CNET News reports that the U.S. Department of the Treasury will release nearly 10,000 email addresses on the Web. The Treasury assured people leaving email comments regard a government proceeding that although their comments were subject to publication, their personal information would not be published. The article claims that they intend to violate their own privacy policy. Your tax dollars at work.

TechWeb reports that a message from Microsoft purporting to carry a security update in actuality hides a back-door Trojan. Code-named Trojan.Xombe (pronounced Zombie), the malicious code can steal passwords and conduct Denial of Service attacks.

InformationWeek’s Scott Finnie got to take a look at the upcoming Service Pack 2 release for Windows XP. The new Service Pack adds new functionality in four different areas, Automatic Update, a Windows firewall, wireless networking, and a new pop-up blocker for Internet Explorer.

InternetNews.com reports that Yahoo is getting closer to adding a Rich Site Summary aggregator to its My Yahoo service, a move that could provide a major boost to the XML format for content syndication. Separately, NewsGator Technologies has launched a new service that would push RSS aggregation beyond the desktop and on to HTML-enabled mobile devices. NewsGator, which markets an enterprise-focused RSS aggregator within the Microsoft Outlook client, said the new Online Services product would allow synchronization of RSS subscriptions between multiple machines, Web browsers, POP3 email clients and mobile devices like cell phones and PDAs.

Paraglyph Press introduces a new edition of one of its books, ##"Windows Admin Scripting Little Black Book, 2nd Edition."## This new edition covers Windows 2003 Server and Windows XP, scripting Norton Antivirus, automating applications through Send-Keys, scripting a silent Windows XP service pack, exporting email attachment in Microsoft Outlook, and much more.

Elecronic House reports that Bill Gates envisions a world where people can seamlessly access all of their digital music, movies and information from any device in any location at any time. In his keynote address at CES, Gates unveiled MSN Premium, which offers email features that bring the organization and planning tools of Microsoft’s Outlook program into Web-based Hotmail accounts.

Franklin Electronic Publishers today introduced new Rolodex Electronics organizers as part of their E-Z FILE and Touch FILE series. Franklin’s unique Rolodex Electronics touch-screen PDA’s feature Pumatech’s highly acclaimed Intellisync Software, which allows for two-way synchronization between the handheld and PC with renowned applications like Microsoft Outlook.

Smart Watches for MSN Direct are now shipping for broad retail availability, as announced by Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates during his keynote address at the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Smart Watches, manufactured by Fossil Inc. and Suunto, utilize MSN Direct to receive personalized content including news, weather, personal messages, calendar appointment reminders and stock quotes. Subscribers to MSN Direct service can receive personal messages via MSN Messenger and calendar appointment reminders from Microsoft Outlook.

NewsGator Technologies, known for its news aggregator that plugs into Microsoft Outlook, is reaching beyond the single email client with a new service offering. eWeek reports that NewsGator Online Services is a set of tools for reading content from RSS and Atom syndication feeds via the Web, through any POP3-compliant email client and on mobile devices that support HTML.

For those of you who’ve been trying to get into any of the ZATZ sites for the past four hours, we’re back! This one was fun. The Verizon folks tracked three separate equipment failures on their end of the T-1 circuit, but it took so long to find because one of the equipment failures was a buggy board on one of their test devices. As a result, their tests were giving wrong information. Needless to say, it’s time for chocolate. Also, special thanks to the Verizon techs who stuck through the process all afternoon and WAY into the evening with good humor