Wednesday's Wocket Waunch

News is next... Good luck to the team from Scaled Composites, based in Mojave, California, who will attempt to win the X-Prize with its second manned private space flight in two weeks this morning at 7:50a Pacific.

1. PalmSource will unveil the new Cobalt OS, designed for smart phones, today. The new Palm OS supports telephony, of course, plus, push e-mail, a Web browser, integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the ability to run more than one program at a time. Expect Cobalt phones in the first half of 2005.
2. Governer Scharzenegger signed California's anti-spyware bill into law yesterday. Critics say the law lacks teeth. Mostly it bans keystroke loggers and programs that send email or viruses - features not of spyware but trojan horses. Perhaps that's because Utah's more restrictive anti-spyware law is on hold pending a court review of its constitutionality.
3. The city of Munich is moving forward to make Linux its desktop OS of choice, despite concerns over software patent issues in the EU. According to one expert, Linux violates 238 different US patents. Software patents are still not allowed by the EC but that may change soon. The city council makes its final vote today.