Monday, June 14, 2004

Powell: Terrorism Report Mistake. A State Department report showing that terrorism declined last year was a big mistake, according to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Embarassed and apologetic, Powell is trying to determine how the errors originated. [Wired News] Though I hate admitting I'm not a fan of the current administration, I applaud Colin Powell for always trying to follow his conscience in some of the decisions he's made. He's shown he's got his own ideas and doesn't follow the idiotic neo-Con dogma of Wolfowitz, Cheney, Perle and Rumsfeld. But this is one of those unfortunate black eyes that the dum-dums have delivered to the Secretary of State. I hope they expose this as a failure coming out of the DIA's collection of Intelligence and NOT just the CIA. 6:11:32 PM    comment []

Florida Faces Election Fracas. Following the disastrous 2000 election snafu, Florida faces another debacle -- this time over a database that's supposed to keep felons from voting. But it also contains thousands of names of people who have every right to vote, critics say. By Jacob Ogles. [Wired News] I usually try to stay away from topical stuff on this blog, but I'm also a Mike Moore fan. And I read Stupid White Men and took the whole story of the election shenanigans in Florida to heart. This time we're expecting it, and this time we'll better be able to catch these one trick ponies (Catherine Harris esepcially). Are they just lazy? Or have the run out of ways to game the Electoral System? Who knows. I just want Newspapers and TV to keep tabs on them. 6:08:16 PM    comment []

RLX updates management software. A major upgrade of its Control Tower server management software that would simplify the task of monitoring and reprovisioning blade and 1U servers is planned for release next month. [Computerworld News] It's nice to see RLX is still developing its product. I hope they can hang in there a little longer, until their model final shows the way toward a converged data center. And it would be cool if Transmeta could help them engineer a higher power revision to the original 324. I would like to see the new 1.6Ghz Transmeta and some of Fujitsu's SATA 2.5" drives on a blade along with some DDR PC4000 RAM interfaces and chipsets. Here's to RLX getting a successor to the 324 out the door! 6:05:47 PM    comment []

16k nostalgia - Britpop style. A musical trip down memory lane By Team Register . [The Register] While not quite as much of a in-joke meme, 16k will be the next AYB.swf. You know what you're doing, Please launch every Zig. Ha, ha, ha. 6:02:18 PM    comment []

Fujitsu begins 100GB notebook hard drive production. Fujitsu Ltd. has developed a 100GB hard-disk drive suitable for use in notebook computers and has begun mass production of the drive, it said Monday.[MacCentral] Looks like Fujitsu will also have the first notebook hard drive with a SATA interface too! Man are they starting the lead the pack. If they only decided to dip their toes into the 1.8" market or the Microdrive 1" market. Then you would see some real price drops. I cannot wait to see if companies adopting the hard drives want to stay with bigger is better or smaller at the same capacity is better. I say this in regards to the new direct to disk dv video recorders that have commonly used 2.5" drives. Apple has popularized the 1.8 and there's a price premium paid to get to that size. All the capacity I need is contained in the current High End iPod (60 GB total). If Shining Technolgies concentrated on that size in a 1.8" form factor and use a Lithium Polymer wrapped around that, I bet they could increase run times to 3 hours no problem. 5:55:48 PM    comment []