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IBM’s John R. Patrick has a Commentary article at ZDNet that recites the classic “Wireless will replace PCs as the primary Internet interface” line, along with some marginally interesting forward-thinking comments about browsers and alternatives. (more…)

Microsoft, according to CNET, is phasing out Windows 95 – OEMs can’t include it with new systems as of January 1st of this year. I had no idea it was still available before then – haven’t we had two versions of consumer Windows since Win95?

Here’s something I don’t see every day: a John Dvorak article that I actually agree with. John doubts that wireless phones will be displacing the PC anytime soon, and so do I.

David Coursey’s latest AnchorDesk column at ZDNet ponders the possibility of per-year pricing for Office, as Microsoft is presently planning. Would you pay a yearly subscription to Microsoft Office? (more…)

The Register reports that several new security issues have been reported in BIND, the software that runs DNS for most UNIX sites. Here’s the CERT advisory. It seems like Microsoft’s DNS problems have caused everyone to focus on DNS issues that have existed for years.

Robert X. Cringely’s new column (1/25) expounds on the virtues of StarBand’s satellite Internet service, which sounds like a great deal for rural areas. If my nearly-rural area hadn’t finally qualified for ADSL, I’d jump on it.

A brief followup on Microsoft’s Web server woes: Wired News reports on the post-crash DOS attacks and some of Microsoft’s progress in preventing future ones. Internetnews.com reports that this might mess up Microsoft’s planned advertising for its .Net services.

Despair.com, makers of fine inspirational posters, has registered a trademark on the :-( emoticon. Their press release claims that they plan to sue 7 million Internet users over its use. The press release is a joke, of course, but the scary thing is, as slashdot reports, the trademark is real. Just shows how silly the trademark (and patent) systems are.

David Coursey’s latest ZDnet column proposes the creation of a “hacker party” as a third political party. Well, they might win in 2004, but only if Microsoft designs the voting machines…

Here’s a followup on the Microsoft troubles. Apparently they’ve had further availability problems today, due to denial-of-service attacks. The Industry Standard has an article on the costs, but I think the damage to Microsoft’s reputation will be the biggest price.

Wired News has ressurected the old meme about Google‘s search engine: When you search for certain bad words in Google, the first result is a site devoted to George W. Bush. (more…)

Microsoft’s Web site was down for nearly 24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, due to a router error. This CNET article has the details, and Microsoft’s statement is surprisingly blunt. So much for Highly Available Web Sites.

I never heard the end of the story of the mysterious monolith that appeared in Seattle’s Magnuson Park on January 1st. Apparently it disappeared, then reappeared in a new location. Meanwhile, a bomb appeared in the monolith’s original spot. Finally, the monolith reappeared in the park again, under less mysterious circumstances and with the city’s blessing. I’m not certain what became of the bomb…

Rob Reid, CEO of Listen.com, predicts that CDs will go the way of LPs, 8-tracks, and DOS “by 2003”. See this Newsbytes article for more. Personally, I predict that CDs will last a few years beyond 2003, but Listen.com won’t.

This MSNBC article describes how Web host mydomains.com released a corrupt DNS table and diverted tens of thousands of net users to their site instead of Microsoft or Yahoo. While this might really be an accident, it’s disturbing that this can be done so easily.

The wireless Web apparently isn’t living up to its hype, in an unsurprising parallel with every other bit of Internet hype we’ve ever heard. This article at the Minneapolis Star Tribune goes into detail. (more…)

David Coursey’s article on ZDnet continues his (justified) tirade against Microsoft’s new copy-protection schemes. (more…)

If you send MS Word attachments by email, there is more than viruses and huge files to worry about. Keith Dawson’s excellent TBTF newsletter describes how your Word documents may be telling people more than you think. (more…)

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a story (Seattle Times) about a dot-com company making a fortune. Webtrends did it right: they avoided huge venture capital investments, and they didn’t expect their business to succeed at no cost simply by virtue of being online. And having unique products that you can’t buy at the corner store, unlike some companies, certainly didn’t hurt.

This is old news, but it was news for me. Microsoft has released a version of Tweak UI, their “unsupported” configuration tool, that works on Windows 2000 and Windows Me. I switched to Windows 2000 on my development computer recently, and it’s nice to finally be rid of all of those annoying animations. I found this via Windows-help.net, who have some details about bugs in the new version.

Robert Cringely’s latest article describes a company called Rolltronics, which intends to produce whole computers using a printing press-like technique. (more…)

The Register reports that Altavista plans to start enforcing their patents on search engine technology. Nevermind that Webcrawler and Infoseek, to name a couple, opened their search engines long before Altavista. In the software patent game, money is all that matters. (And in the search engine game, Google eats Altavista for breakfast.)

Here’s a dot-com success story waiting to happen: the city of Toronto is selling 141 Fiberglass Moose at, of course, buyamoose.com. I’m sure this will please everyone who missed out on the Chicago cows on parade auction. Hurry, though, the Strawberry Moose is already up to CA $3500…

MSNBC reports that Napster‘s new version (beta 8) has flaws. Hardly exciting news, considering that it’s a beta version, but I find it interesting for two reasons: first, because it’s a rare mention of Napster with no politics. (more…)

Michael Murphy, editor of the California Technology Stock Letter, says it may be Time to buy tech stocks. Perhaps he’s right – my portfolio of worthless tech stocks hasn’t gone down in a few days. Just don’t buy Pets.com. (I bought it at $1.00, so don’t take any stock advice from me.)

The current tech slump has lots of people worried, but there is an upside: it has resulted in a huge increase in bad headline puns, such as Web Energy Provider Pulls Plug. Here are some of my favorites from the last couple of weeks. (more…)

Welcome! Figby is a new site devoted to interesting news about technology, computers, and the Internet. Of course, this is all strictly based on what I and the other writers find interesting. (more…)