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Friday 25 April 2003
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The Register reporting on the launch yesterday in London of Windows Server 2003 notes that despite promises of "100 percent dependability and no downtime" two of the Dell Power Edge servers in the demo failed to load an OS image properly. Whoops. Anyway, the Microsoft roadshow rolls into Dublin next week. We'll see if things run as smoothly.
11:27:34 PM  Google It!
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A federal judge in the US has ruled that file swapping tools are not in and of themselves illegal and has thrown out a suit taken by the entertainment industry against Grokster and Streamcast. In his judgement, the judge likened the tools to the VCR which has widespread legal use in addition to being used for piracy. This is all far from over, of course but is a major setback for the entertainment industry. [CNET News.com]
11:21:23 PM Google It!
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There will be a total eclipse of the moon on the morning of May 16. The title link takes you to a NASA site showing from where the eclipse will be visible. We here in Ireland will get to see most of it. The Moon enters the Penumbra of the Sun's shadow at 0205 on the morning of May 16. That part, however, is not visible to the naked eye. Observers in Ireland will start to see the partial eclipse from 0303 onwards with totality beginning at 0418 and ending at 0506. During totality the moon will turn a coppery red colour. This is due to sunlight being refracted through the Earth's atmosphere.
8:05:19 PM Google It!
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Yesterday's Digital Ireland supplement in the Irish Independent carried a few features authored by myself. You can read them on the Silicon Republic Website (free registration required) or view one of them here
11:33:57 AM Google It!
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Fifty years ago next month, Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest. To mark the anniversary Peter Hilary and Jamling Norgay retraced their fathers' steps. A National Geographic documentary will be shown on the National Geographic channel on Sunday April 27. But what really caught my eye about this story was the fact that when he reached the summit, Peter was able to speak to his father by satellite phone.
11:15:43 AM Google It!
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Henry Norr, former columnist for Mac Weekly and technology columnist for the SF Chronicle has been sacked by the Chronicle for daring to have an opinion. The ostensible reason for his dismissal was that he falsified a timesheet to attend an anti-war demo at which we was arrested. However, according to the story in The Register the paper's management had been looking for a reason to get rid of him after he expressed pro-Palestinian views.
10:38:59 AM Google It!
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Unless you have some knowledge of UK science fiction fandom that title will probably mean little to you. Up until a few years ago, the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool - which was the subject of the fly on the wall documentary Hotel - was the old standby for Eastercon organisers and the convention ended up their almost every year.
Well in 2001 fandom found a new hotel in the Hanover International Hotel in Hinckly, Leicstershire. The committee for 2003, unable to find anywhere else affordable or available over Easter weekend, organised this year's event there and now, the organisers of the 2005 event, coincidentally the same people who organised the 2001 convention, have opted for the same hotel.
Don't get me wrong, from what I remember of 2001 it's a great hotel, if somewhat remote. The rooms are comfortable and being a new building has no access problems. I'm just worried that UK con-running fandom will see it as an easy option and not seek out new venues. Or worse, that the BBC will get wind of it and make it the subject of another fly on the wall documentary. Shudder.
1:25:40 AM Google It!
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Sci-Fi Wire reports that initial DVD and VHS versions of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers will be released on August 26th. A special four-disc special edition DVD will be released in November. The Wire has already reported that Peter Jackson has said the special edition will contain an additional 43 minutes of footage. I can't wait.
1:13:37 AM Google It!
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If you've had your Apple iPod for over a year, you'll know that the battery life starts dipping severely after a while and even Apple has acknowledged the problem by doing warranteed replacement in their Apple Stores and issuing a firmware update. Five hours becomes three, then even less.The replacement... [Kevin_Christley] [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
1:05:53 AM Google It!
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This story fromThe Register is quite frightening. A man in Reading in the UK was charged with downloading child pornography but was acquitted when an expert found his computer had been infected with a Trojan Horse that could have downloaded the images without his knowledge. How the Trojan got there has not been determined but the man speculated that it could have arrived via spam. When the charges were made public the man was attacked in his home by vigilantes.
I have no reason to disbelieve the man, and in fact I have every reason to believe him. Some of the HTML-based spam I get is quite explicit. But because my e-mail client filters about 90 percent of it before I get to see it I have no idea what has been on my hard disk. I may delete the spam, but if someone were to accuse me of downloading kiddie porn and were to forensically examine my hard disk, I have no idea what they would find.
Do you have any idea what a forensic examination of your hard disk would reveal?
12:57:18 AM Google It!
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© Copyright 2003 David Stewart.
Last update: 24/06/2003; 20:56:53.
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