In a further bid to move into the European market, PayPal now allows you to pay in euros or sterling. I note that PayPal uses 'euros' as the plural. The EU says we are supposed to use 'euro' and 'cent' as singular and plural. I say hogwash. Rebel! English-speaking countries should use euros and cents, according to the rules of our own language; that's what everyone is tending to do anyway.
1:38:06 PM  #   your two cents []

New Wallace and Gromit Shorts [Slashdot] For Irish readers: doesn't Justin Barrett (late of neo-Nazi rallies, as you can see here, if you read German) look exactly like Wallace?! Watch him talking on TV and see if you don't agree.
10:45:22 AM  #   your two cents []

Bruce Schneier on the US government's mishmash of a national cyberspace security plan:

The worst part of it is that some of the people involved in writing the document were high-powered, sincere security practitioners.  It must have been a hard wake-up call for them to learn how things work in Washington.  You can tell that a lot of thought and effort went into this document, and the fact that it was gutted at the behest of special interests is shameful...but typical.

So now everyone gets to feel good about doing his or her part for security, and nothing changes.

Security is a commons.  Like air and water and radio spectrum, any individual's use of it affects us all.  The way to prevent people from abusing a commons is to regulate it.  Companies didn't stop dumping toxic wastes into rivers because the government asked them nicely.  Companies stopped because the government made it illegal to do so.

10:37:35 AM  #   your two cents []

Kite-pix: the poor-man's aerial photography. Check out this amazing gallery of panoramic QuickTime VR photos taken with a camera suspended from a kite! Link [Boing Boing Blog]
10:25:27 AM  #   your two cents []

Donate cash through your ISP. The Federal Election Commission clears the way for people to donate to political parties or charities through an Internet service provider. [CNET News.com] I don't know about you, but being able to donate to a political party is certainly high on MY agenda... Sheesh. Why doesn't the govt focus on solving some real issue, like the spam nightmare, first.
10:22:22 AM  #   your two cents []

SETI hits funding problems [Slashdot]

10:05:35 AM  #   your two cents []

IRA Disband Sought in N. Ireland [AP World News]
10:04:55 AM  #   your two cents []

Study shows rapid growth in fiber access. As many as 1.4 million homes to have fiber by 2004 [InfoWorld: Top News] In Ireland, we might have 200 more DSL connections by then, on top of the 1,714 we have right now...
10:04:30 AM  #   your two cents []

AOL to Stop Most Pop-Up Ads [New York Times: Technology]
10:03:32 AM  #   your two cents []

This is interesting... From an InfoWorld article titled The End at Hand:

"Now here's a bit of interesting handheld history. I spoke with Jonathan Zakin, currently chairman and CEO of Proxim. Zakin was part of the executive team that engineered the purchase of Palm when he was at U.S. Robotics.

Zakin told me that the company never thought the Palm would take off as a handheld device but that instead it would become the central device for home networking. The concept was that U.S. Robotics would make various cradles, each serving a different function: a cell-phone cradle, a radio cradle, a cradle to control the television and stereo, and even a cradle for the car. Pop your Palm into a cradle, and it becomes that device.

'We thought the value would be in the cradle,' Zakin says. He adds that U. S. Robotics intended to manufacture the cradles, expecting that, although there might be one or two handhelds in the home, consumers would have as many as a dozen or more cradles -- three or four each of radio and cell-phone cradles, for example.

Well, U.S. Robotics never got around to addressing that because the darn thing took off as a handheld. But now, maybe Palms, Pocket PCs, and even big, so-called smart phones are at the end of their consumer run."

[The Shifted Librarian]
10:01:56 AM  #   your two cents []