Rockgod quotes an article saying "With Microsoft now saying that its next major service pack for Windows XP will not ship until 2008, some Windows users are wondering whether the software upgrade will ever be released." and then later "Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, agrees that Microsoft may very well decide to drop XP Service Pack 3. "It absolutely could happen. Microsoft is under no obligation to produce any service packs, ever," he explains. "They feel that because these fixes are available through the auto-update that there's less need to create a service pack."

cloudmaster writes "Apparently they were watching me to see when I downloaded the 6.10-rc release isos, as I did that last night, and the full release happened this morning. :) Neat stuff, including Firefox 2.0, Gnome 2.16, myth 0.20, faster booting thanks to upstart (sort of a replacement for init, among others), etc. The announcement and download pages are up. I've got *my* torrent running..."

GDI Lord writes "The Microsoft Internet Explorer Team sent the Firefox team a cake for the release of Firefox 2! "P.S.: No, it was not poisoned" " That they know of anyway.

An anonymous reader proclaims that "A "Jason"-like hockey mask adorned with a Windows XP sticker and subnet addresses wins IT-related Halloween costume contest. Look out for the scary Data Center Man as well."

AcidAUS writes "Google is being accused of refusing to remove racist blogs targeting minority groups in Australia. Google, whose corporate motto is "don't be evil", says it will take the blogs in question offline only if ordered to do so by a court."

ydrol asks: "Training Companies (and training departments) seem to take great delight in handing over a pile of folders full of paper based training materials at the end of a course. Presumably, they don't want students stealing electronic copies of their work and training others, as it is a lucrative source of revenue. The downside is that it is often impractical to refer to these training notes after the course is over. Does anyone have any ideas — both for students (short of using psexec to grab the electronic notes from the teachers laptop) and for training companies themselves on how we can improve the situation?"

dptalia writes "NASA has just released a detailed panorama of Mars taken by the Spirit rover. During the short Martian winter the rover didn't get enough sunlight to move, so it took these pictures instead. Spirit took over 1400 pictures, for a total of 500 megs of data. If you look to the left of the picture, you'll see the tracks from the rover's trip."

An anonymous reader asks: "About 6 years ago I graduated with a degree in Computer Science. Since that time I've been working on and off as a programmer, however I feel that my programming skills haven't really progressed to the next level as I had hoped. I guess part of the problem is that my work environment hasn't been especially technical or challenging, so I really need to try and improve my skills independently. What strategies did Slashdot readers use to improve their programming skills Which books are useful in this area?"

monopole writes "The BBC is reporting on a bilingual translator under development by Carnegie Mellon University which senses sub-vocalized speech, recognizes it, translates it and then synthesizes the translation. The overall effect would be to dub the speech of the speaker."

E writes "Technology is putting some new sparkle in the world of diamonds. Until recently, naturally occurring, mined diamonds were unchallenged in their quality and desirability. But now laboratory-created diamonds, which possess the same properties as naturals, are poised to give them a run for their money. A new company, Adia Diamonds, has quite the variety in their inventory. They have the same chemical and physical properties as a mined diamond and come in white, blue and yellow. Both GIA and EGL grading labs are offering certifications for lab created diamonds. Seems like a good, high-tech alternative to the DeBeers diamond cartel."

It's official, AMD has completed the acquisition of ATI, marking a ' historic day for employees, partners and customers as we (AMD) officially welcome ATI into the AMD family'. Today, AMD created a united powerhouse with approximately 15,000 employees. "The vendor claimed end-users should benefit from AMD's and ATI's combined platform development and technical support teams, which will be co-located in Taipei and Shanghai. Combined with the existing Austin and Toronto locations, these sites offer research and development and support to provide end-users with a complete solution for optimised platform development. AMD plans to deliver a range of integrated platforms in 2007 to serve key markets, including: commercial clients; mobile computing; and gaming and media computing. PC users will benefit from innovations intended to extend battery life on the next-generation AMD Turion 64 mobile technology-based platform and enhancements to the AMD LIVE! digital media PC platform."

dptalia writes "Microsoft has rolled out its Vista upgrade program, where people can buy a qualifying PC with XP today and upgrade to Vista later for free. This article talks about what free really means. Some companies, such as Dell, charge $45 for converting to Vista Home from XP home. And then comes the question of actually trying to upgrade your computer... Is "free" really worth it?"

AMD has plans to deliver integrated platforms in 2007 to key markets: commercial clients; mobile computing; and gaming and media computing. "PC users will benefit from innovations intended to extend battery life on the next-generation AMD Turion 64 mobile technology-based platform and enhancements to the AMD LIVE! digital media PC platform that will enable users to get more from their favorite photos, music, and movies. AMD believes that these integrated platform innovations will bring customers improved system stability, better time-to-market, increased performance and energy-efficiency and overall, an enhanced user experience."

AMD has unveiled its vision for the next generation of microprocessors that will integrate both the CPU and the graphics capabilities on the same chip. Codenamed 'Fusion', the "processors will provide significant improvements in performance-per-watt compared with current microprocessor architectures, and will offer the best user experience as advanced graphics becomes a more important part of computing, according to AMD." Selling complete 'platforms' puts AMD on more equal footing with Intel, and shows that innovation is at the heart of AMD's strategy. "In Wednesday's announcement, AMD said it would begin selling CPU and chipset-based platforms in 2007, with a focus on several key markets including commercial PCs, laptops and gaming and media PCs. AMD said it will be able to get its newest technology to market sooner by selling a complete platform, while providing better performance and, in the case of laptops, longer battery life."

Wired's games blog Game|Life alerted me to a great feature on the main Wired site. Called Very Short Stories, the piece features the work of 33 well-known writers practicing their craft in six word chunks. Their work is combined with several talented graphic designers to generate some very creative works of art. Some of my favorites: "The baby's blood type? Human, mostly'. - Orson Scott Card
'Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.' - Richard Powers
'Kirby had never eaten toes before.' - Kevin Smith" The games blog makes a point to highlight the works of game writers Mark Laidlaw and Steve Meretzky. Laidlaw's contribution: ">Help! Trapped in a text adventure!" Alrighty, folks ... let's hear yours.