News about what is happening in technology today!

I’m posting this to you to ask for your help because, this year on October 14th I am going all the way and riding full 100kms in the third annual Ride for Refugees fund raising event. I am looking for sponsors to make it all worth it. I am training for the challenge as I have never ridden that far but with God’s strength, he will carry me to the end. This cycling event is held each fall near Elmira and I am joining a growing group of cyclists who are raising support and awareness for refugees being served through International Teams Canada

I volunteer at our Welcome Home facility here in Kitchener/Waterloo and getting to know the refugees there has been very eye opening. The challenges involved with a 100km ride dwarfs in comparison of the challenges faced by a refugee. Imagine in a moments notice, force to leave everything you have and know to travel the refugee highway in hopes of a new future.

The event goal is $150,000 and I am looking to raise my share of that good goal. This year my personal goal is to raise $1000 and any amount you give will help reach or exceed it. Please help me reach my goal and help these people, in giving you too will ride with me that day.

Would you sponsor me?

There are over 35 million refugees in the world. Many are coming to Canada and they need support as they adjust to our Canadian way of life. Imagine snow for the first time. Imagine if the letters all ran backwards to what you were familiar with reading. Imagine being alienated from your friends and family. They need our support and International Teams (www.iteams.ca) has been serving refugees for over 25 years.

Don’t hesitate to sponsor me today!

You can go directly to my personal page to sponsor me by clicking on the link below;
https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/personalPage.aspx?EventID=6694&LangPref=en-CA&RegistrationID=219228

You can also go online to www.rideforrefugees.ca and click on sponsor a rider. Once there you can donate with any credit card to my personal fundraising goal.

Thank you so much and God bless

MILAN, Italy — The Codex Trivulzianus, one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s oldest notebooks, is out from under lock and key, offering the world a rare look into the mind of a genius.

Normally hidden away in a library at Sforzesco Castle and reserved for scholars’ eyes, the 55-page collection of sketches and writings is on public display for the first time in nearly a decade. It includes character studies, drawings of church domes and military machines, and even a self-improvement guide.

For all the larger-than-life ideas it contains, the Codex Trivulzianus is actually quite small. It measures 8 inches by 5.5 inches — about the size of an average paperback — and looks every bit its 519 years old.

The ongoing success of Dan Brown’s powerhouse potboiler The Da Vinci Code (a movie based on the novel is scheduled for release later this year) may have helped convince Milan to break out the slim volume.

Ever since the 2003 publication of Brown’s best seller, tourists have flocked to the city to gaze at Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper and see for themselves whether the figure depicted in the painting sitting just to the right of Jesus is Mary Magdalene or an effeminate apostle John.

Once a series of 62 unbound pages, the Codex Trivulzianus dates from Da Vinci’s first stay in Milan between 1487 and 1490. Some of the pages were lost for a time; once found, they were numbered and bound. What you’ll see at the exhibit depends on the curator’s choice of the week.

- Nicole Martinelli

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,70537-0.html?tw=rss.index

Adam Vitale, aka Batch1 aka Baxter, 25, of Boynton Beach, FL, and his partner Todd Moeller, aka M3rk, of New Jersey, are accused of sending nearly 50,000 pieces of spam e-mail to more than 1.2 million AOL subscribers. US Secret Service agents used a confidential informant to hire Moeller and Vitale to deliver spam, which advertised a computer security product.

RIM’s service to continue to operate, but judge urges settlement

REUTERS - Updated: 2:19 p.m. ET Feb. 24, 2006

RICHMOND, Va. - A U.S. judge on Friday stopped short of ordering an immediate shutdown of millions of BlackBerry portable e-mail devices, but reminded manufacturer Research In Motion Ltd.it had already been found to have infringed the patents of NTP Inc.

U.S. District Judge James Spencer also expressed skepticism about RIM’s argument that a BlackBerry shutdown would hobble critical public services and infrastructure.

He noted that the company had told investors that its software work-around would avoid disruptions to users.

Wrapping up nearly four hours of arguments, Spencer said there was no escaping that RIM had been found to be infringing on NTP’s patents. “The simple truth, the reality of the jury verdict has not changed,” Spencer said, adding that the parties should have settled out of court.

Spencer said he would take the arguments he had heard under advisement and issue a decision on an injunction “as soon as reasonably possible.”

Canada-based RIM has been locked in a court battle for more than four years with privately held NTP, which successfully sued RIM for infringing on its patents.

Earlier on Friday, NTP asked Spencer for an injunction against U.S. BlackBerry service with a 30-day grace period for users and the immediate imposition of $126 million in damages for past infringement.

RIM and NTP reached a tentative settlement of $450 million early last year, but the deal fell apart. Some analysts have estimated that a settlement at this point could cost RIM as much as $1 billion.

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U.S. District Judge James Spencer did not issue an immediate ruling during a Friday hearing between NTP and Research In Motion over the popular BlackBerry service.

During the hearing, lawyers for NTP asked Spencer to issue an updated $126 million judgment as soon as possible against the BlackBerry manufacturer, covering all of the devices NTP says infringed its patents through November of last year. They also called for an injunction to shut down RIM’s U.S. service.

Spencer did not rule from the bench, saying he would take the matter under advisement. He said he expected to release an order related to the damages before releasing one related to the injunction.

He also scolded the companies for not coming to a settlement on their own.

“In plain words, the case should have been settled, but it hasn’t, so I have to deal with that reality,” Spencer said.

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