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2004 October

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Trick or Treat?

Intel sticks with Windows 2000
YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE to receive for zero a business enterprise newsletter from Intel which gives you guidance on how to make your business thrum and also to prevent it stop thrumming.
We know we are regular recipients of this email probably once a month, and the latest issue tells you how to […]

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Rarer Than a Pink Elephant or a Dancing Rhino?

For once, this is an item not directly tied to a tech news story, exactly. Instead, it’s an effort to take our news coverage to a new level. As such, it is kind of personal, as you’ll see.
Our normal method of gathering the latest news uses a number of the major news organizations and weeds […]

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Watch Your Step!

A letter from my virtual buddy Steve Bass (of PC World ‘Home Office’ newsletter fame) clued me in to this new low in business ethics. I’m posting it here in case it helps one of you to avoid the trap.
As I mentioned to him, I see my job here as a kind of digital mine […]

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RSS Burn, Baby Burn

Atom or RSS? To satisfy this niggling doubt is FeedBurner that offers up both. A reader ready page is produced with an easy-peasy interface and compatibility lives. It comes with extras too. Ever been curious as to who’s been reading you? Want to make a few extra off Amazon links? It’s all there and integrated.

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Free Download of Farenhheit 9/11

Please note that posting this entry does in no way reflect the political opinions of Lockergnome, but rather letting its readers know about the movie.
You can download Michael Moore’s infamous Farenheit 9/11 free and it’s legal. However, the catch is the download will not be available after election day. If the 650 meg video is […]

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Customer Focus Part 2

Now that Steve Ballmer and company have given you all the facts you need to compare Windows and Linux, allow me to add just one little tidbit….
And while he [Ballmer] didn’t point to it specifically, one couldn’t help but notice the white paper at the very top of Microsoft’s “Get the Facts” page. “Comparing Microsoft […]

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BizTalk Blogging

The documentation monkeys behind Microsoft BizTalk Server have opened up blog shop. The Blogspot hosted communion professes not only to tell us about the wonders of BizTalk Server but Host Integration Server and Commerce Server. Content is sparse at last check like any new blog but they’ve made a good first dip in the water […]

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Ricoh Quits Optical-Drives Business

The Ricoh name is about older than dirt when it comes to the optical drive market. This, unfortunately, is just a sign of the times:
Ricoh is withdrawing from the optical disk drive business, citing price competition and declining sales internationally.
The company now thinks it can’t make a profit in the optical disk business, according to […]

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Hackers Target Apple? Congratulations!

Weird things are happening these days. The Red Sox win the World Series (in four games, yet!)—and hackers hit the Macintosh. It’s hard to say which is the stranger event.
The Apple community has—since its inception—been largely immune to nefarious hackers bent on spreading harm. If you are a Windows user, as I am, you […]

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Want Some Free Software?

Well, if you do, and you use Windows XP, then read on…
Photo Story 3 - Free for Windows XP Users
Photo Story 3 - Free for Windows XP Users
Earlier this week, Microsoft released Photo Story 3 as a free download for all users of Windows XP. Photo Story 3 allows you to create musical slide shows […]

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TiVo gets serious about DRM

With the never ending ‘you know what’ going on these days, things just keeps getting worse with the DRM maniacs. In order to keep the broadcasters at bay, TiVo has opted to change the rules a bit on how they handle recorded content.
At first I figured this was not a big deal. Then I found […]

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Bad PayPal, No Cookie

PayPal has announced that fees for their services will be waived for some customers today only to make nice for screwing up transactions for five days this month with upgrades gone horribly wrong. Honestly, don’t people have test environments anymore? The bracket is small; only the 1.9 to 2.9 percent charged users but they’ll probably […]

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The First Casualty

The first casualty in the online DVD rental war has been recorded:
Blockbuster Inc. on Wednesday posted a quarterly operating profit well below analysts’ estimates even before $1.5 billion in one-time charges, as it faced falling movie rental demand and higher costs to counter competition.
The video rental chain, whose shares fell to an all-time low, also […]

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Google: The Big Picture (UnTrue and Totally Unfounded Rumor Inside)

I’ve already reported on this story, but some of the things that CNN/Money had to say made so much sense that I had to go back to it.
Their comments made perfect sense IF Google’s aim is to field a full frontal assault on MSN, Yahoo, and AOL in the form of a complete set of […]

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Microsoft Slow to Patch Another (kind of) IE Flaw

Updated: New attack finds yet another leak in local resource security that Windows XP Service Pack 2 and subsequent patches were supposed to plug.
A security researcher has discovered a new exploit for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows XP Service Pack 2 that allows programs to be planted and executed on fully-patched systems.
The researcher, known as […]

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If you use KYOCERA cell phones, READ THIS!

This morning Kyocera Corp. announced that several models of their cell phones had batteries that could explode. THEIR MESSAGE IS: STOP USING THESE PHONES IMMEDIATELY!!!
The models involved (as far as has been announced) are: the 3200 series, The Blade, The Rave, The Slider, and The Phantom.
These models may have batteries that were counterfeit and supplied […]

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Microsoft launches enterprise IM server

“US software maker Microsoft has announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. Part of the Microsoft Office System, the Live Communications Server 2005 software enables organisations to deliver enterprise instant messaging and presence awareness to remote business partners, customers, co-workers and suppliers.”
My company has developed its own IM system […]

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Good News: CWShredder Back in the Fight

CWShredder, the only free program known to successfully detect and remove all variants of the Cool Web Search browser hijacker, is back in the fight. After its developer, Dutch college student Merijn Bellekom, called it quits this past June, CWShredder was no longer being updated. Now, Merijn has licensed the CWShredder source code and rights […]

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Win Law and Order, PC Weenies style!

Are you a law and order fan? How about the super successful comic, PC Weenies? If you can answer yes to either of these questions, then you might be in the running for a copy of Law and Order: Double or Nothing.
When Krishna first alerted me to this, I told him I would get the […]

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LAMP and Regulatory Arbitrage

Today, MIT’s LAMP system goes back on line, with a new design. LAMP (”Library Access to Music Project”) streams music to the MIT campus via the campus cable TV system. Any student can connect to LAMP’s website and choose a sequence of songs. The chosen songs are then scheduled for playing on one of sixteen […]