We got a very short report from a very tired but happy Heather last night. She (and the other riders) made it a total of 105 miles yesterday! Today’s route is another 100 miles, a challenging climb and descent through the Green Mountains, from Essex Junction, Vermont (at 332 feet high) to Quechee, Vermont (at 515 feet elevation).

Through an outreach program from Palm, Inc., France Technologie Interactive, and selected partners like iambic, Inc., 150 students from the Sorbonne University of Paris will carry smart technology to class. The limited edition Palm m100 Serie Limitee Etudiant has two programs from iambic: Action Names School and iambic Reader. Action Names School is based on the technology of iambic’s contact and schedule management solution for Palm OS-based devices, Action Names Datebook, and iambic Reader is a document reader that allows users to carry and view various types of documents with them anywhere.

PRNewswire reports that Palm, Inc., Shinei International and Liquid Audio, Inc. have announced a complete digital music package for handheld users. The package includes Shinei’s expandable Porteson MP3 player and Palm co-branded Liquid Player Plus desktop software, licensed by Shinei from Liquid Audio. Palm and Liquid Audio also launched Palm Music Connection (http://www.palm.com/musicplayer), a Palm branded music-download Web site hosted by Liquid Audio that gives users access to thousands of secure digital downloads.

To kick off the launch, Palm is providing 100 Palm m100 handhelds with Turbo Red faceplates for MTV’s Video Music Award gift baskets, and Shinei is providing 100 new 64MB Porteson MP3 players, loaded with CD-quality downloads from MTV award nominees supplied by Liquid Audio. The Palm m100 handhelds and snap-on MP3 players will be given to all of MTV’s presenters and music performers.

For a limited time, if you spend $100 on custom beauty products at Reflect.com, you can receive a free Palm m100.

HP and Compaq have announced plans to merge. Together, the two companies make up a powerhouse the size (and now the competitive muscle) of IBM. This is such a monster merger that it’s going to take everyone some time to grok. Rather than posting some form of snap analysis, we’re just sending you to Yahoo’s coverage. Frankly, it’s going to take a while to think this thing through before we’re ready to do any sort of pontificating. The only advice I’m willing to give right now is to not read anything into the merger — it’s too big to be the result of any one factor in the market. Just wait, watch, and continue to follow the news. — DG

In a recently published paper by AMR Research, Inc., AvantGo,Inc. was recognized as a leader in the mobile space. The paper points to new Global 1000 customers, new products and innovation as factors in their assessment. Some of AvantGo’s customers include Eli Lily, Pfizer, Unilever, and BP.

HP and Compaq have announced plans to merge. Together, the two companies make up a powerhouse the size (and now the competitive muscle) of IBM. This is such a monster merger that it’s going to take everyone some time to grok. Rather than posting some form of snap analysis, we’re just sending you to Yahoo’s coverage. Frankly, it’s going to take a while to think this thing through before we’re ready to do any sort of pontificating. The only advice I’m willing to give right now is to not read anything into the merger — it’s too big to be the result of any one factor in the market. Just wait, watch, and continue to follow the news. — DG

This is it. Day 1. It all comes down to this: the months of training, the travel planning, the preparations, the fund-raising, the internal gut-checks at every step along the way. It all comes down to this morning at 5AM, when the athletes arrived at Park Olympique in Montreal, after waking up at in the deep dark of 3AM. After a weekend of travel, camaraderie, and goodwill, and a day of registration and orientation, 2,800 athletes (an unconfirmed estimate) and their trusty steeds assembled for the opening ceremonies, which began at 5:15AM.

The atmosphere was electric. At 5:45AM, there was rustle through the crowd when everyone knew, finally, this was it. It was time to mount up. Flashing lights slashed through the morning mist as the riders put foot to pedal and followed a police escort out of the city. It would be 54 miles to the border between Canada and the United States, and another 48 miles to Essex Junction, Vermont, for a total of 102 miles on bicycle, on this, just the first day.

As of the time this report was filed, our own Heather McDaniel and the other riders began at an elevation of 187 feet when they crossed the bridge leaving Montreal and are now on their way to the border. After crossing the border, they’ll ride down Grand Isle, located in the middle of Lake Champlain, one of America’s Great Lakes. By the time they arrive in Essex Junction this evening, they’ll have climbed to an elevation of 332 feet. Then, it’s a night of well-deserved rest and it all begins again. Tune in tomorrow for the details of Day 2 and any updates we get on today’s ride.You can follow along on Heather’s Big Adventure by checking out the route map.

The Washington Post Online reports about a school that is taking advantage of companies such as Palm Inc., which offer handheld devices to students and schools at a discount or for free. Just as they had to with cell phones and pagers, most school districts are trying to figure out how to deal with the handheld machines.

HandeKeeper Enterprises announced an improvement of its Palm OS-compatible product line and an expansion of its services to include individual, group, and business consultation and training solutions. HandeKeeper Enterprises provides data capture software for the Palm OS, offering titles such as GoalKeeper, KidKeeper, and JobKeeper.