Monday's Magic Moment

News and more in 2004. Is "One Simple Question" the world's shortest blog? Not as short as the answer I bet. Now Playing: Donkey Kong in concert. New York City became the capital of the USA on this day in 1788. The Outer Limits premiered in 1963. The Today Show was broadcast entirely in Living Color in 1965. Happy Birthday Roald Dahl, born in 1903, Ray Charles, 1919, Mel Torme, 1925.

• IBM has open-sourced some of its speech recognition software. This should spur new development in the arena - one I consider critical to further progress in handheld devices and user interfaces in general. Wonder if they've heard about the talking worm?
• AMD beat Intel in sales for the week ending August 21. A trend?
• Microsoft's Sender ID proposal has been rejected by the IETF because it's too proprietary. It looks like SPF: the Sender Policy Framework now has the inside track to become the approved sender authentication technology. This is a key step to eliminating spam. Only one hitch: Microsoft claims to have patented key algorithms and could hold up adoption.
• Speaking of patents, the patent holder for a key part of the RFID spec is enforcing its patent. Could spell trouble for RFID.
• PayPal says it will start fining customers up to $500 for using the online payment service on gambling, pornography and illegal sales of prescription drugs starting September 24.
• Symantec has launched an anti-phishing service for financial services companies. Scam emails will be blocked for users of Norton's anti-spam and Internet Security products.
• AOL is testing a redesign of its homepage. CNET says it's part of a plan to turn the page into a portal site. I'll stick with my.yahoo.com.
• DirecTV has ordered three new satellites from Boeing costing as much as $750 million. They're for HDTV.
• Windows Media Player 10 is out. PC Magazine loves it. Download it via Windows Update.
• Firefox 1.0PR ships tomorrow. So does Sims 2.

Listen in tomorrow at 6:45a Pacific for my weekly news commentary on KGO 810 AM in San Francisco.