Mighty Mouse is well in hand

From MacWorld: No doubt about it — Apple’s announcement that it’s selling a four-button, scroll-wheel-bearing USB mouse is big news. Not in the earth-shattering kind of way that you’d greet the announcement of a new Mac or iPod. It is, after all, just a mouse. But the Mighty Mouse marks the end of 21 years …

Microsoft aims to host regular hacker meetings

From ComputerWorld: Microsoft Corp. is working on plans to make a recent hacker meeting held on its Redmond, Wash., campus a twice-yearly event, according to a spokesman for the vendor’s security group. The company plans to host another Blue Hat security event in the fall, though no specific date has been set, Stephen Toulouse, a …

More farmers are using computers, but pace slowing

From USA Today: American farmers are buying computers and using them for business, but at a much slower pace than they did just two years ago, a new federal study shows. The rate for both computer ownership and business usage increased just 1% from 2003 to 2005, according to a survey conducted every two years …

Public Schools Begin to Offer Gym Classes Online

From the NYT: The nation’s public schools are rushing to reconfigure scores of traditional courses from basic composition to calculus so students can take them via the Internet. One of the unlikely new offerings in this vast experiment is online gym. Sound like an oxymoron? Not in Minneapolis, where a physical education course joined the …

Windows and Office Shortcuts

The July 29 issue of the TechRepublic Windows XP tips newsletter I get had a listing of a bunch of documents they have showing shortcuts for various programs: Speed up regular tasks with these keyboard shortcuts for Windows and Office All users — including IT professionals — have repetitive tasks that they do over and …

Microsoft Genuine Advantage Cracked!

Microsoft started forcing all users to verify their Windows product was genuine this week after making the step an optional step for updates for several months. Within 24 hours, the code had been broken allowing users to bypass the verification. The following was from the BoingBoing.net post where I first read about it: Before pressing …

System Administrator Appreciation Day

Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day. It’d be a good day to thank your admins for keeping the network up and alive, and maybe buy them a drink! Although, everyday is a good day for either of those scenarios.

India’s tech boom sparks recruitment rush

From Yahoo! News (AP): On a hot summer weekend in India’s technology capital, 28,000 young graduates converge on a suburban indoor stadium and create a stampede for jobs in the exploding software and business service industries. A large board advertising Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. falls to the floor with a thud, jostled by a crowd …

Dynamic shift in way consumers access Web news

From USA Today: J.D. Lasica used to visit 20 to 30 Web sites for his daily fix of news. Now, he’s down to three — yet he consumes more news online than ever. Lasica is among a growing breed of information consumers who use the latest Internet technologies to completely bypass the home pages of …

Downloading ‘myths’ challenged

From BBC News: People who illegally share music files online are also big spenders on legal music downloads, research suggests. Digital music research firm The Leading Question found that they spent four and a half times more on paid-for music downloads than average fans. Rather than taking legal action against downloaders, the music industry needs …