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Google, Wikipedia and other information resources have changed the world in many ways, but their users generally search via words, not numbers. Now, those who think about and work with numbers are helping the world's numeracy catch up with its literacy. Web sites like MappingWorlds.com, Swivel.com and Data360.org are promoting data availability so that anyone with access to a computer can browse data, visualize it in a number of ways, learn from professionals in the field and share their insights with the rest of the world.

Linux, the free operating system that's a perpetual underdog in the desktop market, is showing up in computers in Wal-Mart stores this week for the first time. About 600 Wal-Mart stores will carry the $199 Linux-powered Green gPC made by Everex of Taiwan, Wal-Mart said. It was available online on Wednesday. A comparable Everex PC that comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and more memory costs $99 more, or $298, partly because the manufacturer has to pay Microsoft for a software license. Both computers come with keyboard, mouse, and speakers, but no monitor.

Linux, the free operating system that's a perpetual underdog in the desktop market, is showing up in computers in Wal-Mart stores this week for the first time. About 600 Wal-Mart stores will carry the $199 Linux-powered Green gPC made by Everex of Taiwan, Wal-Mart said. It was available online on Wednesday. A comparable Everex PC that comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and more memory costs $99 more, or $298, partly because the manufacturer has to pay Microsoft for a software license. Both computers come with keyboard, mouse, and speakers, but no monitor.

For Florida to truly become a center of technological innovation, the state has to foster a "geek culture," the founder of Wikipedia told a gathering of information-technology professionals Tuesday. Jimmy Wales, the founder of the popular online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, told the ITFlorida conference that a geek culture means that innovation and creativity often spring from grassroots conversations in coffee shops and not from stuffier business networking events like the one where he was delivering those remarks.

Uruguay recently became the first country to order the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's so-called $100 Laptops, devices designed for children in developing nations. The only problem? The laptops, 100,000 of which were reportedly ordered by the nation, cost just about twice as much as the foundation originally thought they would. The new $199 price, reported by OLPCNews.com, was not necessarily a shock. The cost of laptops sold by the organization has increased steadily.

Are you tired of Windows? Microsoft's monolith of an operating system runs the vast majority of personal computers in the world. Everybody's familiar with it, it's easy to find software for, and it plays all the new games. It also has numerous security issues, crashes a lot, requires vast resources and is susceptible to viruses, spyware and other nasty things floating around the Internet. Most of you are familiar with Apple's Mac, the cute underdog with the easy-to-use systems, the cheeky commercials and the fans who border on zealotry.

Second Life may be a virtual world, but six entrepreneurs operating there have filed a real-life lawsuit against Second Life users who allegedly copied their products. The suit was filed last week in Brooklyn federal court against New York resident Thomas Simon, who reportedly goes by the name "Rase Kenzo" in Second Life, as well as 10 other as-yet-unnamed defendants. Second Life creator Linden Lab declined to comment on the case since it is not directly involved.

Teenagers are using their parents' credit cards to buy thousands of dollars' worth of virtual property, including real estate, on Web sites such as Second Life. NetSafe chief executive Martin Cocker says parents are shocked because they don't realize it's possible to buy something that doesn't exist in the real world -- and they don't know how fast it's possible to spend. Members of sites such as Second Life create an animated persona called an "avatar," which can run, jump, fly, dance and express emotions. They can also build fantasy locations for socializing.

Friends, colleagues, organizations and teams will soon be able to use a new service designed to help them share, organize and find information with Twine.com, Radar Networks announced Friday at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Twine is the first mainstream application of what the company called the "Semantic" Web. "We've worked for several years to build the first platform for Internet scale, end-user facing semantic Web applications and service," Nova Spivack, founder of Radar Networks, told LinuxInsider. "Our first product is Twine.com. And Twine is for knowledge networking."

The July 2005 issue of et Cetera included an article titled "Wikipedia and the Disappearing Author" in which I discussed the free, open content, reader-edited Internet encyclopedia known as Wikipedia.org. The site runs on the technology known as "wiki," which enables any visitor to a wiki site to edit, add to and even delete the content of any page on the site. The phenomenon has spread to businesses, fraternal organizations, schools and even governments, mainly because it offers a low-cost way to share information and keep it up to date.