WiFi Seeker, Finder, Detector roundup: "Finding a handtop or PDA with WiFi isn't such a hard task these days. The wireless networking standard has enjoyed explosive growth in the last few years. Finding a WiFi connection on the other hand, can be an aggravating adventure." - Handtops.com

How cool is this... A searchable database of comic book coverswww.ComicCovers.com - Your source for weekly comic book cover scans.

FireFox in Redmond... You have to love this one... just like when M$ uses Apache web servers when they want something reliable... Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft's 'enemy within'? | The Register

As a long time FireFox user, this is a great piece about the genesis of FireFox and how the road has been long and has been contributed to by many, many devoted individuals Slashdot | FireFox Sets the World Ablaze

Slashdot/Auto Express - 230mph electric - YES - electric car
This one is from slashdot and many other sources... A japanese professor has invented a car that is ALL electric... This is very cool technology. To read more, go to Slashdot - 230mph Electric Car OR Auto Express - Eliica eight-wheeler.

TechWeb | News | New IE Bugs Open Up Even XP SP2 To Attack | Oct. 20, 2004 - Beginning to believe that this is just a really bad repeating of the same old deja vu...

TechWeb | News | Sharp Retreats From U.S. PDA Market | Oct. 21, 2004 - This is REALLY depressing. Once again, we have a superior product, but the marketing machines just can't make it sell... I guess I will have to look more seriously at the OQO unit.

Just goes to prove that NOTHING is perfectly secure. In the end, it is all about the user and social engineering TechWeb | News | Tabbed Browsers Can Disclose Confidential Info | Oct. 21, 2004

Boing Boing: Windows error on giant Toronto animated billboard

Slashdot | Windows vs. Linux Security, Once More

1 Million Firefoxes in 4 Days (Slashdot)

Dodger73 writes "The Mozilla guys would have liked to reach 1 Million downloads of the Firefox 1.0 pre-release version within ten days of its release. After four days, the download counter now shows 1,006,060 downloads, surpassing the 10^6 mark more than twice as fast as they desired! Congratulations!"
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/19/137224

Firefox Preview Hits a Home Run (Extremetech-CoreTech)

The Mozilla Foundation hits a home run with its new browser. Find out the details of its new features and check out our comparisons with that other browser from Redmond. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1647234,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

Build It: A Home Linux Server (Extremetech-CoreTech)

Here's a cheap recipe for a solid home server that can make a big
bit-bucket and a shared printer available on your home network. We also
show you how to repurpose an older system for an even cheaper option.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1646531,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

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X.org X11 Server Release 6.8 (Slashdot)

kormoc writes "The developers of X.org have just release the long-desired version 6.8.0. This release brings real translucency and allows one to set values on different windows. Also, nifty drop shadows as well as XDamage, an extention that limits redrawing of windows to only the areas that were damaged. The Xcomposite extention is still not stable, but it works well for some people. Why not give it a shot?"
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/08/125208

New Star Trek MMOG Announced (Slashdot)

jabagi writes "Perpetual Entertainment and Viacom decided to produce a Star Trek MMOG. Not many details yet, but beta will be available in 2006, and the game will be launched in 2007. Here is the discussion on gamespy." http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/07/127230

Kite Aerial Photography (Slashdot)

j cherney writes "A great combination of digital photography, kite flying, and wireless remote control. Absolutely incredible pictures. Enjoy!" We've mentioned this expensive pursuit a few times before, including a bit on how to build one of your own.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/07/2144213

TiVo and ReplayTV give in to Hollywood (Geek News Central)

Based upon the story I have just read I will predict the demise of these two companies within 2 years. It seems they have agreed to implement changes that would embed code in their machines that would limit the amount of time you can store a pay for view movie and limit how often that movie can be watched. All I can say is they are a bunch of idiots.
[Silicon Valley Mercury News]
http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/003080.html

Virus 'talks' to victims (The Register)

Read about the Turkish delight
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/13/amus_worm/

It talks to you and installs a network sniffer on the compromised computer. Oh boy, this takes viruses and malware to a new and painful level.

Microsoft Patch Day: The Next Generation (eWEEK Security)

Welcome to the SP2 era. Will we have a bifurcated patch day? Will Microsoft be able to move any faster?
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1645206,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000614

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New Auto Rollout Deadline Set for SP2 - April 12, 2005

New Auto Rollout Deadline Set for SP2

Beware procrastinating IT admins! Microsoft's automatic blocking tool for XP SP2 will only work until next spring. After that, the company will push its security update automatically to all XP customers.

Read the whole article in eWeek: Microsoft Sets New Deadline for SP2 Automatic Rollout

Cool Case Mods - From Extremetech

Ran across a cool article today on Extremetech --- these are some serious case mods (really they seem more like custom cases). These are seriously intense. Read the whole article.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1640090,00.asp

Well, here we go again. It seems that Microsoft is releasing the biggest update to Windows ever, the XP Service Pack 2 (XP SP2 for short) for general consumption soon. It seems that anyone who has automatic update turned on will begin to receive the SP2 update sometime between 23 and 25 August. If you want to wait, you need to turn your auto-update off. To read more about XP SP2, see the XP SP2 collaborative blog maintained by the Las Vegas PC Users Group.

Well, it seems that I am finished using Micro$oft's Internet Explorer. I have been using Mozilla for a long time, but now Firefox is my browser of choice. If I find a web site that does not work with Firefox, then I send an email to webmaster. The security holes in IE are just too big and too out of control. My reconmmendation (for what it's worth), dump IE and use Mozilla, Firefox or Opera. The cool thing is that you to try these other browsers, you can download them, try them and then dump IE.

Well, I am on a new quest... to find a RSS aggregator that is web-based and talks nicely to my Zaurus (PDA). So far, I have tried Feedster, Bloglines, Feedbuzz and MobileRSS. The leader for the mobile platform is MobileRSS but it certainly does not look as nice as Bloglines when using it on the PC. I guess I need to update my quest to be: find a good web-based RSS aggregator that works well on the PC and the PDA.

There seems to be continuing scrutiny related to offshoring of many IT related jobs. See the article NY Times - Indians Fearing Repercussions of U.S. Technology Outsourcing.

Well, it seems that the 150 or so employees are not the only ones who have less than a positive take on Xansa withdrawal from North America. None of these have anything nice to say. Many of them paint the picture by linking the withdrawal from North America with the recent withdrawal from Europe operations. Take a look at the trades:

• www.forbes.com - XANSA PROFITS HIT BY NORTH AMERCIAN WITHDRAWAL


• MCN Direct Newswire - XANSA PULLS OUT OF NORTH AMERICA


• silicon.com - Xansa bails out of US


• uk.news.yahoo.com - Xansa Pulls Out of North America


• news.independent.co.uk - Xansa profits hit by North America withdrawal


• 1st-news.com - Xansa to pull out of America
  


• www.thisismoney.com - Xansa (XAN)


• www.thisismoney.com - Xansa says goodbye to America


• www.thisismoney.com - Xansa giving up on the Continent


• www.blackenterprise.com - Firm starts to pull out of the US

Since Xansa has pulled out of Europe and North America, one has to ask, could there be a trend here?

Well, this is pretty rich. It seems that Xansa, as an organization, has decided to pack up its toys and go home, to the UK. See the announcement, Xansa Withdraws from North America for the details, as sparse as they are.

This is a sorry situation.

After all, this all started as a great adventure, where we all worked hard, but had fun doing it, when we were all Synergy International Consulting. Synergy became a well known, and more importantly, well respected presence in SAP consulting in North America. Then along came the big corporate buy out. The company that was delivery and customer focused did not live on.

Now, with the market beginning what appears to be a turn up, Xansa has decided it is time to "leave" the North American marketplace. This seems short sighted and at best a strategy to bail out on a good, solid market which includes, aerospace and defense, homebuilding, engineering and construction and other specialized markets.

The sad part is that, as a result of this situation, I will have long time colleagues who will be leaving for other positions and in some cases, other countries and continents. I will have to say that the group of people I have worked with at Synergy, and who continued through the "Xansa years" are the best group of professionals I have ever had the pleasure to work with as a team.

And, yes, I spelled defense with an "s" and organization with a "z". After all, this is North America and that's the way we do things here. This is also representative of how basic Xansa's lack of understanding of the North American markeplace remains.

The chaos and confusion related to this has only just begun. I am sure there will be more on this later.