Monday's Murmurs

Super man, Christopher Reeve passed away yesterday at the age of 52. Saturday Night Live premiered on this day in 1975. Happy 79th birthday Elmore Leonard.

1. It's the one year anniversary of Microsoft's pledge to make security job one. How are they doing? Jon Udell has a good article on the subject in this week's Infoworld. His conculsion, the sins of the past will continue to haunt us for a long time, but Microsoft is on the right track. I'm sticking with OS X.
2. Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows XP Media Center 2005 and the MSN Music Store tomorrow at LA's Shrine Auditorium. The new Media Center is expected to be cheaper and include wireless connectivity.
3. USA Today has an article about John Gilmore's boneheaded lawsuit against airline ID requirements. The Cypherpunk and Sun founder claims they violate his right to travel the US anonymously. He says the policy amounts to a national passport. So drive, John.
4. I can't even believe I'm reporting this. The US has won "gold" in the World Cybergames. Team3D defeated the Titans of Denmark in CounterStrike to take home the $50,000 prize. The final match was played before an "enthusiastic crowd" of unspecified size yesterday in San Francisco.
5. The FBI has shut down 20 sites that were part of an alternative media network known as Indymedia. Rackspace handed the servers over after receiving a court order on Thursday. It's not clear what Indymedia was doing wrong, but the FBI says it was acting on the request of Swiss and Italian authorities. Indymedia said it had been "asked last month by the FBI to remove a story about Swiss undercover police from one of the websites hosted at Rackspace. It is not known, however, whether Thursday's order is related to that incident since the order was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia." The seizure has sparked protests from the International Federation of Journalists. The EFF is offering help.
6. Slashdot says, Halo 2 has gone gold. Bungie says the hotly anticipated XBox game will make its November ship date.
7. An Ohio man has been fired for using SETI@home at work. The worker at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services had been running the software that searches for ET on state servers since October. His boss told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, "I understand his desire to search for intelligent life in outer space, because obviously he doesn't find it in the mirror in the morning." Ouch.

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