"Apple wants to make their switch to Intel chips seem like a no-brainer, but the reality of it was a lot more complicated than just faster chips for Macs. Apple's claims of their Intel systems being '4-5x faster' than their PowerPC systems is a little much to swallow, especially with Intel Macs landing in users' hands and failing to live up to the hype. So if these Intel chips aren't really that much faster than the G5, why did Apple make the switch? The answer to this question is a lot more interesting than what Apple's telling you."

"Windows Vista will eventually sport what has been called a 'sidebar' - a kind of taskbar-like user interface element designed to sit on the right or left side of a display and offer 'heads-up' information on a customizable basis. When we last checked in on the Vista Sidebar at CES, we saw a number of widgets (or gadgets) running on the sidebar, including a small picture frame, an RSS list/interface, weather information, and more. The idea, generally speaking, is to give prominent spacing to tasks and information services that are, in theory, so frequently referenced that it makes sense to prominently display them on your desktop, alongside or on top of your other application windows."

"Around the same time as Kodak was introducing its Advantix APS film system, a fairly new company called SanDisk had just IPOed, and was promoting a new standard for portable digital storage known as CompactFlash. When I set out recently to do a CF card round-up, I found in my collection a nice old relic: a 24MB Delkin Devices CompactFlash card, circa 1998. Unlike sports cars or fancy dishwashers, CF cards all tend to look almost identical. Therefs no easy way to judge their speed just by examining their exterior. So, instead of doing a standard round-up, I figured, why not test the relic against some of the newer cards across the temporal gamut?"

AOL and Yahoo! are to start charging for sending emails. Both companies will still accept free emails but are offering the chance to pay to avoid their spam filters. By paying between a quarter and one cent per message companies will get preferential delivery of their messages. So a "business class" email will go straight to an AOL-subscriber's inbox marked with a stamp saying "AOL Certified Email" while a free email will have to run the gamut of AOL spam filters. Free mails may also have images and web links removed.

"Over the last six months I've received email from all manner of folks from all over the world relating to ODF. In virtually all instances, the senders were ODF proponents, many asking how they can help, or offering their personal experiences or thoughts. I've also received email from, and gotten to know, many of the other journalists and bloggers following the issue, as well as the principal vendor advocates, and some of the community of the disabled that have voiced concern, as well. Early last week, I received an email from closer to home, with a 'subject' line that read, "Maybe it's time we talk..." I was happy to get the email, because the sender was none other than Alan Cote, the Massachusetts Supervisor of Records."

One of the biggest reasons for many people to switch to a UNIX desktop, away from Windows, is security. It is fairly common knowledge that UNIX-like systems are more secure than Windows. Whether this is true or not will not be up for debate in this short editorial; I will simply assume UNIX-like systems are more secure, for the sake of argument. However, how much is that increased security really worth for an average home user, when you break it down? According to me, fairly little. Here's why.