Jeff Barr announces that Syndic8 (one of my favorite web places) is co-sponsoring the Blog Business Summit in Seattle later this month. This article explains the explosive growth potential for blogs as the underlying content management system. We see the potential … and wish we could attend. Blogs are also rapidly advancing the RSS explosion on the web.

Netcraft have released what appears to be a free toolbar for IE users on Win2000/XP, and it’s purpose is to protect users from phishing emails. Phishing is when you get an email purporting to be from your bank, or e-bay, or Paypal or some other institution and the email will contain a link they try to get you to follow. The link looks like it is to the banks servers, but it’s really pointing to some nasty site determined to collect your username/password and steal all your cash.

Firefox already has some protection against this, but if you must use IE, this toolbar might save you some money. Get your toolbar here.

I came across this site in my daily search of net news and thought it was just odd enough to warrant a mention. It’s common knowledge that Linux can be made to run on nearly anything with some form of CPU, if it couldn’t we wouldn’t be seeing huge backing of Linux for mobile phones (a la MontaVista and Palm). However the idea of putting it on an Ipod was a new one for me. Apparently you can dual boot it with the normal Apple OS, and it has a cool looking GUI instead of the lame menu system the default OS uses. (It also has several games, a file manager and a heap of other stuff).

Check it out here and get with the Ipenguin.

Many writers and students struggle to find the right syntax for bibliographic citations. This Calvin College student’s project makes it simple to get the right syntax for your citations.

For those of you wanting more configuration options then the GUI or extensions of Firefox can provide, Mozilla have just the thing for you. Firefox tips and tricks has a ton of handy beneath the hood adjustments you can make to Firefox to tailor it’s appearance and function to suit your needs. Even if you don’t make use of any of them now, it’s definitely worth saving the link.

Happy new year everyone.

We like doing business with godaddy.com for domain names because they are cheap, efficient and easy to maintain. Their CEO, Bob Parsons, has started his own web log. Two of the things I have liked historically about his company — besides the low prices and the fact they clearly state that you own your own domain — is that he will personally respond to comments or suggestions and he isn’t afraid to say what he thinks.
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A deal that Microsoft recently won whereby the Dutch government went with an upgrade plan from Microsoft for 260,000 desktop computers valued at 210 million USD has just been dropped in its entirety. Lobbying by Open Source groups and Dutch public organisations had the desired effect and as a result Dutch MP’s demanded an explanation as to why a public bid on the project had not taken place. Several OSS companies released statements denouncing the Microsoft deal, and Michael Robertson of Linspire went so far as to reveal that a quote based on Linspire Linux would have been 150,000,000 Euro’s cheaper then Microsoft’s quote.

Read more at TheRegister. It seems that Microsoft is not having a very merry Christmas. My heart bleeds for them. 🙂