computer love-fest, a Macworld Conference and Expo can’t be beat. Thousands of attendees are expected to descend on San Francisco next week to hear the latest news from the Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker. By the time CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage on Tuesday, the company is expected to [...]

“Clonaid says a second human clone is born to a lesbian couple. Neither of the two babies the sect claims to have produced have been confirmed as clones by genetic testing, and scientists remain skeptical.”

For the past few years, the rising tide of digital photography has seemingly threatened to turn the traditional photography world upside down, marginalizing venerable giants like Eastman Kodak in favor of device manufacturers, software vendors and printer OEMs as digital technology cannibalizes the film base. Analysts and investors have spent the past year turning away [...]

With efforts to make my freezer louder…
“With funding from Ben & Jerry’s and the U.S. Navy, Penn State researchers are developing a refrigerator that keeps food cold using sound waves instead of the fluorocarbons that damage the ozone layer and increase global warming.”

“A public relations firm accidentally posts server login information in an online job ad, exposing scads of clients’ customer data and underscoring the need for companies to take Web security seriously.”

“The Detroit auto show has seen a lot of concept cars over the decades, but a four-wheel motorcycle powered by a 500-horsepower V-10 engine is a first.”
Rather stylish too!

“Designers of a strap-on aircraft will sell their prototype in an online auction expected to exceed $1 million. The SoloTrek XFV, which made its maiden flight in December 2001, will debut Friday on eBay with a starting bid of about $50,000, said Michael Moshier, chief executive of defense contractor Trek Aerospace. The prototype can hover [...]

“Dell Computer has begun selling broadband services from the top two U.S. providers of DSL (digital subscriber line) Internet access, the company will announce on Tuesday.”

Online spending during the holiday season increased by a whopping 24 percent according to this article. I got quite a few presents on Christmas Day with a shipping label on the box myself.

Ok, do not go to the following URL, and I really mean this. The domain www.powermac.com has been discovered by Brad to be infected with a virus, Nimda, and the file that is offered up in download should not be done so. If anyone know the owner, please inform them of this infection, and please have [...]

This article disputes the rumor seen on many news sites that Apple is dropping production of the 17-inch iMac in June. The article makes several good points and explains how the rumor got started. I suppose we’ll have to wait for an official announcement from Apple to find out what’s really going to happen.

“Had problems logging into your Microsoft .NET Passport account? You’re not alone. A glitch in the system prevented access to certain accounts around 3:30 P.M. Pacific Time on the first day of the new year, and it took all the king’s horses and all the king’s men about three hours to bring it under control [...]

The above link is to Microsoft’s ftp site and I’d love to be able to tell you that I could verify that the information is there, but I can’t. I was briefly able to get through for long enough to tell you that the files in fact exist, but I couldn’t download them. In addition, [...]

Sorry I posted so long after it happened, but Xteq Systems updated their flagship program to ver 6.3 on december 24th. Definitely an evolutionary update, rather than revolutionary, but I have found it to be worthwhile. I un-installed the last version before installing the new and didn’t have any problems, but your-mileage-may-vary.

Now is just down right disturbing. We’ve all seen Sci-Fi shows where they have control over the weather and quite frankly, if done right, I don’t see any wrong with it. However, I usually make the assumption that the the civilization in question that is controlling the weather actually understands what it is doing. One [...]

It seems that a number of Star Trek fans got together to create their own episode. According to the article which originally alerted me to its existence (linked here), it is a fairly good reproduction and the acting isn’t bad either.

This is fairly self-explanatory, it will take place in Boston on Jan 17th. Among the speakers are: Paul Graham (of “a plan for spam” fame), ESR, John Graham-Cumming (of “POPFile” fame), and Matt Sergeant from MessageLabs. According to the homepage, this conference will be very informal: “no fees, sponsorships, proceedings, luncheons, contests, etc. Just a [...]

It seems that the Alamo is to be the site of impending battle once again. Although this time the battle will be fought with WiFi and laptops rather rifles and cannons. On Jan 11th a large number of hacker will be brought together to try and hack an apache/linux web server. In the background DJs [...]