That poor little Weather Pixie over there in the left hand margin has been standing in the rain with her umbrella for about three days in a row now, without a break! Dublin and much of the country has been deluged, with as much rain in 2 days as we normally have in the whole month. Lots of flooding. A Big Mess.
6:32:15 PM  #   your two cents []

This is all rather... strange...drinks bill launched in pub by culture secretary. Whatever. 24-hour drinking bill launched in pub. Culture secretary Tessa Jowell unveils new plans to allow bars to open around the clock. [Guardian Unlimited]
6:27:51 PM  #   your two cents []

Wi-Fi Encryption Fix Not Perfect. A new encryption standard for Wi-Fi Internet access is more secure than its predecessor, but it isn't entirely off-limits to hackers.  [Wired News]
6:21:33 PM  #   your two cents []

IBM dips toe back into the handheld waters. Big Blue will help Sharp create Linux-based Zaurus for the enterprise [InfoWorld: Top News]
6:20:58 PM  #   your two cents []

PC clusters ranked in supercomputer Top 10. NEC, HP computers head the list [InfoWorld: Top News]
6:20:26 PM  #   your two cents []

Security expert Bruce Schneier's always interesting Cryptogram newsletter is out today. He's working on a book on security for the general reader, out next September. Sounds excellent. In the meantime he has this to say:

We are being told that we are in graver danger than ever, and that we must change our lives in drastic and inconvenient ways in order to be secure. We are being told that we must give up privacy or anonymity, or accept restrictions on our actions. We are being told that the police need new investigative powers, that domestic spying capabilities need to be instituted, and that our militaries must be brought to bear on countries that support terrorism. What we're being told is mostly untrue. Most of the changes we're being asked to endure don't result in good security. They don't make us safer. Some of the changes actually make things worse.

Conservative Republican William Safire certainly has been convinced that this is true, as he wrote in the NY Times in an opinion piece, You Are A Suspect. On a lighter note, Schneier's "doghouse" sites -- ones that make questionable claims about their security products and services -- are always a laugh. They're at the end of the Cryptogram.

1:10:32 PM  #   your two cents []

Mike Butcher starts what looks to be an excellent regular slot with the 'Wired on Friday' column today in the Irish Times technology section: Oldies go where youths fear to tread [subscription only, or buy the paper!]. I first met Mike at the dawn of the tech boom ('96 or '97?) when he galloped to my rescue in the press room at a new media conference in France, and subdued a recalcitrant floppy drive. He's edited UK newsletter New Media Age and was news editor of the late lamented UK version of Industry Standard. Now he has a site called Mbites.
12:06:54 PM  #   your two cents []

Sub-$500 Lindows tablet PC coming. Lindows, the company that ships a version of GNU/Linux that runs most Windows apps, will be shipping a <$500 tablet PC (most tablet PCs to date go for $2000-$3000). The device has wireless networking built in, and a nice sharp LCD Link [Boing Boing Blog]
11:56:42 AM  #   your two cents []

Online holiday sales appear bright. The Grinch apparently won't steal the upcoming shopping season from Web retailers: Consumers should spend more money online than ever before, market research shows. [CNET News.com] Yeah, yeah, yeah -- the analysts say this every year, and why wouldn't it be the case? There are more people online and comfortable with the medium every year. What they (or the headlines) tend not to point out is that the early enthusiastic predictions for web shopping have never come true.
9:56:11 AM  #   your two cents []

Herbert Agar. "The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear." [Quotes of the Day]
9:54:06 AM  #   your two cents []

Fiorina: Wary IT spending here to stay. During her OracleWorld keynote, HP's CEO says the current belt-tightening attitude of information buyers is here to stay but the beleaguered IT industry still has a solid future. [CNET News.com] Meanwhile, Dell tallies a record third quarter.
9:53:08 AM  #   your two cents []

NEC Machine Again Leads Speed Ranks. The twice-annual ranking of the world's fastest computers will include two new entrants based on personal computers, one running the Linux operating system. [New York Times: Technology]
9:51:34 AM  #   your two cents []

Interview: Intel president embraces Linux -- kind of. Otellini sees potentially bright future for open-source OS [InfoWorld: Top News]
9:50:35 AM  #   your two cents []

Hackers drop spyware into popular tool. Security experts warn system administrators that rogue hackers have implanted spyware in the latest version of a popular open-source network-monitoring tool and its code library. [CNET News.com]
9:49:14 AM  #   your two cents []

Speed thrills, say American TV producers. Actors in US TV shows such as The West Wing are being told to speak faster to make their characters appear more intelligent. [Guardian Unlimited] Tell that to George W...
9:47:27 AM  #   your two cents []