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Tech: If you’re desperate to download Windows XP Service Pack 2, you can try this link to Microsoft. You can turn on Automatic Update and just wait a couple of weeks to get the service pack.

There are other ways to get your 272391 KB of update goodness, including FileMirrors and BitTorrent. Here’s some background on the P2P efforts and Microsoft’s response.

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: Yahoo! News - Companies Brace for Microsoft Update: “As Microsoft prepares to launch its biggest security upgrade ever to Windows, dubbed Service Pack 2, the company is trying to strike a difficult balance between making things safe and making things work. It’s a tough job that is eliciting grumbling from companies whose applications could require major changes - and glee from security experts who say any software product that doesn’t work wasn’t secure enough in the first place and needs to be fixed. ‘I hope it breaks more things than it’s already broken,’ said Russ Cooper, senior scientist at TruSecure Corp. ”

Space: CNN.com - NASA: Astronauts�to�get putty�for small holes - Jun 18, 2004: “When space shuttle flights resume, the astronauts will have putty and other filler to repair cracks and small gashes in the wings, but they will not be able to patch a hole as big as the one that doomed Columbia, NASA said Friday. Michael Kostelnik, deputy associate administrator, said it is taking longer than expected to come up with a technique for wrapping a crater as big as the one gouged in Columbia’s wing by a chunk of foam last year. Engineers also are behind in designing a boom for inspecting the belly of orbiting shuttles and the undersides of the wings, Kostelnik said. NASA hopes to have the boom ready for the first post-Columbia flight, still on track for next March. Kostelnik said NASA has yet to decide what it will do if the boom is not ready by then.”

Tech: The Austin Chronicle: Screens: The Hot Spot describes the Austin Wirelss City Project. Free WiFi for all. Keep Austin Weird.