Neowin has an interesting article that visually takes users through the history of Windows. As aomeone who spent much of those painful early years as an OS/2 fanatic, all I can say is..Nah nah nah!

Regardless of your position on military action in Iraq, I think everyone would agree that hopefully that the action will be as brief as possible with as few casualties as possible. Our thoughts are with both coalition forces (USA, UK, Australia mainly), their families, and the Iraqi civilians.

https://www.wincustomize.com/sdtv/sdcentral.wmv

Check out http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=3015 over at OSNews.com for an interesting article on other ways of working with the computer other than with windows and menus.

"Geoshell is a replacement shell for windows to replace the Explorer interface. It features geoBars that can be placed anywhere. It also has plugins that other developers make to add functionality."

Two of the nicest additions are the faster loading time and the ability to offset geobars partially off screen. The offset allows geobar buttons to touch the edge of the screen. This now makes GeOShell complient with Fitt's Law, thus accessabilty much quicker.


Changes 4.10.1 (taken from website):

+ Holding SHIFT will bypass all startup groups
+ New setting per-bar "Snap-to Offset" allows bars to be slid partially off-screen.
+ New Gripper: "Colored" If you use geoshell without skins, try it out.
+ The Task Service and Launch service are improved, and the shell loads faster.
+ Command Line option: -restart_plugin(2, 3) Where 2 and 3 are the zero-based index of the bar, and the plugin
! fixed the geoshell desktop sizing and bar-positioning (especially for multi-monitor setups)
+ splash screen paints nicely now, and supports language strings
! the bar's drag and drop code has been changed READ CHANGES.TXT
+ added a "Standard Menu Open Direction" setting to shellUI. If set true, menus open according to the normal windows way, not based on the quarter of the screen you've clicked in
+ The fade hotkey (or commandline -fade ) will now work instantly if alpha blending is off.
+ New Setting "...\geOShell\Pause at recycle" which causes geoshell to pop-up a dialog before it finishes reycling. This gives you time to upgrade ... Look for an autoupgrade script from Jaykul soon.

Lots of API changes for developers ...
And so much more, please read changes.txt

Site: http://www.geoshellx.com
DL Zip: http://www.geoshellx.com/downloads/r4/GeoShell_R4.10.1_full.zip
DL Installer: http://www.geoshellx.com/downloads/r4/Installer_R4.10.1.exe
DL Source: http://www.geoshellx.com/downloads/r4/source/Source_R4.10.1.zip
Changes: http://geoshell.com/downloads/r4/changes.txt

Here's an interesting article by az that goes over the state of alternative shells. It's definitely worth a read.

Looks like Amazon has patented message boards. Check it out.

John Kheit at MacObserver goes into detail on the differences in various Apple patents. It's a good and informative article, check it out.

As for me, I don't object to software patents. But I do object to the general feeling that some Mac users and Apple itself regularly give off that they are somehow the center of computer innovation. I'm okay with protecting their trash can icon. But patenting the genie effect? Come on. Imagine if Stardock had patented all the things DesktopX does. Heck, imagine if Stardock patened the way it implemented its skinning. Patents should protect legitimate unique inventions and not try to patent general ideas IMO.

Ever wondered what kinds of things Apple has patented? Check out this article. Scary.

If you're into strategy games, you're no doubt familiar with Master of Orion. Recently, Master of Orion 3 was released. It has received very controversal reviews because it has taken some very unorthodox game designs. Long time strategy player and reviewer, Bruce Geryk over at Quarter to Three takes a look at the issue.

Definitely worth the read.