State tax bill to provide a tax credit for open source software:

Provides a maximum $200 tax credit for taxpayer expenses associated with the development of open source and free software license programs.

http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A06380

White House stuck in "technological dark ages"

Apparently computers and digital communication were not high priorities for the previous administration.

Obama's team arrived at the White House Tuesday to find only a handful of laptops, old PCs running outdated software, disconnected phone lines, and a series of rules and regulations that essentially forbid anything resembling Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, or AIM. "It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.

In the competitive world of making slimmer laptops, Apple has a plan to move the optical drive to the underside of the computer.

Sketch of potential new laptop design:

http://www.laptopblog.org/entry/apple-to-affix-optical-drives-underneath-macbooks-making-them-more-slimmer/

A new tablet is coming out, but its not made by apple. Instead OWC is hacking a 13" macbook and fusing it with a wacom tablet Mary Shelly style.

Unlike Frankenstein however, this fusion of macbook and stylus looks very slick.

Get yours in April for only $2200, unless Apple Inc. sues the product off the shelves. appleinsider

Yahoo has been under fire from loosing marketshare to Google and now MSN. Many executives have departed in the last few weeks, and Yahoo has received a lot of unfavorable press. Their CEO let out a (untentional) personal and heated response to media critics.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/08/yahoo_semel_webcast/