Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. -- G. K. Chesterton Strong Solar Storm Could Buffet Earth Friday A strong dose of space weather is forecast to hit Earth Friday, potentially disrupting satellite communications and posing a threat to power grids on Earth. Solar burst could scramble phones, power lines Satellites, pagers, cell phones, and electrical grids could be affected Friday by a moderately powerful ejection of magnetic material from the sun. Is NASA at it again? NASA safety experts opposed latest ISS mission NASA's latest mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was approved despite experts' concerns about the "the continued degradation" of equipment at the orbital outpost. Station crew downplays health concerns During a just-concluded in-flight press conference the commander of the Expedition Eight crew, Mike Foale, said he has no concerns about the health of the crew despite issues raised before their launch about health monitoring equipment aboard the outpost. Bill's a little pissed that people want to use something else: A shut Gates on open source In an interview with The Australian at the Microsoft Office System launch in New York, Mr Gates said any such moves by government were wrongheaded and would result in a reduction in public sector productivity. "Forcing people to use software that is inefficient? Do you want your Government to be efficient?" My question is how does rebotting 4 times a day imporve effieciency. If Gates wanted to improve efficiency then he would have outlook improved as it is the target of 90% of virii and have Exchange fixed. Both of these couse a shitload of problems for sysadmins, especially when Exchange just stops working because it hqas consumed all the available hard drive space. SuSE goes after Exchange SuSE is trying to cut deeper into the market share of Microsoft's Exchange Server e-mail system by rolling out a version of Openexchange that features improved server support for Windows Outlook users. Europe issues open source migration tips A European Commission initiative has issued guidelines to member governments on how to migrate to open source software on both servers and desktops. Red Hat overhauls flagship Linux Dominant Linux seller Red Hat has begun offering the newest incarnation of its product for business customers, a version that opens several new markets for the company. A sad day for Alpha Nerds Swan song for Alpha processor The Alpha processor -- the 64-bit machine on life support for much of its tormented lifetime -- has finally been placed on death row. “When it was introduced by Digital Equipment Corp in November of 1992, it was the fastest chip on the planet,” said Terry Shannon, a computer industry consultant who watched the processor grow from conception at the Digital Equipment to its adolescence at Compaq Computer to its final resting place at HP. “The new server still goes like a bat out of hell. If you have to have an end of the line, it's better to go out with a bang than with a whimper.” Sun and Fujitsu to combine Unix server businesses - report The Nihon Keizai Shimbun is reporting that Sun and Fujitsu plan to standardize their Unix server architectures and have a Fujitsu subsidiary manufacture the gear. Both companies currently make Sparc/Solaris servers, which would make combining their operations a complementary move. I thought that this was a rather smart ad banner: This guy needs a few pointers ;~] Pandas should be forced to perform in circuses! (C) Shouting Red Goanna Inc.