When my brother and I were skiing at Whistler in 2001, there was a lot of talk and argument about pursuing the Winter Olympics. Some sides were arguing that the games would bring too many people to the area and cause too much disruption, that the transportation was not sufficient …

Those at the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference last week had mixed reviews for the wireless access. Although coverage in the facility was excellent as far as signal goes, there were troubles with the volume of users on the system. Most of the problems were because of the sheer numbers …

CIT Online is reporting that Cesky Telecom and KFC are teaming together to provide internet access at 42 KFC restaurants in the Czech Republic. The free service will last through September, at which time, it may turn pay.

Microsoft has once again admitted that they have found and fixed a security flaw in the Microsoft Passport that could have granted access to user's accounts. According to an article from the Washington Post, the flaw only affected folks with accounts older than four years and to Microsoft's knowledge, had …

Listen.com (owned by Real Networks and running the Rhapsody music service) is quoted in this Wired article as having doubled the number of CD track burns sold after cutting the price per track burn from $0.99 to $0.79. Although the company has not released total numbers of …

A new law that goes into effect this week in California will require that companies that collect and maintain personal information alert customers when that information is inappropriately released.An article from CNet further details that release of information that could be used for identity theft (such as Social Security …

According to an article from BBC News, Kraft Foods, America's largest food maker, is planning on reducing portions for its snack foods because of concerns over obesity. Although the company says its primary concern is customer health, they also admit that they are taking action out of concern over lawsuits …

The New York Times had a great article that starts to give "kids in the digital age" some of their due. Instead of ranting on about their attention span, willingness to steal music, and their infatuation with TV and computer screens, Frank Rich looks at the rapid sale of Harry …

According to an article on CNet, Sony, Matsushita, Hitachi, NEC, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, and Toshiba have formed CELF, the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum. The group is intended to help steer Linux in a direction compatible with consumer electronics, focussing on issues such as: Extended battery life Real-time responsiveness (for audio …

The Economist has an article this week describing the current state of WiFi hotspots and asking some important questions about the viability of the business model that is causing the WiFi hotspot explosion. As mentioned in another article here today, the number of hotspots appears to be exploding. However, The …

An article from InfoWorld reports that tests by Reasoning (a software inspection firm) have indicated that recent Apache code (2.x version) has about the same number of bugs per thousand lines of code as commercial equivalents. I'm not entirely sure what this means, but I do find it an …

A series of announcements in the last few days has indicated a continued expansion of "hotspots" for 802.11 access. Here's a list: Barnes and Noble will be testing WiFi access in stores in Seattle and Atlanta (from SmartMoney.com) SBC is planning to roll out 2,000 WiFi Hotspots …

According to an article from CNet, Toshiba has released the P25, a portable computer with 17" of screen and 9.1 pounds of weight. Although using basically the same screen as the Apple 17" PowerBook, the computer weighs in at 50% more weight. Basic stats are: 2.8GHz Pentium 4 …

In a move that will undoubtedly annoy users, Comcast has sent email to its customers (some weeks ago) informing them that they have until next week to begin the transition from their @attbi.com addresses to @comcast.net. Although it isn't costly for the company to maintain two domain names …

Wired is reporting that the California Supreme Court has overturned a ruling of a lower court against Ken Hamidi, a former Intel employee who sent anti- Intel emails after his dismissal in the 1990s. Originally, Intel went to court in order to stop the email campaign by Hamidi, who was …

The Electonic Frontier Foundation has kicked off a new campaign to back the use of peer-to-peer file sharing systems and to call for reforms in the ways that copyrights are handled and music is licensed. The site itself, and the campaign, are nothing new for the EFF, and on the …

The Russian Rockot booster was used Monday to launch a series of 9 small satellites from around the world, according to reports from SpaceToday.net The former ballistic missile (known in the west as the SS-19) is being used by EUROCKET, a pan-European launch group, to perform multiple payload launches …

DirecTV and EchoStar are threatening the state of South Carolina with a lawsuit if $30M in taxes that the companies allege were illegally levied upon satellite TV customers are not refunded. The Triangle Business Journal reports that the companies (really company at this point) have made the threat to conform …

Wired is reporting that a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision has cleared the way for many of us who publish information on a small scale (and who mostly point to other media for source material) to gain some protection against libel. The protection seems to stem from an interpretation …

A very thorough head-to-head review of the ATI Radeon 9800 (128MB) and the NVidia FX/5900 (256MB) appears on OCAddiction.com (an overclocking site for the Windows community). Great review in terms of looking at a variety of both real-world and benchmarked performance issues. It appears that ATI is still …