Wired reports that Friday of last week a Federal Judge has declared unconstitutional portions of the USA Patriot Act that ban providing "expert assistance" to groups declared as terrorist organizations. The provision was struck down as being too vague and flying in the face of the First and Fifth Amendments …

An article from Wired discussed rock artist Peter Gabriel and his move (with fellow artist Brian Eno) to encourage new artists to look away from the traditional record labels and toward a direct relationship with their fans via the Internet. The pair were stumping support at Midem (a music conference …

Atheros Communications, makers of WiFi chips, has announced a new single-chip WiFi solution implementing supports the 802.11g standard. There is quite a bit of buzz about this, due to the applications in consumer products and portable devices, where size and complexity are key factors. Did I mention they're scheduling …

Bob Massey of the Washington Post has a favorable review of Apple's new GarageBand (part of iLife '04). He ends the review with "The GarageBand name hides a certain irony -- it's hard to make a song sound any way but slick and seamless in this program. But this same relative …

The IBM PowerPC 970 (the chip called the G5 by Apple) has been out for about a year and has made many a Macintosh aficionado very happy with its performance. However, judging by the amount of air movement necessary (see the wicked-cool cooling in the G5) to keep the G5 …

In the world of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), it appears that SCO's CEO Darl McBride is planning on being right up there with certain political figures in his tactics. In a letter sent by SCO and later published on the OSAIA (Open Source and Industry Alliance) web site, McBride …

As a follow up to last week's story here, I bring to your attention this article from CNet. They are reporting that young Mr. Rowe has taken the following items in exchange for his domain: A new domain name Assistance building a new site Microsoft certification training MSDN subscription (up …

For those fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the question that is on all of your minds is now answered. Jonathan Corum has answered the question (at least for the European variety) in this article from style.org. As a bonus, he throws in the capital of Assyria …

Update: Twenty-two years later, I revisited this comparison with six chains, including Popeyes and KFC. There's a lot of discussion these days about the right foods to eat and how to appropriately eat during your busy life. So, I decided I'd take a look at some of the fast food …

An article from the Houston Chronicle reports that although the liberal group MoveOn had their Superbowl ad rejected by CBS, they may have benefited more from the publicity about the ad rejection than the ad itself. Among other things, they saved the $2M placement fee and have now garnered almost …

It's the 24th of January and that means the 20th anniversary of the day that changed desktop computing. OK, it might sound like an exaggeration, but it is important to remember that Windows wasn't really a force until after the Macintosh had been out for a while (1.0 was …

Technical and legal experts from California (which has some stringent anti- spam laws of its own) are weighing in on the CANSPAM act, passed by congress and signed into law in December by President Bush. The word... well, with it you Can Spam. I'm reminded of the faux advertisement for …

According to a press release from NASA, the Mars Rover Spirit sent about 72 megabits of data yesterday in a burst of communication relayed through the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft. It was the first communication through the relay station since communication problems started on Wednesday and contained mostly diagnostic data. In …

Alright, some of you have already heard about me complaining about Microsoft trying to lock up the Office file formats by using encryption (and the Palladium initiative). Now, there is word in an article from CNet that Microsoft has applied for patents in Europe and New Zealand that may block …

With the news (from CNN) yesterday that the Mars Rover Spirit had not been constructively heard from in a day, and the loss of Beagle, the Mars Explorer, and lord-knows what other Mars exploration vehicles, it leaves you to wonder if there are Martians there trying to keep us away …

Apple's new iLife '04 contains an interesting music program called GarageBand. With it, you can create music via a number of different methods, including MIDI keyboard input. However, if you're not yet ready to plunk down real cash on a keyboard and still want to play, look at microSynth, a …

An article in the Washington Post this morning talks about presidential candidate Wesley Clark's attempt to turn a campaign embarrassment into a positive move for charity. After being derided for wearing an argyll sweater that the press claims was a transparent attempt to soften his image, Clark gave the …

OK, call me a Star Trek fan, but I found the new Priceline.com ad pretty funny. Pretty good marketing too, because without it, I wouldn't have paid any attention to the ad.

With astronaut safety concerns as the stated cause, NASA has decided to cancel the 2006 shuttle mission to provide the Hubble Space Telescope with its last parts exchange. This means that it will likely cease operation before its successor (the James Webb Space Telescope) is aloft. Articles from space.com …

It may just be $50, and not $6M, but Apple's upgrade to iPhoto works as promised, it is bigger (handles larger libraries), stronger (does a bunch more stuff, like photo sharing), and faster---oh, so much faster! So, if you have a lot of photos (or if you will have a …