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Here’s another great review from Paul Thurrott on Microsoft’s upcoming OS.

In my original Longhorn build 4051 review, I focused on the events leading up to the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2003 and some of the more superficial changes Microsoft made between previous alpha builds and build 4051. I was originally going to follow that with an in-depth look at the various technologies exposed by Longhorn build 4051, but that portion of the review grew out of control. So here, a month later, I've reorganized. My full Longhorn build 4051 review will now be delivered in several parts, with the first two parts being made up of the original review.

In the subsequent parts, I am delving deeper into the technologies behind this build, and examining the crucial building blocks that will form the basis for the next Windows version. To understand or even discover some of these technologies requires experimentation with the Longhorn Software Development Kit (SDK), which exposes many of the features of this operating system programmatically, letting software developers create Longhorn compatible applications and services. So I've had to dust off some long-buried programming skills and get my hands dirty, so to speak, for the first time in several years. It's been an interesting exercise.

News source: Paul Thurrott

Wi-Fi radiates an Internet connection that multiple computers within 300 feet can share at fast speeds. Wi-Fi hot spots have cropped up over the last couple of years in coffee shops, hotels and airports in bigger U.S. cities.

Some small towns, including Half Moon Bay, Calif., and Athens, Ga., have started experimenting with Wi-Fi as a way to provide relatively cheap, easy access to high-speed Internet.

The 51,000 residents of Cerritos, located 26 miles southeast of Los Angeles, have not had DSL broadband access to the Internet because the city is too far from the telephone company's central office. Cable Internet access has not been an option, either, Hylton said.

Residents in Cerritos have asked city officials to find a way to bring broadband to the city for some time.

"We're pleased that our residents will at last have an option for broadband that will be more affordable than is currently available," Hylton said.