2003 October

A problem is causing some of those who install the new version of Mac OS X to lose the data that’s stored on their external hard drives.
Apple Computer said the glitch is limited to external hard drives that use a high-speed FireWire connection and a particular chipset Oxford Semiconductor manufactures. The company encouraged those [...]

ROUNDED IDE cables can significantly improve cooling inside your case, by offering less obstruction to the airflow. There are many rounded IDE and floppy drive cables available commercially, but they are often sheathed with thick plastic, them difficult to route, and are not always available in suitable lengths. Of course, they also cost money.
Making your [...]

Wonder what all the hubbub about Worlds of Warcraft is about? Well check out these screenshots that were leaked to the web yesterday…

“Wall Street is not the only one wooing Google. Microsoft is as well.
“According to company executives and others briefed on the discussions, Microsoft - desperate to capture a slice of the popular and ad-generating search business - approached Google within the last two months to discuss the possibility of a takeover.”

“The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has taken up Microsoft Corp.’s cause in a patent infringement lawsuit by urging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to invalidate the related patent ‘in order to prevent substantial economic and technical damage to the operation of (the) World Wide Web.’
In a long letter sent Tuesday by W3C [...]

“The City of Mississauga, Ont. plans to build a wireless system that will give bylaw and fire safety inspectors the means to file reports while on the move.
Fujitsu Consulting (Canada) Inc. and Octanewave Software Inc. announced Wednesday that they had won a contract to provide Mississauga with mobile applications and wireless enterprise architecture.”

An interesting opinion piece about P2P file sharing. “Let’s say that somebody shoveled candy into a bag and left without paying for it, then brought it out onto the street, laid it on a table, and then just walked away. It’s there. It doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to someone else. You wouldn’t [...]

You may have to create a free account and login to read this article. “In late September 2003, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) in Washington issued a new report that detailed its “findings” on the state of Internet security. The panel of experts who authored the paper agreed that the Internet security [...]

“As often as is humanly possible, we’ll be posting live updates directly from the show, keeping you up to date on new Longhorn details as they are revealed by Bill Gates, other Microsoft executives, and various presenters. These details include information about the Aero user interface, the Avalon graphics technologies, the WinFS file system add-on, [...]

You have to watch a short ad to read the complete article.
‘To be perfectly frank, I thought it was nuts,’ says Sifry. ‘OK: You can eat as many bacon cheeseburgers as you want, and you still lose weight? Why doesn’t this sound healthy? But when I saw two people who I respect do it, it [...]

“Microsoft’s Next Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB, aka Palladium) will be built into the next generation of CPUs, Bill Gates claimed yesterday, effectively making security via hardware ID an integral part of the Windows PC platform. And Microsoft is talking to the chip and PC companies about the introduction of hardware ID, so we will [...]

“A problem has been discovered with certain LG-based CD-ROM drives and Mandrake Linux 9.2. The kernel that comes shipped with Mandrake Linux 9.2 and early updates would send a FLUSH_CACHE command to the drive which would make drive inoperable by overwriting its firmware. Unfortunately, many Dell computers (possibly others) come with these CD-ROM drives. Currently, [...]

“Meet the future of biological and chemical espionage: yeast and cockroaches.
Odd as the combination sounds, it could be the building block of a new, inexpensive spy device - one that could sneak into a building undetected and sense chemicals or biological agents, said Jeff Brinker, a Sandia National Laboratories scientist and professor at the University [...]

“Microsoft Corp. will detail plans to disable the Windows Messenger Service and activate the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) by default on Windows XP machines in an effort to protect computers from malicious attacks, a company executive said Tuesday. The changes will be described at an informal lunchtime presentation during Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in [...]

“FranklinCovey says that more than six million people rely on its paper-based Planning System, which integrates the productivity and effectiveness principles of the famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Focus: Achieving Your Highest Priorities workshops. Now the company has upgraded the PlanPlus add-in that integrates the FranklinCovey system with Microsoft Outlook, including the [...]

“An e-mail-borne virus that apparently originated in Germany is in the wild but has not yet spread widely or affected many users, an antivirus researcher said Monday.
The worm-type virus, called W32/Sober@MM, or Sober, is being spread as an attachment to a variety of e-mail messages written in either English or German, said Craig Schmugar, a [...]

“The legal war between The SCO Group Inc. and IBM Corp. took another step forward Friday, with the Utah-based software company asserting that IBM does not have the right to enforce the GNU General Public License (GPL) software license that governs the Linux operating system.
‘The GPL is selectively enforced by the Free Software Foundation such [...]

“Bill Gates kicked off the ‘Longhorn’ generation of products in his Los Angeles keynote speech at the Professional Developers Conference, one of the most hotly anticipated Microsoft conferences in years.
‘Well, welcome to the Longhorn PDC,’ Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect told the Los Angeles crowd on Monday morning. A record 7,000 people signed up [...]

“Don’t scapegoat greedy record execs for Napster’s failure, says Joseph Menn in ‘All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster.’ The inept bunglers who ran the company have only themselves to blame”

“On its Web site, the Motion Picture Association of America provides a handy FAQ to help people understand the ‘broadcast flag,’ the latest copy-protection scheme that Hollywood wants the government to mandate. According to the MPAA, the idea is a near-perfect solution to a pernicious problem — the threat that the coming age of high-definition [...]