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The Economic Times via Slashdot:

Microsoft has also managed to upset women and entire countries. A Spanish-language version of Windows XP, destined for Latin American markets, asked users to select their gender between “not specified,” “male” or “bitch,” because of an unfortunate error in translation.
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Stephen Lawson, via ComputerWorld reports:

AUGUST 23, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Beginning today, Cisco Systems Inc. is set to offer a tool to help small and medium-size businesses use Microsoft Corp. CRM software in combination with a Cisco IP communications system.

The Cisco CRM Communications Connector software, developed with Microsoft’s help, is designed to bring together the Microsoft Business Solutions CRM application and Cisco’s IP Communications converged network technology.
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A work of origami, or paper folding, is shown on display during the origami convention in Tokyo, Friday, Aug. 20, 2004. Showcasing a renaissance in the ancient Japanese art of origami, some of the best paper-folders in the world descended on Tokyo on Friday for a three-day competition and convention to celebrate the artistic possibilities of origami, which is believed to have been used to create sacred ornaments at the Grand Shrines of Ise, the center of Japan’s native shinto religion. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa via )

 LYNN SWEET, Chicago Sun-Times Washington Bureau Chief, reports:

WASHINGTON — The state of Illinois unveils a program today to make it easier for residents to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, England and Ireland, defying the Bush administration in a popular but illegal move.

“The federal government has failed to act,” Gov. Blagojevich said in a statement. “So it’s time that we do.”
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Tony Long, Wired News, via Ditherati:

Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the “I” in internet.

At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net.

Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was.
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Lama Michael Conklin, Kagyu Changchub Chuling Buddhist Center, writes, via Snow Lion Publications news:

The Venerable Bokar Rinpoche, our noble Lama, has passed away. The details will become clear with passing time, but for now I offer this as a summary of Ngodrup Burkhar’s report.

After some discomfort with chest pain, a decision was made to send Rinpoche to a hospital in Siliguri for diagnosis and treatment. From Bokar Monastery in Mirik to Siliguri is more than two hours by car. Rinpoche didn’t make it, possibly dying of a heart attack approximately half way between Mirik and Siliguri.
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America Library Association Press Release:

WASHINGTON, DC - The American Library Association (ALA) today welcomed the Department of Justice’s decision to rescind its request that the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents instruct depository libraries to destroy all copies of five Department of Justice publications addressing forfeiture. The Justice Department claimed that the documents are “training materials and other materials that the Department of Justice staff did not feel were appropriate for external use.” ALA disagreed with this categorization of the public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, and with the instruction to destroy them. ALA trusts that there will be no repetition of such unjustified instructions to destroy government information.

Michael Gorman, President-Elect of the American Library Association, said, “We had concerns about the Department of Justice request to destroy documents that have been in the public domain for four years. To obtain an official rationale from the Department of Justice about the nature of these public documents, the American Library Association submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the withdrawn materials, which will now be moot.” Carol Brey-Casiano, President of the American Library Association added, “Our only interest in this issue is that we want to ensure that public documents remain available to the public.”

The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents that were to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).
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American Library Association Press Release via The Agonist via BoingBoing:

Last week, the American Library Association learned that the Department of Justice asked the Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents to instruct depository libraries to destroy five publications the Department has deemed not “appropriate for external use.” The Department of Justice has called for these five public documents, two of which are texts of federal statutes, to be removed from depository libraries and destroyed, making their content available only to those with access to a law office or law library.

The topics addressed in the named documents include information on how citizens can retrieve items that may have been confiscated by the government during an investigation. The documents to be removed and destroyed include: Civil and Criminal Forfeiture Procedure; Select Criminal Forfeiture Forms; Select Federal Asset Forfeiture Statutes; Asset forfeiture and money laundering resource directory; and Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000 (CAFRA).
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