Starting up 100,000 parallel threads is of course a bit of a theoretical exercise, but shows some of the potential in the Linux cutting-edge development.

It seems that Apple will have some competition for the iPod. I have been seriously thinking about getting an iPod, the 20 GB model, which can hold all those 300 CDs I am now storing on my iBook in mp3 format. I am nowadays hardly using my CD collection in physical form, except sometimes in the car.

But we need software for Mac OS X for the platform to live. So, we need new software for Macs.

I once met a car salesman, whose phone number I then lost. I decided to look his name up on the Net, because it was a rare name. Using Google I found several web pages with his name and the word car.

One of the pages returned by Google pointed to a decision made by a city council. You may know that these decisions are public information in Finland. Many cities post the decision on the web with the names and all the details. The city council had given the car salesman a substantial fine. The reason was that a car-wrecking yard owned by the salesman had closed down improperly, not cleaning up the yard.

Later I found that his name was not so rare after all. The might have been another person of the same name owning the yard and committing the environmental crime. In any case, I didn't buy a car from the salesman.

Mistaken identities may cause great trouble to people having rare but not unique names. Employers may use Google for checking the background of possible new employees. In this case the mistaken identity can cause real damage.

In addition to presenting information about the present, the Net reaches a considerable time into the past. Google has stored messages from the Usenet discussion group for quite a few years. There are interesting messages waiting to be discovered in the future - message sent by people who will become famous for some reason or another.