John Lamansky

According to this News.com article, America Online will be officially renaming to AOL as it tries to expand into other countries besides the United States, particularly China. Also of some importance, the article mentions that AOL has stopped sending out those annoying “free AOL” CDs.

Reports had been circulating this week that Microsoft was working on a third service pack for its Windows XP operating system. Just yesterday PCWorld announced that Microsoft had confirmed the Service Pack 3 “leak.” Microsoft said that Windows XP Service Pack 3 would be available after Windows Vista is released in late 2006.

According to this Yahoo Search blog post, the Yahoo Buzz Game is now back! From the Yahoo blog post:

Round 2 features a number of new stocks, including Google Earth, iRobot Scooba, the decidedly droolworthy Kaleidescape, and a mini-concentration in open source technologies, including open source databases, licensing, and GUI toolkits.

If you’re not familiar with the Tech Buzz Game, it’s a fantasy prediction market for technology. Your goal is to predict what technologies people will be searching the web for in the future. You put your (fantasy) money where your mouth is by buying stock in the technologies you believe will be popular and selling stock in the technologies you think will flop.

I played in the first round this summer when they were giving Apple prizes (iPod, iMac, etc.) to the top placers (no, I didn’t win anything). This round, however, seems to be “play for fun” only. Sign up at the Buzz Game website if you’re interested in playing.

[Correction (10/13/05): The first place prize was a Mac mini, not an iMac…]

According to this PCWorld article, HP will be shipping the Netscape 8 browser on HP PCs starting early next year. There will be shortcuts to the browser on Windows XP Start menu and desktop. Users will also be able to select Netscape as their default browser when setting up a new HP PC.

I would wonder why HP wouldn’t include something like Mozilla Firefox, but then again, the article does say that “Netscape also is providing a financial incentive for HP to distribute the browser”…

Written by yours truly, with the occasional family member contribution.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

1. Because he was mistaken for a turkey on Thanksgiving.
2. Because he was bored.
3. Because there was a LAN party on the other side.
4. Because he wanted to join the Gallant Genus Gallus Gathering.
5. Because his parents said he couldn’t.
6. Because the debt collector was after him.
7. Because he was a deserter from the United Chicken Army.
8. Because he didn’t want to be called a chicken.
9. For various reasons.
10. Because he saw a holographic field of corn on the other side.
11. Because he was immigrating to the neighboring farmyard.
12. Because the side of the road he was coming from had just opened a KFC franchise.
13. Because Chicken’s Suffrage activists were meeting on the other side.
14. Because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his forefathers.
15. Because he wondered what it would be like to be hit by a car.
16. Because there was an appetizing grain of corn in the middle of the road.
17. Because the only other option was to cross the highway.
18. Because he was remote-controlled by the turkey.
19. Because he was running away from the rioters that were sick and tired of all of the chicken jokes.
20. So there would be 20 of these jokes instead of 19.