"While trying to patch my 600mhz dual USB iBook to run in dual display mode /clamshell, I ran across this by accident. Apparently, it is possible to use only an external display at a much higher resolution than available to the iBook's built-in display....

"The Displays panel now only detects my external display, and runs it perfectly as my primary display. This should resolve any heat-dissipation issues that result from running the iBook in clamshell mode."

"The Kodak DX7590 is an updated version of the DX6490 launched last year and the most obvious change from the model it replaces is the extra pixels: the resolution has been bumped to five megapixels...

"The camera is slightly Jekyll and Hyde, in that it offers a dual personality, with two levels of control. The Jekyll part is a user-friendly, point-and-shoot job that's combined with the Hyde element: a host of manual controls for the more advanced snapper. That includes no less than 14 scene/subject modes offering fast presets for specific subjects such as sunsets, landscape shots, portraits and even firework displays.....

"Given the 10x optical zoom lens you'd forgive the 7590 for being a bit of lump, but it isn't - it's surprisingly compact and lightweight, although the all-plastic build may not be to everyone's liking.

"Either way that long Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens has a 38-380mm zoom range, the lens positively sprints from one end to the other, making it pleasing responsive in use.....

"On the plus side, the shutter lag is almost non-existent"

"Toshiba today paved the way for 80GB iPods when it said it will ship an 80GB 1.8in hard drive in Q3 2005 - a year after it introduced the 60GB version that can currently to be found inside the iPod Photo.

"The Japanese manufacturer didn't mention any customers by name of course, but having supplied Apple with micro hard drives to date, it seems likely the relationship will continue with the new, higher capacity."

"Women take security less seriously than men when it comes to choosing PINs for their bank cards. A poll of over 500 British men and women, by internet security testing specialist NTA Monitor, found that women are more likely to choose one PIN for all their cards. Two thirds of the women questioned used the same PIN for all their cards. Only one in three men adopted the same practice."

"I was an early adopter of iBlog, paying my registration fee before Apple provided it for free for .mac subscribers. I liked the ability of the program so well, I ditched my old method of posting homework assignments and used iBlog for last school year and the beginning of this school year.

"The main attraction it held for me was that the postings were stored locally and then uploaded to my .mac account. I could edit posts anywhere, even if I was not online.

"....I went in search of another blogging tool. I found a website called Blogger, which has free hosting. I have issues with free hosting services, having been burned once or twice in the past, and I have an aversion to services that don't store my data on my local drive.

"But Blogger has several important advantages that have added up to my replacing iBlog as my primary daily lesson plan archive tool. First, it's very easy to use. It could use one or two more features on the Mac side, but basically it is great."

"Apple Computer has quietly updated its iPod software so that songs purchased from RealNetworks' online music store will no longer play on some of the Mac maker's popular MP3 players.

"The move could render tunes purchased by many iPod owners unplayable on their music players. For the last four months, RealNetworks has marketed its music store as the only Apple rival compatible with the iPod, following the company's discovery of a way to let its customers play their downloaded tunes on Apple's MP3 player.

"Apple criticized RealNetworks' workaround, dubbed Harmony, as the "tactics...of a hacker," and warned in July that RealNetworks-purchased songs would likely "cease to work with current and future iPods." Apple offered no further statement Tuesday, but confirmed that the software released with its iPod Photo will not play music purchased from RealNetworks' music store."

"Taking a trip to the library may take little more than a computer's Web browser. Working with major libraries, Google is hoping to scan millions of books and periodicals into its popular Internet search engine during the next several years as part of an effort to bring more of the world's collective knowledge online.

"Material from the New York public library as well as libraries at four universities - Harvard, Stanford, Michigan and Oxford - will be indexed on Mountain View, Calif.-based Google under the ambitious initiative announced late Monday."

"Linux advocates have long insisted that open-source development results in better and more secure software. Now they have statistics to back up their claims.

"According to a four-year analysis of the 5.7 million lines of Linux source code conducted by five Stanford University computer science researchers, the Linux kernel programming code is better and more secure than the programming code of most proprietary software.

"The report, set to be released on Tuesday, states that the 2.6 Linux production kernel, shipped with software from Red Hat, Novell and other major Linux software vendors, contains 985 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code, well below the industry average for commercial enterprise software. Windows XP, by comparison, contains about 40 million lines of code, with new bugs found on a frequent basis."

"Toshiba Corp. said Tuesday that it plans to offer an 80-Gbyte version of its 1.8-inch hard drive, a storage platform that could be used in a next-generation Apple iPod.

Toshiba's new model is the first in the world to include a storage technique called perpendicular recording; the technology will be used to create both a 40-GB and an 80-GB drive in Toshiba's first and second fiscal quarters of 2005. Since Toshiba's fiscal year begins on April 1, the drives should be released in April and July, respectively."

"IBM Corp.'s plans to sell off its PC business to China's Lenovo Group will probably bring an opportunity to nail greater sales in China, according to Jim Schneider, Dell Computer Corp.'s senior vice president and chief financial officer.

Aside from international PC sales, Schneider cited Dell's emerging printer and consumer electronics businesses as other promising areas for the future. "Time will tell, but I think [the IBM-Lenovo deal] just gives us another opportunity," Schneider said, speaking last week at the Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference in New York."

"The ZigBee Alliance said Tuesday that it has ratified the specification, paving the way for sensor companies to start making low-power networks a reality.

In November, the Alliance promised that the specification would be ratified by the end of the year. Given the number of ZigBee-ready products announced in 2004, the Alliance anticipates seeing ZigBee-compliant consumer products as soon as early 2005, Alliance chairman Bob Heile said in a statement."

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