A disturbing article in Infoworld describes the terms of the new Microsoft 6.0 software agreements. This agreement, which Microsoft pressured customers to take last year by eliminating upgrade pricing schemes, apparently has provisions that require acceleration payments of the entire contract in order to make licenses perpetual on change …

An article on BBC News describes the sentence (5 months in Jail, 5 months house arrest, and $28,500 fine) for a man convicted of violating the DMCA by importing and selling mod chips for the X Box. For those regular readers, it will be no surprise to hear that …

Reports on CNet indicate that Sun officials are stating publicly that they are looking favorably at the AMD Opteron 64/32-bit processor for future machines. "Can we commit to using Opteron today? No," a spokesperson said. "Can we use it? Are we likely to use it? Yes."

Although it isn't a product announcement or press release of same, it is an interesting step in the direction of the intermingling of the internet and consumer electronics. Philips Semiconductors, the electronics giant, has modified their consumer DVD-R reference design to incorporate broadband internet connectivity and video streaming. An article …

Based on an article on the web site of Sandia National Labs, the government lab is now announcing that they are using new technology to control small fusion reactions that may lead to long-term controlled fusion reactions usable for sustainable power. Follow the link, because there are some really cool …

Based on information from this page on Adobe's web site, Adobe is readying the Acrobat product for movement to version 6.0. Many of the features appear aimed at solidifying the position of the company's PDF format and heading off Microsoft's new generic document format, slated for release with …

In reading an article on CNet this morning about AOL asking the US FCC to drop a provision from the requirements given to AOL when they merged with Time-Warner, I considered the fate of IM interoperability over the last few years. In 2001, the FCC pushed heavily for the interoperability …

Here's a paranoid thought. Upon reading an article from CNet about Microsoft keys to the new Server 2003 getting out on the net, I realized that it is in Microsoft's best interests to keep the software as buggy and susceptible to network-based attack as possible. Comments by the spokesperson for …

An article on CNet this morning indicates that the outstanding lawsuits between Intel and VIA are now gone. However, the news isn't all good. The US manufacturer of CPUs and motherboard chipsets has agreed with the Taiwanese chip manufacturer to settle all outstanding lawsuits and to license the ability to …

So, you're at the office and you want to get the dinner going while you head home, but the meat is in the refrigerator. You need the new oven by TMIO (Tonight's Menu Intelligent Ovens). This article on BBC News describes this new device that can be controlled over the …

No details yet on why it supports USB 2.0, but you can buy it here at ThinkGeek.

The founder of Lindows, Michael Roberston, started a contest a little over a year ago to get a version of Linux up and running on the Xbox. Each phase had a reward ($100,000), and moved the contest forward to the next phase. The first phase, finished last year, involved …

It's definitely not cooked yet, but the folks working on ReactOS have released version 0.1.1 of the Open Source operating system aimed at creating a "stable and open" platform that is compatible with Windows NT 4. This is an OS, not the windowing system, although the front page …

According to an article from CNet, graphics chip manufacturer nVidia has released a new utility that is able to update drivers quickly and with less hassle on Linux machines.

Mozilla.org has announced that a new project has been formed, called Minotaur, to build a Mail (and News) only client based on the mail program inside of Mozilla. It is aimed at creating a cleaner and more user-configurable user interface.

Calling it a risk to operational security, the US military has asked journalists to stop using certain satellite telephones. It appears that the phones, as do phones from other providers, calculate the user's position using GPS coordinates. Unlike other phones, though, these phones send that data (accurate to within a …

As the US, the UK, and their "coalition of the willing" are embroiled in the war against the Iraqi regime, the politicians are starting to think about the post-war Iraq money rush. This week, Representative Issa (CA) started to propose that US rebuilding funds for Iraq should not be used …

According to an article on Deutsche Welle, Galileo, the EU version of the GPS system got the go-ahead on Friday with a 450M Euro investment. This fall, before the war with Iraq, there was some feeling that Europe may forgo the expensive and redundant system, but the increase in tensions …

An article on MobileMag details some upcoming robots from Seiko-Epson that will use Bluetooth as a control mechanism. The robots aren't going to be available to the public (unless there is a large demand for it), but will be showed at ROBODEX next month. The robot's stats are impressive: it …

According to an article on The Register, Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics and equipment manufacturer, is preparing a consumer robot with an Open Source API. The robot, called HOAP-2 for Humanoid Open Architecture Platform, has a standard USB 1.1 interface and an optional 802.11b interface for programming and control …