People are always coming up with interesting ways around seeming problems. According to an article on Yahoo! news, a small company called The Bioteam that does work with Biosciences companies. The company has been configuring clusters of Xserve computers to do Informatics Research. In order to get the machines bootstrapped …

According to a release on the MySQL web site, version 4.0 is now deemed production quality. This version has been in test for a long time, but there are still many who will wait for the .1.

The venerable PayPal, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ebay, has decided to start enforcing their own values on what can be bought with PayPal's virtual cash. According to an article in Wired magazine, a variety of items will no longer valid for purchase by PayPal. The list of things that …

OK, this was neat. I was sitting in a room with a television on mute and all of a sudden, the mute came off and an EAS (Emergency Alert System) message was displayed. Very cool.

Shadowbane, the MMORPG for both Mac and PC from Ubisoft is now up and running. After extensive delays, the game is now live and should be available at local stores everywhere. From discussions with the authors at GDC, my understanding is that they are limiting the initial shipments in order …

Terrasoft Solutions has released an announcement that Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) version 3.0 has been released. Terrasoft has been providing YDL for a while and also sells Apple computers with Linux pre-installed and the Briq computer which is a G3 or G4 in a "shoebox".

This is well worth a read, if for no reason other than the two Harry Potter stories. Thanks, Business 2.0.

OK, I admit it, I'm a cellular phone and portable gadget addict. There, I said it... now, to heck with the remaining 11 steps, because I ENJOY being an addict. The fact of the matter is that this industry is moving so quickly that (with the sole exception of the …

With more people dependent upon laptops or stand-alone LCD displays for their computers, it is about time that somebody did a review of the various policies about dead pixels. The folks at Tom's Hardware have once again done a nice job of putting together a variety of information as well …

Apple Computer has announced availability of the third beta version of their X11 for Mac OS X product. This version contains some more stability and performance enhancements as well as the inclusion of options to handle command-key equivalents for operations such as quit. Click here[1] for the download page …

Apple Computer's PowerSchool software package has been updated to version 3.5 in time for administrators to consider it for the Fall 2003 school year. The product (acquired by Apple a couple of years back) provides online administration facilities for school districts with up to 10,000 students. The …

In a non-announcement, the Apple Store is now listing a "Cluster Node" configuration for the Xserve product that includes no video card, no second gigabit Ethernet card and no additional drive space, but costs only 2/3 of the price of the entry level 1.33GHz dual-processor configuration. It appears …

According to an article from the BBC News service, UK Broadband installations have surged to the point where the UK now has higher penetration than France, once the Internet center of Europe (and the birthplace of interactive television).

We, as consumers, all look at the idea of a national list of Do Not Call numbers as a great step forward in reducing the cold-call telemarketing that bothers our boudoirs. However, there's another group of people even happier about the new law that we are--the computer software and telephony …

If you liked the old Blackberry, you'll like the new one less... or, rather you'll like the little new one, or two. The new models will operate on existing GSM/GPRS networks or on CDMA2000 networks (one or the other, decide when you buy) and supplements the existing device that …

According to an article in Wired, a group of Indian hackers have released a new variant of the Yaha virus in retaliation against a group of Pakistani hackers who claim to be defacing Indian web sites. Virus makers use the unwilling recipients of the virus to launch a denial of …

PCWorld discusses in this article AMD's new laptop chips. The company announced new low-power chips (25W dissipation max) and new high- power chips (75W dissipation max) aimed at the lightweight laptop and desktop replacement markets respectively.

According to an article on UPI, the German government has new plans to enforce a 3-year old law requiring a ~$13 + 16% tax on computers sold in the country. It's hard to tell where the pre-paid penalty would go once it hits government coffers, but the intention is to compensate …

NASA announced on Wednesday that they had discovered something on Jupiter even larger that the Big Red Spot. They call it The Great Dark Spot. The Cassini spacecraft was peering at Jupiter on its leisurely jaunt to Saturn and discovered it using UV observation.

Apple Computer, Inc. has linked up with CompUSA to provide Apple developers with more virtual shelf space by using a new system called SoftwareToGo. The system is basically a CD burner/printer package to create titles of more limited interest (heh... like all Mac titles?). The output is a CD …