Free Republic

Open-source software seen as threat to company's dominance SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. executives have called the open-source software Linux a cancer. They've even described the increasingly popular operating system — an alternative to Microsoft's proprietary Windows — as un-American. But now they're hoping to attach a different word: costly. As businesses increasingly adopt Linux to run their computer servers, Microsoft is shifting the battleground from schoolyard insults or techie-speak to corporate notions of "business value." "There has been a lot of debate in the Linux space that has been focused on the emotion and focused on the technology," said Peter...

<p>In a whir of pre-holiday press, federal nuclear-weapons executives gush- ed over a four-barreled blaze of light inside Lawrence Livermore Lab's National Ignition Facility.</p> <p>For five-billionths of a second, the nation's biggest -- and at $4 billion, most expensive -- science project flickered to light a year or more ahead of schedule, creating four laser beams at 10 times the power generated by the entire country.</p>

Thieves who broke into a government contractor's office snatched computer hard drives containing Social Secu rity numbers, addresses and other records of about 500,000 service members and their families. The company, Phoenix-based TriWest Healthcare Alliance, provides managed health care to the military in 16 s tates, including Utah. It serves about 1.1 million active-duty personnel, their dependents and retirees. TriWest spokesman Jim Kassebaum said computer equipment stolen from a TriWest office in Phoenix on Dec. 14 c ontained names, addresses, phone numbers, medical claim histories, and Social Security numbers for beneficiaries in its central region, which covers the central United...

Yahoo to acquire Inktomi for $235m By Nick Farrell [24-12-2002] Search engine purchase puts relationship with Google in doubt Yahoo has announced that it is to buy search engine company Inktomi for $235m. During the peak of the internet boom in March 2000, Inktomi was valued at $37bn, or $241.50 a share. But Yahoo is snapping it up for just $1.65 per share. Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive at Yahoo, said: "The addition of Inktomi's search platform adds control and flexibility to this important business, thus enhancing our ability to create new and more innovative search offerings for...

JAPANESE WIRE the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that a coalition of academics and electronics combine are designing an optical disk that will eventually be able to store 1.5TB (terabytes) of data. Although we're unlikely to see such devices until 2010, the consortium, which includes Matsushita, Ricoh, Pioneer, Mitsubishi, and three universities, is plunging $25 million into an R&D project which will start in Spring of 2003. Reports said that optical disk will use "3D" optical technology likely to use a technique which stores the data in multiple layers. It will also be backwards compatible with standard DVDs, the reports said,...

British mobile phone maker Sendo said on Monday it had filed a suit in a U.S. federal court against its former partner Microsoft, accusing it of stealing its technology and customers. Our Business Section is growing! Check new sections for: Stock Markets, Earnings, Economy and more... Business Front The small British cellphone maker was Microsoft's key partner in entering the 400 million unit a year mobile phone market until the two companies unexpectedly cut ties last month without disclosing all the reasons why they fell out. The court filings allege that Microsoft, in search of new growth markets but...

As happy as I am to see something finally displace the disgrace that TPC-C "benchmarks" have become over the years, the new favorite faux-analytical geegaw that Microsoft's marketing droids are giggling over isn't any better. I think you know what I'm talking about: it starts with a T, ends with an "Oh!" and spells trouble right here in River City. That's Austin, dude. Texas. On the face of it, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) sounds like it should be a valuable tool to project cost-estimates of various software solutions. There is certainly truth to the notion that purchase-price alone doesn't...

Building your own G4 can be both fun and exciting, and in doing so you will join a small but growing group of computer enthusiasts. Undertaking this project also represents a solution to the high prices associated with both new and used Apple computers. To give you an idea, a machine similar to what I'm about to describe here will normally sell for around $800. Retail prices vary, but that's around the norm for a low end G4 Graphite model with AGP. Another reason to consider this project is to have the ability to use more drives than Apple's case...

Linux maker Mandrake: We need cash By Stephen Shankland Special to ZDNet News December 20, 2002, 10:11 AM PT Linux seller MandrakeSoft issued a plea for cash Friday, encouraging people to buy products, MandrakeClub memberships or company stock. The company, based in Paris but drawing much of its revenue from North America, needs $4 million to pay debts and cover expenses in order to attain profitability. It's the second time this year the company has sought help from its customers. "A very difficult time has arrived for us: We have a very big short-term cash issue," co-founder Gael Duval said...

eEye security researcher Derek Soeder was moved to verse after analysing a complicated - and not particularly devastating - heap corruption vulnerability involving the way Windows handles PNG image format files. An advisory by eEye begins thus: Twas the night before Christmas, and deep in IE A creature was stirring, a vulnerability MS02-066 was posted on the website with care In hopes that Team eEye would not see it there But the engineers weren't nestled all snug in their beds, No, PNG images danced in their heads And Riley at his computer, with Drew's and my backing Had just settled...

Microsoft buries 'key .Net milestone' By Gareth Morgan [18-12-2002] MyServices mothballed in favour of software for cars Microsoft has quietly scaled back one of its .Net initiatives, leaving what it described as a "key milestone" off its release schedule for 2003. Earlier this week the software giant released a preview of its enterprise computing infrastructure roadmap for next year. Microsoft detailed a number of forthcoming releases based around its .Net web services strategy. These included plans for updating its email Exchange Server with the release of Windows .Net Server 2003. Even .Net speech technologies are planned, as well software...

IBM laying storage-brick foundations By Stephen ShanklandStaff Writer, CNET News.comDecember 17, 2002, 4:00 AM PT SAN JOSE, Calif.--IBM researchers are working on a new storage system prototype that packs hard-drive modules into a dense, Rubik's Cube-like structure. The company's Collective Intelligent Bricks project builds variously sized three-dimensional stacks out of the eight-inch modules, each filled with 12 hard drives and six network connections to keep data coursing through the collection. IBM envisions a day when hundreds of these storage "bricks" are stacked together, eventually with computing bricks in the same assemblage. By the first quarter of 2003, IBM hopes to...

Internet libel victory for papers By Nick Farrell [16-12-2002] Web defamation debate continues as US judge ignores Australian ruling In another twist to the debate over libel law on the internet, a US judge has ruled that newspapers cannot be sued in other states over stories on their websites. Two Connecticut newspapers, the Hartford Courant and the New Haven Advocate, cannot be sued for libel in Virginia for stories posted on their sites, following a ruling by the fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals. It said that judges in Virginia lacked the authority. Last week it was feared that...

Gateway networks 'supercomputer' By Nick Farrell [10-12-2002] Plans to link up computers to sell processing power Gateway is planning to network all its computers on display in its US retail stores into a single supercomputer. According to The Washington Post, the company plans to sell the combined processing power to corporate customers in need of extra computing punch. The PCs will continue to run demos for customers, while in the background they will be working on tasks such as drug design or geoscience research. Gateway is the latest company to use grid computing, where processing power is bought and...

Sun's grid engine boosts Linux By Peter Williams [17-12-2002] Software runs over 7,000 grids averaging 47 processors each Sun Microsystems has stated that its grid engine software is now running over 7,000 grids, and providing a big boost to Linux take-up. The company said that each grid operates with an average of 47 processors. Its supported Grid Engine Enterprise Edition runs Solaris (Unix) and Linux. But an open source version which Sun made available two years ago now runs all main Unix flavours including Mac OS X. Sun said that grids are increasingly Linux - rather than Unix-based. Grids...

<p>Tokyo, Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Toshiba Corp. will begin commercial production as early as 2004 of a new processor capable of handling sophisticated graphics and sound over the Internet, the first product of its collaboration with International Business Machines Corp. and Sony Corp.</p>

Security tools vendor ISS has promised to handle security vulnerabilities affecting open source and Windows platforms the same way following criticism of its premature disclosure of open source security problems. In recent months, sections of the security community allege that ISS has jumped the gun in releasing information on flaws within a Solaris font daemon, BIND and (most notably) Apache ahead of the widespread availability of a fix. Critics argue ISS acted out of self-promotion rather than the interests of the wider Internet community. ISS strongly denies this but admits to mistakes in its approach which it addresses through revised...

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - In a high-tech horse race to shrink circuits on semiconductors, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) will announce on Monday that it is in the final phases to create a next-generation 90-nanometer chip for Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ:XLNX) The new 90nm technology, which measures less than one one-thousandth of a human hair, can cut the size of chips by 50 to 80 percent, said IBM Microelectronics of East Fishkill, New York. Chips serve as the brains of electronic devices ranging from cars to PCs to networking equipment. However, Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) says it has bragging rights...

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- A new technology that makes cell phone screens glow like a firefly's tail may well be destined to brighten displays on everything from televisions to digital cameras.</p> <p>Built on organic molecules or polymers that glow when they're electrified, the technology could even spur the currently unattainable: roll-up computer screens that can fit in a breast pocket or sheets of radiant lighting that shimmer like the aurora borealis.</p>

It looks as if MDI's compressed-air engine will be one of the major discoveries of the new century. The inventor, Guy Nègre, has developed an engine capable of propelling a car up to 110 Km/h, that can cover a distance of 300 km with one tank refill and a cost of less than a cent per kilometre. Not only providing "Zero pollution" but also purifying the air.