That's $10 million for a mast. Granted, it's part of a massive structure that's twice the size of a 747's wing, but that's still $10 million for a mast. The Ellison-owned team has two more in reserve, so it's understandable how the helmsman can call the harrowing event "minor" when speaking to we plebeians.

The cause of the mishap is unknown. Weather and stray surfing gadget blog editors have been ruled out, and the team hopes to figure out the real cause and get back to training so they can meet and defeat Alinghi of Switzerland on Feb. 8. [NBC Bay Area]

A message on MacOS Forge tersely states,

The ZFS project has been discontinued. The mailing list and repository will also be removed shortly.

There have been multiple explanations as to why Apple dropped ZFS support in Snow Leopard, and now there's more speculation to add into the mix. This time the story goes that when Oracle bought Sun, Oracle didn't want continue development on ZFS because they already had their own filesystem (BTRFS) in the oven.

ZFS was also apparently facing patent suits at the time. It all sounds like a complicated legal and political mess, which is probably why Apple just dropped it.

Whatever the true causes behind ZFS' sudden fall from grace may be, it's disappointing that we'll have to wait longer for a true filesystem upgrade in OS X. [AppleInsider]

Early on the morning of Aug. 1, Siebel said, he and a guide went to a watering hole, where they hoped to observe a variety of game that were known to gather in the quiet early morning hours. They were watching a group of elephants from 200 yards away - "keeping a respectful distance," Siebel said - when one turned and without warning began to charge.

"There was no apparent reason, nothing that should have made it feel threatened," Siebel said. "It was quiet, and then the quiet stopped," when the elephant began thundering toward the two men.

As the massive animal closed the distance, Siebel said the guide fired a gun but missed. Siebel said he was trampled and gored in the leg, until he just "curled into as tight a ball as I could." The guide suffered broken ribs and other injuries.

After the animal left and the men called for help, rescuers came and eventually airlifted Siebel to Nairobi, where he received emergency care before flying back to California for more treatment. All told, he said, he spent 18 days in four hospitals before he was allowed to go home.

Siebel has been using a wheelchair but has told friends he expects to make a full recovery, after reconstructive surgery and physical therapy.

All joking aside, I'm glad to hear that Siebel will be fine and are sorry to hear about what I can only imagine was a horrible experience. But come on, attacked by an elephant? That's amazing. [Mercury News]

He eats fries the whole way through, he tells about how he knew he was smart, he appears baffled by the concept of loose change and he completely owns the burger joint, (you just know that that is his regular seat.) I'm going to be brave and put it out there: Gates is cool. Damn cool. If you disagree, we think he'll have you shot. Don Gates, you have our friendship. Be sure to check out the entire series, with Larry Ellison, Steve-o and Jeff Bezos all making appearances, you'd be a dithering fool to miss it. Hit up the link for other encounters with technology's A-list. [Yahoo]