] A monster bomb with an explosive blast so massive it is
] similar to a nuclear weapon is scheduled to be tested at
] Eglin Air Force Base next week, possibly as early as
] Tuesday, a Pentagon official said.
]
] Eglin would not comment on the test of the 21,000-pound
] MOAB, short for "massive ordnance air burst," and
] referred all questions about its development and testing
] to Pentagon officials.

I just heard them commenting about this test on CNN. They said that they were testing it in order to have it ready in time for Iraq. Something about using the weapon to "demoralize" the Iraqi army.

"We got us a biiiiiiig bomb! Really big! MASSIVE! You think the bombs we dropped on you guys last time were somethin'?? Well we spent BILLIONS makin' even bigger ones for this time around!"

I'm pretty sure the Iraqis are already terrified of our bomb capability. They saw it first-hand recent enough to recall with great clarity. This "demoralizing" that is sought is going to happen in very short order upon an invasion, regardless of having a bigger bomb.

News | PensacolaNewsJournal.com | Massive bomb test

] "Afghanistan is officially planting its flag in
] cyberspace, gaining full legal and technical control of
] the '.af' Internet domain," the organization said.
]
] "For Afghanistan, this is like reclaiming part of our
] sovereignty," Communications Minister Mohammad Moassom
] Stanakzai said in a statement on Sunday.

Wired News: Afghan Internet Domain Launches

I've been using Alltheweb a fair amount the past few days. I like it.

AlltheWeb.com

] There's an essay lurking in here, but I've been reluctant
] to write it. Here's what it would say. Up till now Google
] has done really well with the low-key,
] we-let-our-software-speak-for-us approach to public
] relations. But that method doesn't work now. People are
] confused about what Google is.

Ok. Good. I'm glad I saw this. I'm not nuts. Apparently, I'm also not the only one trying to wean myself off Google.

I really like Google. Its been my favorite search engine for years. And I had no problem being 100% dependent on it. The "we just do search" thing was a big deal to me. I guess, between that going away with the purchas of Pyra and the recent patent stuff.. I'm scared shitless.

I had to ask myself "the question".. If Google went away tommorow, how would I function? Answer, I wouldn't! It would be like sticking an ice pick right up through my eye socket into by brain and jiggling it around the frontal lobe. I'm that dependent on Google. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Hence, me being the way I am, I can't have that kinda dependency on a resource I'm starting to question. Its that simple. If I depend on it, I have to trust it. Otherwize, I have to have multiple options.

So, I guess it woke me up to one basic thing I already knew.. Its bad to be dependent on a single resource for a critical function. Have I stopped using Google? No, I still think Google is a rocking search engine. Am I using other search engines? Yep.

I have similar reasons for why I use Open Source toolsets.

Weaning off Google

] Instead, most robots remain human-dependent machines that
] can perform only specialized tasks, like welding parts in
] a factory, searching through the rubble of a collapsed
] building or vacuuming a living room. Few display what
] could be considered sensitivity to people, and those that
] do tend to be toys, like Sony's Aibo pet, that serve only
] to entertain.
]
] Robotics researchers are realizing that the journey to
] more autonomous, adaptable robots will require more than
] just improvements in mechanical, sensory and computing
] capabilities. Equally important, they say, is improving
] the way people and robots interact: after all, they say,
] that may be how robots will learn, and to be truly
] useful, robots must be acceptable to people.

Making Robots More Like Us

] Last week, Google unveiled a new method of distributing
] its paid listings, placing them on web pages, as opposed
] to the traditional means of inserting them into search
] results. The new product, Google Content-Targeted
] Advertising, will likely accelerate the already rapid
] growth of contextual advertising. It also sees Google
] offering its second non-search product within a month,
] following on the company's acquisition of blog-firm Pyra
] Labs.
]
] Contextual advertising isn't new, yet in preparing to
] write this article, I also failed to find any good
] definitions for it. Do a Google search for "contextual
] advertising," and you might come away feeling that it may
] be unethical and has something to do with "scumware."
] Doesn't sound very attractive, does it?

"We just do search" Uh huh..

Google Throws Hat Into The Contextual Advertising Ring

ldap2dns is a program to create DNS (Domain Name Service) records directly from a LDAP directory. It can and should be be used to replace the secondary name-server by a second primary one.
ldap2dns reduces all kind of administration overhead: No more flat file editing, no more zone file editing. After having installed ldap2dns, the administrator only has to access the LDAP directory.
Optionally she can add access control for each zone, create a GUI and add all other kind of zone and resource record information without interfering with the DNS server.
----
Now you have to appreciate this!

Going to look at this in more legnth later..

LDAP to DNS gateway

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, July 4, 2001; Page A01

TEHRAN -- Arash Fahimi is a teenager in a nation that frowns on dating, outlaws rock music and offers a 17-year-old almost no chance for travel beyond its borders.

But Fahimi, like hundreds of thousands of young Iranians, has discovered an escape from his cultural cocoon. Sitting at a computer terminal in an Internet cafe, he downloads the latest Western pop music hits and chats daily with cyber-acquaintances around the globe. He even found a girlfriend on the Internet.

"I want to have a better idea of what the world is like," said Fahimi, earphones clamped under a Nike baseball cap and fingers tapping out a chat room response on his screen. "If I can't make a trip abroad, the Internet is the best way."

washingtonpost.com: Cybermania Takes Iran by Surprise

] In the photo above is the webACE: a Fairchild ACE1101MT8
] microcontroller programmed as a Web server and containing
] two tiny web pages in its on-chip memory. Since the
] ACE1101MT8 is the smallest available microcontroller, I
] believe that this really is the World's Smallest Web
] Server.

This is the platform used in that fly article. This article is a little more informative. I don't really care about the fly. I care about the server. Links to a number of other more practical platforms such as PIC based servers (they are technically larger, but basically the idea is the same). A little digging and you'll find a number of open source TCP/IP stacks for microcontrollers.

This is of use if you want to embed internet connectivity into extremely small devices. The next question is how small can you make your bluetooth transmitter.

Tiny webserver, without the fly

] Google is known and loved for its impressive Web search
] tool, but now the company is beginning to face some
] probing questions about its plans to branch into new
] areas.

'Reassurance' a key word as Google grows | CNET News.com