Microsoft sets XP update release date. The Windows XP Service Pack 1 is officially released, but will be available to the public on Sept. 9, the company says. [CNET News.com]

Microsoft adds notification services to database
Microsoft Corp. today is releasing SQL Server Notification Services, a platform for developing and deploying database applications that enable users to subscribe to informational updates. Information can be pulled from the database and forwarded to subscribers via e-mail, mobile phones or devices, instant messages or fax, according to Microsoft. [IDG: ComputerWorld]

Platforms: If you want a platform to be successful, you need massive adoption, and that means you need developers to develop for it. The best way to kill a platform is to make it hard for developers to build on it. Most of the time, this happens because platform companies either don’t know that they have a platform (they think it’s an application) or they get greedy (they want all the revenue for themselves.) [Joel on Software]

IT outlook darkens Sun’s revenue view
“We’ve not seen any improvement in the current IT spending environment. In fact, some would say it might actually be worsening,” Chief Financial Officer Steve McGowan said during a conference call with financial analysts. Sun says revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2003 will fall around the same level as in the first quarter of fiscal 2002, or $2.86 billion.[CNET]

Advertisement – Talk about a think about it for a sec type thing [lnk.to]

U.S. Backs Increase in Peacekeepers for Afghanistan. U.S. officials say enlarging the international force and placing its troops outside Kabul may help secure the country. By Michael R. Gordon. [New York Times: Politics]

MP3 codecs no longer free for GPL use. Or were they ever? [The Register]

They never were because the GPL would be incompatiable with the restriction of the commercial use.

 MacCentral: Apple to release Rendezvous code as open source. [Hack the Planet]

Welcome to AT%26amp;T WorldNet Service – Headline – Scientists Create Lullabies From Brain Waves [lnk.to]

News.Com: “Apple Computer has invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to prevent its customers from burning DVDs on external drives.” [Scripting News]