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CitizenC wrote to us with a cool review/overview of the Pentium III and the Athlon. If you've trying to decide what to get, give this a read-through.

CitizenC pointed us over to C|Net's History of Computing. Pretty cool background stuff - going back into the pre-historic era and looking into the future.

CitizenC writes, "If James Bond were more into keystroke loggers, and less into cars and chicks, this is what he would use. The KeyGhost Security Keyboard looks like a plain cheapo keyboard. But it records everything you type on it. 500,000 freakin' characters worth, if necessary. And you can dump its keystroke log to any computer you connect it to. Applications for this technology are left as an exercise for the reader. Check out the review. "

Let's say you work in a shared office environment and want to prevent someone from eavesdropping on your computer use. You take the logical precautions: you have a lock on your floppy drive, you set a password in the BIOS, you encrypt your files, and you use only secure protocols for remote interaction. Odds are still low that you have a shroud or other physical impediment preventing access to your keyboard's PS/2 port, right?

Interestingly, the KeyGhost is also available in a Microsoft Natural model, so it might be inconspicous in many settings that a new standard keyboard might stick out in. So now you have more reason than plain cynicism to wonder at an "upgrade" to your regular keyboard at work. Of course, most programmers have settled on their keyboards after long trial, and would never disregard such a switch.

Despite the obvious unscrupulous uses this keyboard could be put to, I can think of one that isn't: I'd like to see one of these drawing its power from a battery pack instead of the PS/2 port and featuring a tiny LCD display, for times when it'd be nicer to type an e-mail out on the porch than inside, or as a more efficient idea-gobbler than a pen-driven PDA.

CitizenC writes, "C|Net is currently running a story about the home of the future! Excerpt: First the Net went portable. Now it's going practical. Forget about plug-and-surf Web computers such as the iMac; we're talking about stoves that store recipes, and toilets that e-mail personal information to your doctor. It sounds like just so much new-millennium hype, but Net-enabled appliances are the first wave of a complete revolution in home design--a revolution that's happening right now. "

CitizenC writes "C|Net is running a story on really cool gadgets that we don't get here in the US or Canada. (At least, not yet anyway.) Included are an in car, dashboard mounted DVD player (VERY bad idea), a digital camera that stores images on a MiniDisk, the PlayStation 2 (Although we WILL be getting it this fall), colour LCD cell phones for web-surfing, and finally (my personal favorite), a digital fish tank!"

CitizenC asks: "My current system is a Pentium 166MMX, 64 Megs SD Ram. Video card is a Creative Labs Voodoo Blaster Banshee PCI, 16Meg. I'm thinking about upgrading to the Pentium 2-3 range, however, Im currently experiencing a money problem. (The problem being that I dont have enough.) When I asked around, I kept hearing good things about the newer generation of Celeron processors. Thus, my question is this: If I were to get an Intel Celeron 466, would it be a good choice, given that I do alot of 3D gaming? If not, why? And if so, what motherboard should I get?" And remember: Geeks always love computer upgrades as Christmas presents.

CitizenC sent us a funny as hell article where Novell CEO Eric Schmidt talks about having his credit card stolen. The funny part is that he blames cookies. Cookies are certainly flawed, but he goes as far as to call them one of the biggest disasters in computers and tell us that they are stored in the wrong place (what, we're gonna keep them on floppy disks?). Finally he (surprise!) plugs Novell's own digital authentication mechanism (aha! The truth comes out). Hit the link to read a little more ranting by me on the subject.

It is a given that cookies are flawed:

• Most systems store them in a readable format on your harddrive. Yeah, that kinda sucks. But if your machine isn't secure, then you've got bigger problems then just your cookies file.
• They are sent in plaintext over the internet. But thats why we have SSL when you need security. Someday all net transmissions will be encrypted anyway. (assuming nobody else from the IETF gets bothered by the FBI)
• Cookies used to be pretty well forced on netscape users, but now most browsers give you an option. And there's always junkbusters for the more paranoid.

It is given that I need state over httpd. I want shopping carts. I want net commerce. I want user preferences on websites I frequent. Maybe you don't want these things, but I do, and I don't think I'm alone on this one. There are a few ways besides cookies to do this.

• Intel would love to use a CPU ID to help us. This has so many problems that I'm just not going to go into it. But it would work.
• Webmasters could create a session and pass it in a URL with each page. This suffers from all of the same problems as cookies, except that the session ID isn't stored on your hardrive. Unless you bookmark it. Ooops. It also has the added benefit of making URLs messy, and being a huge pain in the ass for a webmaster.
• Some sort of third party big brother handling authentication. I'd much rather just have a cookie that I can turn on or off than have a third party take care of it for me. I trust me more than them.

I really thought that the 'Cookies are Evil' was dying down as people realized that while they aren't the best solution, they are as good as we're gonna get any time soon. Then to see someone who ought to know better get out and throw fire ants into the mix to plug his software, well thats just really rubs me the wrong way.

It's like telling people that the water that comes through your pipes has floride in it, so you ought to buy their brand of bottled water instead. You ever see a communist drink water, Mandrake?

CitizenC writes "C|Net is currently running an article on why old school computer magazines like PC Magazine are dying rapidly.. it brought tears to my eyes reading this." Reminds me of Byte. I've never thought much of most computer magazines - they have too much stake in promoting the products of their advertisers to be believable. The floor is open for suggestions: what would make a good computer magazine to you?

Dan Cyr sent us a link to the Script Kiddy HOWTO which is actually quite amusing, and quite satirical about its subject matter. As far as HOWTOs go, I don't think you'll find it very useful.