The market for traditional handhelds continues to shrink, as it has done for the past three years, with the last few remaining players in this spacing taking big hits in unit sales. Smartphones are replacing the PDA, unfortunately not fast enough to offset the decline. Palm still remains the leader of this dying segment, with tallying sales of 475,000 units sold...down from 638,376 in the year ago quarter. HP reports a dismal 260,000 units sold, while Dell, who remains at the number three slot, is scraping bottom with a mere 132,050 units moved. What these figures show is that the bottom is falling out of the PDA market at a quickening pace. In fact, the numbers are so low now that the breakers are finally kicking in. By that I mean that the numbers of units sold literally don't justify the cost of development. That's especially true for Dell, where a recent report from DigiTImes indicates that Dell secretly ceased manufacturing its line of Axim Pocket PC handhelds late last year and are trying to clear out remaining inventory.

Dell isn't alone either. HP will soon follow its PC rival out the door, focussing entirely on Smartphones, leaving only Palm in this dwindling market. Naturally the more dimwitted among the Palm fanboy community will see that as some kind of victory, after all...Pocket PC will be for all intents and purposes a dead product category. However the cheering will be short lived, as Palm is doing precisely what Dell and HP are right now. As a matter of fact, I'm betting that Palm's entire handheld line has already ceased production, with no plans for further development. By early next year or mid-year there will no longer be any Palm handhelds on the market.

In a startling turn of events, Walt Mossberg chooses the PalmOS-based Treo 700p over Windows Mobile-based Motorola Q phone. Stunning!

What I love about Mossberg is that he's always predictably last in line to catch on to whats already been happening around him. I have my stopwatch set to see how long it will take before realizes that PalmOS is already dead. And when he does finally figure this out, how much longer will it be before he begins writing articles implying that he knew all along that.

It's not just Mossy either. The entire mainstream media is equally inept at recognizing a trend in motion. I just love these epiphany news titles that read "Is Microsoft starting to catch up with Palm?". Windows Mobile has been outselling PalmOS for well over two years now. PalmOS is laying in a coffin, in almost mummified form, appearing on elderly devices making its rounds on hardware like Lincoln's body on display as it makes its cross country train ride to its final resting place. After Access introduces an entirely new platform, eliminating PalmOS Garnet for good, the media will still be chanting about how many fewer taps it takes to access your data on a dead OS. Enough already! It's over, get over it!

You've heard me blathering on about how madly in love I am with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion...which is the hottest PC and console game right now. Great though it may be, it is replete with numerous bugs, some of which impact game play. Some are just outright comical. One bug in particular that I have come to know and love is something I affectionately refer to as "Anarchy Apocalypse". It doesn't always happen, but when it does, look out. The premise works like this. When you are in any city, attack a citizen or guard, preferably while other characters are nearby. Then run like hell. Now obviously doing this will cause AI characters to chase after you, which can be quite a laugh factory in itself. But where things turn comical is when, if you are able to, hide or somehow remain outside the range of contact from the AI, the characters will suddenly begin turning on each other. Guards vs. civilians, civilians vs. civilians, guards vs. guards, it's a total blood orgy.

I single-handedly wiped out the entire population of the city of Cheydinhal by inflicting a single stab wound on a local beggar, which then triggered a widespread murder rampage among the civilian population who (armed with swords and other stabbing weapons) set upon each other like a pack of bloodthirsty Huns. A feeding frenzy of violence ensued. The city guard soon joined in this murderous melee, and in no time the city was a ghost town, streets littered with corpses. I ask you, what could be more fun than watching a whole city descend into bloodrage? Nothing else compares to witnessing an elderly woman slashing away at mace wielding guards while being attacked by a high elf armed with an Axe. Pure comedy.

The screenshots below are merely a sample of some of the antics I've witnessed during these Anarchy Apocalypse outbreaks. But you get the idea.

("Don't panic, I'll slay you...err, save you." Guards attacking members of the local Fighter's Guild. Want to see something even funnier? Get members of the Mages Guild to go after the Fighter's Guild. Two words..."Shock Spell")

(Don't ask me where in the hell the ghost came from, he appeared out of nowhere. I guess even the dead like a good brawl as well.)

What's this? Open Source isn't made from galvanized code, impervious to attack? This can't be! Only Micro$oft software has vulnerabilities, right? Call me sick, but I get smile on my face every time a flaw is discovered in Linux or other notable open source software. It just further validates my long standing belief that "free" software is actually just as bad, if not worse, in terms of security and reliability as any commercial product. Security is an illusion. Every piece of software written by human hand has holes. If you don't believe me, disable your firewall in Linux and OSX and post your IP address. Then sit back and wait for vandals to have their fun with your supposedly "secure" system.

Yes, Windows may be full of holes, but at the end of the day, so is any other OS developed outside Fortress Redmond. Link