It’s not every day we figure out how to link to a nearly full-size image of a supermodel (in this case, the rather fetching but not really our type Laetitia Casta–ok, we’d settle!) in our technology news headlines and still be on-topic. But thanks to a devious plan by YourDay.com, we did. The YourDay.com system is basically a calendar that works with PCs down to Palm devices. The differentiator is the waker-up is the lovely Laetitia. Here’s how they describe it: "Research results also determined YourDay.com’s use of a supermodel. In a survey conducted in April by SenseNet, Inc. and YourDay.com, over 90% of men polled found the idea of being woken up by a supermodel appealing." Yeah, well, somehow we think the guys weren’t thinking of a computer. And, we feel politically correctly motivated to ask, what about the women?

WebTrends today announced "WebTrends Security Analyzer was honored for outstanding innovation in the Security category at Miller Freeman’s Web Design and Development Conference (WEB99)." Normally, winning awards doesn’t really rank up there with big news, but it’s an astoundingly slow news day and WebTrends is a pretty cool company so we feel free to give them a little easy PR.

We’ve got a new service up on the ZATZ.com home page. If you click the ZATZ Authors link, you’ll go to a long list of our authors (nearly 70!). Click on any name and you’ll see a short bio and a list of all the articles they’ve written for ZATZ publications. And, of course, click on any publication to read their article. So, if you have a favorite author, here’s a quick way to read all his or her stuff. This is the first time we’ve gotten to see all our author information in one place and the magnitude of it is pretty amazing.

Greg Michetti has a fun and detailed report of DevCon ’99 where he discusses the three L’s. This is a nice, all-around report on DevCon and seems to be pretty favorable to all involved.

Stampede Technologies announced its new version of TurboGold for Lotus Notes (V. 3.55). Stampede now adds what they call push acceleration technology to its TurboGold software. This new functionality allows Notes data to be "pushed" back to the Domino server at the same speed TurboGold offers when data is "pulled" from the Domino server. By combining push and pull technology to TurboGold’s compression (for which the company claims patents), streaming and caching techniques, Notes data is now accelerated in both directions by up to 500%. In a DominoPower News Center departure, we’re not going to send you directly to the TurboGold page. Rather, we’re going send you straight in their front door for a very cool Web intro experience.

Tally Systems today announced a new PlusPack for its Veranda messaging usage reporting tool that reportedly greatly simplifies the task of keeping user aliases and messaging directories synchronized with Veranda’s internal user database. Apparently, the new Veranda PlusPack provides functionality for both Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes directory synchronization. Tally ho! (although, you’ll probably Tally Ho! slowly, since their Web site is glacially slow).

It’s still hot out, but we’ve managed to keep everything up and running…although the machine room got to well above 90 for a period yesterday. In commemoration, David managed to go for a swim before going to work. Reports are it’s supposed to be cooler today, but again, if you can’t get in, think brown-out city and try again in a little while. Our power backup systems are pretty robust, so if we’re down, so’s a good portion of the Eastern Seaboard…but it could happen.

PC World takes a quick look at the Lotus QuickPlace beta. Unfortunately, they seem pretty disappointed, suggesting the product should be called "QuickSand" instead.

We’re experiencing some severe heat wave weather here in the northeastern portion of the United States. As a result, we’ve been experiencing intermittent, rolling brownouts. Our secondary domain name server was down for a while on Monday (although our main Web server, mail server, and DNS have been rock solid throughout due to our extensive power reserve). While we don’t expect any primary systems to suffer, if you do experience difficulty accessing our services, please just try back later. And stay cool!

For our readers outside the US, July 4th is a big holiday here. Ostensibly, we Americans are supposed to be commemorating the country’s independence, but we’re really celebrating beach bashes, tailgate parties, fireworks, and not going to work. Although July 4th falls on Sunday, somehow the staff at ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing has convinced their management that they should be all allowed a day off on Monday. We hear other companies might be doing the same. As a result, there will be no news posted on Monday.