As I was preparing for the wedding, I finally decided to change my main printer (after 2 mostly happy years with the Xerox 860DP). The 8400 is the first "true Xerox" version of the Phaser product line and I evaluated costs and features of a number of printers before deciding …

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 …

Although Windows seems to be continuing its growth in education markets (a sad slide for the venerable Apple stalwart), the scientific community is beginning to become a new battleground for the Mac vs. PC argument. An article from E-Commerce Times quotes NASA scientists, among others, who are finding the power …

For those who like Python and AppleScript, AppScripting is now available which allows the use of normal Python mechanisms to control AppleScript.

Those of us with an affinity for the Python programming language will be happy to hear that version 2.3 has now been officially released. For Macintosh users, the number of fixes is large, and you can get the MacPython install today, or grab your own copy of the source …

This section contained a number of different talks, only two of which I will comment on, due to lack of space and interest in the other two. The two that were interesting involved printing with metallic ink patterns and a very interesting new way to compare trees of data. Reproducing …

Day one of SIGGRAPH is on a Sunday this year, allowing for the travel benefits of staying over a Saturday night without having to find something to do that isn't related to the conference on Sunday. However, none of the papers start until Monday, so you will only miss the …

I wasn't so much surprised as pleased to see an article in Wired describing independent game development as a healthy industry. With so many computer and console games costing millions of dollars to develop, produce, and market, and with the seemingly enormous power of a small number of retailers to …

According to a survey on Netcraft (an internet server analysis site), the number of JSP (Java Server Pages) sites has grown almost 100% over last year, despite Microsoft's heavy push for ASP (Active Server Pages) and .NET development. More interesting is that almost 26% of the sites are running Microsoft …

Don't like the way Safari looks or acts? Microsoft Internet Explorer got you down? If you're a Macintosh developer and have installed the latest SDK from Apple, you can write your own web browser with "one line of code" by following the instructions in this article from CocoaDevCentral. Admittedly, the …

An article from SlashDot is reporting that Guido van Rossum is leaving Zope.com. Guido is the original creator of the Python programming language. The article says that he is going to a startup called 'Elemental Security' that will be creating a security product using Python.

Charlie White (author of the infamous, and now missing Adobe "PC Preferred" article), has written an editorial piece for Digital Video Editing. Not surprisingly, it takes Apple to task on their PR this week. Although not likely to curry favor with the Macintosh crowd, it is not a bad article …

The Philadelphia City Paper has an article about a local Philly DJ who uses iPods as a distribution mechanism for programmed music in eating establishments, stores, and the like. The benefits are small size, big capacity, and ease of programming as well as the LCD display that the current …

An article from CNet talks about HBO Networks decision to move to a digital broadcasting system starting later this month. Perhaps more importantly is the use of Sun hardware as the platform for this. In the days of Microsoft touting their media solutions, it is important that we continue to …

Linux Journal has an article this week on pending open source legislation and the groups lobbying against it. Nobody will be surprised at the finger pointing against Microsoft, but it is good to know which organizations are funded by the company (such as the Initiative for Software Choice), which wants …

An article from CNET reports that Sun and Intel announced they are teaming up to make sure that Java runs well on Intel's XScale processor, used often in PDAs and some phones. The press release from Sun's site specifically refers to some modifications to Sun's Hotspot VM and some changes …

An article from CNET reports that Sun is preparing a huge marketing blitz (advertising and awareness-raising badging) for its Java technology. But, this leaves me wondering if the folks at Sun are still missing the point. Comments made in the press release indicate that they will be liberalizing the license …

According to an article on The Register, Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics and equipment manufacturer, is preparing a consumer robot with an Open Source API. The robot, called HOAP-2 for Humanoid Open Architecture Platform, has a standard USB 1.1 interface and an optional 802.11b interface for programming and control …

Intel, the huge microprocessor manufacturer, has released a paper about the Open Runtime Platform, a new execution environment. The trick here is that it is designed to be a high-performance platform for running other transportable platforms, like Java's JVM and Microsoft .Net's CLI, on multiple platforms (Intel-based, of course), including …

Microsoft today announced its new Rights Management software for Windows 2000 Server. The press release is here, and an article from CNet is here. The basic structure is to provide Windows programs with access (via a programming API to be available later this year) to documents with user- specific, time-specific …