Geez, watches are such boring, pedestrian things; I mean, they just tell time, don’t they?
Of course, the geeky thing to do would be to replace it with one of the new SPOT wireless watches, which give you weather, news headlines, calendar reminders, etc. via MSN. Because the content for such watches is limited at this time, many will wait before dumping their old-fashioned timepieces (and pay $10 a month for a subscription to a watch).
But SpotStop.com points to an advertisement from watch-maker Fossil and MSN that suggests possible future content.
Next up, for sure, for SPOT watches will be sports scores (can’t wait, huh?). Other content coming soon: traffic conditions and alerts; a dining guide (to nearby restaurants); a movie time / location finder; and “daily diversions” (horoscopes, lottery numbers, words of the day, etc.).

Much has been written about the MyDoom Trojan which, over the course of the past couple of months, has managed to shut down entire computer networks, destroy tens of thousands of personal computers, and just generally wreak unprecedented digital age havoc.
The SCO Group, a multi-national software developer, was the first putative target of the hackers who created and released the MyDoom Trojan in early January of this year. SCO currently has a suit before the courts seeking royalties from users of the Linux operating system. To date, Linux has been considered an open source (which is to say, freely available) operating system, and as such has been designated by many in the IT field as the operating system of the (near) future, the OS which will replace Microsoft’s Windows, and the OS which we will all come to use.
If SCO’s suit is successful and the company prevails in the courts, the availability of ALL open source software will, to say the least, be very much compromised. Hackers, programmers and anyone with an interest in allowing more ready access to the new digital democracy, are livid over SCOs efforts. Maintaining a capitalist model for the new digital democracy, limiting access only to users who can afford expensive computers loaded with an expensive operating system, not only effectively destroys the open source (operating system, browser, productive software) movement, it proclaims that control of the Internet will remain in the hands of profit-oriented multi-national corporations long into the future.
In a report on ZDNet, editor-in-chief Dan Farber publishes information confirming that Microsoft is the key player behind the SCO suit.
“Over the last several years, Microsoft has made known its fear and loathing of Linux and other open source initiatives. Why wouldn’t Microsoft find ways directly and indirectly to deter the open source movement? It’s in Microsoft’s nature to use whatever means necessary to maintain its market position.”
Update, March 24: At the Open Source Business Conference held on March 16th in San Francisco, Novell Vice-Chairman Chris Stone scoffs at the SCO Group’s legal battle against Novell and other Linux users over Unix copyright claims. He also discusses why companies are embracing open source and moving away from a business model with strictly proprietary software.
And the struggle continues.

As part of her Masters in Library Science thesis, Lori Eichelberger wrote and published The Cookie Controversy, an essay that has become the definitive chronicling of the history and purpose of computer cookies.
In the course of her essay, Ms. Eichelberger also addresses the issues of privacy, as well as the future of computer cookies, as a management storage device.

Updated March 8th: McAfee released the latest version of McAfee Stinger March 8th — protecting you from 39 Trojans and worms, ranging from Bagle, Blaster, Bugbear, and Dumaru to Klez, Lovgate, Mimail, MyDoom, Sircam and Sobig. Click here to be taken to the download page. If you require instructions on how to download and install McAfee Stinger, click on this link. And surf safely.