Archive

The first installment of this two-part series explored the notion that despite consumers' increasing demand for strong multimedia capabilities, vendors' low-end notebook computers can be a suitable replacement for home desktop PCs. When consumers deduct the cost of a flat-screen LCD panel from a not...

Microsoft has set up a $5 million "reward fund" to pay bounties to anyone who can track down writers of certain malicious code. Right now, the company is offering to pay two $250,000 bounties for information that leads to the capture and conviction of the authors of the SoBig and Blaster worms. Micr...

I'm an experienced software engineer, not a Microsoft apologist. Moreover, my company makes a living patching the holes in Microsoft operating systems. In a manner of speaking, their lemons are my lemonade. But the pile-on occurring in the press and the software community is neither justified nor sm...

Executive road warriors probably would not want to tote Dell's $849 Inspiron 1100 or Gateway's $699 M305S. However, while sub-$1,000 notebook computers may be bulkier and less technologically cutting-edge than their more streamlined siblings, they still pack a powerful punch for a consumer's buck. I...

In a move that could significantly alter the Linux competitive landscape, Novell has said it will buy privately held Linux vendor SuSE for $210 million in cash. As part of the agreement, Novell also will accept a $50 million cash investment from IBM when the deal closes. "Novell has a history of stu...

As individuals and companies have become more aware of the dangers facing electronic data, demand for security products has skyrocketed. At Zone Labs, a company that makes personal firewall software both for consumers and enterprises, a little insecurity has gone a long way. However, although the co...

Yahoo has discontinued its enterprise software division, which it initially set up to push its messaging and Internet broadcast offerings onto corporate desktops. The company laid off an undisclosed number of workers at locations in California, Dallas and Atlanta as a result of the division closing....

Although a stereotype exists that the political sector is slow to change, once it embraces a new approach, it does so wholeheartedly. The presidential primary race of 2003 is a prime example of this full-speed-ahead mentality: Politicians have discovered the Internet. The best example to date of the...

Now that Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS) does Windows and Napster has been rehabilitated, more people are venturing into the world of legal music downloads. However, the onset of legal music download services has brought a new issue front and center: sound quality. The bit rate of an iTMS AAC file...

Just in time for Halloween, a new spam relay worm has begun to circulate via e-mail attachments, aiming to turn PCs into e-mail-spewing zombies. The worm, dubbed "Mimail.C," is yet another iteration of the hearty W32 malware strain. It affects PCs running Windows 95 through Windows XP and was first ...

Hewlett-Packard has announced it plans to stop actively selling its e3000 servers, which have a history stretching back more than 30 years. Attachment to the product line remains strong in some corners, with a Web site listing dozens of locations that are holding mock "wakes" to mark the passing of ...

B2B online marketplaces, or exchanges, can help companies reach new levels of accuracy, efficiency and profitability. However, although conducting B2B transactions online has become standard operating procedure, the way these exchanges are designed and run is anything but standardized. Companies can...

Perhaps the most significant event at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference, which ran from Sunday through Thursday in Los Angeles, was the company's release of a developers version of its upcoming Windows OS, also known as Longhorn. In his keynote address, Microsoft founder and chairman Bi...

Oracle has opened a second business development center on the Chinese mainland and has unveiled a program to help Japanese companies tackle this emerging marketplace. The company said its second China Development Center (CDC), now open for business in Beijing, will help Chinese companies accelerate ...

X10. Just the company name is enough to send some Internet users into convulsions. The firm was, for all intents and purposes, the first major user of the dreaded pop-under ad, which, at the time it was introduced, easily ranked as the most obnoxious and intrusive form of online advertising ever inv...