... But every time you connect at a hotspot, you're asking for trouble. hotspots are open networks that don't use encryption, which invites hacking and snooping. In addition, when you're on a hotspot you're connected to the same network as your fellow hotspot users, they can potentially weasel their way onto your PC and inflict damage.

AOL 9.0 currently sits in StopBadware.org's "Open Inquiries" section. The advocacy group advises against installing the software because of what it describes as deceptive installation practices, making changes to other software without the user's permission, and failure to uninstall completely.

During the installation process, AOL 9.0 adds the AOL toolbar to Internet Explorer and the AOL Deskbar to the user's taskbar, two practices StopBadware.org finds unacceptable. It also installs a number of additional programs such as QuickTime and RealPlayer without fully disclosing the installation to the user.

HGE is an easy to use yet powerful hardware accelerated 2D game engine. It is a full featured middleware for all who want to develop commercial quality 2D games rapidly and easily. It covers all imaginable 2D game genres: you could create everything from a simple puzzle to advanced multilayered platformer or strategy without even thinking of any non game logic code! And you don't have to know anything about "window messages", DirectX programming and all that stuff. Instead you can start developing your own game within 15 minutes!

HGE runs on Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, NT, ME, XP and requires DirectX 8.0. It will run even on low-end video cards, including built in video cards such as Intel Solano (i815 chipset). HGE can be used with virtually any C++ compiler including Visual C++, Borland C++, MinGW and Metrowerks Codewarrior.

Games are art. Some are bad art, of course, but some are sublime products of the human soul. We strongly believe in small teams who love what they do and risk their livelihoods and their futures on ideas that they need to instantiate and impart to gamers. But because of the conservatism of the conventional industry, teams like this will never get funded, or achieve conventional retail distribution.
Manifesto Games is committed to helping them find a market.

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But the system has been taken too far. Is has become practically impossible for a regular user to have his submission end up on the front page, Dowdell charges. Instead of questioning his headline writing skills, he went looking for a conspiracy - and found one: Top diggers have teamed up to create a Digg monopoly

"After contacting a few of the prominent "Diggers" in the sports section (who asked to remain nameless), I asked them all the same question on how their stories always get "dugg" and I was taken aback by the answers. These "diggers" all have some sort of advanced notification system, from email list servs, message board, and even IM bots to notify their digging network."

"12 Questions with Mary Poppendieck" - long blog discussion about Lean Software Development.

"Last week, I invited the readers of shmula to pose questions to Mary Poppendieck, the author of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers (Paperback), which won the Software Development Productivity Award in 2004 and, the sequel Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (Paperback) which will be available in early September 2006. For this interview, 12 Questions were submitted and Mary was gracious enough to answer them — the reader’s Questions and Mary’s responses are below."