Monad was the code-name for MSH - the new Microsoft Shell. ArsTechnica has a run-down on what MSH is and how to use it. Looks to be pretty powerful. The Monad also featured as some very evil entities in a 2000AD comic featuring the ABC Warriors. When Monad was announced there were a few raised eyebrows at the prospect of a GNU Monad (Gonad....).

Ed Brill links to a piece on how to improve client side mail performance in Lotus Notes. Certainly a local replica of a persons email and their address book helps alot.

Justin Williams rants about the dire state of the email client on OS X (although it could be applied to any platform. Eudora 3 Lite (before they started with the annoying ads in the Lite version) was probably the peak of email sophistication/simplicity IMHO - all email as simple mbx text files, attachments automatically detached, simple filtering, speedy launch times and low memory/cpu usage.

Incidentally it looks like you can find old versions of software (including Eudora) at OldVersions. Where else ? Their tagline is 'Because Newer Isn't Always Better'.

Looks like Google are working on a searchable file-store/database thing - Google Base.

A nice article describing PWC's use of OpenBSD to provide for a zero-cost secure infrastructure. I love the bit where they end up putting an OpenBSD firewall in front of the Windows based CheckPoint firewall to make it more secure.

I used to enjoy these but the humour aspect faded fairly quickly Mad magazine cover explorer. I even played the fantastic Spy vs Spy game on the Commodore64.