An interesting contest comparing the results of optimization by hand and optimization by optimizing compilers. I'll spare you the suspense, the article shows that the human is a better optimizer than the machine.

Looking for a Macintosh developer? Or are you a developer looking for somebody to hire you? The Mac Developer Directory may be the place for you.

40 teams will be competing in the American Open on the way to the international RoboCup (to be held in Italy this coming July). The contest pits teams of robots against each other to see who comes out on top in a soccer game. Coverage of the event is from …

It's plugged in to your phone and it's displaying stuff on your TV anyway, so why not? The most recent upgrade downloaded to UltimateTV boxes has this feature. If you haven't turned it on, give it a whirl. It's pretty cool. Settings in the Preference section.

With the growing concern about privacy and security for online services and databases, security engineers are using a series of fake data to catch the errant crackers. Much of this isn't news or new, but the term "honeytokens" appears to be. Coined earlier this year on a mailing list, it …

Friday saw a larger-than-normal group headed out to see the first major action film of 2003, X2. In the end, I ended up enjoying the film on a number of levels and I'm certain the rest of the crew did as well. However, if you are looking for the one …

An article in the Seattle Times speculates that Sun's price surge on Friday was predicated on their being open to acquisition. The paper speculated that IBM, HP, and Dell may be the suitors. My question is: Will IBM buy them in order to (among other things) take Java to where …

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is on the warpath and they are now preparing all sorts of "special ops" to attack their enemies (the consumer). An article on the New York Times site describes a set of technologies and techniques (many of them believed to be illegal under …

For Amateur Radio enthusiasts who are interested in communicating using voice over the internet, check out EchoMac from Dog Park Software. It integrates with the EchoLink service (available for PCs originally) and seems to work pretty well. Particularly nice for those of us wimps who only have our technician's license …

Airostep has a series of programs and services that allow Macintoshes to communicate with SMS, MMS, and other GSM- style mobile services. Check out XMobile, which sends SMS messages to over 100 services. I haven't used it, and it appears to require the Airostep service, but it looks very nice …

Check out Terrabrowser from Chimoosoft, it allows you to look at the USGS satellite and topo maps from Microsoft's TerraServer.

It isn't much surprise, but here is the first article I've seen (from Wired) that has evidence of the decline of DSL prices under the pressure of the cable companies.

"It's a beautiful day on my asteroid... a beautiful day.." er.. maybe not. However, an article on MSNBC is reporting that asteroid #26858 is now Misterrogers.

An article on The San Francisco Chronicle shows that the Motion Picture Association of America (industry organization) is outrunning the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a digital privacy and rights advocacy organization). This should be of concern to everyone.

As part of their ongoing attempt to sue their way to profitability, The Santa Cruz Organization is now claiming that they have found code that has been copied "line by line" from their UnixWare source (acquired from Novell who acquired it from AT&T). As a hedge, they claim that …

CNet is reporting that the UK's Civil Aviation Authority has released a report detailing the ways in which cellular phone use interferes with airplanes. According to the report summary, the issues are: False notification of unsafe conditions, e.g. incorrect baggage compartment smoke alarm warnings Malfunction of aircraft systems Interrupted …

My brother, Derek (that's Dr. Derek to you), has discovered that there is a problem when using the Ericsson Clicker and trying to do a GPRS connection at the same time. The solution is to "unpublish" the menu to the phone.

Definitely qualifying for the silly, but cute, product contest, the computer here that has a stained glass case made of individual pieces of glass leaded together.

A document on Apple's site details how to set up notes on an iPod, otherwise known as "museum mode". Creators of notes can make an iPod "Notes Only", which provides the user with access only to the iPod's notes (and whatever soundtrack the author of the notes has prescribed …

OK, crash that Internet Explorer! According to this article on Secunia, you can crash IE with only 5 lines of otherwise well-formed HTML. Ouch!