Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux has switched to an Apple Macintosh (running Linux) as his principle desktop. Click the link for an interesting read on why….

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Torvalds switches to a Mac

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Here’s an interesting new windows flaw: Windows computers that aren’t firewalled are vulnerable to a remote LAND attack that would cause them to get stuck in processing loops, severely degrading performance. If you work in an office environment without firewalls, it might be a good time to think about one!
/Chase: Check out our 2005 Online Tax refund guide!

Denial-of-service glitch could threaten Windows | CNET News.com

Well it looks like the RIAA has an uphill climb to get rid of allofmp3.com’s sale… and heavy on the sale of tons of mp3’s. I almost feel sorry for the RIAA. They’re making me see them as a bully in the school yard that has been stripped of his bully status and now the whole schoolyard is taking a shot at it. Well, I realized as I typed that, that I don’t see it that way at all. I must reiterate that I am not for piracy or taking money out of the artists mouths, but I am hopeful that losses like this will make the RIAA re-think how it does business. However, if you haven’t purchased all the songs you want off of this site, I suggest you take this window of opportunity to do so. Who knows how long it will remain open.

Sam Knowles

Allofmp3.com let off the hook

Have you noticed that more and more popups keep sneaking past your popup blockers? No better example is there than the infamous DrudgeReport’s website.

What’s the deal? Well, there’s more than one way to open a browser window and now that those cruddy advertisers are realizing that their current method is getting the reject, they’re starting to employ more drastic measures.

Namely, advertisers now use flash and other plugins to open popup (and pop-under) windows.

Yet, fear not - the programmers over at Mozilla are on top of the situation. Come on, you knew I was going to bring up Firefox.

Already implemented in Firefox is the ability to kick its popup blocker into a higher gear, taking a more liberal approach to killing windows. They haven’t yet made it visible in their preferences menu, because there’s not an epidemic yet, but the ability is already there now

If you want to be intrepid and ahead of the game, you can test this newer, stronger popup blocking by going to the firefox “tweak page” about:config, and adding the integer privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins=2.

There are details at ‘uneasysilence’ here.

The only caveat is, some legitimate popups might get killed in the process, so - tell the websites you visit to stop using those cruddy ads (because I like the DrudgeReport too).

- tollie

This is a bit of a switch for Microsoft - instead of abandoning it’s XP OS when Longhorn comes out, it’s going to backport the new WinFS file system. This will surely increase the life of XP, and it’s an odd business decision in that light. What have they got up their sleave?? I’d love to read your comments…

/Chase

WinFS To Be Available on Windows XP

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This is a pretty enlightening view into the innards of Google. It’s much more palatable than your typical view into innards if I do say so myself! Interesting that Google runs off of the Red Hat distro of Linux, and that it’s common for several of the servers to break every day. 10 Billion web pages indexed and Terabytes of data spread over hundreds of servers…it kind of makes your head spin.

/Chase
Peeking Into Google: “BURLINGAME, Calif. — The key to the speed and reliability of Google (Quote, Chart) search is cutting up data into chunks, its top engineer said. “

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Google has just released a really cool feature built into its search engine that allows you to check the weather of any desired U.S. location. It’s another simple, easy to use feature from Google that even geeks can use.

To check the weather in Birmingham, AL, you would simply type “weather birmingham, al” in the Google search box. That will bring up the weather for that particular day, as well as the next three days. Giving you the predicted weather for a grand total of four days.

To check the weather in your location, you would simply type “weather” followed by your location.

Usually a city name will be enough, but you may also want to include a state or zipcode. For example, to see Palo Alto weather, you could search for “weather palo alto, ca” or “weather palo alto 94301.”

If you’re the type that usually misses the local news, now in replacement of going to a weather website, you can check it out right from your home page - that is, if Google is your home page.

~Clayton

Interesting that PcMag would post this little how-to.

/Chase

Solutions from PC Magazine: Unlock Protected Music

Two weeks ago, PcMag columnist Lance Ulanoff wrote a column saying that it’s time to tax the internet. Posted below find the John Dvorak’s (another PcMag columnist) response. I think Dvorak makes much more sense!

/Chase

Column from PC Magazine: Tax the Internet? Nyet!

The Open Office 2.0 Beta release candidate is out! For those who don’t know, Open Office is an open source office suite similar to Microsoft Office, but free. It is XML compliant, and features a very good Word Processor, a spreadsheet, presentation tool, database features and P.D.F. creation ability. It’s an excellent package, is spyware/adware free and doesn’t cost a penny. Highly recommended (the link leads to the free download, but be sure you check out the new features page as well)

/Chase

download: OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta Download