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Tech: Startup Phases for x86-based Systems, all six of them in gory detail.

Tech: Service Pack 2: Patching the unpatchable - News - ZDNet: “And if Windows can’t so evolve, then we must change our operating system. It could be Longhorn, if Longhorn is fierce enough, it could be Linux: even the Mac OS could be ported to the PC and be presented as a fair competitor to the mess we’ve inherited. What we cannot do is accept the status quo or any variant thereof: Service Pack 2 is no answer.”

Tech: 419ers morph into Murder Incorporated | The Register: This reads like a bad movie. “However, reader Ben Whitaker has just received a particularly nasty piece of work with the Lads from Lagos written all over it. He notes: This is a rather sinister twist on 419, where instead of just duping the greedy and stupid, this actually will terrify some new web users, like my grandparents. Imagine this was within the first 100 emails you had ever seen…”

Tech: Yahoo! News - Apple Rolls Out Cheaper iPods: Forget PDAs! Forget notebooks. College students really need a fancy Walkman with a big hard drive. I suppose Duke has locked down their campus network against p2p programs, too.

“As part of a pilot program, Duke University plans to give iPods loaded with school calendars and other information to its 1,800 incoming freshmen. Students can download class materials to listen to anything from audio examples of textbook exercises to Spanish songs. ”

USA: Yahoo! News - Checking Account Fraud Is Increasing: “When Shereen Greene recently scanned her bank statement, she found a $139 charge from a company she had never heard of — Pharmacycards.com. The Atlanta paralegal dug out her canceled check and easily saw it was fake. The name on it was her maiden name, which she had not used in seven years. The address was five years old and her signature was missing. In its place, was a brief message: “Authorized by your customer. No signature required.”“