06:08 AM by Colin Dunstan in E-Book Formats | Workshop

ConvertLIT, which is most probably illegal in the US by now, allows you to circumvent Microsoft Reader DRM. V1.8 was just released, and comes with the following bug fixes and new features:

- Dictionaries are now properly expanded,
- completely rewrote space handling, to fix "italics" bugs,
- changed compression library to a new version to fix rare hangs,
- create subdirectories. (Use "-d" to disable).

As always you can download the program and its sources for free.

05:59 AM by Colin Dunstan in More E-Book Readers | Legacy E-Book Devices

According to a recent Associated Press news article, Sony is saying that it has no plans to offer its Librie book reader in the United States, where the core technology originated (E-Ink). So you can either go to Japan and buy it there in Japanese letters for $380, or hope that another company will eventually come up with a similar technology (and hopefully without the restrictive DRM the Librie is suffering from). Why is Sony slowly abandoning the Western Hemisphere? First it stopped selling its PDA line, now the Librie...?

10:21 AM by sUnShInE in Miscellaneous | Lounge

You can stop wondering. A new study has confirmed what many cubicle dwellers have long suspected: Many companies, maybe even yours, are monitoring outgoing e-mails.

According to a new survey conducted by Forrester Consulting and sponsored by Proofpoint Inc., a company that makes anti-spam and mail filtering software, over 43% of corporations with more than 20,000 employees employ personnel to monitor and read their staff's outbound e-mail.

The survey of 140 corporate decision-makers found that companies are concerned about employees leaking sensitive information via e-mail, which ranked as the biggest reason behind the snooping policy.

The survey comes on the heels of a recent federal court ruling which held that it is perfectly legal for ISPs to read and copy the inbound e-mail of their clients. The ruling , by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, held that e-mail does not enjoy the same eavesdropping protections as telephone conversations, because it is stored on servers before being routed to recipients. (Excellent op/eds here and here)

Word up: America Online, EarthLink, and Yahoo all have privacy policies prohibiting them from reading customer e-mail, except in the case of a court order.

If it's sensitive, protect it. Don't use the bossman's server.

09:16 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Engadget.com is reporting an interesting response from AvantGo customer support to a customer with a Microsoft smart phone. The reply reportedly indicates that such a product already exists and has been demoed, and customer interest is being evaluated. Check out the Engadget story for more details.

12:09 AM by ignatz in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Wired News has recently published two great articles on Mozilla/Firefox and the extensions that make these browsers so great. Both are recommended reading if you use either one. I'm a dedicated Firefox user and I hadn't heard of some of these!

Building a Better Mozilla and More Extensions for Mozilla

10:00 AM by ignatz in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Great site with the most comprehensive list of gmail tools that I have yet seen.

http://www.aimlesswords.com/gmail_utilities.php

12:21 PM by Bob Russell in Miscellaneous | Lounge

www.ereader.com is also offering a free ebook each day in July.

This free book should also change daily, and there are some other deals available on the same page. (Click on Super Summer Spectacular banner at the top of the page and then scroll down for the free book.)

Enjoy!

03:52 PM by sUnShInE in Miscellaneous | Lounge

Each day through the remainder of July, PalmGear.com and PocketGear.com will be giving away 1 FREE program on each site. The free program changes daily, and is only offered on that particular day. Today's Palm program is Handmark Checklist, and for PPC it's PPCDesktop.

Check out the Palm deals here and PPC deals here. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the freebie.

In addition, they also have some pretty good price specials. Sale items for Palm include Backup Buddy for Windows at $10 off, Wine Enthusiast Guide 2004 for $4 off, and a few more.

Plus, for every purchase you make -- sale priced or not -- from PalmGear.com, eReader.com or PocketGear.com through the end of July automatically enters you into a contest for free gift certificates or a Caribbean cruise.

Don't forget to check back for the daily freebie every day through July!