2003 July

“First, thanks to all of you that took the time to describe the different problems you encountered. You know who you are. Second, do not see this as an attempt to knock SP4 and tell you to not deploy it. This SP has hundreds of important security fixes, so it is important. The main thing […]

“A Japanese firm has announced technology that allows camera-phone users to buy a product just by snapping a picture of it.”

“SGI and OpenGL ARB just announced the OpenGL 1.5 specification, introducing support for a new OGL Shading Language. Also, check out the new Java bindings to OpenGL. OGL 1.5 is a step towards the OGL 2.0, already suggested 2.0 by 3DLabs. Also worth pointing out that OpenML SDK has been released as well.” Via Slashdot

A security group thinks researchers should give software companies at least 30 days to come up with a patch before going public about a flaw.

“Thanks to good records and a Small Claims judge, Steve Oualline got a $199 refund for his unused copy of Microsoft Windows XP. One Linux user’s story shows how to establish a good refund case.”

“The Cupertino, Calif.-based computer maker plans next month to launch a pilot program with Best Buy in which the retailer will carry various Mac models at ‘a few’ locations. Best Buy has been selling Apple’s iPod since September of last year. Some Best Buy locations will also have Apple representatives inside the store, similar to […]

The orange juice business is turning to “high” tech to monitor crops. - “DigitalGlobe provides detailed photos that can be used by businesses to watch the competition from a safe distance — 280 miles above the Earth. The Florida Department of Citrus recently used this legal form of spying. Florida and Brazil compete for 90 […]

Mark Ishikawa, a former hacker, is the CEO of BayTSP, arguably one of the most recognised and biggest companies working in the business of patrolling the web to unmask violators of copyrighted music. From his Silicon Valley base he told BBC News Online: “There is no lock that can’t be picked and our technology ensures […]

Here’s how to recognize a Weblog tool by its permalinks! “Cruft in each URI is emphasized. Cruft is any part which is an artifact of the Weblogging software, meaningless to most humans, while decreasing usability by making the URI unnecessarily long.”

“Sony has announced the specs for its upcoming handheld gaming device, the PSP, at their PlayStation Meeting 2003. Most interesting is that this device promises Playstation 2 level graphics, a compact 1.8GB media, Wireless 802.11, USB 2.0, 7.1 channel Audio, and a 24bit 16×9 screen TFT LCD screen. Sony has called this device the ‘Walkman […]

“The small study in New York measured the pressure of the fluid in the eyeball in a small group of men before and after they attached their tie. They found a significant rise - and warn that long-term pressure rises have been linked to the condition glaucoma…. The experts say that the ties are probably […]

“”Andreas Karlsson has a working release of a simple ssh client for the Ericsson P800 and is looking for a way to imput control charactors in the interface. Here is Screenshot 1 and Screenshot 2. There’s also a VNC client for the Ericsson P800 (Auf Deutsch!) written by Gino Micacchi with some more screenshots here […]

“C|Net has an article stating that the U.S. isn’t making the push for IPv6 like others are even though the networking appliances and operating systems are ready for it. It goes on to explain that North America has 70% of the Internet address space and that there is a total of 1 billion IPs left, […]

Even though the Internet is global, customers can only buy music from Apple’s iTunes Music Store and other legitimate online services such as MusicNet, BuyMusic.com, and Rhapsody if they live in the United States. It all comes down to licensing deals, and the music industry’s inability to administer payments internationally. The AP says the geographic […]

The Inquirer has an interesting article about how long it will take the RIAA to sue everyone who is sharing MP3’s. I’m not saying whether any of it is right or not, but it will take a while.

“Imagine sitting on a bench in a public park on a warm, summer afternoon. Without warning, more than 100 people from all directions suddenly gather around a single spot, erect a small statue, then disperse as suddenly as they appeared.” - Welcome to the world of Smart Mobs.

Yesterday the Mozilla Foundation released Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.1.

The open source unified messaging program, Miranda IM<, has become the victim of license violation, after an Australian/Russian company called QuickRiver Ltd. used their source code in their own program, ZeeZ IM, and removed all credits from it.

“The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has again delayed the implementation of its master taxpayer database modernization plan and launched an independent review of the program to evaluate its progress and determine whether any changes are needed.” - Would you believe they’re still using a 40 year old TAPE system??? Amazing, simply amazing. Too bad they […]

And now for something really geeky. If any of you out there remember the cheesy BBC show, Blake’s Seven, it’s coming back. I am always leery of remakes, but I’d be interested to see where they go with this one.