Normally I'd brush this "MS is reforming the IE team to make a new IE before Longhorn" as vaporware. At this point I think MS has kept its head in the sand so long about quality OSS that could hurt it (not Linux, but rather Mozilla, OOo), that they might actually write some software so people don't move to Firefox.

Improving IE

] Alien Hand Syndrome is an unusual mental disorder in
] which one of the sufferer's hands seems to take on a life
] of its own.

hehehe... "Mein Fuhrer I can walk" indeed

Alien Hand Syndrome

Lay beside me.
Tell me what I've done
The Door is closed, so are your eyes
But now I see the Sun
Now I see the Sun
Yes, Now I see it.

-Metallica The Unforgiven II

] Akamai Technologies Inc. said a "sophisticated,
] large-scale distributed denial of service attack" on its
] domain name service bogged down several of its clients'
] Web sites yesterday morning, and that it's investigating
] the incident with federal authorities.

Freenet anyone?

DDoS attack targets Akamai

] Ten Punishments
]
] 1. Exodus 22:20: He that sacrificeth unto any god, save
] unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.
]
] 2. Leviticus 24:16: And he that blasphemeth the name of
] the Lord, he shall surely be put to death.
]
] 3. Exodus 31:15: Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath
] day, he shall surely be put to death.
]
] 4. Exodus 21:15: He that smiteth his father, or his
] mother, shall be surely put to death.
]
] 5. Exodus 21:17: He that curseth his father or his
] mother, shall surely be put to death.
]
] 6. Exodus 22:19: Whosoever lieth with a beast shall
] surely be put to death.
]
] 7. Leviticus 20:13: If a man lie with mankind, as he
] lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an
] abomination: they shall surely be put to death.
]
] 8. Leviticus 20:10: And the man that committeth adultery
] with another man's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress
] shall be put to death.
]
] 9. Mark 16:16: He that believeth not, shall be damned.
]
] 10. Malachi 2:1-4: And now, O ye priests, this
] commandment is for you. If you will not hear, and if ye
] will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, ...
] behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon
] your faces.

The Ten Punishments

] Who is God to you? Is he only a god of love and mercy who
] would never judge anyone and never cast anyone into Hell?
] If that's your god, then you're right. Your god couldn't
] cast anyone into Hell because he doesn't exist. He's a
] figment of your imagination. You've created a god in your
] own mind that you're more comfortable with.

Acidus. Creating Deities since 1980

The Way of the Master

] The worm spreads as a .SIS file, which is automatically
] installed into the "APPS" directory when the receiver
] accepts the transmission. Upon execution, it will display
] a message then copy itself to a directory that is not
] visible by default. The worm runs from this directory
] whenever the phone is rebooted, so it continues to work
] even if the files are deleted from the APPS directory.
]
] Once the worm is running, it will constantly search for
] Bluetooth-enabled devices, and send itself to the first
] device that it finds. There is no payload, apart from the
] vastly shortened battery life caused by the constant
] scanning for Bluetooth-enabled devices.

Excellent! Yeah yeah, Viruses suck, but I do admire the skill it takes to create one (especially on a totally new platform).

Symantec Security Response - EPOC.Cabir

] Imagine if a trip to the corner newsstand required
] handing over your name, address, age, and income to the
] cashier before you could pick up the daily newspaper.

This is an issue I am at odds about. Yes, I understand that the newspapers are paying more and more to run websites that are free to the public, and are looking for a way to re-coop that cost. They try to tailor their ads to the types of people who read, and advertisers want to know that demographic data. My concern is "how" that info is gathered.

With Print, the publisher gets info from 2 places. Subscribers (physical adderss of person is known), and from newsstands (area that newsstand services is known). They can they look at existing informations, census data, etc, to learn the average income, age group, professions, etc. They can build demographic data, regardless of whether people subscribe or all buy the paper at a newsstand. Ie With print magazines, there is an option that allows people to buy the paper, and the paper to collect demographic information about their readers, without tracking the specific reader.

Online, they are using the registration to try and get this demographic data (ie age, income, approx geographic location, proferssion). However there is no way they can get this information without tying it to a specific user. So in the digital world, they know who I am, my age, my profession, my income, and anything else I choose to be truthful on. Then, unlike print, they know what stories I look at, approx how long, etc. Several sites track where a user goes, but these papers associate a name with that browsing, not simply an IP or random session number.

This scaries me for several reasons. If people are afraid that what they read could be exposed or released, then to protect themselves they will stop reading things that are counter to the majority view. This ultimately weakens us as a society.

Complaints over online newspaper registration

] Unlike the menacing crowds that had smashed shop windows
] and destroyed property at previous G8 events, most of
] this year's protesting contingent were content to spend
] their time chanting, dancing and engaging in soil
] purification rituals.

To Paraphase Cartman: Damn hippies, say they want to fight the man but all the do is purify soil and smell bad

Anti-globalization army fails to mobilize for G8

] It shows eight ice ages, or glacials, followed by shorter
] interglacial periods and changing concentrations of gases
] and particles in the atmosphere.
]
] The period that corresponds most to the present
] interglacial period, which started 12,000 years ago, was
] about 400,000 years ago and lasted roughly 28,000 years.

...? So which group of scientists missed the memo?

Barring humans, 15,000 years warm weather