technology Articles


UltimateTV gets Caller ID

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.

Sun on the market?

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 …


SCO accuses everybody of stealing from them

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 …

UK's CAA says cell phones interfere with planes

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 …

Stained-glass PC

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.

iPod 2.0 has "note reader" mode

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 …


Microsoft to roll out WWW.C

Just in time for the summer concert and party season, CNet reports that Microsoft has rolled out plans for the WWW.C, an MSN kiosk of ass-tronomical proportions (ok, I just couldn't resist, I'm going to rot in hell for that one). CNet has pictures.

Analysts project slow move to Windows Server 2003

CNet reports that analysts believe that the transition to Windows 2003 server from NT and 2000 may take quite a while. The Gartner Group, an IT research firm, projects that around 60-70% of all Windows servers are still running Windows NT, the predecessor of Windows 2000, the progenitor of the …


Competition finally hits home to cell providers

With a growing number of competitive providers with similar features, quality, and coverage the consumer is starting to see the benefits of competition in the cellular telephone space. Wired has an article describing some tactics that have succeeded for negotiating with your current provider to get better rates and features …



Cross-platform peer-to-peer music service is coming

According to an article on MacCentral, a service called File-Cash is going to debut on June 1 that will use P-2-P technology to sell legitimate copies of music from 100 indy record companies to end users. The system supposedly makes use of encrypted Digital Rights Management technology to ensure appropriate …

RIAA/Students settle suit

The four students that were sued for hundreds of millions by the RIAA, have settled with the industry group for sums between $12,000 and $16,000 each, to be paid in installments over the next 4 years. For many of us who make electronic works (be it music, software …

iTunes and Apple Music Service coming to AOL?

An article in Mac Daily News cites a Fortune article in quoting an AOL/Warner executive as saying that they are courting Apple to provide the new iTunes service on the AOL service. Seems like a lot of indirection to get to the point, but it might be interesting as …

Nomad gets larger

Nomad, Creative Lab's attempt to compete with the iPod has just gotten larger. One day after Apple announced their new, redesigned iPod with up to 30GB (for $499), Creative announced that their 60GB Zen will be available for $399. Exact specs on the 60GB version aren't available right now …

SensorML brings auto-discovery to web sensors

An article in Sensors (a magazine devoted to sensors and sensor technology) describes a new proposed standard for describing sensors and their data using a new XML dialect called SensorML. The idea is to provide a standard language for describing the sensors and the kinds of data that they can …

Gartner report questions Linux on the desktop

I'm a little concerned that the Gartner Group wasn't playing fair when they wrote this, but giving them the benefit of the doubt, here is their report republished by ZDNet. All the usual, variety is the enemy of efficiency (now, show me one single Windows house that has the same …