From a review at TheTechZone: “Here we have it! The fastest DVD drive on planet Earth! The AOpen DVD1640 Pro is a 16x
DVD/40x CD drive! Has DVD finally supplanted CD-ROM? With a drive like this one, I think so! The
AOpen DVD1640 Pro, is currently one of the fastest PC-DVD drive you can buy for a personal
computer. With 16x DVD , and 40x CD read speeds, we may finally have a DVD drive that’s fast
enough (especially on the CD side) to finally supplant CD-ROM.”

Wired.com reports that Jim Bell, whose “Assassination Politics” scheme enraged law enforcement officials, is back in jail seven months after being freed. The charge: allegedly threatening the feds.

MaximumLinux: “Intel wrested the clock-speed crown back from AMD on Monday by releasing the long-awaited Pentium 4 at
1.5GHz. Unlike the Pentium II and Pentium III, which use the same essential architecture as the five-year-old the
Pentium Pro, the Pentium 4 introduces a host of new features and is truly Intel’s first new 32-bit chip.”

Open-source fans and European patent officials are busy debating whether software developers should be allowed to patent their applications at Munich’s Diplomatic Conference to Revise the European Patent Convention. From Wired.com.

Jarek Sygitowicz of Linuxnews.pl writes: “Recently we received a screenshot of the internal IBM version of native
Linux LotusNotes client. It’s based on GTK+ and GNOME libs. It’s
not very functional yet but we have information that IBM is working
on it. You can check out the screenshot here.

If IBM will release it sometime, we don’t have to use Wine to run
this software no more :)”

NetworkWorldFusion reports that Toshiba Corp. and Identix Inc. on Monday announced
the release of the Toshiba PC Card Fingerprint Reader,
which will allow users to log on to their Toshiba laptops
by placing a finger in the device. This fingerprint reader
will provide a higher level of security as well as
convenience, because users will not have to remember
passwords nor key in their user names, the companies
said.

Some Oracle users downplayed the news that Gary Bloom, an executive vice president who ran database development and other key functions, is leaving the company. But analysts said his exit will further thin Oracle’s management ranks. From a report at Computerworld.com.

MSNBC tell us that, “before realizing the inaccuracies between the Microsoft
Money 2001 Net Worth report and the Net Worth over Time
report in an Investment Account, most folks more than likely
would be beaming over their financial savvy.”

Alleging that Compaq Computer Corp. manufactured PCs that use unlicensed,
patent-protected MPEG-2 video compression standards, six electronics companies and Columbia
University have sued the Houston-based original equipment manufacturer. Computerworld.com has the report.

Stuff.co.nz reports that the New Zealand Army is among a growing band turning to open source operating system
Linux, using it to stage virtual combats.