These are from various sources ********************************** http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2005/tc20050420_1036_tc024.htm?campaign_id=rss_techn "It's reasonable easy for a thief to steal the social security number and bank account information (which is printed on a check) as well as an address. The next generation of financial tools are fighting this problem. Business Week talks about [1] voice verification in future debit and credit cards. "Here's how it works: A special sensor on the credit card stores its owner's previously recorded voiceprint in digital form. When the owner receives a new card, he or she speaks a password into the sensor on the card. If the voiceprint matches, the card is activated."" Business week online NEWS ANALYSIS By Olga Kharif May I See Your Voice, Please? As speech-related biometric technology joins the fight against identity theft, your credit card may start asking you to speak louder Most consumers, at one point or another, have thought about how easy it would be to steal an identity, particularly over the phone: You call your bank. To verify that you are who you say you are, a clerk asks for a Social Security number, address, date of birth, or account number. Fact is, a thief can get all that data by stealing a bank statement and talking to your friends. Then, he might order a credit card in your name or make money transfers out of your account. **************************************** http://news.com.com/Torvalds+unveils+new+Linux+control+system/2100-7344_3-5678651.html?tag=nefd.top Torvalds unveils new Linux control system Published: April 20, 2005, 3:11 PM PDT By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com Linux founder and leader Linus Torvalds has launched a new tool, called Git, to manage his software project, after a dispute led him to drop the previous system. Torvalds stopped using a management system called BitKeeper earlier this month, reverting to an older, slower technique of simply e-mailing updates among the hundreds of programmers who contribute to the project. But moving to Git means the Linux project once again will have an automated mechanism to control the flow of updates and track changes. In 2002, Torvalds had adopted BitKeeper, proprietary software developed and sold by a company called BitMover in South San Francisco, Calif. He praised it for boosting Linux programmer productivity, but almost immediately others began objecting to reliance on proprietary software. ******************************************************************* http://www.techworld.com/networking/news/index.cfm?NewsID=3529 21 April 2005 Microsoft to support Linux In Virtual Server. Should prove interesting. By John Fontana, Network World Fusion Microsoft head Steve Ballmer has promised to add Linux support for the first time in one of its products because, he explained, users need to manage heterogeneous networks. Support for the software giant's open-source rival and greatest threat will come in Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1, due to ship by the end of the year, Ballmer said as part of his keynote speech at the company's annual summit. "We will add support for non-Windows virtual machines running on our Virtual Server, including Linux," he said. "Virtualisation is an area of intense interest and activity for us. Driving virtualisation is a key technology to facilitate better compatibility and lower total cost of ownership." **************************************************************** http://firingsquad.com/hardware/colfax_dual_opteron/ http://firingsquad.com/hardware/amd_dual-core_opteron_875/ In two separate articles, FiringSquad takes a look at the performance of AMD's dual-core Opteron CPU. The first article examines the [1]performance of dual-core in scientific computing applications (MATLAB and LS-DYNA) as well as digital photography, while the second story focuses on the [2]performance of dual-core Opteron paired against Intel's dual-core Pentium Extreme Edition in video encoding, Cinebench, and a few other applications. The performance improvements are pretty impressive in multi-threaded applications that take advantage of the technology." ********************************************************************* http://cheapbooks.com/bracket/bracket.html Hard Drive Cooling for 10 Cents I have purchased almost every hard drive cooling device on the market, some costing as much as $50 or more. I have systems that place fans in front of the drive that suck air from the outside, and fans that mount underneath. The problem with these setups are that they tend to be expensive, the airflow tends to be quite low, and in general they just don't cool down the drives by more than 1 - 5 degrees. I even own one that claims an 80cfm airflow. But alas I was never satisfied with any of these cooling methods. For over a year now I have been able to achieve a 10 - 15 degree Celsius temperature drop on my hard drives simply by using a 10 cent bracket from a local hardware store. ****************************************************************** http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash2005.ars Ars has published a massive [0]USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drive roundup, with 10 USB 2.0 flash drives that they've tested on three OS's. They rate the drives by performance, durability, and features/accessories (including the crappy software that no one uses). Definitely a good read for anyone who has recently sat on their USB thumbdrive!" ******************************************* Life is what happens in between plans. Virus free email by Norton's This message is intended for the sole use of the individual and/or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. 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