There has been a lot of talk lately in techie circles of the new search technologies that are likely to be coming out of Redmond & Silicon Valley next year. One is Microsoft's new web portal, which of course they are hoping will knock Google off the top search website spot; I've used the beta, and while I think it has much potential, I think that (at least without being made an integral part of the Windows OS) it will fail to break free of the seemingly doomed Microsoft search attempts. The other clearly visible trend is software companies developing tools that search both the web and your local hard-disk (perhaps even remote storage facilities like .Mac also?). I have heard of such tools from at least Microsoft & Apple, both intrinsic parts of each company's respective operating system, these tools seem set to change the way we store and look for files. In the upcoming Apple Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4), you will be able to enable smart folders, which will constantly review your hard-drive index and flag files for folders based on common content. E.g., if you have a bunch of files scattered around your hard-drive which all seemingly relate to ICT4D (Information & Communication Technologies for Development), then they would all be tagged together in a user-created folder called ICT4D (or something like that). Microsoft & Apple are both creating tools which will be more effective at indexing and then querying that index later, to assist users in finding the files and websites that they are looking for.

Has anybody else been following these developments? Thoughts?

Personally, I wouldn't mind a crack at developing a search tool myself, however I don't have a great deal of time to spend on a new development project.

I really do hope that this is a turning point for the good. Let not terror and violence marr the opportunity for freedom and prosperity.

'A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma'.

"When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how. And not just this year, he said, but that these same people had previously hacked the Democratic primary race in 2002 so that Jeb Bush would not have to run against Janet Reno, who presented a real threat to Jeb, but instead against Bill McBride, who Jeb beat.".... please visit http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm to read on. No comment.

Is there anybody who would be happy swapping a 802.11b/g Wi-Fi base station for an external (USB 2.0) CD-ReWriter (brand-new, unused)? Or, any ideas on good swap-sites?

Thank in advance.

Luke