2003 April

In recent days Apple announced their new 30GB iPod and now Creative has announced their new 60GB Nomad Jukebox Zen, which is retailing for a $100 dollars less than the new iPod.

“In Fortune Magazine’s exclusive coverage of Apple, iTunes, iPod, and the iTunes Music Store, a few gems stand out, namely, that Apple is planning on “rolling out iTunes for Windows” and the potentially blockbuster news that a “deal with AOL [that] would land the iTunes Music Store on the desktops of AOL’s 26 million subscribers” […]

“At a wireless conference here, RIM Chairman Jim Balsillie told an audience of investors, analysts and reporters that a BlackBerry handheld with a color screen will be available in a few months. The BlackBerry device and service allow subscribers to wirelessly access corporate data such as e-mail.”

I love the ASIO output plug-in for Winamp. If your soundcard has ASIO drivers, give it a try. For whatever reason, I think that you can only download it from the author’s site, which is in Japanese. The link is through Babelfish, though, so that English-speakers can get it. I pair […]

“Following up on the preliminary reports on this yesterday Konami of America sends along the official announcement of plans for an enhanced version of Silent Hill 3, planned for release in October of this year.”

“Gamestop’s Unreal Tournament 2004 Page is online (thanks Worthplaying and Voodoo Extreme) seemingly offering pre-orders for this project, which has not been announced.”

“The long-awaited replacement to Wi-Fi’s weak built-in security algorithm has finally arrived, with several major vendors at the Networld+Interop trade show here announcing products or plans to support the upgrade in existing products through software upgrades.”

“Terra Lycos’s portal, Lycos, Tuesday launched its Anywhere IM (Instant Messaging) service, allowing users for the first time to talk to people on other online chat facilities, in an attempt to steal market share from giants MSN and Yahoo.”

“This is it! You’re getting married. It’s special. You’re different from other couples. So why should your wedding look the same as theirs?”

“- By Robin ‘Roblimo’ Miller -
I am a heavy user of both StarOffice and OpenOffice in Linux because my work forces me to interact with many people who seem to think Microsoft Office’s default file formats are the only ones there are. On the whole, I’m happy with StarOffice and OpenOffice except for one thing: […]

“Cell phone users frustrated by poor signals and dropped calls had to be envious. In images from the barren Iraqi desert, through sandstorms and a war, they watched as satellite phones provided a link to events halfway around the world.”

“America Online launched a new virus protection service for its members on Wednesday, marking the latest paid service from the Internet division of AOL Time Warner Inc. as it tries to turn itself around.”

“Online advertising software vendor Unicast is introducing a new kind of Internet ad that doesn’t just pop up over a portion of the browser but rather fills the entire screen of the computer user.The New York-based company described the new unit as a full-screen, 15-second, 300k online ad.”

“An anti-war protester chained and padlocked himself to a building in Olympia, Wash. When puzzled employees arrived for work, they asked protester Jody Mason what he was doing. “Isn’t this the U.S. Department of Energy?” Mason asked. No, the workers told him. He was chained to the state Grange office.”

“A third internal test version of the successor to Microsoft Corp.’s desktop Windows XP operating system was leaked onto the Internet last week, showing incremental enhancements over the version that surfaced in March (see story), according to Windows experts.”

“The UK Passport Service (UKPS) plans to put biometric chips into passports by 2005. The UKPS says it will incorporate a biometric feature within all passports issued. The agency is to run a six-month trial with a systems integrator to ‘evaluate issues around biometric capture using iris, facial recognition and fingerprint to support the passport […]

“In a WIPO decision released today, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company has lost a dispute over puertorico.com in very similar circumstances to the decision in newzealand.com. As with newzealand.com, puertorico.com was registered in the early days of the commercial Internet by Virtual Countries Inc., and used as a portal for various Internet services. As with […]

“Dell Computer Corp. and Good Technology Inc. will work together on designing a new wireless handheld for corporate customers, the companies announced.”

“Klez is like an in-law who has moved into the house and just won’t leave: irritating and stubborn.”

“Federal and state officials are expected to announced arrests and lawsuits in a crackdown on Internet auction scams that have fleeced thousands of consumers out of money and merchandise.”