News

It seems that not only are we concerned with long life in our laptops, but living long ourselves. Having batteries that are less prone to explosions is a good thing.

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Boston-Power has been one of the more noteworthy new entrants in part because the somewhat secretive company, which came out of semi-stealth mode late last year, employs many scientists and executives, like Lampe-Onnerud, who have worked in the battery industry for years. Along with showing off the battery publicly for the first time this week, Boston-Power also announced it closed a second round of funding for $15.6 million. There is no magic silver bullet inside the Sonata, Lampe-Onnerud said. Instead, the battery differs from conventional notebook batteries through a large number of design tweaks.

The Vista launch has been sub-par at the best. No one is interested in paying for another Microsoft tax. I'd rather pay the premium for an Apple product with REAL innovation.

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Because, as I learned shortly before the doors opened at 10, there was more to the late-night event at CompUSA than Windows Vista. The store had offered up a smattering of impressive deals on tech gear and peripherals--including Bluetooth headsets, webcams, printers and monitors--designed to complement to the Vista launch. But it couldn't possibly have helped Microsoft's PR efforts, as it was quite clear that the majority of the people waiting in line were eager to capitalize on the slashed prices and had no real interest in Vista or Office 2007. There were Microsoft-hued balloons on the ceiling, and prominent displays for the new products out of Redmond, Wash., but most of the customers at the store at 10 p.m. were completely blind to the decor as they dove for the specially priced gadgets. (Microsoft's Zune music player, by the way, was not among the specially priced items.)

The Thermohawk 200 is a great gadget for reading surface temperature of objects. This is the first of many consumer electronic reviews to come out of ASE Labs.Next Page »

Impressive news from Adobe and for the entire PDF community. Adobe will submit the entire PDF specification to ISO. This is a great move to cement PDF in the open standards world.

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PDF has become a de facto global standard for more secure and dependable information exchange since Adobe published the complete PDF specification in 1993. Both government and private industry have come to rely on PDF for the volumes of electronic records that need to be more securely and reliably shared, managed, and in some cases preserved for generations. Since 1995 Adobe has participated in various working groups that develop technical specifications for publication by ISO and worked within the ISO process to deliver specialized subsets of PDF as standards for specific industries and functions. Today, PDF for Archive (PDF/A) and PDF for Exchange (PDF/X) are ISO standards, and PDF for Engineering (PDF/E) and PDF for Universal Access (PDF/UA) are proposed standards. Additionally, PDF for Healthcare (PDF/H) is an AIIM proposed Best Practice Guide. AIIM serves as the administrator for PDF/A, PDF/E, PDF/UA and PDF/H.

As Vista hits store shelves while no one cares, Mr. Allchin will retire a day after. He is smart to avoid the fallout from the crap that Vista will spew.

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After five years in development and endless feedback from Allchin and thousands of other testers, Vista is ready for the masses. It will hit store shelves on Tuesday. One day later, Allchin, as promised, will retire after 16 years with the software maker. It's not yet clear how Allchin's latest product will affect his legacy. While early reviews of the operating system have been lukewarm, Allchin said he is confident that time will show Vista to be a significant improvement over previous versions of Windows.

The Starter Edition built with Vista has been announced. And then you look at Linux and see a real OS in action. Since when was it the OS's job to lock you out of functions on your computer?

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With the launch of Vista Starter Edition, Microsoft is expanding its initiative to make its products accessible to lower-income families in developing countries. It will be available in 70 different languages, and also will feature an option that allows use of the operating system in different languages--if, for example, a parent wants to use the computer in his or her native language but the household's children want to use it in English. The stripped-down Vista will also be able to run on a wider variety of processors than its XP predecessor, from Intel's Celerons and older Pentiums to Advanced Micro Devices' Duron. While a 300-megahertz processor is recommended, the operating system can run on speeds as low as 233MHz.

More crap spewing from HP. Their deceit knows no limits. Now they were trying to spy on rival companies.

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Karl Kamb Jr., previously HP's vice president of business development and strategy, was named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by HP in 2005. It alleges that onetime HP employees illegally started a rival flat-screen TV company while still working at HP and it is claiming up to $100 million in damages. Kamb, who has denied any wrongdoing, filed a countersuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Friday, according to legal documents. Among Kamb's allegations: That in 2002, HP hired Katsumi Iizuka, a president of Dell Japan until 1995, to supply information on Dell's plans to enter the printer business. That "senior HP management" signed off on the payments to Iizuka.

NIST is now unhappy about the SHA-1 vulnerability being shown over and over. They want a better hash and are inviting people to do it. Hashes and most crypto technologies will always be cracked eventually.

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Due to recent attacks on the SHA-1 hash function specified in FIPS 180-2 , Secure Hash Standard, NIST is initiating an effort to develop one or more additional hash algorithms through a public competition, similar to the development process for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Two workshops (see menu at left) have been held to assess the status of the NIST-approved hash functions, to discuss possible near- and long-term options, and to discuss hash function research in preparation for launching such a competition. In addition, NIST has published its policy on the use of the current hash functions, and has proposed a tentative timeline for the competition.

If you actually want to purchase a real cell phone, you may be able to. Carriers such as Verizon have a habit of destroying the original features of a phone so you can pay for things that should be included.

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Walk into any supermarket in the U.S. and it's easy to see that Americans have more choices in terms of products they can buy than most people in the world. But when it comes to choosing a cell phone, consumers in the U.S. are limited to a handful of devices offered by a few manufacturers, and those devices are sold solely through a single service provider. This means that Verizon Wireless subscribers are limited to phones sold specifically for the Verizon network. And Cingular Wireless subscribers are limited to handsets that Cingular sells. It also means that when subscribers switch from one service provider to another, they are unable to take their phones with them.

Great read on CNN's news site. Here's a couple of tech related screw ups that caught my eye...

"In August, McDonald's runs a promotional contest in Japan in which it gives away 10,000 Mickey D's-branded MP3 players. The gadgets come preloaded with 10 songs - and, in some cases, a version of the QQPass family of Trojan horse viruses, which, when uploaded to a PC, seeks to capture passwords, user names, and other data and then forward them to hackers. "

"Defects in batteries made by Sony for portable computing cause a handful of notebooks to burst into spectacularly photogenic flames. The end result is the biggest computer-related recall ever, as Dell replaces the batteries in more than 4 million laptops. In short order, Apple (1.8 million), Lenovo/IBM (500,000), and others do the same. "

Here's to more idiocy in '07! I'm sure big business can top themselves.

It seems the partnership between Novell and Microsoft is doing well. Wal-Mart will start using resources from both companies. The article also cites IP liability as a solution from the partnership... BS.

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With the partnership, Microsoft is seeking to make Novell its preferred Linux provider and to have both companies' products work well together. Microsoft offers coupons for Suse Enterprise Linux support services as well as legal indemnification for customers who use both Microsoft and Novell's Linux, which is open-source. Wal-Mart, a global retailing giant with $315 billion in annual revenue, is already a Microsoft customer, and Stewart said the multiyear relationship has been "outstanding." She said the intellectual property protections in the Novell deal give Wal-Mart more confidence in using Linux more broadly.

The CEOs from both companies are new supporting each other. Previously, Sun had been AMD only. Intel is making strides into markets they lost due to the agile AMD.

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Schwartz has been instrumental in transforming Sun into a more neutral company. In 2004, when he was promoted to chief operating officer and McNealy's No. 2 man, Sun buried the antitrust suit hatchet with Microsoft. He was willing to work with Linux, too. He even floated the idea of running Solaris on Intel Itanium and IBM Power processors--the latter idea now a reality by virtue of OpenSolaris' portability. And most relevant to Monday's news, he was an advocate of x86 servers, not just Sun selling its own, but also Sun offering Solaris as a free download that could be installed on machines from IBM, HP and Dell.

Hopefully the merging between groups that form Linux standards (such as the LSB) will allow for greater compatibility between distros and even Linux kernel versions. Not having true binary support across multiple Linux distros is bad for consumers.

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Although the major commercial sellers support the LSB and it's won endorsements from software companies such as Computer Associates and Oracle, Zemlin acknowledges that there's still work to be done. "We're at bat. We haven't hit a home run," he said of LSB. "It's been around a long time and has had fits and starts." But the standardization effort is moving ahead--most recently with work being done in Russia to build certification testing software--and customers will begin requiring LSB compatibility "fairly soon," Zemlin said.

Sorry Microsoft. People don't want to pay for a operating system that sucks.

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Dubbed "Genuine Fact Files," the campaign is now launching in the U.S. It went online last month in Italy, France, the U.K., Indonesia, Brazil, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. Microsoft plans to draw attention to it through banner ads on its Web sites and promotional material that it will hand out through partners. By using comics, the company aims to make the message more accessible to a broader audience. They are black and white, in a style similar to newspaper comics.

The MX Revolution is the latest mouse from Logitech with the MX designation. Does this mouse actually have revolutionary technology? You need to read to find out.Next Page »

Linky.

Said By The article

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.

Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some -- and the chances of the idea becoming law appear slim, at best -- but Lieber begs to differ.

"I think it's pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger," Lieber said. "Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?"

The bill, which is still being drafted, will be written broadly, she added, prohibiting ``any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that.'' Lieber said it would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine up to $1,000, although a legal expert advising her on the proposal said first-time offenders would probably only have to attend parenting classes.

Are all California legislators this stupid?

A sad state day today since this stupid judge is allowing the media cartels to sue XM for providing people the ability to record what they listen to. Like a tape recorder is any different in principle, this should be covered under fair use. Congress under the new Democratic control is going to try to make WORSE copyright laws to stifle consumer rights. Way to go. You already failed to me.

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The record industry alleged in a civil suit filed in May that XM allows subscribers to listen to, store and replay songs as MP3 files. Devices marketed as "XM + MP3" players help people trap the music from XM's broadcasts and then turn them into MP3s. The music labels argue that this infringes on their copyrights. XM's stance is that listeners are legally allowed to record music off the radio for personal use under the Home Recording Act of 1992. The judge, however, disagreed. While listeners have for years been allowed to record songs off of standard over-the-air stations, satellite radio is different because the transmission is digital. Music labels assert that a listener of satellite radio can scan through the music library and rapidly record hundreds of songs.

More and more people in America are going to the Internet for their news of politics. Browsing sites can give you the entire story on both sides. It is pretty easy to read bias.

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Additionally, the number of Americans who said the Internet was their primary political news source doubled: it was 15 percent during the 2006 midterm election campaigns, compared with 7 percent during the 2002 midterms. Compared with the last presidential election year, however, 2006 numbers were down slightly, the study found (click for PDF). About 18 percent of Americans used the Internet as a primary source during the 2004 presidential election campaign, according to Pew Internet, the nonprofit research arm of the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center. "All of this is a harbinger in what will happen in a very interesting and highly contested presidential election in 2008. It's the first time since 1952 that we have had both parties wide open--no VPs or presidents running for re-election or higher office," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

While IE7 is forced on everyone running Windows XP and 2003, Firefox continues to gain marketshare. There are just too many bugs even in IE7 that need fixing.

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According to Net Applications, Internet Explorer accounted for 79.6% of all browsers used in December 2006, a drop from the 80.6% during the previous month. Firefox's use, meanwhile, measured 14% in December, up from 13.5% in November. Also gaining ground in the last month of 2006 was Apple's Safari, which climbed to 4.2% from 4%, and Opera, which saw its share increase from 0.7% to 0.9%. Net Applications' data put IE 7's market share during December at 18.3%, up dramatically from November's 8.8%. But IE 6 lost more than IE 7 gained, dropping from 70.9% in November to 60.7% the next month. The gain in IE 7 is largely due to Microsoft pushing the new browser to end users via Windows' Automatic Updates setting, which is usually reserved for downloading and installing security fixes on PCs. Microsoft began issuing IE 7 to Windows XP users through Automatic Updates in early November as part of a controversial scheme to get the new browser in as many hands as possible as quickly as possible.

Have you seen the CES coverage from ASE? »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=207

News - Samsung K5JAB at Overclockers Online

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The Samsung K5 really delivers in a small package; it is very attractive, comes with excellent earphones, and the speakers are not bad because its size versus quality ratio is above average.

CES 2007: ASUS @ techPowerUp!

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ASUS has been showing a number of innovations at CES. For example their XG Station which is the first external video card for notebooks. The 7900 GS class card lets you play modern games on your ultra portable business notebook. Another show highlight was the W5Fe notebook which is the first to use a secondary display for Microsoft Windows Vista Sidekick technology.

XFX 8800 GTX XXX Edition Graphics Card Review @ Legit Reviews

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Quote: XFX raises the bar in gaming performance with their overclocked 8800 GTX XXX Edition video card. With an extra speed boost over the standard GTX you can be sure you're getting the absolute best gaming experience any single video card can provide today. With the launch of the GeForce 8800 GTX XXX Edition, XFX delivers an 8800 GTX with obscene performance worthy of the title XXX...

NOIDpad Custom Mousepad Review - Better than Ratpadz?

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When I first received my NOIDpad, I was immediately impressed with the packaging, NOIDpads come in a cardboard tube, which effectively eliminates getting your NOIDpad totally mangled by the mail system. Sure packaging really plays no part in the performance of a mousepad, but its nice to see they thought about packaging a little, and its nice to have a tube that you can throw your mousepad back in when your headed to the next Lan Party.

Top Ten Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Vista @ BTXFormFactor.com

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Quote: Last week we looked at the top ten new features in Vista, but how about the top ten reasons to actually upgrade to it? Windows Vista is the next generation OS produced by Microsoft, and an interesting fact here is that it has been five years since the release of its predecessor, Windows XP, making it the longest time span between major releases.

Cyber Snipa Spotter USB Webcam Review @ Tweaknews.net

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While not the most compact webcam available, the Cyber Snipa Spotter takes pretty nice photos and video and is a good value for anyone who frequently uses Skype, Netmeeting, or any other application that warrants using a webcam. Like other Cyber Snipa products this is not a typical looking PC peripheral but to me that's a plus.

HDTV for Linux: New Options @ MadPenguin.org

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Once considered to be way too complicated for the newer Linux user, HDTV on a 'Nix box often times felt just out of reach for many. Then we found that hardware designed for Linux specifically was in the works. The card is known simply as the HD-5500.

Logitech VX Revolution Laptop Mouse at Modders-Inc

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As the sale of laptops continue to rise and desktop PC users migrate, they find it hard to switch over to the touch pad that every laptop has. The touch pad is OK for those times when no room for a mouse is available, but nothing beats the usage of a mouse. Logitech knows this and has come out with the VX Revolution.

CES 2007: Corsair @ ThinkComputers.org

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On the last day of the show I headed up the Corsair's suite at the Bellagio. I really was not sure what to expect other than just some new memory, but Corsair has some really cool new products coming out this year that you should definitely know about. I was very impressed with Corsair's new flash memory products, so let's take a look!

CES 2007 Coverage- VIA at XYZ Computing

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At CES this year VIA took over the Lunch at Piero's event and despite being off-campus from the rest of the show, there were still a few cool things being shown off. It looks like VIA is finally interested in getting something going, so it might just be an exciting year for fans of small form factor computing.

Cowon's new iAudio lineup @ TheTechLounge.com

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Under the spotlight were the Cowon Q5, D2 and A3. The Q5 and D2 are both portable media players with impressive 5 and 4 screens, respectively. Each houses a 30 GB hard drive and a host of video playback formats. Rich and I played around with some of the movies they had pre-loaded and for the most part they looked pretty good. One of the A3s had a bit of a problem displaying Spiderman 2 and was quite jittery, but that could have been the file itself as other A3 displays had no problems.

Extended CES Coverage @ TheTechLounge.com

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Even though CES has come and gone, our coverage still goes on. We ran into so many cool gadgets that we just didn't have time to write about them all. Check out our Extended CES Coverage for even more cool toys such as Cowon's new iAudio digial media players including the Q5, D2 and A3, Logitech's latest Harmony remote, the Harmony 1000, Altec Lansings new audio products and more.

Thermaltake Aguila @ Bjorn3D

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We have checked out a handful of cases from Thermaltake here are Bjorn3D. Each review brought up interesting points and facts about Tt products. Mid tower enclosures are still the big thing for the market. Customers appreciate reasonable dimensions, cool interior, useful features and definitely unique look. Thermaltake is all about satisfying your needs. The company makes wonderful PC cases, not to mention cooling solutions and accessories. Before we start off, I want you to take a look at our previous reviews: Thermaltake Mozart TX, Thermaltake Armor Jr and its bigger brother, Armor.

Asrock Conroe945G-DVI Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers

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Well, today we will bring to you the fourth Asrock motherboard to be reviewed here. The Conroe945G-DVI offers a world of options and features for a good dollar value. Boasting a DVI add-on card and support for the market leading processor, the Intel Core2 Duo, this board is poised to be the ultimate HTPC/SFF motherboard out there today.

News - OCZ PC2-9200 FlexXLC at Overclockers Online

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As mentioned, these modules certainly showed that they are not just all show and no go. The overclocking results on both my AM2 and C2D systems really impressed. The DDR1280 achieved on my P5B-Dlx is by far the fastest that motherboard has ever run memory and I don't expect many kits to match that frequency any time soon. For high frequency operation, this is definitely one of the kits to have. If you are in the market for memory that runs tighter timings at lower frequencies, don't run the other way, the OCZ PC2-9200 FlexXLCs held their own at 3-3-3-8 and 4-4-4-8 respectively.

ATI Theater 650 TV Tuner @ Viper Lair

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The ATI Theater 650 is easily the most advanced dedicated TV tuner we've had the chance to look at. Image quality is excellent and the product is extremely easy to install. Setup under Windows XP is about a couple minutes, and after a reboot you're almost ready to go. It takes some configuration depending on your video feed, but we did not have any installation quirks under XP or MCE. Those of you eyeing Vista on the horizon will be happy to know the card is fully supported by the upcoming OS.

Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1000 2GB PC2-8000 Kit Review @ MVKTech

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Crucial Technology has a long tradition in producing quality memory = modules for all categories of users. Crucial as many hardware = enthusiasts know is the retail arm of the Micron who actually makes many = of the RAM chips used by other manufacturers such as OCZ. Crucial has = been known as reliable partner, a company which is stable and pushed the = bar in terms of enthusiast memory modules. Recently Crucial has a new = high performance memory product line, which goes by the name of = Ballistix. The Ballistix products are offered at faster speeds and lower = latencies, and comes with the same limited lifetime warranty and award = winning support you expect from Crucial.

XFX Geforce 7600GT Fatal1ty - Cooler and Faster than others @ Madshrimps

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With the official release of the NVIDIA G80 based high end video cards in November last year, it is only a matter of months before we see new mid-range mayhem released for every budget minded gamer out there. At the very last moment XFX decided to satisfy gamers with one of the last G70 based video cards, their 7600GT Fatal1ty edition features passive cooling and faster clock speeds at a competitive price. How much faster? We find out.

Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews

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Asus has long been a major player in the motherboard market in every segment you can think of. Their name has long been a favorite with the enthusiast crowd. Can they continue the trend with this motherboard? Can the ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard compete with the top 680i SLI boards that are out? ASUS claims that the P5N-E SLI has the best cost versus performance ratio of all dual VGA motherboards on the market. Read on and find out if they are right!

If you are running Oracle make sure to patch your box. 51 flaws were fixed today.

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The update is part of the Redwood City, Calif., company's quarterly patch cycle. Oracle preannounced its patch release Thursday, when, for the first time, it published an advance notification so customers could plan ahead to apply the fixes. Oracle's actual Tuesday "Critical Patch Update" has one fix less than the company originally announced. Instead of the planned 27 fixes for its database products, 26 vulnerabilities are addressed in the company's flagship software.

Your tv room is no longer safe from the computing monsters. Apple and Microsoft are encroaching on the TV turf.

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The two companies last week each revealed new pieces to their digital living room strategy, aiming to move beyond their core strengths. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates showed off Windows Home Server, a slimmed-down version of its operating system. It's designed to power a new generation of cheap and simple servers that can serve as a central household repository for photos, music, movies and more.

Microsoft's solution was terrible and I am unsure about the Apple solution.

So this whole HD disk situation is not going anywhere fast, but it is good to have bigger capacity for storage. Mind you, the content distribution should remain on DVD since it is perfectly fine. With HD-DVD at Bluray capacity, it looks like Bluray will get the boot... Just like all previous attempts by Sony.

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Toshiba has submitted a triple-layer, 51GB HD DVD-ROM disc to the standard's overseer in the hope the technology will be adopted as a standard by the end of the year. If approved, it allow the format to exceed the 50GB storage capacity of rival medium Blu-ray Disc. The HD DVD standard currently defines single- and dual-layer discs capable of holding 15GB and 30GB of data, respectively. That's plenty, say the format's supporters, for a movie encoded in 1080p HD resolution and a stack of extras.

The fun part is that current players and writers will not support the new triple layer disk. Too bad for people on the bleeding edge.

A woman died of water poisoning today as she drank loads of water without going to the bathroom. Water can kill in large doses. There you go.

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Jennifer Strange was found dead on Friday at her home after taking part in a contest named "Hold your wee for a Wii" at the studios of radio station KDND 107.9. The competition involved drinking large quantities of water, with the last person to go to the toilet winning a Wii console - currently out of stock in most of North America.

CES happens to be the biggest technology show in the world. With nearly 2 million square feet of floor space, doing this show in only four days was impossible. Needless to say, there were many interesting bits of technology.Next Page »

Just kidding. Gamespot reports that World Of Warcraft now has over 8 million players.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6164082.html

"Today, Blizzard Entertainment announced that more than 8 million people subscribe to the massive massively multiplayer online role-playing game, setting a new milestone for the title more than two years after its fall 2004 release. As it is with the real-world population, Chinese subscribers are the largest demographic in Azeroth, totaling 3.5 million players. Next up is North America, with 2 million players, followed by Europe, with 1.5 million--the remainder of subscribers are in other territories."

In a completely unrelated note, it has been reported that 8 million PC users have permanent "sweaty ass grooves" in their chairs. WOW, indeed.

Some interesting news in the ridiculous HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war...

http://www.tgdaily.com/2007/01/11/ces2007_hddvd_blu_ray/

"Although the market environments from then do not really compare to today's home video market, parallels are drawn between the Betamax-VHS battle to the ongoing and escalating fight between Blu-ray and HD DVD. One of the key questions at this year's CES actually is "Which high-def format will win the current format war - Blu-ray or HD DVD?" Surprisingly, it seems that there is no such question in the minds of the adult industry luminaries. Putting myself through the arduous trek through the floor of the adult expo I did a quick straw poll on, the virtues of HD DVD versus Blu-ray, and the answer from a dozen companies, big and small, including Pink Visual and Bangbros editor-in-chief, is going into a single direction: HD DVD is the preferred format. Period. One of the big problems they have with Blu-ray is its expense, followed by its market share. "Blu-ray has superior quality, yes," said a spokesperson for porn studio Bangbros, "but HD DVD is easier to produce, cheaper to produce and there are more HD DVD players in homes than there are Blu-ray players, for example in the Xbox 360." Pink Visual heavily complained about the fact that Blu-ray discs cannot be replicated and a range of other studios, who did not want to be mentioned by name indicated that the cost of going with Blu-ray cancels the technology as a possible HD solution for this industry. "Only bigger studios can afford Blu-ray, and even then it's not economical," we were told. It would seem that either Blu-ray has to do some catching up very quickly. But we got the strange feeling that HD DVD has won the format war already, at least in the porn industry."

Am I the only who is frightened as to what High-Definition porn actually looks like? Surgery scars, pimples, and stretch marks...oh my.

I'm sure most of our readers also noticed the misleading quote from Mr. Porno that seems to imply that ALL XBox 360's have HD-DVD players: they don't...it's an optional add-on.

They just became concerned about this?!! PC manufacturers have been preloading crappy software into their PCs for as long as I can remember. If this was such a problem, why didn't they mention it long ago? Seems to me that Microsoft isn't happy that the PC manufacturers aren't splitting the money that they're making from this. I don't think Vista needs any help showing people what a piece of crap it is. Besides, I don't know about you, but if I were to buy a premanufactured PC, I would do a fresh install of the OS ONLY and get rid of all of that crap that's already in it.......

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"A senior Microsoft Corp. executive says the company is concerned that uncertified third-party software loaded onto new computers by manufacturers could hurt the launch of consumer versions of its Windows Vista operating system later this month. The success of Microsoft's first major revision to its operating system in years could rest on whether or not the uncertified applets cause widespread malfunctions in consumer versions of Windows Vista that ship with new PCs starting Jan. 30."

As if we didn't see this coming, Cisco is suing Apple for the name "iPhone". I'm not sure what the law states, but Apple's argument seems pretty weak. Yet, they insist that they will win. Lately anybody has been throwing "i" in front of anything to sell it. I think Apple should be allowed to use it, mainly because their entire product line has been using "i" terms and popularized it. But, it could go either way.....

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"Cisco Systems sued Apple Inc. in federal court Wednesday, saying the computer maker’s new iPhone violates its trademark. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court, came just a day after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPhone in dramatic fashion at a trade show in San Francisco. But even while Jobs was trumpeting the product during his keynote address to Apple faithful, the matter of the product’s naming had not been resolved behind the scenes between two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley."

Said By CNET News

Net neutrality proposal revived in Senate

As expected--albeit perhaps not quite so soon--Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe and North Dakota Democrat Sen. Byron Dorgan teamed up again to introduce what appears to be an identical version of their bill, known as the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which died in the Senate last year.

The bill's reintroduction "marks another step toward ensuring the fate of the Internet lies in the hands of its users and not the hands of a few gatekeepers," Snowe said in a statement.

Lets hope they get somewhere with it this time.