The Null Device
2001/10/24
Are Apple building a MacOS X-based PDA? This site seems to think so, and even has a photo of a mysterious titanium-coloured object bearing an Apple logo. I'm not sure how suitable MacOS X (being a rather large Mach UNIX) would be for the job; though I hope it's better designed than the Linux-based Agenda PDA. (I got one (for free, granted) some time ago, and it has been gathering dust, partly because it doesn't do the job better than my aging Pilot, and partly because it drains batteries at an alarming rate, even when off.)
( Evil file-sharing racketeers / for-profit freedom fighters ) KaZaa have released an alpha Linux client, allowing Penguinistas to steal from poor, helpless recording corporations without the indignity of installing Wintendo like all the other kids. Wonder whether it includes the infamous spyware that the Windows version has; or indeed whether it requires to be run as root so that it can send all your visited web pages to some evil marketing firm.
Then there was giFT, an open-source, reverse-engineered client for FastTrack (i.e., KaZaa &c) networks, but that fell by the wayside when FastTrack changed their spec to break it.
Reasons to be fearful: Nihilistic cyberpunk author John Shirley's predictions for the world after the US topples the Taliban, and it doesn't look good. More terrorist atrocities, martial law, and ultimately a global totalitarian police state. Mind you, by Shirley's standards, this is probably optimistic. (via Plastic)