Bram Cohen released BitTorrent 3.4.1 yesterday. Better support for peers with dynamic IPs. (see track.py) Clients also cache peers longer. Bencode is also faster, using int instead of long.

Starbucks will launch its own digital music offering next Tuesday, March 16, according to BusinessWeek. 250,000 songs accessed through a HP Tablet PC and burned in the store. Minimum purchase is 5 songs for $6.99 ($1.40 a song). The service will expand to 2,500 stores in the next two years.

PubSub lets you create a RSS feed for any company or individual with a central index code in the SEC database. Very cool.

Next week Las Vegas Hilton will open Star Trek: Borg Invasion 4D. The Hollywood Reporter reviews some of the technical aspects of the attraction. First Star Trek production to be shot digitally. They liken the picture quality to when stereo became surround sound. I was at the opening of Star Trek: The Experience in 1998 and I was impressed. The cast members supposedly had to go through 18 months of training before opening day, preparing them to deal with the toughest trivia Trekkie. The casino area surrounding the attraction is decorated to look like a casino from the 24th century: a very nice touch. Something else to check out next time I am in Las Vegas.

Salon Media Group will expand operations and reopen its Washington, D.C. office. The office is led by Sidney Blumenthal, former aide to President Clinton, and former staff writer for The New Republic, The Washington Post and The New Yorker. Salon.com has more than 3 million readers a month, of which 74,000 are paying subscribers.

Reuters published an article today about how background searches are now being manipulated in the hiring process. Phone numbers to confirm a phony degree, crackers adding a name to a university’s database, and even transcripts are for sale. “ADP Screening and Selection Services, in a 2003 study, found that more than 50 percent of the people on whom it conducted employment and education checks had submitted false information, compared with about 40 percent in 2002” How long will it take before third party verification services (think VeriSign Secure Seal) step in for hosted resumes? Would the market bite?

Lee Gomes of the Wall Street Journal asks: What does the world get for the 10% Microsoft tax on every PC? (via Slashdot) “When asked which research from its labs has made its way into Microsoft products, the list from Microsoft officials doesn’t exactly bowl over a listener: better software-verification techniques, digital media-player technologies, additions to the SQL database language.”