Better than Shredco: When Enron declared bankruptcy it was soon found out they they and their Accountants, the late Arthur Andersen had had many important documents illegally shredded by sending off to a commercial shredding service: Shredco. But don't just shred the documents, why not shred your shredder or your Xerox machine? Now that's possible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YAHOO: I remember going to a Mactivity Meeting in 1995, and being told by the presenter about this great new thing: Yahoo. Yahoo is now celebrating it's 10th Birthday.

More in the iPod economy: With more than 10 million iPods out there and the new iPod Shuffle now selling faster than Apple can manufacture them, the latest add-on is ipod skins. A business called "decalgirl" has 23 to choose from for the iPod shuffle, 36 for a new model regular size iPod or 20 for an iPod mini, in case one of the five colors Apple provides is not satisfactory.

Beat the iPod Shuffle shortage: Apple's new low priced iPod is in high demand, and backorderd. But if you want one today, and you live in Huntington, Long Island (or be able to use their Public Library), the Public Library will provide one for you. Presumably one could offload the Audio Book, and then fill the iPod with music, and return it to being an audio book before returning to the Library. Or one could "lose" it, and pay the library the cost of the iPod.

At least one lawyer needs to learn how to use Google?: In the news on Feb. 22 was a story how a lady was suing Hewlett-Packard as her ink jet's ink cartridges stopped working due to (the suit says) a secret expiration date encoded into the cartridge. Problem is Hewlett-Packard freely admits on their web site that they do this, so how can it be a secret? Their rational is the quality of the ink in the cartridge deteriorates with time, and so they assign (like your can of tomatoes or your container of milk) an expiration date.

See what outsourcing can cause: With all the reports of security breaches, I like to regularly check on my credit cards, which over the web I can do, at least until today. Citibank's webpage "Citicards", today gives one:

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500 Internal Server Error

 /us/cards/index.jsp:  java.lang.NullPointerException  at allaire........

Don't let X-Box burn your house down: Microsoft has issued a recall for powercords for X-Box machines made before October 23, 2003. Sign up here for your new cord, if they ever get the web site working. This morning (2/17/2005) entry of a serial number does nothing.
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FOLLOWUP: at 9:00 AM CST the web site is now taking orders.

Technology catching up to fiction: In one of my favorite TV Series (The Prisoner), a semi-autonomous Ball: Rover: would chase after attempted escapees. Now a robotic device very similar in form and function has been designed: here.

How cold is it? or put it another way "Do I need a jacket to go outdoors"? To find the answer if your mother is not available to tell you yes, go to this web site.

Honoring Arthur Miller: It has nothing to do with technology, but Arthur Miller was America's greatest playright of the 20th century, and I am saddened by his passing today. I remember the 1999 event of his getting a "Tony Award" for Special Lifetime Achievement. When a reporter asked if he had a secret for longevity, being so spry at 84, Arthur answered: "Yes, I don't eat vegetables". Others feel the same way that what is taught in Universities of "Public Health" about nutrition is solely based upon tradition. Read here: about "Vegetable Free Living".

Back from Vacation? On February 8, 2005, Microsoft released 12 Security patches for Windows XP (MS05-05 through MS05-15). Great that they're addressing security concerns but TWELVE? in one Day? Only makes sense if some anal-retentive manager refuses to release security updates until he personally approves, and he finally got back from vacation and approved updates that had been piling up on his desk.

What happens to your Blog if you die?: A Marine Corps. reservist wrote a widely read blog about his stay in Iraq. With his passing, his parents would like access to his computer files. The Marine's ISP is refusing, citing privacy concerns. Seems ours laws haven't caught up to our technology.

AOL to drop USENET: USENET, the discussion groups that were an important part of the Ineternet Experience before Blogs will no longer be carried by AOL. AOL claims only 1000 users regularly use their USENET section. This is probably more a commentary on the poor job AOL did of maintaining its USENET service and its lame job of censorship than a lack of interest. Luckily Google provides USENET access for free. And actually the more targeted, moderated discussion boards (like those of PHP-NUKE) remove the noise, scams, spam and chain letters of USENET. One such Php-Nuke board is here (on cellular phones).

Even more scoops here: Apple has sued a web site for releasing information it would rather have kept secret. I see more secrets (Apple's and others) revealed on engadget. How about the secret on how to hack TiVo's new TiVoToGo's encryption? It's just hard to keep secrets in a free society.

Better late than Never: Microsoft, literally three years late, has come up with an answer to the problem of Spyware attacking Windows Systems. This has been a major problem for three years now, with systems being ground to a running stop by nasty Spyware (Kazaa, Comet Cursor, Gator, etc and other programs installing myriad program secretly that mess up ones computer).

Microsoft has made available for Free, a download of a "beta" of its Spyware detection and removal software, and based upon preliminary testing, it's EXCELLENT.

I highly recommend every Windows System user download it, install it, and run it. I like it because it will automatically update, automatically run, and proactively catch spyware.

FOLLOWUP 1/23/05 - The Spyware checker is so good, it catches Microsoft's spyware, so far its' found them in MS Money, and MS Media Player 10 installer.

THUNDERBIRD - I finally got around to using Thunderbird, the new FREE email client from mozilla.org; and I like it. Good thing too, as I was just about forced to use it after my MAIL program from Apple OSX decided it wouldn't pop email from Earthlink anymore. Dont know if I had too many messages in it (3500), or its a glitch with OS 10.3.7; or just my copy got corrupted, but now I don't need to find out.

Go to Jail for exercizing free speech in France: Turns out in France, a software security researcher published his findings about a buggy antivirus program. As a result he's been sued and threatened with jail. Am I liable to go to jail in France now for reporting on the report?
The French Court will issue a final ruling on March 4, 2005.

Vanity can cost you - Literally - CNN reports that if one goes to Google and searches on "Ken Lay", former head of Enron, a paid hit for his personal page (telling Ken's spin on things ("kenlayinfo")) is produced, and if one clicks through, Ken Lay is charged by Google. So now his oponents in Houston are going to Google.

Engineering for prosperity Many manufacturing firms (whether it be automobiles or computers) only support a new model for 3 or 5 years (answer questions from users), and parts availability has a defined lifetime also. See one such notice from IBM here. This is done to encourage customers to buy the newests models to assure continued sales and profitability. After all Earth Shoe stores went out of business when they didn't get enough repeat customers because their product lasted too long. And 53 years ago there was a great movie about a product that would last forever and what the consequences could be. So it's no great suprize the the folks runing "The TUBE" in London are trying to find the pieces/parts they need for 20 year old computer equipment on ebay as a last resort.

Managerial coverup : In Great Britain a major crash of the computer system controlling one major banks' Cash Machines that left them unavailable for 24 hours, has been labeled as due to a "Glitch". More likely a system upgrade performed at the wrong time, without fall back procedures in place with a shrunken staff due to "right-sizing".