In a move that is seen as conciliatory for the large software maker, Microsoft has announced changes to its controversial Software Assurance program. CNET is running an article describing the changes and intended effects. The revisions don't decrease pricing or make it more flexible, but do add support, training, and …

PC users are familiar with the term BIOS (standing for Basic Input/Output System), although few know exactly what it does, they do know that they need it and occasionally you are required to press F1 or some other combination to invoke it and save your computer from certain doom …

Thanks to an article in Wired this morning, I now know about the gesture keyboards available from FingerWorks. Expect to see a review in the near future as I feel compelled to try it out. Invented by a professor from the University of Delaware, the keyboards (and keypads) allow for …

A report from Wired alerts that Microsoft has once again withdrawn an update from their site due to an "inadvertent" problem with the Windows XP security update. According to the company, "Most systems didn't crash; they simply lost network connectivity." Perhaps they should check out what most users use their …

A provocative article in Wired goes just a little bit too far in claiming that Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a "crime against humanity", but argues reasonably that the perfect enforcement brought by the proposals and technologies being pushed by the content owners would materially change the way people work …

Listen.com, the music service of Real Networks (the service's name is really Rhapsody) has dropped its pricing to $0.79/track for burning to CD. According to the article on Wired, the company ran a promotion earlier this year, which led it to the conclusion that the lower price …

A jury has found eBay guilty on two of three counts of patent infringement (the third count was thrown out by the judge by invalidating the patent in question). The patents' owner MercExchange of Great Falls, VA stand to bring in about $35M for the patents that cover the "Buy …

From the "a few abusers ruin it for us all" files, Apple has released 4.0.1 of iTunes that "fixes" internet file sharing. Too much press about people using the internet sharing to share files with people they don't know has caused Apple to remove the feature in 4 …

BBC News reports that SkyLinc is planning on providing high-speed internet access to the UK using balloons. 18 of them, to be exact. The plan is to use a set of balloons in 18 stationary positions around the UK to bring wireless internet to the whole country, form the inner …

The Toronto Star is reporting that Telos (a Canadian telephone company) is moving their long distance traffic to voice- over-IP (or VoIP). This will allow them to run data and voice over the exact same infrastructure without using two separate overlay networks.

A dubious article from Reuters and carried on ZDNET claims that P2P services consume "up to 60 percent of data traffic zipping around their networks is in the form of large music, movies and software files." I'm not sure that I agree, and I'm certainly not sure that it is …

I was following a link about keeping MacOS X keychains on external USB devices (flash drives, mostly) and found a pointer to the BioSlimDisk, a fingerprint-based encrypted USB storage device. It's not cheap ($150 at DevDepot), but it is an interesting approach, since the fingerprint is used to encrypt/decrypt …

An article from Forrester Research, carried on CNET theorizes that Linux is still a safe platform for most folks and that IBM (and HP and Dell) will work to make sure the SCO threat either disappears in court or is taken care of through licensing or an outright purchase of …

BBC News is reporting that a British Midlands (BMI) plane went through a hailstorm that left it with a hole the size of a football (read: soccer ball). The plane (an Airbus 312) successfully landed at Manchester.

For those having nostalgic feelings for the 1970's (or in my case, the 1980's), here's a site about Plato called PlatoPeople. Some describe PLATO as a predecessor of the internet, others as a large time sharing system. However, either way, the more you know about the history of some of …

The New York Times is reporting that the standard cylinder that is used as the basis for the Kilogram is losing weight at a noticeable rate. Unlike some of the other forms of measure, the Kilo' hasn't yet gotten a better definition, yet, but that may be changing as scientists …

I'm now in the process of downloading it for Symbian, OS X, and Windows, but it is available today at the download page on Adobe's site..

An article from CNET describes a couple of new protocols for fast file sharing, including BitTorrent. At the very end of the article is a comment from the MPAA in which they describe the technologies as "a continuing threat". I don't understand what is next for them. Perhaps they would …

CNET is carrying an interesting article this morning about the down side of Challenge-Response anti-spam utilities. Although it is mainly precautionary, it does make some good points that anyone using (or designing an implementation of ) the technology should be aware of. It also contained a pointer to a page by …

I just finished listening to The Crisis of Islam (ISBN: 0679642811) by Bernard Lewis and I found it to be a fascinating "read". Much of the book goes through the history of Islam and touches on a number of important differences between Islam and Christianity as well as Islam and …