rc3.org

Microsoft is going to end volume discounts on consumer operating systems for its corporate customers. The obvious conclusion is that they are trying to drive up demand for Windows 2000 (analysts say sales of 2000 have been lower than expected) by making it more expensive for businesses to choose other Microsoft operating systems. [...]

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If you use Perl under Windows, you really need to know about PPM. It’s a tool that enables you to install Perl modules on your computer without make or a C compiler. This makes it possible to easily install some of the more complex modules like DBI and LWP.

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I just wanted to make sure to credit Dan Hartung with making the first mention I saw of the hanging chad problem in association with the current election. Way back on 11/9, he discussed Votamatic punch card voting machines and the hanging chad problem associated with them. Nice work, Dan.

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Quote of the day, from Scott Shuger in Today’s Papers:

In case you have accidentally swallowed poison, please read this item repeatedly. The WP’s Lloyd Grove reports that Wednesday night, Dick Cheney partied with Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy.

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News.com has a story analyzing the causes of Microsoft’s well-publicized profit warning (their profits are still going to be through the roof, just a bit off expectations). One big problem is slow movement toward Windows 2000 and Office 2000. I haven’t upgraded to Office 2000 at home because I have it at work, and it [...]

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MIT and Cal Tech have obtained an initial grant of $250,000 from the Carnegie Corporation to come up with new voting machines. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with. What will be more interesting to see is how much the voting mechanisms change before the elections in 2002 and 2004. [...]

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Organic Online is laying off 270 people for the holidays. Meet the new economy, same as the old economy. Seriously though, I remember when Organic was this funky Web development firm in San Francisco. The article doesn’t say how many employees they have, but if they’re laying off 270 of them, then [...]

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Looks like Amazon.com’s free shipping promotion was a success. I can tell you that I took advantage of it twice this holiday season, and saved myself about 30 bucks in shipping. Not too shabby.

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I’ve long been interested in Grameen Bank — a microcredit lender in Bangladesh. Grameen Foundation USA is one of five charities the Motley Fool is promoting this year, and they have a story on Grameen Bank specifically, which is making real strides in the fight against poverty in Bangladesh. I love innovative approaches [...]

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The naked partisanship that Justice Scalia has displayed in the Supreme Court cases revolving around the Presidential election have been most disheartening to me. I don’t agree with him a lot of the time, but I’ve respected him as a principled jurist. At this point, the idea of his becoming Chief Justice in [...]

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