As reported in this article from ARS Technica, the DMCA lawsuit by Lexmark against a producer of chips to work-around Lexmark's toner reuse hack is not progressing well. It may be the first sign of a serious crack in the much-vaunted DMCA protections for everything from software to toner.

OK, the source may be questionable, but at least one list looks reasonable. The top 10 party schools does include: #3 University of Wisconsin-Madison #5 Ohio University #6 Florida State University #9 University of Colorado-Boulder Of course, you have to question any party school list that omits SIU (Southern Illinois …

For those into cryptography, you are probably anxiously wondering what "broken" means in this context. For those who aren't, you're probably wondering what SHA-1 is and why you should care. If you're in the latter group, bear with me a moment, while I speak to the former. Broken means that …

According to reports from everywhere, Tim Barnett of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD has presented a new paper at the annual AAAS (American Academy for the Advancement of Science) conference showing new and supposedly conclusive evidence of the human component of global warming. Details are scant at this point …

According to an article from the Washington Post, the Virginia Assembly has rejected another 5 bills aimed at extending red light cameras for beyond their expiration in July of this year. Proponents of the extension argue that the cameras cut side-impact collisions at traffic lights. Opponents argue that they increase …

A breast cancer survivor who found her cancer using a breast self-exam has launched a campaign promoting the practice called "Feel Your Boobies." She hopes that this direct approach will get more women, especially young women, to pay attention and take self- exams seriously. Diagnosed at the age of 33 …

I've seen a lot of these top 100 lists, but this one has some real legs to it. Mobile PC magazine has its list of Top 100 Gadgets of All Time, and they really include gadgets dating back before the sextant. Of course, there's a lot of taint toward the …

According to SpaceFlight Now's article (thanks to SpaceToday.net for the pointer), NASA has set May 15 at 3:50pm as the launch date for the next shuttle (Discovery). If all goes well, the next launch after that will be July 12.

Here's an interesting article from The Edmonton Sun (I guess that at this time of the year, there isn't much else to do in Alberta), about a teacher who went on an all-McDonald's diet and actually lost weight. The secret? You'll never believe this... exercise.

An article from Gizmodo brings us word of an invention from an Israeli company, Glucon, that would allow the constant monitoring of glucose levels without breaking the skin. Looking like a watch, the device will eventually monitor levels using ultrasound and a laser. Patent is #6,846,288.

The Mac may be the best defense against most viruses and spyware, but there is still a need to be careful out there when riding on the wild internet. According to an advisory from Secunia, the flaw uses a visual trick to convince users that they are at a web …

Some of you may have heard of the graphics input idea that I fancy as the way to go for high-end graphics use. Unfortunately, we're still a ways away from 300dpi fast-motion pen/touch sensitive screens that are mounted on drafting boards (and about that size). However, Wacom, makers of …

Gmail, google's free email service, has invited a bunch of newcomers in again. According to reports, anyone who has requested an invitation has been given one now, and although the service is still in "beta" (according to the masthead), it appears to be fully functional at this point. Google caused …

OK, I don't think that I'm going to offend any die-hard PC lovers with this pointer to the review from DivisionTwo, which has got to be the most clueless review of Apple's new Mac Mini. The review is written from the point of view of a PC user who is …

Putting aside all of the required puns about altitude and "up", an article from WebMD indicates that in a recent test in France, Viagra appears helpful in reducing altitude sickness symptoms.

FactCheck.org, a favorite of mine during the campaign, is back on the trail again with a couple of articles on the current campaign on social security. MoveOn.org has a new Social Security Ad that is under scrutiny for falsely claiming a cut in benefits from the new Bush …

The University of Illinois (at Urbana-Champaign) has announced the Turing Cluster, a 640-node XServe cluster running OS X Server 10.3. Partially funded by a donation from Apple (although nobody is saying how partially), it's available for public access inside of the University's research community and student population.

In 10 countries in the South Pacific, they certainly did. According to an article from News Interactive, ten countries in the South Pacific are without general telephone and internet service until they are able to get their dishes re-pointed and service re-established through another carrier. Left in the virtual dark …

An interesting take on the Macintosh Mini from ComputerWorld senior news columnist Frank Hayes today at MacCentral. Basically, he thinks it is going to have an effect on the IT marketplace, and probably for the better, but not because it will take off, mostly because it puts Apple aiming computers …

Success can be a real burden, finds Blizzard, publisher of the wildly popular MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft. According to an article on FileFront, the company has limited the number of new users by stopping shipment of new boxes going out the door.