] People who joined the cult-like following of Iraq's
] wartime spokesman Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf can now buy a
] talking doll and hear him say things like "our initial
] assessment is that they will all die" as often as they
] want.
]
] The Connecticut company Herobuilders.com built the doll
] and also sells others that make fun of Iraq war allies
] President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Too funny.

CNN.com - And now, the Iraqi information minister talking doll - Apr. 18, 2003

] Judicial Watch, the public interest group that
] investigates and prosecutes government corruption,
] presented argument today before the U.S. Court of Appeals
] for the District of Columbia Circuit in its ongoing
] lawsuit concerning Vice President Cheney%u2019s Energy
] Task Force. The appeals panel was considering whether the
] Vice President and his Energy Task Force should be immune
] from discovery into the identities of Task Force
] participants, how the Task Force operated, and the role
] of the Vice President in the Task Force. Lawyers for the
] Vice President were seeking mandamus intervention by the
] appeals court, after losing their legal arguments before
] the lower court trying to exempt the Vice President from
] any inquiries at all.

“Why Are We Here?” Court Asks of Vice President’s Lawyer

] Michigan State University President Peter McPherson, who
] served as the second-highest Treasury Department official
] in the Reagan administration, is being tapped as the
] government's point person on financial matters
] related to the rebuilding of Iraq.

Bush to appoint Iraq financial czar

] Every minute, the sun bombards Earth with enough energy
] to supply its power needs for a year. Yet only two
] one-hundredths of a percent of all the electricity fed
] into the U.S. grid originates from sunlight. The world
] still largely relies on diminishing supplies of
] environmentally unfriendly and politically destabilizing
] fossil fuels. Despite decades of research, it%u2019s
] still cheaper to burn coal than get power from the sun.

I would go 100% solar with storage batteries for the dark times, if I could.

Solar cells dropping in cost, increasing efficiency

] Microsoft has confirmed reports received by The Register
] that Windows 2000 PCs running a specific version of
] Office 2000 have been hit by sudden, unexpected requests
] to continually register the software with Microsoft.
]
] The glitch could leave thousands of Office users unable
] to continue using their software.

Office 2000 SR-1 registration bug strikes corporates

] Through the introduction of information technology on the
] battlefield, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is
] assisting the U.S. Army in gaining the technological edge
] needed to win on the battlefield of the 21st century. As
] the prime contractor for the Army's Force XXI Battle
] Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) program, Mission
] Systems is replacing paper maps and voice radio
] communications with digital capabilities.

Digital Army: Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below

] Some believe eBay is the perfect
] e-commerce machine, with lean operating costs, swift
] strategy implementation and boundless growth
] opportunities. Yet, how large can the company become
] before it meets the playground law of "the bigger they
] come, the harder they fall"?
]
] After all, the auction giant has set the pace for a host
] of imitators and wannabes, but as it keeps expanding and
] launching new initiatives, the company risks losing the
] quickness of action that initially elevated it above
] competitors. Recent moves like the acquisition of PayPal
] (Nasdaq: PYPL) and expansion of its auction categories
] have introduced new layers of complexity into its
] operations.
]
] On the other hand, if any e-commerce company can pull off
] large-scale growth and make it look easy, it might be
] eBay

Can eBay Keep Setting the Pace?

] Since its founding in 1995, MySQL has managed to
] establish itself as the provider of the best-known open
] source database on the market and hopes to dent the armor
] of big name vendors such as IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft

I remain a staunch Oracle proponent, by mysql may work for "small" million row databases on the web. The biggest issue for using mysql is lack of scalability to larger iron without wholescale replication and master/slave databases. Yuck!

InfoWorld: Interview: MySQL rides open source wave into DBs: April 16, 2003: By James Niccolai: Platforms

] Like America Online, Microsoft's MSN Internet service is
] feeling the pinch of competition from both high-speed and
] budget dial-up ISPs.
]
] Microsoft on Tuesday reported that MSN in the first
] quarter witnessed a decline of 300,000 subscribers from
] the preceding quarter, leaving the second-largest
] Internet service provider with 8.7 million total
] subscribers. Company executives attributed the decline to
] further churn among subscribers who signed up for MSN as
] part of multiyear PC rebate programs with offline
] retailers such as Best Buy that have begun to expire.

Indeed, friends of mine that got MSN as a computer "discount" at Best Buy are now switching to cable or DSL. I promised them they'd be so much happier with their internet experience. And indeed, they are.

Microsoft shrugs off dial-up decline

] Spike is no longer just the name of a famous film
] director or a volleyball move. Now it%u2019s the name of
] a cable network, too. Struggling TNN %u2014 which just
] two years ago changed from The Nashville Network to The
] National Network%u2014 announced Tuesday that, effective
] June 16, it will call itself Spike TV and become the
] first network aimed specifically at men.

Very interesting. I'm a man, last time I checked anyway... and watch several TNN shows: CSI, and the star treks, and some others that occasionally crop up on my TiVo.

TNN who? Network now Spike TV