Hold on to your hats! IBM has subpoenaed Microsoft! And Sun! At last, we're getting to the core of the matter. We're going to get to find out the whole story. I'd pay for this. No kidding. Feast your eyes on these and don't skip the topics for deposition:

Its been pretty ... well not quiet but proceedural and boring on the SCO v IBM front for some time. Finally, a little action.

IBM Subpoenas Microsoft! Sun! Baystar and HP!

A unanimous Supreme Court decision on Tuesday gave a small religious sect the right to keep importing a hallucinogenic tea, central to its ritual observance, that the government wants to ban as a controlled substance under federal narcotics law.

Sect Allowed to Import Its Hallucinogenic Tea

Large flat-screen televisions for digital broadcasting are currently the focus of much attention. Heralded as the new generation of high-quality large flat-screen display, the SED (Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display), jointly developed by Canon and Toshiba Corporation, is almost ready for practical application. Its greatest feature is the ability to produce vivid color images that surpass conventional types of display. Also, the SED delivers exceptional overall image quality—fast video-response performance, high contrast, high gradation levels—and low power consumption.

TVs based on this may ship by the end of 2006.

Canon Technology -SED-

The pebble bed reactor (PBR) or pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) is an advanced nuclear reactor design. This technology claims a dramatically higher level of safety and efficiency. Instead of water, it uses pyrolytic graphite as the neutron moderator, and an inert or semi-inert gas such as helium, nitrogen or carbon dioxide as the coolant, at very high temperature, to drive a turbine directly. This eliminates the complex steam management system from the design and increases the transfer efficiency (ratio of electrical output to thermal output) to about 50%. Also, the gases do not dissolve contaminants or absorb neutrons as water does, so the core has less in the way of radioactive fluids and greater economy than a light water reactor.

Pebble bed reactor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a naval officer, Jimmy Carter helped design nuclear reactors for submarines. But as president, Mr. Carter banned the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel to extract material that would be useful in reactors and bombs. Thirty years later, President Bush has proposed a new version of reprocessing.

A Shift Based on Science and Politics

China's censoring of traditional and online media has come under fire at home and abroad, with even some veteran members of the Communist Party criticizing new restrictions on media freedom.

Old guard in China takes aim at censors

NASA is preparing to launch an oxygen generation system to the International Space Station. The system uses water to generate breathable oxygen for crew members. Life support systems like this are necessary to support future long-duration missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.

NASA Preparing Oxygen Generation System for Space Station

Sony will also begin bundling DVDs and UMDs in packages at a relatively minimal price increase. The move is part Sony's larger vision of media management.

Finally, someone's figured out that its crazy to ask people to buy the same thing twice.

Sony Sets Blu-ray Pricing

Efforts to extend the USA Patriot Act cleared a major hurdle yesterday when the White House and key senators agreed to revisions that are virtually certain to secure Senate passage and likely to win House approval, congressional leaders said.

Patriot Act Compromise Clears Way for Senate Vote

With the United States Patent and Trademark Office struggling to define what is and isn’t patentable and high-profile lawsuits clogging the court systems globally, Microsoft on Thursday said it will strengthen its intellectual property protections for its embedded software partners.

Apparently Microsoft is going to indemnify Windows Embedded/Mobile OEMs.

Redmond Hikes Patent Defense