The Chronicle reports that Microsoft is making changes to its academic pricing plans that will result in Universities paying up to 60% more for any software they buy from Microsoft.

Kelly McNeill writes “eWorld, the short-lived Internet service from Apple Computer is regarded as one of the company’s most memorable flops. Many fondly recall its steep prices and slim offerings that were eventually blown over as the Web took charge. Nevertheless, former eWorld citizens still associate the ill-fated service with warm, cozy feelings of community coupled with a mournful disappointment that it no longer exists. Now that Apple has learned from its mistakes, eWorld has a second chance — not as an Internet service provider, but as a collection of free services that Apple has already created.”

CNet reports on Microsoft’s latest troubles, this time over release candidates of Windows XP. Microsoft’s failed to inform a large number of its beta-testers of how to access its latest release candidate for Windows XP, and other people may have received the software for free.

KDE Dot reports that Konqueror, the KDE project’s browser, will now support Active-X applications such as Macromedia Flash.

Kelly McNeill writes “Analysts and customers are beginning to question the viability of new Internet services that rely on Microsoft’s instant messaging technology, as problems with its MSN Messenger continue into the second week. MSN Messenger is a cornerstone of Microsoft’s .Net strategy — dubbed HailStorm — a plan to dominate the Internet in much the same way it has done with desktop software.”

O’Reilly reports on recent security concerns relating to Linux, and specifically PHP in its mail() call, which can be used as a remote web-server exploit.

Advogato has an informal piece on reverse engineering while minimising your legal liability, from contacting the vendor for the source or specs to moving all your intellectual property off shore.

SC Magazine reports on a recent incident where a fake Microsoft certificate got into the wild, and discusses the implications and solutions to the problem.

This white paper at LinuxDevices.com by TimeSys director of marketing David
Tannenbaum provides a brief introduction and overview to
using Java as an application platform in Linux-based
embedded systems and smart devices.

Sciam.com has an article about the U.S. CIA’s technology incubator, In-Q-Tel, “a private not-for-profit venture-capital firm whose funding
comes from taxpayer dollars … To find new ideas and technologies that might be quickly developed and adapted for agency use, In-Q-Tel, with
offices in the Washington, D.C., area and Silicon Valley, spends a lot of time doing ‘terrain mapping’ — reviewing
open-source information on the Internet or in trade literature.”