Not Shaken or Stirred Saw the new Bond film - and hated it.

Played...So Played Michael Jordan to Retire for Third and Final Time

'Wild On' Starts Season With New Host "New episodes of E! Entertainment Television's travel series "Wild On" begin next week, with new host Cindy Taylor trekking through Asia. Taylor, a 25-year-old Paraguayan model, beat out nearly 10,000 applicants to win the spot as host. She takes over for Brooke Burke, who's now the host of the E! countdown series "Rank."

George "Former Beatle George Harrison left about $150 million in his will, according to court documents released on Friday."

List of Bond Films Here's a list of the twenty official James Bond movies, as well as an explanation of why Never Say Never Again is not on the list.

Solaris Solaris is getting great reviews.

Local News: Mississippi Caps Liability Damages "Exhausted lawmakers finally passed a bill on business liability reform late Monday night, ending one of the longest and most controversial special sessions in Mississippi's recent legislative history. The bill was embraced by the business community, shunned by trial lawyers, and endorsed by five of the six negotiators who seemed content to have the compromise after 82 days and about $1.2 million in session costs."

Solaris MSNBC: Clooney Shines in "Solaris" Remake

Scot's Newsletter The latest newsletter from Scot Finnie is here. One highlight is a review of Linksys's Firewall Router.

East Texas Schools Close as Illness Spreads "High student absence rates associated with a flu-like illness spreading in East Texas have prompted several small districts to shut down. Gilmer Independent School District, located about 30 miles northeast of Tyler, closed Monday after 601 of its students had been sent home by the end of the school day with flulike symptoms. "In my 20 years of school, I have never seen a district close, but then again I have never seen this kind of sickness either," Gilmer Superintendent Rick Albrigton said in today's editions of the Tyler Morning Telegraph."

Die Another Day Jonathan Last: "Die Another Day might be the worst James Bond movie ever made. And yet the 007 mystique won't go away. The Bond movies are such institutions that they can only be regarded in respect to one another. All we can do with Die Another Day is sift through the Bond canon and try to find its proper place."

Skyscraper at Ground Zero? "Plans for redeveloping the World Trade Center site include proposals for memorials on the tops of buildings and below ground, a garden and the tallest building in the world, a published report said. Although it is not yet known which elements will make it into the final design, the director of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency charged with overseeing the redevelopment process, praised the new plans for their creativity, the New York Times reported Friday."

DVD-Cloner 1.83 "DVD-Cloner is a super easy tool to copy DVDs to DVD-R/RW. What you will get are real DVD movies. The DVD-R/RW copied is the same as the original DVD movie, in true DVD format and adopts MPEG2 format. You can clone your DVD entirely within 3 hours, in the same quality as the original. The cloned DVD can be played in any compatible DVD Player." Here are some reviews. I have not tested this product.

Engineering Vision "Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a form of artificial sight that has allowed two blind patients to know the difference between darkness and light, night and day."

2 Hurt in Bowling Ball Incident "Two people were injured when someone dropped bowling balls off an Interstate 80 overpass onto traffic early Friday. One ball struck a tractor-trailer, and another broke through the windshield of a van that was following close behind it, injuring two women inside, the Nebraska State Patrol said."

Al Qaeda's Head of Persian Gulf Operations Captured "Al Qaeda leader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the network's chief of operations in the Persian Gulf, has been captured, senior U.S. government officials said today. He is the highest-ranking al Qaeda operative captured since the CIA, FBI and Pakistani authorities captured bin Laden's operations chief, Abu Zubaydah, in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March. U.S. officials had recently said a senior al Qaeda leader had been caught, but they had declined to identify him. On Sunday, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the leader was providing information to his interrogators."

Flint

James Coburn: 1928-2002

Windows Longhorn Alpha Leaks to the Web "An internal alpha build of Microsoft's next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, made its way onto the Internet early Tuesday. The leaked build, which is numbered 3683, appears to be from late September and sports quite a few new feature concepts - although many are not yet functional."

Fossil Puts Palm On the Wrist "Watch and accessories maker Fossil Inc. has licensed the Palm operating system for handhelds and smart phones to make the first Palm-powered watch, called the Wrist PDA. The new gadget is fully compatible with the Palm OS platform and able to run all Palm OS applications. The design features an illuminated touch screen with a stylus integrated into the band for entering Palm's Graffiti writing system, 2MB internal memory, infrared port for beaming data between Palm-powered devices, rechargeable battery, and address book, date book, memo pad, calculator and to-do list applications."

Mad Magazine Gulf Wars Episode II: Clone of the Attack

Don Soegaard: Why Linux is a Desktop Dud "Hackers may brag about how easy and stable Linux is - and they would be right: Once Linux is set up to accommodate a specific computer user, it is easy and safe to operate. But it is a different story if you are a new Linux user trying to customize your system. Without access to those experienced with the operating system, such tasks like changing the screen resolution, setting up a home network or adding a new program often become unnecessarily involved projects."

The Horror... Plastic surgery, anyone?

Arafat LGF: Separated at Birth?

Microsoft Sends Messenger to Work "Microsoft Wednesday will announce a new package of products and services that modify its consumer instant messaging software to meet the needs of business customers, hoping to tap into the growing market for corporate messaging. The software company will show off MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises, a secure set of software and services that can be used by a company that interacts with customers over instant messenger. The offering is expected to debut in the first quarter of 2003. It will include the set of software and services necessary to manage and audit instant messaging transactions so businesses can record, log, and search every conversation that takes place between employees and customers. The offering will cost $24 per employee, with discounts for bulk licenses."

Images from Spy Satellites to Be Released to the Public "Nearly 40 years ago, even their existence was top secret. But in two days thousands of spy satellite images will be posted on the Web for all the world to see - and download. In a move that has surprised but pleased researchers, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency has released a trove of about 50,000 images snapped during the 1960s, '70s and '80s by two U.S. spy satellites. Historians hope to use the pictures to settle long-standing questions about capabilities and alliances during the Cold War while scientists want to use them to track biological changes on Earth and possibly plot the course of global warming."

Poirot
David Suchet holds his medal after being awarded an OBE at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, in London, Tuesday November 12, 2002. He is best known for his role as Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, a favorite of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.

Colin Powell Talks Iraq "Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the recent U.N. Security Council resolution on Iraq with Nightline's Ted Koppel." You can read the interview here.

Rare Collision Caused a Swarm of Tornadoes "Federal storm scientists yesterday raised the count of tornadoes that struck Sunday and Monday to 88 from 69 and said the tally was likely to continue rising for several weeks as they examined local weather and damage reports. The scientists also mapped out the forces that created the twister outbreak, the worst in November in a decade, and saw in them a distinctive, but rare recipe for widespread disaster: a collision between a big pre-winter gush of frigid air and an unusually broad reservoir of residual tropical warmth and moisture flowing from the Gulf of Mexico."

Voice on Tape is Bin Laden's? "An audiotaped statement attributed to Osama bin Laden that praises recent terror attacks and threatens more attacks appears to be from the al Qaeda leader, according to a senior State Department official. "Yes, it is his voice," the official said Wednesday morning. "But we don't know yet whether anybody put it together, spliced, or computer-generated" it." Personally, I think his dungy carcass is at the bottom of a cave in Tora Bora.

Frontline: Iraq Frontline: Truth & Lies in Baghdad, November 2002

J.Lo to Marry Ben Affleck "Jennifer Lopez has confirmed that she and Hollywood leading man Ben Affleck are engaged."

U.S. Plans 250,000 Troops for Iraq "A Pentagon plan for invading Iraq, should the new U.N. arms inspection effort fail, calls for a land, sea and air force of 200,000 to 250,000 troops, officials said Saturday. President Bush, who has publicly acknowledged having received a war plan without mentioning details, approved it prior to the U.N. Security Council's vote Friday to force Iraq to disarm, The New York Times reported Saturday on its Web site."

Scot's Newsletter #34 The latest newsletter from Scot Finnie is now online.

Optical Illusions Akiyoshi's Illusion Pages

Documents Must Be Unshreddable? Peter Judge: After Enron, Documents Must Be Unshreddable

U.N. Unanimously OK's Iraq Resolution "The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a tough new Iraq resolution today, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences" that would almost certainly mean war. The vote followed eight weeks of negotiations - and it is seen as a victory for the U.S., which worked with Britain to draft the resolution. Shortly after the resolution was approved, President Bush heralded the unanimous vote, promising "the severest consequences" for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if he fails a final test to comply. Speaking outside the White House today, Bush warned Iraq that the "game of cheat and retreat," as he put it, will "no longer be tolerated."

WinZip 8.1 SR-1 A new version of WinZip has been released.

Ebay: The Phantom Menace VHS I now have The Phantom Menace on DVD. I no longer need my tape.

GOP Wins Senate, Holds House, CNN Projects "In a historic night for the GOP and President Bush, Republicans seized control of the Senate, held onto their majority in the House and savored wins in two hot gubernatorial races, CNN projected early Wednesday."

Braid Virus "A new mass-mailing computer virus known as W32.Braid has slowly spread among PCs over the weekend, said U.K. e-mail service provider MessageLabs. Although the company has seen only 43 copies of the virus - indicating an extremely slow start - W32.Braid shares some attributes of the widely spread Klez family of viruses and could have similar success. Among the similarities, both viruses forge a fake sender address in the e-mails they use to propagate themselves, which makes finding infected PCs more difficult."

Iraq, North Korea May Possess Smallpox "U.S. intelligence believes four nations other than the United States -- Iraq, North Korea, Russia and France -- probably possess hidden samples of the smallpox virus, a U.S. official said. Al-Qaeda is also believed to have sought samples of smallpox for weaponization, but U.S. officials don't believe the terror network is capable of mounting an attack with smallpox. Evidence recovered in Afghanistan pointed to Osama bin Laden's interest in the disease, the U.S. official said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity."

Vertigo I now have Vertigo on DVD. I no longer need my tape.

Verbatim Digital Vinyl CD-R Cool!

U.S. Kills Al Qaeda Chief "The United States launched a missile at a car in Yemen early Monday killing six suspected al Qaeda members, including the terrorist organization's chief in that country who was wanted for the bombing of the USS Cole, sources told CNN. It was the first direct U.S. strike against Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network outside Afghanistan since the U.S.-led war on terrorism was launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States."

Sharon Osbourne Wishes She Hadn't Agreed to MTV Show "If she had to do it over again, Sharon Osbourne says she wouldn't have invited MTV's cameras into her home. The cancer-stricken matriarch of television's favorite dysfunctional family told ABC's Barbara Walters that she's calling it quits after an upcoming, 10-episode season is through."

Former Moscow Hostage Tells Her Story "Elena Yaroshuk from Ukraine became the most famous woman in her town last Tuesday, when she returned home from Moscow. Elena was one of the hostages of the Nord Ost musical in Moscow. A special flight took Elena and several other former hostages to Ukraine's capital Kiev. Here is the story that Elena told journalists."

Serious Traffic Glenn Reynolds' blog used 261.45 gigs of transfer in October.

Microsoft Wins Again "The ruling was almost a complete loss for the nine non-settling states, led by California, Iowa and Connecticut. The judge said that their trial strategy of bringing "all existing allegations of anticompetitive conduct - which have not been proven or for which liability has not been ascribed" - was the wrong way to approach the case. "This court has had little choice but to reject (those states') remedial suggestions on the grounds that they are unjustifiably in conflict with the imposition as well as the rejection of liability in this case." The states still suing wanted Microsoft to divulge more technical information, give computer manufacturers more freedom in how they package Windows in their systems and allow users to completely remove some Microsoft features from Windows rather than just hide access to them."

Nero Burning Rom 5.5.9.17 A new version of Nero is now available for download. Still using Roxio? Switch.

Dialect Survey Maps Dialect Survey Maps - Quite interesting.

Survivor Thailand Shii Ann was voted off last night, after she sold out her team and whined like a baby at Tribal Council. Good riddance.

Seinfeld Jerry Seinfeld was on Letterman last night with new material. A video clip is available at Letterman's site. Funny stuff.

Bugbear: Worst Virus in October "A variant of the Bugbear worm was the most widespread bit of malware in October, according to statistics released yesterday by Sophos Anti-Virus. Bugbear-A displaced Klez-H at the top of the virus list last month, although the latter is still causing serious problems."

Fox Hounds Great photo!