Salon has a great story about how Abe Ingersoll used Back Orifice to help get a spot on the cast of Road Rules: Latin America.

It seems that there’s one small problem that lies ahead for the iBook.

News.com has an article on PC makers creating designs that copying the design of the iMac. I never thought that the iMac was particularly beautiful, but it’s pretty cool that Apple actually has other companies copying them again. How long until we see PC laptops with handles? (I actually think that the Panasonic rugged notebooks already have them.)

Does anyone think that there’s any chance at all that Bill Clinton won’t reappoint Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board?

Allaire announced a new software package called Spectra today, which will bundle content management and electronic commerce functionality. I assume it’s all built on top of Cold Fusion, I haven’t investigated it much yet. The pricing is $7,495. Look out Vignette, et al. They’ve been sneaking content management stuff into Cold Fusion for awhile.

Steve Jobs didn’t disappoint today in his Macworld Keynote … the consumer portable was unveiled. Enter the iBook. It looks spiffy, but doesn’t have any PC card slots, or an external monitor connector. I imagine it will be a big hit anyway.

Even though I hardly use a Mac any more, I still get giddy about Macworld Expo.

Interesting fact: HP’s new CEO, former Lucent exec Carly Fiorina, is the first woman ever to run a company included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. She’s one of three female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. That’s a disgrace.

The Chris Nolan saga continues … is it improper to invest in the IPO for a company that’s on your beat because you’re friends with the CEO, and then flip the stock 2 days later for a $9,000 profit? An interesting question. The New York times has a story that’s clearer than the one in the Merc.

The first beta of PHP version 4 is available for download. It’s built on the new Zend engine, which is a ground-up rewrite of the PHP engine. PHP version 4 is covered by the QPL, I’m not sure what the implications of that are.