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REDMOND, Wash. and EAST FISHKILL, N.Y., Nov 3, 2003 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- -- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) today announced that it has entered into a semiconductor technology agreement with IBM Corp. Under the agreement, Microsoft has licensed leading-edge semiconductor processor technology from IBM for use in future Xbox(R) products and services to be announced at a later date. "Microsoft is already developing the software and services that will drive the Digital Decade," said Robbie Bach, senior vice president of the Home & Entertainment Division at Microsoft. "By combining our vision, software experience and R&D resources with IBM's computer and semiconductor...

IDC says next-generation Windows will change development process The official launch of Longhorn might be more than two years away, but developers at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference are saying it's necessary to start preparing their organisations now for the next generation of Windows."It's important for us to know if the direction of Windows 2003 and Longhorn is totally different -- we have to start to set up our own direction," says Canadian developer Sungsoon Kung, of Montreal Microsoft-based independent software vendor (ISV) Nakisa. "We have to start working with our customers.""It's important for ISV's because we are investing a lot...

HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - An Israeli start-up has developed a processor that uses optics instead of silicon, enabling it to compute at the speed of light, the company said. Missed Tech Tuesday?MP3 has never sounded so good, nor cost so little. Get the best MP3 players, plus the lowdown on Napster vs. iTunes.   Lenslet said its processor will enable new capabilities in homeland security and military, multimedia and communications applications. "Optical processing is a strategic competitive advantage for nations and companies," said Avner Halperin, vice president for business development at Lenslet. "Processing at the speed of light, you can...

Bill Gates on Monday offered the first public look at Longhorn, the next generation of the Windows PC operating system that he said would be Microsoft's "biggest release of this decade and the biggest since Windows 95." However, the Microsoft chairman gave no timetable for the launch of the software, which has already slipped to a later timetable than originally thought. With Longhorn now not expected before 2006, Microsoft faces a gap in its new product cycle that has left a question over its growth rate in the meantime. Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer, has called Longhorn a "bet the...

Hi all; The following diagram lays out my home office network (3 Win 98 SE machines, 1 XP machine): Each PC has its own properly-configured copy of ZoneAlarm firewall, in addition to the Linksys router's firewall. While all the PCs can access the internet, I'm having trouble fully networking these machines so that they fully share files: PC#1 (XP) can "see" all other PCs on the LAN, and can copy files to/from them. PCs #2,3 & Laptop (98SE) can "see" all other PCs on the LAN, but can only copy files to/from other Win 98 machines. All XP reference books...

<p>BOSTON -- With more than $32 billion in sales last year, Microsoft Corp. doesn't usually worry about losing one customer. But this one may be different.</p> <p>In a memo sent last month, Massachusetts Administration and Finance Secretary Eric Kriss instructed the state's chief technology officer to adopt a policy of "open standards, open source" for all future spending on information technology.</p>

DOWN THIS tiled corridor, light does muscular, noisy work. Lasers dig dirt and weld metal. They pound aircraft parts into shape. In Bob Yamamoto's lab, light devours. He straps on emerald green goggles. A technician stabs a fire button and calls out the computer countdown. "Three ... two ... one ..." Then ... nothing. Just a buzz of electronics and an ephemeral glow in this darkened room at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. But inside Yamamato's target chamber, a block of steel spits flame and molten metal. In those two seconds, 400 blasts of light poured into slabs of clear, manmade garnet....

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 17, 2003 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- As the economy continues its recovery, the demand for top-quality Linux/Unix software developers seems to be on its way back to levels not seen since the late-90s. With its focus on providing the best Linux/Unix-based C++, Java, and Perl application developers to Fortune 500 companies, PerlUSA is seeing growth well ahead of the general economy. This growth is about to accelerate even faster, as PerlUSA gears up to help IBM and others find top talent in 2004. "IBM's announcement about needing 10,000 skilled technology workers in 2004 is obviously great news...

<p>The brand new "Big Mac" supercomputer at Virginia Tech could be the second most powerful supercomputer on the planet, according to preliminary numbers.</p> <p>Early benchmarks of Virginia Tech's brand new supercomputer -- which is strung together from 1,100 dual-processor Power Mac G5s -- may vault the machine into second place in the rankings of the worlds' fastest supercomputers, second only to Japan's monstrously big and expensive Earth Simulator.</p>

Microsoft was granted patent #6,632,248 entitled Customization of network documents by accessing customization information on a server computer using uniquie user identifiers on Tuesday. It appears this patent is for user preferences on servers. For example, when you login to a website or portal application and your user preferences, weather, account information are retrieved. The patent may also apply to cookies. The patent abstract reads: "User-selected customization information for a network (e.g., HTML) document is stored at a server with reference to user identifying information that uniquely identifies the user. Whenever the user navigates back to the network address of...

<p>When it comes to gadgets, the Japanese are a tough lot to please. So when NEC Corp.'s stand at the WPC Expo computer trade show in mid-September started to draw crowds like Tokyo's Shinjuku Station at rush hour, it was clear that something extraordinary was on display.</p>

IBM released on Tuesday two new higher-end versions of its z990 mainframe, along with a promotion to coax customers to try blade servers and other Big Blue products. When IBM began selling in May the first z990, code-named T-Rex, there were two configurations: Model A with eight processors and Model B with 16. Now the company will sell Model C with 24 processors and Model D with 32, IBM said. IBM is trying to make the new systems more appealing in other ways as well. For one thing, customers that buy the z990 will get a discount of as much...

Simple Flaw in CD-Copy Protection System? Tue October 7, 2003 03:00 PM ET By Ben Berkowitz LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Princeton graduate student said on Monday that he has figured out a way to defeat new software intended to keep music CDs from being copied on a computer -- simply by pressing the Shift-key. In a paper posted on his Web site late Monday, John Halderman said the MediaMax CD3 software developed by SunnComm Technologies Inc. STEH.OB could be defeated on computers running the Windows operating system by holding down the Shift key, disabling a Windows feature that automatically...

  Design outsourcing appears inevitable, EEs toldBy Ron Wilson, EE Times Sep 24, 2003 (12:51 PM) URL: http://www.eedesign.com/story/OEG20030924S0032SAN JOSE, Calif. — A panel session at the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference here Tuesday (Sept. 23) debated the implications for U.S. design engineers of IC design outsourcing. Panelists offered free-market platitudes, candid warnings, reassuring economic generalizations and some incisive observations that may help individual designers find a foothold on what promises to be a slippery slope for the profession in the coming years. Rakesh Kumar, president of operations-outsourcing venture TCX Inc. (Poway, Calif.) said the U.S. has a long history of...

After 10-year surge, salaries level off at $89kBy EE Times Staff, EE Times August 28, 2003 (10:49 a.m. EST) URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030828S0040 For more than a decade now, design and development engineers and managers have ridden a pay surge that's taken them from $59,800 in 1994 to a high of $89,100, on average, in 2002. But the wave crested in 2003, dipping slightly to $88,900, $200 under last year's mean. It's not the first time the U.S. EE Times "Salary & Opinion Survey" has recorded a decline; it also happened during another pullback in the technology field, in 1988-89, when...

I'm a Roadrunner user. All of a sudden I cannot reach certain domains. For example, I cannot access google(!) I can ping it at 216.239.57.99 or at www.google.com. Tracert shows time-outs at hop 13. I cannot ping lerc.nasa.gov (128.156.10.12) (timeouts)--but IE can get there with no problems (unlike last night). Tracert to www.jetico.com [62.142.11.131] works, but the site cannot be accessed from my browser. Tracert to to www.grc.com [204.1.226.226] fails with time-outs. Tracert to www.iwon.com [208.45.133.25] fails with a very interesting message: 15 * iwon-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.91.82] reports: Destination net unreachable. So far the RR tech support has been no help...

Technology - Reuters New E-Paper Could Show Moving Images Too Wed Sep 24, 1:02 PM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Even before the electronic ink has dried on the e-page, a new generation of electronic paper may soon be able to bring a moving image to a foldable screen near you, according to scientists in the Netherlands. Hot on the heels of the invention of a wafer-thin foldable screen that can display static type and may one day replace newspapers as it can be overwritten each day, scientists at Philips Research in Eindhoven have found a way to display high-definition moving...

Citrix Systems has released its single sign-on product, even as it prepares to debut an enhanced version of MetaFrame XP. The Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based company said Wednesday it has begun shipping Citrix MetaFrame Password Manager, priced at $179 per user. MetaFrame Password Manager, one of several products billed under the company's new MetaFrame Access Suite brand, was developed under the code name of Project Bimini. Once a user authenticates to a system using a single password, MetaFrame Password Manager automatically logs the user into any password-protected system while enforcing password policies. It also monitors all password-related events and can automate...

<p>The State Department's electronic system for checking every visa applicant for terrorist or criminal history failed worldwide late Tuesday because of a computer virus, leaving the U.S. government unable to issue visas.</p> <p>The virus crippled the department's Consular Lookout and Support System, known as CLASS, which contains more than 12.8 million records from the FBI, State Department and U.S. immigration, drug-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Among the names are those of at least 78,000 suspected terrorists.</p>

MSN shuts down its chatroomsMicrosoft's internet service MSN has taken a major step in net safety which could sound the death knell for unsupervised chatrooms.MSN are closing all their chatrooms in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and most of Asia from 14 October, and changing how others are operated globally."As a responsible leader we feel it necessary to make these changes because online chat services are increasingly being misused," they said.Children's charities welcomed the move as "momentous" and see it as a big step towards protecting young web users.Abusive contactMSN UK's Matt Whittingham told BBC News Online it was...