According to a recent analysis of shipping data conducted by sources close to AppleInsider, Apple Computer's 20GB and 40GB iPod digital music players have been met with increasing demand in recent weeks.

Of the two offerings, the 20GB player appears to be the most sought after model, with backorders to the company's reseller and distribution channels listing wait times of up to 3 weeks.

On the other hand, the recently introduced 40GB and 60GB iPod photo models appear to be in ample supply, indicating a lesser demand for the higher priced players. Both models are available to ship to all channels within a 24-hour time period.

Data also reveals that iPod mini players are on the verge of scarcity, though Apple appears to have anticipated heightened demand for the blue-colored players. Shipping data indicates slightly better availability of the blue model when compared to the other minis, specifically when customers place orders directly from the company.

"It may be a greater challenge for us than the Cold War...to make it possible for 10 billion people to live the lifestyle you are used to in a way that doesn't cause unacceptable impacts on the environment," he told an audience of scientists at the International Electron Devices Meeting taking place in San Francisco this week. "There is no escaping the problem. The consequences will be terrorism, pestilence, famine."

A public university with an enrollment of over 80,000 put the kibosh this week on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and urged its students to switch to alternative browsers such as Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, or Safari.

Penn State University on Wednesday issued an alert to students and staff recommending that they dump IE and use a different browser.

The university's Information Technology Services (ITS) gave the advice "because the threats are real and alternatives exist to mitigate Web browser vulnerabilities," ITS said in a statement. It cited the security problems in IE that have been the focus of both media reports and recommendations from such organizations as the US-CERT, the federally-funded computer response team housed at Carnegie Mellon University.

"The University computing community [should] use standards-based Web browsers other than Internet Explorer to help minimize exposure to attacks that occur through browser vulnerabilities," added ITS.

Penn State's advice is the latest negative news about Microsoft's popular browser. Security problems continue to plague IE -- some patched, some not -- while rivals like Firefox slowly nibble away at its still-dominating market share.

To windows users:
If you like to get Wintel boxes, then remove Windows and install GNU/Linux as soon as you possibly can. I couldn't think of a better way to avoid malware for you at this moment. Beside, Linux is much easier to use and install nowadays. Try the LiveCD if you aren't sure. Many Linux distributions have LiveCD now.

If you stuck in Windows because of your work (with Office or Adobe, or whatever), then get Firefox as your web browser and don't use Outlook or Outlook express for e-mailing (There is Thunderbird, another Mozilla product. I have never used this myself, so I can't recommend and not recommend it).

Otherwise, I would say: get a Mac.

Fear is the path to the dark side.
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.
--- Yoda.

Fear.
Fear attracts the fearful.
The Strong. The Weak.
The innocent. The corrupt.
Fear.
Fear is my ally.
--- Darth Maul.