General Weblog (November 2000) - 10 suggestions, based on my own surfing...

http://www.kaspersky.com

Kaspersky labs are the creators of the wonderful AVP (Anti Virus Toolkit Pro) software. For many months, they have been supported by Central Command, at the http://www.avp.com URL, but now Central Command is willing to profit from new products, from other people, and the AVP support is gone, replaced by AVX, which is a totally different program, written by different people.

If you, like myself, still think that AVP remains the best kit around, including the solutions from the giants like Norton, then make sure you regularly (daily!) check the original Kaspersky site, in order to keep protected against all known virus.

AVP 3.0 (build 129), which CANNOT be downloaded for nearly 1 year, is the best AVP product: light, fast, and capable of checking for over 42000 bugs without locking your PC... in fact, without you even noticing it is working.

The more recent versions of AVP, debut a new interface and new integration with the OS, but they really don't offer more protection, and run slower, so my advise is to keep with the basics, if you somehow can get it.

http://www.supermicro.com/

Supermicro builds some of the best motherboards that (plenty of) money can buy. Their latest offering is the S2QE6 (supermicro.com/PRODUCT/MotherBoards/RCC_HE/S2QE6.htm), which is a QUAD (that is four == 4) Pentium 3 / Pentium Xeon beast, crammed with 64 bits PCI slots, a ServerWorks chipset, and a great solution for RAM, consisting of a daughterboard that fits in, very much like any other card... You stick your DIMMs directly in the RAM board, instead of in the motherboard, which is a smart solution to make it possible to bridge new RAM technologies to the system.

Although Supermicro's website lists 3 vendors at Portugal, only Modus Informática (http://www.modus.pt) seems to be dealing with these american beauties. They even have an alternative to the S2QE6 monster, the S2QR6, which sells for ~ 775000 PTE + VAT, that is, ~ 3000 USD...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/cetools/downloads/devkits.asp

Windows CE is everywhere, from fridges to the SEGA Dreamcast console, but it was because of the Dreamcast that I got interested in Windows CE development. Get your development kit at the above URL and start building your own Dreamcast games! My advise is code them all in C, then port them, using the appropriate libraries.

http://www.dcisonews.com/

Most Industry folks agree: to a certain extent, software piracy is a benefit to hardware platforms. Take the example of China, where 95% of the software is illicit: would people buy original software, IF there was no alternative market? No they would NOT, because they simply wouldn't have the money to. In other words, relative to China's current Economy, it makes no practical difference to the Software Houses, if their titles on sale are legit, or not; but it DOES make a huge difference for hardware vendors.

The ISO scene is boosting Dreamcast sales. Personally, I think that the Dreamcast is the most under evaluated console ever, and the one that could represent SEGA's final hardware effort, as these Japanese are thinking of turning 100% into software production.

http://www.8op.com/dcmanuals/

Downloading Dreamcast ISOs can be fun, but sometimes you just feel the need to read some game documentation. Well, get it at the above URL, if it still exists, the time you try to link to it :)...

http://w1.875.telia.com/~u87508767/index.htm

This is the homepage of "Modem Status Indicator", the best software I've ever seen to monitor your PC's modem activity, be it an internal or an external device.

http://www.ultimonivel.com/

Nas mãos de Nélson Calvinho, adivinha-se que aqui vai nascer um excelente portal português, dedicado aos vídeojogos!

http://www.apsi.pt/

Site oficial da Associação Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informação. Sendo um website um sistema de informação, suportado na Internet, seria de esperar que a presença da APSI na Web, fosse mais sofisticada... ou talvez não... repare-se afinal na opinião de Jakob Nielsen (http://www.useit.com)... Um site eficaz, pelo menos.

http://www.telecom.pt/flatrate/

A Portugal Telecom e o Governo Português, era suposto terem fechado o negócio da Internet por tarifa única, em 1 de Dezembro de 2000, conforme fizeram questão de referir em diversos comunicados para os orgãos de informação social, nesse dia.

Afinal, só a 17 de Dezembro de 2000, um domingo, é que os portugueses que fizeram a pré-adesão através do URL acima mencionado, começarão a preencher contratos... e depois será ainda preciso aguardar pela activação do serviço...

http://www.tvcabo.pt/televisao/progr_canal.asp

Finalmente o site http://www.tvcabo.pt, passou a disponibilizar a programação televisiva da TV Cabo, por canal, para alguns canais, depois de ter ostentado, durante quase todo o ano de 2000, um hyperlink "morto" para esse propósito.