Lindows has reportedly received $20M from Microsoft to settle the pending trademark case. Microsoft will receive the Lindows domain names in exchange for their cold hard cash and Lindows (pardon me, "Linspire") will continue to operate, but with the addition of money in the bank and no lawsuit from Microsoft …

Admittedly, it isn't very likely, but John Dvorak (columnist for PC Magazine) has written a column suggesting that Microsoft may shut down after pushing down the stock price, spinning off some subsidiaries, and off-shoring most of the employees.

According to an article from Wired, Apple's success with the iPod has pushed MacroVision and SunnComm (the leading producers of audio CD copy protection) to get rid of their Microsoft Windows Audio (MWA) format songs on the current crop of copy protected CDs. What's in the cards is not entirely …

EFF representative Cory Doctorow gave a talk to Microsoft about DRM (Digital Rights Management) on June 17th, 2004. An electronic transcript is available. Not surprisingly, it details why DRM is bad and will lead to no good in technological, social, and business terms. One of the most interesting passages was …

Startup company, OQO is showing off their OQO Model 01 hand-held computer. It's a bit larger than an iPod and weighs 14 oz., but runs full-fledged Windows XP on a 1GHz Transmeta CPU with a 20GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM. The machine also packs Bluetooth, WiFi (802.11b …

After this week's settlement with Microsoft, Sun has come under attack by some in the computing community about their willingness to "sleep with the enemy." Sun's venerable "java guy" has posted a blog entry wherein he gives his take on why the Java world should not fear the $1.6B …

To call it a preview would seem to be inappropriate, as Apple used the 19th annual Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference in Los Angeles to let the Macintosh speak for itself on issues of access by the blind. The move will secure Apple's ability to work with the visually impaired …

The following is a very slightly edited account of Kurt's foray into using 64-bit Microsoft Windows with AMD's Athlon processors. Links to the software, hardware and drivers are scattered throughout. For those Mac users out there, this is a taste of what the PC-based 64-bit world is going to be …

Microsoft announced a patch yesterday for a significant vulnerability that affects core security protocols on all recent Windows operating systems (Windows 2000- XP). If you have a Windows box, you should immediately run software update and get this fix.

According to an article from MSFN (Microsoft Software Forum Network), Microsoft has announced the availability of a beta version of their 64-bit Windows operating system. Official information on the 64-bit Beta can be found on the Microsoft site. Requirements are: Athlon64 or Opteron Processor 256MB RAM 1.5GB Hard disk …

Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post technology writer, has a few words to say about Microsoft's Smart Watch (aka MSN Direct) technology in his review of the Suunto n3. All things considered, he had nothing good to say about it. The summary is: Style: Clunky Battery Life: Too short News: Too short …

As a follow up to last week's story here, I bring to your attention this article from CNet. They are reporting that young Mr. Rowe has taken the following items in exchange for his domain: A new domain name Assistance building a new site Microsoft certification training MSDN subscription (up …

Alright, some of you have already heard about me complaining about Microsoft trying to lock up the Office file formats by using encryption (and the Palladium initiative). Now, there is word in an article from CNet that Microsoft has applied for patents in Europe and New Zealand that may block …

According to an article in Wired, it certainly was for Jonathan Caouette. The 31 year old made his Sundance Film Festival entry for a total of $281.32 (in supplies, not counting his Mac). Caouette's film, Tarnation, recounts his troubled childhood in a highly dysfunctional family. Sundance is showing a …

OK, so the kid should have known it was coming, but a 17-year-old in Canada has gotten Microsoft plenty mad by registering MikeRoweSoft.com, according to an article on CNN.

An article from Wired about a prototype home built by Andersen and Time Warner in Park City, Utah that has some amazing windows. Some of them are speakers, others are computer displays, but almost all of them can change from transparent to opaque at the click of a mouse.

The announcement last week that Hewlett-Packard would be aligning themselves with Apple in the approach to digital music was met by strong support in the Apple community and strong condemnation by both Microsoft and Dell. The press comments from these two companies spoke of "standards" and "choice", so what could …

In half the time that it took Mac users to embrace the music service from Apple, Windows users have hit the 1,000,000 downloads mark for the iTunes application, Apple announced today. Apple has also sold 1 million songs since the Windows announcement on Thursday, but there is no …

As the Apple home page said, "Hell Froze Over." Apple has made iTunes for Windows absolutely identical to the Macintosh version, right down to the brushed metal. Importantly, you can find Mac servers (or Windows servers) using Rendezvous and play music from one computer on another (even cross platform).

As if Microsoft's operating systems weren't causing enough trouble, Wired has a story that claims 65% of the bank ATMs will be running Windows by 2005. Microsoft will be selling them what the article refers to as a "stripped down version of NT," but it is more likely than not …