British Military: iPods Pose Security Risk

Interesting... iPods are now considered risky because of their huge hard drives and their USB communication. Apparently, when properly configured (read: hacked into) they can quickly plug into a computer and siphon information from it... without even having to log in with a password to the system!

File-Sharing Thrives as Net Users Find New Outlets

This just in! People are still swapping files via the Internet!

Like that's a breaking news story...

Moses Resurrected? Ten More Commandments?

Weird... Paramount is thinking of remounting The Ten Commandments again. I wonder who they'd get to play Moses this time... French Stewart? Ted Danson?

Of course those "suggestions" are tongue-in-cheek, but I would hope that any remake of that story would be at least as good as "Prince of Egypt." Though animated, I think that Dreamworks has produced the best telling of the story I've seen so far.

Will Smith Looks Beyond Hollywood for Direction

Will Smith has decided to play a greater part in international politics... though he stresses that any work he does will be from the private sector. He actually called Kofi Annan and offered his services.

This article also talks about the "I, Robot" movie premiering this Friday. It is a definite must-see for me... actually, since I first saw a preview, I've rediscovered Asimov and have read something like six of his novels (and counting).

Does anybody else think Will Smith looks a bit like Ray Charles in that picture? I'm sure it's mostly just the hat, but it's weird.

Lead Trio Set for Broadway-Bound Monty Python Show

Heh. It seems that a new Broadway show, called "Spamalot," is set to run in Chicago this winter before it hits the "big" stage. It's being billed as "the musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture, 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail.'" What's really interesting to me is the fact that David Hyde Pierce (Niles Crane!) will play Sir Robin.

Gmail

Gmail is awesome. I really like it, and I will probably make it my full-time email address soon. There's no way I'm going to post my gmail address here, but if you want it and you know how to get a hold of me through other means, I'll give it to you.

There are a few things I think gmail needs (please send in feature requests if you've got a gmail account too!):

Contacts list
1. The ability to have multiple email addresses for the same contact.
2. Separate "First Name" and "Last Name" fields, and the ability to sort by last name.
3. A Palm conduit! It could be like an AvantGo-meets-IntelliSync kind of thing. I would gladly pay money to get software that would do this, and I would use it on both OS X and Windows XP.
4. The ability to browse the Contacts list to add email addresses to the To: field. This would include the ability to put a check mark next to multiple contacts and click a "Send to All" button.
5. Labels for Contacts, like the email labels. If #3 were implemented, these Labels would sync with Palm "Categories."
6. Search contacts. You can search emails, Google is a search engine, why not?

Viewing/Composition
1. Gmail should have the option (actually, it should have had it from the beginning) of displaying all emails with a fixed-width font. People who use or view ASCII art in email messages (many people use it in .signatures; not that I condone this) see a VERY skewed version of the "text picture" if the columns do not line up.
1a. Once gmail includes fixed-width fonts when viewing, it should also include fixed-width fonts during email composition.
2. Along with fixed-width email composition, gmail should (like Yahoo!) allow a fixed number of columns in the "Compose" box. This would make cleaning up replies and/or forwards a lot easier, as you will be able to see how long the line and its accompanying ">" mark will stretch.
2a. Even better than a fixed number of columns would be support for format=flowed emailing, like Mozilla Thunderbird and Mac OS X Mail.

I know this is a long list, but I have sent all of these in as feature requests. If you agree, please tell Google that you want these added features as well. If you are unsure how to send in feature requests, just go to gmail's Help, find a Help article about something related to the feature you're requesting, and click the "contact us" link at the bottom of the article.

Thanks for reading this... if we all ask for the same things, we can make gmail even better!

Guinness World Records Recognizes Cisco Router

Guinness published its first "tech record," the 92-terabit router from Cisco. I think that this might speed the pace of tech development if the newest and greatest and fastest hardware start getting put in THE record book. Time will tell...

'Spider-Man 2' Grosses Opening Record $40.5 Million

Spider-Man 2 gets the opening-day record (set by Spider-Man 1), and shatters the opening-on-a-Wednesday record (set by LOTR: Return of the King).

It hasn't yet hit the most-in-a-single-day record (set by Shrek 2), but predictions for a $50 million day this weekend could very well be realized.

I'm glad I didn't try to see the movie on Wednesday...

Film Review: 'Anchorman'

This flick looks like it'll be pretty good. Despite any "extra zaniness" of the surrounding cast, I can't think of anything Will Ferrell has been in that I haven't at least mildly enjoyed.

Academics Use Formulas to Predict Bush Win

Good news for Bush supporters: based on all kinds of factors, from foreign policy to economics, political science smart-guys have created a model that predicts a Bush victory this November. They have been fairly accurate in the past, but they cite the 200 election as a breakdown in the soundness of the predictions.

However, the predictions only count the two-party vote. I think they were probably pretty close in the 2000 predictions, since Nader took a lot of votes that Gore would otherwise have gotten. Not that I'm lamenting this fact...